More shopping

While most people spent Easter weekend hunting for eggs, my mom and I took the girls out of town for a shopping trip.  Most of it was house-related shopping but we did surprise the girls with a trip to the American Girl store to replace the stuff lost in the fire.  Oh, the excitement!  I was told so many times that I was the best mom ever and making the best day ever by the little girl.

On the house front, we found some living room chairs and a rug at World Market.  I ordered the chairs tonight.

I found the couch I wanted at Ikea, as well as some shelves with storage to make a sofa table.  The big girl got a metal cart to serve as a bedside table and found a bed and desk at Ikea.  We also picked up some other stuff like another metal shelf for the kitchen and a shelf with a towel rack and toilet paper holder for the bathroom and a few other little things.

It seems like we're almost done but then my mom and I started making a list on the way home on Sunday.  Yikes!  There's still a lot to do.

We need to pick out tile for the back splash and a pedastal sink for the small bath.  There's still beds to buy for the little girl and me plus lots of other little stuff like trash cans and mats for the rolling chairs and bar stools and chairs for the dining table and a coffee table and a tv and, and, and.  It's feeling very overwhelming at this point but I know it will get better and if we move in with some things not yet bought, we'll be fine.

On Saturday, my dad and I are going to work on trimming the neighbor's cedar trees that hang way over the fence into my yard.  They need to be trimmed up so I can have the privacy fence put in when they get to me.

I've also hired a yard service for the first time.  My sweet father has always done it for me but he's having too many problems with his back so it was time to give him a break.  Although I'm not thrilled about the money, I'm kind of glad since I always felt a little guilty having him do it.

Painting started this week at the house.  The second coat went on the trim today.  I'm not sure if they'll start painting walls tomorrow or not.  The kitchen cabinet that was messed up is fixed.  Yay!  Progress is being made.  It just seems like it's going to be forever right now but I know it's not really going to take that long.

Trim and granite

Most of the trim is now up in the house.  Cabinets are mostly in.  Just a couple of small things that need to be corrected in the kitchen.  The pantry needs to be installed but it looks great.  The bench seat is in the dining room.  Paint colors are picked out.  I know today they came and measured for the granite in the kitchen.  My mom and I picked out the lighting on Friday.  (I found a couple of fans for the girls' rooms and the sun room that I LOVED but at $400+ and $700+ apiece, they stayed at the store.  Oh well.)

Progress is being made.  I'm hopeful for another month or so but we'll see how it really plays out. 

Getting closer

The big girl and I stopped by the house yesterday.  The outside that I'd never finished painting for something like 5+ years is now painted.  The kitchen cabinets were in.  Some of the crown molding was up and much of the base board was laid out.  The pantry unit was in the garage along with one of the built in shelf units for the living room.

There were a couple of small problems with the kitchen cabinets (which kept me up much of the night worrying but which were all quickly resolved this morning).  They are great though!!!  The drawers will be so much easier to open and close than what we had before.  We have these awesome corner drawers instead of a lazy susan.  I was a guinea pig for building them and I've heard that the builder said never again but they are AWESOME!!!

I stopped by tonight and the bathroom linen closet unit and the other shelving unit for the living room were also in the garage.

I went by the paint store today and they loaned me a fan book of paint colors.  Tonight my mom and I picked out colors for the whole house.  I feel so good to have that done!

I need to take back the bathroom faucets we bought because a different brand was recommended as being better quality and more easily repairable in the case of problems.  I also need to finalize the the pedestal sink and all the light fixtures, door knobs, drawer pulls and kitchen back splash tile.  Still, I feel like we're making progress and I can get through this weekend, with the big girl's birthday party, and next weekend, with our out-of-town shopping trip, without too much worry.

Then we need to get back to work on the house and the yard!

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!!!