In Glorious Technicolor!

That’s what we are! I’ve been dying all week to see how the paint colors look, and, if I do say so myself, they look really good. The light colors that our interior design consultant, Tim Rounsaville, helped us pick work very well. The entire house looks light, bright, and airy, with the exception of the master bath and library. Go figure – these are the two rooms he didn’t help us choose colors for. But we wanted a darker look for the library. It’s actually not as red as it looks in the picture; it’s more of a dark berry cobbler color, not a real red.

So, without further ado, here are the photos.

First, the exterior continues to get its Hardie Board siding in Boothbay Blue. It looks like Woody, our builder (Classic Structures, Inc.) should be finishing this up this week:

This is our foyer, done in Panda White. It’s not as yellow as it looks in this picture; it’s more of a very pale cream. I actually can’t tell it’s not a true white, unless I see it against an actual white:

Since our great room, dining area, and kitchen are all open to one another, we painted them all the same color, Byte Blue. Here is the kichen:

And here is the great room, with the entertainment center painted white:

We have big plans for the downstairs bath. The floor will be a black & white, octagonal subway tile. The tile around the tub will be plain white, and the blue walls will have white beadboard around them:

The spare bedroom, which we’ll use as a guest bedroom is in a pale green. Tim helped us choose a color that wasn’t too minty; instead, it’s got more of a grayish tone to the green:

Directly across from the guest bedroom is the library. One wall will be solid shelves, to hold our enormous collection of books.

As I said, the red is not as bright, nor is it as red as it appears in this photo.

Upstairs, our master bedroom is a very light, ice blue. We had the sloped part of the tray ceiling painted blue to match the walls, while the flat parts of the ceiling are white, providing a contrast and showcasing that tray ceiling:

Our master bath is very dark, because it faces a few of the large live oaks, and so it’s getting a lot of shade this time of year. Also the whole no-lighting-yet thing isn’t helping, but you can at least get the idea of its color, from this photo:

Our interior doors have now been unpacked, and have been painted white. Here is a photo of them in the garage, propped up to let the paint dry:

Because we used low-VOC paints, the interior of the house really doesn’t smell that bad. It’s not as overwhelmingly painty as I expected it to smell; last week, the primer really blew us away.

Next steps: Woody will be hanging the interior doors, and the flooring guys are coming this week. The baseboards are in and ready to go, but I don’t know whether those get put in before or after the flooring. And we will be returning to the house tomorrow, to lay down at least part of the stick-on vinyl flooring that we’re using in the laundry room and under-the-stairs closet.

We’ve turned our attention to the yard. We have a line of trees & palmettos providing a nice demarkation between the area that will be our “lawn” with the areas that we’ll use for other things, like a vegetable garden. One of our little clumps of palmettos & small oak trees has a clear area running through it, almost like a path, that we will probably use to build a tiny pond, in order to provide a water source for the wildlife we’re hoping to see in our yard. Since 2 of our acres are conservation, we won’t be fencing those in at all, obviously, but our backyard will have a fence for our dog, little Hannah. The neighborhood has wandering packs of dogs in it, and I’d hate for her to be killed.

I purchased a compost bin and a kitchen compost bucket, from Gardener’s Supply Company. Luckily, by doing a search online, I was able to find a 15% off coupon. The compost bin is on backorder until July, which is a bit of a pain as we’re planning on beginning our compost pile soon, but I guess we could always transfer it to the bin when it arrives. And the bin will probably make it in before the house itself is ready for habitation.

I’ve been reading The Omnivore’s Dilemna, so have been bitten by the gardening bug. Thus far, we haven’t found a good source for local farm products, but the book gave me a few leads on groups I could contact, like the Weston A. Price Foundation. I’m hoping that they will be able to point us in the right direction. I’ve also been doing a lot of research online, regarding what vegetables to grow here in Florida, and when, so we’ll see whether I can put this into practice once we’re in the house.

And that is all for now! We have big plans and high hopes, so we’ll see how everything works out. It’s incredibly exciting, watching our first house grow up before our eyes.