Everyone told us that once you start getting to the details inside, it would feel like progress moves a lot more slowly.  Here are some pictures to show the things being worked on currently:
Floors:

Tons of floors acclimating

A dusty, but installed master bedroom floor

You can see the colour and planks a little better on the landing

Cabinets:

Kitchen in white

Jack-and-Jill in red

Bar cabinets in distressed black

Some general shots to show overall views on 1st floor main rooms:

Exterior:

Kai and his son working on watering the patio to settle the rock
(which we are going to widen)

Front porch concrete poured

Driveway framed - we decided against a curved/angled entrance here

And they've extended the sidewalk in the front!  lol!!

Re-Work

Well they never said building a house would be easy!  ;)  And it hasn't been without some work.  Sure, we've changed the floorplan quite a bit from the original design, and changed swinging doors to pocket doors, had to add windows upon the developer's request - I'm pretty sure we've had our hands in just about every step of the process.  And it hasn't been without re-work either, so I thought I'd share. . .

The Master Bath corner tub has been a bit of a challenge.  I am a bath-lover, but the corner bath design probably would not have been my first choice.  At the time, after everything else we had changed, I didn't think it was that big of deal.  Since THESE vanities I chose for the master are free-standing dresser-style, it was necessary for them to finish off the tub design before installing them - since they would not sit flush against the bath wall like a built-in cabinet would have.  I chose the mosaic-floor tiles, they chose the "coordinating tile" and design:

Before

What the -eff?!  For the first time, this was something both Brian and I hated.  He said it reminded him of some kind of '80s-Scarface bathtub.  Ha!  It was a must-do to tear it all out.  There was no saving any of the tile, or the drywall underneath, so it was all redone.  We could not agree on a tile design that was both not costly and still appealing, and so I designed the trim to be with some of the extra beadboard and 1x6/1x4s.  I think [hope] when it's all painted out, it will look great.  And since I'm not a splasher when I bathe, I'm not too worried about water damage. 

After

We had some minor drama getting the two brick colours we had originally selected, but in the end, were able to get both cubes of brick-styles.  One is more red, with some spattering of black bricks, and the other has a white wash on it.  The design by Kai included an arch pattern above the mantel.  Here was their first attempt - resulting in an extremely noticeable crooked line (right??).
Before:

After:
Bricks are turned sideways ("soldier") to create the arch more evenly, and the parquet design is a little more subtle.  Phew!

The bar - paneling for the exterior to match the cabinets was going to cost over another $1000 and Kai and I had agreed that we would buy paneling from the store and paint it to match.  The first paneling (obviously before painting), was just your basic.  But unfortunately was so thin that it started to buckle from the weight and the moisture (I guess).  So it had to be replaced.

Before

The trim guy has done an excellent job using more solid wood and trim.  I'm sure this is going to cost extra, and we are having trouble agreeing on final colour, but it looks much better.

After

The kitchen island was leaving much to be desired after installation.  Decorative paneling was just not on my mind to add or think about when I was ordering these (what did I know, I was by myself?!).  Kai was nice enough, upon seeing our disappointment, to offer up his trim guy again (for an extra $1000), but it was sooo worth it.  We are so pleased with the outcome here.

Before

In progress

In progress

In progress

After

After

Basement Bar

The Bar was Brian's domain to put together.  I had the kitchen and kids' bathroom all designed (in my head), but was willing to let Brian make the decisions for the bar.
So, when he handed over the reigns on the bar, I was a little taken aback.  I hadn't really put any time into thinking about what it should look like (because I was too consumed with the other rooms).

I spent one night at home during the week mom was visiting in May, and used the cabinet catalogue and graph paper to basically try a few options until I felt I had it pretty nailed down.  Since I could no longer use butcher block on my island, I thought the bar would be a nice opportunity to use it there and help give it a warm, rustic look.  Problem?  If I did wood countertops, I couldn't figure out what cabinet finish to use - certainly not another wood grain.

I settled on a painted and lightly distressed black for the cabinets.  All this over the 16-inch terra cotta tiles I fell in love with (and are cheap!) and had to find a place for them in my house (I found two - the bar and the laundry room).   So, obviously I'm completely winging it here - I'm not even checking the finishes on samples together at one time. 

On a side note - little did I know that while I thought getting a bigger tile would be easier/better, it apparently has potential to create more work for the contractor.  Oops.

 The back wall will have narrow cabinet and shelves.  I opted out of the arching valance atop the tall cabinets because I had in mind to put a large mirror or something on that wall and didn't want the valance framing or blocking it.  
Computer illustrations of the design from Menards:

Back wall of cabinets and wine shelves, including appliance garage

Inside the bar: microwave, refrigerator, turntable for trash/recycling bins

ooh ooh!  I can't wait!  Kai says all of the cabinet orders are in/delivered.  They will be working this week on:

- fireplace bricks
- painting the walls
- installing cabinets
- installing the wood floors
and then they can install the cabinet hardware I've bought.

This will start getting super fun (and more stressful)!  I look forward to get new pictures to show.

Yesterday I was more or less called "high maintenance" by our builder in one of his texts . . .  his words were he has to "be careful with my high taste."  This from a guy who primarily builds homes in the $500-800K range.  So, I'm not really sure how to take that.

I'm smiling as I think about it because I know that (a) he has a bit of a language barrier, being Chinese, (b) he does have a sense of humour, and (c) I don't really care if he does (because I know I've already thrown him for a loop with some requests).   I just hope all this trouble I am causing him results in something that looks great when pulled together.

On the Market

We've had such great luck with getting the house on the market and getting an offer so quickly, that we were bound to come upon something unexpected.  Dang!

We've had a very nice experience with our Realtor, Dan, from Tucker, and the potential buyers as well.  We worked it out that their house inspector would come to the house while we were on vacation in St. Louis, which worked out rather well.  We were forced to wait until the very last day the inspection requests were due before we heard from them.  The requests were only a few, but they weren't necessarily small!  A copy of the inspection report resulted in a few unknown issues that of course we would need to remedy - including lots of mold in the crawlspace.  (no wonder our allergies are so terrible!)
So, fixing that isn't going to be the cheapest, but Brian and I are highly optimistic about it.  There were lots of things the buyers did not ask us for - including fixing a window with a small crack that we didn't even know about.  And so, given that we are more or less still well close to our original asking price, I would say we are still faring much better than some who have been on the market for almost a year. Unfortunately, it just provides one more stressor for us as we work to coordinate contractors to come out for quotes and for fixing it.

One stressor that we have been able to knock off the list though, is knowing where we are going to live in between closing on the old house and closing on the new one (which still has a fairly fuzzy timeline of maybe September).  Brian was able to - with a lot of luck - obtain a short-term lease in the Blvd. Apartment complex that is literally right down the street from our new house!  Walking out of the Leasing Office you can look down the road and see out little red house.  :) 
So we are very excited to have the opportunity to be so close to our house to be able to visit more often as they work on the final touches, get to know the community a little more, and to be able to start to utilize all of that greenspace in that open neighbourhood that we love.

But oh, by the way, I just realized that the weekend we are closing on selling the house is the same as the weekend I scheduled Jacob's 5th birthday party!  ARGH! 

Not much new to add house-wise.  It is the details that I think is what goes slowly now.  :)

They are continuing to work on trim work and tiling the floors now. 
Below are some of the finished trim work in the mudroom and office entrance:

I thought this was funny.  We found this drawing on the wall - it was the drawing that Kai had taken a picture of and texted me to discuss details for the door trims.  We went with Option 2.

Starting to level the yard, where they will continue to complete the sewage lines, etc...

Almost-finished stairs and a rail!  The treads will eventually be stained to match the wood floors.

Below are some pictures of work being done for the basement bar (taken with iPhone + flash, so I apologize for the muddiness).

Tiling started

Tiling finished and panels (which will be painted) and corbels up.

 And some tiling being done in the bathrooms (same as the Jack-n-Jill):

Jack & Jill

I fully expect that in, oh, 5-8 years, our kids are going to KILL us for designing in a Jack-and-Jill bathroom for them. <insert evil laugh>
It will be interesting to say the least, to see how a boy and girl so close in age fare in the bathroom wars.

Oh well, I have a few years to relish how adorable they are (and by that, I mean J/J baths; although my kids are awfully darn cute too); and I'll worry about true functionality and practicality later.  Right now they are enjoying being able to run circles between each of their rooms when we go to visit the progress.

The bathroom is small, and I believe it would have been small even without the J/J design, we've just taken away some wall space due to the extra doorways.  There will be a pocket-door to the potty/tub room.  The vanity will look like this, in order to get as much storage as possible in the space (6-foot wide):

Original design via Menards

Somewhere along the way, looking at lots of ideas, I got into my head that I had to have red cabinets.  It was a must!  And, could be fairly gender-neutral.  I've decided that the cabinets will be red and everything else will be white - mosaic tile floors, floor-to-ceiling beadboard-painted walls, and the vanity top.  I'm hoping this brightens the tiny space and gives it some fun character.  Funny thing, I've put a lot less thought into our own master bathroom!  I guess this was more fun . . . 

Here are some examples of what I've picked out for the space: