We had another kitchen meeting this afternoon to look at lighting, glass selections, and to discuss backsplash options. We were disappointed to learn that our designer is no longer with the company right in the middle of the project. We really loved her! I am sure we are in capable hands though and we've been reassigned to another designer. We are working with really wonderful people.
We are deciding between xenon and fluorescent lighting for under the cabinets and halogen for inside the cabinets and the wall niche. We'll probably go for the fluorescents since it is less expensive.
We selected a bubbled glass that has a vintage feel for the lit corner display cabinet. It's goes well with the time period of our house. I think it looks classic and enhances the display rather than obscuring it. I like it much better than plain glass. It adds a little interest. This picture isn't the greatest (taken with a phone so it is blurry) but you can see the detail of the bubbles that we like so much. It looks like really old glass.
Our landlord informed us Thursday night that a realtor would be stopping by the following afternoon to install a lock box on the door. They are listing the house for sale.
I don't want to have to move (again) before we move into our new house. I'm not looking forward to having showings again; it was quite stressful when we sold our old house, and now our time is so tight and divided between maintaining this house and completing the extensive renovations at the new one. So it's not a great time, but what can we do? We're lucky to be renting this place, so we will just be as accomodating as we can and keep the place looking show-ready so they can hopefully find a buyer. I just hope we can get adequate notice before showings because with my herniated disc it takes a long time to complete the housework. We gotta step up our efforts to getting the new house ready to live in.
Jeff went to the new house to cut the lawn and discovered shattered glass all over our dining room floor. We were the victims of vandalism--someone decided to break our window. We were so happy to have the windows installed at the house too:-( It couldn't have happened at a worse time because we are very very busy, but as they say when it rains it pours.
Maintaining two houses is getting to be time consuming, so having this mess to clean up didn't make us happy. Jeff ended up getting glass in his hand. It was a double window too, which will be more costly to replace. We don't want to make a claim on our homeowner's insurance because of the requisite rate hike. Insurances are such a scam. You pay so much hard-earned money into them, and when it comes time for them to help you out when you need it, you can't even make a claim. It's a shame, too, because this expense means that we won't be able to finish something else in the house. The funds we budgetted for the reno are almost exhausted (and paying rent plus a mortgage and utilities for longer than we planned is cutting into the budget), so we'll just have to save up to do some of these projects. There's a lot of work yet to be done. We're overwhelmed, but still looking forward to a day when all of this expense and hard work pays off. I would rather live in a beautiful home that we own that isn't yet finished than to go into debt and accumulate more worries. What good is a lovely home if you are too stressed to relax and enjoy it?
Now for the broken promise; we're dealing with a fraudulent seller on Ebay who lied repeatedly to us and never replaced the damaged statue he sent to us. Ebay won't help us because the time to open a case has expired (yeah--because the seller strung us along by giving us his word that he was going to make the situation right). I might stop using Ebay because of this, but what can you do? There will always be low class people out there looking to make a buck off the back of another because they lack the intellect or God's grace enough to make it on their own. I've been through it before with other companies and people in my life. The best thing is just to let these things go and let God deal with the bottom feeders. Life goes on. I can always find another statue, and one way or another this home will be finished someday and we're going to love it!
We've decided to hire our carpenter to be our general contractor to complete our kitchen project. We discovered that people wouldn't get back to Jeff with quotes because he is just a mere homeowner and not a construction, electrician, etc. business owner. That has set this project behind so much. I have a feeling this carpenter is the answer to prayers to get the project moving. We are excited to move! He said that will likely happen toward the end of August or beginning of September. He's not sure if the marble flooring will work in one place we want to put it though. He's not sure if the floor is flexible enough for it. I hope we can figure a way around that because I love white marble. It's timeless; it suits the time period of the house, and it gleams:-)
I can't believe we've been living in a rental for almost 2 years trying to move forward. The journey began 5 years ago. Half a decade. For half a decade we've been trying to move into a new home, so I feel like we're stuck in a time warp. We've lost a lot of our life to this, so it's discouraging when things like vandalism and rip-offs happen when we are working so unbelievably hard to fix up our home so we can finally move in. We'll make it, though.
This will all be worth it one day. I need to focus on the positives: We bought a spacious and amazing home with amazing potential in one of the nicest and most sought after areas of the county. The neighborhood is great and we have plenty of land. And I got to custom-design my own kitchen that I've seen in my dreams. It's going to be one fantastic place to live! We're going to have a beautiful life there.
My mind kept racing with great ideas, so I gave up trying to sleep. After a day nursing a migraine and a meeting with the carpenter, I started thinking ahead of the kitchen and picturing the rest of the rooms. It started at the hardware store today when I was picking out paint cards to bring home. I started staring at them and wondering which colors spoke to me. So many ideas popped into my mind so I had to draw them. I have designed the dressing room and guest room already! I can't wait to start those projects--and I hope I can make the ideas a reality. I feel so inspired!
The house in Baltimore county that we tried to buy for well over a year will be back on the market. Jeff got a call offering him first crack at it. Hmpf!
I'm surprisingly emotional about this. I wanted that house more than anything. I hate banks. They jerked us around so long for this short sale. I am sure the bank probably just put band-aids over the mold damage just enough to resell--without any regard for the health of the family who decides to buy it. They'll get a great house though, but I hope the leak/mold is disclosed to them.
The curse continues. LOL. I gotta laugh, or else I'd cry;-) Yesterday the knobs & pulls for the kitchen arrived and they are gorgeous--however, one of the glass knobs has a manufacturing defect that makes it impossible for the screw to go through during installation. Glad I checked all 35 of them out! Just emailed the company and hopefully they can send a quick replacement. The quality of everything was just amazing though with that single exception. I'd by from houseofantiquehardware.com again.
So the gigantic historic Oak tree on our lawn isn't in great shape. A gigantic limb has fallen off into the yard and it would take about 20 men to move it. We're going to need a chainsaw to chop it up and haul it away. I think the tree is really unhealthy, so we're going to call a tree expert to have a look and see if it can be saved. With our luck I do not want it to fall on the house.
It's sad because I fell in love with the tree and it gives character to the yard. One of the neighbors told us that it's the only surviving Civil War era tree in the area, which is why it's on a registry (hence the plaque we found on it). We really want to save it. Last Fall the orange leaves were absolutely gorgeous.
Last night we went to check the humane trap to see if we caught the pet mouse. Not yet, but I noticed that since the wall is down now I can see that the floor in the dining room is a full 4" higher than the kitchen floor. That's where the peninsula is going on top of, so I am not sure what we are going to do to fix that problem. Oh, I would love a day without a problem!
We've had a string of bad luck lately, but we're working really hard to get things to come together. Bel Air Construction has been wonderful in helping to guide us. They have set up a meeting with an electrician and plumber next week so we can get this show on the road. Jeff and I are learning a lot in this process and we're trying to make smart decisions. We adore this house and want it to be a happy home, so we know these efforts now are going to pay off bigtime later.
One nice thing: the knobs and pulls arrived today and they are stunning! They will be like jewelry to enhance the cabinetry. I'm trying to stay excited by holding onto the vision of a finished kitchen. I picture myself making a big Italian family dinner in there and I see everyone, including me, smiling!
