Let the Sun Shine In!

4th Week of October

Sunlight is an amazing thing.  Not only does it make the world go around, but it makes us happy!  When the wood framing was going up I loved the play of daylight with the studs.

2nd Floor Hallway, looking toward Master Bathroom - July

When the roof sheathing was installed the house almost felt like a cave.  We had gotten so used to the sun being part of the space that it took us a couple of days to get used to having lost it.

Then the drywall went up and again it took us a few days to get used to the lack of shared light throughout the spaces.  It makes me appreciate even more all the sight lines of interconnecting spaces we consciously worked to achieve in the design.  And let's not forget all the windows!  We thought we had overdone it with how many windows we have; now I can think of a few more I wish we had.

2nd Floor Hallway, looking toward Master Bedroom - October

Now we have ceilings and walls being painted, and flooring being installed.  And again there are changes to the play of natural light within every space.  It's amazing what a coat of "white" paint can do to brighten a space up - very different from the color of unfinished drywall boards.  The ceilings have been painted, and the walls will be painted sometime this coming week.

In the Dining Room, looking through the Foyer to Living Room

I'm giving you a peak of our slate flooring in our entries.  It's hard to appreciate at the moment because the grout isn't finished and the tiles need to be cleaned.  We have real slate tiles in both the main Entry Foyer and the Side Entry by the Garage.  Anyone notice the daylight?

Main Entry Foyer

I met with the Builder and our head carpenter Monday morning.  We spent at least half-an-hour playing around with the different tile patterns for the slate.  There are four different sizes of tile.  I am very happy with the results.

Secondary Entry, by the Garage

Footnote:  We were warned several times, by both our Builder and the Tile Store people, that natural slate has a rough surface finish that we might not be happy with.  They did everything they could to politely steer us away from real slate (to a porcelain slate-look-alike product).  I didn't budge, and I'm so glad.  Even the Builder has commented as to how nice the slate flooring looks.