New Cooktop

We had a yucky 30+ year old cooktop in the kitchen. And one of the front burners didn't work and it didn't have an emergency shut off valve. So we wanted to replace it. 

JP took the old one out. And put the new one in. With a few other steps, like turning off the gas, installing the shut off valve, cutting a larger hole in the counter, etc. but I don't plan to include step by step directions :)

See the hole. See the new cooktop. Pretty!!

 

progress?

so we've been in the house for 10 days now.  i really thought we would be unpacked by now.  but not even close.  we've got the family room, kids rooms and kitchen unpacked.  our bedroom about 50% unpacked.  the rest of the house is a wreck.  and our unpacked rooms still lack curtains, art, etc. but they are functional at least.

so a quick roundup of how the downstairs is looking currently:

family room:

sofa, chair, rug, ottomans in place. i got all the furniture in this room and realized EVERYTHING was brown.  so i bought a yellow rug to brighten things up. i like. although in this picture, it kind of looks tan, hmmm.  tv is mounted in the corner... just need a smaller tv stand now that fits in the corner, and conceal the tv cords...  also need to hang the artwork and get a ton of plants for the bay window, and maybe a potted fig tree for next to the chair?  no further plans yet for the family room. 

the library... mostly unpacked still. all the books are still packed up.  i did buy two new chairs to put in here, blue slipper chairs. need to hang the curtains, finish unpacking.  maybe get a little side table and/or a coffee table? i think we may inherit some more bookshelves (and books?) from my parents when they move, which will certainly make this feel more library-ish!   and i'm sort of on the look for a library ladder at some point :) 

dining room is ground zero for projects right now.  all the cabinet painting is happening in here.  boxes of paint supplies, bags of tools... it's blocked off to the kids.  i am still contemplating making this a playroom for the next couple years.  we don't really need another dining area, we do need a play area close to the kitchen. and it might feel nice to leave the tv room, the tv room, and leave the library the reading room. instead of lumping all the kids' toys into one of those rooms. i'm torn still.  but since we don't have a second dining table and the dining room is full of tools, it's a moot point right now.  we'll figure it out... 

kitchen:  we've hung the lower cabinets.  the uppers still need some more paint action.  unfortunately, the lowers are hung with the old hardware.  we wanted the doors back on with young kids around.  but the custom order hardware was... not the right hardware (not our fault).  the correct order (hopefully) is in now. and then we can rehang the doors with the right hardware.  the handles and drawer pulls also can't go on yet.  the included screws aren't long enough, so we need to go buy new screws.  does this happen to everyone else too during DIY?  we go to hang the doors, realize we can't use the new hinges we just bought.  hang with the old hinges, go to add the pulls and handles, and can't do that either b/c of the screw issue.  so frustrating!   

eat-in area has our old dining table, i want to refinish the table and chairs at some point, and paint the walls (sooner than later)... but not much else planned for this part. 

kitchen - in progress

so progress in the kitchen is slowly but surely happening... pictures below depict all the cabinet doors off and the primer on all the cabinets.  these pictures are a little behind b/c at this point, we have the first coat of white paint on the uppers and two coats of gray on the lower cabinets.  we had to special order the hinges b/c they are not standard.  they should come in later this week, and hopefully we will have the second (and third) coat of white on the uppers by then.  i'd like to be ready to re-hang the doors this weekend.

possible paint colors for the walls

dining room takeover with cabinet doors and drawers 

goodbye old house

this morning was settlement at the old house.  so this blog is about the new house, but i wanted a final farewell documented at the old house as well.  i did a final walk through yesterday afternoon and grabbed some empty house pictures...

goodbye living room

goodbye teeny tiny kitchen (whose counters i will totally miss)

goodbye single bathroom that is way too small for 4 people

goodbye vera's room (which i did tear up looking in here at her sweet little tree decal imagining us putting that up while i was still pregnant with that little girl and then bringing her home for the first time to this house)

goodbye porch - i hope the new porch hosts as many parties! 

we are ready for the next chapter of our lives and to make lots of new memories and milestones at the new house

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the new owners of the amhurst house seem nice - and they have a little girl vera's age - i hope they become fast friends

powder room

currently the powder room off the kitchen looks like this:

i found these art prints and love them...

i think the second looks kind of wyeth-esque, and we are big wyeth fans in the house of travii.  i want to paint the bathroom pink, i think it goes well with both paintings and matches the current pink tile on the floor.  jp has ix-nayed that.  we'll see what color it ends up being. i'm still voting for pink :) 

bedrooms

the new house has four bedrooms... furniture in below pictures are the previous owners.  we plan to leave three of the bedrooms in the colors shown.  we will probably paint finley's room.  grey?  similar to his current room. 

 master bedroom complete with skylight

vera's bedroom

finley's bedroom

guest room

closing day - not quite as planned

so a few days ago, i mentioned that we wanted to make a fire and drink champagne at our new house after settlement.  things didn't go quite as planned.  in the grand scheme of things, we own the house now, and that's what matters.  but man, yesterday was a bit of a disappointing day.

settlement was scheduled for 10am tuesday morning.  a little after midnight monday night/tuesday morning, jp woke up - he had caught the stomach bug the kids have been passing back and forth.  that is round 2 for jp.  finley also had 2 rounds of it.  vera had 1 round.  i haven't gotten it yet, knock on wood...

jp spent most of the night in the bathroom.  i spent most of the night awake listening. fetching blankets, water, etc.   by morning, the worst had subsided, and jp was going to muscle through closing.  we did NOT want to postpone!  our doctor friend called in a prescription for some anti-nausea medicine.  and we got through closing uneventfully.  it was only 45 minutes, and everything went smoothly, and the lawyer was super friendly and we compared our super power immune systems :)

we left the lawyers' office, keys in hand and ready to go build a fire still.  we would skip the champagne and get a much needed nap instead.  right next to the fireplace!  since this was still the first day in our new house afterall...

we got a fire going and approximately 2 minutes later there was a knock on the door.  it was a cleaning lady who was supposed to have come on monday (paid for in advance by the sellers), but had gotten delayed because of the snow, and could she do the cleaning now? well, um, sure.  it's certainly a nice gesture by the sellers (and we plan to pay it forward to our old home buyers in a few weeks.), and it will be nice to not have to clean all the bathrooms etc before settling in.

 but she just ended up being too chatty and loud (and a little weird) for our moods right then, and we had to leave (right after our first fire had started, sigh).  jp went home to nap.  i went to grab lunch and some supplies at lowes.  i returned to the house a couple hours later, and she was still there but i got to work doing some kitchen cabinet painting prep.

finally about 4.5 hours after she had arrived, she left.  the house was ours again! and time to go get the kids!  i went to get the kids, and we could do a fire with them.  then i got a text message from jp that the power at the house was turned of!!! delmarva power claimed we didn't arrange for a hookup/power to stay on that day.  which i DID but my 6 digit confirmation number was moot as they had already turned it off.  with 'special permission from a supervisor', they would turn it back on around 630 pm.  

we did finally get over there last night after dinner with the kids and had a fire that evening.  but certainly not the day we had anticipated.

(btw finley is not sleeping in this picture)

    

kids' bathroom

the kids' bathroom is going to be easy.  tan floor, white vanity, white toilet.  yellow walls.  we just need a shower curtain and some pictures.  i want something fun for kids, since it's a kids' bathroom, and something not too feminine and not too masculine, since vera and finley get to share.  so going for a pirate and mermaid vibe.

bathroom as it looks now:

mood board for the direction i'm headed... 

 

family room and living room - before

tomorrow (tuesday) we close on the new house!  because it is going to be approximately 5 degrees, we plan to go to the new house after settlement and have a fire in the new fireplace!  we will not be moving for another week, but need to go break in the fireplace and enjoy it while it's still cold! we can take over some lawn chairs to sit on and drink some champagne.  can't wait!

here are some pictures of the living room/family room.  the living room is in the same footprint as our current living room (as you enter the house from the front door).

standing at the front door 

beyond the stairs is the family room with fireplace

standing in kitchen (eat-in portion) looking towards family room with wood burning stove

 slightly different angle....