the finish line

This week and weekend was all about paint, closets and yard work.


This is the BEFORE of the house... as a reminder.

AFTER.

Behr "Mocha Accent", one of the best decisions we ever made. (Note the brighter/cleaner driveway.)

Beautiful.

Nancy was doing some gardening today. Sweet Nancy had some extra... "bull-something", I forget, (sorry Nancy!) from her house, but she planted them in front of the entry. It has two side flower beds flanking the walkway, that were looking pretty pathetic. So now they have several fun whimsical yellow flowering small shrub like things. Nancy also bought some new fountain grass to replace the foutain grass that did not survive. The plants that we planted this past summer (along the completely solid rock wall at the front of the house) did not fair to well during the extremely cold winter we had. But... some are coming back and it is SO exciting to see. (at my house too ;)

Back doors.

This was a little moment that I wanted to get philosophical about for a second.

This is the kitchen. To the left is the back door. To the right is the back of the fireplace, as well as the walkway we created by knocking out a wall to open it up to the living room. The picture is being taken from the stove area. I'd like to say that prior to this remodel, when I would visit David here at this house, this area of the house was the place that was always dark and you would never have a reason to go into. Stuff was stored over here all the time. Old roommates crap left behind. Water bottle crates. Coolers. And then through the back door (sliding aluminum prior to the french doors) was this creepy enclosed patio painted that crazy blood orange. And NOW. This space is just so much more inviting, even without furniture yet. It will be such a great place to be. Eating or doing homework. Able to see into the living room at the people there. Able to walk outside and go to the grill. The possibilities are endless and I just wanted to point out one of the truly MANY new moments David has created with his vision for this house.

On to the good stuff. This past week David has been a sawing fool cutting material for the closets. He has done a great job creating these custom millwork pieces for the bedroom closets, pantry and linen closets. My task today was to paint and caulk these suckers.

Here is David painting the pantry. This is probably one of my most favorite rooms. (I know, the intricate harlequin honey onyx tile did not beat this one out.) I love it so much, because this type of element basically didn't exist for this house. Well, there was a pantry, but it used to be where we now have an open walkway to the living room and it just didn't work and contributed to the whole effect of clostrophobia in there. So it doesn't count. This pantry is off the kitchen, around the corner. Its not a dead on, pantry door that sticks out and is always open so people can see that you really do eat velveeta shells and cheese on a daily basis... And have stock twinkies and ramen noodles. And it has these beautifully crafted shelves that I designed and David built. Really I just told him the spacing and he did all the hard stuff. However...



I did partake in some extreme caulking of these shelves and others today. They will eventually be painted so don't this is the final product. Yes, on the day after my stressful anxiety ridden professional licensing two day exam, I spent my free day painstakingly caulking hundreds of linear feet of shelving. But it was the best day I've had in 4 months I'll tell you that! So, with lips a chapping', I had a blast finishing up the final details of the house.

Also, this weekend David's brother in law Josh Blake helped out and did a lot of yard work. He edged the property line, and left the wildflowers to grow around the property while cutting back a lot of grass growth. Thanks Josh!

Carpet goes in on Tuesday, house gets cleaned on Wednesday and furniture gets trailored in on Wednesday night and Thursday. This is the best part! There are MANY small little things that still have to be done. David and his Dad have a list going and it seems lengthy, but it will get done. We have good people helping us.

So, stay tuned for some impressive staging by the Marchand girls with assistance from many others ;)