Garage Logic.

Friends, THIS is why I buttered you up earlier this week with three fantastic posts. Because guess what we are talking about today? Siding. And it's not even siding on a house...it's on a garage.

That's right, the siding managed to make its way all over that garage and it is officially complete! It's no secret our house is covered in trim and all sorts of thoughtful details - the garage, however, got the short end of the stick. The key here was to use what was left to give it a little character, but to 'STOP THE BLEEDING' as I repeatedly reminded the exterior contractor, husband and building supply salesman. Yes, we could have added a decorative moulding to run underneath the eves. Yes, we could have added a piece of crown along the fascia boards for added interest. But NOOOOOOOOOOO, because we have to draw the line SOMEWHERE! This garage is not meant to be a showpiece by any stretch of the imagination - it's meant to be functional. The truth is, if we stayed here long term (and I'm talking like 30 years+), Jeff would want to build a bigger garage. We have a 2 1/2 car garage which isn't all that common in the middle of Minneapolis, so giving it a little TLC is definitely bang for our buck. However, if a few years down the road we really felt like this was where we were going to be for the long haul and perhaps a garage makeover was in our future, we would be glad we didn't blow the budget on garage moulding.

With that said, we did have some leftover trim boards that we were able to utilize in an effort to tie the garage in with the house. We used a treated cedar board along the bottom of the garage (reminiscent of the drip board on the bottom of the house) as a way of keeping the siding up and off the driveway. Allowing the siding to sit close to the concrete gives water the chance to pool next to it causing rotting. Crises averted.

We also had a few leftover flat stock pieces of trim that we ran under the eves that, when painted, will look similar to the eve trim on the house (minus the fancy moulding).

We also had one leftover window header that we threw up over the window that makes a nice statement when gazing out the french doors off the back of the house.

I picked up a new (very basic) lock set in oil-rubbed bronze for the side door and some address numbers from Home Depot. All in all, a coat of paint and she'll be looking like a million bucks. Tomorrow the crew will finish the roof and with that, they'll be done until the house is painted and they can get started on the deck. They made the suggestion to have the painters start on the back of the house so they can get going on the deck as soon as possible. Brilliant!

As you can remember, I've been stressing about the countertops and the turnaround time on the granite. It's all looking good though and the official measure will take place on Monday at 1pm. I'm having our architect come to the measure to make sure the small details in the granite and marble come together the way we have intended them to all along. The countertops shouldn't take more than a week once the measure is done...which would be absolutely PERFECT timing! Literally the only other thing I can think of to stress about is the plumbing fixtures getting here on time. The toilet and sink are coming from Chicago and they told me 2-3 weeks to get them. 3 weeks will NOT do...and 2 weeks is pushing it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

HOW am I supposed to sleep when the kitchen install is only 2 days away? EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!