Fading Into Fall

The summer flew by for us. We have been crazy busy as you may have guessed by my rather lengthy blog absence. 

We are currently working on enjoying what is left of the warm weather, atop the RTD. This is what our perch views have been like as of late. 

It may be a far cry from the Tetons but, I am trying to enjoy it for what it is worth. 

The summer synopsis is coming soon!

Adirondack Love

As soon as I knew we were going to get our RTD I had been dreaming of a pair (or more) of pretty adirondack chairs to sit up there. Alas, most of the adirondack chairs that I've ever seen were in the $100-250 range, per chair. (Boo!)

Then the tides turned this spring while I was picking up some essentials in Home Depot. I found a pair unassembled and unfinished adirondack chairs on sale for $25 bucks! So, I grabbed two, paid, and ran like hell outa there thinking they had to be miss marked.

The chairs patiently waited in their boxes for some love until we moved. Once we cleared out our garage we finally had the space to tackle this project. I was hoping to paint THEN assemble but, H had another idea. He snuck into the garage claiming he was going to put them together on his own. I think he was just anxious to use his drill, boys and power tools. <insert eye roll here>

So, without protesting I just let him be. Pretty soon he emerged and claimed 'they were good to go'. Translation: 'You can do the rest.' 

After a little sanding and cleaning, the chairs were ready for some paint. Although they are kind of pretty in their au naturale state.

At first I had grand dreams of spray painting these suckers. The idea of spray paint just seems so lovely; quick and easy. But, after a few spray painting test runs I decided I loved these chairs too much to mess up with my amature technique so, I went back to the home improvement store and found a regular old can o paint. 

From day one I knew these babies had to be painted happiest color of them all, yellow! Plus I'm a Steelers girl living in Baltimore so, what else was I to do?!

This was a blessing because the Rust-oleum Sun Yellow if far superior to the other, at least in my opinion. Valspar products are great but, this particular yellow is the perfect bright and cheery color I was looking for.

Hand painting these chairs was also the way to go. Next time however, I will race H to the garage and paint them BEFORE assembly. It is just more efficient in the long run, getting into all of those nooks and crannies can be tough.

Here is the finished product.

 

These lovelies are now perched on the RTD and they make our little bit of outdoor space even better, especially with a warm cup of coffee or a frosty beverage.

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!

Our First Week

Admittedly, I have been a bad girl and have not updated enough. Pictures of the house will be up tomorrow. But, until then I thought I'd share a little bit about how our first week in Charm City went.

Here are some stats.

Days H walked to work: 5
Hours I spent commuting to work: 5
Hours spent looking for parking after work: 1.5 (Cannot wait until the garage is free and clear!)
Hours spent watching TV: 0 (No cable yet and kinda loving it. H, not so much.)
Sutures needed for me: 5
Emergency surgeries for Miss Maui: 1

To keep it brief. Someone (H) thought they were doing a good thing for the dog by playing fetch (with a stick as opposed to a ball) with her. I have always tried to impose a "no stick" rule because I have heard the horror stories of dog vs stick mishaps. But, I can't always be around to ensure the rules are being followed. Needless to say, while Maui was chasing down said stick it jammed in the back of her throat and a large piece broke off. I came home to her hacking, drooling foamy blood, and acting a little out of sorts. If a lab won't eat... there is a problem. 

H and I took her first thing Saturday morning to a nearby veterinarian clinic and she was whisked back for surgery. 
To remove this piece of wood which was almost entirely embedded in the back of her throat.

This made for a rather unproductive and costly Saturday. 

The good thing was that we found our new vet. A little more dramatically than we would have liked but, we were so pleased with her. Thank you Dr. McMichael! 

By, Sunday she was feeling a little more like herself. After all that trauma I thought she deserved a little popsicle on the RTD.

If you look closely at my thumb you will notice some little blue sutures. Small work mishap that also made the week just a tad more interesting.

While all of that was happening here, I was getting updates on my cousin B and her husband M (who I referred to as our "first house guests") who welcomed their first child into the world. 

Introducing Jack Michael! Isn't he just the most handsome boy?!

 Photo credit: Matty Liv (thanks!)

Counting the days we can get to Pittsburgh to meet this little angel! 

So, all in all this week things were new and interesting; the ride was a little bumpy but, the outcome has been splendid. 

Such is life. 

Home Sweet Home

I didn't even let the paint (on the garage door) dry before I started moving us in. When you're homeless (ish) you'll do what ya gotta do.

Piece by piece our furniture started making its way inside.

Maui didn't quite know what to think at first.

But, then she settled right in and took her first snooze on the RTD.

We don't have Internet until Tuesday and have been rather busy trying to settle in. I do promise to elaborate on all subjects but, the iPhone is not the easiest thing to blog from. So, until I can give you move details. H, Maui, and I are happy to report we are finally, home sweet home. 

Moving?

That is the question...

Yesterday was moving day! (sort of)


We moved out of our rental house.


We moved into our new... garage. 


Good thing we got our garage door installed a few days ago.

(not yet painted)

However, we will actually be moving into our house on Friday night/Saturday. To allow a few of Mr. C's crew to do some touch up work (painting, caulking, cleaning and so on) for the next couple of days. The house "99% done" (Mr. C) and livable but, Mr. C is out of the country for a few weeks enjoying some much deserved R&R so, the final 1% will have to wait until he returns.


Thankfully, we have some pretty awesome friends who are allowing us to crash at their house (just a few blocks away from our old rental house) for a few nights while they are out of town. (THANK YOU Mike & Sunshine!!!)

Even more thankfully, we have the most awesome brother/BIL who drove up from Virginia and helped us load and unload our uhaul in less than 24 hours. You James, deserve an unlimited number of "fun" beers on top of the RTD! (or glasses of champagne if you'd prefer)

So, we still have to spend the weekend (+++) moving everything from the garage into the house and unpacking but, yesterday all in all, was a pretty spectacular day!

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! 

Cherry On Top

Did I give you enough time to figure out what else we found while exploring our roof last week?


I thought so.


The roof top deck *RTD* (woop woop)


So, we walked up the steps here.

Turned the corner (hoping to find stairs leading to the RTD).

 

Nope. Oh well, at least there was a ladder. Good thing I wore a dress that day. 

So, we scaled the ladder and finally got a look at our view of Charm City.

We definitely have views of Downtown Baltimore and the Inner Harbor but, since we couldn't actually stand (no stairs) on the RTD we still don't know if we might have a sliver of a water view. To be continued I suppose.


One RTD fact I will let you know about is that Mr. Contractor put in the supports when the house was being built but, we didn't have enough money in the budget to complete the entire deck. So, we have a RTD that is about 12' x 12'.  Once H and I obtain some skills (and a little extra cash) we will be able ("pretty easily"-Mr. C) to finish it off.



Someday our little, baby RTD will grow (I hope) into a big RTD. At its full grown, adult size it would be approximately 12' x 24'. 


I'm just grateful to have the option to expand the little guy someday.

 Until then, this little slice of outdoor space will suite us just fine!