Rain, Rain, Go Away...

I want to move in

to my house today.

Yup. Feeling impatient with this spring weather, which though beautiful has been obnoxiously rainy these last few weeks. All I need is a short dry period so that we can get our final concrete laid and then we should be good to go! Our certificate of occupancy is pending and our temporary apartment is filling up with boxes, so we're ready when the house is... hopefully soon! This moving delay, as it happens, also means that the time between occupancy and the end of our lease will be short. So we're back to the idea of hiring movers to make it happen without us losing our sanity. 

Did I mention that I am also supposed to be traveling abroad in just over a week? And that I'm almost 30 weeks pregnant? There's not that much sanity to spare.

That being said, the silver lining to our delayed move has meant more time working on some of the smaller details that we would have had to otherwise tackle after our move such as shelving in some of our closets, cabinet hardware, and hanging mirrors in our bathrooms. It's kind of nice to know that at least a few elements in our home will be ready-ready and all we will have to do in the kitchen, for example, is decide how to organize our stuff. 

In the meantime, we've been able to start working on a few of the details that will take our house from lovely to, you know, functional.

Perks of carpet = no bedrooms or beds required for these guys! One of their new "we're visiting the house!" routines involves taking lots of pretend naps on the stairs. Also it's another reason why I'm grateful for the landing halfway up/ down.

 A semi-functional laundry room! We will be adding some shelving and pizzazz to this space shortly, but in the meantime we've got a working washer and dryer! Side note: these are the first new appliances we have ever owned. Our previous home came with a set circa late 1980s/ early 1990s and we replaced the washer at one point with my grandmother's mid-90s model when she no longer needed it. So needless to say, I'm thrilled!

Pro/ con of being budget conscious means that we took charge of our own closet and pantry, which also meant a multi-hour long trip to Ikea to grab a whole lot of materials. And a whole lot of man hours to come getting it all assembled and installed!

I love our cabinet hardware a little too much, especially in the way that it mimics the handles on our hardware. Hardware is one of those details that you don't consider when you don't get to choose it, but seems to transform the look of a space when it changes.

Our little bunnies loved hopping around the house on Easter weekend.

A more pulled-back shot of our kitchen (sans peninsula and additional pendants). I'm caring a lot less about our non-ceiling height cabinets at this point. We've since finished the hardware on the island since this shot was taken, but the wall ovens that will be installed next to the fridge are still on their way. The originals were delivered with broken glass, so we are eagerly anticipating the working version!

Though not all details have been completed at E-Haus, our certificate of occupancy was issued and so we get to start moving stuff in a few days! In the meantime, we're surrounded by moving boxes once again for the third time in less than a year. Can't wait to be done with these for decades to come, and the kids concur.

Now, on to the logistics of a three-part move. 

E-Haus: Adventures in Lighting

Beware: there is a major photo overload in this post.

The problem with choosing our own lighting for E-Haus was that although doing so meant that we got to pick our own stuff, it did not give us an unlimited budget with which to make selections. The modest credit that we received helped somewhat, but since builder-grade = inexpensive, we knew that we would be investing a certain amount over that total. But where to invest it?

We decided that the best use of our extra funds would be spent in our great room, which is great in many ways, not least of which is its size. We needed our lighting to make a statement. I initially voted for chandelier, citing designs like this one:

source

But, as much as I am drawn to these looks in theory, Nate made the good point that we are both not traditional enough and also not formal enough to make an elaborate light fixture "work." So we set out to look for fans that would not be dwarfed by our space and stumbled upon this one:

It's a little modern, a little industrial, and huge. It was also a big splurge for us, so we scoured big box options like Amazon, Home Depot, Menards & Lowe's for the other hundred lights we needed. And I even found my chandelier, which will be happily installed in our library/ playroom. 

Here's much of what we ended up purchasing:

A whole lot of modern/ rustic/ industrial in primarily dark oil-rubbed bronze and black finishes that help them to stand out against our light gray painted walls and place nicely with the dark metal balusters on our stairs and balcony. The single exception is the crystal flushmount for N's room, because she wanted a "sparkly light" and we felt obliged to deliver in some way. We delivered all of the lighting in a few different carloads over the course of a weekend, and five days later-- not only were our walls painted, but the lighting was installed as well. This made for a dramatic change that mostly just served to make us more antsy for occupancy and move-in day. 

Here are some of our lights in action:

(Ignore the dusty floors mid-installation. I'll get to them later!)

Now that we have light, we can stalk our house at any time of day! Hooray!