The First Real Post From My New Office!

Hi guys!! Sorry to keep you hanging. It's been two weeks and two days since we got the keys to our new house, and I'm horrified to say we're still not finished unpacking, let alone all the decorating I am literally dying to do. A lot of our time went to nonsense time sucks, and a lot of our time went to buttoning up all the loose ends associated with renting the house we were in for the past year. The house is looking and feeling more like a home, but we were really hoping we'd be done, like sit-on-the-patio-and-enjoy-the-sunset-each-night-from-here-on-out type done, and we're nowhere near that point.

We got our keys on Friday afternoon, April 11th. It wasn't until about an hour AFTER we got our keys that they finally got the floor guys back to do the final coat of polyurethane on all our wood floors. So given the insane circumstances of the late stages of our build, and how late it all ran, the building company we used worked really hard to get us the keys for a weekend move, but it was with the condition that we wouldn't move anything onto the wood floors until Sunday to give them time to dry and cure. That didn't seem like a huge sacrifice, and we were just so happy to be moving in finally that we jumped at the chance. Luckily, the entrance from our garage is tile floor, and right off that entrance is the big tiled game room. In that tile hallway, there's also a bathroom, and a guest bedroom, so we had everything we needed once we unloaded the fridge from our rental to be used as an overflow fridge (the men reading this will read "beer fridge) in our garage. So all things considered, that worked out pretty conveniently on paper. Living it was much harder, but it could have been worse if the house weren't ready by the time our leases expired. Then we'd be living out of the back of a moving truck!

I realize you don't care about any of this and only want to see pictures. Fine. Here you go.

I took these late Saturday night (4/12) wearing only socks on my feet and with the access to the wood floors still blocked off by a giant box to keep the kids and Gus off the floors. It was kind of icky and rainy at the time, but looking at these pictures I long for the days when I don't have crap piled everywhere!!

I don't have "new construction" photos of the tiled side of the house where we immediately had to start moving stuff in unfortunately.

Master Closet: (we don't vacuum like that in case you're wondering - that was the builder's cleaning crew)

Laundry Room:

Doodle's Room:

Kid's Homework Alley: (Nugget's room is at the far end of the hallway, Doodle's room is to the right of that linen closet )

And the main living area:

So the house looked great when I took these, and we were exhausted, but excited. Two weeks later, we're more exhausted, but the excitement is replaced by frustration that the to do list hasn't gotten any shorter. There are also a number of issues that still need to be addressed by our builder before we truly part ways. That means more subcontractors traipsing in and out. We're also so very grateful that this beautiful house is ours and everyday hopefully we get a little bit closer to actually being able to enjoy it.

So you saw some pretty pictures. Now for some reality:

Our hallway is still deliberately blocked by giant boxes and pillows so that Gus can't see into the back yard when the landscapers maybe come to finish sodding our yard someday. Those of you who know Gus know he doesn't do well with visitors, strangers, dogs passing by, nor a hair in his quiche. He's 100 pounds of slobbery added stress during this time of transition. But he's our first born, and we love him. While the landscapers are at it, they'll need to install either a new drainage system or a new irrigation system because the first try was an epic fail and we had tadpoles swimming in our front planting beds along the foundation even after a week with no rain. Oy!

And this is the game room today after hours and hours and hours of tidying and organizing. This space was command central, and also our bedroom/dining room/entertaining space for 2 nights but that was two weeks ago and it still looks like this!!

It's not all doom and gloom. We've certainly made tremendous progress, and I can't wait to share photos of some of the rooms that are nearly complete, and of the biggest project of the week - our master bedroom feature wall! Please bear with me. It takes so long to upload these photos, and given the time it takes to put each one of these posts together, I enjoy the satisfaction and closure of a complete room once I get to post photos of it. I promise we're working as hard as we can, and with every prioritization decision I make, I think in terms of what will get me to completion for any given room so I can share with all of you. :) However, at war with my will to finish the house is my need to start back at work tomorrow, and also get serious about eating healthy and getting back into exercising. This whole ordeal has led us down an unhealthy path, and tomorrow is our new beginning. So there will be even less time in the day to go around. We'll get there.

Until then, a sneak peek at one of my quickie projects that mom tried to talk me out of. So glad I was pigheaded (as usual) on this one because I'm LOVING these DIY rope tie-backs for my linen living room curtains.

You thought I was wrapping this post up, didn't you?!!!!

To share the love, I bet you'd like to see photos of mom and dad's house too! It's funny- on our blue prints and on all the construction documents and in discussion with the builder(s), their house has been dubbed the "guest house," but that sells it so short! It's very much a house in its own right, and I so envy how quick they were able to get it fully functional and decorated and feeling and looking so much like a lovely home. Here are the photos of their house fully decorated, though I'm sure mom will have fun making tweaks here and there over time.