Almost!

We almost pulled it off - moving in on the 16th.  But, not quite!  We had about six or seven things that had to all fall into place last week before the floor sanding and staining started this week in order to be able to move in.  We needed the painter to finish up, and he did.  We needed the tile to all be installed, and it was.  We needed the contractor to finish a few final items, and he did.  We needed the movers to have an opening on Saturday for us to move, and they did.  We needed the gas line to be installed and new propane tanks for our gas range, and they were (not until the very last minute, but hey, who's counting).  The only person to fall through was the electrician.  Miscommunication between our contractor and electrician as well as the electrician supposedly being sick meant that he could not come until next week!  Agh!!! And we can't move in without a certificate of occupancy and can't get that without passing our final electrical inspection, which of course we can't pass until the electrician finishes his job!  So, the move in is currently set for Friday Nov. 22.  Pray it doesn't change!  (Yes, we are hosting Thanksgiving.  Yes, we are crazy.  I think we've already established that, right?).

Here's what we DID accomplish last week.  Brett and I (ok, mostly Brett) worked every night once we got the kids in bed until about 11:00 or so.  And Brett went back every morning to work from 7:30 to 9:30 before he started work.  It made for a really long week (and weekend, in fact), but a lot was accomplished.

Brett hung 10 new lights!

These flush-mount drum shades are in the hallways, "formal" living room, master closet, and laundry room. We have 8' ceilings in this house, so we are limited in our lighting choices - has to be flush mount in many of the rooms.

These are in the new office.  I randomly found these lights at JCPenny of all places.  I haven't been in a JCPenny in years, but went in looking for blinds and was distracted by these beauties.  I went online and they were on clearance and I had a coupon.  Sold!

We had to select the stain for our hardwoods.  The color choices were almost as comical as the whites I had on the walls. They all looked the SAME!  Well, almost the same.  We decided to leave them natural (the one on the far right).  We want a casual, coastal, light feeling in this home and the natural seemed to be the best choice.  A bonus to our choice is that it will save us $0.30 per square foot!  Yippee!  They started finishing them today, so we can't go in the house until they are done on Friday - a forced vacation from house projects for the week for us.

We tested and selected bold paint colors for the kids' bathroom vanity on some leftover plywood we had from another project.  You are not going to believe these colors!  I picked the color on the top left.  Sydney wanted green, Pierce wanted blue, I wanted something fun, youthful, unexpected, but something we could live with for many years.  It needed to have a little grey to it and not be too bright.  This is our compromise.  For the record, Pierce wanted the one on the bottom left and Sydney wanted the one on the bottom right. (And they all look a little deeper and darker in this picture than they actually are. Sydney's choice in this picture actually looks perfect to me, but in real life it is seriously bright!).  Mommy won, but the color is blue-green, so everyone is equally represented!

Brett bought the tools he needed to cut and install shelves in all of the closets in the house and was able to get the pantry completed.  I was so thrilled to see this beautiful pantry.  One down, many to go!

I painted the magnetic chalkboard wall in our kitchen, and Pierce and Grant gave it a try to make sure it works.  By the way, the magnetic paint is a real pain to use.  Be warned!

Brett finished painting the boarding in the kids bath. We tried whitewashing, but it didn't look like we hoped it would, so we painted it white and it looks great.

Our master bath was completely tiled and we love it (so far).  This is our floor tile (it's dusty dirty, but you get the idea!) It's solid grey with light grey grout.

 

 

And the new, twice as large shower with two shower heads (soon-to-be-installed) was completed.

Hopefully we'll be in next Friday!  I'll keep you posted and also post some final pictures once our appliances are installed in the kitchen next week and the floors are finished.