Homestead Update – Stone + Flooring + Cabinet Delivery

Building a house is crazy. It feels like some parts take sooooo long, and weeks go by and the visual change is incremental. And then some aspects happen very quickly and all in a row, and then everything looks totally different and very very REAL. The past couple months have definitely been the latter. The stone walls were masoned, the floors went in, and the cabinets all got delivered one right after the other, and the house is truly looking like a home now. It’s pretty wild stuff.

I’d love to say that all the exciting things I’m about to share made for a wonderful summer, but the honest truth is this has been the most stressful 3 months of my life by far. Mainly because our Portland home is still on the market, and living in a home while showing it is incredibly hard and time consuming (we have dogs who shed, so it’s 2 hours of cleaning/gardening before each showing, plus 90 minutes for the showing itself, which adds up when you are self-employed and time lost directly affects the hours you put into your business). Plus, we’re lacking the funds we were supposed to have from the home sale which has put us in a tough financial situation. And then when you add infertility treatments + house building stuff on top of that, it makes for a very tiring time. I hope that someday I’ll look back at all this and laugh about how nuts this summer was, but for now the stress hangs heavy like a stone in my chest, and it won’t go away until the house is sold. So if you have any good house sale energy/prayers/vibes to spare, that would be hugely appreciated! I definitely need it lol.

So now that I’ve had a tiny vent session, what’s been going on with the homestead? Well first let’s start with the masonry! There are two stone accent walls in the house, one inside the home on the wall between the living room and kitchen that also extends into the entryway. And one on the exterior of the house that wraps around a cozy corner. We went with a creamy warm El Dorado Stone in ‘casa blanca’ for the interior, and their dark grey Bluffstone on the exterior of the house for a dry-stacked look. This was one of those things that I really struggled to accurately envision in the space, but then seeing it take shape in real life was absolutely enthralling. First of all, I really like masonry, and it’s something I’d love to learn someday (just to make something fun like an outdoor pizza oven), so it was fascinating to watch just from a creative standpoint. And secondly, I was not prepared for how much texture and richness it added to the space. I feel like it harkens back to the time when our ancestors lived in caves—there’s just something about stone that’s inherently grounding, calming, and timeless. I’m SO so glad we incorporated it into the build. And seeing how it came out has definitely made me want to use a lot more of it in the landscaping architecture like fences or gazebos that we’ll eventually have outside. If you are even slightly considering adding some stone to your interior or exterior in a remodel or project, I’d highly highly recommend it.

The floor also got installed, hurray!!! We did hardwood floors throughout the majority of the house, with the exception of the kitchen, laundry, and bathrooms. There’s sooooo much to dive into with hardwood floors (I’ve learned so much, guys) so I’m actually going to do a whole blog post about that when the house is done. BUT I’ll leave you with a little peek at the bedroom + studio flooring! We got it from Duchateau and I’m over the moon with it. For the kitchen, we went with this porcelain tile from Arto that looks like an old-world Mediterranean cobblestone, with alternating square and rectangle tiles to create a softer, less rigid pattern. It looks SO lovely in the kitchen space and I love how the warm tones add a cozy feel to the room. There was a hiccup, though, where we were sent the square tiles in the correct cream color, but the rectangle tiles were grey, and it wasn’t caught until they were partially installed. But fortunately the team came together and everything got sorted out with the correct tiles getting installed in the end.

And lastly, the cabinets came! I’d never had cabinets installed in a new home before, and you can imagine that an entire house worth’s of cabinets took up a LOT of space in the house when they were delivered. It was so exciting seeing them and getting to peek at the finishes in person. You see them in small sample sizes (like a few inches by a few inches), but it’s nothing like seeing it in person in the actual home with the way the light hits them and everything. And then a bit at a time they started being installed in the rooms, and it was like Christmas morning walking into the kitchen and seeing all the cabinets in their spaces. It really made the whole room come to life and was SO exciting to see. We did a built-in closet for the primary bedroom, and the cabinetry for that also made the bedroom space feel so much cozier. All the cabinet knob and pull hardware will be installed in the coming weeks, too, and I can’t wait to see them with all the finished little bits on them. We also had the cosentino countertops installed, but I’ll dive deeper into those in another blog post. That’s all for today, my friend. Wishing you a wonderful rest of your week + talk soon!!

Sources

• Builder: Hainline construction
• Interior design: Strucksured Interiors
• Interior stone: Eldorado Stone Rough Cut in ‘Casa Blanca’
• Exterior stone: Eldorado Stone Bluffstone in ‘Coos Bay’
• Kitchen countertops Cosentino silestone in ‘Nolita Suede’
• Hardwood flooring: Duchateau Terra Collection
• Kitchen tile flooring: Arto Italian Porcelain in ‘Crema’
• Cabinetry: Woodmode

Farmhouse sink saying hello

Bedroom with the closet built-ins, really brings a lot of coziness to the room.