Blood, Sweat and Chandeliers

Hello and sorry for the silence! We moved into the house the day we got back from our untimely but pre-paid vacation. It was chaotic but still the most organized and calm move we've ever had. Now we're living in the lower floor of the house while construction continues above us. We just got internet and tv hooked up which was a momentous occasion. It's nice to be on site vs. driving an hour each way to meet with the contractor or water seedlings. The downside is the fact that hammering and music starts at 6:30am each morning. Still- the house is really close to being done and should be ready in 2-3 weeks. We're enjoying the evening cookouts and the quiet!

All of our appliances are downstairs so we're cooking out for dinner every night off the back patio. Having a refrigerator hooked up is awesome no matter where it's located! BTW, that fridge was a floor model we got from Sears as was the cooktop. Gotta love floor models!

A lot has happened since we got back and moved in. I finally settled on fixtures, new windows were installed, Louis broke the tractor flying too close to the sun/driving too close to the fence, the kitchen is being installed, Louis fixed the tractor, I planted some things in the garden, the bathroom tile and showers have been finished and I painted the ceilings and bathrooms.

Some people say spending endless hours online price hunting is a waste of time, clearly I disagree. Everything in this house has been price checked and checked again. My satin nickel cabinet pulls and matching cabinet knobs were about $2 each from Overstock.com - most places want $14-19 each AND through Overstock they arrived in 24 hours. The internet is amazing.

Here are the interior doorknobs I picked, satin nickel Baldwin crystal handled knobs that I got for 60% off retail from an online Baldwin dealer- booyah!

Here's the faucet I decided on. Another internet deal where I got %15 off and a matching soap dispenser thrown in for free. Mine will also have a matching sidespray.

Kitchen before:

Kitchen now, mid-cabinet install: 

Here's a closeup of the cabinets, they're Thomasville and thank goodness for HomeDepot and their amazing deals and payment plans because without them this would have been an Ikea kitchen. 

I'm really excited to see it all put together. I went to a granite warehouse this week and have no idea what color to choose. Here are a few options- 

Option #1 -  granite

Option #2 - marble

Option #3 - granite

Option #4 - marble 

So- two marble choices vs. two granite choices...no idea. Leaning towards #1 now that I've slept on it.  I was originally going to go with a dark granite but all they had was black and that might make the kitchen look like an Oreo since I'm doing Walnut stained floors. 

My problem is I can sometimes be too matchy-matchy for my own good. The kitchens I like the best aren't afraid to mix white and off white shades. I really love marble countertops but need to find the right colors- time for some kitchen porn! 

I love whoever did this. That faucet is very similar to the one I ordered and those cabinets look to be off white like mine YET they went with marble countertops and it looks great to me.

Double sinks aside, I love this kitchen too. Again, similar faucets and cabinet colors. I chose almost exactly the same satin nickel cup pulls for the cabinetry- loving the mix of off white and marble...

People say marble isn't smart for a kitchen because it can lose its shine if acids like lemons or tomatoes are left on the counter but that doesn't scare me- I did some research and it'd have to sit there for a long time to eat away at the marble. 

Speaking of my obsession with marble, here's the shared full bath, I put a traditional marble floor in. Sorry the picture is blurry but it was overcast.  

Here's the simple subway tiled shower in that bathroom- this picture was taken before I primed and painted and before I added a decorative trim to the top. 

Here's the trim. 

The master has a marble shower and a decorative marble floor. Both these bathrooms have radiant heated floors powered by the boiler so it doesn't cost us anything extra to run them!

Here's the freshly tiled master shower and floor before I primed/painted.

Here's a pic of the other side of the room during the painting process-

I swear I'll take better pictures some day. 

I created a pretty cool little design for the half bath off the hallway if i do say so myself! It's a high shine beige marble lined by high shine beige marble mosaic tiles. Once again, thanks to HomeDepot for making a deal with the devil to carry great materials like marble cheaper than anyone else in town. Sure, I had to go through each box of tile piece by piece in the middle of the aisle because their cuts vary SO much by color. I cut up my fingers, made a big mess and looked crazy but I brought home similar shades of tile at a great price and that's all that matters! 

I'm going to beadboard/wainscott the walls in that half bath this weekend to achieve this kind of look-

I love a project and this house has a ton. I'm seriously lacking in the garden department because I'm waiting for our elusive plumber to hookup a hose connection to the well on our property. I don't want to use good city water we have to pay for to water the garden. So for right now I have just watermelon, cantaloupe, squash, corn, brussel sprouts and peas. That seems like a good little list but in a 10,000square foot garden it looks like a pebble in a bathtub. I'm probably going to bend and plant my tomato seedlings this weekend because they can't wait any longer. 

Here's a pic of the brussel sprouts and peas at the base of their little trellises-

Last week:

This week: 

Before you ask, no I have no idea what's up with that little one in the back row. Who knows. I'm definitely late on planting but it took a long time to get the garden fence up and it was pretty impossible to keep everything going not living here. I planted corn as soon as we moved in and four days later it's already sprouted. It may not be knee high by the 4th of July but we'll have corn this year dammit! 

We're letting our neighbor friend who put up the garden fence, "Farmer John" as he's known, put a few horses on the back acres of our property for the summer. That way we won't have to mow and we'll get to see horses. I'm pretty excited to feed them apples and give them names.

Overall, things are going well. My white whale of the moment is picking a chandelier for the dining room. So much choice. So much. It puts me into a trance. I'll post a few pictures of those choices when I have it narrowed down. The electricians are waiting to come back in until I pick one so it's fair to say I'm under pressure. 

My projects are calling me- more later.