I'm ready to move my stuff in...

The house is really close to being finished. The builder actually told us we are ahead of schedule and should hopefully be finished by the last weekend in September. That is SO GREAT to hear. I have to restrain myself from 1. driving by it and stalking it every day and 2. literally moving my stuff in. The have painted the walls and are putting a lot of finishing touches in the house. The hardwood floors were put in this weekend and kitchen cabinets go in this week. It looks beautiful. I was nervous about the paint colors because I feel like you just never know what it is really going to look like. The 2 colors we picked out came out so nice. We are very happy! Here are some pictures of the progress over the past two weeks.

Upstairs bedroom, before doors, trim and walls were painted.

Our bedroom "sidewalk gray"

Staircase

Upstairs (front) bedroom

Another bedroom

Fireplace. Wall color is "bar harbor beige"

Front window in family room

We should be getting an update from the builder this week on a more specific closing date, so fingers crossed! Also, we picked out our tile. Of course we went over the budget they gave us. I think if I write him one more check I may scream. We picked out tile for the master bath, upstairs bath and laundry room. The half bath has hardwood...so with such small amounts of tile I'm not even sure how I managed to go over budget! It's almost over...thank GOD! I'll keep you posted during the next few weeks. ;)

T-minus 8 weeks!

Well, we are about 8 weeks (maybe less if we are lucky) from closing on the house. We are both so ready to settle in and unpack all of our boxes we have had in storage for the last year. I can't wait to hang all of my pictures and have a full set of plates in my cupboard! It is going to be like christmas!

Over the past couple of weeks we picked out our lights, paint colors, and did a little bit of shopping. :) The whole light process was a fiasco since we were both thinking we would not go too much over budget...that was a bust. Lights are expensive! Who knew??? I guess now we know, and we are not happy about it! I did splurge a little bit on my dining room light, so I guess I should not have been too shocked. The allowance we got from the builder included purchasing lights for the outside of the house, so it was easy to spend that and then some. Oh well, we got some good lights so we can't complain.

We also get to pick 2 paint colors for the house plus a trim color, so we finalized that yesterday. They have the dry wall and plaster up so they will be painting soon. I picked "sidewalk gray" for the bedrooms and bathrooms, and "bar harbor beige" for the rest of the house. The gray is very light and slate colored. The beige is not too dark, but deep enough to make white trim really stand out. I think it will look good. We even had to pick out the ceiling look, which is kind of silly. We could go with swirls or a textured look and we went with the textured look. I think its more popular than the swirl ceiling now...or thats what I've heard. I don't even think I care at this point!

Last but not least I got Matt to do a little shopping with me. Those that know him well know how hard it is to get him to buy a piece of floss, let alone furniture. It was tax free weekend here in MA so I bought one of those leaning shelves from Crate & Barrel that will go in our living room. I have been eyeing that baby for a while now. I also bought some new bath towels and bath rugs from Bed Bath and Beyond...oh and I got a new toy basket for Morgie and Feni LOL. Don't judge me!

Here are some pictures of the house with walls! I love being able to tell what room is what now. :) T-minus 8 weeks!!!!

Finished the outside! Still needs garage door.

Upstairs bedroom 1.

Upstairs bedroom 2.

Upstairs bedroom 3.

Pantry that I had added in the kitchen.

Matt in the garage.

Garage

Living room (I am standing in dining room).

Kitchen (looking out to back deck).

Hallway into our bedroom.

Master bedroom (1st floor).

Another view of kitchen.

I am THANKFUL for...

"If my world were to cave in tomorrow, I would look back on all the pleasures, excitements and worthwhilenesses I have been lucky enough to have had." - Audrey Hepburn


I have been feeling extra thankful and lucky lately. I find myself thinking more and more of what means the most to me, and try to fight off any feelings of entitlement and self-righteousness. I'm thankful for big things and stupid things. Here is my list.


I am thankful for:
My parents, my sister, my brother, and the rest of my family, Matt's side of the family (especially his parents and sisters), my Morgie and my Feni, sister Sheeb, Simba, living close to home, my job, the beach, my husband and my marriage, summer, Texas, being able to run whenever I want without limitations, working out, my amazing friends, my upbringing, my hair, my health and Matt's health, my teeth(!!), my Iphone, my clothes, my jewelry, my new house, chocolate, Facebook, email, T.V., country music, and i'm sure I could sit here and type a novel. The point is...i'm very thankful even if it is for small, silly things like an Iphone. I thought it should be brought into this blog since life is about much more than just my house right now. :)  

Looking more and more like a house!

Things have been happening fast over the past couple of weeks with the outside of the house. They finished the siding, stone and deck, which we are really excited about! We can't believe how much this is staring to look like our house...the one we have been picturing since the day we bought our dirt!

Here are some pictures of the outside as it has progressed over the last couple of weeks.

Here are some pictures of the deck. I can't wait to get a little patio set for it and hang out on it during the summer. Of course, by the time we move in it will be chilly, so we will have to wait until next summer to really enjoy it...go figure!!!

Siding the house. The whole siding process maybe too four days. It looked like really hard, tedious work, but I was surprised on how quickly they got it done.

Prepping for the stone.

Putting on the stone! I love it! We are the only ones in the neighborhood to pick this stone color and shape. We are both really happy with how it turned out.

Of course I had to get us to pose with the "sold" sign!

 

SOLD!!!

This weekend we finalized all of the electrical outlets and lights in the house. That was not so fun for us. By the end of it, I wanted to tell the builder to just add in plugs and lights where the hell he wanted! But we stuck it out. Stuff like that is less fun to me. We also picked out our appliances, which was in Boston...I mean really??? Boston? We were not thrilled about driving into the city, but we had fun picking out the fridge, stove, dishwasher etc. I love a stainless steel appliance! Next weekend we have to pick out tile for the bathrooms and actual light fixtures for the house. We did do a lot of recessed lighting, but the bedrooms and dining area will need fixtures. We walked briefly into the lighting store on Saturday, looked at hanging lights for about 2 minutes and then walked out. I think we were beat down from appliance shopping, so we threw in the towel on lights for this weekend. Fail! Next weekend we will get it over with. I can't be the only one that thinks light stores are ridiculously annoying? I mean how many fixtures can you shove onto the ceiling before they all start blending together? I just need a catalog PLEASE.

We have 2 months to go! But who is counting. ;)

House Progress

Well, Matt and I continue to house stalk. We really can't wait until the house is ready! This week they finished the roof and put on the roof shingles. The windows and sliding doors were also put in, so the house is closed up. Our shower and fireplace is also in...it is so fun to see our house being put together. We were supposed to finalize our bathroom granite choices this weekend, but we did not have enough time. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we can check that off the list. Here are some pictures of the past weeks progress.

Stairs going up to second floor.

Front of house.

Back deck. Sliding door off of kitchen.

Sliding door in basement.

Master bath shower.

Roof shingles are on!

Front door.

Living room.

Creeping on the builders.

Front bedroom on second floor.

Master bedroom on first floor.

Some other items we have to tackle in the next month or two:

1. Tile for the bathrooms and laundry room.
2. Carpet for the bedrooms.
3. Hardwood for the rest of the house.
4. Lighting (recessed lights, fans, etc)

We still have quite a bit to do, but we have plenty of time. It seems like we are still on target to close on October 15th...so close but so far! I will post more pictures once the siding is on, which should be soon.