Tear the Roof off the Sucker...

Or rather, put on one.





See the room over the garage? I was relieved that they remembered to add it. I kept waiting for something to go wrong. 

Full framing was soon complete and in no time the shingles and windows followed. (One was broken when it was shipped thus the big hole upstairs).


Seeing the house take it's final shape was exciting, but when I went inside the front door I was even more excited because these were in too...


With the stairs in, we had our first chance to check out the upstairs to see how the framing and room sizes shaped up. We were surprised to see that they had already installed the shower/bath combo in the main hall bathroom as well as the shower and soaking tub (that I insisted upon) for the master bathroom. I had assumed they'd be put in much later in the build. I dig the transom window above the bath here. It's the room right at the top of the steps and even though we had to pay a tad extra, I think the light it brings in will be well worth it.



I can picture my first bubble bath already. I haven't lived in a house with a suitable bubble-bath-worthy tub since before my college days! (I'm weird about taking baths in our rentals when I don't know who else has lived here. Anyone else?!)

The other excitement upstairs was how the bonus room turned out. I was standing in the corner of it looking out into the hallway where J is standing. I like the sloped ceiling as it adds a bit of character. Not sure what we'll use this for (5th bedroom, playroom for our little one on the way, etc.).

See that black thing in the closet area? It's a sweatshirt! In "Where's Waldo?" fashion J and I would look for it everytime we were in the house. It was always in a different spot and, while a little nasty, it was our own little game to play. haha

And last but not least the master bedroom. This is the view from the corner. The door to the hallway is out of view in the left corner, and I'm standing near the entrance to the master bath. See where that little bit of wall sticks out between the two windows? That was actually supposed to be where the master room ended. We had them close in what would have been a 2 story foyer. While those are gorgeous and airy, I'd rather use the space in our bedroom. Another thing I loved about being able to design our own floor plan!


So, the next time you see pictures of our house-to-be there will be walls! (I'll spare you the month or so where the only excitement was HVAC and electrical as I'm sure most of you don't really care about wired and vents). 

My goal is to get the posts up so you see the final reveal the day we're moving! Until next time...

#99

I haven't done a recap of where I am in my 101 in 1,001 list in awhile, and some new developments have taken place. Specifically, I will be able check # 99 off of the list this August when I BECOME A MOMMY! So excited to announce that J and I are expecting a baby! :) :) :)
 
SO, with the move in 9 DAYS (OMG!) and a baby on the way, it is safe to say that I'm not going to achieve all that is on here by November. I'm okay with it because such happy things are on the horizon! I will hold myself to # which is putting money in savings for each item that I don't complete. I may even cut the list off early and make a master to do list of things we need to get done before the little lentil bean arrives- a brain dump if you will.
 
We couldn't be more excited for the blessings on the way! See- I told you things were about to get more interesting 'round here.

The Packers

And no, I don't mean the Green Bay variety. We won't talk about that certain football game in which they beat a certain team... I mean J and I. The Packers. 

We've been spending all of our spare time cleaning, sorting, and packing up all of our belongings. Our place is an absolute trainwreck right now. I'll start a packing project and then poop out halfway through it. Boxes...everywhere! You don't realize how much crap you accumulate until you have to move it. Since our wedding in November, 2008, we have only unpacked about 5 wedding gifts (kitchen utensils that I didn't own and a dustbuster). We were in search of a new house and I didn't want to unpack it all just to move it a short time later. That short time ended up being over 2 years! Everything else is still piled in the closets and corners waiting for the new house- I am so excited to unpack it all b/c I probably forgot what is in all of those boxes! I really hope there is not a fire or power outage in the middle of the night, because we do not have safe exit paths established at this time. :)
 
To make the packing more exciting, I channeled my college days by making a mix tape playlist for the special occasion. (Am I the only one that made mix tapes just for random occasions in college?). The theme: we're moving, we're getting our own house and good riddance to the apartment and crap landlord playlist for my iPod. Highlights include:

Movin' Out- Billy Joel
Bust a Move- Young MC
Bye Bye Bye- 'N Sync
Movin' on Up- The Jeffersons theme song
Old Apartment- Bare Naked Ladies
Our House- Crosby, Stills and Nash
Hangin' Around- Counting Crows
We Gotta Get out of this Place- The Animals
Coming Home- Cinderella
I Like the Way you Move- etc. 

Quite the mix and oh so fun to dance around to. I enjoy playing certain songs loudly so as to alert my upstairs landlord of our current state of emotions. Anyone have any songs we should add?!
 
Until next time...

Makeover

My husband has lived in our current rental for about 6.5 years now. From the day he moved in this chair and it's lime green companion have been sitting out in the 3 season room (which is really only a 1 season room and/or storage closet here in Ohio).


Pretty dreadful... It was his grandmother's chair and the mismatched pair of them lived at J's mom's house for years. They were going to get rid of them right around the time that J moved into this place and he couldn't bear to part with them. He is a sentimental guy when it comes to hanging onto stuff, so I couldn't blame him for wanting to keep something around to remind him of his grandparents.

Still- and call me crazy- I couldn't quite see the orange and lime green duo fitting into the color scheme at our new house. I have had an itch to do something with these things for years now, and after being inspired by some great furniture makeovers I've seen out on the blogosphere I had high hopes to reupholster these things. When J and I started making a list of the things we'd need for the new house, we quickly realized that we were seriously lacking some seating options. Because we have a living room which is the first room you see when you walk in the front door, we needed something cute. I'm also a believer that you should fill your house with things that tell a story about who you are, and after a little persuasion J agreed that O.J. and Mr. Lime (as I've come to call them) needed a facelift. After getting some estimates (too afraid to DIY these!) and scouring the web up and down, I finally settled on this fabric.


We are debating on whether to have them reskirted or to "show a little leg" and maybe paint the legs black (or another fun color, even!). What do you think? Any suggestions for pillows to go with? I'm thinking a bright, solid color.

In a few days, O.J. and Mr. Lime will be packed on a truck and sent in for surgery. They'll leave our rental and will be coming home to a brand new house. Bonus- two less pieces of furniture for us to move since they'll be at the shop for a month or so. I can't wait to see the outcome!

The Framing Begins...

 We left off in my last post when a big ole' pile of dirt starting looking a little more like the future foundation of our house. In just one week's time, we started seeing the blueprints turn into something a little more real. 


The foundation walls were poured and we started to see the "guts" of our home take shape. Funny how the little things excited us at this stage. See that little black hole in the wall below? That's the other end of our garage drain and it thrilled us! We're easy to please. 



We left town for a weekend and didn't get the chance to drive by, so when we returned you can imagine our surprise when we saw this:


 Whoa! We have a second floor! And a garage! And a chimney and window holes! It wasn't exactly safe walking around the lot at this point, but we did manage to get a few shots of the framing that was happening inside. If you walked into our garage and through the laundry room, you'd arrive in this area below. I was standing in the kitchen area looking to the opposite wall where our fireplace would soon be. That big hole on the back wall is for the sliding doors that will eventually lead out to our patio.


And here is the view from the sliding door area. Dining room to the left, basement steps straight ahead and hallway to the right. Aren't those ceiling beams sexy?



And one more angle from the dining room. The front door/foyer area is to the left. Our future living room/someday maybe office is on the far left wall and you can see the family room area in the back right corner. Our builders put up some protective boards around the huge hole in the floor where the steps would eventually be. 


And last but not least. Baby's got back!


See the sliding door area and three windows in the family room area? To the left of that we have a kitchen sink window and another for the laundry room. Upstairs from left to right- bedroom 4, the transom that goes above the main bath shower and the two on the far right are bedroom 3 and our master bath. WEEE!!! Looking good! I must admit that I got a little worried when I came home and checked out the photos from this angle. See that big blank spot on the second floor to the left? We worked very hard with our builder to draw up plans that really maximized the square footage we had available. I wanted to add a "FROG" (Finished Room Over Garage) or bonus room over the garage/laundry area which could serve as a fifth bedroom. future playroom or even my own she-cave (I agreed to let J claim the basement as the future man cave. We've gotta have SOMEWHERE to hide all of those mini football helmets and old Star Wars collectibles, right?!).

Hope you're enjoying the progress of our build! I promise we'll get into more fun stuff like decor and lighting fixtures and all of that soon. More to come!