It rained all day yesterday. And we were out Christmas shopping in it. I've been completely spoiled since moving to our area of Cheese Country and have been able to avoid shopping malls for the most part for almost ten years. We have an amazing outdoor outlet mall in town and I try to shop there or at stores that are part of the 5,287 'strip mall'/'shopping centers' that keep going up (I might have exaggerated that, but it seems like they're on every corner now!). Normally, I love this. I can be in and out of the stores I need without messing with chaotic crowds and without being tempted to browse through other shops. Yesterday, it was not so fun. I'm not sure why I took the time to straighten my hair and better yet, why I didn't choose to wear something with a hood. Oh well. I'm almost done shopping and was even able to wrap during E's nap today.
The worst part of the rain was that the roofers were not successful in getting the shingles on last week. The framing crew was back working all day, though, so the house is now a muddy mess -- both inside and out. We ran by this afternoon after E's nap (and my wrapping marathon) to grab some photos and check out the latest progress. Ethan managed to make a mess of himself playing in the mud and Keith was even able to hang some solar-powered Christmas lights (thanks Walgreens clearance aisle!).
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| [hanging Christmas lights!] |
The big events this past week include:
All windows and doors have been installed! I think the wrong back patio door was installed, though. The current door is full glass, but we had selected grids in the glass. At least it's an easy fix.
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| [bedroom windows] |
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| [garage window] |
We met with the Electrician for the electrical walk-through on Tuesday afternoon (day 37). We added 13 can lights (gulp) -- 4 in the kitchen, 4 in the great room, 3 on the back porch and 2 in the master bath. We also added additional outlets (including one on the mantel and two more on the exterior), had Cat-5 cable run to various rooms, split the bathroom vanity lights from single to multiple fixtures (two 3-light fixtures in the kiddo bathroom and four single sconces in the master bath), added a couple more switches and added a motion-sensor light to the back corner of the house. The Electrician was super easy to work with and they've since finished adding all the boxes and running wiring throughout the first floor.
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| [electrical wiring - and muddy floors] |
The roofers started installing tar paper and shingles. The materials were delivered on Wednesday morning (day 38) when I was meeting with the Electrician again to confirm placement of can lights and the bathroom fixtures. They started roofing on Friday, but were only able to complete the northeast corner.
We met with the Designer again on Friday morning (day 40) to make our tile selection for the fireplace and to touch base on a few other items we needed to finalize. We're still undecided on a kitchen faucet. I find it remarkable that I can't find a faucet from Kohler that I like and is affordable. I did nail down our pedestal sink for the powder room, as well as the faucets for the powder room and kiddo bathroom. We're still waiting to hear pricing on upgrading a couple of doors and on switching out our tile tub surround for full-bathroom wainscoting in the master. I know we chatted about more, but I'm drawing a blank.
On Saturday (day 41), we returned the light fixtures we were unsure of (the kitchen pendants and the bathroom pendants) and picked up three hallway lights and two ceiling fans instead. That evening, we also spent several hours scouring a crazy number of websites (
Shades of Light,
Crate and Barrel,
West Elm,
Schoolhouse Electric,
BBC Lighting,
Build.com,
Lowes,
Home Depot,
Overstock,
Lighting Universe...to name a few) and lighting catalogs (Feiss, Progress, Kichler, Hinkley, Craftmade...to name a few) for replacement kitchen and bathroom fixtures. I think we finally have them nailed down, but I haven't hit the "Submit" button on my order just yet. I really didn't think this would be so difficult. I'll have to do another full post on lighting, but here is a preview of my non-boob hallway lights.
So, as of day 42, the house currently looks like this from the outside:
The inside isn't quite as pretty, but I suppose that's the hard part of going out so frequently to see what is going on. Here's to hoping they get the roof on soon and that the snow forecasted for this week holds out as long as possible....
* It'd be remiss of me not to mention the deep sorrow we're feeling for the families, friends and community impacted by the senseless tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary. I'm hugging my baby a little tighter and saying an extra prayer of thanks that my current worries are about light fixtures. I simply can't imagine what they're going through and will continue to send prayers their way, as they learn to live in their new state of reality.
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