Mary took a leap of faith and painted the laundry room a poppy color (aka bright orange). Then, she painted the 3rd floor craft room, dahlia (aka bright yellow). The master bath is full of aqua glass tile. The rest of the house is painted in neutral tones of gray and white so that our art and the outdoor views can shine.
Yes, the rumors are true. The house has a small elevator. It is the favorite appliance in the home for Dave's mom. She is looking forward to being able to visit all three floors. All aboard!
We must be getting close to completion because the carpet was installed this week. Everyone who enters the home now needs to remove their shoes or wear paper booties, to keep from tracking in dirt. No exceptions!
This past week, the metal railings were installed on the interior stairs. They make quite a statement upon entering the house. The exterior railings were also installed on the decks (pic below is an exterior railing off-loaded in the driveway).
Our driveway was formed and poured on Thursday. It is slightly bigger than originally planned because we were able to pour a parking pad to the left of the garage. Further, the concrete contractor was able to slope the concrete up to the front walk so we don't have any steps. He also created a nice curved design to the front walk. The decorative block walls and short pillar now look integrated with the entire front of the house. We are planning to place decorative flower pots on them to add some color to the front. 
Not much to see inside. It is all taped and covered in plastic while the painters stain the doors and woodwork and paint the walls. Meanwhile, the landscaping contractor was hard at work , installing irrigation, walkways, and boulder walls and generally cleaning up the yard area. We will wait until spring to plant low water-use plants in the beds near the house and trees for screening between our neighbor's house. The rest of the yard will revert back to native grasses. Low maintenance is the goal!
The contractor installing the counter tops and tile also installed the limestone around the fireplace. It has a subtle gray coloring and contains a lot of small fossils. The pattern Mary and architect designed gives it a contemporary look.
The oak hardwood floors on the main floor have been finished with a custom grey stain. Our hardwood contractor, Eugene, says it is a unique effect. All of the floors are currently covered to protect them until interior work is completed.
One of the challenges of our hillside lot is designing ways to hold the hillside back, since we had to make radical slope cuts to create the flat building pad. Along with 12 foot high basement walls on the uphill side of home, we needed to build block retaining walls along the north side of the driveway. Adding to the challenge, the masons had to fit three block walls in the 6 feet between the driveway and the north lot boundary. As you can see, they were up to the task and the result is beautiful.
The finish carpenters have been working hard over the past 3 weeks to install and build cabinets throughout the house. The counter tops were also installed. Everything is ready for adding the appliances, sinks, and plumbing fixtures, once the interior painting is complete.
The weather turned very cold during last week of December. It interrupted the installation of the decorative block. However, our garage doors were installed. The doors help make the front of the house look more finished and they certainly warm up the garage with their insulation.
