Welcome home

Last night we spent the night at the house for the first time. It was exactly how I had imagined it. Boxes everywhere, chaos and pure happiness. There are no words to describe the joy, pride and amazement I feel. I know I shouldn't love a house or material objects, but this house is a result from our dreams and hard work. There is still alot to accomplish, but we will get there. Good things take time.

U-haul Orange

There is so much to do, but even the littlest achievements are celebrated. They are all little in themselves, but makeup the big projects. You know the saying, "You can't see the forest, for the trees"? Sort of like that, but I'm starting to see the forest. Although, my favorite saying was something Pop said at the beginning of this project, "It's like eating an elephant, one bite at a time." The bites this weekend included: one microwave installed, one bathroom shower tiled and one wall grouted (just in time for the plumber), the pump house walls being prepped for studs, part of a storage unit unloaded (including the dishwasher, washer and dryer), two trips to Lowe's, one trip to Caldwell Hardware for another grout float, a cub scout outing to Entergy park, and finding the perfect accent color I've been looking for. It went something like this....

Me: Adam! Come here!

Adam: What?! (Sounding somewhat concerned)

Me: The dolly, that is the perfect shade of orange! Look at how well it goes with the green lights and is so happy with the wall and cabinet color!

Adam: The U-haul dolly? U-haul orange? Really? I can just see us going into the paint store. Yes, I'd like a gallon of U-haul orange, semi-gloss. Oh, it is a proprietary color....well, can you color match it? (with a great sarcastic tone)

Take a peek at these from http://fashionablyliving.com/ No sources were given.

Not to much, just a pop of color!

These are from Arkansas's own Tobi Fairley:

Adam and I went to the Energy Efficient House in Diamondhead a few years ago and I have been smitten with Tobi ever since.

Adam picked up some electrical insulators at Habitat last week! I had no idea what we were going to do with them, but since Tobi used them in a little vignette, it gives me the perfect excuse to bring out all of my Harry Potter books and disguise them!

So, there is this weekend's update. Hopefully, we will be able to report back soon that we have a working toilet. Stay tuned....

moving right along...

Our last update was in December. How terrible is that? Considering we (and all our sub-contractors) took the month of December off, there wasn't much to report on. January consisted of us getting our ducks in a row and figuring how much money we have left to finish up this project. That was fun.

This picture was taken on Feb. 14th. Adam is cooking pizza in our new oven. Take a peek at the farmhouse sink! And those cabinets- swoon! We ordered seeded glass to go in the upper cabinets yesterday, they will be beautiful! We decided to go with an oil-based paint for the cabinets. I know, all the other paint in the house has been no VOC, so I'm sure it just canceled each other out. We chose to do an oil-based paint for the durability and cleanliness factor. Lacquer would have been just as stinky and we wanted something that will hold up. Paint color is Front Porch by Sherwin-Williams. It is a light gray with cool blue undertones. The back splash will be carrera marble in subway tile.

We are so stinkin' close to finishing, but I also realize that we probably will never be done. It will always be a work in progress and I'm o.k. with that.

The list of things to do and completed projects:

-HVAC- 99.9% complete-they left off a vent cover.

-Electrical- 98% complete- they haven't installed a light in the boy's bath and put in the wrong breaker for our radiant floor.

-Plumbing- 50% complete- Plumber will be there on Tuesday to finish up.

-Adam installed a cork floor upstairs. He only banged his thumb twice and just a little blood.

-Master bath tile is complete and OH MY GOODNESS! That will deserve it's own post. It turned out amazing and I can't believe that's our bathroom. The frameless glass shower enclosure was ordered and should be installed in about 2 weeks. We are having an issue with the tub spout not being long enough.

-We need countertops and door hardware. We plan on pouring concrete countertops soon. The island will most likely be butcher block.

-Oven and refrigerator are installed

-We have doors installed upstairs, but no door knobs. Of course, I found beautiful, vintage glass doorknobs. But to use them, we need a retrofit kit. Also, we need sliding barn door kits for the doors downstairs.

-We are going to finish tiling the boy's shower this weekend.

-Touch up paint- lot's of that.

-Finish painting the kitchen island. I had hoped to stain it a weathered gray, but after numerous attempts and it looking like a purple hippo, we are painting it our trim color, Greek Villa from Sherwin-Williams.

-Painting the trim

-Garage Doors

- And much more..... But that's all I care to think about!

So, the question everyone has been asking, "When are you moving in?" NEXT WEEKEND! As soon as we have a toilet, a shower and a sink! Sure, we have alot to accomplish, but I think it will go faster once we are able to spend significant time there and I hope we will be able to work once the boys go to bed! Thanks for all of your support and we can't wait to move in!