Furniture with a Soul

The new house is almost finished and we finally have a move in date in site!!! My daydreams have begun to venture into how we are going to decorate our new home. I can't wait!!! We have had a few unexpected expenses, so for the time being new furniture is not in the plans...but a girl can dream right?

I mean, I need to be prepared for when we do decide to get something new, right? It doesn't even have to be new...I prefer something with character. That has a story behind it. Unique. Affordable. Something with a soul....

To feed my day dreams, my friend Ali teased me with one of her favorite furniture stores, Nadeau.

Houston, we have a problem! I'm drooling...

Growing up, my parents had a hat rack like this in our hall. His name was Bojangles and I think he originally belonged to my Grandad. Actually, for the longest time I thought that all hat racks were called 'bojangles' I didn't realize it was just ours that had a name. HA!

I REALLY need these shelves. They can go in the office and I can fill them with our books and photo albums!

Hey, fun chair. You're fabulous and I would like several of you...around my imaginary dining room table...

What could be more exciting than colorful cubes!?!?! Uh, nothing! I would luuuurve to put this in the girls' loft area to help organize all their extra stuff.

Lovely!

If I could have a new desk, I would pick this one...and call it Turk-wah like Frankc from Father of the Bride!

I can see myself in one of these chairs...sitting out by the pool this summer...sipping on a BBC!

I don't know where I would put this, but I sure do love it!

These mirrors are large and in charge...but what else is it that we can see in their reflections? I need to know more!!!! Field trip!

I am in love.

Boom Boom Boom

We've had TONS of rain in our area over the last weeks and last Friday night was no exception. The gas guys had come that afternoon to finish hooking up the gas and to light the lanterns on the front porch. Because of the monsoon, we didn't really go over to check it out after work.

My lovely, lovely tub!!

Saturday morning, Husband went to over to the new house to start working while I did some much needed work around the house we live in now. I mean, there is no way it will sell while looking like a disaster area. Around lunchtime, Husband popped back in with tales of his adventurous day. Our framer, who also happens to be doing the finish carpentry, was already at the house when Husband arrived and mentioned to him that he smelled gas.

Vintage schoolhouse light in the study from Husband's childhood home.

They decided to check it out, but assumed the smell was probably due to the fact that everything had just been hooked up the day before and neither were overly concerned. Husband did call the gas guy to come out with his meter just to be on the safe side.

Pantry Shelves

The pilot light on the gas logs was on so they cranked up the fire several times and everything seemed to be fine there. Then the gas man arrived and they inspected the upstairs.

Fireplace in the great room

They opened the door to the attic area and flicked on the light. Husband said the smell of gas felt like a punch in the face and took his breath away. The gas man went to work and Husband and Framer went back outside for some fresh air.

Pot filler over the oven

It wasn't until they got downstairs that they started discussing how, in the movies, rooms full of gas always explode when the actors turn on the lights. Guess that must be false... They later asked the gas man about that and he told them that there was not enough oxygen in the air to explode. Explosions occur when there is four to fourteen percent gas...our attic was at 28%!!!!!!!!

Fridge before it was installed.

Needless to say, Husband spent the afternoon at the glass studio, wrapping up the glass for the front doors. I would never have believed that I'd be thankful to have a 28% gas leak! Praise the Lord for taking care of my husband, favorite framer, and our house! 

Last week

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday!

hmmmm...looks like a move in date might be right around the corner!

Dear Lauren,

**Note: This post is for a friend of mine that has asked for an explanation of the retaining walls... However, if you're not Lauren, and you still want to read it, you're most welcome to do so.**

Okay, L...This is the back yard. See the retaining wall in the middle of the yard? That was in the original plans and will be referred to as The Wall. Now, follow the fence back towards us....

...and you'll come to this corner behind the pool. This side of the fence is ground level with the back corner of the house.  

Retaining wall before:

Now:

Continue to follow the fence towards us and it goes around the side of the house. (You can see the back corner of the house at ground level.)

This outdoor shower area will have more privacy...eventually...but that's not on the agenda until things warm up a bit! :)

Now, back to this shot...go out the gate at the end and turn to your right...

...and you'll be on the other side of the fence looking down the property line at the retaining wall that was not in the plans that we'll refer to as Surprise Wall.

On the other side of this back corner is the pool. 

Surprise Wall is 5 feet tall and had to be filled with dirt on the inside...just to later have the pool guys come and dig the pool. The "pool dirt" was later moved to the top of The Wall in the back yard and to the front yard to level things out in preparation for sod...so it was not a waste :)

The main purpose of Surprise Wall was to keep all the water that will come off our roof on a rainy day from flooding our backyard neighbor's basement. ...and we really like them and would hate to make them angry by flooding their home. :) Oh, and it was an ugly gray block color, but we painted it to match the brick of our house. Much better...I mean, for a Surprise Retaining Wall...

Hope this helps!

Signed,
The Girl Who Got a Retaining Wall for Christmas

The Inside Job

The entire house is covered in dust and dirt and mud and sand and dust and trash and boxes and dust! The more I clean, the more manages to appear. It starts to hurt your feelings after a while...Saturday, my goal was to rid the house of all the trash and shop vac all the floors.

Each room held its own stash of building supplies. The office looks like it has been claimed by the painters.

The dining room is now a catch-all for empty buckets, containers and scaffolding.

While I do appreciate all the work from each team that comes in, I do wish they didn't leave such a mess behind. :)

It was hard to know where to even get started.

I started in the great room so that the flooring guys would have somewhere to stack the hard wood they delivered. The fireplace is ready for a cozy fire. Look closely...you can see that the gas guys have hooked up the logs.

Remember the disaster zone that was our master bedroom a few days ago? Well, the trash is long gone and the floors have been shop-vac'd clean. Bless the inventor of the shop vac! I (and my back) are forever in your debt.

What a feeling of accomplishment to see the floors again.

You can eat off these bad boys!

Have I shown you the light fixtures in the bathroom? I can't remember when they were installed...my brain is mush.

Oh yeah, and that is a sunset that you see from the bathroom windows. It was a looooong day's work! And since I've finally caught up on last weekend, I guess we can now start the next!

Sunny with a high of 70

Saturday's weather was absolutely lovely! The sun was shining and, for the first time all year, it was WARM!

That was wonderful news for us since our weekend plans involved putting in a sprinkler system and laying 15 pallets of sod.

Husband took off on Friday to start digging the trenches for the pipes, and when I got home Friday night, that's where I found him--sitting in a ditch, gluing pipes together...in the dark! I'm beginning to think this house building thing has turned into an obsession.

Saturday morning we met up with four laborers familiar with sod (one of which happened to have some knowledge of plumbing) and got to work. Husband was thankful to have the help of the plumber to finish up the sprinkler system. These guys also helped to spread the topsoil in the flower beds in the back yard.

PS-check out the fence that is going up around the back half of the yard.

All the guys helped to get this boulder off of a pallet and into this bed. It involved some boards for leverage and random jumping...The fence guy happened to stop by at this time, so he and I stood back and discussed how much money we could have won if only we'd had a video camera!

The forms are ready for the driveway to be poured next week! As soon as the driveway is done, the floor guys will come to put in the carpet. Oh, I almost forgot. During all the yard work, the hard wood for the floors was delivered! It has to sit in the house for a while to acclimate before the floor guys will start putting it down.

We now have painted back doors and finished steps leading down to the pool.

Taaa Daaa!

Here is a close up of the outdoor lights.

Hello, empire zoysia!

We think you're going to look luscious and green this spring!

**Reading back over this, I realize it sounds like I was out there helping with the sod. I will admit that I didn't lift the first square. Those guys had quite the system going on, so we decided that I should tackle the trash and dirt on the inside....more on that later. I am thankful for Husband and all his outside help. The yard looks wonderful and we're a step closer to moving in!