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. 

(Temporary) Change of Direction

The longer this wait continues, the more I sometimes feel like this whole "building a house" thing is a dream. A fairly realistic one with a hefty downpayment and actual plans, to be sure, but something nebulous and theoretical nonetheless. That being said, I suppose we ought to start settling into our apartment for real.

When we first moved in here, with probably a quarter or less of our belongings and a 6 month lease, it felt very much like a long-term hotel stay. I enthusiastically have shoved things into every little corner, knowing that this is not my house and it doesn't need to look good. But after almost two months, I've also realized that while this is not a forever or even a long-term house, it is in fact our home for the next indistinct number of months-- possibly even a year-- and so we've got to create some kind of a routine and enjoy the moment.

That being said, the goal this week is to stop drooling all over Houzz and Pinterest, and start making this current place work better for us. First step: start putting stuff away. Also, update our family calendar so that we're looking at October instead of August. Novel concepts, eh?

The Waiting Game

So, we're still waiting for that final permit so that they can actually start building! Everyone I have mentioned this to has responded with some variation of "Well, there's bound to be some hold ups in the process," which is true but frustrating since this particular stressor could have been helped if everyone was transparent from day one. And yes, other hold ups are bound to happen, from delayed shipping of materials to bad weather to-- I don't know-- slower than expected contractors. I'm just ready to get this show on the road!"

The upside of our slow start, of course, is that we are getting extra time to make our finish selections and save up money for other purchases to come. We are waiting on our initial kitchen layout so that we can finalize that plan, but in the meantime, we have pored over our samples and decided on our exterior stone:

The color scheme was simple enough since we have known that we wanted a rich gray exterior almost from day one, but who knew that there were so many varieties out there? Ultimately we wanted something that was a little irregular and less tetris-like in appearance, but that also flowed with our otherwise modern aesthetic, so Rustic Ledgestone in Onyx easily won out here. 

As a side note, I am sure that there are more curated ways to go about choosing stone-- like going to a stone yard, for example-- but budget dictated that we go with builder's choice on this one. And frankly, I love the options we came away with, so I'm feeling like this is a win-win for builder, budget, and the building itself. Yay!

I've also been getting WAY far ahead of myself by dreaming things like couches and lighting and rugs. Here are some of the things I've been loving, liking and lusting after lately. First, this West Elm couch.

LOVE:

At just under $1300 for my ideal set of options (86.5 inches, ink blue performance velvet and poly-fill for maximum looks and minimal risk for disaster in my very child friendly house), it ain't too bad. I've been crushing on versions of this couch for a few years now, so it's probably going to worm its way into my house. We've had leather couches forever, and they are classic and probably always going to be workable, but they're just not as cozy as fabric couches in my option, and plus I love the idea of adding in a tiny bit of color to our otherwise neutral home palette. 

(Also, palette versus pallet versus palate is quite the complicated trio of words. I wrote out each option before I was satisfied that I was using the right one up there.)

I'm less certain about this next option from Overstock, but it definitely fulfills the high style and low risk theme I'm going for with furniture for the time being. The price also varies and I've seen it dip low, which is where I'd buy. 

LIKE:

Essentially, I love them, and I know that they are a knock off of expensive but classic Eames dining chairs, but MCM is having such a moment right now that I'm worried about going too "Basic" or trendy or that maybe it's inappropriate to go with the cheap knockoff when I know better. They are wipeable and also low profile, which will make Nate happy since he has an aversion to hefty dining room chairs. The table that they will go with doesn't exist yet, but we've been batting around ideas. It's going to be custom-built by us, maybe with lumber from trees from our property that have to be felled. All that to say, we could make any chairs work.

And third, the rug from Anthropologie that I love and will never ever have, for all kinds of reasons.

LUST:

And that concludes the window shopping for today. Back to real life and relevant decisions!

Newsworthy

Today is my wedding anniversary. This means two things: first, that Nate and I have been married for six years, and second, that fall is really here. If we didn't know it before, the chilly and rainy weather this Saturday morning is driving the point home. Fall is here. We all slept in until 8, decided against a fancy homemade breakfast in favor of strawberry-banana smoothies all around, and we're planning on lounging in our jammies until at least noon. Why not? And this is why fall is my favorite.

As much as people love to obsess about the little details of fall (and, oh god, the pumpkin spice lattes-- blech), I think that the truth of it is that while the perks of sweaters and pumpkins are nice, what we really love is our return to structure. When we are working more, the breaks are so much sweeter. And for those of us with kids, this is true threefold. During the summer my kids would clamor for activities and fun and excitement from the first moment they opened their eyes. Now that it's fall and they are back to school and daycare and structured activities, they cheer when they learn it's a day off, and the whole family benefits.

So yeah, here's to schedules and paperwork and hard work! And also to our anniversary. While Nate drives me to the edge occasionally, most days he's my boyfriend and best friend and partner. There's nobody in the world I would rather love and compromise with, and over eight years into our relationship, that's a sweet place to be.

In house news, the hold-out permit has been approved -- the low spot on our land is actually a small bonafide wetland-- and now just needs processed. So fingers crossed that we'll be digging a hole in the ground in the next few weeks! In the meantime, we've got our well and some other secondary jobs to complete. Like gaining access to the part of our property where the house will be, which should be an adventure in and of itself. There's a whole lot of brush and hopefully not too many trees to clear. We've requested that if some mature trees do need felled that they get put aside. We have a contact who will kiln-dry and plane them for us so that they can still find their place in our home.

We've already talked about vinyl versus fiber-cement siding. Now onto our next debate: traditional hardwood versus engineered wood flooring.

Fast forward: Now we're (almost) building!

Our builders were set to go right on schedule. September hit and they were on their game with permits and plans. Of course, that's also when we all realized that there was an additional player in the game-- we just weren't told about it when we purchased the land. So two weeks later, we've got our fingers (and toes!) crossed that we're almost there. 

I am so ready to put a hole in the ground!

Of course, our delay has not been without an upside. These extra few weeks have been instrumental in giving Nate and I time to really talk through some of our hopes and plans, and even meet with a designer, which was such a cool process.

As an avid blog reader (and not just the DIY ones, either, but the blogs of actual educated and employed designers), home design show watcher and magazine reader, and let's not forget about Pinterest, I confess that I went into this process thinking that I knew us and our taste best. There is a real risk, however, in not actually consulting with anyone who knows what they are doing. If you haven't opened a conversation, nobody has had the opportunity to challenge you, and I truly believe that the best plans are collaborative. 

So, that being said, our experience just consulting with a designer was great. She was able to confirm that some unique ideas we had previously came up with were cool (an angled peninsula!), and that others would not translate from our heads to real life. And then she came up with some great additional ideas on top of that (black accents in a white trim world) and educated us on all things windows and lighting! We don't have the funds for complete interior design support throughout the entire process, but just that one consultation was a game changer and completely worth her fee. Our newfound confidence alone is worth it. 

(Next up: the great siding debate).