Shopping

My mom and I are taking the girls on a shopping trip for the house in a couple of weeks.  Of course, we'll be hitting up Ikea for a few more things for the house...

• Couch (double checking what I want to order online)
• 2 living room chairs(double checking what I want to order online)
• 2 book cases to make a sofa table (may have to order these online)
• Picture ledges for the girls' bedrooms
• 2 more metal shelves for the kitchen
• Picture frames???
• Counter stools for the kitchen bar
• Cabinet to go under TV for DVD player/roku/movie & game storage
• Wall lamps
• Rolling cart for the big girl's bedside table

 World Market

• Throw pillows
•  Floor poufs
• The little Indian dangly thing with elephants or birds on it (I promised the little girl the last time we were there

We're also going to be doing a little shopping that they'll like more but we're keeping that a secret.  Then we'll meet some friends at our favorite Ethiopian restaurant (in that area...definitely not our fav overall!)

Done and to do

The girls and I went by the house on Saturday to look at the floors.  All the wood is down except the transitions between the closets and the rooms where we moved closets and the wood didn't go through.  Mark offered me two ways to do it, one that cost $50 per closet and one that cost $275 per closet.  I chose the $50 option.  The tile floors in the bathrooms and utility room are down and grouted too.  They look great.  I asked about laying the tile on the diagonal and it would have cost more so I had them lay it off-set so the grout lines of each row are off-set by half the tile width.  I really like how it turned out.

Mark called me on Friday afternoon and said he wanted to get together at the house this week to talk about the trim. 

I have lots of other questions for him too.

• When do I need to finalize decisions for...
•  kitchen back splash
• toilets
• pedestal sink 
• main bath counter and sink
• medicine cabinet/mirror
• lights/ceiling fans
• paint colors
• shower door
• door and cabinet hardware

• When will the heat and air unit be cleaned and tested
• Can they hang all of my shelves in the kitchen where I'm not putting upper cabinets and make sure they attach them to studs since they be holding dishes
• What to do about the ruts in the front yard and cleaning up the debris in the back yard (worried about glass and puppy dog feet)
• Shelves in the laundry room...mom suggested putting up a long board where the coat hooks are going and attaching the hooks to that so we don't have to worry about attaching them to studs...love that idea
• Counter top about the washer and dryer
• Is there some kind of fixed-length shower curtain rod...I hate how the rings snag on the bump in the middle of the adjustable ones...not good with the kids
• Can I put in rain barrels when they add the guttering

My most important question of all...

• What is the current estimation for move-in-day???

As we get more and more stuff, I'm getting more and more anxious to move home.

Yard work

There is a row of nandina along the back fence.  It was there when I bought the house almost 10 years ago (along with lots of other nandina that has since been removed.  One of my goals for this spring, even before the fire, was to get it all taken out.  One of the issues though is that in taking it out, I also need to put up a privacy fence because the fence there now is just a chain link one and it's got some ugly patches in it to keep Molly (one of the bassets) from getting out.

I bit the bullet today.  I spent part of the afternoon (not as long as I'd hoped due to fatigue) over at the house digging it out and trimming back the cedar trees from the neighbor's yard that hang over the nandina.  Still, I was pretty impressed with what I got done.  I want to get a lot of it cut down before the birds start building their spring nests in it.

I never realized how much room was back between the nandina and the fence.  It's going to add quite a bit of space to the yard to get it all out.

I talked to the neighbor today and asked about the chain link fence.  She's lived in her house a lot longer than me and she said the fence was there when she moved in so we don't know who it belongs to.  She would rather I just leave it up and put the privacy fence on my side.  The benefit of this is that it will be cheaper for me as there will be nothing for them to take down.

I'm going to call my insurance agent tomorrow because my dad mentioned that he has a good fence builder.  We're getting closer to moving home and I want to get it done before we get the dogs back there.

Floors

We went by the house last Friday.  They were in the process of laying the wood floors back down in the living room, kitchen and entry way.

My mom was there yesterday pruning the rose bushes in the front yard.  She said the tile guy was there working on the sub floor and would be back today to start laying the tile.

Yay!!!

Our spare bedroom here is filling up with stuff we've bought for the house.

We're getting closer!!!

Buying stuff

My mom made the point that I need to start buying stuff and stockpiling it until we move.

Tonight I bought the following on amazon...
food processor and blade holder...exactly what I had before
ice cream maker with extra bowl
popcorn popper
immersion blender
utensil set
insulated cookie sheet
2 cup measuring cup

On my list to get are...
kitchenaid mixer
bamboo spatula
measuring cups/spoons
bread pans
muffin tins
noninsulated cookie sheet
cutting board
knives
silverware
towels
dish rags
trash bin/recycle bin
pots/pans - set versus individual pieces
peeler

sheets
blankets
bed covers
towels

Trying to figure out what else I need and what I can get here to support local business versus what will be best to buy online.

Meeting

On Friday, my mom and I met with the contractor and construction supervisor.  It went well.

We talked kitchen cabinets and made plans for the few uppers and what I want on the lowers.  They're going to give me a good deal to use me as a guinea pig on these awesome corner drawers.  I'm so excited.  I picked out cabinet fronts and they're going to match the finish at Lowe's that I like.

I picked out the tub/shower surrounds.  Mark told me today that the solid surround is about $300 more than tile would be in the shower but the same in the bath tub.  That's $300 well spent to not have to deal with grout.  I still need to pick out the counter top/sink for the hall bath.

We're going to do the same wood floor in the kitchen.  That makes me happy.  I'm going to put linoleum in the utility room for cheapness and convenience with dogs food and water in there.

We talked about where to look at granite for the kitchen.  I'm not sold on granite.  I'm not sure why but I'm not.  Anyway, I need to go look.

The framing inspection was supposed to be done on March 3rd (2 days ago).  I'm not sure if it got done on time or not because of bad weather.  After that, it will be insulation and drywall.

I need to call the Container Store and change the delivery address on the closet systems and they can store everything at the warehouse.

They're saying end of April for completion.  I hope, hope, hope.  I could celebrate 41 in my own home!!!