For some reason when I look into the mudroom from the hallway it reminds me of Alice in Wonderland. You know that scene where there’s the checkerboard grass and the other part where she gets small and everything around her is big? Frankly, those are about the only things I recall of the original movie. The whole thing always kind of freaked me out.

Any case, between the checkerboard floor and the tall 8- foot doors throughout the main level, including the closet in the mudroom it makes us feel like the Bushaw’s in Wonderland. Except this is a real life movie we know we’ll actually like!

Seven days to close. The excitement is building.

Those who know me know me as quite the cook. I love spending time in the kitchen cooking, baking, trying new recipes, preparing scratch-made meals for my family. Oh? Wait? That doesn’t sound like me? Fine. I hate the kitchen and prefer to not cook or bake although I make a heckuva lasagna and a mean lemon meringue pie, courtesy of my Grandma Behn’s recipes.

Nevertheless we knew we wanted a bright white kitchen with a big island, plenty of counter space and a double oven. (Who knows…there’s still time for me to grow into a gastronome, right?)

The ovens were delivered a while ago but one didn’t match the other. Turned out they stopped making the one we selected so the thought was we’d take an upgrade that didn’t match rather than the upgraded convection oven that did match but was more expensive. Ben told the team that it’s not our fault the other oven was discontinued and insisted we have the matching oven regardless of price. Thankfully they agreed and we now have a top of the line (GE-line anyway) micro/convection oven and convection oven.

I’ll likely never actually know how to maximize the use of these beauties but it might appear I could win a Bake Off!

The master bedroom in our West Pond house had a great vaulted ceiling. I always liked that look but apparently it’s not the thing these days. Many homes being built don’t have vaults while others have tray vaults and yet others have box vaults.

When we were working with another builder on a custom plan they highly recommended a box vault. We liked the look and thought it would add a little “ooh ahh” so we opted for it in the new house. Now that the room is painted and the box part of it is done too we can see it was a wise choice. Our own version of a Box Top although we won’t be raising any money for schools with it.

50 shades of gray is a theme in our new house. No, not as in the steamy romance book that everyone has read but me but rather shades of gray that would bring our vision to life inside and out of our new digs.

When went couldn’t sell our house in 2009 we opted to freshen some things up inside which included new furniture and paint. We still loved the existing yellow color we did when we moved–Cornucopia by Sherwin Williams, thanks to a great recommendation by our friends Rob and Kiernan–but we grew tired of the red and green accent colors. I was starting to see a few things with gray as well as blue/gray hues and got inspired.

We tried several shades of gray in the dining room but none worked quite right so opted for a bluish gray. The powder room got a gray overhaul with yellow accents too. That was 2009, quite a while before the current gray/yellow boom we’ve seen grow in the past year or so. I do think I’ve got a knack for trends before their Peak and wish i could figure out how to make a living doing it!

During this time we also knew our next house would be a gray exterior with wide white trim but never quite landed on the shade.

Fast forward to our current house project. Picking the exterior grays was no easy feat. We landed on Gauntlet Gray and Summit Gray but then Ben was certain the shades wouldn’t be dark enough and scoured for other colors, Seal Gray, Thunderous Gray, gray this and gray that. His fears didn’t really matter though because we ordered the exterior colors and couldn’t change them. Lucky for us–or Ben mostly–the smart siding and board and batten grays turned out great!

Inside we’ve got Mindful Gray on the walls with a darker accent of Dovetail Gray on the fireplace wall and Gauntlet Gray for our kitchen island. The carpet? Yep, two different styles but both gray. Some of our accent pieces? Gray there too.

With the Dover White trim on the baseboards and windows throughout the house along with the white kitchen, the gray is so fresh and clean. It’s feels modern and cool yet offers warmth and a real homey feeling.

Now those are the 50 shades of gray I like.

It was grading day for the yard. Lots of trucks and tractor-type things moving dirt around, smoothing things out.

The houses on the left and right of us have been done since May and June and still don’t have sod. Lucky for us they wanted to grade the front and back yards all at the same time. As a result, we’ll get sod and landscaping next week before we close. The real benefit is not having nearly the amount of dirt coming in the house. And that deserves a Grade A!

Today appeared to be kind of a busy day. The concrete floor went in the garage, a few of the upstairs rooms were painted with their final coats, the hood above the stovetop arrived (which we dislike), the shelving went in some of the closets, mirrors went in a few of the bathrooms and the faucets were placed in their respective sinks.

We weren’t thrilled with the options for lighting or faucets and opted to not pay for the upgrades because we knew we could find better for less. As a result we’re cringing at what they installed but are reminding ourselves the kitchen faucet we already bought will look terrific (and the price couldn’t be beat as Ben found it for $33 and its orig price was $150) as will the other ones we install after close.

Oh, the other installment of the day…toilets. We’ll have three thrones for my kings, I mean boys.

One of the decisions we had to make about the new house was whether or not to do a bonus room above the garage. We loved the idea and they look fantastic from the outside and inside but it wasn’t a cheap proposition. Benji is quite the handyman so we thought maybe they could do the trusses and he could do the rest later. This way, we could finish the basement with a family room, bedroom and bathroom for guests right away and for less dinero.

As it turned out, if we didn’t do the bonus room right away it couldn’t be done later. So we gulped and said yes. Now that it’s taking shape we do think it’ll be a real added 17×20 bonus.

When you open the front door of the new house you’re greeted by what we hope is a lovely foyer with a little drama. We added crown molding in the space, and beyond it is a long-looking hallway that leads to the rest of the house.

We really love how our builder creates architectural spaces and how our walls have dimension with various cut ins and angles. Curved archways yet defined corners at the base of the floors. No cutting corners here.