SO close!

So much got done this weekend!  Everything is finally starting to really pull together.

Matt and I drove up on Friday night because the appliances were scheduled to be delivered on Saturday morning.  How were we able to spend 2 nights up in Acton, when we've only spent 1 night at a time before?  We have a shower - and that includes hot water!

Here's a preview of how the oil-rubbed bronze hardware is going to look on the doors:

Our carpenter has been super busy.  He started putting all the baseboard trim back on, and is finishing up putting the kitchen together (I'll get to that more in a bit).

Here's my office:

It's so exciting!  It really looks so much more finished now.  Saturday we got the appliances.

Yes, there's still a LOT of snow up in Maine.

The previous owners tiled over the dryer vent for some reason, so only the washer is installed at the moment.  They dryer is hanging out in the hallway.

The fridge is all hooked up - water and everything!

I have to keep mopping up the drool.

Here is where we were on Saturday afternoon.

The countertops can't be installed until we got the sink set in the base, so we had Jay (the carpenter) make the opening a little bit bigger.

perfect!

Here's how that will look with the faucet.

And now a sneak peek at the pot filler faucet that will go in above the stove!

Pasta, here we come!

Sunday I left Acton early to run to Ikea to pick up a shelving until for the master bathroom - and I got the next few pictures texted to me from Matt.

Now the glass-door cabinet is up on the wall, with cubbies underneath... and the panels and baseboard are in place.

Everything is my favorite part, but I think my FAVORITE favorite part is the little feet at the end of the peninsula...

...and underneath the sink!

Up this week: countertops, backsplash, finishing the master bath, final coat of poly on the floors... and then MOVING ON SATURDAY!!!  We're both so incredibly excited!

Slowly, slowly

HUGE news - the hot water heater is in!  We have just a little bbq-sized propane tank hooked up for the moment, but the big tank will be installed this week.  Hooray for showers!

Next, the french door from the master bedroom out to the (future) deck got replaced.

Old door:

New door:

so pretty

And the light on the ceiling fan in the living room finally works!  The light was wired, and the wire ran down the wall and stopped next to the switch box, but wasn't actually connected to any switches.  So the electrician did his thing and now we have a fan AND a light!

The tile guy set the tiles in the master bath last week.  I set up the vanities temporarily to make sure everything was looking the way we wanted it to.

Now for some grout!  That will be happening this week, and he'll also lay and grout the hall bath.

This week is going to be busy up at the house.  Aside from the tile guy and the painter working away, the kitchen sink should be delivered and installed, and then the countertop template can be finished, and the marble can be installed.  The floors are getting their final coats of poly, and then they'll be done.  Oh, and the appliances are coming on Saturday too!  We'll be busy busy this weekend.

PS isn't Onyx adorable?  He likes to make nests in the blankets.

Not really an update

So this isn't really an update. The tile guy was laying the tiles in both bathroom floors, so late last week Matt pulled out the toilet and vanity in the hall bath that we had been using when we stayed there. So since we didn't have a bathroom for the weekend, we couldn't go up.

But the good news is that next week there will be lots of pictures! And we ordered the appliances!

Hole-y walls, Batman!

This post is mainly about why you should always have gutters on your house.  Seriously, who doesn't put gutters on a house??  And if your gutter falls off, who doesn't replace it?!

Look ma, no gutter!

So anyway, long story short - the back of our house doesn't have gutters.  It did have a little tiny porch off of the master bedroom that looked a little old and rickety, which we were going to tear off anyway when we built the big, house-spanning deck this summer.

Flashback: back of the house last fall.

The little porch is on the left there.

We knew going in that we were going to knock off the porch and replace the door from the master bedroom, because everybody could tell there was water damage to the door, especially from the outside. Here is the door in question.

And when we got up to Acton on Saturday, our carpenter had this to show us:

Why yes, that IS a hand-sized hole in the back of the house!  And everybody knows that to fix a small hole, sometimes you need to make the hole bigger...

That's not supposed to be a window.  It's supposed to be a wall.

And then he covered it back up again with some new, water-resistant boards.

It can be a little hard to figure out what windows go where, so here's a pretty graphic for you:

Oh, and on Saturday night we went out in Sanford with some friends, and had margaritas that were SMOKIN.  Like, literally.

Yum!

xo!

The floors!!

The floor guys were hard at work over the weekend.  This morning, Matt emailed over these pictures, and I wrote back "OMG I just died".  I meant in a good way, like died and went to walnut-stained-oak-floor heaven, but he thought I meant I didn't like them.  He needs more lessons on how to interpret Blonde.

Welcome to our new floors!

Remember when they used to look like this?

Wow, what a change, right??  Scroll back and forth a few times.  I pretty much spent my whole lunch break today going back and forth between those two pictures.

Here's the view fromthe corner of the living room, facing towards the dining room and kitchen.  Even the railing in the loft got the same stain!

And here's the opposite corner, in the dining room, looking at the kitchen.  PS, the back of the peninsula will get a pretty white board so it matches the cabinets.  It's hanging out in one of the bedrooms for now.

All the flooring in the rooms above were old floors, restained.  The flooring below is all new.  I can't tell the difference, can you?

Here is the master bedroom.  The door on the far wall goes into the master bath.  I love all the light.

 This is the loft area.

And finally, this will be my office, on the second floor off the loft.  See the ceiling fan inthe background?  That hangs over the living/dining rooms.

I honestly can't believe that step is done!  They need to do a couple of coats of poly, but this is a HUGE step!!

xo

Mid-week updates

Big surprise, it's supposed to snow this weekend (again).  Thanks, February, you can stop now.  They did just downgrade the amounts, so even though earlier in the week our apartment in Andover, MA was supposed to get 6-8", and the house in Acton, ME was going to get 12"+, the whole region is forecasted to only get 2-4".  Not too bad.

On to the pictures!

Here's our ghetto temporary mailbox.  The previous owner had removed the mailbox (along with all the copper pipes and kitchen cabinets), and we didn't get around to digging a hole for the mailbox before the ground froze.  The lovely ladies at the Acton Post office reprimanded me and said they couldn't keep holding our mail for too much longer, so we went right out and fixed up this temporary solution.

It has probably already been knocked over by a plow or stolen by teenagers.  But we did try.

The floor guys were working hard this week installing the new hardwood floors in my office...

...which continues into the loft...

...and they also patched the hole inthe flooring where the pink tile was underneath the old wood stove.  See how you can tell the old, shiny, orangey hardwood from the new, lighter wood?

And they also installed all new flooring in the master bedroom, where there used to be carpet.  That door is rotted out, since there are no gutters on the back of the house (that's totally getting fixed this spring), so the door below is getting switched out for a pretty new french door.

Have a good weekend, and I hope it doesn't snow too much!
xo

Matt was right

We took a drive to Ikea yesterday (in the snow), and Matt was right - it was a good thing we took his car, because everything we bought would definitely not have fit in my car. 

Saturday (also in the snow) we drove up to Acton for the day to check on progress. 

Here's a pretty view of the fan in the great room.  The electrician reworked some of the switches, so we will now be able to turn on the light AND the fan!  (Seriously, who puts in a fan with a light and then doesn't connect the light wires to a switch?!)

This is the view from the living room looking up at the loft and over towards the kitchen.  See, the paint is all done!  The railing in the loft will be stained when the floor gets stained this week.

This is the fireplace wall when we bought the house:

And the same wall now.  We will be putting in a gas fireplace insert and a stone surround.

The wall on the left faces the road at the front of the house, and the wall on the right faces the yard.  The sofa will go in front of the window on the right.

Also, I am LOVING the white trim.  I kind of drool a little every time I see it.  It looks so much nicer than the wood trim!

Before and after - standing at the front door, looking at the kitchen, with the stairs to the loft on the right:

Kitchen from the hallway:

Kitchen from the dining room:

Cement board is up, so we can have the backsplash tile put in (after the countertops):

Since we ordered the cabinets right after Thanksgiving, I had forgotten about all the cool extras we got!  If you look at the picture above, the cabinet to the right of the stove spot has a built-in cutting board!  So handy to have a cutting board with the knives.  This drawer was getting its face plate reattached, but it goes to the left of the dishwasher,so it's next to the dining room, and it has 2 cutlery trays.

This cabinet in the peninsula has a pull-out shelf for pots and pans and lids.  No more everything falling over!

This week the floors are getting patched, sanded, and stained.  I can't wait to see the results!

xo