TODAY!!!!

We woke up at 5:45 and dear husband is on his way to CT to meet the movers at my parents' house (where our boxes have been in storage) and I'm suppose to be packing up the apartment a bit and running errands etc. I'm sure builders are already at our house-- there are many things left to be done but the bottom line is we and our kitty cats will be sleeping there tonight.

Yesterday was Very exciting... so much so I snuck out of the office around 2pm bc I just couldn't take it any more! We took a TON of photos, but then left the camera at the house :( so I don't have anything to post.

I am going to be in big trouble :) if I don't get crackin with my jobs, but I just wanted to leave a quick post to all my friends who have been checking in here to say THANK YOU for all your well wishes and support and encouragement and excitement and I will try to sneak some time in today to post some photos. We're (basically) HOME!

xoxoxooxoxoxoxox
julia

two more paintings

... and I purchased two more beautiful Janet Hill paintings. I'm thrilled.

Thursday

See the exterior lights that dear husband left on for me. Amazing to see lights when you drive up to the house!

Here's an up close:

Wednesday evening

They framed out our deck yesterday. Those large posts will be for a privacy screen of lattice work. We live on a small block where the houses are close together. This will shelter the deck just a bit. I hope/plan to grow clematis and climbing roses up the lattice work.

Oh WOW. Our washer/dryer. I'm excited that we went with the black which was dear husband's idea completely. We had gotten into a small tiff on our way there because I had written the directions down completely wrong and gotten us very lost... so when he said black, I didn't even think about it, I just agreed. Turns out- I love them!

Here's the vanity in the laundry powder room with the sconces on either side. This room is turning out really, really well. I love that it feels so formal. Did I mention all the lights- even in here are on dimmers? I joked to M. that I could do laundry in a ball gown ;)

Our bathroom takes my breath away. They hung the mirror and it's pretty amazing.

They are putting a niche in our masterbath shower for shampoos and things:

...and here's the bench seat in our shower:

Whew. The hall bath looks stunning. They grouted the tile in the bath/shower and put in some of the fixtures:

I never dreamed it would look this amazing.

We have a working refrigerator!!!!

... and here she is: the blue star. I think we should actually give her a name. Dear husband is completely ga-ga over this babe. I'm pretty smitten myself actually.

We move in the day after tomorrow. It's been a whirlwind week-- lots of little details coming through and falling through. I think we're doing a good job of staying above the fray.... even if we're sleeping on the floor (our mattress delivery is one question mark) and showering at our neighbors (though this should be fine)... we're just so happy to be getting home.

More photos from yesterday

They started cleaning up our yard a bit. The trailer is completely gone so you can see the front of the house for the first time in months. The dumpster's time is limited too....

Our masterbath floor was grouted. It gives me goosebumps to look at... it's so pretty... I really cannot believe it's ours. I love the base detail.

This is hard to see, but they laid the tile for the back mudroom (well, hallway) and laundry/powder room. We had wanted to do slate, but as this is going to be a high traffic area and also to save a bit, we went with a porcelain look alike. It looks great.

... and we ordered our knobs and pulls yesterday after deciding on the larger glass knob (here) and counting up the number needed about a million times. We'll do these knobs on all the upper cabs (probably in the placement shown, rather than higher) and also on the top bottom drawers which are smaller.

On the larger bottom drawers, we'll put this 6" pull. This pull will also be on the garbage and panneled dishwasher.

A couple more photos of the kitchen which I'm just over-the-moon about:

I love love love the panel on the side of the island. It finishes it off so well.

I think, once we're home, will just sit down in each room for a couple of hours with our mouths agape in awe, pointing out details to one another. I'm so happy with the way the supports on the island turned out.

Look!!! under the cabinet lighting!!!!!

Here's the desk; you can see the drawer style.

Lastly, here is a (sad) photo of the landscaping plants that didn't make it.

But here are the ones that did that will be replanted. Any questionable plants of which there's a couple, we're going to throw in the ground and hope for the best....

four day countdown

It was a flurry of activity at the house today. I took off work to meet with the insurance adjuster and be there for the appliance delivery.. so I had the joy of witnessing it all first hand.

It was the first I had seen the floors in person. Dark walnut is gorgeous, perfect, just what we were hoping.They have a bunch of mats down to protect the floors now.

The appliances arrived early afternoon. They backed the truck right up to the front stoop to unload the appliances.

Meanwhile they were breaking stuff up to fit more boxes/plywood etc in the dumpster. I'm laughing looking at this photo bc it looks like Anthony is flexing his muscles standing on the dumpster.
Alan teased me, you ordered the blue refrigerator? (its stainless under that wrap!)
Can you see her peaking out from behind the island? That's the blue star! Dear husband is going to be soooo excited. Also look at all the bottom cabinet drawers. It looks so pretty in person, I was about speechless.

The electricians were busy. Our ceiling fans are installed as is all the recessed kitchen lighting. Yes, that's our powder room vanity in the middle of our living room... and it looks amazing!

Here's the ceiling fan in the master bedroom. I Love how the dark floors brought out a little more grey in all the paint colors.

Here's the blue room. I think once we add some furniture and an area rug this will look really soothing and nice. I was a bit worried that the grey blue was too blue and too bright.

Look how grey it looks here though! Pretty, no?

I have loads more photos from the day to post, but have to run to meet dear husband who has not yet been to the house! We're four days from move in... amazing.

my babies

It's late but my head is spinning with what lies ahead this next week... gearing up to move and all. I realize I haven't mentioned two of the other most important guys that have gotten me through this past year and a half-- our kitty cats, caelyn and zin. This photo is from our funny current apartment, but here's how they spend the better part of every day- wrapped up in one another. When we're home, though, it seems all that love and affection comes our way. How many completely sleepless nights would I have endured if it weren't for Zin cuddling up and purring me to sleep...? Thank god we all got out of the house okay... and thank goodness we'll all be back home soon....

A painting!

I have been after one of Janet Hill's beautiful paintings for months now. She posts about one a day and within minutes, I kid you not, some lucky soul snatches it up. I'm on there every afternoon just waiting to pounce, but someone always beats me. Until now! Yesterday was my day; this beauty is soon to be ours.

The first thing I noticed about this painting was actually the pretty turned leg of the table, but my eye was immediately drawn up by the line of the table into this lovely space.

It's entitled 'Mimosas" which is fun. Given that one week from today I'll be waking up in my own house, I feel like we should be toasting! I love that this painting combines some of my favorite "janet hill" elements. A gorgeous interior space is a given, but I like how this one combines both a living area (the camel back sofa) with a dining area. I love that there is a bunch of flowers and some of the lovely bluewhite china that has appeared in some of her other paintings. Lastly, I like that there is a scene ready to be played out... four glasses of bubbly, some pastries, a bowl of fruit.... Soon the party will begin and this scene will change- but for this moment it is still, frozen in time, a small captured moment of perfection.

I (really) hope I have a couple more of her paintings to post about soon. We're under the gun for our personal property deadline and have a few pieces of artwork we need to replace.... and I long to have a mini collection of Janet Hill's work.

exterior lights

Though we can wait on a number of our interior light fixtures (they'll just put bare bulbs in to get us started) I knew we were coming up on the deadline to purchase our exterior lights. Leave it me-- I made a spreadsheet with twenty-some-odd options with their measurements and pricing and gave it to dear husband to peruse. We narrowed it down to four and called the lighting store to see if they had them in stock for us to see.

We wanted just a classic black lantern look, approximately 12". But, like everything, it is amazing how many options there are: finials on top, clear glass vs bubbled glass versus crackled glass, rounded vs square. Anyway this is what we found we liked the best in person. Looking at the photos, it wasn't my favorite, actually, but in "real life" it was the clear pick. We got one for either side of the front door and one for over the garage.

patience

The floors are being stained this week so we're not allowed in the house. As might be expected, I'm having a hard time with this. Last Friday I went around and took a ton of photos to keep me occupied and Saturday we peeked in the sliding door to see how the first coat looked.

It's starting to feel like we're in the home stretch. We're slated to move in on February 28th, Saturday and we're literally counting the days. Once the floors are done, next week there will be a flurry of activity to get things set for our temporary C of O.

landscape

Today we met with the landscaper to talk about a plan. With the dumpsters moving out in a couple weeks (whoa) and the driveway scheduled to be repaved in the next two months... there's a crucial window of time to regrade the property and figure out what plantings we're able to do. To be honest the meeting today was a little bittersweet because with every step forward it's also a little bit of letting go. We had attempted to transplant alot of our old shrubs before demolition... but very few survived. I am sad about this because while we inherited the landscaping and some of it wasn't to my taste... it was sure alot easier than starting totally anew.

Aside from not being able to play the piano or bake anything in the past year and a half, one of the things I've missed the most about "home" has been not being able to "dig in the dirt". I really loved tending to the plants around our home, adding new ones.. even mowing the lawn.

Two of my favorites were our hydrangea plants and these gorgeous peonies. The summer after the fire, the plants didn't know any better and presented this beautiful show of blooms despite being surrounded by a terrible dilapidated house. One afternoon- with the house looking (and smelling) so awful and burnt, I cut a bunch of the peonies and delivered bouquets to our neighbors to thank them for their kindness and understanding. I really hope these peonies made it....

The summer before the fire we had just planted a couple of lilac shoots:

..and started a shade garden on the side of the house:
We had an extensive container garden on our back deck. We grew everything from seed-- lots of herbs and flowers and vegetables:


I hope that the landscaper numbers come back okay. I think our priorities are to have the property regraded, get the lawn back in presentable shape and get some foundation plants that then I can plant around with perennials. Our property isn't large... but starting from a construction site with lots of mud and machinery and dumpsters... it's hard to picture any different right now. All that said, these old photos remind me how wonderful it is to watch things grow, to nurture plants and enjoy their beauty. I'm filled with optimism and hope that we'll again be able to enjoy this aspect of homeownership.

kitchen knobs and pulls

Here are the glass knobs we have our eye on from Restoration hardware for the kitchen cabinets:

Here dear husband models them:
What to do on the drawers is more tricky. They make glass pulls:
but we're not so wild about them and we would need something larger/stronger for the dishwasher pull...

So we were thinking maybe pulls like this from RH.

jen4265 from the gardenweb forum has these same knobs and pulls in her kitchen only it looks like in a polished nickel finish.

Another option is to use two of the knobs on some of the drawers:

(edlakin's kitchen on gardenweb)

(...another unknown gardenweb poster's kitchen)

Cup pulls are another (popular) option and one dear husband likes. What I don't like about cup pulls is: 1. they are big. the glass knobs on the top have such a small profile that I think this would look bottom heavy. 2. you always have to turn your wrist to open a drawer. 3. i feel like they'd get dirty inside and would be hard to clean. To me, they are also not quite as classic somehow.. definitely not as formal.

(rmkitchen from gardenweb)

So since Dear husband loves the glass knobs and the orb pulls, I think that's where we'll end up. Once we're allowed back in the house (they are doing the floor stain this week, so we can't go inside!) we'll have to take a real look at the cabinet/drawers and see what we'd like where.... I do think it would be nice to do the two-knob option on some of the smaller drawers. We'll see!