Hey, that's a kitchen!

Today they finished installing all the cabinets throughout the house.  When I turned the corner and saw the kitchen I squealed.  True story.  My poor kids are so embarrassed by my excitement for this house.  The kitchen looks like a kitchen now.  In fact, all of the rooms are really taking shape and you would no longer need the blueprints to figure out what you are looking at.  In addition to the cabinets, they started on the banister and installed all the door frames and a good amount of the interior doors.  We have set our official move-in date for October 23rd.  The countdown is ON!

We have a front door and a mantel!  Think the workers will mind much if I get a jump on my decorating and place a few items on that pretty mantel?  

Kids back in school = lots of time to spend on the house. Yippee!

The kids went back to school today and while I shed a few tears (OK, a lot of tears) as I pulled away, because I really do love having them home with me, I also felt a huge rush of excitement because now I can really hit the ground running with this house!  I spent the first few hours of my new found independence working on our loan.  Ugh.  Definitely NOT the fun part of buying a new house.  But with those tasks behind me, I was able to sit down with a good cup of tea and pick out a crown moulding for the house.  That's more like it.  Meeting with an architect later today to go over plans for a guest/ pool house.

Pretty crown moulding samples our awesome contractor gave me to choose from

A kid in a candy fabric store

This morning I had a meeting with our lovely window treatment designer.  I definitely have a love affair for fabrics and a well dressed window so this was a particularly exciting meeting for me.  She brought dozens of samples for each room and I had the pleasure of weeding through them, picking out my favorites.

Below are the fabrics I choose for our morning room.  I am so excited for this little nook in the house we are going to create.  I can't wait to sit all cozied up on the banquette, sipping tea, flipping through my Ina Garten cookbooks.  Apparently we have a lot of rain coming this winter so if I can hear the rain pattering down in his idyllic scenario, all the better!  

Fabrics, wallpaper, and paint color for Madelyn's room.  Purple and teal, a color palette she picked herself that I feel confident will grow well with her.  

Hadyen's fabrics and wall color.  He has been far too busy playing Nerf wars with the neighbor kids these last days of summer vacation to bother himself with such decisions as fabrics and wall color. That means mommy gets all the decision making power.  Hopefully he likes this for years to come.  

This picture does not do this stunning fabric justice.  It's a beautiful silk that will grace two windows in our Great Room and I love it so much I might just carry it around and lovingly flick it like a baby would.  

Meanwhile… at the house,  the workers are currently finishing up the interior walls with texturing and a base coat of paint.  By next weekend we should have all cabinets installed and our fireplace mantel finished.  If everything goes as planned (please construction Gods let it go as planned) we will be in our new house 9 weeks from today!  Cheers to that with my sparkling water, as we are half way through the Whole30.  

Cabinets galore!

We had a meeting at the house last night with a cabinet guy because we want a few custom cabinets made throughout the house, like this for our morning room…

When we showed up to meet the guys we found our Great Room and Bonus Room filled with all of our cabinetry for the house. 

They've really cleaned up the joint!  They got rid of all the extra drywall, insulation, and nails that had been thrown about.  They also cleaned up all of their empty beer bottles and take-out containers.  So that's super.  Walking through last night it really felt like a house.  

In my future kitchen having visions of dinner parties with great friends and close family

The fun decisions...

Madelyn and I worked today on choosing her wall color that will compliment the wallpaper she picked out.  This is the stuff I love about a new house!  

Drywall… check!

We were in New York for the past several days so I wasn't able to make my daily rounds of checking in on the house.  I was so thankful to have some peeps go over the weekend for me and report back because it was an exciting week!  Our drywall is now completely installed!  Woop!  Woop!  It is really starting to look and feel like a house.  I find myself getting this giddy feeling throughout the day for seemingly no apparent reason.  And then it hits me.  I'm excited for the new house!  The to-do list from here on out consists of all the things I am most excited for.  Coming up soon, cabinetry installation.

The kids and I have been keeping super busy this summer so I haven't had as much time as I'd hoped to blog.  Here's the update on the house, insulation is installed.  Hooray!  Drywall could go up as early as tomorrow (fingers crossed).  Hayden's bathtub has been installed and they completed the hot mop in our master shower.  They continue to make progress on the outside of the house as well, prepping it for the stucco and putting up the siding that will make up a portion of the facade of the house.  We have decided on a landscape architect and I am super excited to start that process of designing our backyard.  After all, that is the main reason we are moving… for a bigger yard.  Our garage is nearly maxed out with new furniture and boxes filled with purchases for the new house.  I'm treating all of my purchases with the same policy that my mom had for new school clothes bought during back to school shopping.  We weren't allowed to wear any of it until school started.  And although that seemed like cruel and unusual punishment at the time, it sure made those first weeks of school exciting and special.  So, I'm not using any of my new stuff.  Once I get a package, I mark the outside with what room it will go in and dutifully pile it up in the garage.  It will be like Christmas morning each time I open a new box!  

Future Wine Room looking very fluffy with all the insulation