June 6, 2013
Today is a day we have waited over 2.5 years for. A truck with our name on it has been reserved to haul all the finds we’ve collected since we purchased the land in 2010. Since purchasing the lot we have been dreaming, collecting, praying, working hard, saving…… and our Davidson home has become a storage unit of sorts. We’ve juggled buying and storing things in our 1281 square ft home, and it all came to a head last night. I decided it would be wise to move everything we had been hoarding storing downstairs so that we were not running all over the house, up and down stairs to pack the truck today. I assume this will have been a wise choice tonight when we are actually loading said truck. You see…. since last summer after choosing a builder we decided to go about this process slightly unconventionally. Our builder included all the bells and whistles in our contract (lights and appliances). But after seeing his items, we knew we wanted “nicer” things. After-all, we currently live in the builder-basic world, we don’t want to do that again if we can help it. So, we politely declined most of our lighting options and all of the appliance options and chose to go out on a hunt for our own things. In August we found a fridge at a great price, so we bought it and had it delivered. Cue the hoarding to commence. From there we kept our eyes peeled for a down-draft cook top, a wall oven and a dishwasher. All of which were found as “open box” items over the following months. As far as the lighting- that didn’t exactly go as planned. You see, pretty lights = expensive, and having forked over 10% down at closing, and deciding to take a trip to Hawaii, our wallets were growing thinner. So, sacrifices were made…. but those are easy changes down the road. We didn’t compromise 100%, we did find and order a few special lights that will be fun conversation pieces. These items were all delivered to the builder’s storage unit a few months ago, so it was a great relief to get our dining and living rooms back when they were gone. Not the same can be said for our upstairs. Since closing the loan we’ve been on the look out for furniture…. having a house is great, but having a place to sit and sleep…. well, even better! And to be completely honest, this process didn’t start just a few months ago, it actually began shortly after we purchased the lot. I was in Target one evening and spotted some really nice patio furniture 90% off…. Since we didn’t have a large enough car to cart it all home, Jeremy’s family went searching the Durham Targets for these pieces. They came home with the mother-load and it’s been all boxed up and sitting in their garage since then. I cannot wait to get those chairs and tables all put together on the deck tomorrow! We’ve also collected the following…. My 4-post bed from the house I grew up in (it’s been stored at my dad’s), 2 headboards from a cyber Monday sale on Joss & Main, 4 dining chairs from a cyber Monday sale on Serena & Lilly, 12 bed pillows from Belks (bought with a Christmas gift card), linens for 4 of the 6 beds (from Pottery Barn Kids, TJ Maxx and Marshalls), navy pots and pans (also from Marshalls), 12 wine glasses, 12 beer glasses, bath towels (Target)…. and lots of other little things. Wish us luck as we pick up our new mattresses from Original Mattress and then trek across NC to collect all the items tomorrow morning & go unpack the house!
April 15, 2013
It’s been about a month since we checked out the house progress and this time I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!! When we left off last the roof was being installed and the siding had just arrived after being back-ordered for weeks. This time I almost wanted to stand in the kitchen and cry with joy. The sheetrock is up, the kitchen cabinets are in (albeit, not correct)…. painting and flooring will happen this week, before we know it all the items being stored at our house in Davidson will be in a Uhaul on the way to Carolina Beach! On with the tour- cabinets arrived this week! It’s so awesome to see something in person that will be just as it is when the house is finished! They put the hardware on one cabinet (I suppose so we could see how it will look?) and I LOVE IT. I couldn’t be more happy with the rubbed brass finish. We did discover that one cabinet isn’t quite right in the kitchen… the one that holds our oven is a regular cabinet right now and it will have to be fixed. Other than that the kitchen is looking great! 1. Hardware up close 2. View of the kitchen from the master bedroom doors 3. Kitchen view from the living area The rest of the downstairs is coming along well too! 1. Our master bedroom doors and peek at the loft from the living room 2. View of the pantry & kennel from the kitchen 3. the “nook” for a settee I’m having reupholsered- this is the “drop zone” so when you walk up the stairs and into the house you can drop your purse, keys, shoes, etc in this spot (instead of the kitchen island!) 4. Hall bath downstairs 5. Guest room This is the dining area from the living room (master bedroom doors on the far right and kitchen island on your left) The stair case is how you enter from the ground and go up to the loft. The nook I mentioned above is behind the wall in the middle. Living room! Check out that glorious tongue and groove ceiling! Master bedroom (from standing in front of the french doors). The doors on the left go into the living area, the middle door goes into the master bath and the double doors to the right is our closet. More master: 1. looking into the room from the door 2. Looking into the master bath (left is the linen closet and to the right of that is where our vanity will go) 3. our shower Upstairs: The loft beds were about 1/2 done and we realized they made them for twins instead of fulls! oops! They fixed it yesterday, I think. They will have built in drawers below the bed. The rest of the upstairs: 1. another view of the beds- there is a closet at the end by the window 2 & 3. Upstairs bath- we think this cabinet is wrong too :-/ I think we were supposed to have drawers in the middle, they are checking on it today. 4. The stairs up down to the main living area. That’s all for now. I’m headed back east for work this weekend and will be dropping in again to see more progress and will share it next Monday!
March 4, 2013
Some of the more fun items we get to take part in while this building process continues are all the selections. Don’t be fooled, this has also proved to be the most stressful. The choices seen below were some of the easiest, thankfully! We got a huge box of carpet samples last week, and within about 30 seconds had our choice. I’ve never been so thankful for non-builder grade carpet to be in our budget! We also made our siding selections! Thankfully, it was another easy choice! ….. and it was NOT a “coastal color” Our house will be “Evening Blue” the closest color to navy I could get 🙂 There were so many options for carpet…. some less than desirable colors…. We wanted something very low pile, so we were able to knock out many choices fast. We liked these the best. Surprise, surprise…. the one we liked best? Sandy Beach.
