Wide Open Spaces

With our move in date a mere 2 days away, it is starting to dawn on me how little furnishings we will have upstairs. As in, I can count them on one hand. My right-hand man (the dog) and I took our last walk through the upstairs the night before the floor was going to be finished. Everything had been cleared out in preparation for the floors. I had never seen the house empty before (even after we bought it) and suddenly it seemed a little overwhelming.

Ready to hear my list of furniture being moved in this weekend?

1. King size bed
2. 2 large sofas (aqua velvet, oh yeah!)
3. 2 chairs for living room
4. dinning table
5. 6 dinning chairs

Add my newly acquired counter stools to the list and you have a full picture. There will be a few pictures hung, but we have no rugs, no lighting aside from over head cans, no decor items for the bookcases, and no occasional tables. I feel like I just graduated from college.....except for the fully furnished basement. Speaking of basement, the 2nd guest bedroom is coming together:

Somehow there is always a poodle in my pictures, one way or another

There is some art hung (not pictured) and the curtains helped a bit, but it still feels empty. I want it to be very inviting for guests. Most guests will stay in the apartment, but when I have a full house, like I will on Thanksgiving, this room will be used as well. I know the best way to furnish a house is to collect things overtime, I am going to have to repeat this to myself over and over......well only once when I am upstairs and the echo will take care of the rest. I knew the house was big, but when I first viewed the place it was littered with dead lady (not really) Holiday decor (mind you, it was April) so it was hard to get a sense of the size. Check out what it looked like the day we first looked at the place:

So it might take years to get the place to where I want it, but I am going to try to enjoy the process and enjoy the fact that this has been a long-standing dream of mine. I can almost check 'Remodel Home With a View' off my list. I tried to take a picture with my iphone of what the view looks like at night (love it) but it turned into more of a selfie:

I guess you will have to see it in person. Everyone is invited once I clean up all the reno dust. That should keep me busy all weekend.

I guess it is a lie to say that the bookcase is bare......

Counters, Fire Glass, and Frames

The weekend started off strong with the counter top installation and stayed strong until the weekend came to a close. I have not cooked a single meal, besides some soup, since we moved into the house/apartment, but the new counters had me so inspired I woke up Sunday morning and cooked breakfast. I cooked in the apartment then took it upstairs to eat on my new stools at the kitchen island.

Saturday was all business. Michael and I were feeling in good enough spirits to brave both RC Willey and IKEA. Individually, each one of those stores is enough to make you give up on life. Together, destruction is almost eminent. Knowing this, we stopped at Bohemian Brewery first. Full of Oktoberfest brew, we started at IKEA. Like a dog with a chew toy, we kept our eye on the goal and headed straight to the frames section. At the old house, I had a picture wall downstairs and plan to do the same in the family room of the new place but it requires a LOT more frames.

Used all the frames from the last wall and still need 2x more

If you ever want to create a photo wall yourself, I can't tell you how beneficial it is the cut out the templates and arrange them on the wall before hanging a single frame. This actually works for most art placement decisions. I also used a lettering system to organize exactly how many I needed to buy so I could get in and out of the store quickly. Fifty frames later....

I ordered prints through Shutterfly and expect those to arrive around Wednesday. I am anxious to get the wall completed. With IKEA down, we headed across the parking lot to RC Willey. Michael was there to buy a safe for the house and I browsed furniture while I waited. Most of the stuff in the store is not my style, however, I did come across a chair I liked.... I couldn't get it out of my mind....... I ordered two this morning. So my future guests, please step into my living room and take a seat- either on our velvet couches or leather occasional chairs. So many choices!

I plan to have them face the fireplace, which is getting spruced up soon. As much as those fake logs are a reminder of yester year gone by, they are cramping my style. They will be pulled out and replaced with a more modern version of a gas fireplace. Our 60lbs of fire glass arrived over the weekend.

we chose a reflective white similar to this picture

We can't do any work upstairs this week because the floors are being finished. This is a big step because it means we are still on track to move in a week from today! If we were on an HGTV show, it would say 'Days Until Move IN - 7' at the bottom of the screen following a commercial break. We can have the fireplace, master shower, and a few other items happen after we move in. Since not going upstairs for a week is bound to drive me crazy, I am going to focus on getting the downstairs and apartment ready for guests.

Week Round-Up

Let me start by giving you a sneak peak of posts to come. I received an update picture today from the counter top fabricator. I nearly fainted with excitement. The counters are looking even better than I could have imagined, which is relief because I had never seen the material in real life, only in pictures on Houzz. I don't suggest making your decisions off online pictures, but so far so good.

Halfway through starting this post, the counter top install guys arrived!! They were supposed to install Tuesday. I also don't recommend ever counting on an earlier than stated deadline when remodeling a house, but so far so good. Check in tomorrow for some installation pictures!

In other new regarding natural stone, our master shower is partially tiled. The guy works odd hours and didn't come today, but it won't surprise me if he is my wake-up call tomorrow.

The floor is covered, but looks like the bench

We also got a call this afternoon from the tile store letting us know that our fancy tile destined for the back shower wall has "touched down in the US". You know it is fancy stuff when its arrival is announced. We are still a VERY long way away from having a finished steam shower. After all of the tiling is done, we can have it measured for the glass door/wall. This will take AT LEAST three weeks to manufacture. We can use the shower with a curtain in the meantime, but we cannot use the steamer until the stall in enclosed.

Ladies and Gentleman, the tile has arrrivvved.

This morning Michael and I went out to our regular place for an early breakfast. As we were driving back home, I looked up the hill and it was the first time I thought the house looked NICE from the outside. That may seem weird, but we didn't buy this house for the curb appeal (it has zero). We bought it for the location and layout inside. But I tell you, it might actually be pretty one day. Like once you take off its glasses and paint-splattered overalls. It didn't take long into the morning for my admiration to fade. The stucco guys arrived and put up all the scaffolding for the job next week.

partial scaffolding up

Other updates this week include our powder room install. The toilet and sink went in, as did the light....which I hate even more than when I pulled it out of the box.

A new light is already on the way. This one to be specific:

I also feel the room is a little blah. I might be taking all my frustrations out on the room because it is the only one completed at this time, but I need it to have more punch. Enter wallpaper. I just had an installer out here to measure the room so she can help me figure out how much to order. Here is what I am currently leaning towards. It is a little bold, but where else but a powder room can you party so hard? Amiright?

Not my bathroom......yet.

Stay tuned!

When One Door Closes.....

"They" say that when one door closes another door opens. In our case, the doors closing would be our garage doors. In a good way. As of right now, they don't open but that should be fixed by the end of the day. If it was ever possible to be in love with a garage door, than consider me smitten.

The doors were installed yesterday piece by piece. The guy installing them felt the need to flag me down after I got home work to inform me that the garage roof slopes from one end to the other. Relax buddy, the house is 50 years old and we live on the east bench of the Wasatch mountains. And you are talking about a 2 inch difference. I hear that and I think, great water drainage. It is sturdy and levelish. The engineer who designed the structure was so concerned that Michael, the lawyer, would sue him. The result is that our roof deck ended up being over engineered given its intended use. It is a few notches below what is required for a "dance floor" with 1000s of people twerking. Apparently that is the highest of all standards when building a deck.

So back to what "they" say. When one door (or three garage doors in this case) close, another will open. In our case what opens is our windows. FINALLY.



The angle of the above picture does not highlight the amazing city view Michael will have each night as he washes dishes. The shot above also does not show the view I will have from the couch each night as Michael washes the dishes.

With the exterior painting still in progress though, you could say that the windows closed again....

Continued work is happening in the master shower, including hardy board throughout and a solid coat of water proof slime in the shower stall itself. Because it is a steam shower, the entire thing must be water proofed. Right now it looks like a room where the victim might be kept in a badly produced horror film.

Hopefully I will be checking back later this week and showing you a less Halloween inspired bathroom. One with tile. And marble floors. And fixtures.

We Be Fancy

While we are still a long way from finished with the outside of the house, the place is looking a little less like "that one house in every neighborhood". For one, the house received some paint:

It is hard to tell in this picture, but the main portion of the house is a gray green. The exterior still needs the trim (black) and under eves (white) painted which is planned to resume on Monday. The garage is also looking like a garage:

I especially like the above photo because the brightness of the sun masks the cracked and pathetic shape of the driveway. As far as you know dear reader, we be fancy. The garage doors go in this week, as do the windows HAZAH! Nothing makes you feel fancier than glass windows. Oh the decadence of it all.

Riding the high of the spruced up exterior, we knocked out a few little projects of our own. Michael organized the garage closet bays (not pictured due to the boring nature of the project) and I planted some boxwoods. My friend gave me three amazing boxwoods because, and I quote, her husband "can't stand the smell". You might be wondering what boxwoods smell like? As far as I can tell, nothing. They smell like nothing. Since my friend does not do deliveries, I loaded of the boxwoods in my coupe and CAREFULLY drove home:

I used the hope and pray method when changing lanes or making a right hand turns. After arriving home safely, and my car smelling like nothing, I enlisted some muscle and headed to Home Depot to buy dirt and containers.

Two of the plants went in standard square planters and are destined for the back porch. The third box wood, and the one I selected as my favorite, got a more exciting home.

The pot started black and after a few cans of spray paint, it was a shiny red. I was going to go with a bright safety red, but Michael, and I quote, felt that "apple red is a more cheerful red". What is it with husbands and their options? Apple red it is. I think it is perfect!

New modern light fixture coming soon.

The inside of the house also made some progress. The biggest change of course being the kitchen:

since this picture was taken, the rest of the island has been framed out

Having the kitchen in, even without appliances or counters, is so exciting. It really gives us a sense of the space. Plus, we could spend all of Saturday night fantasizing about where the spoons and cups would go. It got pretty heated. Here is a panoramic shot I tried to capture. It is a bit distorted, but still gives you an idea of the room:

Here is a preview of what is scheduled to happen this week:

1. windows arrive and installed
2. garage doors go in
3. walkable membrane goes on the roof deck
4. stucco on garage begins (same green/gray color as the bricks)
5. fixtures go in the two upstairs powder rooms
6. tile work continues in master bathroom
7. Counters installed

We should finish this week with a finished (minus the floors) interior. The floors get refinished starting Monday the 27th. It will take about 5 days, plus 2 days before we can move in. Its the final countdown! I even have delivery dates scheduled for November 3rd!

Gas Leak and A New Kitchen

Despite the epic gas leak at work today that forced us to evacuate for hours and get behind, everything on the home front is right on schedule. I took advantage of the evacuation (time is money ya'll) to go and sign the paperwork on the sale of my condo. I am now the proud owner of only ONE property in the Salt Lake Valley. And what a lovely property it is becoming. At 8:30am this morning, the kitchen cabinets were delivered. Had I known that I would have been standing on the side of the road once I got to work, I would have stuck around the house.



empty kitchen, but not for long!

By the time I was able to return to work, Michael sent me some progress pictures of the kitchen:

smile for the blog sir

If I didn't have a call with my Philippines team at the end of the day, I would definitely be on my way home instead of sitting at work with a headache. Gas leak? I am also anxious to see the progress on the exterior paint. They were just getting started when I left this morning.

The guys did such a great job on the interior. I can't wait to see how it looks on the outside.



solid pocket door + my closet painted



mostly painted master, waiting on windows to finish



black interior doors for upstairs

For those of you wondering if the gas leak has gone to my head, thus resulting in a decision to paint my doors black, check out these inspiration photos:

 

 

That's all for now. Stay tuned!