stone inspiration

we will be putting stone on the bottom of our new house. there are a lot of different textures and colors of stone...some are warm, with tans and earthy orange tones, some can be red or even green, and others are cool with lots of grey. the stone that we are using is considered "undesirable" because it tends to be small and varies greatly in color. (it is usually used in "functional" applications versus decorative ones) my husband came up with a plan of how to use the stone, and has had a hard time convincing others of how great it can look. 

what we want is a look that is old and rough and a little random with heavy, brushed mortar.

here are a few houses that have a similar look to what we want:

 

here are a few local pictures that we took of old stone walls to give our stone mason and idea of what we wanted:

some of the stone arrived a few weeks ago, and was covered with tarps...and then those tarps got covered with 3 feet of snow. the stone mason arrived this week to start work. here is a look at the stone:

i am really, really excited to see it go up!
a sample section should be ready by the end of today.