lots going on!

So much has been happening this week. I wish I could update my blog instantly!!!! Or have someone pack for me so I can spend my time updating this! Any takers?!  I took yesterday off to meet with the ADT guy and to work on packing the apartment up and so much was accomplished in 1 day! The kitchen cabinets are completed, the kitchen sink installed, lights that work,  the spare bedroom’s bathroom floor and wall tile is installed but it just needs to be grouted, the master bath floor tile is in and 100% complete, the shower pan tile in the master and basement bathrooms are in and they’re working on the wall tile tomorrow!!! Except for the master, that’s on backorder.. naturally. I'm not ready to show the kitchen yet, I kind of want to wait for the countertop to be done and do a BIG REVEAL! So let's take a look at the tile, shall we?!

ADT! SAFETY FIRST!

spare bedroom fan

basement hallway- LIGHTS!!!!

spare bathroom upstairs

master bathroom!

 The coolest thing about the master bath tile is what you can’t see- it’s heated! Or will be heated when you turn it on. I’m super pumped about it because nobody loves walking on cold tile in the morning!

basement shower pan

Oh, they also started working on the cornice. The what-ice?! The cornice. That’s the big fancy schmancy piece of molding on the top of the outside of the house. Like this:



see the top? (not my house.)



my house

So you see, lots of things going on! This is what I’ve been told, the tile will be done by the middle of next week once they get the rest of the tile in. The bathroom vanities, toilets, shower doors, granite countertops, plumbing stuff will go in next week! The hardwoods and the appliance after that! We were asked about towel bars for the bathroom, that made it feel like it was almost done. Right? That’s a finishing touch. Right?!

total time suck

I guess I haven’t come out and said it yet- the house isn’t done (as if you couldn’t tell from the pictures) but what is done is our lease at the apartment. How about them apples?! RC’s parents were kind enough to open their doors to the two of us and the four legged guy. We’re soo thankful, I just don’t think I would make it on the streets. We don’t have a definite completion date but we’re thinking the house will be done mid-April so it will only end up being about 2 weeks at their house, with us hopefully moving into the house the 2^nd weekend in April. Again, all hypothetical and wishful thinking.

Since we can’t move in until mid-April, we needed a place to store all of our stuff for the two weeks- insert Canton Storage here. We spent the entire weekend packing boxes and moving stuff to the storage unit. The good news was it was raining so we didn’t miss much, the bad news is it was raining.

I used to like moving, it gave me a chance to clean everything and purge the things I didn’t need anymore. Now I just own a lot more things and it takes a lot more time to clean and purge. Time that I don’t necessarily have. We spent the entire weekend packing, organizing and moving things to storage. It’s really sad looking at all of your stuff in boxes in a metal room.

There was somebuddy that hated moving more than I did- the monkey. Tucker was a ball or nerves all weekend and I can’t blame him. He does not do well if it’s outside of his comfortable routine, he either hid under the table or was attached my leg all weekend. Poor guy!

i bet you can't even see him...

worried eyes

Excuse my French but moving sucks. I’ve moved 7 times in the last 9 years. I moved into my freshman dorm in 2003, out at the end of the year and into the sorority house, then our at the end of my sophomore year and into an apartment and then out of the apartment and back into the sorority house senior year. Then moved home to NY and 5 months later moved to Baltimore with my 2 girlfriends and then just under 2 years later, I moved in with RC and here I am.. moving yet again only to move everything again in 2 weeks. WHO'S HAVING FUN?!!?!??!?!!??!

I can’t believe that’s all that is in there. That is two days’ worth of work! And really, where did we get all of this stuff?!!? We have a 1 bedroom apartment! I swear, when and if we even move out of this house I’m hiring people.
Quick check,
.       Drywall

2.       Decks

3.       Paint

4.       Trim work- started

5.       Lights installed

6.       Flooring in bathrooms- this week

7.       Flooring on first/second floor

8.       Basement flooring- still needs grout

9.       Bedroom doors hung

10.   Kitchen cabinets- kind of

11.   Bathroom cabinets

12.   Granite Countertop in kitchen

13.   Plumbing fixtures installed- toilet, sinks, shower heads

14.   Closet shelving/bathroom mirrors hung

15.   Security system installed- Wednesday

16.   Appliances installed

faux real

Friday night we went by the house to have our first dinner on our rooftop deck! The weather was perfect so we took some pizza and beer over to hang out outside and take a little break from reality.

mich ultra. beer of champions

his ranch, not mine.

Progress on the house looks like this:

super dirty

vom

Our basement tile was installed!! We went will tile in the entire basement, it’s not warm and cozy but we’re trying to be smart about any potential floods, leaks in the basement down the road. Tile is a whole lot easier to clean than carpet when wet. The tile we decided on is a wood grain-look tile. So from far away it looks like wood but it’s actually ceramic. Totally fake. Here is a close up..

see it's fake wood..but real tile

Bathroom tiles should be installed tomorrow. This is a picture of what’s going in the front bedroom bathroom:

I don’t have a picture of the tile for the other bathrooms because it’s not in yet. That will come shortly!!!!

not dreamin' any more

 merry christmas! It’s basically a grown-up home owner’s form of Christmas for me today. Our cabinets were put in!!!!!!!!! Last night we stopped by the house and saw this:

SANTA?!?!

all the presents wrapped and placed in the living room. I was so anxious, excited, and nervous. I had 1 million things running through my head. Were they what I was picturing all of this time? Was the color correct? Did I get the right cabinet doors? Should I have splurged and gotten the full overlay cabinets? Did I leave my straightener on? What if I hate the cabinets? All of those things! When we walked in this evening I was so happy with what i saw....

get ready...

it’s not the full picture since ya know, no doors are on the front but I love it. The cabinets are so pretty and the color is perfect. Not too vintage-y but vintage-y enough. Not stark white but white. Here is a close up:

It’s hard to tell exactly what color they are in these pictures but they’re pretty. Trust. Me. My only concern is that it's extremely close to the wall color so we're definitely going to need a back splash. Some more:

X thing in the middle is a wine rack.. naturally

There is going to be an island, you can see the cabinets seemingly sitting in the middle of nowhere on the left. Above is not the exact placement but they'll be around there.

I am soo happy with them. I hope the rest of the kitchen- countertops, lights, appliances all come together nicely too. I love everything separately; I’m just hoping I love them together too. 

Next up, tile! After finding out one of the tiles we picked out were on back order for 3 weeks RC and I had to venture out again last night to pick up new tile. It wasn’t that bad other than the fact we had to go to 3 different stores to get it all.  I can’t wait to show you and hear what you think!

shut the front door

Seriously. Shut the front door.. look how pretty it is!!!!

where are your ears?! (door still needs a 2nd coat)

It’s RED!! (obviously) We thought since we got rid of the red awning we should put a red door up! Plus.. it looks nice against the brick. They also painted all around the windows, we chose a beige to match the grout/mortar/stuff between the bricks. What do you think?!

 RC has always stood by the fact that he hates the color red (little does he know that I wore a red dress the night we met) so when he agreed to the red door I was SHOCKED. I think he secretly loves the color red, maybe he'll even paint the man cave red?! 

in awe of red

Who ever said the heart or the family makes a home was a liar. I think doors make a home. Something about having doors on the bedrooms made it feel almost complete.



basement, standing in the man cave looking to the front/bedroom



laundry room door



man cave extra closet

Sure, we don’t have floors yet but we have molding..

And some painted walls..

guest bedroom upstairs, grey walls

grey walls again

kitchen, tan walls

We chose two different neutral colors to start with, Benjamin Moore (BM) Manchester Tan for the basement and first floor and BM Rivere Pewter (a grey) for the 2^nd floor. This way we aren’t married to any bold color and stuck to decorating around it. It still needs a second coat so it will darken up a little, this is just the general direction. I know it’s kind of hard to see but trust me, some pics are tan and some are grey.

In other news, Tucker finally conquered the stairs.. with some help, errr pushing, from RC.

Hopefully the molding and paint will be done by the end of the week and then I can cross of TWO things from the dreaded list. We’re still waiting on an updated schedule from our contractors once I have that I will be sure to share our future move in date! It’s definitely not going to be April 1^st but hopefully it will be shortly after!!!

decisions, decisions, DECISIONS

There is nothing like a little sunshine and warm weather to put a smile on your face a hop in your step!

a monkey cameo..

I hope you all had a productive, wonderful, relaxing weekend! Ours was productive and wonderful; we’ll save the relaxing for when we move into the house! Saturday was spent like most Saturdays in our recent past- shopping and doing house stuff. (note: we quickly learned that hangovers and to-do lists go together like water and oil) This Saturday was different because we actually had to walk out with decisions being made instead of “just getting ideas”. We started early and met, Joe, at the tile distributor. We’ve tried to tile shop before and have only successfully bought bathroom floor tiles on our own (errr, with the help of my parents. Still a momma’s girl at 26. No.big.deal.) and quite frankly it’s completely overwhelming. I thought this was something I was going to LOVE but it was too much. Looking at 2 tiles on a wall and picturing them around your entire shower is hard but then you add in the pattern options- staggered, straight, angled, stacked and then add in  grout options- thick, thin, light, dark, matching and then to top it all off add in a budget (stupid B word) it’s a TON to think about and to consider. We spent 2 and a half hours at the tile store on Saturday morning and RC somehow took this picture of me:

sums up how i felt. i wonder if Botox is in the budget

Joe was so patient with us and you can tell he has done this before. It was so nice to shop with someone that could narrow your choices down for you and point you in the right direction.

We ended up picking out all of the tile and grout for all of the bathrooms. Once we got to the end we were so spent that we ended up spending extra money just to be done with shopping for tile. Here are some of the tile we choose.

After tile shopping we had a long laundry list of things we had to do. Buy our farm sink (whoop, whoop!!!), pick up a new bed frame (we bought a new mattress last week and of course the split box spring didn’t fit on the current frame) and pick out all exterior lights. We’ve decided to start buying the rest of the things we need for the house slowly so we’re not overwhelmed and counterproductive. So this weekend, outdoor lights and hallway scones were on the TDL (to do list).

Again, who knew there were sooo many stinking options for lights?! We started at Lowes and picked out all of the lights we wanted only to find out that 1 of the 4 we needed were in stock and the rest were available at 2 different Lowes in the Baltimore area and the 4th was on back order. We drove all over the greater Baltimore area to get the lights, visited 3 different Lowes and 2 different Home Depots. By the last stop, I was spent and exhausted and to be honest, I can’t even remember what I even agreed to for a front light. I bet I’ll be regretting that one in a few weeks. Ooh well. But, when we checked out of the 6th home improvement store of the day I realized I lost my keys and sunglasses. We searched the store and finally found them..

whoops. where i left them.. 15 minutes earlier.

not sure why we were near the bathroom vanities when lights were on our TDL but it just show you how sidetracked you can get in those stores! Let's just say RC was less than impressed with me. :) whoopsies. After that episode it was time to call it a day, RC fed me cheese and beer and all was right in the world.

I never thought I could hate shopping and spending money as much as I did on Saturday. It’s usually something I run to when I’m stressed or annoyed, I’m shocked and upset that it’s the thing I was running from! I have a hunch this feeling will pass though, what do you think?

Sunday, my parents came down to see the house. I was so excited to be able to show them in person everything that has been going on. My Dad hasn't seen it since December!!!! Like most kids, I think my parents are superheros and know everything about anything so hearing them give their 100% approval and hearing them say they loved it was the best feeling in the world. Sooo there was only 1 thing left to do, CHRISTEN THE DECK!

first of many red solo cups!

Up this week- cabinets will be delivered TOMORROW. They still have to prime, paint and put the trim up and possibly put the floors down (?!) before the cabinets go in.. but still, I’m PUMPED to see them. I hope they look as pretty as they do in my mind and I hope they’re worth having a 32” tv in our kitchen (what!?, I had to compromise!)

xoxo
E