Kitchen Progress

Hello All!

Just checking in to share some of what's been happening around here lately!

Between lots going on and the awesome weather, sitting in front of the computer has fallen to the bottom of the list!

My husband and his brother, Dan, made a lot of progress on the "long list of little things" for the kitchen. There's still more on it...but there's progress...and that's a beautiful thing!

Below:

Finishing touches on the range hood!

Almost finished with the island! And I think I've finally decided on the stools!

Beadboard backplash was made!

We painted it white...but I'm considering painting it our wall color "Believable Buff"

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PRESTO...CHANGE-O!

We have grass! In under 2 hrs. on Saturday morning our entire yard was sodded. Thanks to about 20 wonderful friends who gave up their free Saturday morning! It makes such a huge difference...I love looking out the windows at all that green. Next will be some landscaping in the front.

It's a small change, but can you see another thing that is different from the before picture to the after? Comment if you see it!

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I've Missed You!

It's true...we've moved!!! We're here! Actually we've been here for almost a month now....and I've been without Internet until today...not fun, but it's in the past right? Moving was a crazier process than I had envisioned...here was the plan:

the girls were at my parents for the weekend while we moved.

we traded my parents our van for their truck so we could move over the weekend.

it all depended on the final inspection by the city.

my husband pulled an all nighter to get ready.

the inspection was friday afternoon, it finished at 5:00 pm.

did we pass? of course not! did I mention we live in a crazy strict building code town? we do...in fact the major thing that needed to be fixed that restricted us from moving in...we're the only town in the nation that has that code!

Instead of taking the weekend to move, my husband spent it fixing things that did not pass our city code.

It took the inspector until the following Wednesday to come back to inspect.

Since my husband was busy at the house, I kind of ended up moving myself (with children of course!)

My mom came on Thursday to help clean our apartment, which was a huge blessing! We finished at about 9 pm...just in time to pack everyone up for a weekend vacation with my husband's family.

Things have slowed down, still lots and lots to do, but it's nice just being together and having one residence to take care of!

We're happy just being together as a family again!

The cook top with pot filler...I actually love it a lot more than I thought I would!

Some of our carpet was back ordered...so we were moved in for a few days before it was installed.

I am ready to make a quilt for Sophia's room! I think that will be my first room to do, it mostly requires material and paint...and digging a big girl bed out of storage!

I put up a few summery decorations, which will be replaced in a few short weeks by fall decor!

This is the pile of decorations for the master bedroom...just sitting in the corner...looking longingly at me to decorate with them.

Yes, sometimes I do think I am going crazy.

We have curtains in our master bedroom! I'm sure the neighborhood thanks us.

The curtains throughout most of the downstairs are actually canvas painters drop clothes. The sides were already finished, they came in a 6x 9 ft. sheet, and they cost under $10 each! I did have to hem them, but that was it!

I've learned to appreciate the simple things in life...like a towel hanging by the shower...instead a pile of them in the hallway.

Doors...they're a good thing.

Some more seasonal decorations.

The End.

(for now)

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A Lovely Shade of Blah...

One week and counting!!!!

If all goes well we will close on our house next Friday!

I have been cleaning and washing windows...

but yesterday I decided to repaint Sophia's room.

It was a color called Summer Fields from Lowes, and I really liked it.

But then I found this and really really liked it (the fawn and owl did it!)

And I didn't like the idea of those decals on a green wall.

Then it took me a few weeks to think it over in my head....how things would be arranged, other colors in the room, etc.

So yesterday I took the leap and painted it an original color (I didn't want to buy new paint so I mixed what I had) I call it:

Antique Alabaster

(antique white and alabaster mixed together)

Which is creamy white...which will be accented by creamy white carpet and the creamy white trim....that's right...

a lovely shade of blah for now!

Just trust me...I can see the finished product in my head...and it's not blah!

It will stay in blahland for awhile...until we:

paint her bed and bookshelves the Summer Fields color (thankfully I have over a gallon left!)

Her little kids harvest table will stay stained

the chairs will be painted pink

still unsure about the curtains.

The bedding will be made from this or similar colrs/fabric.

and I can see something like the edges of her sheets embroidered with this pattern.

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The Monster Is In!

The countertops we purchased from a stone fabricator were put in on Friday. The girls countertop is Carrera Marble. Here are 2 tips I found out when purchasing countertops for the house:

#1: If you want natural stone (marble, granite, etc.) -For small areas (like a bathroom) look in the fabricators remnant area. It's leftovers from their other projects, and they want to get rid of it, so they will sell it to you for considerably less. In our case, it was $20 per square foot less!

#2: They have very nice Carrera marble countertops for VERY reasonable prices at Lowes....and the price includes a white, already attached, undermount sink. The only catch is they are in standard sizes, but a little pre-planning is all you will need!

The price for the countertop and sink at Lowes is what the fabricators charged us just for the labor of installing an undermount sink! See, big time savings!

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You Asked For It....House Update

In less then a month we'll be moving in....completely done or (probably) not! We have to be out of our apartment the end of July and we have to have the house done enough for the city to give us our certificate of occupancy. As you can see above we have posts on the porch and lights...we have a railing that will probably need to be on before we can move in. The name of the game lately has been first to do the floors so we could do the cabinets so that the plumbers and electricians could come back and finish. All flooring is done except for carpeting! Here's a lot of pictures for you!
The electricians have been at our house the last few days. Here's one of the exterior lights...it's on the ceiling of our side porch. The electrician commented to me that this was the most custom lighted house they've ever done....I think that translates into $$$$.

This is the powder room floor. It wasn't originally supposed to be this, but due to running out of our wood floor and having extra tile, it turned into this. I love it! My husband did this floor.


Here's the office. It may eventually have some beams in it...but this will certainly do for now!

My mudroom lights

My mudroom floor...dirty already!

Sophia trying out the little corner bench in the shower!

Getting warm by the fire! (HA! It's been in the 90's with high humidity here) See the little white box in her hands....I noticed it after taking the picture...it's the lost specialty light bulb that everyone had been searching for!

The master closet.

The master bedroom.

The master bathtub.

Here's the kitchen cabinets my husband has been working so hard on! We deviated from our original plan on the counter tops. Originally we were going to do DIY concrete counter tops....but got a little nervous with my island...it's 8 1/2 ft. by 4 1/2 feet and I didn't want a seam in it, which would require us to pour in place and attempt to trowel it smooth. My dream has always been soapstone with a wood island...and that's what we're doing!

Here's the cabinet in the girls bathroom...I'm going to make a curtain for that curved middle part. I can't wait for my 4 foot trough sink to be put in!

The Great Room fan...this was where the long lost light bulb belonged!

The dining room lights. We may try to hide the swag of the chains by doing some ceiling treatment eventually.

This is the vanity cabinet in our basement bathroom. Jacob made it for me...I was inspired by one in Pottery Barn...but not inspired by the price! After the counter top, sink and faucet it will be 1/3 of the Pottery Barn price!

The sconces going down to the basement.

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Stick a Fork In It...

It's Done!

(not the house just this little closet/nook!)

This is the closet in our 4th bedroom. Right now the 4th bedroom will be our guest bedroom, so I decided to turn the closet into a crib nook for visiting babes. We bought the closet doors, but are leaving them off for now.

I bought the "Dream" vinyl decal on etsy from Elephannie. She didn't have exactly the size and style I wanted, but she easily did a custom order.

After I painted the closet white, my husband helped me find the center and hang the decal at the height I wanted.


The stripes took a great deal of time. 4 pieces of tape for each set of stripes, and all the measuring!

The thicker center stripe is 2 inches thick. The painters tape is 1 inch. The small stripes are 1 inch. The space between each set of stripes is 12 inches.

I then painted the blue on...but I think I should have painted another coat of white. Once I took the tape off I saw how much the blue "bled" into the orange peel texture of our walls, but I think if I would have done the white again, and then the blue, it would have filled up the texture and the blue stripes would have been much crisper when I removed the tape. Because I didn't do that, I had to go back and fix all that blue paint "bleeding" with some white paint. That took some time!
But, the painting is now finished, and it will be fun to put this little space together. I have a garage sale crib that will be painted black and a sweet little crib set that I can't wait to show you!

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A Few Peaks...

Here are some of the most updated pictures I have of the house...it's coming along, with something happening everyday! I spent Tuesday picking out appliances...kind of...I already had most of my appliances picked out before we started building, but I wasn't really set on a specific washer and dryer...at the top of my "wish" list was- my own, in my own house and not having to pay $1.75 to wash and dry each load (we share a washer and dryer with the other tenants of our apt.)...I also wanted a high-efficiency front loader...and I ended up picking out the "Whirlpool Duet" I'm pretty excited about it! Wednesday I picked out carpeting...something that was harder than I thought it would be!

Now, on to the pictures!

The "wing walls" on our front steps. Just the right height to sit on! The porch is still waiting for the rest of its "pretties"...the posts, railings and lights!

Some light fixtures have been installed! This one is in Sophia's room.

Here's the light that ended up in the big girls room...I love the 2 little birds sitting on the branches. The girls have already named them!


Another view of the front porch

My lovely tub! I LOVE baths, but refuse to take one in our apartment bath...so I am SUPER excited about this pretty little thing! Obviously I need to pick out some good, not sheer, curtains for those windows!

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A House Update...

Our camera was M.I.A. for awhile, so I am just finally updating with some pics!

The above is our master shower. We decided to have a professional do it...I didn't feel like "learning the hard way" when it came to the possibility of water going places it wasn't supposed to. Plus our builder offers a warranty for things done by his subs.

My laundry room floor-old school linoleum. This was found at Home Depot!

The "hex" tile waiting to be installed in the kids bath.

A "peak" into the guest room.


The beadboard in the big girls room.

The beam in the great room...the rest of the columns and beams will be stained the same.

I am almost done painting...just a few small jobs to do!

The guys installing stone showed up today...I'm pretty excited about this!

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Living In A Forest...

During the time I was designing our new house, I had borrowed a book from the library...it was "The Not So Big House: A Blueprint For The Way We Really Live" . The book was great...it really reinforced the feelings my husband and I were having about building a house for the way we really live and for the things we value. We did not need any formal spaces or lots of small rooms...we just wanted the basics...but good sized and open. Here's some pictures of the main floor, this was another thing the book suggested, defining space with beams and posts instead of walls. (my tip: leave the walls around the bathroom ;))

The above picture is looking through to the dining space.

A view from the Great Room toward the foyer.

A view toward the kitchen through the dining space.

Our thoughts that went into the design of the house (first floor):

• An inviting front porch and front door...I want people to be drawn in and feel at ease.


• A defined "foyer space" but not a space wasting "foyer room".


• A space we did decide to put doors on was the den/office. We wanted a place for my husband to have a desk to himself for the studying that he likes to do, a place for quiet reading in a cozy chair and a place for bookshelves filled with books!


• A warm hearth to gather around.


• A space for a piano (lessons to be started in the near future)


• Great, built-in storage.


• A dining space casual enough for everyday dining, but special enough to use for guests...and a way that we could easily pour into adjacent rooms if needed.


• A good sized kitchen to make big meals! (open to other rooms, but messes hidden behind a half wall)


• A good sized pantry...for stocking up and preserving the harvest!


• A little desk space for me to do my planning.


• A buffer space from the rest of the house when we enter-translation-MUDROOM! Where the kids can easily be responsible for their own shoes and coats. There's also a side door here for running in and out to the yard and garden.

***The reason for the title "Living In A Forest" was because my husband kept asking me if it felt like I was surrounded by trees with all those posts. We were joking last night that since the posts are Maple we should tap them and see if we can get some Maple Syrup out of them :)****

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