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.