Morning Room Decor

I said I was not going to buy any furniture until after we moved in.  That didn't happen.  I held off until less than two weeks before settlement, so I don't think that's too bad.  :)

Our plan is to use our small table and chairs in our dinette area for now and make the morning room into more of a sitting/relaxing area.  I figure we don't need a big table in the morning room for just the two of us.  I decided to buy patio furniture for the morning room, so that when we convert that room to a dining area in the future, we can move the furniture right on outside to our deck or patio. 

Here's what we got:

It was on sale at Target for $449.50 (originally $899).  This decision was made after looking at Macy's, Sears, Pier1 and a few other stores and finding nothing we liked for less than $1,000.  It says we can return it within 90 days so if we hate it when we receive it, I will just send it right back!

Here an olioboard representation of my general plan for our kitchen/morning room (with my actual furniture set to the backdrop of my actual space... so cool!).  I feel like the proportions are a little off because it's hard to portray depth in 2D, but you get the general idea. 

I'll have to take some better backdrop pictures once they clean the house!

What do you think of the chrome bar stools for the island?  I love the retro look (and I found a set of 2 on craigslist for $40!), but I'm not sure if they work in such a traditional kitchen. 

Our Bad News Turned Into Good News!

Our bad news turned into good news over night!

First I will tell you the bad news as if I hadn't heard the good news yet, so you can get the full effect:

We got a ceiling fan rough-in in our beautiful morning room cathedral ceiling.  Here's a picture of the ceiling fan in the model home's morning room:

Gorgeous (well, maybe not the actual fan, but the idea of it).

Here is where we found the electrical box for our ceiling fan rough-in at our meeting yesterday:

The black circle is where our ceiling fan rough-in will be.

WHATTTT?!?!?  It's about 18" off-center!  PM says that's the way it needs to be in order to be able to properly drywall in the peak of the ceiling there.  I am sure I would have noticed if the model home's fan were that far off center, so we took a walk over to the model home to check it out and lo and behold, that one is centered.  See the small box at the base of the fan where it's connected to the ceiling?:

PM says yesterday that to get this box would be a non-standard request to RH and we'd most likely have to pay extra for it.  The other option (which is actually how the plans specify it) would be to make about a 6" flat area along the whole length of the cathedral ceiling.  So just about where those two blue lines are in the picture below, it would be flat, instead of peaked all the way across.

I call false advertising!!!  How can they show it one way in the model home and not tell you that yours will be different and/or you'll have to pay extra to get it that way?!?!  PM says he will call the "powers that be" and see how much it would be to get it the way it is in the model home.  Otherwise, he wants to know if we'd rather have it off-center the way it is now, or center it and make the top of our peak flat.  I was at a loss because that cathedral ceiling is one of my favorite parts of the house so I didn't want to mess with that.  But how the heck would it look to have a fan more than a foot off-center?  The problem was that I couldn't picture how either would look and which one would be worse.  I'm not even sure if I ever answered him on that yesterday, but...

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PM called today and they are going to do it the way the model home is at no cost!  Yippeee!

AND...

We can get the intake pipe for the heater for $180.00.  Done!  I can stop worrying now (for the moment :)).  

Good news all around and in a timely fashion.  Thank you PM!

Side note: I didn't even notice the off-centered ceiling fan when we walked through (neither did Greg).  My dad picked that up (thanks Dad!!).  Moral of the story is bring as many eyes as you can to your inspection meetings!

Windows and Shingles and Doors, Oh My!

This is a belated update... these pictures were actually taken last Friday, but my busy weekend prevented me from posting them until now.  All of our windows and exterior doors have been installed and our roof is about 1/2 shingled!  Our staircase and second-floor floors are also in so I got a look at the second floor rooms and my cherished oak staircase :). 

Front of the house.  I look so small!

Ease side of the house.  Still not sure about 2 cars fitting in that garage, but they say it can be done!

Back of the house.  IN.LOVE.with the morning room windows and my dining room bay window.

Sliding door in the morning room.  Family room windows on the right.

My bay window and the windows on the other side of the morning room.

Closeup of the front of the house.  I caught the workers just packing up for the day... at 7:30 pm... that's dedication.

Door between the mud room and the garage.  My dad took measurements and confirmed that a w/d WILL fit in the mud room.  (I may doubt Ryan Homes, but I cannot doubt my father :)).

Study.

Morning room!  All of that natural light... I can't wait for Sunday morning breakfast feasts in here.!

Morning room slider.

View from living room into the dining room.  BAY WINDOW!  (I seriously never knew I liked bay windows this much :))

Oak staircase!

Sneak peak of the treads and side trim.

Front door.  I hope they keep those locks off so I can keep snooping for a while.

View from the second floor. (That make-shift railing kind of ruins the shot).

Master bedroom.

My walk in closet!

Greg's walk-in closet with the attic access panel.

Master bathroom.  There's my tub platform!

Sitting/vanity area.

View of master suite from my walk-in closet.

2nd bedroom.

4th bedroom looking from 3rd bedroom.

3rd bedroom looking from 4th bedroom.

Garage. (That's the model home across the street in the right of this shot).

I'm heading back to the house today so hopefully there will be more to report!

Courtland Model Pictures

Here are a few pictures of the Courtland model in our community.  Unfortunately it's not decorated, but I'll be visiting the Courtland Gate model at a new community nearby very shortly (thanks Danielle!) to get a better idea of what it looks like furnished.

Foyer looking into living room.  Got the hardwood stairs upgrade!

Foyer into study (hi dad, greg and SR!).  We will have the same color hardwood in the foyer and carpet in the study.

Living room looking into dining room.  We upgraded to get that bay window in the back. We will have carpet instead of hardwood (for now).

Kitchen looking into family room

Family room.  We will have two windows instead of the fireplace on the back wall.

Kitchen.  Our cabinets and granite are the same colors, but we have the regular island instead of gourmet (it won't bend around like the one shown here).  We also have the regular appliance layout (still stainless) instead of the wall oven layout and vinyl instead of hardwood.

Morning room... I LOVE those windows!

Greg testing out the shower bench in the master bath.  Ours will have white tile.

Tub in master bath.

Looking into master bedroom from sitting area.

Sitting area, which will serve as a vanity/dressing area for us.

Walk-in closet!

We each get one!

Upstairs hall looking into 2nd full bath and 2 bedrooms (the room Greg is looking into is the bathroom).

Looking down on foyer from upstairs hall.  I love this view!

Need Suggestions: Furniture Layout

Has anyone done the morning room with the standard island?  There are a few upgrades (like this) that I would have liked to have gotten, but in an effort to save money we decided against.  We actually had the gourmet island listed at the beginning, but then traded it for some other things that I wanted more.  I'm totally ok with the layout of the regular island; my only concern is all of that extra space between the end of the island and the family room.  I was thinking maybe I could put a wine fridge or something at the end of the island, but I don't know how that would look.  Another option would be to put a small kitchen table in the kitchenette area and use the morning room as more of a "florida" sitting-room with some chairs and a coffee table.  I picture myself sitting in there with a book and coffee watching my future children. :)   Below is a sketch and renderings of my first option with the kitchen table in the morning room:



Option 1 with table in morning room

 


Looking from kitchen into family room

 



Looking from family room into kitchen (lots of open space)

 

Here's a sketch/renderings of the second layout idea with the table in the kitchenette area and the morning room as a sitting area:

My other dilemma is where to put our cable jack in the family room.  I was originally thinking directly across from the kitchen because that fits my desired furniture layout the best (and then I could see the TV from the kitchen while I'm cooking dinner), but we are getting two windows on that wall, so depending on how far apart they will be I'm not sure if it would be good to have a tv on that wall.  The other option is on the wall between the family room and the garage since there are no windows on this wall.  Here are sketches/renderings of the furniture layouts for each option.  Any thoughts or suggestions? 

Option 1: TV on wall opposite kitchen (we are getting two windows on this wall... not sure how far apart they will be)



Option 1 rendering



Option 2: TV on wall between garage and living room (no windows on this wall)



Option 2 rendering