House Pictures, Part 2

Our sofa came in two pieces and we picked it up in a borrowed Suburban. Now that is a large vehicle. Too big for KK, but perfect for a move. We couldn't have done it without the 'Burb. The sofa was the last piece to arrive and we assembled it ourselves. I took this picture from an angle so that the sofa appears larger than actual size so as to intimidate predators, and to avoid showing how lonely it looks with no other furniture to keep it company. It is very comfortable, and perfect for gazing out the big windows and watching the squirrels fight for territory.


Our bedroom is the darkest room I have ever slept in. Except for a cave. This is taken with a flash so as to show some of the actual color. The walls are a grey/green/sage like color and the ceiling and window box are a deeper green. It all makes sense when you see the curtains up close, so you'll have to take my word for it. Our bed takes up most of the picture; I'll work on another angle to capture the room better, but it also lacks lamps and such to show itself off. Mom and I made the duvet cover which I love. I've got to invent something to cover up the box springs. And this bed covers two different zip codes; it is so large! I'm not sure if I like it since it feels like I'm in my own federation on my side, but it is comfy and I shouldn't complain. Shaw, the non-snorer of the two of us, loves it.



This room is really hard to see in pictures. Our little tiny powder room is painted "Bardast", the darkest grey blue on the paint strip. I know, it looks black, but wait till you see it live. Mom and I put two packets of granite crystals in the paint for just a touch of sparkle. It is really subtle, but showing a bit more now that the paint is drying and curing. I love the super dark blue against the white porcelain. That outlet is poorly placed, though, now that I see it. The ceiling is painted in this one too, and I thought about putting subtle constellations on it just for amusement. I've reconsidered. I've also told Sophie that this can be her bathroom, so perhaps I should consult her first anyway.

Latest House Pix

Again, more house stuff. We took pictures of the new paint, along with our cardboard decorating theme. Just imagine all those boxes are emptied, crushed and removed from sight.

The yellow study is the first room you see as you enter, and the least furnished (with the exception of the living room). We hope to put lots of black and white and maybe red things in it. Right now it is the study, perhaps we will move the computer upstairs and make it a real library. The archway is part of the entryway, and is painted in "Shark", a soft grey blue. We liked having two paints called "Shark" and "Flipper." Sort of like Godzilla vs. Bambi.

The entry has our favorite slate floor. You can see the yellow study and the dining room shooting off to the right. The shark color is a bit washed out from the flash, I guess.

The dining room is sort of bordello-red. Technically, Heartthrob from Sherwin-Williams, but HomeDepot custom mixed it for us. Red is supposed to stimulate conversation, and we love to have dinner guests. We heard red was tricky on walls, so we used the grey primer. I think it took more effort to cover up the primer than the walls. Dad worked tirelessly on this one, but when he was done, he was done, if you know what I mean. We found this dining set at Eurway and both really liked it. The wood is dark espresso with a frosted glass center square. The dining chairs are padded dark brown leather for long-lasting comfort. When we eat, we don't eat quick, so we wanted something for the long haul. We'll be trying this room out tomorrow. The long slubby silk red curtains are forthcoming. The fabric is here, but the seamstress is not; Granny is in training to prepare for the task, and we hope to knock those out before Christmas.



Sort of hard to see, but this is the living room. Our friend Chuck came out last Sunday and painted all the highest elevations in this room. Unlike the other rooms, we all voted NOT to paint the ceiling in this room. The part you see is 14 feet high, but if you turned around, the ceiling actually juts up to almost 22 feet. Not for the faint of heart. Chuck basically spent 8 hours on a ladder cutting in the cleanest of lines possible on this nastily textured wall. All our walls have that blown-on texture that is completely unavoidable in Texas (another charm). It was so extreme on some of the walls that we actually had to sponge on the paint. Let's just say it definitely created a learning curve we desperately didn't want. This room is painted entirely in "Flipper", the darker grey-blue. I love it. A lot.

Fishwich

Again, I have no picture, or real recipe, but we had the yummiest fish sandwiches the last two days. There was a special on white bass at Central Market, and we got enough for two nights of fishwiches. My favorite!!

Shaw sprinkled on the last of our Sunny Spain (lemon pepper) one night, and greek seasoning the next night. I made a shmear of light mayo and sour cream, lemon zest, lemon juice, fresh tarragon, salt, pepper and greek seasoning. Spread that on some toasted herb bread, slap on the fish, and chow down. Super yum!!! First night we had it with Fennel Slaw, one of my favorites. If I haven't put it on here yet, it is thinly sliced fennel, some olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. I could eat a bucketful. And last night we had an asparagus salad (Chris would LOVE! haha); lightly steamed asparagus cut in bite sized pieces, tossed with red wine vinegar, lemon juice, canola oil and thin slices of red bell pepper. It looks like Christmas on a plate. No wine, since KK has been on muscle relaxers (a buzz in itself), but we would have done the new Barefoot Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio with it. You cannot beat those for $6. Even Mom liked it. We have packed up the rest of our wine, so we're drying out till we move next week. Maybe...

House Update

OK, so my camera batteries just died and I forgot to take updated pictures last night, so no visuals today. Forgive.

We close on the house in 8 days, and by our calculations, there is about 12 days of work left to do. Sales guy says 4 days, builder guy says 8 days. We are going to let them sink or swim. Actually, we are much more optimistic after yesterday's chat that they will have most everything finished by the night before.

We still need blinds, carpet, remaining tile, replacement tiles in the kitchen where they ate tacos and oil stained them, staining the wood on the stairs and front door, swapping out the toilets to human sized ones, take down the bricks they put in an archway that wasn't our brick, brick the back by the windows they repositioned, sod, finish landscaping, reposition outdoor lights, retexture and plaster wall dings, repaint the walls, paint the trim for the first time, fix the broken window upstairs, replace the dented new a/c they installed yesterday, clean everything. That might be about it. Not much, right?

Yesterday we drove up to our house and discovered they installed the sprinkler system underground, plus landscaped the front of the house. We now have some sort of purplish ornamental grass, shrub roses, a crapemyrtle, two other trees which Dad will identify for us next week, plus some other shrubby type clumps. Just as we predicted, they will plant something to intentionally obscure our house number, which was bricked into the column in front. Our bricking crew was chastized, and then fired, so we feel a bit of justice there. We mentioned they hadn't put the house number up while they were bricking, and asked if it could be done high enough so that people could see it from the road. Our brickers were a short collection of guys, and I guess they felt 5 feet high was high enough. No one will see it.

For some reason, we have a bit of renewed confidence that everything will get done. We picked a closing date, and they have to meet it. It's not our fault if they were delayed; I would have volunteered to pitch in and brick the back if they would have let me. We have a walk-through on Saturday to nitpick all the little things that are whack and again Tuesday night before we close to see if they all got done. So, now that we have much more peace about the whole thing, we are getting really excited about moving in.

Poor Mom and Dad are going to be worked to the bone, and have the complimentary floor to sleep on for a couple of nights. I tell you what, I'm keeping my parents around; I know lots of folks whose parents would never do the things mine have done or agreed to do for us. And the few I know with parents like mine won't lend them for cheap. Mom and I really enjoyed working together on Chris and Beth's house, so I have high hopes that this work festival we're about to do will have some visit feel to it, as well. If we only had some pregnant relative to run back and forth to Home Depot and bring us lunch and cook us dinner. Alas, Beth cannot travel this week. Bummer.

Our sales guy said he has had several people mention how good our brick looks, and they would have chosen it if they had known how good it would look. I think it is all because of the trim.

So, this is all just too much information. We are less enamored with our home building company than ever, but our confidence in our builder is pretty good now. I wish I had known summer mortgage rates are higher, just like travel prices. Oh well.