While we are back in the house, we still have quite a few things left to do before we are finished with our renovation. There's a handful of things that need painting, a smattering of things that need reattaching, a quarter of an inch of dust on some/most/all of our belongings that stayed in the house, but we have made major inroads. We still need curtains and plenty of accessories and finishing touches. But we'll get there. Allow me to give you a tour of the progress we have made so far. Bear with us; we're not finished yet, but compared to the Formica counters and laminate floors we enjoyed in our temporary dwelling, we are in heaven.
(Side note: when everything is finished, I will show some before and after pictures. I would do that now, but I dropped my phone in a toilet at the Dave Matthews Band concert back in May and all my memories were, alas, flushed down the drain. Literally.)
The biggest change we made was to our kitchen. Specifically, we knocked out the wall between our family room and kitchen and took down another wall of cabinets that essentially chopped our tiny, dark little kitchen in half. The result is a big, bright space that is open and airy.
It's so nice not to need to wear a miner's helmet with that little built-in headlight to see what you're doing while preparing food. If you'll pardon the carpet remnant we had to put down so our blind dog has a "safe" place to eat, the room turned out quite well. It's really too pretty to mess up, so I've been cooking sparingly (wink). Plus, I haven't read the manual on my fancy schmancy new double convection ovens yet and I'm clueless about all the bells and whistles. I am happy to report that the microwave works like a dream, though. Also, two gorgeous valances to hang above those windows are being made as we speak. And maybe Santa can load some bar stools for the island in his sleigh this year? We've been really good.
Let's all take a moment and ogle that gorgeous light fixture, shall we? Focus on that and not on the fact that we do not yet possess a dining table and chairs for our custom built banquette, which is being upholstered...at some point. The banquette was my idea, and I'll just go ahead and tell you that a money saver it was not. We have joked that for the price we paid for that seating, we could have bought a new car and parked it in our kitchen and I could have donned some roller skates and played car hop for our meals each day. But it's got character, right?
This is the master bathroom, tiny though it may be. We replaced some drab 1970s avocado green tile with this gorgeous gray in the shower and white on the floor. The vanity still needs to be painted, those ugly blinds are absolutely being replaced, and "hang bathroom window treatment" is at the top of Clint's honey-do list (which, at this point, is about as long as the Dead Sea scrolls). While we're at it, did you know that glass shower doors are supposed to be cleaned with a squeegee after every use? Are we all really doing that? I have also discovered I am the world's worst at operating a squeegee; it's like I have two left hands and all thumbs. I guess this means I will never fulfill my dream of being a window washer. That said, if anyone has any tips for squeegee excellence and maneuverability, I am all ears. Bonus points if you know how to avoid the squeegee game all together.
This is where the magic happens: the master bedroom. And by magic, I mean deep, peaceful sleeping without feeling suffocated or waking up in a flop sweat. Clint really wanted a king size bed, even though I thought it was unnecessary, so in the spirit of compromise we got this gargantuan thing and he loves it. Because our alarm clock is on his side of the bed, every morning when it's my turn to get up, I find myself commando crawling across a solid five feet of memory foam to reach the clock and turn it off. I'm not saying it should be an obstacle on American Ninja Warrior, but it does resemble a physical challenge from the 1990s kids' game show Double Dare.
And someone else is quite fond of the new bed as well. His days are so hectic and stressful, I'm glad he's finally found a place to unwind and relax. We all need a place we can flop down and let our tongues hang out, right?
Last but not least, here is our new deck. It looks almost identical to our old deck, save for the fact that it isn't dilapidated and practically falling off the house. It still needs to be stained (see also: Clint's honey-do list), but we should have it ready in time to enjoy the fire pit and some cooler fall weather here in a few weeks.
My granddaddy was fond of saying that as long as you have a house, you will never be bored. I have never agreed with him more. We still have some HVAC work to be tackled, carpentry work to be completed, and the entire exterior of the house is going to be pressure washed and painted. I'll keep you updated, but for now, we are headed off for a much anticipated vacation. If you are a praying fellow, please send up a prayer that the Caribbean is hurricane-free next week and that we get a little rest and relaxation before we come back to tackle the rest of our tasks.
And lest it be completely forgotten (although I'm sure I will have PTSD nightmares and flashbacks for months to come), let's all bid a fond farewell to the summer abode. Shut the door on that adventure--it is over!
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| Goodbye, apartment 4518B. It was only three months, but you managed to make it feel like a lifetime. |
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