Week 59

The updates for this week-

A lot more electrical and the cleaning lady started to clean up little.  

Most of the appliances are in.  

The microwave is awesome.  It's a drawer, so it slides out and back in. I've never had a new microwave (we've always had hand-me-downs)... Fancy. :)

Dishwasher...

Stove/oven...

Fridge...

And the mini fridge in beverage bar.  (The ice maker isn't in yet because they forgot to put an outlet back there).

This is what a lot of the switches look like.  They go with the smart home system and we can change what each button does.  When we have lived here a while, then we can have the buttons engraved to say what each one does - to turn on a certain light, or to do like a "party mode" where you would want the half bath lights on, outside lights, etc.  

 The top is on the bar in the movie room...

and the platform sides have been painted.  Just ready for carpet!

The entryway light is hung.  I wanted a more girly/fancy light, but it really didn't go with the style of the house. Brian wanted more of a craftsman look and I think he picked out a great one!

 The light in the half bath...

The half bath is pretty much ready to go, just needs cleaned up.

We got the toilet in the master bath too.  And the magazine rack turned out great.  I'm so sick of all the magazines stacked on the toilet tank, so I thought this would be a great solution.

The wood floor was installed in the office...

along with a million dirty footprints. 

Carpet starts on Monday and the rumor is we're moving in next weekend.  

Fingers crossed.

Week 57

We. Are. So. Close.  

I mean, really.  Especially after waiting over a year... two weeks is nuthin'. :)

I didn't do a post last week because it was mostly painting/staining touch ups and nothing really picture worthy.  We had a lot going on this week though.  Lots of electrical stuff - plugs being wired, the kitchen plug/light under cabinet system, and more light fixtures hung up.  The four gooseneck fixtures on the front of the garage...

 We finally got the new piece for the broken island pendant light.  I'm so diggin' the copper.

My pantry light.  

The hood was sealed and I loved how it looks - you can still see the woodgrain and paint splotches, but it just darkened it a little and added some depth. 

 Barn door was hung...

Something I didn't think I would care about as much as I do - doorknobs!  The doorknobs are so pretty.  To go with the old look of the house, Brian picked white ones to go on the bathroom doors...

And glass ones everywhere else.  We love them.

The brick floor has been grouted and turned out great. It's pretty dirty right now, but I still love how it looks. :)

The rest of the ceiling fans were also hung up. This is our bedroom (that's the mantle on those two buckets drying from being sealed.)

The neat little fan in the office...

Speaking of office, we have a railing! 

From downstairs...

The balusters are just pieces of rusty rebar cut to length.  I love the rustic look.

We're really just left with some electrical, putting in appliances, carpet, hardware on cabinets, etc.  As we are winding down to finishing touches, my heart is so happy.  This has been a dream of ours since we bought this property six years ago.  This process has felt very long, but Brian has done an amazing job.  He has spent many, many, many, MANY hours on the phone with various people at various points in the process, researching different products on the internet, trying to find things and make them work because he knew it was what I wanted, price comparing... the list goes on and on. I have spent hours on cabinet layouts, light fixtures, plumbing fixtures, paint colors, tile, flooring and other finishes just hoping that everything I picked would blend together as well in real life as it did in my mind.  The delays and mess-ups have all been worth it in the end.  We've poured our hearts into it and we're so excited to finally get to enjoy it!

Week 55

I was going to post this last Friday afternoon, but that morning our internet freaked out and we haven't had any service since then.  Brian has been working on it everyday (on top of all the other stuff he has been messing with daily) and finally got it working last night.  That guy - I tell you what. He has been working his tail off trying to get this house ready.  He knows I am at the end of my rope and instead of freaking out with me, he just rolls along and works hard to get done what needs to be done.  He is pretty amazing.  

Oh yeah... you came here for house stuff. :)

The construction clean up people came and worked on all the trash, debris and etc.  There was SO MUCH STUFF that they had to clean up.  Pieces of rock from the masons, prices of the metal roof they snipped off, pieces of gutter, pieces of wood and lots of random other trash.

  It was a mess. But these guys were awesome.  They had it done SO fast.  And now it looks like this... (Yay for no giant trash box in the front yard!)

All of the mirrors were hung up this week. This is the boys bathroom.  Brian got this from a remodel he did (they were going to toss it) and I had NO idea what I wanted to hang in here, so we put this up. Another freebie. AWESOME.

The medicine cabinet in the half bath.  We're going to trim this out and make it look a little beefier than it does now.  Also, the big hole in the wall - they have to move the plumbing over a little bit to fit with our sink.  Hopefully patched, painted and forgotten in no time. :)

My bathroom sink. Love the mirrors.  They all came in with all their parts this time, so no problems hanging them.  

Brian's sink.  I really love how our bathroom is turning out. It's got a modern vintage feel about it... I know that is an oxymoron, but it's true!  :)

The mirror at my vanity in my closet.  I may mess with the color of this one... not exactly sure how yet.  Maybe rub some gold leaf around on the edges or something.  Last week I bought a hot pink stool for the vanity.  I kind of went a little crazy in my closet - it's going to be quite girly... hot pink, leopard carpet, gold chandelier...  hopefully it will be as cute as I envision in my mind. :)

Also got my full length mirror up in my closet.  Quite the cute model, huh? 

My favorite thing that was done last week... my vent hood!  I had a picture that I pinned on Pinterest with old boards mailed on a vent hood.  Brian bought some plank stuff and our painter stained it... and I didn't love it. Our trim guy and I were talking and he said, "Why don't we just use pallet wood? There's some out in the front yard."

 So he picked out the pieces that were old, had paint on them and were generally beat up.  He mixed in a few newer pieces and I cannot tell you how much I LOVE this thing.  We were initially looking at copper vent hoods that were going to cost upwards of $2000, but there weren't any that we were in love with.  This one... I. AM. IN. LOVE. The final step will be to seal it with a clear coat with an amber stain mixed in.  It will bring out the grain in the wood, give it a shine, but will still keep the rustic look. 

 They have been working on the under cabinet lighting/plug system in the kitchen.  I didn't want plugs in the backsplash, so Brian found this system.  It has cradles that plug into it that you can put your tablet in to follow a recipe from or your phone to listen to music.  It will be integrated into the smart home system so we can turn the lights on and off from that.  I don't understand it all, but I'm sure it'll be neat. :)

Well, this may also be my favorite thing this week... my mud room and laundry room floor.  

Swoon.

We did brick in a herringbone pattern and chose three different colors of brick to add some variation. They are going to grout it sometime this week and I'm sure I will love it even more.

We were initially going to do a coffered ceiling in the office/library, but for a few different reasons that ended up not working out.  Brian found some tin ceiling tiles and it looks amazing!  This is the view from the living room.

A closer up view.  To me it just looks like something you would see in an old building.  He did well!

The vinyl plank was laid in the craft room.

We got the bar built in the movie room.  We'll have barstools back here for eating meals - I really want to keep the chairs up front just for popcorn.  The boys would wreak havoc on those chairs trying to eat a meal in them - I can see it now, sauces and macaroni and cheese and all kinds of goo stuck down in the sides of the chairs. Bleh.  Less mess makes momma happy. :)

 Speaking of chairs...

Oh wait... THIS might be my favorite thing from this week... :)

Brian has been looking for months for theater seats.  We were initially going to have nice recliners.  With the space that we had, to make it were they could fully recline and it actually be worth it, we only had room for about 4 chairs.  Then we decided to go with new theater seats like you find in movie theaters now.  Brian found some he liked, but those were pretty pricey and we missed a sale on them, so the price went up even more.  He was on Craigslist and came across these seats...

He went to go pick them up in Mineral Wells and the guy said that he couldn't remember which, but they either came from the old theater or the opera house there in town!  Isn't that awesome?  They need cleaned up, but they are in GREAT shape and we're just going to keep them original.  I think the pop of blue in there will be pretty cool.  He got 4 rows of 4 and we're going to rearrange them where there are 3 rows of 5.  We're also going to pop those wooden armrests off and make some new ones that have cupholders.  What's a movie seat without a cupholder? :)

That's all for this week! 

Last week we had the sidewalk poured...

The shower doors put in...

We're going to have to change ours out - it was supposed to have a towel bar instead of a handle.

The A/C is in and all of the thermostats are up...

The glass is in the movie room candy case...

And the platform for the chairs is built and wired for lights.

They were able to get the septic tank in and hooked up.

Mirror in the upstairs bathroom.

 I love this time of year - all the trees are waking up from winter, the grass is greener and the birds are singing.  Beautiful!