Grad Party
This week we finally had our grad party (our first party at the new house!) for our son who recently graduated from high school. I was worried that because the house was still in shambles, our guests wouldn’t have a good time. But, I worried for nothing. The party was outdoors and the weather was beautiful! We had the pool, hot tub, corn hole, and SO MUCH sangria and everyone had a great time! The kids spent the most time playing volleyball and it was fun watching them from the sidelines (I duck when a ball comes toward me, so no one wants me on their team!).
We made way too much food, but that just meant that I didn’t have to cook dinner for a while. Sweet! Since there was little I could do to decorate the inside of the house because of the ongoing work, I kind of went nuts decorating outside!
I planted so many flowers!
And I made centerpiece flower planters with my son’s school colors (red, black, yellow, and white).
Painting
This week also saw some slow progress inside the house with the walls in the great room and foyer being painted.
When I walked in on the painters painting the first coat, I literally gasped! I’m not the best at picking out colors and I have to do trial and error about 538 times before getting it right. But, the color that I chose (Classic Gray cut by 50%) is just what I wanted and surprisingly I nailed it from the outset. It’s a beautiful white with a hint of warm gray and I couldn’t love the color more!
Kitchen
The walls in the kitchen were finally completely built out and primed. The kitchen looks so much bigger with the pantry, mudroom, and coat closet walls taken out. It’s now ready for a mini makeover that will tide us over until the Phase 2 kitchen demo and renovation. I’m deciding what color to paint the cabinets and have narrowed that down. I’m also thinking about the cabinet configuration overall since I removed some cabinets in the demo that can be reconfigured elsewhere in the kitchen.
Office
I’m on the hunt for window treatments for the office to break up all the dark coloring and have been leaning toward lighter colored curtains. I’ve always had good luck with Pottery Barn curtains and am looking at these linen ones.
I’m also leaning toward using acrylic curtain rods with brass accents and I like this one. The rods are light and airy and again, with all the dark walls, I need something light to balance that heaviness. I think the hint of brass in these rods will tie in beautifully with the light fixtures in the room. And I’ll pair the rods with brass drapery rings.
Floors
The floors are basically done. Woo Hoo! The only thing left is to get the baseboards painted and installed.
Solar Panels
We are also progressing with installing solar panels on the backside of the house. We were going to wait until Phase 2 to get this done but because the pool and hot tub use so much electricity to run and heat, it made more sense to get them now to save us the most money in the long run. This week I approved the final layout and now I’m just waiting for my county to issue the proper permits then for the company to give me an installation date.
Next Week
Next week I’ll be focusing on painting. I hope to finish most of the main level and will paint the piano room, kitchen, and dining rooms. I’m painting the easy rooms with lower ceilings and I left the harder rooms with taller ceilings (foyer and great room) to the contractors.
On Monday, my contractors are picking up the custom made baseboards from my new favorite wood mill. I never thought I’d say that I have a favorite WOOD MILL, but there it is…
The flooring contractors have also scheduled another crew to come in starting on Monday to finish the stairs. They’ll be sanding the rails and treads and staining them to match the new floors. They’ll also be installing the new balusters. They’re scheduled to be done by Wednesday and I’m also hoping that the floors will be done by then too. Our storage unit contract ends on the 15th and I’d like to have a place to put our furniture!
So, that’s what’s on deck for next week. Have a great weekend!
