House Update

Our contractors are finally finished. They cleared out 2 days before we got married. We will be giving them their final payment on Monday and then not only will we be done with contractors but we will also be done with NACA and the HAND department. Hallelujah!

Even though we are now free from having to share our living space with dirty contractors and their even dirtier materials and equipment, our house is far from done...

Besides the massive cleaning effort that has been taking place every weekend, there's still missing pieces that will have to wait for funding. Like the master bedroom flooring. And the basement flooring.

But there are also things that still need to be done, that we just haven't had the motivation to start yet. Like taking the lovely wallpaper down in the dining room, then patching, sanding, priming and painting those walls. Ugh. And painting the dining room ceiling. And painting a second coat in the master bathroom as well as installing towels bars and such. Oh, and installing switch plates in the kitchen.

I swear, our To-Do List is approximately 1.7 miles long.

My latest "project" has been unpacking and organizing our massive collection of books.





I have this sickness. A sickness that involves acquiring many books and then never getting rid of any. It's quite a serious affliction.

We have one built-in bookcase next to the fireplace in the living room. Beyond that, we need to set up our other bookshelves. BUT, we are currently sleeping in the room we intend to make the office. And we can't move out of our sleeping room until we get flooring in our master bedroom. It's all very complicated.

The one room in our house that feels ALMOST completely done is our kitchen. The only thing we "need" to do is install new switch plates. Would it be nice to update the cabinet hardware and hinges? Yes. Do we need to right now? No. Would we like to put up a tile back splash? Yes. Is it a priority? No. So, here are a few pictures of our mostly finished kitchen:

The stove that my beloved is obssessed with. It's gas, of course. 5 burners, one with some kind of super-turbo function that gets so hot it would destroy a microwave if we had one installed above the stove. It also has two ovens which can be set at different temperatures at the same time.

I haven't been allowed to use it yet.



In case you're interested and/or a rabid fan of HGTV, we kept the original cabinets, but replaced the black and white vinyl flooring with porcelain tiles. The tiles are 20"x20" and 14"x14" and are laid in a "hopscotch" pattern.

We also got rid of the black laminate countertops and replaced them with Silestone quartz countertops. All of the appliances are new. And the faucet is new but the sink is the cast-iron beast original to the house. And we love it. It's huge and deep.

The lighting is also new in the kitchen. The previous owners had installed this monstrous flourescent centerpiece that dominated the ceiling and looked as if it could easily transport you to another dimension. We decided to go with something less dramatic and a little more functional.













So, there's the kitchen. Yes, it's missing switch plates. And a tiled backsplash, but it's working for us right now when the rest of the rooms in our house are each in varying degrees of disarray.

Take, for instance, our master bathroom. It's lovely. It really is. And the contractors are finished with it. However, it still needs to be cleaned. And it still needs to be painted a second coat of Gobi Desert. And it still needs towel bars and toilet paper holders installed. And still needs shelving installed. AND, since we can't move into our master bedroom yet, it's slightly inconvenient to use regularly at this point. But here it is, in all its unfinished glory:

This is looking in the doorway from the master bedroom.



As you can see, we need some kind of tall shelving/linen cabinet unit to put between the two vanities.







This is what I was talking about when I tried to describe how our bath tub would be IN the shower. See? It really maximizes the smallish space of our bathroom and allows us to have a walk-in shower AND a soaking tub.







That last one is the shower head, the glass accent tile, and a little window we cut into the wall to allow natural light into the shower enclosure.

So there ya go. We still have a ways to go, but it's coming right along.