There's no place like HOME for the holidays!

We did it we did it we did it!!!!!

Although both the hubs and I feel like we've been run over by reindeer (come to think of it, with our sore backs, we actually feel like grandmas who have been run over by reindeer), we did it!

I am not going to use the word "done", but good-enough-to-move-in was the goal and we made it just in time. Thank you all so much for all of the support and well-wishes!

Loads of pictures to come after the holidays!

This illustration served as our Christmas card/moving announcements - my friend, the wonderfully talented Stella of Frances Loves You drew it for us- thanks again, Stella! And yes, my hair is blonde in the illustration for a reason- I've decided I'm a blonde at heart and will be heading back that way in 2010 :)

A Very Merry Christmas to you all!!!

A Couple of Makeovers

Hello! Are you going as crazy as me this week? I apologize in advance if this post is a little wacky. We are in overdrive working on the house every night, trying to grab a few Christmas gifts, and oh yeah, working full time jobs in between. I have SO much stuff to show you! Our master bathroom is fully tiled and painted, our bedrooms are FINISHED and one EVEN has curtains! We are still keeping our eyes on a December 23rd move-in date, and it's going to be close!

Do you like the new blog design? I asked my super-talented friend Brooke (aka Mrs. Cupcake, aka Brooke @ Claremont Road) if she could design a new header for me. Look what she whipped up! She took it upon herself to redesign the whole thing! Not only is Brooke a fabulous designer, she's also a great friend and I am so lucky to have her in my life! You should check out her blog over at Claremont Road.

You might remember from my last post that our kitchen is starting to come together- but the floors are still looking a little drab. So we decided to paint them green!



Okay, just kidding, but isn't the adhesive for our cork floor tiles a festive color?


These went down without too much of a hassle, and we were so excited to be able to cut them with a utility knife instead of a tile saw. The hubs has about had it with tiling, and trekking out in the cold (ours is actually set up on our rooftop) to use the wet saw is NOT on his top ten list of favorite home renovation activities at this point.




Once you have the tiles precisely in place, you simply roll over them with the floor roller (more fun if you accomplish this skateboard style) and they are locked down.

And voila, you have floors!



We purchased our cork unfinished, so we have to add a few coats of sealant now that the tile is set- it's on the (long) list for the weekend.

Do you like it when bloggers keep it real? I do. So in the interest of keeping it real, check out the view from my kitchen into the dining room- taken last night. Isn't it lovely? My mom was telling me yesterday that she's disappointed that she hasn't had time to do a lot of holiday decorating this year. I think this picture is going to make her feel better about herself.


This room is going to be ready for Christmas Eve dinner in just seven days!

(Pray for me please!)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like a Kitchen

Let's take a step back in time, shall we? The day that my husband first saw our house he was without me- walking the dog while I was at work on a Saturday morning. He brought Duncan back home and returned (did you know our old apartment was only 140 steps away from our new house?) to peek inside during the open house. He immediately fell in love, but how in the world was he going to get his wife to agree to purchasing a house with a kitchen that looked like this?

So he strategically showed me every other part of the house first- the big living room, the fireplaces, the built in cabinets and bookshelves, the three bedrooms, the pretty trim details, (he breezed quickly by the 3.5 ugly bathrooms), and then held his breath as he finally led me to the doorway of the "kitchen". I will admit that it made me hesitate for a moment, but it was too late- I had already fallen in love with "our house" too.

So we did some work, and soon it was looking, well, er, actually it was looking worse:


But we pressed on.

Everyone gets real impressed if you say you gutted your house "down to the studs". So will you think I'm extra awesome now that I'm telling you we took our house "down to the studs"... and then we took the studs out too?


Yup, it turned out that underneath all those ugly yellow cabinets, corn knobs, and pegboard was something even uglier: rotted wood. Now I don't know much about any of this, but even I can tell you that when you find something big and important looking that is rotting, it's not good. And it's going to mean that your little renovation project is going to take a lot longer than you thought and that your pockets are soon going to feel even lighter than you had planned on.

I'm not going to lie, I started to lose faith right around this stage (you put up some caution tape in your kitchen and just see if it interferes with your mental state):


But then we turned the corner! Every day it was starting to look better, not worse!


(This one's spray foam insulation in case you haven't had the pleasure of a giant truck pulling up outside of your house and pumping this smelly blue stuff into the walls of your kitchen.)


On the day I arrived home to this next photo, I gasped! Then I did a little dance of joy in my kitchen. WALLS!


Glorious white, clean, non-rotting, brand new WALLS!

I nearly cried tears of joy.


We even took a break from the renovation madness (I washed the grout out of my hair and everything), and went out that night to celebrate- Annapolis Santa Stumble style.

Name those reindeer!

Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, our cabinets arrived. Be still my heart.



No, it's not done yet, but the end is in sight. I think I can finally begin to say it's all been worth it. The appliances that were delivered today and installed tomorrow (even now as they sit in the dining room they make me giddy) mark one of the final stages, with only countertops and flooring left in the big kitchen projects list.

We just might pull this off in time to whip up some cookies for Santa ;)


ETA: It's done! Stick around for some pictures coming SOON!

There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays?

Good news: We have been getting SO much done on the house!
Bad news: Working on the house EVERY day after work until the wee hours leaves no time for blogging!

With our Christmas goal just a few short weeks away, there is still so much to be done. We're really hoping to be able to move ourselves in by then even if things are not totally complete. But on the must-have list are the master bathroom, kitchen, and all of the painting projects.

A few updates for you, with details to come when I can find more time!

Master bedroom: painted! Still needs: another coat of blue, floor finishing.


We decided on the fourth blue color we tried- West Coast by Benjamin Moore (color-matched by Home Depot in Behr paint), and we are loving it. I'm not loving the way the touch-ups are showing however, and I think this room is going to need another coat, which will have to wait a bit.

Second bedroom/office: painted! Still needs: floor finishing (and I think we might take the tub and sink out- no?).



The color is Hush by Benjamin Moore.

Third bedroom: painted! My friend Becky and I put the first coat on the walls last night (sorry no pictures yet)- it's Coastal Path by Benjamin Moore, color matched in Behr paint. Again it's kind of splotchy and the touch-ups are showing- UGH! Has anyone else had this trouble with Behr paint? Still needs: one more coat, floor finishing, ceiling painted, plaster repair sanded.

{Side note: Becky wins the award of most helpful friend EVER. Despite about 25 other well-meaning friends promising to help with the renovation, she is the only one to follow through. HUGE thank you to her! (And you should go visit her blog; she's hysterical.)}

Master bath: floor tiled and grouted! Shower floor tiled. (Not grouted yet in this picture.) Still needs: shower floor grouted, shower walls tiled and grouted, final plumbing install, vanity built, sink installed, vanity top tiled and grouted.


Tiling turned out to actually be kind of fun! It was the blind leading the blind, but we got it done and I think it turned out pretty nicely.

Kitchen: insulated, sheetrocked, primed, and cabinets installed!!! Still needs: appliances installed (coming tomorrow!), cork floor installed (arriving next week), countertops, final electric. Photos to come, I promise. The kitchen looks SO DIFFERENT! It looks like an actual room. With walls! and floors! and as of yesterday, cabinets! Amazing.

Powder room: sheetrocked and tiled. Still needs: paint, final plumbing install.

Second floor bathroom: sheetrocked, tub installed. Still needs: A LOT.

Dining room, foyer and living room still need: finish priming, painting, floors finished.

So the million-dollar question is, "when are you guys moving in?". Well, I wish I could tell you. We're still shooting for Christmas. Do you think we'll get there?