Santa Croce Angel of Contemplation

She's finally here:  our angel.  We bought this art piece to fit in the nook adjacent to the front door.  I wanted to be sure that we have her as a memorial to beloved family members who have departed, and also to protect those who enter and exit our home.  Here Jeff is holding her up.  Excuse the dingy wall color.  We haven't painted yet, but we are currently deciding on colors.

Starting the Dining Room

Months ago we found the Mirren Harbor dining collection by Broyhill that we really liked in the Gardiner’s showroom.  We’ve been thinking about finishing the dining room as we complete the kitchen since the two rooms are essentially one space now that we have removed a wall.  We decided to make a purchase.  But as always with us, it was not without much ado.

I spent quite a bit of time researching prices on the internet and found an online store that had the best price, free delivery, no tax, and I was able to google a 15% off coupon from retailmenot.com (I use that site often to get deeper discounts).  We were all set to makie the purchase when Jeff decided to check up on the company’s track record.  It wasn’t very good and there were numerous complaints.  He decided against the purchase.  All of my hard work down the drain.  I wasn’t happy.  We were going to save so much!  I could have killed him.  I was so disappointed!

We made some calls today to local furniture stores who carry Broyhill.  We were able to finally purchase most of the set from Gardiners for about 60% off retail!  The store wouldn’t match the online comparison shopped price, but we’re very excited to make this purchase. 

This is our dining room furniture:



photo from gardiners.com



Unfortunately it was not in our budget to purchase my favorite piece—the china closet, but we did get the table with leaf, two end chairs, and 6 side chairs.  This table will seat 8 people very comfortably!  That means easier entertaining, and this furniture is very comfortable since it is upholstered. 

We also purchased a pair of bar stools for our future peninsula for the portion of it that extends into the dining room:



Photo from furniturecrate.com



Things are moving along nicely.  Now, onto window treatments and flooring.  This piece will just have to remain on my wish list a little while longer:



Photo from gardiners.com



Kitchen Begins!

Yay!  Kitchen construction FINALLY begins this week.  We called our carpenter, who will be running the show, to double check.  We bought a lock box to install on the house so his team will have access. 

Jeff was having second thoughts about our stone choice for the countertops.  I really liked what we picked out, but I figured that it’s such an investment and something we will likely have for a very long time that he should really love it too.  Other people didn’t like the sample of Valley White that we brought home.  His mom, my mom, my sisters.  No one seemed to care for the intermittent splotches of burgundy.  Eh, I liked ‘em.  I think they added a little interest.  Jeff thought they looked like dried blood.  So we went to the slab yard to see what else we liked.  We narrowed our choice down to a bold brown/gold granite from Brazil that was absolutely stunning, and a soft and sedate white called “Ivory Fantasy” from India.  I think we’ll be happy with our choice.  It’s something that will be a nice neutral that will mix well with whatever changes we want to make in later years to our brand new kitchen. 

Right now I cannot fathom ever wanting to change anything though.  We’ve waited so long for this!  The kitchen we are building from scratch truly is my dream kitchen.  I like that it will not be a cookie cutter builder grade kitchen.  I LOVE that it will not have honey oak anywhere.  I am so sick of looking at that color.  When we were looking at homes that is all we would see.  Honey oak and brick.  Not that there is anything wrong with honey oak or brick, I just really love the crisp clean look of white inside and out.

We also purchased a wall niche for over the peninsula.   That area will be a focal point between the kitchen and dining room.  We selected The Marietta from Invitinghome.com and saved $20 for using our Google account to checkout, and we Googled a coupon code for an additional 15% off.  This purchase will have a big impact on the way our space looks compared to the price.  I love saving money!  Almost everything we buy is a discount (except the cabinets, we splurged on those).  More to spend on something else… Hopefully we can put the savings toward the edge profile upgrade to a double ogee.  Jeff doesn’t want to spend the money to do all the counters with it, but I really dislike the standard edge.  The upgrades have more pizzazz and play beautifully with light.   

photo from invitinghome.com



A Silver Lining

I thought this day would never come--we have a start date for the kitchen!  Yay!  I'm so relieved.  It's taken us so long to get to this point, but we met with our carpenter and September 5th is the day.  Soon the dream kitchen will be a reality and not some distant figment of our imagination.  That also means that we will be moving in soon.  FINALLY.  I am almost afraid to believe it because so many things have gone wrong.  It's looking like we will be moving in by the end of October.

We're making good use of our weekend by getting some things accomplished.  A new slab of Valley White granite has been shipped from India and we went to the store to approve the selection.  We got a sample of the slab so we can match up paint colors and decide on a backsplash.  We chose a stainless D-shaped sink and are considering two different edge profile upgrades.  Although the rarer granite itself that we chose wasn't as expensive as I originally thought, the upgrades are much more spendy than I thought so we will have to weigh our decision carefully.  I want to be budget conscious, but I also do not want to regret any shortcuts we take. 

We have selected paint tones for the kitchen, dining, and living rooms.  We still have to purchase small sample cans of paint to make the final decision.  I've been scouring Ebay for good deals on lighting.  I'm bidding on a vintage chandelier from the 1920s that would be perfect in our house of the same age.  I really hope I win the auction because the piece is so unique; I've never seen anything like this.

Another Flood

Well it won't be too hard to move into the new house if we stay here much longer--we may have nothing left to move!  Two floods in 3 months while living in this rental.  This time it wasn't the garage, but the basement.  We've been having plumbing problems and the landlord was here trying to fix them when a pipe sprung a leak.  What a pain in the you know what.  There is an air leak in the system (which means the water pressure was pitifully low and the water would cut off while we were showering).  It also made us have to run dishes through the dishwasher 2-3 times. 

Thank goodness it wasn't worse than it was.  So I had to unpack boxes.  AGAIN.  Now I have to get more boxes again, spend time recovering my poor back again.  I couldn't reach Jeff on the phone to come home and help me, so I either had to let the water further seep into the boxes, or move them out of the flooded room and epmpty the contents and dry them off.  What a mess. 

On a positive note our carpenter is able to start the kitchen work in the middle of September rather than later.  Yes this is good news.  While Jeff was comparison shopping he picked up other jobs so he couldn't start Aug. 1 like we had planned.  I can't wait to get the heck outta here!

Faucets

Buying a faucet for your kitchen sink is more complicated than I thought.  After research I have decided that a candy cane style faucet will work best for me.  I like the style of this one:

Photo from faucetsdirect.com

I want to buy one that is great quality, but I would like it to look similar to this one.  We want to protect our investment in really high quality cabinetry.  I want one that has a pull-down sprayer held in place by a magnet, a single control, and an arc that swivels.  One hole to put in the granite will be nice too, and this will be easy to clean around.  The faucets where I am now have all the components all crowded together and it makes cleaning reallyt difficult.  I've actually used dental floss to clean them, which isn't ideal. 

I like the polished nickel finish--this will match the cabinet hardware and other accessories in the kitchen.  I am still deciding between a single basin rectangular sink or a D-shaped one.

Tree Trouble

Remember the gigantic tree in our new yard?  The historical registry White Oak tree dating back to the Civil War?  The one I was so proud of?  Bad news. 

We noticed that it wasn’t looking as healthy as it should be, so we called two different tree experts to have a look and offer their professional opinion.  Both concurred that the tree is dying from the inside out and it must come downL  I am so sad about this.  This tree was the major curb appeal of this property, and it was the first thing I noticed when we made an appointment to see the house.  It’s such a shame. 

Since the tree is so colossal it poses a grave danger should any dead limbs fall on the street or in the yard--or multiple neighbors' yard.  In fact, they will have to hire traffic controllers to stop traffic on the road just to remove it.  We got two estimates—one is about $5,000 and the other $8, 920.00