ThisClose

We are thisclose to being finished with the house! We have made our final big decisions, and now it's just a matter of a few things finishing up - installing the appliances, finish staining the railings, laying the backsplash tile, and putting in the rest of the lights, outlets, and bathroom accessories. That's pretty much it! We even already have running water!

One big thing that was finally completed was steps to our rooftop deck! The actual deck has been there since early on, but there were never steps installed so it was a bit challenging to get up there. Mike and I had big plans last Friday night to grab some wine and have a glass on our new roof top deck before going out to dinner, but the torrential rainstorm that came through that night derailed those plans. I was excited to post a nice picture of us gazing over the water, clinking glasses....oh well. Some other time :)

Other pictures that I did take....

Stained railing and practically finished kitchen! And yes, it's still TORTURE that we haven't see the floors yet! So excited for the big reveal.

 

Vanity and lights are installed in the master! They still need to hang up the mirror (I should have taken a picture of it with the faucet on so we can all be in awe of running water).

Love these sconces that we picked for the basement! (notice railing needs to still be stained)

Fancy remote-controlled fan in the light-soaked master bedroom.

Vanity and lights in the second upstairs bathroom (still needs mirror to be hung)

Fan in the back bedroom

Railings in the basement.




The amount of house-based decisions we've made in the last few weeks is astounding. And it's mostly things I've never noticed or cared much about - fans, lighting fixtures, doorknobs, toliet paper holders, towel racks, faucets, etc. One lighting fixture that I'm really disappointed about is our pendant lights in our kitchen. We were excited to go with some super colorful, bold, fun lights...and as I mentioned in my last post, I was excited to find these:

This is what we ordered. So pretty! Nice deep reds, kelly greens, and bright yellows.

This is what we received. Heinous turquois, pukey green, pale lavender, and sickly peach. And poor craftsmanship. And these lights were $119 each, so it's not like I was ordering some po-dunk lights! These clearly had to be returned.

 

Clearly we were VERY disappointed. What made it worse is that the pendants HAD to be on-site, so we didn't have time to order anything else online. I went to several stores on Sunday (Mike was out of town for work, so I was on my own), and finally settled on these. I use the term "settled" on purpose - we don't LOVE them, but they aren't offensive either. They are just fine...they don't make the fun, colorful statement that we were hoping the pendant lights would make. My next career is starting a fun pendant light store - clearly there is a gap in the market for these!

 

Our inoffensive pendant lights. Sigh.

 

Here is a picture of most of our purchased items after a loooooong day of shopping:

So.much.stuff - all labeled and ready-to-go!

 

I'm sure that you've all been dying to hear what we picked for bathroom accessories and doorknobs. I mean, who care about granite choices and paint colors when you can find out if we went with rubbed bronze, chrome, or brushed nickel for the doorknobs and accessories?!?! Here are our THRILLING choices!

 

 

Oh my gosh! Rubbed bronze it is for the doorknob suite! Super-duper exciting.

 

Could you have POSSIBLY predicted Moen Kingsley as our bathroom accessory set? We went with Chrome for the master, and brushed nickel for the other two bathrooms. It is non-stop exciting facts on this blog!!!

 

We have pretty much everything lined up to go, so hopefully everything stays on-schedule. Movers are scheduled to come May 11 (we are so grown-up to hire real movers instead of luring our friends into helping us with promises of pizza and beer!). New tenants move into our house May 15, so we gotta meet that date! I can't really foresee anything that would delay us now, but never say never...

The Floors are Installed! The Floors are Installed!

We got notice from our contractor yesterday that the floors that we agonized over, stressed about, fell in love with, were disappointed in, fell in love with again, and finally bought despite our contractor's distaste for them, were installed. I feel like we went through a sordid love affair with them before we even purchased them! So when the contractor said they were installed, I had a nervous, anxious energy about going to see them. I had to stop at Home Depot (my new best friend these days) on my way home from work, but despite being very out of the way, I just had to go to the house first.

I walked up to the house, and I literally had shallow breath and was shaking a little bit. Perhaps it was a bit dramatic, but I really was nervous - the floors really determine the look the of the house! And it would be an expensive mistake to fix!

So I fumble with the key lock box, twist open the door, walk in, and see this....

Waaah-waaaaaaaaaaah. The floors were fully covered up!!! What a TEASE!!!

Such a disappointment! I was super bummed that I didn't get to see what it looked like. The stairs are stained, and they look great, but they aren't the same wood as our floors, so it's not the same. Ahhh, well, we'll see them soon enough. In the meantime, lots of other exciting things have been happening. Let's have another look at the list!

Tile the bathrooms and basement

Cabinets get delivered tomorrow!

Cabinets installed

Paint

Pick out appliances

Pick out wood floors

Install Granite

Lay the hardwood floors

Pick out ALL remaining lighting, fans and plumbing fixtures (YIKES!)

Install appliances

Install lighting and plumbing fixtures

Final inspections and punch out!

Oh boy oh boy! Getting so close to the end! So Mike and I had a VERY busy weekend picking out all of our lighting and plumbing fixtures. We also purchased a washer/dryer, which we had somehow overlooked when we bought all of our other appliances. We went back to Sears in Hunt Valley where we got the other appliances and our boy Francis who works there HOOKED US UP! Highly recommend him to anyone. Mike did a great job negotiating, and Francis was very patient with us. The washer/dryer went on sale the following day, and we called up Francis and he gave us the discounted price (and then some). Never pay full price for high-priced items like that!

We are very happy with how the granite turned out. We were pretty sure we'd like the color and style, but we were more worried about how tight the kitchen would feel once the island with the overhang were installed. But we were pleasantly surprised by how roomy it felt! I think we'll be very comfortable moving around our kitchen. Not always the case in Baltimore rowhomes!

 The overhang on the island lines up perfectly with the door, so there is plenty of space!

 

Like the decorative paneling on the island? Mike made this decision when I was laid up with a back injury. It put us JUST over our cabinet budget, but I think it does look good. 

Most of the fixtures are pretty standard, but here are some that I think will look nice and give us little "pops" of color and fun around the house. Since we went fairly safe with our granite/tile/paint choices (keeping in mind this is our 5-year house...not our 20-year house), it was fun to get a little more adventurous with the lighting.

 Love this fun, multi-colored pendant light for our kitchen! We'll have two of them above the island. Definitely will add some much-needed color to our mostly black, white, and gray kitchen.

 

At the top of the upstairs will be this funky light. It looks better in person than this picture.

Kind of in love with this chandelier that will dangle above our stairs. I was walking around Arhaus, and didn't really notice it at first. But I kept coming back to it, and every time I saw it I liked it more and more. We needed something that looks cool both from the bottom (since people will be looking at it from below when walking up the stairs), and from the side (since people will see it from the side when walking down the stairs). This fit the bill. And I did a LOT of searching around for a pendant light above the steps!

 

 

Within the next couple of days, EVERYTHING will be on site - appliances, lighting, all bathroom accessories (TP holders, towel bars, vanities, faucets, etc. It's CRAZY how much money all of that adds up to!), door handles, locks, etc.

 

All I have to say is...

This sh*t is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S.

 

Check, check, and check!

I feel like I say this over and over again...but we are getting so close and decisions are firing at us constantly! It is so exciting to see it all coming together finally. We still have a lot more finishing touches to go, but let's take a look at our TO DO list and see how it's going, shall we? (Is it bad that I added some bullets...just so I can cross them off??)

Tile the bathrooms and basement

Cabinets get delivered tomorrow!

Cabinets installed

Paint

Pick out appliances

Pick out wood floors

Install Granite

Lay the hardwood floors

Pick out ALL remaining lighting, fans and plumbing fixtures (YIKES!)

Install appliances

Install lighting and plumbing fixtures

Final inspections and punch out!

We bought our appliances this weekend, which basically took all day on Saturday. We left the house at 8:45 a.m. and didn't get home until 4:45 p.m. (and I was hosting my college friends at 5:00 who were in town. Oops!). But the great news is that it was PRODUCTIVE and we actually came home with that weight lifted off of our shoulders. And, I must say, the appliances we picked are GORGEOUS. Oh, and they get good reviews and function properly and all that. But most of all...they are just so pretty and sleek!

 Ooooooooooooooo! (Controllers hidden up top, yo!)

 

 Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! (5-burners and a warming tray - what up??)

 

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh! (Mini ice cubes and a water dispenser, oh yeah!)

 

We still need to get the wine cooler, but we're super happy with what we got! The floors on the other hand have been somewhat of a disaster. I mentioned before that we've never really been able to find exactly what we're looking for. We weren't even being lazy about it and putting it off until the last minute - we probably went to Home Depot and Lowes three times each, Wood Floors Plus three times, and a random wood floor warehouse in Baltimore County. We had in mind exactly what we wanted, but couldn't seem to find it (within our budget). And then...we found them! And then...they were on sale! Double whammy of perfection and achievement!! And then...our contractor told us that he "doesn't prefer" the kind that we got. So we were derailed again. But, after much back and forth, we are proceeding with those floors (although a bit more deflated than when we originally found them). It's hard to tell from the picture, but they are 5" plank Robina Distressed Sable Birch. And these things are beautifully distressed!! Super-duper excited to have them in our home.

 

They look a little more reddish in the picture than they are in real life. They are beautiful, distressed, and came in way below budget...hmmmm...what can we do with our "savings"? (Oh wait...maybe pay for some of the upgrades we've made!)

 

Here are a couple of pictures I found on Google images of the same floor:

 Obviously this isn't our style house, so picture this beautiful floor with more modern surroundings. Do you see it? Do you love it?

 

See how pretty and distressed it is?? Damn, it's gonna look good. It better! (Haha)

 



There has been some nice progress on the house. I don't have too many pictures, but here are a couple.

If you crop the bottom and ignore the missing outlets...it almost looks like a REAL house!! This is the master - we're happy with the paint color (good thing, since it's all over the house!).

 

OK, back downstairs and into reality! Definitely still a construction zone. Here are the cabinets installed - but still kinda hard to see with the plastic over them.

 

 

So that's it! We have a BUSY weekend ahead of us with picking out every.single.plumbing.and.lighting.fixture. It seems DAUNTING to me to make that many decisions in one weekend. But we'll get it done! Right? Yikes! Wish us luck.