It has been a totally chaotic month!  Our move to the dream house went smoothly.  Only a few new scratches on furniture and nothing broken, I call that a success!

Hopefully, we are in the home stretch of completing the interior work on our new home.  We had a few setbacks, cabinets in the kitchen and my bath needed some tweaking, had an unexpected leak in the ceiling, A LOT of touch up painting to be done – but we are in the house and loving it.  Albeit, we are still sharing it with our contractor extraordinaire, Rick.   One day as I was getting ready for work I had to ask one of the painters to move so I could get my clothes out of the closet!  Hello Roomie . . . .

The first week in the house was quite interesting as we had no running water on the first floor and no bathrooms with a shower were yet operable.  We had to go to the old house to shower and ate more than our share of takeout food!  It was an interesting week to say the least.  After the first night in the dream home, we got an offer on our old house and it is SOLD!  It was difficult to say goodbye but it is such a relief not to have to go over there to check on things and to water plants when I would much rather be getting settled in the Westover home.

All new light fixtures are up, all bathrooms are now operable and the kitchen is 85% complete.  There are still many boxes to unpack but we are getting closer every week to being totally settled.

Now if I could just figure out which box the silverware is in . . . . .

Packing up the old house . . .

Moving into the new!

Our dining room table filled up the dining room at the old house. Now it looks Dinky!

The library is starting to take shape. Need to get rid of all of the paint cans in the fireplace!

A good use for the leftover island marble. Table Tops!

Matching tables in the entry way

Back splash tile going in

The girls are very comfortable in their new space

Entryway chandelier is finally up!

York Way house – SOLD!

Slab for the island – honed Carrera marble.

The base of the island. The legs will be added to the ends for some interest.

Had a great time laying the template for the Kitchen counter tops.  So exciting to see my slabs of stone!  Things are really moving along now.  We also have up most of the light fixtures!

The counters installed

I’m really loving my new counters!

The chandelier over the island

The ‘bling’ in my dressing room

Things are happening at a rapid fire pace!  Light fixtures are almost all in, tiling is done and the kitchen cabinets and appliances have arrived.  Holy Cow the dream house is nearly complete!  It has taken a few more months than expected due to some unforeseen setbacks, but we are set to move in the next week and a half.  Can’t wait to see my ‘treasures’ in the new/old house!

New sconces, paint and window for the upstairs landing

Kitchen pendants

Shower with the all important bench

Great room stained. My handy work on the fireplace

Kitchen sink area

Great room with new fixture and two new windows to let in more light

Love the ORBS!!!!

While at lunch with a friend, he asked if we had encountered any major ‘hiccups’ during the remodel.  Nothing major or unplanned, like the electrical was shot, the plumbing all needed to be replaced or that the roof was caving in.  We had already budgeted for reworking the electrical and updating of the plumbing.  The roof and gutters were new, as were most of the HVAC units.  Yippee!

However, we did have what I like to call a few ‘snafus’.  One being the breakage of an original light fixture.  But I am so over that now.  The overspray of paint on wallpaper we wanted to keep.  Oops.  Painting the entryway the WRONG color, while aggravating it can easily be fixed.  But the first major ‘muck up’ was the windows.

We had a quote from a well-known provider here in Topeka and had picked out the windows, were ready to roll.  Then they tell us their prices have gone up so our bid would be nearly 20% more than originally estimated.  We said ‘thanks, but no thanks’ and will not be using them for ANY products on our remodel and will NOT be using them again in the future.  Our wonderful contractor, Rick, came to the rescue and found another lumber company for the exact same windows at 1/3 of the price.  So instead of only doing half of the windows this year, we were able to replace all 20+ windows!

These wonder windows were ordered and we waited.  And waited.  Waited because no trim work, paint, floor work could be done until the windows arrived and were installed.  Finally the delivery date arrived!  My hubs proceeds to tell me how ‘lucky we have been not to have encountered any major problems’.  That gets my antennae up.  My first thought is that the windows didn’t come in.  No, the windows were indeed delivered . . . they were just the WRONG COLOR!  Yes, instead of the white metal clad window with the wood interior, we had TAN exterior windows.  Major SNAFU.

After much back and forth with the lumber company, and losing our window installer while determining what would be done with the wrong windows, we were told we could keep the old windows and they would order new ones.  What on earth are we going to do with a garage full of custom windows?  And being on a timeline with our subcontractors, we were getting way behind schedule.  After much back and forth, we were offered the windows at half off if we would paint the exterior.  SOLD!

Onward and upward with the project . . . .

Definitely NOT white!

We are really beginning to see some changes at the dream house!  Every day is a little like Christmas when I am seeing more paint on the walls, trim repaired and painted, bathroom tile installed, driveway taken out and re-poured and windows going it.  I believe the countdown is now ON!!

Upstairs floors are now stained

Entry and hallway painted Coventry Grey and banister refinished by yours truly

New trim work in and painted

Half Bath tile in and paint selected!

My tub is getting closer to its final destination. It is in the kitchen, at least it is no longer in the garage 🙂

Living Room and trim painted

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!

Finally!  The day I had been so looking forward to since we started our project.  I get to pick out my kitchen finishes! I have watched enough HGTV to know when you go to the stone yard to pick out the perfect piece of (insert granite, marble here) they ALWAYS find the one that makes their heart sing.  And I was looking forward to having a similar experience.

When the day finally arrived my Hubs and I took off for the land of the beautiful people or Johnson County, to go to four locations given to us by our cabinet maker.  Certainly I will find the swoon worthy piece of marble for the kitchen island and the ‘just right’ stone would steal my heart for the counters along the perimeter of the kitchen.

Well, it was not that easy.  Did we see beautiful specimens of stone . . . yes.  Did we find any granite that was gray and white . . . no.  Of course we did see gray and white with browns, cranberry, you name it, but not a pure gray and white. I will say there are some beautiful colors that out of the earth and are just stunning.  Just not for my kitchen.

After the first location my excitement began to wane.  Also, there was not one slab of honed marble that was not on ‘hold’.  None I tell you!  There were fantastic pieces of Carrera, Statuary, and White Fantasy polished marble, but no honed.  In all of my ‘studies’ while deciding on an island stone, I found a honed marble will wear with time, but will not etch and stain like a polished piece will.  One would think the exact opposite, but I did my research.

I also knew that I wanted to look at Quartzite, as it is a material that looks exactly like a polished marble but does not have the maintenance issues.  And there it was, a White Fantastic piece of Quartzite and it was definitely swoon worthy!  I must have it!  Then, queue the music, – Bum, Bum, Bummmm, the price tag.  OUCH!  My husband tried to quickly steer me away to another area with Grade A granite, not even comparable to a Grade E Quartzite!

On to another two locations, back to the first one and the day was getting exhausting.  Nothing like what I have seen on TV or had envisioned.  What a bummer.  I even offered to sell a kidney if the Quartzite didn’t fit into the budget.  Not really, but I wanted my hubs to know how intent I was on that those three beautiful slabs of White Fantastic!

Pretty, but it did not speak to me!

Another nice piece . . . but definitely not ‘the one’

We were lucky enough to find one stone yard that had one piece of honed marble coming in in the foreseeable future, only one. With thanks to our cabinet/stone guy we have a hold on the marble and I can’t wait to see it.

Within 24 hours of our little adventure, my hubs asked if I really had my heart set on the Quartzite and if I did, we really needed to put a hold on it.  He gave me until the afternoon to make up my mind.  What?!?  I don’t need any time to think about it . . . Hold, Hold, Hold!  All three slabs are MINE, MINE, MINE!

Looking back, I guess it wasn’t so much of a waste of a day after all. I did get exactly what I wanted

This is the swoon worthy Quartzite and it is going in my kitchen. Love, Love, Love!

Ahhh . . . honed Carrera. Be still my heart!

Who knew there were so many shades of white?!  Ballet White, Decorator White, Dove White, Diamond White.  So many choices!  It has become a very important choice, because the Kitchen Cabinets and most of the trim throughout the dream house will be  . . . white.

I did the obligatory painting of panels to take throughout the house, looked at them at different times during the day, and it was amazing how they took on a different look in each room.  Some would take on a harsh, bluish tint, while others turned more ‘creamy’, definitely not what I was looking for in my white kitchen.

In the end, I chose the color that will work with both warm and cool colors.  And the winner is . . .