And We're Back!

Yikes. Has it really been 7 months since we've moved? A quick peek at my last post tells me it's true. And by, "I'll be back in a week!" I meant, "See ya in 2012!".

I mean, it's not like we haven't been busy....moving....renovating...holiday-ing. But let's be honest. Sometimes, I'm just lazy. Sometimes, when I'm laying in bed at night, I think of a REALLY GREAT BLOG POST that will surely jump start my creativity and get me back on track. But then I fall asleep and forget what I wanted to say and wake up the next morning and don't feel like blogging anymore.

And so it goes.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, returning to this blog is one of my resolutions for 2012 (along with running in a triathlon - I'll pause while you laugh). I'm anxious to share the progress we've made on the house, and the projects we still have to tackle. It's been a fun/crazy/awesome/stressful process. When people ask how we like the new house, I say, "We LOVE it". Sometimes, that's followed by, "But I wish our basement would quit flooding", or "I'm anxious to finish (insert any number of unfinished projects here)". But MOST of the time, we love it. Let's face it - old or new, houses can be a challenge. But I wake up every morning, happy to be here. I try not to take for granted the endless hours of work that Husband, Bill (my FIL) and our parents put in. Without their vision and knowledge (not to mention blood, sweat and tears -- ok, ok, MY tears), we never would have made an offer. I try to remember that when I'm bugging Husband about when we can get the rest of our kitchen cabinets. Turns out I'm OCD and impatient. He is SO lucky.

I still need to sort through millions of pictures from the last few months, but SOON (I mean it, this time!!), I'll post some before/after shots. Or more accurately, before/almost shots.

In the meantime, here's a little peek of what Christmas looked like at our FIRST HOUSE (two months late, but who's counting??).

Enjoy!

Sidenote: Not only was this our first Christmas in the new house, but also our first real tree! We had an artificial tree in the condo, which worked perfectly for our space. Enter new house with 10-foot ceilings. Time for something a little bigger. If Husband thought I was neurotic before, he was in for a surprise. I may or may not have undecorated this tree (twice) because I couldn't get the lights perfectly spaced (bless those little pre-lit trees!!). This was after we took the first tree back because it looked crooked on top of our car (to be fair, we had only just left Costco and gone across the street to Home Depot when I decided we needed another one, so I'm not THAT crazy). While decorating, Husband very sweetly said to me, "Now I'm going to tell you something, and I don't want you to get your feelings hurt"...(don't you love that intro?)..."but I think your neuroses is such that you are not suited to a real tree."

...................

I couldn't even argue.

In Limbo

Well. It's been a week. I won't give you all the details, but it involves sleeping on a mattress on the floor in the middle of boxes with no AC or hot water at the new house, while spending each night still moving things out of the condo. I allowed myself one small breakdown (ok, maybe two) on Wednesday, and then it was back to business.

The upside is that in the grand scheme of things, these are minor inconveniences. Sure, cold showers and stuffy rooms are annoying. But as Husband wisely pointed out, there are people who live without air conditioning and hot water every day. And houses, for that matter. Sometimes, all we I need is a little perspective and thankfulness.

I'll be back this weekend with some more updates and a better attitude. :)

In the meantime, I leave you with these beauties...

What I hope our bedroom will look like, once the mattress is off the floor!
Source: Pinterest (original source unknown)

It's Moving Day....

Let Operation Breakdown commence! :)

Kitchen Update: The Perfect Grey {Paint}

While designing the kitchen has been fun, it hasn't been without it's hiccups. There have been days when you couldn't pay me enough money step foot in Home Depot and the seemingly innocent question of "Hey, when are you going to pick a paint color for the kitchen?" was enough to send me into a downward spiral.

Deciding that I want a grey kitchen should have been be easy enough, right? WRONG. There are only hundreds (thousands?) of shades to choose from, and don't think for one second that what ends up on the wall is going to match what's on the paint chip. In short, paint stresses me out.

Over the course of a month, I purchased 12 different samples of grey paint and put them on the wall....convinced each time that THIS was the one.

I hated all of them.

One looked purple, one looked blue, one was too light, one was too dark, is that one even grey at all??? And on it went...



Does that stress out anyone else?

 I was convinced that the colors looked "off" because they were being painted on an yellowish-ivory wall, as opposed to a crisp white (although both Husband and a gentleman at Benjamin Moore assured me that was not the case).

Finally, Husband very sweetly said, "If you don't pick a paint color TODAY, I am picking it for you."

Well, when you say it like that.... :)

So off we went to Sherwin-Williams, picked two more colors and hoped for the best.

I'm actually quite surprised that Husband didn't immediately break out the champagne when I sent him this text:

Here's the swatch...

Sherwin Williams - Mineral Deposit

And here's what it looked like going on the wall (please excuse cruddy iPhone pic, it was all I had!)...

I LOVE it. In certain lighting, there are hints of blue - which is pretty much perfect, because our granite slab (unexpectedly) has some blues and greys running through it.

At the end of the day, it was definitely worth the stress (and countless quarts of paint) to find the "perfect" grey.

But I hope I never have to pick paint colors again. :)

Homemade Spice Jars

Can't wait to make these....




Adorable spice jars from Burgon and Ball

 
...to put here...



Yay for built-in spice racks!



Our Weekend...

....looked like this:



Fun with hammers

Making me nervous



What a difference!



Ok, to be fair - this isn't actually what MY weekend looked like. It's what Husband's weekend looked like. Our amazing dads were both in town to help knock out the porch (the previous owners had walled it in to make a sunroom, and we wanted to return it to its original state). I stayed at the condo with my mom, who helped me pack while we drank wine and watched Harry Potter weekend on ABC Family (packing is way less awful more fun with wine and Harry).

We are thrilled with how the porch looks so far. It was really important to us that, while renovating and updating, we kept the original structure and character of the house in tact. So we decided not to do anything crazy on the inside (like knocking out walls or building new ones), but we definitely wanted to showcase this great space. We are looking forward to many dinners out here! When it cools down, of course.

New view of the front

In other news, our granite is being installed in the kitchen tomorrow (insert happy dance here!!). I have been looking forward to this for months...ever since I exhausted the poor folks at ASA Granite in Trussville when I went to pick out my slab and made them rearrange my template a million times until I was happy with the exact layout of parts to be cut.

Yes, I am crazy. It's ok. I embrace it.

Meanwhile, here is the faucet we picked!

From Home Depot. I know, right?

It's exactly what I was looking for...I love the vintage look of the bridge style. Plus, it was WAY less expensive than similar styles from other places. And it got great reviews on Home Depot's website. So, I feel pretty good about it.

Can't wait to see how it all looks. I'll post pics soon!

Kitchen Update: The Sink

One of the first (and ultimately, easiest) decisions that we made regarding the kitchen was the sink. Early on in the "daydreaming and designing" process, I fell in love with farmhouse/apron-front sinks. The style seemed like the pefect fit for the overall look we wanted to achieve in the kitchen- classic and traditional, with modern convenience.

My inspiration:

*photo from www.bhg.com

*photo from www.myhomeideas.com

*photo from www.bhg.com

I love both white fireclay and stainless, but stainless ended up being more budget-friendly, so you can guess what we went with.

The only other detail to decide on was a single-bowl vs. a double-bowl. Most of the farmhouse sinks I had seen were single-bowl, but I was torn. I've never used our current double-sink as it is intended to be (wash in one side, dry in the other), so I was pretty sure I wouldn't mind the single (more room to pile dishes!). But what about a future buyer - would they prefer a double-bowl? Would that affect our re-sell? Why am I fretting so much over a SINK?

Finally, my mother-in-law gave me some great advice - "get a sink big enough to wash a dog and a baby in".

Mission accomplished. I was out of town when the sink arrived, so I texted Husband to see how it looked. His response: "HUGE".

Forget the dog or baby, I could take a bath in it.

Sink Stats:

• Vigo Stainless 33" Single-bowl (http://www.overstock.com/)
• Undermount
• 16-gauge

We have yet to order a faucet, but I'm going with a brushed nickel, bridge style facuet - similar to this:

*photo from www.housebeautiful.com

I'll let you know when I find one!