Baby's room closet

Just to update, we have started the backyard....sort of. We hired a landscape designer to come up with a design for what we want. We still have a lovely yard of dirt, but hopefully by the time the baby arrives we will have broken ground on the new yard, but don't hold your breath.

Dave installed a closet system for the baby's room. We ordered it from my favorite store, Costco, and it turned out really nice. I love having the drawers!!! We didn't use the same system we installed in our previous home because the shelves were particle board and not strong at all. They bowed when anything was put on them. This system is solid wood and much better quality not to mention much more expensive.

Doors off:

Doors on and closet loaded up:

Carpet for the family room and backyard update

We found a carpet at West Elm for the family room, so now I think we'll decorate the kitchen/family room with blues and browns. We are also planning on ordering a large square leather ottoman for the family room. With a tray on top, it can serve as a coffee table as well as an ottoman and be baby/kid safe.

We got a couple of quotes for the backyard from some contractors, and have decided to hire a landscape designer first. The designs we got were simplistic and after seeing a few completed homes I don't feel they know enough about plants. I want plants that don't require a lot of maintenance, will survive (!), and will look good. Simple things like cut outs in the concrete, having varying heights of plants, etc really make a difference in the appearance of the yard. We aren't looking to do anything crazy, just a patio, grass, retaining wall, and builtin bbq.

Unfortunately our consultation isn't until June 24th so that means it won't be until July before we get the plans, and then we have to submit to the HOA and hire a contractor. I'm not sure we'll have a yard by the time the baby arrives.

We have a table!

We got the dining room table today after almost a week delay because of rain. I can't believe it rained right before we were supposed to pick it up. At least it arrived in time for G's birthday party so we have somewhere to put food and cake! Here it is bare naked. Hopefully I'll get some place mats and a centerpiece sometime, but I'm doubtful it'll be before the party.

What's in the attic and the new chandelier

Dave went up in the attic to put up some empty boxes and found loads and loads of insulation. He said it was two feet high at least.

On Thursday night he also installed the new chandelier we got for the dining room. He's only crashed into it twice so far.

New couch arrived!

Check it out:
Dave fixed the fan too, so it no longer comes halfway into the room.

A clean house....finally

Except the garage, that is still a big disaster. There is also a cricket and lizard running around in there amongst the mess.

We had a crazy cleaning day on Friday and got a lot of stuff cleaned up and even managed to hang a few things. The office still needs to be unpacked and we still have a lot more things to hang on the wall. Dave even installed some ceiling fans.

Living Room:

Kitchen/Family Room:
Loft:
Office:Master:

Hallway:

Finally shutters!

Today after returning home from our exciting morning at the zoo, the shutter installers were in our driveway to greet us. They spent a couple of hours installing shutters throughout the house. They look great and it's wonderful not living in a fish bowl anymore. Although I have to say that the house is a lot darker now, since previously we didn't have any window coverings downstairs at all.

I'll post pictures later.

Kitchen floor finally complete

Today Dave finished caulking the baseboards. We also rented a carpet stretcher and reattached the carpet in the two entrances into the kitchen/family room.

Unfortunately in the last minutes of our kitchen remodel project Dave gets a call from work and spends the rest of the weekend working. In fact, he worked all night long on Sunday coming home at 6am Monday morning!

Even though we completed the project, we didn't get to start actually unpacking the rest of the house or organizing the garage as planned. Now I know what our plans are next weekend!

Furniture Shopping

It has been difficult finding furniture that we like that doesn't cost an arm and a leg! We looked at a bunch of smaller furniture stores, but I still find myself drawn to the Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel furniture. Luckily we found this place that makes pieces similar to the PB style. This is what we are thinking of ordering:
We are also looking at sectional sofas, but that's a little more challenging since we have to find the right configurations and the right fabric, etc.

The kitchen is still unfinished so no updates there. Hopefully this weekend we will make some progress.

Hallelujah

The kitchen floor is done! Dave finished grouting last night after working every night after work this week until 10pm. Hopefully the baseboards go in this weekend, but I'm going to put in the kitchen table and get the t.v. in the family room even if they aren't!

We now need to find a couch for the family room or it's going to be pretty uncomfortable to watch t.v. on the hard tile floor. The next big project is to tile Gigantor's bathroom because potty training is just around the corner! Then the backyard landscaping and hardscaping is next. I'd like to have a backyard by Gigantor's birthday so he can have a party, but we'll see.

The park across the street isn't scheduled for completion until July now. The trailers out front were scheduled to leave on Wednesday so I hope they are gone really soon!!

An exercise in grouting

We decided to tile under the refrigerator after we realized that if we didn't, we would never get the fridge out again. So we had to tile and grout that area and put the fridge back. It looks so nice with grout! I can't wait for the rest of the floor to be grouted....not to mention for the whole project to be done! I'm tired of prying screwdrivers, wrenches, trowels, and other miscellaneous tools out of Gigantor's hands as he goes strolling through the kitchen. Plus it's so much easier to clean up messes when there aren't 1/4" gaps everywhere....like when the dog peed all over the tile yesterday when Andy came to visit.

Don't worry the tile is not that yellow or shiny and the grout is not that white. I'll add after pictures.

The Kitchen Floor Torture Project

In the beginning there was linoleum and carpet, in the end there will be tile. For a long while there was concrete and debris. We chose a porcelain tile after realizing that the premium travertine we posted about months ago would be more expensive than a wood floor! We decided to keep with the offset pattern because it's cool looking and a little different. Not to mention it's easier to install than the di

My parents came to visit for a week along with my brother. They were put to work ripping out the carpet and linoleum.

The membrane layer is down, and Dave is ready to lay down the very first tile.

After my parents left (in excruciating pain), we enlisted Dave's parents in the Kitchen Floor Torture project. Andy even came by with beer to surpervise.

Paint

We agonized over paint colors all weekend, but finally settled on a color. We couldn't agree on an accent color so we are just having the house painted all the same color for now. Eventually we will add some accents ourselves...perhaps when we do the crown and windows casings.

We went and bought a queen mattress today for the guest room since we are going to have guests this weekend! We took it by the house to drop it off and check out the paint. It looks great! I am so happy/relieved with our choice. The original color we had chosen was more brown and I didn't think went as well with the staircase. The new color is more taupe and I think it really looks good with the wood on the staircase. It's going to look great once we get all the trim in.

The color we chose is Oat Straw by Behr, but mixed by Frazee. Here is the staircase with the hall half done, so you can get a better idea of the color.

BEFORE

AFTER (I didn't bring the good camera, but you can really see the difference if you look at the casing around the laundry room door)
BEFOREAFTER

So when do we move in?

We closed escrow in the 18th just before 5pm and got our keys shortly after. We checked our mail which was sadly all junk. We went out to Costco and bought a mirror, fire extinguishers, and a carbon monoxide detector - the usual first purchases, right? We also bought a couple of baby gates and knob covers for the stove which didn't work.

Saturday we selected the paint color and epoxied the garage floor. I should say everyone else did and I watched Ethan. And the best part of owning a house...I got to pull weeds in the front yard. We also had our refrigerator, washer and dryer delivered. Unfortunately none of them were installed! The cabinet for the refrigerator came down too far, the gas line connector was too tight so we couldn't hook up the hose, the washer pan was too close to the wall so that hoses in the back of the washer tipped the washer forward so that it doesn't sit flat. Fun!

Tomorrow we are going to pick the paint color for the family room, measure for ordering tile, and if we have time install baby gates. Dave actually has some work work to get done so I'm not sure how much will get done tomorrow. I just can't wait until we actually get to move in!!!

Garage floor while applying the epoxy:
Garage floor complete!

Walk-Through

We had to reschedule it because Dave was really sick on Monday. We went through today and Gigantor was screaming and throwing himself all over the place. So one of us watched him while the other went through the orientation and switched often. Gigantor immediately found the knobs on the stove and started wiggling them around. So one of the first things we need to do: buy baby gates for the stairs and buy knob covers for the stove.

They refogged the stucco (stucco isn't painted anymore) and the outside of the house looks nice and clean again. They repainted the walls and touched up any marks on the walls and baseboard. It looks like the carpets were cleaned too. We found a few things that needed to be addressed, but all in all it looks good.

We got a call from our Escrow people and are getting ready to make things official.

Plumbing in...finally

We have the master bathroom tub and various toilets installed. The laundry room sink is installed and everything seems complete except shower heads! We have our walk-through on Monday morning so at that point it should be very close to done.

We should be signing papers soon because we move in next week!! We hired painters to do the common areas since Dave has a long list of projects starting with tiling the kitchen floor and landscaping the backyard.\
Master bathroom tub
Powder room
Guest bathroom downstairs.
Laundry room

No visit this week

We didn't visit the house this week since there wasn't anyone in the sales office to let us in. Instead we ordered some sample paint colors and picked up a few samples of some tile for the kitchen floor. Apparently Sundays are not good days to look for tile because most of the stores are closed! While we are not getting the premium travertine I love (it's just not practical with kids and dogs), we did find some nice porcelains. A couple of weeks ago, we got a tile saw too. It will cut a 18" diagonal, but not we might do an offset pattern like the premium travertine was laid out.

Matt visits the house

This week Dave's brother was in town so he saw the house for the first time. It didn't look any different than last time. We still don't have a master tub or toilets in many of the bathrooms. They did repaint the interior and some of the exterior though because we saw wet paint signs.

Today was a hard day though. After seeing the house, Dave and I went and bought our refrigerator and washer and dryer. It was a lot of money -- too much money. I feel robbed!

Countdown begins

We are less than 30 days out from the close! Right now I am working on securing a mortgage rate. Next, we need to order a fridge and pick paint colors.

We did buy a tile saw and have selected a couple of tiles for the kitchen. However we haven't finalized it yet. We found out the tile we love (see pictures we posted), is a PREMIUM travertine that costs $10/sqft. That's as much as hardwood so we decided we would either consider hardwood or do a porcelain. With a dog and a toddler, it's probably smart to go with the porcelain.

A stove, a stove at last!

Dave's Grandma came with us today to check out the house. Not much has changed, but we did have a stove! The kitchen looks complete now. However the knobs on the stove are going to be a magnet for one little boy's hands I'm sure. We're going to have to do a lot of childproofing!