Well, color me pretty!

I'm pretty sure we've collected about 500 paint swatches. No joke. Note to self: don't do that again. You see, we like colors but we just don't understand the rules of color that well. Continuity is key. For example, you don't want a red foyer, blue living room, and a yellow kitchen. It starts to look like a preschool, you know. So we got a little advice from Indy, who painted for a living (and still does) before he got his contractor's license. Swatches you grab at Lowe's or Home Depot typically have four or five colors on one strip. He mentioned that it's a good idea in an open-concept house to paint adjoining rooms with colors from the same swatch strip because the colors are in the same family. Makes sense. 


The other problem is that Noel and I are both left brainers; therefore, we have a very difficult time envisioning what a tiny little color swatch will look like all over a wall. So we enlisted the help of one of my mother's friends who is paint savvy. Yesterday, we met with him, and we walked through the entire house room-by-room discussing colors that would work. He helped us decide which colors would soak up all the light and which colors would help maintain the bright and airy feel of the house. We've made our final decisions, at least we'll see how final they are once they get on the wall. Ha! Hey, it's just paint, right?! The only other thing we need to ensure is that the paint is low or no VOC (volatile organic compounds) to ensure good indoor air quality, especially in such an airtight home.


Speaking of indoor air quality, we have 'loosened' up our house a bit through our geothermal system. We met with our geothermal company on Friday and discussed adding an ERV (energy recovery ventilation) system on the downstairs unit. This is a programmable system that will exchange stale indoor air for fresh outdoor air at certain times of the day depending on the season. The exchange will occur during the daytime in the winter and during the nighttime in the summer. Because of this, we opted to hold off on the HEPA filter on the system. 


We also met with Indy and David (the salesman for Builders Supply) to pick out interior doors and casing. We walked through the house and chose which way we wanted each door to open. It was a rather quick and painless process.


Not much has been happening in the way of noticeable changes at the homestead this past week. (The reason for the lack of pictures in this entry.) The drywall dudes have been mudding the joints. They should begin sanding today; and hopefully by the end of the week, Indy and his entourage will begin priming the walls. 


On a side note, I can't begin to tell you how nice it is to have a decision behind you. I was thinking the other day about all of the decisions that we have toiled over -- the roof, the flooring, the granite, the contractor, the houseplan. It is so nice to know that that overwhelming feeling of 'decision-overload' is coming to an end. I must say that the constant bombardment of decisions is the most mentally and emotionally draining aspect of building a house.