Stained Glass

Gaytee stained glass was at the house today to install the stained glass in the transom between the foyer and the office. When we were there finalizing the design, they were in the final stages of a church job and weren't sure they'd get this in by closing, but Sara found out yesterday that they were actually done.

This is a hallmark of TJB homes. Somewhere in each of the homes they build (usually where we have ours) they have a piece of stained glass designed by the homeowners.

We were looking for something that reflected "us" and what is important. The design is simple, but we think it captures us well and fits nicely with the house.

A Quick Look Back 3.0

The summer between our engagement and our wedding, we inquired with a mortgage broker Chad, who is a friend of Kevin Huntington's and someone I had met a few times in the past. We were thinking ahead, but obviously in no place at the time to even think about a new place. We were still knee deep into planning our wedding.

After our tour of homes with Kevin in June this Summer, we doubled back with Chad and sat down over coffee to discuss some options if we were to decide to move forward.

Sara and I are in a unique situation given that we both owned (and currently own) town homes, and I am self employed. Six years ago, when I purchased my home, I simply told the mortgage broker how much I earned ("stated income") and that's the number they used for approval. Turns out some people were a little irresponsible with their stated income which may have resulted in some foreclosures when the market tanked. So the rule changes make my income reporting a little more precarious.

Chad is a creative guy, but after coffee and putting pen to paper, he didn't think he was going to be able to help us out until we unloaded at least one of our properties, or got some significant rental history on one or both.

As we were sitting down at Caribou in Eagan, he said something that was interesting to us at the time, but was really prescient in hind-sight. Building wasn't something that was on the front of our minds, but it was something interesting to us. Chad said that there are some builders who might be interested in purchasing an existing property in order to provide incentives to a prospective buyer. His rationale was that a builder would lose more money holding onto vacant land than they would purchasing and turning around an existing home. Or at least that they could find a way to make it work.

We were skeptical, but again thought it was an interesting concept. It wasn't until later on that it became a realization as to how that process might work.

Front Steps

It was a long day today. Dropped Sara off at the airport this morning for another trip to California. She'll be there until Friday. Spent the next couple of hours away from the office for work. Then tried to get caught up at the office.

I stopped by the house briefly on the way home. They installed the front steps to the porch today and have done a ton of cleaning.

As I posted earlier, we got to show the place to a lot of friends and family over the weekend. Then, it was caked with dust and the carpet looked like it had just been installed (because it had). Sherri and the crew have vacuumed, dusted and cleaned like crazy today, so it is really starting to look like a new, finished house.

It was dusk when I was out there, so I need to go back to look further at the steps, but from what I can see they look great.

Family Weekend, Pantries and Closets

Ahhh, where to start.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday were awesome, but nothing short of chaotic (in a wonderful way). This was Sara's graduation weekend from her MBA program and we had all sorts of family and friends around.

I think between Friday evening and Monday, Sara and/or I was at the house seven or eight hundred times. It was wonderful and we are so close to being done and in that it is kind of like showing people a completed house.

A few minor new changes and some big changes.

They installed our front door. For some reason, this was an early selection we needed to make. We did shaker everything, but not the front door because we chose this so long ago. Might be something we change out down the road, but for now we just need to decide what color we want it. Pre-weekend, we collected all sorts of different shades of red. I think after the tour of homes that we're going to do a white (still have to select among a pallet of whites) and let the focus be our awesome stone.



They installed the French Doors to our office off of the foyer. They look great. Just found out a few hours ago that the stained glass above the doors (a TJB hallmark) will be installed tomorrow).


They were able to pour the sidewalk last week as well. We met with a prospective landscaper last night, and he said I had them pour it perfect for what we were discussing as far as retaining walls go. That's my green thumb and landscape architecture proficiency in action. They also poured the patio off the walk out, which you'll see below.




They pulled the cardboard off of our wood floors. We chose Brazilian Cherry for the floors and selected a wider board. Aside from the inevitable coating of dust that still exists, we are very excited about the wood floor.


They also took the covering off of the granite. Sara and I detoured a week or so ago after being in Edina looking at closets and went to Hom (I spelled that correctly) to see if they had any cool bar stools. Even for the long term, we want to be able to sit at the island for meals, but in the near term we definitely need to because we're going to wait on purchasing a nice dining room table. I really like what we found. The color is like the floors rather than the stain. The chair covering matches our couch and chairs and really goes well with this whole part of the house. I think our plan is to keep these. We purchased five of them.



On Saturday morning, my mom, Sara's dad, Sara and me took a walk around the neighborhood. It was a gorgeous morning and someone was out on the lake on their pontoon. The chain of lakes is stocked with fish, and allows boats as long as they are electric.



We decided to go with The Container Store's Elfa shelving system for our closets and pantries. Thank you, thank you, thank you to Sara's mom and Dick for their help with this. The system is very user friendly and are set up to be fairly easy to install. That's true unless you are impatient or imprecise. I'm imprecise. So thank you, thank you, thank you for your help on this.

This is all of the "stuff" for the master closet. We met with a few people for options on this, and found the Elfa system to be best for what we wanted. It isn't as fancy as the California Closet's options, but it is as functional, less expensive, and much more interchangeable. And, while a little more expensive, we found it is a far better option than simple wire shelves.


Carol and Dick sizing up the directions. Getting ready to go to town. The Container Store does a great "how to" instructional video online. I think Dick viewed it several hundred times because when he got to the house, he knew exactly what needed to be done.




After Sara's graduation reception, we brought a crew over to help. Here is Grandma Labadie helping prep everything for us. Thank you!


This is totally posed. I have no idea what I'm doing. But I grabbed some tools, climbed a ladder (without crying. ok, I cried a little) and pretended to be helpful.



This is the final product for our Master Closet. The huge (really huge) side to the right is Sara's. She's going to get frustrated with the vacant hanging space and go shopping to fill it. The side on the left is mine. It is well suited for what I might own at some point. That back wall is Switzerland. It may remain empty forever out of fear of one of us being offended.


This is the Pantry off of the kitchen. We are thrilled with this system. We have more room to put stuff than we have stuff.


The coat closet in the Mud Room. Nobody will ever see this unless they wonder too far after using our bathroom. This is where we walk in from the garage. So this is the only time you'll ever see this.


Yesterday, my wonderful wife walked across the stage at Northrop Auditorium and got her diploma for her MBA. She hadn't received confirmation that she'd passed her last class, but since then we've learned she got an A-, so it's a done deal. I think she was hoping and praying last night would be relaxing before she left today for another stint in California. I scheduled two meetings with landscapers (one to walk through a bid and the other to show them around the property to get a bid) at 6:30 and 7:45. So much for a relaxing evening.

We're excited to move ahead with gutters and landscaping, which I'm spending time on this week while Sara is traveling for work.

I can't believe we're less than two weeks from closing.

Hardware In

This place is almost done. There is still cardboard on the floors and a whole lot of little things here and there (and everywhere), but we really are very close. They've been cleaning windows and fixing nail pops this week. Yesterday, they installed most of the hardware on the cabinets. It looks great.

Sara and I were out at the house for a while last evening with my parents. I forgot to bring the camera, so cell phone pictures will have to do. My parents had brought a nice little table with a couple of chairs for our front porch. I didn't take a picture of that, but it will be nice for coffee in the morning.

We measured up the hearth so that we could be absolutely certain what we wanted to do for the back splash and mosaic in the hearth. I think we're 99% there, and in fact will probably have Village place the order today.

We have the same knobs and pulls throughout the house, so here are a few decent pictures of what they look like.

This is a picture of the lockers in the mudroom.



These are the upper cabinets around the boarder of the kitchen. I think we're going to have more places to put stuff than we have stuff to put in places.


This is on the island. We have a big roll out drawer here for garbage and recycling.


The dishwasher, which for some reason was ordered late (after most of the rest of the appliances) has arrived and has been installed.


We showed my mom and dad around the house. They hadn't been in it for months, and although I know they follow this blog religiously, the changes since they were actually here are dramatic. We got some more good advice and a few things, and they helped us mark where we want the shower rod in the guest bathroom.

We have a few items that we now know will NOT be done on time. We have a vessel sink that didn't take the sealant well (and I guess has been ruined as a result). The replacement and the ring which is used to mount the sink on the cabinet are both on back order and won't be here until mid-June.

Our pendant lights aren't here yet, but we do expect them to be here before we close.

I'm anxious to head over there tonight or tomorrow during the day. It's actually nice and sunny out today (first day in a week), so hopefully they've poured the patio, and maybe they pushed it and poured the sidewalk too.

Lots of tours this weekend, which will be fun since it is so close to being done.

Driveway, Carpet and Closets

We started out the day today going out to the house in hopes that they would be able to pour the driveway, sidewalk and maybe the patio today. They were supposed to pour it yesterday, but it was raining intensely and they weren't even able to start. We're hopeful that they can get this done soon as it needs several weeks before we can drive on it. At the same time, we don't want them to rush it and pour a driveway that breaks up in a few years.

They felt like they could get it done today, so we had them move the flow of it a little bit and said "have at it." I've got pictures below of what it looked like when we arrived, and what it looks like now.

Before going into the office, I swung down to Edina to pick up all of our closets from The Container Store. I had written before that we found a system we liked that is apparently very user friendly and easy to install. We'll see this weekend when friends and family are helping us put these up :)

You can see here the pallet of stuff they somehow fit in my truck. They seemed to do a nice job coding each closet space, and they confirmed several times that all of the components are there. Somehow I envision the stereotypical install where we get to the end and have seemingly important, but small, parts left over. I guess we'll see six months from now when all of the sudden all of our clothes fall from the walls.


It was a hectic day for both of us. Although more so for Sara. We're a few days out from graduation, which is nice, but she's still doing the work for about 12 at work, and we're still not done building this house.

I came home after work and shortly thereafter we went back out to the house. We had a detour at Home Depot to pick up another light, and replace some bulbs that I purchased incorrectly. We also returned some mudroom locker hooks that we didn't like.

They did a significant amount of work on the house both inside and out today, which is always fun to see.

You can see from these next two pictures that the carpet up and down the stairs is now in.



Here are the double doors between the foyer and the office. This picture was actually taken this morning. They are in the mudroom and have a coat of stain on them now.


They took the cardboard and tape off of all of the granite. It is dusty, but now you can start to see what the counter tops look like. We signed off officially tonight on a back splash around the counters and glass tile in the hearth. I hope it turns out as cool as I envision it because it was something I really wanted to have in the kitchen.



The carpet in the great room is all installed. I hadn't thought of this before, but an apparently frequent blog reader (I'll call him "Mitch Odland" to protect his anonymity) suggests maybe a flat screen television in the space above the fireplace. Here I thought the space was way too narrow for a television and that we'd have to set my old boom box there and just listen to music. Props to "Mitch" for the idea. We're on it.


Here are a few pictures of the non-driveway from when we arrived there this morning. They were pretty well set up to pour it, that is until we changed the direction and slant from garage to street. It didn't take them long to design it as we wanted.




This is what I saw when we went back out to the house this evening. It had been solidifying and curing (or whatever cement does once it is poured) for five or six hours. When we arrived, it started raining. We're going to assume (since this is what we've been told) that it had plenty of time to sit and dry. I guess the rain at this point isn't going to do anything to hurt it. Assuming all that is true, we're very happy with the way it turned out. As you can see off to the right between the edge of the driveway and the pillars, there is no sidewalk yet. I guess that's for another day. The patio isn't poured yet in the back yard either.



Thank you sweetheart for heading over to the house while the driveway was still soft to memorialize our build for years to come. This was an important piece. We may sell this house many years from now. But it will always be the house we built together, and subsequent owners can't make that claim.


We spent some time at the house tonight putting blue tape on the walls where we want mirrors, towel bars, robe hooks, toilet paper holders and other hardware installed. We expect most of that will be done tomorrow, and that they'll also at least start installing the knobs and pulls on all of the cabinets.

They're fixing all of the inevitable nail pops right now too. I guess we can anticipate more of that for at least the first year. They also placed the plastic over the insulation in the unfinished basement today.

We officially ordered 5 bar stools that should be ready for pick up yet this week. We're pretty sure they will match the floor, granite and paint very well. And we know they will be a comfortable place to eat at least until we are able to get a dining room table.

We're excited to be able to show the unfinished house to a lot of family this weekend descending upon Blaine for Sara's MBA Graduation. Looking forward to lots of advice, and maybe a little help for the few remaining things we have going on.

This is the point where we're so close, but yet there are limitless little things that seemingly will never be done on time. Of course almost all of them will. More importantly, those that don't will get done shortly there after.

Carpet and Land Grading

Today Village starting laying the carpet and Justin graded the whole lot in advance of them pouring the driveway and sidewalk which is "scheduled for tomorrow." By "scheduled for tomorrow," of course, I mean sometime later this week or next after it quits pouring rain.

On the way home tonight before I stopped out at the house I swung by Sherwin Williams to pick out a few different options for the color of the front door. We have to decide on that sometime later this week. We're looking at a red potentially, or maybe black. I think we're looking to have some accent on the front of the house aside from flowers and landscaping, so it is likely we'll go with some version of red.

They moved the boards from the street to the smaller garage door today and put the lock box on the door inside the garage.

As I wrote, Village started carpeting today. Most of it is at least set in place. Some is cut, and some is even cut and stretched into place.

The great room is really coming together. This carpet is so comfortable. The cats are going to love it.



We have a very short, tight carpet here in the office. It will accommodate a rolling office chair and is supposed to be fairly durable.



The steps heading up to the second floor is the only area where they didn't lay the carpet today. As you can see, they did get the pad down. Up the stairs and into the hallway we got an upgraded, supposedly very strong and durable carpet. It's also pretty comfortable.



Our bedroom is the only room where we switched up the color scheme from the browns/tans that are in the rest of the house to a grey that fits the theme of the paint and the master bath. This, like the great room, is very comfortable and warm.


The carpet in the two guest bedrooms upstairs and the bonus room are the same.



The land looks significantly different today than when we were out there yesterday evening meeting with a potential landscaper. Justin said he was grading and moving dirt for about three hours today. Here is two pics from the front of the house.




This picture is out the front door.


They are scheduled to pour the driveway in the morning, but it looks increasingly unlikely that they will be able to because of the rain. We probably should have had it poured last week as they recommend a couple of weeks before we drive on it (and certainly before we park on it). My guess is it will be later this week or maybe early next before they get to it.

I'm going to head out there in the morning just in case, but I doubt they'll be doing any outside work. Village, however, should be able to finish the carpet tomorrow. Also, we traded emails with Shelly today and placed the order for the final back splash and hearth in the kitchen. I'm hopeful they'll be able deliver and install the product before we close.