New House Week 8

On the exterior they have done some finishing touches. The wiring for the exterior light fixtures is in as is the wiring for the outdoor electric outlets. We finally have steps! There is also a small patio off the back slider and the forms for the sidewalk are being put into place. From the outside it doesn't look much different from last week but WOW a lot has happened on the interior!

Check out my cute little kitchen! It is definitely on the small side but it has everything that we will need. For some reason I tend to gauge my expectations on what we had in Wymount so this kitchen is fabulous by comparison. Here we have real oak cabinets, a dishwasher, a much larger refrigerator, an eat-in-kitchen and a nice sized pantry.

The light oak cabinets actually look much better than I had expected them to. I think they make the kitchen look really warm and inviting even in its unfinished state. What do you think of the counter tops? We didn't pick those either BUT would you believe that they are not the ones that were ordered? Unfortunately there were a few minor construction boo-boos that we noticed while touring the house today: the wrong appliances were ordered (white and electric instead of black and gas), the vinyl flooring was also the wrong color AND the garage entry from the backyard was on the wrong side, but hopefully all those things will get fixed.

Here is the bathroom vanity. I am so thrilled with the cabinets! The interior is finally taking shape!

New House Week 7

Isn't this such a difference from last week? Nearly all the siding is up and they hung the shutters as well! I think it looks great!

The slab is finished for the garage and soon they will be putting up the structure.

This is our kitchen. Where the pipes are sticking up in the foreground is where our kitchen island is going to be situated. Our sink and dishwasher will be in the island.

This is one of the bedrooms upstairs. In this picture you can see that everything has been painted and the baseboards and molding have gone in. What you can't see is that they hung all the interior doors.

Technically the home will be done in less than four weeks, but our closing date isn't until the 18th of November. Only 5 weeks until we get to move in!

New House Week 6

I just realized that we left the door open when we left...oops. This week the builders have been busy on the interior filling cracks and holes in the drywall, and that is a long and tedious job. There has been a lot of progress on the exterior with the porches nearly complete on the end units and the siding installed on the back of the house.

This is our view from the interior at the front of the house. We think it is pretty sweet.

The view of our living room from our kitchen. On the floor is all of the trim and molding.

Here is the back of the house with the siding! The builders are still working on the walls of the garage, which you can see in the foreground. I am really getting excited and have already picked out paint colors and curtains!

New House Week 5

November 18th...6 more weeks until we get to move in! We found out that the delay was with engineering. They needed to make sure that there was enough support because the home is on a hill. Yesterday we did our construction walk-through. We did not get any pictures of the interior however because we were very rushed and had a very upset little girl. In the interior the insulation is in, dry wall is up, the can lights are installed as well as the smoke detectors (very important), so now begins the finishing work.

As of Monday on the exterior the porches need to be built for our lucky neighbors who get them, and the siding was about to be put up. The foundations for the detached garages were still curing in their forms but they should be up soon too. Annoyingly there are still no steps going into the house so we have to climb up or else use the 2X4 ramps that the construction works have improvised.

It looks like I will have a good spot for my garden in the front of the house. The plot is only about 3 feet deep but approximately 15 feet long and it will get plenty of sunlight. My plans are to try square-foot gardening. It is hard to imagine that in just a few weeks our townhouse will be complete!

My First Quilt!

Here it is! I made my very first quilt and though it looks lopsided in the picture, I promise that it is surprisingly symmetrical. Being the scaredy-cat that I am, I chose to do a simple baby blanket from Amy Karol's book Bend-the-Rules Sewing and was surprised how easy it actually was to make.

Perhaps it isn't a true "quilt" but I did do some machine quilting on it. It turned out much smaller than I had originally planned, mainly this is because I CANNOT cut fabric. Months ago I asked people for advice on how to best cut fabric and the answers that I got were: rotary cutter and mat. Well I have both of those and still managed to fail this one. Ugh...I could go on and on about my frustrations about measuring and cutting fabric but perhaps someday I will be able to figure it out.

One of the great pieces of advice that Amy gave for this project is to not pre-wash the fabric because machine quilting often causes puckers. Washing it after sewing disguises these and gives it a really neat shabby-chic look which is very cute. A general review of this book is &&&/5 because this isn't really a book that I would recommend to someone who actually knows how to sew. I am guessing that a lot of the projects an experienced seamstress could just look at and know exactly how to make. Karol does have some great advice thrown in throughout the book and I do think this a great book for beginners. If you are interested definitely check with your library first.

Now I just have to give this little baby girl blankie away...but to whom, I am not telling. ;)