Real Cactus, Fake Poodle

From, literally, the moment the house was finished, we have been entertaining and hosting guests. My family visited over Thanksgiving weekend and every one's stay was comfortable (so they tell me). Please excuse the odd faces in the shot below. I guess my cooking was so great, they would not even stop chewing for the picture.

Before the family pulled in to town, I added a few items to the house. My favorite, Cashmere the Cactus.

I really like the vibe she brings to the house. I bet you didn't know cactus (cacti?) had such swagger. Oh yeah they do! You know what else has swagger? Bushes shaped like poodles.

While the fake poodle does not track in mud, the real poodle does. I needed a rug in front of the door he goes in and out of the most. I couldn't find anything I liked enough to get yet not enough to be sad when there was mud all over it. I settled for getting two small rugs from Target and sewing them together. By like hand people. I sewed them by hand.

That was all in place before my family arrived and during their visit, I also received my coffee table and rug for the living room. It is crazy how those two things made it feel so much more inviting.

I added the two red stools from Target right before I hosted a meeting at my house. Maybe they will stay there or maybe they will move somewhere else in the house. One thing that is still not done and not even hopeful is the bookshelf. I threw a few things on it but that actually made me so depressed I had to remove everything. Apparently I am very sensitive to the moods of my cactus and bookshelf.

Old school look, but not in a good way

The next big project on the horizon is setting up the Christmas tree. I might then set my sights on the office/den. It feels boring. I am going to make it an office and I think I might go dark in here....like Navy?

 

Original blueprints for the house

Stay tuned.

You Decide....

With Phase 1 of the rennovation coming to a close, it is sometimes hard to imagine that the house was ever anything other than what it is now. Wasn't it always this cool? I will let you decide. Has it changed all that much?

April 2014

April 2014

 

November 2014

 

October 2014

Things are looking great. We are starting to have a steady stream of house guests and dinner parties. The plan is to bunker down during the winter, enjoy the space, and make small decorating updates. In the spring we will access the plan for Phase 2, which will be focused on dry walling the garage, a new driveway, a fence, and landscaping.

I will continue to update a couple of times a week with the changes that are happening inside. Less drastic than "We Have Walls" updates, but much prettier pictures! Look forward to seeing a rug project that I did this week. It involves me, yellow tread, and some needles. I will also introduce you to a new addition to the family. Cashmere the Cactus.

Be Our Guest

Please don't think that the lack of posts this weekend indicate that nothing was happening at the House of Leo. Plenty was happening. Plenty. As you may know, we had been gearing up to welcome our first house guests in the new place. We wanted their experience to be top notch, starting with VIP airport pick-up.

We had spent the days (and hours) leading up to their visit moving our stuff out of the apartment. The apartment looked so much better and BIGGER without all of our stuff lying around.

We spent the week/weekend lounging around by the fire and playing board games. We even managed to sneak in a birthday celebration and host a bunco night.

We learned a few things.

One, the apartment makes for a very private house guest experience. No body was in any one else's space. It was really nice. We even tried running the apartment shower and master shower at the same time. Great water pressure and the hot water never ran out (go tankless!).

Two, we learned that the house is VERY loud. I think we were all deaf after bunco night. With all the glass and hardwood floors, there is not much to absorb sound. Add 12 semi-drunk women and a some bunco dice and you approach sound barrier speed. And so started the search for a living room rug. It was an all day affair. I finally ordered one and I am awaiting delivery.

 

Of course the minute I ordered the rug, I started having second thoughts. I REALLY hope to nail this on the first try. I have been very successful picking things online for the house. I hope to continue this success. This is one of many rugs that will need to be ordered, but I am pacing myself. I am also looking into having my carpenter make a coffee table for me. Sadly, I can't imagine that it will be finished by Thanksgiving. Sad face. At least it will be there the next time our friends come to town!

Feeling Optimistic

Good morning everyone. I feel a lot more optimistic about the house this morning. Maybe because I woke up in my master bedroom this morning, walked out to start the coffee in the kitchen, and I am currently writing this post fireside. Yeah, maybe that is it.

The rug is vintage and I bought it from esalerugs.com

Sure, if this was a 360 degree photo and you spun around you would see tillers but it does look like a bedroom, don't you agree? I will definitely celebrate that! Michael and I have moved most of our stuff upstairs (save for our shower supplies). The closets are up and we added hardware to Michael's.

In case you are wondering, Dog moved in to the master bedroom as well as evidenced by his bed and rawhide. The cats are refusing to leave the apartment. Have fun with that house guests.

One thing that we are going to have to solve sooner than later is the window situation. We are having the uppers frosted for privacy, but the south facing window let's in a lot of light. As in, the moonlight kept me awake kind of light. Curtains for the room were not high on the list, but they have now been moved up to immediate.

This picture was taken at 7am. Notice the light shining on my pillow.

Since I was up, I decided to snap a picture of Michael and put it on the internet for the world to see. Then I headed out to the kitchen to make coffee. There a lot of details still on the punch list that need to get done, but if you don't look TOO closely, you can almost treat it like a finished kitchen. The new appliances help.

I could point out all the unfinished items in this shot, but I won't.

Michael is going to have to get up and join me by the fire soon because the tillers will be here in an hour. Yes. On a Sunday. They only get paid when the job is complete and so they are just as anxious as we are to get the master bathroom done. It is looking close though. All the shower tile is up and the vanity counters (and shower bench top) were installed Friday afternoon.

Tile looks awesome right?

Vanity with counter and our massive sink!

The tiller expects to be done laying tile this afternoon. Tomorrow he will come back and grout and then we will have one of the crew install the fixtures. Once the shower heads are in, we can move our remaining stuff upstairs and it will be official. It is taking everything in my grown up body not to touch the steam panel. Michael expressly told me that it is functional and NOT to be turned on. Now it is a need. I neeeeeeeeed to push the button.

Well, that's all for now. After I finish my coffee and Michael gets kicked of the bedroom by the tiller, we are going to give the apartment a deep clean and make it ready to receive guests Wednesday. But first, I am going to spend a few more minutes by the new fireplace.

Moving In.....Sort Of

I guess I expected an actual "MOVE IN DAY" to arrive. Instead of waking up on a specific morning stretching and declaring it "moving day" it has been more of a slow march since the weekend.  Yes, we could start moving furniture and items upstairs Sunday, but the house is not quite finished. The appliances are going in this week (slowly) and the master bathroom is coming together (very slowly). The house is a mess, with boxes and supplies still all over the place. But if you zoom in, you can see furniture. First, the table arrived:

Notice in the right of the frame....a pile of aforementioned garbage

Notice middle left of frame....more garbage.

I appreciate that he attempted to clean up his mess, but it was sort of pointless.

The table turned out even better than I had expected. It is very well built and the size was customized to fit perfectly in the space. I am trying to become comfortable with how far the chairs stick out. Remember, theses chairs were purchased from the previous owner. Speaking of items purchased from the previous owner, the reupholstered couches arrived Tuesday.

Also note the new brown leather chair....and more piles of garbage

look on the landing, garbage.

The couches look great and are really comfortable. The upholsterer mentioned that they don't make quality one piece couches this big anymore. The two couches are actually not the same couch at all. By his estimations, the one in the last picture is from the mid-fifties and the other one is early seventies. How about that? You may have noticed the single leather chair in the picture of the living room. There was supposed to be two. I was (after delivery mind you) informed that the other one was on back order until December 9th. I called and basically thanked them for sending me one running shoe. I explained how excited I was to use half a pair. Long story short.....they located one last chair in another state and they are having it shipped to me this Friday. When the back ordered one comes in, I can have the floor model replaced. Uh, THANK YOU.

The upholsterer also delivered our new bed. It is cheetah print....but still classy like:

So you might be asking why I am whining about not being moved in. Well, the house is dirty and there is still piles of work stuff everywhere. My mom asked me if it was "nice to have everything so clean and new". Ha. HA!. It may be new......but it is far from clean. We have not slept upstairs yet and in order to get to my clothes each morning, I have to walk upstairs and through the unfinished master bathroom.

Can you spy the fancy tile?

Counters for the vanity should arrive Monday (possibly Tuesday). The tile should be done by then and the shower functional. Again, we will have to wait to use the steam until after the glass doors arrive (3-4 weeks). I will be happy just to have the tile in so I have a clean path to my closet.

All in all, things are moving along. Like at the end of a race, I see the finish line and no one seems to be interested in sprinting to the finish with me. Tonight, I am going to set up the kitchen and the master bed. I WILL MOVE IN TODAY!!!! Mark my words! There is a cleaning crew arriving today to clean. That will help a lot, but we still have to leave a card board path down for the tiler. The glass windows will also need to be cleaned by professional window cleaners because they are so high. I am going to focus on the progress. So it will be clean...er. Yeah, Moving Day!!!!

Good Stuff, Like Lights

Oh my my, let me catch you up. We knew going in to the weekend that it was going to be a busy one. I would have loved to have started the work Friday night after I got home, but being Halloween we had to rope off the property, shut off the lights, and head out to dinner. Since it is still very much a construction site, we didn't feel it was safe to welcome trick or treaters. Instead, we enjoyed a fun meal at Log Haven.....which turns into "Haunted Haven" on Halloween.

Spoooooky, no?

It was nice to get away from the house for a while. Saturday morning we got to work. Michael started  installing the fixtures. I LOVE!!!!

I spent my energy unpacking our "nice" dishes and hanging art. I also spent a lot of time dusting. Like A LOT OF TIME dusting. There was so much dust that it would have been difficult for the new fireplace to be installed Monday. And let me tell you, I need the old gas fireplace G-O-N-E!

I am on the fence about this painting, I will wait for the furniture

I was also able to locate the box with the Lucite table I ordered a million years ago. Locating the right box was a feat in and of itself. I mean look at this pile:

A bit of a let down when opening Lucite furniture...given that it is transparent!

Seeing the place start to come together is pretty amazing! The new lights, art, and table make for a pretty cool little welcome at the top of the stairs.

Michael spent all of Sunday putting together our wardrobe units. Michael's units will have doors because they are located in our bedroom. Mine will be open because they are within a closet. I hope to start moving my clothes in tomorrow. One more day of digging through plastic bins for clothes!

The last photo is in my closet with the door to the bathroom (pass through to bedroom) closed. Since this photo was taken, the drawers, rods, and shelves have been installed. Soon the units will be filled with clothes. Come to mama!!!