Moving Update

We've moved in!  Last Saturday, March 26 (a day before our self-imposed deadline of Pete's 30th birthday - March 27) we trucked (or rather vanned) everything over to the new house and spent our first night there!  I must say, that even though it is not completed and "perfect" yet, I love it.  Living at the project does have it's challenges, but it's far superior to where we were living, and so far I have not needed that padded room at Pine Rest.

Here's a little room by room update...we'll start upstairs since that's where we're living and what is the most "done"...

This is the staircase - stained and carpeted and finished!  We managed to finish staining and varnishing the banister before carpet was installed on Thursday night.

This is the landing/hallway at the top of the stairs...aka junk pile collection zone.

Laundry room...fully functional and only one leak so far!  But that won't happen again...Pete found the part we were missing and it's fixed. : )

Upstairs bathroom - also fully functional and the tub is even clean thanks to Lisa!  (Since we don't have a utility sink, we'd been using this tub to clean out mortar & grout buckets, paint, etc.  Oops.)

Front upstairs bedroom/temporary office.  Until the office on the main floor is finished, this is home base for the computer and all other important things.

This is the back upstairs bedroom, complete with queen bed.  That's how this room will stay for now, in case we ever have guests... : )  Come on over!  You'll even have your own bathroom!

Master Bedroom!!  I love this space.  I'm still looking for a few pieces to pull it together, but so far it's coming together well.

Master bathroom!!  I love this space, too!!  The shower is awesome!  (And it works...major relief since we built it ourselves : )  Waking up and getting ready is almost tolerable in these surroundings.

Master closet - well, we used to think the closet was huge...until we put our stuff in it.  But, it is quite nice as well.  There is a place for everything...another bonus of getting to design it ourselves.

Now, let's travel downstairs to the main floor...

 The Kitchen!  Fully functional (minus a kitchen faucet...long story), but sadly not so clean. (view is from the dining room)

Sink without faucet...sadness.

View of the kitchen from the living room.

Dining room, aka dumping ground.  Since this room is mostly finished, it's a relatively safe place to leave things.  That little bad habit is going to need to change soon!

We hung the fantastic IKEA curtains!!  I love them!

Here's a close up shot of the curtains.  Notice how crazy good they go with ....

...my great-grandma's china!!  I didn't even plan that!  I've had the china boxed up for a while and was excited to finally have a formal dining room and hutch so that I could display it.  I vaguely remembered the pattern was leafy, but when I unpacked it, I was pleasantly surprised with how well it matched the room and the curtains!

The living room...moving on...not much to see here, folks...

Main floor half-bath...not much to see here either....

Office...or here... : (

So where is the rest of our junk?

In the basement!

Pete set up our TV by the couch in the basement so we can still watch our Netflix movies.  No cable, TV or internet at the house yet... : (

And in the garage, we are bracing for the most epic garage sale of all time....once the weather gets warmer, of course.



We're Here!!

The good news is we've moved in!  The bad news is that we don't have internet or cable service hooked up at the new house yet.  So, that means no lengthy blog post. : ( 
The reader's digest version is this:  we've moved in and are loving it!  The upstairs is finished (more or less), so we're pretty much living up there.  The main floor is still a work in progress.  All of our possessions are now under one roof (if the garage is considered the same roof as the house) and we are preparing for one epic garage sale.
Stay tuned for more info and pics as we regain internet access... : )

We're Nuts!

It's official...we're nuts.  We informed the landlord that we'll be moving out at the end of the month. 

And here's what we'll be moving into...

Awesome.

Back at the beginning, I boldly declared that we would not move into this house until everything last thing is completed.  I have no desire to live in a project.  But, the thought of another rent payment changed my mind.  Patience is not my virtue, and I'm afraid it's going to be tested in the weeks to come.  Thankfully, my lovely husband has patience in abundance!

It's not all doom and gloom, however.  We did get quite a bit accomplished this week even though we were only able to work there two full evenings.  Here's the overview...

The appliances are installed and working...even the washer & dryer (which are the ones that came with the house).  Yay!!

The stair railing is done!!  Well, more or less.  It still needs to be stained and varnished, but we're almost there.  We had originally planned to use (and already purchased) wrought iron spindles, but changed our minds after learning the they would take way longer (and hence be more expensive) to install.  We're happy with this, though, and especially happy with the speed with which it was completed.

Carpet!! 

Because the stairs are complete, we're able to move ahead with carpet.  We picked this out in Saturday ("Sea Salt" from Flooring America) and it's being installed this coming Wednesday.  Stay tuned for some potentially stunning photos... : )

My dad replaced the door to the garage.  We have to paint it yet (along with all the other doors on the main floors, door casing, baseboard, trim and built-ins...yeesh!!) as the gray primer just isn't going to cut it long-term.

We laid the entry tile, which means that all the floors are installed on the main level.  Pete designed this pattern of three different sized tiles.  The 20x20" tiles were a little unwieldy on our tiny borrowed wet saw, and Pete may or may not have said some naughty words.  But, I think the finished product looks pretty sweet.  All it needs now is grout and transition strips between the tile and the wood floors.

And some bonus photos from last week...

...the master closet!  My dad hooked us up with a sweet deal on an easy-track closet system.  We installed it last week, and this week I started loading in my summer clothes.  Fun!

Every time we go to the house, we bring a load of boxes and stuff.  Looking on the bright side, I guess that living in the project "all the way" will be better than living "halfway" in each house. 

Keep my padded cell at Pine Rest open....just in case.

Big Day

We have floors!  After evaluating the timeline and what still needs to be done before we can move in, we decided to try to get the wood flooring installed this weekend.  (We're really pushing to move in by the end of this month - mostly to save us from paying another month's rent!)

13 hours and 4 trips to Menards later...

My dad working on the floors

Finished Kitchen Floor

Finished Living Room Floor

Finished Dining Room Floor

...we have floors!  We had to rent the staple gun for installing this type of flooring from Menards.  We picked it up first thing in the morning and returned it 5 minutes before they closed at 9:00 pm.  We literally put the last staple in the floor, packed up the stapler and drove it back to Menards in the nick of time.  But the floors are done and we don't have to rent it again!

In other news...

...I grouted the backsplash tile, which continues to look amazing. : )

...we put in new pendant lights.  These are a little more substantial than the previous pendants and we like them.

...we finished sloping, tiling and grouting the shower floor.  That project is inches away from being finished.

...my dad almost completed the window seat.  Another project that is inches from finished. 

Pete also installed the closet system in the master closet, but I forgot to take a picture. : ( 

Hopefully the stairs and railing will be finished this week.  When that is done, we can get carpet laid upstairs and (hopefully) move in!!

Craft Time

If you've ever spent more than 10 minutes with me, you know that I like crafty things.  This house is giving me an aopportunity to try a whole new array of crafty projects, many of which will involve sewing.  First up, a french memo board! 

I turned this...

...into this!

It was actually quite fun and easy.  I'll begin taking orders soon... : )

Best. Week. Ever.

We had a great week at the house this past week, which is a huge blessing since we've been bumming about the slow pace lately.  The trim upstairs is all installed (although not filled and painted), so other than carpeting and finishing touches, the upstairs is finished!  We've now moved on to the main floor and some major projects that we've been excited to tackle.

New Front Door!!

It's so nice to not have to kick the door to get it open.  Plus, as much as we loved the peep hole right next to a full glass pane, we're much happier with this simpler (peep hole-less) door style.  And it's a double door which will make moving in a breeze!!

Countertops!!

Aah!!  I've been waiting anxiously for their arrival, and they came on Friday!

As I expected, they look gorgeous.  The templaters and installers did such a good job...the fit is perfect!

Master Shower!

I finished grouting the walls and ceiling this week, and Pete has started pouring the mortar bed for the floor.  Hopefully that will be finished this week.  Then all we'll have to do is caulk, clean, and install the glass door!

Backsplash!!

On Saturday, we installed the backsplash, and I love it!!  I've been waiting for this for months.  This tile is what really pulls the kitchen together and makes it pop.  I love how it looks and it's not even grouted yet!

Built-Ins!

Since he finished the upstairs trim this week, my dad has begun working on the custom built-ins on the first floor.  The first picture is the start of the cabinet and bookshelves next to the fireplace.  The second is the window seat/storage bench in the window bump-out.

 The Pretty!!

I have patiently awaiting buying "pretty things" for the house.  I've picked up a few here and there, but now as we finish rooms, I'm beginning to fill them with more "pretty" things.  Above are the shelves we rigged to fit in the area above the master toilet.  We had to rig them because the space is 35.5 inches and standard length for a floating wall shelf is 36 inches.  My dad shaved some wood off the sides and we squeezed them in.  Let's just say, these shelves are now permanent fixtures.  Anyway, my vision is that these shelves be decorative and functional for storage, so I've started collecting various things to accomplish that vision.

Sadly, these towels are not going to be on those shelves...: (  I've had my eye on them at World Market for a while and have been patiently waiting for a coupon.  I bought them this week (with my newly delivered coupon), but the color is just a little off.  My theory on matching color is that the colors have to be a perfect match or a complete contrast.  Otherwise, it looks like I got close, but not close enough.  These towels were close, but not close enough.  Sad day.

The poor little light was another bummer this week.  After the countertops went in, I was all excited to get the pendants hung over the bar area.  I thought these little buggers were super cute and a bargain at only $8 a piece.  Well, you get what you pay for.  These sad little buddies did not match the quality of the countertops, cabinets and backsplash.  The cord was all crinkly and the shade was smushed.  They had to go.  I bought new ones that were way more expensive, but when I got them home, they didn't look anything like the store display.  So, those went back, too.  We've since bought a third set of pendants....hopefully these will be perfect!