Binkies and Briefcases

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Building the Dream: We’re Moving In!

By: Stephanie9 Comments

This is the week that we can start to breathe.

All of our inspections passed and we are picking up our occupancy permit TODAY!

My dad and step-mom are picking up the kids tomorrow and keeping them for a few days so that we can start moving.

We are going home!

finished house 1

Welcome!

finished house 2

The past week has just been about finishing touches. Our contractor and his son are still working this week to touch-up paint and trim, install mirrors, and closet shelves, but for the most part it is ready and move-inable.

Once we are in, I will take you on a tour room by room, for now I will just show you some highlights.

I think our master suite is my favorite part.

finished house 4

finished house 6

 

finished house

 

Yesterday the counters were installed and the fireplace was hooked up. Sorry for the horrible phone pictures of the kitchen, I forgot the camera!

The kitchen is not really blog-ready because we still have to build a range hood and put the trim around the cabinets, but it is fully functional. Woot-woot!

(I swear it looks better than this in person. I’m actually embarrassed to show you this picture.)

finished house 7

 

On Monday the landscapers came and seeded our yard, so now there is a layer of grass seed and straw mulch to cover up all this mud.

 

 

finished house 5  

I cannot wait to finally be in this house and settle down. For good.

National Ladies Night Out {Lancaster Chapter}

By: Stephanie6 Comments

Yesterday was the National Night Out, sponsored by the book in which I am fortunate enough to have a chapter, I Just Want to Pee Alone.

I agreed to co-host an event in Lancaster, but only because Meredith made me. Even though hanging out at a bar on a Wednesday evening is not really my scene, I was glad to get the chance to see my bloggy BFF again.  We decided to hold our meet-up at the Applebee’s in Lancaster. 

Why Applebee’s? Because there are only so many options in Amish Country and we’ve seen Talladega Nights and we wanted our own opportunity  to get kicked out of an Applebee’s. 

National Night out with Mere

 That picture only took like 5 tries on Meredith’s phone. You know you’re getting old when it starts being hard to take a selfie at arm’s length.

Although it was Ladies’ Night, we brought some special guys with us. Did you think I was kidding when I said I saved them from the dumpster?

National Pee alone Night Pictures 

I had a special game planned for George. (I had heart-shaped Post-It notes and a blindfold and everything.) And we had lots of prizes to give away.

National Pee Alone Night Out

 But…

Heather (left) and Gail (far right) were the only brave souls who decided to come. They had seen our event in the paper. Since it was just the four of us, we had more of a relaxed evening, just eating and talking (and the occasional photo op with Seinfeld stars). Meredith and I both ate giant burgers right in front of poor Heather, who is a vegan.

  National Pee Alone Night

Heather is a mom of four and Gail is a mom of six! It was a lot of fun connecting with these ladies and there was a busload (literally, they were on a bus trip) of senior citizens who were highly amused by us posing with George.

You also know you are getting old when the senior bus trip finds you easy to relate to, but the teenage waitress does not understand why she is taking your picture with this half-naked middle-aged bald man. 

Even if our chapter was small (but mighty!), it was very cool to know that there were other women meeting at the same time all around the country because of our book.

 

Building the Dream: Let There Be Lights (and tile, and vanities, and molding…)

By: Stephanie4 Comments

Um, you guys…

We move into this house in TEN DAYS!

It is looking so much different than last week! Want to see it? Please excuse the mess.

Big thanks to my husband for taking all these pictures for me while he was working on the kitchen at night (despite having bronchitis). Didn’t he do a great job on photo duty?! If they seem a little dark, that’s because it was way late.

almost done 1

The lights are in.

almost done! Kitchen light from Overstock

We bought our kitchen pendants from Overstock.com. I’m kind of in love with them.

Speaking of the kitchen, the cabinets are mostly in now. This is a bear of a project but will be so worth it very soon.

almost done 3

The counter guys were here yesterday to make a template. The counters are scheduled to be installed next week.

See our steps to the left of the kitchen? They stained the treads to match our wood floors. I’m kind of in love with those too.

What else am I in love with?

Oh, there’s this light fixture in our breakfast nook…

Almost done! Kitchen lights

These sconces (on clearance at Lowes for $19!) in our entryway…

almost done! Lights

These bathrooms…

This one is for the kids. The floor is vinyl, but I really like it anyway and I especially love that we were able to get double sinks in here.

almost done 2  

And, um, our master bathroom?

I lurve it.

Almost done! Master bath

When we were picking out tiles and fixtures and paint colors, I tried to only choose things that were timeless and I knew we could live with for a long, long time. This tile reminds me of my grandmother’s house, although hers was classic black. I thought black was too harsh, so I had the tile guys replace the little black squares with gray ones cut from a different kind of tile. They charged us for an extra hour of labor, but I think it was totally worth it.

And I can’t forget to talk about our molding because I love it too. We went back and forth with our builder several times because he had never done this kind of molding before, and we were probably kind of annoying about getting it exactly right, but, again, totally worth it. 

This is an example from the kids’ bathroom. The door on the left will be to their linen closet.

Almost done! Molding

And here’s an example from the office. (I get an office!)

almost done! Office molding

There is still quite a bit of work to do. Last week a huge rainstorm caused a lot of flooding in our area and wiped out part of our driveway, so the crew lost a day dealing with that mess. 

For the next few days, they will be working hard to finish the moldings, install hardware, carpet, mirrors, and all of those last-minute details.

Eddie and I (mostly Eddie) will be working tirelessly to finish the kitchen details and the fireplace mantle we are designing for HomeRight. (More on that soon!)

He started the mantle by himself last night.

mantle

The man is a machine, I tell you.

Ten days.

Breathe.

We can do this.

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