We're in!

We closed on Nov. 23, and have been moving in over the last week. We still have a lot more to move over, but the big stuff is in. Here's a picture of the fall wreath on the front door. Soon the Christmas wreath will go up! The door color is Sherwin Williams Naval.

Countertops

The countertops were installed last week, and I love them! I can't wait to get in here and start using this kitchen!

 

Next I've got to decide on a backsplash tile. Here are a few alternatives I've found so far.

I really love that little one - American Olean Clear Skies. It has cobalt blue and white or clear. I think it would be a perfect transition between the white counters and the blue cabinets, but each little brick is very small. We'll see. Here's a close-up.

We worked for a few days cutting, painting and installing these shelves in the pantry. What a lot of time and expense for something that seems like it should be so simple.

A little more progress on the house

They've just about got the kitchen all installed. Cabinets are in. Appliances are here, but not in yet. Countertops are coming the day after tomorrow. Here is a picture of the progress so far.

 

The cabinet color is Sherwin Williams Commodore. My family thinks it's a little overboard on the blue, but I like it. The countertops should help break it up, and maybe someday a backsplash. I have some gift money I'm saving up for that. We had to wait 6 weeks for them to paint stock cabinets - I think it was worth the wait!

The yard was seeded yesterday. Here's the latest picture of the outside.

The New House

Since about March we've been in the process of building a new house. We bought our first house in North Carolina in 1988. We weren't too thrilled with it, but it was in a good location, and at a price we could afford. We were in that starter home for 26 years! I've got 30 years' worth of house ideas swirling around in my head. Staying on budget has been tough.

We found a lot for sale just across the road from the school campus. Perfect location - right nextdoor to some friends whose kids are in school with ours. We decided to take out some trees that would have been right in front of the house, and that immediately set us back by a couple of months. They were large trees, and getting the logs hauled off apparently was a challenge.

Here's what the lot looked like in the spring.

They dug footers toward the end of June, and slowly it got going:

It got really rainy at about this stage. Every day those sub-floors would get a good dousing.

 Our builder and his workers are calling it "the house of blues". The siding is actually gray - bluish gray - but looks different in different lighting. The roof is blue - the same kind of shingles we put on our house in Asheville. The walls inside are all blue, except the girls' rooms. Only purple for them.

Here are a few pictures of the inside. They are not great - we usually go over late in the afternoon, or in the evening and it's kind of dark inside.

The bonus room over the garage. This will be my sewing and craft room.

Claire's room.

Looking from the kitchen into the dining room on the left, and the living room on the right. That door goes into the pantry. I can't wait! I've never had a pantry before.

There's the flooring all stacked up.

Tile is down in the girls' jack-and-jill bathroom. They will each have a sink adjoining their room, and a door into the shower/toilet area.

Tile in the laundry room.

Master bedroom - Sherwin Williams Naval.

Mia's room. Sherwin Williams Wisteria.

Steps were built yesterday.

Looking from the dining room into the living room. This color is Sherwin Williams Aleutian.

The flooring arrived yesterday afternoon, and they got this much put down. Next week should be big. The cabinets may be in mid-week!

My New Wreath

My sister made me a new wreath for fall. I can't wait to see it at the new house! Our door will be navy blue, so I think it will look nice.

Closing a door...

Today, we closed on selling our home of 26 years. It's a little bitter-sweet to be turning that page in our lives. There are a lot of memories associated with this place, most of which are good.

Getting that Christmas spirit!

I'm starting to get really excited about Christmas! My old job was really a drag during December, and that, along with only getting 2 days off, always managed to stifle any Christmas spirit I had. I think this year will be different. Being part time, having a longer break, and not being the "buck stops here" person any more helps. I've been browsing through Pinterest a lot, and found this beautiful wreath. Since I am florally challenged, I asked my talented sister to make me something like it. It turned out beautiful, plus smells all cinnamon-y. I already have it hung, in spite of my usual vow to never start decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving.

Inspiration:

My sister's creation:

My Little Pinterest-ish Project

I've been wanting some sort of house marker. Delivery people always have a hard time finding us, even though our number is on the house near the door - I guess it's just too small.

I looked online, and wow - nice address markers are quite expensive!

So while I was at Lowe's today, I picked up a few things to design my own.

 Landscaping stone - $2.25.

 Block & Stone adhesive - $4.97.

Aluminum numbers - $1.48 each.

The hardest part was squeezing the adhesive out, because I didn't want to go out to the buggy shed to get a caulk gun.

 I think it looks pretty nice!

House pictures

This has been one of the biggest challenges of our lives - this move, and trying to downsize into this house. We have come miles, but still have miles to go. We've bought shelves and cabinets, and made a zillion trips to Lowe's and Wal-Mart. We've gotten to the point where it's functional, just kind of cramped and inconvenient. Once it gets functional I guess our natural tendency is to slow down. There are still boxes to unpack, but nowhere to put the stuff that's in them, so there they sit. Pictures need to be hung, but nothing seems to look quite right.

We had furniture in both our sun room and living room before, and it's all in this living room, even though it doesn't go together. We were going to get rid of one set, but decided to keep it to have more sitting space when kids are over.

A bit cramped...

The piano fit perfectly into this corner. It's straight ahead when you walk in the front door. Note the stuff leaning against the wall that still needs a place.

I've got so much stuff on top of the cabinets, I'm surprised they don't fall off the walls! I still have another box of blue and white plates to unpack, and nowhere to put them. We got the rolling kitchen island as a way to get a few more drawers. It's not much help - they are a bit shallow, and don't open very far. *Sigh*

We gave away our old table and chairs. It had served us well for 30 years. Larry's sister and her husband built it for us as a gift for our first Christmas. Last week I finally got out to the furniture store and ordered a new set - we're using the patio table for the time being.

Claire's room is done, and she actually cleaned it yesterday! She loves having carpet, and I'm a little jealous of it. It's so much nicer to walk on than hardwood. But when you see how much dirt accumulates on the wood, you realize what's in your carpet.

Our bathroom. What can I say - it's small and doesn't have enough storage. We got the little shelf, which is in the way, and the medicine cabinet, which is nice, but doesn't hold enough. Ugh! I have a bigger vanity on my Christmas list - Ha!

They've been working on our back yard, and the side. They had to lay a drain pipe for the gutters, and now they are scraping the dirt back in around the patio wall. Past the treeline in the back yard is the academy ballfield, and then the elementary school where Mia goes.

The house may be cramped and inconvenient, but I am loving being so close to everything. Mia is thriving, walking to school, walking home, playing with friends around campus, and going to academy activities whenever she wants. Claire has become a little less social. I think she has built up in her mind that freshmen are low on the totem pole, and it makes her feel awkward. She swings back and forth on this pendulum of hating for us to be around to enjoying having us around if she forgets something, and being able to get off campus easily. I guess we'll all adjust eventually.  

Oh - Andy is loving it. We are in and out of the house all day, so he gets more attention and potty breaks, and he gets to go on lots of walks! Here's how he looks when I ask him if he wants to go for a walk.

 

My barn is here!

My little storage barn arrived yesterday, so now we can move out a lot of boxes, and hopefully get ourselves organized. We registered Claire last night, so she is all set with a very packed schedule for the semester, and has a job in the cafeteria. She starts this afternoon - yea! I think she is going to enjoy it, and her supervisor, Mrs. Watkins is a wonderful lady. Claire will even get to log in some hours this weekend. Every little bit helps toward her tuition. What a relief. My job is getting off to a slow start - there is definitely a lot of work to be done, but so far, no time to train me in.

Here is a picture of my barn. The neighbors have a bigger barn just on the other side of the fence from this one, and it's red with white trim. I hope this thing can stay as bug-free as possible!

Load #2

Well, we didn't have great luck with load #1. When we arrived, the house wasn't ready. We parked the truck and spent the night in a hotel, after finding friends who were willing to keep the dog for us. On Thursday we drove up into Indiana to pick up Mia from her week at her brother's house. We drove up and they drove down from Chicago and we met in the middle.

We drove back to Highland with high hopes of unpacking that truck, but alas, the house was still not ready. Some very gracious faculty who live 2 doors down invited us to spend the night, and didn't even fuss when our dog peed in their house. Only one worker had shown up the previous day, and he worked late into the night, but the house was still not ready the next day. We booked the truck through this Wednesday, and returned home to finish packing. UGH!

My back is hurting and one knee is about blown out. Claire's back hurts and Larry's shoulder. Hopefully we can get the 2nd truck loaded today and unload everything over there tomorrow. I'm going to unplug this computer now, and be off for a couple of days, until we can get set up over there.

Truck #1 is loaded!

They said the house will be ready tomorrow, so we have our first load ready to head out in the morning. It still doesn't seem real to me. This house surely seems a lot more empty, echo-y and dusty, though!

More house pictures

Last Thursday Larry and I drove Mia up to Louisville, KY to meet up with her bio. brother, David and his mom, Diane. They are now up at his house for a week. We drove on down to Portland while we were over that way, and took a look at the house. It was supposed to be ready by July 1, but they said the contractor was about a week behind. Well, it looks like they are farther behind than that. We were hoping to move last Wednesday, but now we just don't know.

Our house here is a wreck, with boxes stacked everywhere. We were lucky to find a family moving into a nice house nearby, who wanted to give away their boxes. We've been hauling them away as fast as they can unload them. They had a company move them, so these are really nice boxes. They are stacked on our front porch, covering the windows so we can't even see out. But it's wonderful to need a box, step outside and select one that is the right size! And packing paper --- we have tons!

A few weeks ago Claire and I went to Lowe's and picked out paint colors. We planned to go over at some point and paint, but the school said painting was included in the contract for the renovations. So I sent over our choices. Well, it turns out the contractor only wanted to paint one color. I had chosen "Glacier Mist" for our room, the living room and our bathroom (thinking it was a nice spa-like blue), so I said to just use that color all over. The more I looked at the paint chip, the more gray it looked, and I was really worried that we'd have a dreary gray house. I was relieved when we walked in, to see that it is beautiful! I love it! Of course, the girls still want their rooms purple...

Here are a few pictures of the house as it looked last Friday. They were sanding the floors at the time, so they are not crisp, clear pictures. We had to keep going outside to breathe.

We thought the countertops were going to be gray, but they are beige. Not my favorite, but it looks okay with the blue walls. Still a ways to go to finish in here...

 Our bathroom vanity. Small, but that can be replaced easily enough. At least it's white.

 We've never had a bathroom window before!

 Claire's room. So tiny. 10 X 9. I wonder why they had this commercial-type tile in there. I'm not sure what they will be putting in. Claire hopes it will be carpet. This makes me think of George Costanza's little bedroom that his parents turned into a pool room and the pool stick bashed through the window when they took a shot.

 The family room, that used to be a carport. I can't see this being finished anytime soon! Maybe a big crew will sweep through and work a miracle!

 Looking into the kitchen from the family room.

 I think I'll put my grandma's old desk in this space, for my computer.

 The front looks better - they took out those white boards that looked like they were propping up the roof. Wouldn't this be a perfect place for a bay window?? The front of this house (sides and back, too!)  cries out for hydrangeas!

 This was the half bath that is now a full bath - it will be the girls' bathroom.

 These lights are better than the typical boob lights (although still a little boob-shaped).

 Linen closet - whoa! We better throw out some towels and sheets!

 Living room. You can see where they had sanded part of the floor.

 Mia's room.

 I'm not sure if this is our room or Mia's.

 Our closet. Hmm. I never thought I'd have a 10 X 11 bedroom!

 I'm hoping to make a little island sort of like this, for extra storage and a place to sit and chat in the kitchen.

Better get back to packing! Hopefully I'll be posting again very soon from the other house.