Nice Angles!

Well, folks. Here it is. The moment you've all been waiting for!

But, first. I must ramble (as per usual).

Remember how I told you just how amazing my friend, James is? Well, here's another example: he arranged for a professional photographer to come through our house (minutes) before we moved in so, I could show all of you lovelies how amazing our little has project turned out!

If you need a reminder of how things started, please refer back to: Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes (Part One) and Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes (Part Two).

Side note: The professional pictures are gorgeous! They are so clear and beautiful and HUGE they make me dream of a bigger, fancier camera (hint, hint H; cough Christmas, cough birthday). That being said, they don't fit on this blog (you may have to scroll left to right to view the entire picture) as it is formatted and I thought it a little silly to reformat for just one post. But, enough of this babble. Let's get to the good stuff!

The glorious exterior.

 Head on.

Moving inside:

The living room and the front door. (I heart the exposed brick)

The wall color throughout the majority of the house is Benjamin Moore's Horizon (OC-53). It is a very light gray color. If I were doing it again I would have gone a hair darker but, as it stands it will be SO easy to live and decorate with.

View from the front door of the living room. 
Open concept. Doors to the mud room>garage and powder room are on the right.

Kitchen featuring: H's Super Fridge, the Carara marble countertops, butchers block island, and subway tile backsplash. Love x4.

View of the kitchen and living room. 

You can also see the door to the pantry (I'll take detailed a picture of that down the road- simply because it is awesome!). The small door to the left of the pantry is for under-stair storage.

The dining "room" with my built-in bench seating and french doors to the patio.

Mud room. (LOVE!) 
Utility closet on left. Garage entrance on right. Benches for storage and coat hooks all around. The brick tile floor ties in to the front entrance (shown above).

Going up:

The staircase.

Office (or second bedroom as needed). 

Office view from windows. 
Trying to decide what to display above the closet. Ideas?

Guest bedroom.

Guest bedroom view from windows. 
The high ceilings and the transoms above the windows make the upstairs rooms extra special.

Master bedroom. 
The wall color is Benjamin Moore's Wedgewood Gray (HC-143). Which, doesn't really look this bright in real life. It is a much deeper blue/green and I am in love with it. I received the suggestion from a friend/interior designer. Thank you Bea!

 Master closet. (part of it at least, there's more to the left that wouldn't fit in the picture #spoiled)

 Our master vanity.

I will have to take a picture of our master shower in its entirety. It is spectacular. It has white subway tile, a marble bench, and marble hex tile floor. We also have two shower heads, one of which is a rain-shower.

And finally, who could forget the RTD?!

That's all for now, I will post more of the up close and personal professional pictures soon. 

H and I could not be more proud of how it turned out.  We are so in love and hope that you all are as infatuated as we are. 

We are so grateful for the amazing opportunity we have been given to own a home like this. It has taken a lot of time and effort to get to this point of our housing tale and we couldn't have done it alone (obviously-H can barely change the batteries in a smoke detector).  Our friends and families have been wonderful supporters of our project. But, on the front lines have been James and Mr. C.

Their efforts (individually and collaboratively) made this happen for us. Both of these gentlemen are professional, respectful, knowledgeable, kind, and outrageously handsome little devils. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time working with you and appreciate all you have done to get us into our new home.

Thank you both for everything!

For now, CHEERS to humble and happy (Charm City) living!

The Skinny

Before I get to the juicy news I wanted to share with you some of Week 17's progress.

The updated TBC list:

TBC

✓  Paint

✓  Flooring

✓  Cabinets

✓  Posts and rails for internal staircase

✓  Plumbing fixtures

✓  Appliances

✓  Countertops 

✓  Fence

     Stairs to RTD

     Garage door 

     Permit

Plumbing fixtures are in. Here is our kitchen sink, well the faucet at least. 

The crew is protecting the countertops beneath as to why I don't have a "money" kitchen shot.


Countertops you say? I am so spoiled lucky! The countertops I have dreamed of are now my own little reality! They are Carrara marble and the island is butchers block. 

The fence in the back of the house was completed. Hadyn's mother suggested we put up rod iron to ensure our safety or possibly glue down broken glass. Depending how some of these neighbors behave we may entertain those options.

Lighting fixtures are up (not all of them)

Here is our little powder room.

The posts and rails were built for the internal staircase. 

The stairs were being stained over the weekend to match the dark wood floors. 

The laundry closet complete with full size, spiffy washer/dryer we pretty much stole got for cost from the appliance store, HHGreg. Washer/dryer : me :: SuperFridge : H

Now where on earth do I keep the laundry supplies?! (soap, fabric softener, etc)


The second bath.

This weekend H's family visited to celebrate our sweet, nephew Charlie's baptism and middle brother/uncle/Godfather/DDS extraordinaire's birthday.


Said BIL (brother in law), James was busy scaling the walls to the RTD while I snapped this FFF (forced family fun) photo of H and his 'Papa Bear' in our master closet. I was trying to show just how large the closet is.

All in all the house is looking pretty ready to move into. 

But, alas, it is not. 

Here's the skinny on why:

The house is VERY close to done. As in, Mr. C says he will be 99% complete (excluding the final punch-list) on Tuesday (tomorrow!). 

However, the house has to be inspected and we have to receive an Occupancy Permit from the City before we can legally move in. The permit will likely NOT be granted if we cannot get the power on. As in this is still tied into the power-line dilemma I told you about here. 

It is my understanding that the permits have to be signed and processed through the local power company, BGE.
Once approved, the power has to be hooked up and turned on by BGE. 
Then the inspection for our Occupancy Permit will happen. 
THEN we can move in. 

All in all, the BEST case scenario we will move in by August 1. WORST case scenario we will move in by August 16. 

We have to move out of our rental house by the morning of August 1. (I didn't plan that - it just worked out that the owner of our rental is moving back in and needs it by that date.)

Please say a little prayer, meditate on it, send positive energy, or just think happy thoughts for us! 

TBC

Last week I showed you a list of To Be Completed (TBC) items. Here is the updated list.

TBC

✓  Paint

✓  Flooring (first floor hardwoods have since been installed)

✓  Cabinets

     Posts and rails for internal staircase

     Plumbing fixtures

✓  Appliances (purchased-to be delivered by Thursday)

     Fence

     Stairs to RTD

     Garage door

I should add:

     Countertops (measured and being cut)

     Permit (contact made, fingers crossed)

Just to prove it to you:

Paint

Flooring
Dark Maple hardwoods (love!)

Appliances (purchased) 

It was a long and rough Friday night project, and I wasn't quite sure if H was going to make it.

But, like a proud father (or super fridge owner) he could barely take his eyes (or hands) off of his most prized possession. Don't know a lot of people who like food more than H.

Here is the spot where the new super fridge will live.

Cabinets

One thing I am going to note about the kitchen cabinets is that, I had to do a little bartering (begging and compromising) to get exactly what I wanted. 

During the design process we took out the cabinets that were originally supposed to be here (see big red star).

In order to get this spectacular island.

From the living room.

I am hoping to put a few open shelves up on the empty wall for displaying some of our pretty and colorful things. I actually think I prefer this design layout better than cabinets all the way around. You?

My other favorite thing about our kitchen is that I requested bench seating in the dining "room". After only a little begging, Mr. C obliged. (gotta love him)

There is still a backing that was being built at the time I snapped this photo.

View of the kitchen from the dining "room"

T-minus 7 days (but really, who is counting?)