Welcome to our New Home!

It looks like a lot of the major construction has been completed...all of the appliances are in, and without further adieu, here are some before and after pics of our new house. It's a house now, but hopefully we'll make it a 'home' in just a few short weeks. Enjoy!

The foyer:

Before

After

As you can see, we decided to widen the in-lay and instead of more tile, we used marble. The same marble that is on the fireplace...

Before

After

The fireplace was probably the most dramatic change in the house. All of the tile was removed and replaced with teeny-tiny marble on the face, and then larger marble pieces on the front edge. The new flooring and paint also help! Oh, and I would have never come up with how to paint/accent the fireplace without the help of our designer, but more on that later.

Teeny-tiny marble

Moving on to the kitchen...here is a shot from the family room, looking into the kitchen.

Before

After

Yes, the dreaded mini-pendants are still hanging (the new ones haven't come in yet), but just try to imagine the room without them. Our lovely fridge, complete with a GIANT freezer (think of all the baby food I can make!!) is awesome (yes, we got the ice dispenser/crusher) and our dishwasher is so quiet, both the general contractor and I had to strain to hear if it was working. At which point, he exclaimed, "I'm gonna get me one of these! Holy cow!" Sweeeet. I hate loud dishwashers.

You can also see the lip of the new carpet that is now in the family room - a must for a little bear who is just learning to crawl. I think we might put in a wet bar (eventually) in the nook on the left and perhaps a desk in the nook on the right. 

Before

After

This shot of the kitchen would look a lot better with the new mini-pendants (Curse you, you pendants!), but you can see the fridge, new sink, faucet, and tile. I think the tile is just gorgeous and best of all, clean! The grout on the old tile was just so disgusting. I'm happy that we upgraded it to add the sealer as it was mixed, so hopefully it will never turn black. Fingers crossed.

New sink:

The laundry room that caused me to almost have a nervous breakdown at Home Depot:

Laundry Room

I'm damn proud of this room. It may not look like much, but every single thing in this room needed to be built/bought/added. It was quite the project.

And I'm also happy to report that for the first time in my adult life, I will be able to do the laundry indoors. This marks a huge milestone for me.

My rockin' utility room sink and faucet

A shot from the kitchen into the family room:

Family Room

I bought the chair (which will eventually be put in my loft) from the Whippersnapper's dad.  It reminded me of the chair I used to have in my office when I was in practice. I plan to read many, many books in that chair.

And you can get an idea of the carpet/family room shape. The carpet turned out great, and the flooring people were nice enough to throw in the baby for free.

A few more pictures from around the house:

The chandelier that caused me to lose sleep

A shot from below

Sparkle from the Batman Bathroom

Scotty's Secret Clubhouse

As you can see, there is still a ton to do but we are slowly making progress. Not to mention, we still have to, uh, move. Yikes.

And I want to mention, I did not do all of this by myself. I feel like this is the Academy Awards of home building, and in proper Oscar style, I would like to thank the following people:

-- Bobby, Lori, & Jose from B&H Interiors for their fabulous work ethic, skill, and style. Lori was amazing and even took the time to help me select paint colors for the rest of the house.

-- Gretchen & Ken from Faucet Galore who taught me more than I ever wanted to know about kitchen sinks, utility room sinks, faucets, and toilets. I don't know if you have ever purchased a toilet before, but it's actually rather uncomfortable. Gretchen made it fun, though, and we giggled through out the process. (and I will admit that I splurged on the elongated bowl with comfort height. Brian was SO excited when I told him this.)

-- Jon, our GC and Jose, Greg and Alex, the painters

-- Heather, Mort, and Jeanine from Lamps Plus, and that very nice woman who accidentally walked out of the store with ALL of my purchases by mistake and then returned them the same day. That's integrity.

-- Our friend Dave who has driven across the valley and back at my request. Owning a pick-up truck is kind of a bummer when you have friends like us.

-- Annette, the baby-sitter

-- My parents, for generously purchasing our new washer and dryer. What a house-warming gift!

And of course, the Whippersnapper, who made this all possible.

Thanks for taking this little tour with me!