Happy Christmas!!!!!

Even though the house isn't habitable it was important to me to still put a tree up.  I mean, I have a three year old who's just starting to get into the whole Santa thing and I can't very well start out by having him come through the garage to deliver presents.  Not that they would even fit into the mouse hole we're living in.  So we managed to clear/clean an are of the living room to display some holiday cheer.

I haven't been feeling especially in the spirit of Christmas this year but I think putting a crooked tree in the house allowed me a little sense of normalcy.

Next year it's going to be a Christmas EXPLOSION in the house to make up for this year.  

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas

Help Me Choose + Kitchen Sneak Peek

 The cabinets are up though not all the doors are on.  The countertops are on but still mostly covered.  You may be able to tell which one I chose, but I'm saving that reveal and the reason I chose what I did for another day.  

So that's all great and dandy, but I have a decision to make that I'm dragging my feet on.  I bought a reversible farm sink but can't decide which front I like the best.  I originally bought it for the fluted look, but my husband likes the more plain front.  Take a look and tell me what you think.  I'm REALLY torn.

And The One Shall Be Two

The work is continuing in the butler's pantry and first floor bathroom.  We started with one room.

And then...

And now we have the first floor bathroom, 

 and the butler's pantry.

 It's so nice to have walls (and ceilings) again.  A lot still to do in these rooms, but I'm really looking forward to having a toilet in the house.  Maybe if I'm extra good this year Santa will bring me one.  That has to be one for the books. It really is the simple things in life these days that make me happy.  

Bu-Bye Old Porch

Since we have a new porch and entrance into the kitchen addition, there really is no need for the old one.  I mean it wasn't original to the house, and our yard is so stinkin small that we could use the space.  So it had to go.  

Before

After

The doorway used to be where the Tyvek wrap is on the right.  The masons did an awesome job bricking it in.  You'd never know that used to be a door.

So now to the inside of the room.  Here's a picture when it was the kitchen.  Remember this?  The peacock wallpaper and linoleum floor?  Notice where the door used to be.

And now it's the family room.  We're adding a gas fireplace so the room will be nice and cozy.

Eventually it will look something like this. 

via gascoals.net

Oh, it looks so civilized.  I often look at the house and think, "will it ever be done?"  I'm not talking about decorated done.  I'm just talking about walls, toilets, sinks...you get the point.  

Options Part I

The floors did get installed in the hallway, butler's pantry and family room which is a huge improvement.  When everything is finished they'll come back to sand and polyurethane them.  

Family room

First floor bath looking into butler's pantry

The cabinets are still going up.  They kind of took a break last week.  The installers seem to be very thorough which is good and bad.  I only say bad because it's taking so freakin' long to put them up.    

I've had to make some pretty tough decisions in the past week.  Namely about the countertops.  I really really love the look of marble.  Who wouldn't want one of these kitchens?

via decorpad.com

via decorpad.com

via decorpad.com

There are about a gazillion pictures and blog posts about marble countertops because they are so timeless.  But...they are also completely impractical for someone like me who has borderline OCD.  All my hair would fall out worrying about stains and etching.  But oh is it beautiful.  

I also love Quartz..

via kitchenbuilding.com

They even have some that mimic the look of marble

Ceasarstone Misty Carrara

But...I've heard that you can't take things hot out of the oven and set them down on quartz.  I guess it's not the end of the world.

We also looked into Soapstone 

via anantmarmo.com

via soapstonecounters.com

Such a classic look.  Our neighbors have soapstone and they love it.  But...I know myself.  I'm fairly lazy at home and I just can't see myself oiling these every six months or sanding them if heaven forbid they get a scratch.  I'm twitching even thinking about it.

The only biggie left that I haven't mentioned is granite.  We've had granite countertops before and were pretty happy with them.  My only beef with them is that our particular granite had a lot of mica and quartz bits that chipped.  I lived through the tragedy though and lost very little hair since our installer was able to "fix" these areas.  Other than that, no problems and no maintenance.  Yes.  

So after giving it a lot of thought, we decided to stick with granite.  I really wanted to get a white colored granite which apparantly is an oxymoron.  I've seen some whiteish granites online but the local retailers in my area didn't have a lot of choices.  Apparantly you have to live in Utah to get the goods.  Don't ask me why.  Anyway, here are the options:  

Option one is Delicatus White

via stonecontact.com

via houzz.com

This is probably one of my favorite kitchens.  The granite looks so dreamy.  There is a lot of variation in this stone.  Some slabs end up looking really peachy yellowy while others are more gray, black and white.

Delicatus White via marvamarble.com

 Option two is Ambrosia White.

Ambrosia White via marvamarble.com

I really love the movement of this granite and it has some nice grey veining with garnet spots. 

Option three is Spring White

Spring White via marvamarble.com

This granite is actually similar to the Delicatus White.  It has white, black, grey, and taupe with some garnet spots. 

So, opinions?  We had the template made today for the granite.  I actually already decided on one, but I'll reveal what it is once it's in.  I hope I made the right decision.  All three are really beautiful.  It was tough to choose but I'm really excited about some of the progress that's taking place.  Yay progress!

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone has a great day.  Next week I should have some house updates.  Until then...

Let There Be Light

Things are really starting to pick up now. The windows and new door are in and they started to put some of the cabinets in the room to configure where they will be going.  It's really starting to resemble a kitchen now.  

I guess I'd better start thinking about colors.  The cabinets are going all the way to the ceiling so the majority of the room will be white.  Obviously there are a lot of windows and thus a lot of natural light so I'm thinking that the walls are going to have to be somewhat dark.  We haven't picked out countertops or backsplash yet so that will skew our decision of course.  You would think that with how long this has taken that I would've  had this all figured out already, but I don't.  I've almost figured out which lights are going in the room.  These are the choices:

 Or

I've only seen the satin nickel island lights in person.  I'm waiting for the store to bring in the glass version before I decide.  I think they're a good look for the style and age of our house.  Originally I wanted to do lanterns but my husband gave it a big thumbs down.  For some reason he likes them for our hallway though.  No rhyme or reason with him.  Must be an XY thing.

Who Knew?

Well I finished my oil painting class and here's my most recent painting.

I have to pat myself on the back just a little bit here so bear with me.  I took this class after my friend begged me.  I had taken a pottery class last year and it was an epic fail.  It definitely was not the Demi Moore in Ghost experience that I was hoping for.  The clay was not soft and squishy like I imagined and it was really a lot more difficult than I thought it would be.  I'd given up on having any artistic ability, especially after remembering the abysmal things I "created" in high school art class.  So I reluctantly signed up for the oil painting class.  The teacher's style was very free.  Translation, she gave no instruction whatsoever.  Normally I am a very think inside the box only type of person.  I'm  right-brained and am somewhat rigid in my thinking.  Things have to be just so which really doesn't lend itself to letting the creative juices flow.  Normally I would run the other way in this type of class.  No instructions!  Well what do I do?  Cannot compute, cannot compute (steam coming out of my ears).  I think since I've gone through so much in the past few months that this freedom was actually welcome.  I didn't have to think.  I really didn't care if I didn't know what I was doing.  I was just going to enjoy it no matter what.  And then it happened.  I painted this from a picture in a magazine.  Is it perfect?  No.  But I'm pretty damn proud of the way it turned out. 

 So now my "masterpiece" is providing the pop of color needed for our stark carriage house bathroom.  I don't know if it will stay here but for now it's great.  Who knew?