Home Build Part 2

Once our house was framed, we were excited that the next step was putting up the drywall. Walls meant paint, which meant the start of picking out all the fun things for the house! The process of building a home can be chaotic because at times there are subcontractors working on different parts of the house at one time, so pictures may seem a little out of order. We had decided on the exterior color of the house before the construction had even begun. We both like the same style (lucky, I know), which includes neutral colors, contrasting colors, simple overall but with statement pieces, earthy touches, and farmhouse decor. Wanting the same things made the process a lot easier and much more fun! Sometimes one of us would have an idea that the other wasn’t sure of but ended up loving the idea after seeing it – the two examples that come to mind when bringing this up are hexagonal tile and rose gold statement pieces which I will explain later in this post. Anyway, we knew we wanted the exterior to be white (Sherwin Williams Snowbound), and we were dead set on black window frames after my sister showed us how great they looked on a house. They even look good with the color of the house Before it was painted.

The black garage doors were installed and WOW. Love them! We had to choose most things like windows, doors, and stone early on in the process which was hard for me because I have to see what something looks like before I know if I like it or not. Luckily Brett is great at imagining something in his head and knowing what will look best, so I trusted his decisions whenever I couldn’t make one. He chose the stone around the house!

I didn’t have a pantry in my old house, so I was really excited about finally having one and I currently love it. Even after a couple months living here, there is still plenty of room in the pantry which makes me think I have not been buying enough pasta!!

It took us all of 5 minutes to pick out our paint colors at Sherwin Williams which included colors for the main living area walls, bedroom walls, ceiling, island and bathroom vanities, kitchen and closet cabinets, and exterior siding and trim. We went with a lot of greys because it is clean looking but also can be warm. I think the most fun part of the whole house building process was picking out the flooring! We got it all at Floor & Decor in Overland Park. White tile makes things bright and clean-looking, and I wanted white grout as well, but our tile guy recommended staying away from white grout because it will eventually discolor and look dingy. The “wood” flooring above is actually Luxury Vinyl Tile – LVT – and covers the majority of our house. We have tile in each bathroom and carpet on the stairs, which is the only place we will have carpet because of our four dogs.

Brett’s dad used to be a trim carpenter, so he and his workers and Brett did all the wood work in our house. We went with craftsman style because we like the sharp edges and simplicity of it. Plus, it’s easier to clean!It was Brett’s idea to do the library paneling by the entryway and stairs. We liked the idea of having textured accent walls because it’s a way to decorate your home without having to hang a lot of decor on the walls. Did I mentioned we like simplicity?We were given suggestions on how we wanted our closet set up and it was nice to have a say in what we wanted. There isn’t a whole lot of extra space in our bedroom for a dresser (and we didn’t want one in there anyway) so we had dressers built into the closet and it is so nice. If you get the chance to do that, take it! It’s convenient to have everything you need to get dressed in one place. I also have a place for all my jewelry and accessories on top of my dresser on the right.

One paint color I was sure we had to do was Sherwin Williams Alabaster. A few years ago my mom repurposed a hutch and table and chairs for me that we wanted to put in this house and they were painted Alabaster. It’s a really pretty white that is not blinding but is still clean looking. I had found a picture on Pinterest of a range hood that caught my eye so I showed the cabinet guy and he made one nearly identical to it! The wood stained hood and pantry door give an earthy feeling to the kitchen that I love. For a while we talked about ordering all-white countertops but since we were going with white cabinets, we thought it might look a little boring. Brett found a quartz countertop with grey veins that he insisted on buying and I was 100% on board because it looks amazing! The grey in it gives it depth and makes the mostly-white counters a little easier on the eyes. The island is the darkest thing we have painted inside the house – Gauntlet Gray. It really helps to tone down all the white in the kitchen and I also love it because it makes those grey veins in the quartz counters pop. Brett and I both had shiplap in our old houses, but what inspired us to make this wall shiplap was a house we saw on the Parade of Homes tour. Since it’s such a big wall, it would have been hard to fill all that space with decorations without overdoing it, but the shiplap adds something extra to the wall without being too much. Right now we have a wine cabinet there and only two things on the wall and it looks perfect!

Since we were going with neutral colors everywhere in the house, I felt like a pop of color somewhere was needed, so I suggested rose gold faucets and hardware in the master bathroom. I don’t think Brett was a fan of the idea because he didn’t go for rose gold hardware in the kitchen either when we decided against it in the bathroom. He knew I was not going to let the rose gold go so he found and purchased this kitchen faucet and we are BOTH huge fans!

The only thing better than picking out tile for your home is watching it being installed! I think looks even better than I imagined. The overall look we were going for with the tile was bright and clean, so I wanted the grout to be white, too. However, our tile guy recommended not going with white because it will discolor over time and look dingy, so we went with light grey and it turns out I like it better this way anyway. The hexagonal tile was one thing I basically insisted on, but I originally had in mind smaller tiles. We searched the whole store for small – but not too small – hexagonal tiles and couldn’t find any. We decided to go ahead and get the larger ones and we’re glad we did because it makes the room look larger and not as wild.

Brett wanted a stone wall and I wanted a fireplace, so he made it happen!

We love our LVT but if you are dog owners and plan to buy this for your house, I would suggest purchasing some with a slicker/glossy finish. Ours is sort of like a matte finish and shows dog hair and paw prints pretty badly.

Brett has his own flatwork business so he and his workers poured our concrete.

We were anxious to have our light fixtures installed. All of them are iron colored so they really stand out in our house. Of all our fixtures, my very favorite is the one on the dining room above! Alright, I have finished telling about everything (okay, not everything because a lot more goes into a house than what I showed) that happened in the house before the really fun stuff – everything that makes a house a home. If you are building a new home or renovating your current one, I hope Home Build Parts 1 & 2 helped inspire you. If you are reading ”just because,” I hope you enjoyed it!
Paige