The BDH is starting to look like a house!

As Phil Robertson would say, we're happy, happy, happy. The drywall crew is working around the clock (until 7pm Thursday and Friday and then all day Saturday) and is doing a fabulous job! Our house is beginning to look, smell and actually feel like a real house. They hung the drywall Thursday and Friday morning, then taped it Friday afternoon and on Saturday they were mudding/plastering it! Here are some pictures of the progress!

 The family room/great room/living room (everyone at Toll calls it something different):

Here's the kitchen. The area that still has the pink ceiling is the breakfast room. The half wall will be a bar. The guys on the stilts are the fabulous drywall crew members, not to be confused with BDH circus performers.

The dining room:

One of the guest bedrooms/future baby rooms. This is the only spare bedroom downstairs:

The formal living room (my favorite):

This picture was taken from the media room upstairs, with looks down into the formal living room via a balcony and vaulted ceilings in the formal living room.

 This is a picture of the balcony, taken from the formal living room, looking up:

This is the study/library. It's adjacent to the formal living room.

Wine cellar:

The foyer (with scaffolding & crew :) )

The upstairs hallway, which overlooks the foyer and the family room:

Our master, taken from the master sitting room:

Our master bath, with my clothes closet doors on the right and my shoe closet door on the left:

Looking into the shoe closet (as my heart skips a beat):

Here's one of the guest/future baby's bathrooms upstairs. The other one is exactly like this, it just doesn't have a window.

Here's the BDH from the front yesterday. It hasn't changed much at all on the exterior, especially when compared to the interior. We expect our stone (which will go in all of the places currently green), doors, and exterior paint sometime next week or the week after.

More good news: we're not the only house on the street experiencing swift progress! A lot of the houses are really coming along, especially our next door neighbor's, so we thought we'd share their progress too.

Here is our next door neighbor's house, which had a full framing crew onsite yesterday. It's going to be a beautiful home for sure.

That's all for now barbies! Nothing but good news to report from where we sit in Hasentree. Stay tuned for exterior stone, door installation and CABINETS AND GRANITE (pardon the all caps, but I can hardly contain myself for the girly stuff) next week and the week after!

xox

DRYWALL!!!

Finally, today was the day we've been pining for, longing for, praying for, hoping for, lusting for, begging for, BARTERING WITH THE HEAVENS FOR... drywall installation day!

Drywall is such an important milestone for so many reasons: it's the first time (to this barbie, anyway) that the house begins to actually look like a house; it's the day the house begins to smell like a house (not just a muddy pile of lumber); it's the time when you can first accurately gauge your closing day; and lastly, it's the corner you round into home base (forgive the sports analogy barbies), making it a straight shot to move-in day! We've watched as other houses on our street hit the drywall stage, suddenly there's a quick flurry of activity at their homes, with multiple crews there at all times, and boom, the house is done and they live happily ever. For so long we wanted that to be us, and now it finally is!

Check out the BDH in all it's newly drywalled fabulousness:

Clockwise L to R, this is: our dining room, a peak at the kitchen, a peak at the family room and a little of the foyer/staircase.

This is looking down into our formal living room and foyer. Drywall everywhere! Yay!

This is me standing in our brand new, DRYWALLED kitchen! The cabinets are on their way! The first floor ceilings are 10ft, which is why I look like a midget in this picture.

Hubby standing in our family room, checking it out. Even the ceilings got drywall!

Standing in our family room looking up at our upstairs balcony arches. :) Johan designed/built these arches practically from scratch - he's got skills.

 More drywalled ceiling!

Standing in our formal living room, looking up at the Juliet Balcony. Yes, that's really what it's called! Cutest construction term ever. It will have a very European looking semi-circle iron railing soon.

Standing in the BDH foyer (pinching myself that we finally have drywall).

Today we also had a really nice, impromptu meeting with our two favorite Toll Brothers employees: Johan and Rick. I'm sure you've read our rave reviews of these two before, especially Johan, - they're straight shooters and you can actually count on them to get the job done and do what they say. They both came out to our house to resolve two issues, one with the breakfast room's cathedral ceiling and one with our master shower. Both issues were resolved quickly and intelligently and it was very refreshing. The source of these two issues was the same source of all of our issues, but at least they're resolved now.

Also, our upgraded front doors finally came in! They're not stained yet, but will be when our front porch pillars come in so that the stain can match. The stain color we picked is a really dark brown. The delay in their delivery caused delays in other things, like the stone on the front of the house being installed/masoned/whatever the term is, but now that they're here, everything should proceed as planned. Here they are (as they sit in our garage):

Lastly, this was the first time we had ever seen our home lit up at night. Don't get me wrong barbs, we still don't have light fixtures, but the crew that was still there after sunset (yay for awesome worker bees!) had their own construction lighting inside, which kinda gave the appearance of a house with light fixtures. A doll can dream, right?

We've brought you the BDH bad times and today we can finally bring you some BDH good times again! Thanks for always celebrating with us barbies!

xox

Homeless for the Holidays: our Toll Brothers Construction Timeline / Toll Brothers Review

Happy 2013 barbies! As Ross and I look back on 2012, we're thankful for our health, family, friends and many blessings, but also saddened by the fact that we're not living in our new home. As you all know, our sales agent promised again and again AND AGAIN that the house would be done by Thanksgiving. We never imagined that we would still be in our tiny apartment on Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Eve and probably even Valentine's Day. These delays have caused us significant financial and administrative burden and have taken a very large emotional toll on both of us. Our entire lives are on hold waiting for this house to be finished, and we have no idea when that will be. This timeline chronicles our experience thus far. Hopefully 2013 has fewer delays and more straightforward dealings with Toll Brothers. Here's to hoping!

*I'm sure all you tech-savvy barbies know this, but if you simply click on the image, it will enlarge in a new window. xox!

Swimming Pool Inspiration Pictures

It's no secret that hubby and I are pining for a pool behind the BDH. Many have asked when this illustrious pool will begin to take shape, and the best answer I can give is: "the earliest possible second we can afford it." Unfortunately, that second is unlikely to come for several years as pools are very expensive, but it doesn't hurt to dream, right?

UPDATE: As pool plans have progressed, more inspiration photos here

Here are some of the prettiest pool pictures I've been able to put my pointer on (alliteration intended). I'm sure our preferences and trends will change a thousand times between now and when we can actually afford one, but these all look pretty great to me today:

 I love how the hot tub is connected to the pool, the beach area and the waterfall in this one:

 This one is just so dynamic!

 LOVE the black bottom!

 If we were on a lake or ocean, an infinity pool would be a must:

 Indoor/outdoor pool:

 Love this:

I think I might just love the back of this house and the patio. This would be great for a pool party/entertaining:

 To we swimmers who grew up on the smell of chlorine, I can't imagine a better way to fall asleep than this:

 Magical:

 In love with ALL of this:

 The plants almost in the pool + really creative:

Lagoon or traditional, infinity or landlocked, black bottom or blue bottom, there are TONS of choices. What types of pools do you prefer, barbies?

xo