Color choices can be fun and daunting at the same time.  I usually have a perfect color choice in my head, but finding it can sometimes be quite elusive.  As you can see from all of my color samples, I don’t like to use the ‘same color throughout’, much to my husband’s chagrin.

I am one who likes to see the color on the wall before I make a choice.  When I picked up my 14 color samples from Benny Moore my husband about fainted!  But it proved to be a wise move when I nixed about half of the choices . . . too blue, too green, not enough gray.  Better to nix the sample than have to repaint!

I am using the old wallpaper in the first floor hallway that has in interesting Asian print as my jumping off point.  Blues, grays, creams and taupe will be my color pallet.  Now on to finding the one that will be ‘just right’!

The old Asian wallpaper. I think it is pretty cool!

When I fell in love with the dream house 8 months ago, I knew the time would come when I would have to give up our current beloved house.  Our first project house, that only took 3 years to fully complete, that we were still fine tuning the yard last year, our first ‘home’ together.  The time has indeed come, as I have put off the inevitable long enough, our home is For Sale.  Sign in the yard, listing on the real estate web site, it is official, and I am incredibly sad.

Over the past few months of demolition dust, window woes and other construction related drama, I could always count on going back to my comfortable, warm and ‘done’ house.  Now people will be looking at it to someday, perhaps, be their dream house.  Pulling up to my home with a for sale sign in the front yard and getting the first request for a showing nearly turned my stomach.

Our 1930’s Tudor on York Way was anything but a dream when we first saw it, but my hubs and I have vision.  Sometimes we question our ‘vision’.  We can see potential in something that no one else does.  It is either an uncanny knack or shear craziness!

Over the course of our time in our home we have touched every surface, sanded and refinished woodwork, painted every room, (some twice), floors refinished, new patio and driveway poured, the inevitable replacing of a roof which is never a fun project, to cleaning out and landscaping the entire yard.  Wow – it was quite a project!  We have hosted numerous get-togethers with family and friends, smoked some darn good ribs on the Big Green Egg, entertained with holiday parties and we were even on the CASA Holiday Homes Tour, something no one would have envisioned when we first purchased the house.

It has been a great ride, sweet York Way house with the now lovely back yard.  But it is time to say good-bye and this will not be easy, because breaking up with you will be oh so hard to do.

After several weeks of comparing, looking at, touching and getting price quotes, we finally decided on our kitchen appliances.  There were a few things which were a must . . . must have another microwave drawer and that I would not buy another Kitchen Aid dishwasher.  Have always loved the micro drawer and hated the dishwasher from the get go!   I guess I was under the impression when one purchased a new dishwasher, items in the dishwasher would come out clean and spotless.  Not so much!

This time, we are going with Jenn Air.  A dual-fuel 36” Range, warming drawer, dishwasher and 42” built in refrigerator, and off course, the beloved microwave drawer.  Oh Jenn Air, please don’t let me down!! Our ‘main man Mike’ at Factory Direct Appliances is great to work with, as we went through this process just over five years ago.  I think he treats us so well because he thinks we are nuts and will be doing this again in another five or six years!  Perhaps we are his child’s college fund providers . . .

It was such a relief to have a decision made.  That was a high point to the day!  Another was seeing the plaster work being completed AND a new window going in.

My bathroom. Just waiting for tile and my big tub!

Living Room plaster complete

The new kitchen, all open to the Great Room

Kitchen looking into Great Room

Another of the kitchen

The Master with Plaster

The new shower waiting for tile

One new window may not sound like a big deal, it is one of 24, but hey, who is counting.  One window is in!  That joy ensued after the snafu we encountered with said windows.  After three weeks of waiting for them to arrive, windows are here and ready to be installed.  But wait, they are the wrong exterior metal clad – not white – they were TAN!!!  With several back and forth discussions with the company, we were told they would give us the windows for half off if we would paint them ourselves.  SCORE!  (Of course I’m thinking this will but us WAY below budget . . . cha ching for me!)

 So after two weeks of waiting, the windows starting to go in was a very BIG deal.  Another high point!  And the paint prep was beginning.  Yippee!

My closet is ready for paint!

Then came the low blows.  There was an original cut glass lantern fixture that had hung in the entryway and I wanted to use that on original fixture in a guest bedroom.  The workers took it down and placed it in a closet for safe keeping, or so I thought.  When I went to look for the fixture to take it to be rewired, I was told it was broken.  WHAT?!?  Oh Nuts!  Why didn’t we wrap it and put in a box for safe keeping?  Why don’t men pay more attention?   Why did I not move it myself??  Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda . . . . Does not repair my lovely old fixture.   GROWL!

And then we met with concrete guy to talk about the driveway.  Long story short, he now wants to scale back his work because he is getting ‘too busy’.  UGH!  I can’t think about the low parts of the day any longer, I must look to something positive.

Like maybe buying a new light fixture!