All you moms that have kids that are good sleepers; stop what you're doing and thank whoever it is you thank because having one kid that doesn't sleep is no fun. Two that don't sleep is a downright injustice. I've hired a sleep consultant. Maybe one day I'll tell you about it, but not today. Not right now because we've got some house decoratin' to talk about!
In precisely two weeks, fourteen short days, the movers will arrive to pack up our little house here in Reading and begin the trek down south to Nohrth Carolinah (It's not so easy to type with a Southern accent, doncha know.)
We'll take possession of the Beast on October 28th.
He's ditched the yellow exterior
and he's looking quite dapper.
If you're building a new house from scratch with a custom builder, it can take up to a year or more. Our house is built by a production builder and if you start from scratch with them, it can take about six months. We found our house when it was framed in, so it was about halfway done. They were roughly two weeks from putting up drywall and furnishing it with their own builder basic stuff. If we'd found it after they'd done that, we probably wouldn't have gotten the house because what's the fun of buying a new house if you can't pick out your own light fixtures?
So, we pulled the trigger and made a last minute trip down to Raleigh to pick out finishes.
Andrea's first time in first class.
She's so posh.
Drew's company covered plane tickets for the two of us for our homefinding trip but not Sofia. We bought plane tickets two days before we traveled and in real life that would've been a billion dollars, AND we were only going to be gone for a night, so we left her with friends. I knew she was in good hands and I got lots of text messages and pictures and she barely knew we were gone. Still, I felt naked, like a piece of me was missing. I'm going to be a complete mess when she goes to kindergarten and I'll probably need to be institutionalized when she goes to college. We're not even going to talk about when the baby of the family leaves me, but I digress.
It was a whirlwind trip. Usually, people get three days to pick out everything for their house, from kitchen faucets to bathroom sinks. We got three hours.
Thankfully, I have a black belt in Pinterest and I read design blogs every spare second I have, so three hours was enough for me.
We started in the kitchen, because that's the most important room to both of us and it would be the easiest. First off, I knew I wanted a white kitchen. I loved our white kitchen in Dallas, and if our painter (and Drew) hadn't vetoed me, I would've painted our kitchen in this house.
Hi there, Dallas kitchen!
I have a better picture of our Reading kitchen somewhere
but I can either keep typing or keep looking for it.
I'll keep typing.
You get the point; the Reading kitchen was good to us too.
Then there's the Beast.
Aren't you so impressed?!
I'm just kidding. They'd already ordered and picked the cabinets when we found the house, so I couldn't do anything about that, but thankfully they were white and I was able to pick out everything else.
This is where we're going with the kitchen.
The gray glass subway tile was a no-brainer and I picked that out immediately. I also knew I wanted to mix the countertops and I have a pretty serious love affair with soapstone. That's on the right and that's what'll the island will be made from. The quartz under the subway tile will be the other countertops and of course, white cabinets.
I am incredibly nervous and I'm crossing everything I have that it will turn out pretty because it's super hard to envision an entire kitchen with small samples but that's what we had to do.
I picked the cups instead of handles for the drawers and the cabinets will have knobs.
These I'm not so nervous about because
I LOVE cups.
First the cabinets went in.
Sorry for the picture quality but this is all I have
of this stage.
Then they installed my CUPS.
My beautiful soapstone island is underneath that paper
and I can't wait to see it.
But wait, you need to see what's in that doorway, just beyond the kitchen.
Pa-POW!
That, my friends, is the sexiest walk-in pantry you have ever laid your eyes on. Do you have ANY IDEA how excited I am about this pantry? No, you do not. Any idea you may have you'd have to multiply it by 15,682 to even approach how excited I am about this pantry. This pantry means I get to do things like this:
Oh good Lord the organization.
The containers.
I can't breathe.
I could stare at organized pantries for hours.
HOURS.
I love organized pantries and I'm about to get one!
I may need to take a moment.
The island will have a beautiful white farmhouse sink with a gorgeous faucet that I'm quite certain is the prettiest faucet I've ever laid eyes on, and I almost didn't get it. You see, while I was picking things out for the house, Drew was in another room on a conference call and I found it's dangerous to let me loose in a design center. There are just too many pretty things just laying around, begging me to put them in our house and there are no price tags anywhere!
So when I chose my faucet and then Drew came in and was all How much is this, how much is that, he nearly stroked out when he heard the price of the faucet. But it's in the island! It'll be seen! You can't just have any old faucet in the island, it has to be pretty, like jewelry! He grumbled and moaned, but I got my faucet. And of course I suck because I don't have a picture of it. But I promise to have pictures of everything once it's all done.
I DO have pictures of the lights though. The builder standard was to put three small lights over the island and I knew I wanted two big ones, so I quickly leafed through their catalog and found the ones I liked.
Bottom row, second one from the left.
They're awesome and I love them and I can't wait
to see them in real life.
So can you tell me what the HELL is wrong with this picture?!
The Jesus fish lights are the builder standard and it took me 2.5 seconds to shut it down. I wanted BIG lights over my island. Big, SHINY lights. I did NOT want three tiny Jesus fish lights.
So WHY. In the HELL. Did they put the wrong lights in my new house? Our realtor down in Raleigh took these pictures and emailed them to both of us, but Drew saw them first. He was standing in the living room looking at his phone and he said "Oh shit." I was like "What?" "Oh. SHIT." "WHAT?" *nothing* "What are you oh shitting about?" "They put in the wrong lights." "WHAT?!?!?!?!!!!!"
I was livid. It was nine o'clock at night. I wanted to get on the phone and bitch everybody out. Three lights where there are supposed to be two is a big deal. They're going to have to cut two more holes, patch the original three, the ceiling will look like shit and I was PISSED. I was ranting and raving and cursing and Drew was like "Calm the F down!" "I will NOT calm down! This is huge! This is terrible! The ceiling is going to look terrible! What the Fuck! How did they miss this! We have a list of everything that's supposed to go in the house! Did they not READ the LIST? Did they think they could just put in any old lights! Call somebody!!"
You guys, thank God for my husband. If it were me, I seriously would've woken somebody up screaming all kinds of obscenities. I would've insulted everyone and their dogs. I'd be in my car, driving to Raleigh that second. Thankfully, my husband's cooler head prevailed and he sent a pointed yet professional and polite email pointing out the huge error. I read it and I was like "You're too nice! Move over, I'M writing the email. They need to KNOW they screwed up my lights!!" Thankfully, he did not move over, I did not send the email and the builder is fixing everything before we close. I'm breathing into the metaphorical paper bag that the ceiling won't look like swiss cheese when it's all said and done.
Moving on to happier things...
This is the beautiful, awesome and BIG vanity in the master bath. You guys! No more board over the sink! That low counter is where I get to sit and put makeup on! I'll get to have a dedicated spot for all my pretties! I'll have drawers and cabinets for all my things! Drew and I can get ready at the same time and it's going to be amazing!
Again, I'm nervous about my choices
but the samples sure were pretty.
This is my inspiration picture for the master shower.
Cross your fingers for me that it ends up looking good.
Is this not the biggest most awesome master bath EVER?!
Our current master bath is the size of that shower.
And hell yeah that's a walk in closet!
With a window in it!
I'm actually more excited to bathe the girls in that giant tub than I am
to soak in it. I've never really been a bath person...
This is going to be such an incredible improvement over our current bath
situation; there is barely any space for me to properly reach them without banging
my knee on the toilet so the new bathroom is going to feel like heaven!
Obviously, Sofia is behind the star and you can't see anything,
but you can't be too careful when you're
putting baby bath pictures on the web...
As for the floors, we went with an engineered hardwood with a handscraped finish. Apparently, with engineered wood, if it gets damaged, you can just pop out the damaged plank? I don't know a lot about it, but dogs and real hardwoods don't mix so well. Plus I'm hoping that with the distressing, the inevitable scratches and scrapes from Maya's claws will be less noticeable. Again, I'm nervous and I'm crossing my fingers.
Because that's the hardest part about picking stuff out for a house. Small samples sometimes don't translate to large spaces but you don't know until it's in place and then there's not a lot you can do about it. I'm hoping that by going with a mostly neutral palette that it won't be too hard to mess up and things will go together. Additionally, a neutral background will allow me to bring in color with accessories, which are much easier to change and much less costly than stuff like repainting your whole house.
Speaking of paint, I had three choices when it came to wall color. That's the other thing about new construction - everything is an upgrade. You want running water? Upgrade. Indoor toilets? Upgrade. Every upgrade you make drives up the cost of the house so you can mess around and start with an affordable house and end up with a giant nasty mortgage because of your fancy kitchen faucet. I mean...
So, I could have chosen a different paint color but that would have been another upgrade and paint isn't a big deal. We can do that ourselves later if we so choose. Thankfully, there was one good one in my three choices and Repose Gray is a nice neutral that won't shout at you from all corners of the house. Also, I'm kind of digging what this blogger has going on in her house. I'd cut down the number of patterns in one space, but something about her living room speaks to me.
Plus, we're dog twins so that's something, right?
How sweet is this bedroom?
Incidentally, tissue paper poms are super hard to make.
I tried to make some for the first time for Andrea's baptism
and I never got past the first one.
So that's where we are with the new house! Obviously, there's a ton more to talk about: I haven't gotten into the plans for the living room, or where the kids' playroom will be, and I'm going to get a crafting and sewing space and I'm beyond thrilled about that! I have a Pinterest board for the new house, so if you'd like to take a peek I'd sure be obliged. *I'm practicing my Southern speech. Don't want to stick out down there, you know.*
There's still a ton to do to get ready to move out and the time is ticking away. There are holes to patch, walls to paint, clothes to pack, calls to make but I'm getting so excited for this new chapter. Already, Sofia is asking "Are we going to move to North Carolina TODAY?" I'm so glad she's excited too, but I won't lie, I'm wary of her reaction when it sinks in that her buddies aren't coming with her.
These have been her homies for the last two years and
it won't be easy to get on without them.
That's the story my friends! Thanks for hanging in there with me and hopefully this sleep consultant will work some magic and I can get my nights back and start writing more! Have an awesome day and I hope to be back soon!
