Rolling Out the Red Carpet

Ok, so it's grey and it's cement but let's face it, a real red carpet would clash with the house and be a little bit of overkill. Our new sidewalk and walkway DO make the house more inviting, however, and we sincerely hope that lots of folks will make the trek up to the porch to visit. I don't think you'll be disappointed unless you're expecting the papparazzi to be there!

We also worked with Mike yesterday to get a layout for the driveway, access walkways and the patio. He laid it all out in orange spray paint to help us (ok, me) visualize what it will look like. I need to make a paper patio table or two to make sure it's wide enough etc. None of it will get poured right away as he has to figure out a trench for where our drive meets the existing drive and get gutter info from Dave. It continues to amaze me how each piece impacts and is impacted by so many other little pieces.

We're also getting tile this weekend!! I can't wait to see what it is going to look like in the house but wow, what an odyssey that process is! So many choices, so many price points and so complicated to come up with a final number. After switching gears once on the master bath, I feared that we still weren't quite done after talking with Rob this morning. But it turned out he'd counted the cost of the floor tiles TWICE, so when you pull the extra cost out we're back in budget (well...close counts).

I'm starting to look at paint colors for the main level. Having some tile down will make it easier to test drive the various colors. I read a great tip in one of the many home magazines I've been perusing. They said instead of painting directly on the wall, you should paint onto extra wallboard. That way you don't have darker spots on your wall that have to be reprimed and are sometimes still a little visible AND you can move the board around the room to see what it looks like in different lights etc. Very wise, I think! I'll let you know if it makes me any more decisive on colors. Brian's stock response to any color other than beige seems to be "Are you sure it's not too dark?" Oh well, I'm not as stressed about this as I was the exterior. One room can be repainted more easily than a whole house!

I think we're going to paint much of the house a neutral color to start and then live in it a while before choosing bolder colors. The first floor is the exception. I'd like to start with that level pretty much DONE except for tchochkes (sp?) and a few accent pieces. Actually, I'm just kind of 'over' all the decision making and would like time to more thoughtfully consider my selections within the context of something that actually exists! I don't know how people build multiple houses. I guess you get better at it, but there will always be too many choices to make as far as I'm concerned. I'm glad we're never leaving this house!