Ending the Hiatus

It's been too long since my last post! We moved into the house around March 15th, and are just now slowing down enough that I thought I should post the final photos of the house. My sister got married in mid-April, then we had two more weddings, one each in May and June, and work has been positively crazy!

These are the official photos taken by the builder's photographer the day before we moved in.

Front Entry, Study, Dining Room and Butler's Pantry

Living Room and Kitchen

Mudroom, Pantry and Laundry

Master Bath

The pitiful looking plants in the first photos are oakleaf hydrangeas that started to grow beautifully about two weeks after the initial photos were taken. This photo was taken when they were in full flower. They are probably double the size of this now, but no more flowers - the flowers lasted about two months, turning a really lovely pink before the sun fried them at the end of May. 

We had draperies made for the living room and kitchen, but the open shelving in the kitchen is still a bit of a mess, so I will show those later. The sofas we ordered for the living room arrived last week, after 3 months of waiting. We still have a long way to go on the furniture front. We were living in a small 900 sq. ft. apartment and it was perfect for us at the time, but as a result, we are basically starting from scratch. Unlike with the house selections, I'm completely indecisive about what I want, so it will be a slow process. 

The rug we currently have in here is very comfortable, but too blue for the space. We had a stunning persian rug in the living room for a while, but it has found a new home in our bedroom, thanks to Delilah deciding the gray rug was an ideal place to throw up. It's already been to the rug specialists for a wash! When we found this one, we thought well, it's great for now.

Kevin would like to know if anyone would like a cat? She's precious, I promise. :)


The biggest difference so far is our back yard - I am loving having space to grow things. It's turned into a major project, so it will be my next post rather than trying to cram too much into this post.

Almost there

If everything goes as well, we will move to the new house on March 8th. We could not be more excited! We still have a couple of things up in the air - for example, our cooking range has not yet arrived from overseas - but we are hopeful that will go as planned. Unfortunately, we can't have our final inspection without it. 

The whole thing feels very surreal. This was the house on Saturday, February 15th. 

Last night, the gas lantern was on, and our shutters had been installed! I will have to take more in the daylight - the house is really starting to look finished - but I can't resist posting this. The beds are planted with Oakleaf Hydrangeas (Hydrangea quercifolia), and Japanese boxwood. I also planted two Camellia japonicas, both "Debutante." I can't wait to get more camellias. I just love them and they come in so many forms. 

They planted 4 of the "Snowflake" variety of the Oakleaf hydrangea. Let me know if you want one in, say, 2 years, because they get pretty huge. Case in point:

They don't look like the hydrangeas everyone thinks of (those are "mopheads" or "lacecaps") but these are supposed to be easier to care for and I was afraid the spot they are in wouldn't get enough sun for a mophead to be able to bloom well.  

For fun, this is a close up of a flower from the camellia variety we planted:

But, I love these two and will plant them eventually:

Pink Perfection

Magnoliaeflora

Inside the house, we are hanging light fixtures (two thanks to my wonderful dad!) and the floors have been stained. The plumbers are slower (the master bathtub still isn't in, and they don't seem to like the idea of installing the second kitchen sink!) but everyone else is finishing up. 

The foyer

Our study, with the chandelier hanging at last. I got this at this precious Rice Village store called Olivine here in Houston over 6 months ago - it's great to see it hanging somewhere other than the guest room closet!

This chandelier is in our dining room. It has purple crystals in it, which reminded Kevin and me of our visit to Bavaria. One of our favorite visits was to Schleissheim palace. Because we visited in winter, we pretty much had the place to ourselves, and they had just gotten their stunning chandeliers back from restoration. I asked why they had purple crystals and the docent explained that they originally weren't purple - prior to modern glass techniques, the crystals were rather impure, and UV exposure caused them to take on a purple tint. 

When we saw this chandelier - a vintage glass and crystal piece taken from a French Loire valley home - and it had purple crystals, we had to have it. My love of France + reminder of our first anniversary trip = a must have piece. 

Close up of the detail

The living room wall. The second photo is the better color representation. (That's Brent in the photo!)

Kitchen! So sorry this is blurry. I need to stick to daylight photos with the iPhone!

Our backsplash is in, though not yet grouted

Love the faucet we chose (though it is admittedly filthy right now!)

One of the two chandeliers my dad hung for us! This was a birthday gift from my parents that my mom, Lina and I found at the antique fair at Marburger Farms in Round Top, Texas. I highly recommend the show. It's twice a year and I can't wait until the April show! It is Italian iron and putting it up was rather difficult. We rigged it (you can probably see it tied) at the height we thought we'd need it to be over a table, but the electricians decided to "help" yesterday and cut it off. Luckily they cut it at the lower height, but I still found it amusing, mostly because I'm sure they didn't realize it was purposeful and were muttering about it.

Our bathroom, with the shower glass!

The upstairs is coming together as well:

The builder, Southland Homes, has asked to take professional photos of the house before and after we move in. We've warned them that the "after" photos probably won't be able to be taken for a year! We don't exactly have a bunch of furniture, and much of what we do have needs some work thanks to Ping and Pong. 

Delilah when I was in law school. Darcy is the black blob behind her. Not much has changed. 

I appear adorable, but am pretty much an unmitigated disaster. Oh, and I hate everyone except my human-mom, though lately I pretend to prefer Kevin just to crush Laura's heart. Cue my Disney Maleficent laugh. Yes, I definitely have one. 

How long is this going to take?

Two weeks.

Shockingly enough, the answer Tom Hanks kept getting in the Money Pit is hilariously on target. Everyone says "two weeks" and darn it, I'm still waiting on half of our light fixtures! Ha!

This is how my brain feels while having discussions with the builder about what's left to be done and our ever changing move in date.

It's been slow on the house front - hence why it's been a month since my last update. I doubt this will surprise you, but caulking on trim 1) is not interesting in general and 2) does not generate fun photos. You know what DOES generate fun photos? PAINT. Incidentally. that's what's been going on...for the last two weeks.

In all fairness, our exterior paint has been done for about 3 weeks, and it's a little brighter than I thought it would be. OH WELL! Too much of a pain in the rear end to redo. And as our site supervisor pointed out, "it will probably not be as blinding once it gets dirty. Just don't, you know, pressure wash it for a while." Um, ok Brent. :)

So bring your sunglasses if you visit in summer. These pictures were taken in the very early morning before the sun really came out well.

I am thrilled with the way the porch ceiling came out, however! I got this idea from a house in a different area of Houston and planned this out. I really wanted haint blue on the ceiling, and this color, Benjamin Moore's "Palladian Blue," did the trick. It has just enough green in it, if you ask me. Our gas lantern will be in the center of the middle square, over the entry doors. 

Speaking of entry doors, the real doors are technically built, but we are waiting on the glass. You guessed it: it was supposed to be in 2 weeks ago. I keep getting told this week. Which probably means March. 

Moving inside, we decided to do the study in full high gloss, in a dark color. I think it's looking awesome. Kevin isn't so sure, but is reserving judgment until the light fixtures and draperies are in. It's hard to get a good photo of this room because the window is taped up and the construction doors are solid, but for now:

This is the drapery fabric we are planning to use, provided it still looks nice in the room. The idea was a monochrome look. Even if we don't use it for drapery, I may have pillows or a cushion made from it for the window seat - I just love the embroidery.











Our dining room, in its current state. They must have had a lot of issues on these walls? They have lots of spots they have touched up prior to the final coat(s) of paint. This is only one coat over the house. They plan to do the final coats right before we move in. I am happy with the color, though. It's a Sherwin Williams color, and I can NEVER remember the name of it for some reason.

And, the foyer. This might be my favorite right now. I wanted basically a white with a hint of tint, and Benjamin Moore's "Intense White" fit the bill. It's one down on the swatch from Gray Owl, which we used pretty much everywhere else. The trim in the entire house is Benjamin Moore's "Winter White."

I am *obsessed* with the little detailing on the stairs. I randomly picked that out on a whim. Between this and my herringbone wood floors in the bathroom (which are the best ever) I've gotten really lucky on my "ah what the hell just do that" selections. 

View from the living room

The butler's pantry and powder room will be wallpapered, but I don't have the paper in yet, so nothing fun in those rooms yet.

The living room color turned out well, even though I half regret not using the Intense White. Probably would have been too white. I must have been an architect in another life. Everything in shades of white. 

Gray Owl, plus some patch work to keep things interesting. 

Yay. Still my favorite feature that someone else suggested. Our architect pulled this idea right out of "The Louisiana Houses of A. Hays Town."

The mudroom built in is painted Benjamin Moore's "Amherst Gray." I'm happy with the color, I suppose, but I bought these antique brass horse head hooks from Anthropologie that don't stand out all that well against it. I might try to polish them up. I'm hoping the hardware goes in this week (on time) because 1) my neighborhood is allegedly still "transitioning" and we don't have real locks on the doors yet (read: people from the surrounding areas come into your neighborhood and steal from you with mad abandon) and 2) it'd be nice for something to get done on time. But really, it's the first. I'm SUPER paranoid, and the no deadbolts yet thing is making me crazy. I spent hours painstakingly picking stuff out that the Internet no longer sells or was antique to begin with, and I'd like to hold on to it. [This is the part where Kevin calls across the room with "I told you to just get the hardware from Fergusons."] Then again, it doesn't help when your builder mumbles things like "hmmm I better take this toilet with me. They always take the toilets." REALLY now.

I'm very spoiled. This is my pantry. I showed the carpenter a photo I found on Houzz, asking him to do it in that style. I didn't expect him to copy it precisely! Lucky, lucky us. They did an amazing job and now that it's painted I'm giddy. Lots of space to store the food we rarely cook. YEAH! (I'm working on that last part. It's tough in the apartment kitchen because we are stepping on each other and we have 4 cabinets. Plus the pantry will be nice because I can things. Anybody want some bread and butter pickles? Because I made them last summer and NOBODY EATS THE THINGS BUT ME. And they are in beautiful jars. With chalkboard labels.)

And, the kitchen. It's getting there. We had somewhat of a hardware snafu. Hint: a 3/4" knob is not a full 3/4"- they taper so the face isn't actually that large. And they look stupid in your kitchen. They also used an adhesive on the marble that bled through, leaving huge, dark circles on the face of the marble in a 3-over-3 pattern. I actually did not freak out. Kevin's turn to freak out. They put a remover on it, but it bleached the circles, so even though they are now white, you can see the pattern. We don't care about the color variation and Kevin is bothered by it more than I am, but we are having them put the remover on the whole slab and see if we can't even it out. If we can't, I have NO idea what we are going to do. 

Full kitchen view

It's SO much better than it was. You can still make out circles, but I'm really hoping this next round of remover works, because I think the slab is just beautiful. 

The brass hinges look like little jewels in person. The unpainted part of the walls and the inside of the shelves will be white subway tile, and the back wall has a little piece on top to finish it. They are hopefully coming Friday if the marble debacle is resolved.

Moving on to the master bedroom, it's a blue-gray that I'm not sure I like yet. I'm warming up to it. Shades of white and all. I have color issues. I elicit blank stares from my interior designer, who insists my whole house can't be white and gray. 

We are having a duvet made out of this fabric for the master bedroom. The drapes will be white (HA) with something Nicole calls a "tape" - I am not sure what that means, but she is a Magic Maker. She finds most of this fabulousness for me. 

Another embroidered fabric. I swear these are the only two! I don't have photos of the living room and kitchen draperies but they are already on order, so maybe in about 6-8 weeks.

The master bath. Kevin's shower, almost finished. The tiles are much more gray than I wanted. Letting that go. Unfortunately, you can't control what you get when you order tile unless you go over and dig through it (ain't nobody got time for that), and even then your only choice is to wait until they get more or pay a bajillion dollars for Calacatta. 

Just needs the clawfoot tub! Occurred to me today that I don't see the plumbing coming up through the floor. Interesting.

The drawers in here got finished this weekend, so they aren't painted yet. Slow progress in here. The sinks are actually in, but the marble is covered up due to the painting, so no sink views yet. 

Upstairs is comparatively boring - it's all the same color because we figured neutral was best until we have a reason to change it, and the Gray Owl color we used in the kitchen and living room matches existing bedding we already own very well, so it works for now. 

One of the upstairs bedrooms. I guess I forgot to take photos of the others, but you can see it's a nice quiet color. 

While I was at the house today, lots of things started showing up. Like these:

Interior doorknobs

And these:

The brass pulls we bought for the kitchen drawers. They look so much better in person!

And all of this:

FAUCETS!

So hopefully, I'll have a good update for later in the week. Unfortunately they won't be staining the floors for a while. The thin paint coating it's got going at the moment? Not a great look. It's coming together, though!

 - LWG