Tuesday was a big day!

Tuesday was a big day for our family. We started the day with an exicting message on our answering machine that M&S had their baby. It's a boy! I will let them share all the details with you since that is their big news to share.

We had two showings on our current house and did the final walk through on our new house. A friend of mine was able to watch N at the last minute while D and I did our walkthrough. (Thanks again T!) N loved playing the kids and toys at T's house. His favorite toy was a pink stroller. Ha. I can't convince D that the Easter bunny needs to bring one to our house. D, N, and I got to eat lunch together after the walk through.

Yesterday afternoon we set a closing date on our new house.

That evening while I was at the gym D called and asked if N and I wanted to join him, Baba, Grandpa and N's cousin for dinner. We went to a local Mom and Pap restaurant and Grandpa treated everyone to dinner. (Thanks again). N tried to work for his supper by vaccuuming the floors. He really enjoyed his cousin's company at the dinner table.

Then at 9pm last night we got a call with an offer on our current house.

It was a great day!! That was a lot of good news for one day. We'll keep you posted on all the details about Baby T, the selling of our current house and when we're going to move into our new house.

Life is good! I hope you're having a good day too.

Houth, houth

All of the kitchen, desk, bathroom and laundry room cabinets are in place now. The countertops and sinks have been installed. All of the hardware (lights, door knobs, cabinet pulls, etc) have been added. The crown molding and light rail molding have been added to the cabinets. The plumbing fixtures are all installed as well. D, N and I stopped by the house last night and this morning (while our house was being looked at by potential buyers) and talked to the painter for a little bit while he worked. We actually didn't talk as much as N watched. The painter uses a humongous roller to paint the walls and N is fascinated by the process and the sound the rollers make. The painter said he is really busy with work right now so he is going to work on our house all weekend in order to get everything done. He ended up working until 8pm last night! He and his crew are painting upstairs first and are working their way down. This morning they were painting the stairwell. I didn't get to see it because N and I were waiting in the car while D was inside, but D said he saw enough to know that he is very glad we don't have to paint the stairwell ourselves. I imagine it would a dangerous job to do. I would guess that they're going to have to get scaffolding out to paint in the foyer where the walls are as high as two stories. I'm sure the painters have seen it all and can figure out a way to get to the really high spots.

Below are pictures of the kitchen, island, lockers, and our desk that is located opposite the breakfast nook. I am so happy with the kitchen. This is strange, but the kitchen actually seems bigger now that all the cabinets and countertops are in. There was a time in the beginning of the building process that D and I considered removing the desk from the kitchen/breakfast nook. We were afraid it was going to eat up too much space. One day we took a large folding table and chairs to the new house to try to get an idea for the size of the space. We then gathered up scraps of lumber to simulate the size of the desk and kitchen cabinets. We really feared the room wasn't going to large enough to handle all the cabinets we ordered. The exercise of taking the table to the house must have convinced us everything was going to fit because we didn't change our order. We didn't remove the desk. I'm really glad we didn't. I think we'll get a lot of use out of it. Take a look at the pictures below. After workign through several rough drafts we agreed on a design. This is the final product. If you look at the lower cabinets you will notice a large opening on the right and left of the desk. A mini fridge will sit in the left hand opening. The right hand opening will serve as leg room for anyone sitting at the desk. We'll have to buy a stool for the desk. We had to mount the counterops at stool height to accomodate the height of the mini fridge. I foresee some serious baby proofing in this area. I can just see N getting into the fridge for "nacks" and into the cabinets to push the buttons on the computer....

N really enjoy our trips to the house. He sits in the back seat of the car (in his car seat of course) and says "House, house, house" all the way to the house. He has this cute little Thumper-like lisp when he says his s's. He also tends to develop a southern accent after saying house for the twentieth time. His new favorite thing about the "houth" is the stairs. Now that they are carpeted he loves to go "up, down, up, down..." except he gets up and down mixed up. Such a cutie!!

Grateful

My mom came over to watch N for a few hours this afternoon, so I went over to the new house to see what progress was being made and I was amazed. There were three or four crews working at once. I wasn't quite sure who everyone was and what all they were doing, but the house was bustling nonetheless. I was awed by what had been done in the twenty four hours since I was there last.

When I stop by the house with N I don't really get to look closely at the progress. I usually scan the house in my periferal vision while keeping most of my attention on N. It was nice to get a chance to stand still and pour over the details.

All of the carpet has been laid. Most of the lighting and faucets fixtures are installed. All of the cabinet hardware has been added. The trim work is done with the exception of one area that needs to be painted. We asked our builder to add trim to the dining room entrances and I'm really glad we did. D and I foresee kids running circles around and around our dining room entrances so we added the trim to protect the walls from damage. It also makes the room look much more finished. The trim guys were putting in the last few pieces for the handrail when I arrived. Adding the railing makes the foyer look so beautiful! Jose stained the horizontal pieces to match the wood floor in the dining room. The vertical pieces are white. I'm very satisfied with the way it turned out.

The light fixture that hangs above the foyer is awesome. When D and I were selecting our light fixtures we chose this line because we really liked the dining room and breakfast nook fixtures. We didn't even care for the fixture that hangs in the foyer at the time, but after a full day of making decision after decision we hesitantly settled on this light. I am so glad we did. It looks gorgeous in person. I was afraid I would look at that light every day and regret buying it, but I just love it!

I love everything in our house...most everything. There are a couple details that slipped by us.. Anyway.. Today was the day I felt like I really got to see our "creation" come to life. I felt like we were taking some risk in choosing oil rubbed bronze as our hardware finish because every company has their own version of ORB. I was afraid we'd get them in the house together and they wouldn't match, but they do. Going with the ORB bronze finish was an upgrade in price and we debated the value of doing it, but I'm glad we did it. I feel like choosing the finishes and fixtures we wanted in some way reflects our personalities and who we are. When I see the natural tones in the house it makes me feel like this is a comfortable, inviting place where I can relax and enjoy myself. I hope our visitors get that feeling, too. D and I built this house to suit our needs on a daily basis, but we also built it to share with others. We want to have friends and family over to celebrate birthdays and holidays. We're looking forward to hosting BBQ's and sleep overs (when the kids are age appropriate...no gender mixing... adults will be present...) I am excited to see our kids grow up in this house. I'm sure they will be taking Prom pictures in front of our fireplace before we know it!

Although it may seem we are focused on the finishes, fixtures and finicky details of the house right now, we haven't forgotten to be grateful for what we have.

Mudroom Lockers, Hardware Stores, Paint

Last weekend D, N and I were on a quest to find the perfect coat hooks for our mudroom lockers. Below is a picture of a locker unit we saw at Lowes (or Yowe's as N would say). We designed our locker unit along the same lines. The locker unit of our dreams that we designed had built in letter trays, adjustable height shelves and rolling shoe shelves, but our builder's cabinet maker quoted the project at$1,250.00, so we simplified quite a bit and decided we can add in some ClosetMaid wire baskets to the unit to save some money. If there's one thing we've learned in the process of building this house it is that we have expensive taste! We'd still like the lockers to look like they belong in the house. We don't want them to look like an afterthought (is that one word or two??), so we headed out to our local hardware stores (Nenards and Yowe's as N would say) for coat hooks and wire baskets that will make this locker unit function the best for us. N was such a trooper for our extended day of shopping. At one point he had it set in his little mind that he needed to walk in the stores rather than ride in the shopping cart. "Me walk, me walk." He'd say. So, D and I would take turns walking around with N to let him stretch his legs. He is quite the fearless little explorer. N discovered that the little drawers that hold all of the coat hooks open and spill out coat hooks onto the floor. This was fascinating to him. He was pretty good about it, though. He would spill a few out and put them back into a storage bin... not necessarily the correct bin, but he at least tried to. N then heard the beeping of the tractor they use inside Lowes to load and unload palates of merchandise. "Tractor beep, beep. We watch?" So, N and I watched the tractor move palates around inside the store while D shopped. I have to say that was quality entertainment from my point of view because we got to stand in one place for a few minutes.

While we were shopping the painters were hard at work at our house. The pictures below show the cabinets and floors covered in plastic to protect them from the paint. Jose, our painter, and his crew completed all of the trim, the doors, and the spindles for the stairs in a just a few days. I think it actually took them longer to tape and prep than it took them to paint. Jose stained our banister to match our hardwood last Sunday afternoon. We couldn't believe he was working on a Sunday. It turned out to be a good day for him to do it because there weren't any other trades there to get in his way. The painters will return to paint the walls in the next couple weeks..maybe even next week actually.

Every time we visit the house N has to walk around and check on all the fans. He says" Fan..round, round. On?" He's our little inspector. Good thing he's keepin his eye on things. :)