Now that we have walls....

We met with our builder this past weekend to review the built-in configurations since they're starting trimwork (which includes moulding, built-ins, and cabinetry). Steven had some good suggestions, and I think everything will turn out well. I'm particularly excited about the built-ins in Weezie's room - a long window seat with floor-t0-ceiling shelving/cabinets flanking the windows. I had originally wanted the bench seats to have lift-tops for storage, but Steven recommended that we just have open cubbies underneath for baskets. The baskets are easier to access, and as Steven astutely pointed out, "if you do lift-tops, at some point one of your children will be inside the bench and the other one sitting on top of it."

We also discussed the interior stairs, which are made of steel (they're unpainted right now and have temporary treads, so pretty ugly). I want to do horizontal balusters which the building codes make difficult. As a workaround, we're going to clad them in Plexiglas to pass inspection and then remove them from the stairs once we're in the house. Depending on how good (or crappy) they look, we may keep them on the upper hallway because I have no doubt I WILL have kids trying to climb those. If we don't keep the Plexiglas on the upper stairs, we'll likely use mesh screens as some of our friends did in their house.

I had described to Steven how I wanted the rails to look, but I was lucky to happen across some stairs that looked exactly like I want at a local store, High Fashion Home. A picture is worth a thousand words, especially when you're doing custom building. Oh, I did ask... and apparently commercial building codes are more lenient than residential codes as far as the baluster orientation. Doesn't make sense to me they would be more lenient, but a lot of the building codes don't make sense to me...

Upper Hallway at High Fashion Home

Stairs at High Fashion Home