Forever Home

4, 3, 2, 1….HOME!

February 16, 2014 chantelledoll

In just a few more days we will finally have the keys to our new home! It has been a painfully long process and the biggest indicator of the time passing for me is remembering that my walking, talking, full-of-attitude little girl was just barely rolling when we signed the deal. I began a whiteboard countdown at the 30 day mark and as each day has passed, my feelings have alternated between stress and excitement, with a little bit of denial throw in there for good measure.

On Wednesday we went for our pre-occupancy walk through and everything looked amazing. After some snags with the granite on the kitchen island, I was so happy to see it turned out exactly the way we wanted. The stainless steel appliances are all coming Friday afternoon and I will have a brand new, fully functional kitchen to work in.

I hate the packing and moving part, but there is a long list of things I am really looking forward to:

The storage. All the glorious storage! 5 walk-in closets, 2 regular closets, and a walk-in pantry’s worth.
Having a two car garage. My husband currently parks on the driveway so he will actually benefit more from this one in the cold winter months. I am also hoping I might get to drive the other vehicle more often since we aren’t having to do a vehicle shuffle.
My first loooong soak in my jetted soaker tub. I would have been happy just getting our own ensuite and what we have ended up with is nothing short of spectacular.
Being able to walk mere steps down the hallway to do my laundry. No longer will I have to try and juggle carrying a full basket of clothing and a clingy toddler down to the basement all at once. It also doesn’t hurt that I will get to look at this lovely pair while loading my laundry:

No longer having kids climbing on my kitchen counter while I am trying to get dinner made and on the table! Okay, I admit I am guilty of plunking the baby down there each morning as I get her milk and I do enjoy their “help” at times, but it will be better when they can’t just climb up the back of the couch and onto my counter on their own accord. Plus I will have that much more counter space that maybe it won’t be as big of a deal if they are occupying a small piece of it!
Seeing and decorating the kids playhouse my husband will be building in our basement. If it is anything like I am envisioning, it is should be a pretty fun space for the kids.
Cushy new furniture to relax in. Yes, I realize with children it won’t stay looking new for long but we kept that in mind when making the selections.
Taking advantage of the playground around the corner. There are no playgrounds within walking distance of our current house. It will be nice to load the kids in the wagon to go to the park instead of into the car!
Hosting birthday parties and play dates at the house. I don’t love having people over to our current place because it feels small and cluttered so hopefully this will prompt me to try and host more often.
Decorating and putting the final touches on all the rooms to really make it our home. We just picked out the paint today and I can’t wait to put some color and personality into the home.

We have a busy few weeks ahead of us with lots of packing, moving, painting and assembling. Throw in a birthday party to host next weekend and I am pretty sure I will lose my mind a time or two, but I know it is going to all be worth it in the end.

Now back to the important task of making sure all our most treasured possessions are all packed and ready to move…

Our Forever Home, Parties

It’s the Final Countdown!

January 14, 2014January 15, 2014 chantelledoll

Break out the moving boxes! After months of anticipation, we final got our notice of possession from our home builder today. As of February 20th, our Forever House will be all ours. What once just seemed like a completely unrealistic dream will now be a full fledged reality, and I couldn’t be more excited. Never did I think we would be able to make the move into an amazing house like this!

I posted an update with plumbing fixtures just the other day and my husband was onsite again today and was able to capture this picture of the hickory hardwood going in on our main floor:

It is gorgeous and I can’t wait to see it in person.

And since the packing, organizing and cleaning simply isn’t enough to keep me busy over the next month and a half, we are also counting down the last days of Camden being 3 and will be celebrating his 4th birthday just 3 days after we get possession! I have been pinning ideas for the past year and have a good idea of what I want to do, but it is still going to be a lot all at once.

His actual birthday falls on Sunday, February 23 which also happens to be closing ceremony day of the Sochi Olympics so we are working with a Winter Olympic theme. I have booked the hall, ordered the invites and managed to get the majority of the supplies bought for the DIY projects I am planning so I am still feeling pretty confident I will be able to pull off an awesome party.

I will try my darnest to share some of these projects in the upcoming weeks when I am not packing or dealing with the normal day to day of being a mommy. For now, I will leave you with a sneak peek image from the invite:

Please visit my Olympic Birthday Party Pinterest board to see my inspiration and ideas for the party!

Doll House, Our Forever Home

All Plumbed In!

January 11, 2014April 11, 2014 chantelledoll

The plumber was in this week and we finally have sinks, toilets and faucets in our bathrooms!

I can’t believe what a difference it has made in how finished the house now feels.

We originally wanted undermount sinks, but that would have required a solid stone material countertop such as granite or quartz. In order to help our already stretched budget we went with a laminate counter in all the bathrooms and had to choose a top mounted sink. Now that it is all in, I can say I am still very happy with our final decisions.

In our ensuite shower, we went with a large shower head and adjustable body sprays on one side and a pull-out spray hose on the other. It is a huge upgrade from the standard tiny shower we have now and will be nice to actually have some room to move and not be smashing my elbows against the walls when washing my hair!

The same pull-out spray hose is installed in our main floor shower to make it easy to hose down dirty dogs (and possibly kids!)

And, of course, we can’t forget the jetted tub in the ensuite. The faucets have been installed for a while, but I thought it was worth including a picture of.

Next week I am looking forward to seeing hardwood installed on the main floor, having the granite back on the kitchen island and hopefully getting our 35 day possession notice!

Doll House, Our Forever Home

Let There Be Lights!

December 16, 2013 chantelledoll

My husband met with the tile installer early last week to go over the tile layouts throughout our new home. We then had a chance to get into the new house on Friday and on top of the good progress happening on the tile, we were thrilled to see the electrician had been in and begun installation on the majority of our light fixtures.

For our fireplace surround, we chose a dark grey tile that will go floor to ceiling. There will also be a lighter grey accent strip going in the white area in the picture. I lost the battle with my husband for a mantle, but I think the final result will be a nice, clean look. The tile is quite dark, but I think it will balance nicely with our natural colored hardwood.

The front foyer light was one of our splurges and there is a similar styled fixture that is yet to go into the dining nook. They are a bit funky, but it looks good in our big open foyer and adds some interest to the space.

For the downstairs and upstairs landings, we went with a slightly cheaper chandelier that kept with the linear look. They are not as interesting, but they do look good.

I was most excited to see the fixtures in the kids rooms because these were the ones my husband gave full control of over to me. It was hard to tell when picking them out in the lighting store amongst all the other fixtures, but they turned out pretty awesome if I do say so myself!

Camden was very excited to see the airplane flying high in his room:

And I absolutely adore the way the light reflects from my little girls chandelier. I think this was the light selection my husband and I were most unsure about, but it is one of my favorites in the house.

Back to the tile work, we were happy to see our back entry way complete and the custom granite for the dog dishes in place. We just need to select some coat hooks to install above the benches and I think it is going to be a great space for keeping all our coats, shoes and dog gear organized.

In our ensuite, the tile work has started but there is still the accent strip and the full shower to hopefully get done this week. So far it looks good and is fitting with the vision we had in our heads.

And, finally, in the other two bathrooms and the laundry room we went with a basic square tile in the same dark grey used on the fireplace and in our ensuite. It is not nearly as exciting as some of the other stuff happening in the house, but it still looks great!

We are still awaiting our 30 day possession notice, but we are happy to see stuff going in and the house getting closer to completion. Hopefully it will all be worth the wait in the end.