House Pictures

We are making progress!

(besides the fireplace and a little trim, the family room is close to done!)

Yes, it's still a bit of a construction zone, but it is feeling more and more like home every day. 

Our kitchen is finally getting close :)

Our beautiful counters were installed right before we left for the holidays - they are "sea pearl quartzite" which we love. 

We finally got running water on Monday, which was huge. It's amazing how helpful it is to have funning water in the kitchen. We missed our dishes so much. 

And today, we got our stove put in! We love it so much - and I'm so thrilled that we switched from electric to gas. Tomorrow we'll hopefully get most of the cabinets installed and our kitchen will be even closer to finished.

We got the original chandelier back up in the dining room and that plus the art makes it feel very finished. We celebrated on Tuesday by having dinner in there, and it was lovely. 

Evan is loving our home more and more every day. It's just so much more kid friendly than any of our other homes, and it's fun making it special just for him.

Evan got this great play kitchen from my parents (which took forever to assemble!) and we have it set up in the family room. Evan was very excited to see it when he got up from his nap.

The kitchen, plus this sweet table and chair set from Ed's mom, makes up Evan's play nook. It's so nice to have a designated space downstairs for him to play and explore. He is so happy here and I can't wait to see him grown and learn in this space.

First Week In!

We're in our new home!

It is wonderful, but a bit crazier than we probably imagined. We're still definitely under construction, without a functioning kitchen, covers on all the outlets, a fireplace, and lots more. Plus, with only a weekend to move in, we've unpacked just a few boxes. 

But, we are home. My parents came up to help hang artwork and get us settled, and we have one room at least that feels close to done. 

We are in love with our flooring and the home layout. It is the perfect amount of space for our family and is so nice to come home to!

I've also finished my last week of teaching before break - no school on Friday is a happy bonus :). As I dreamed, I do indeed have a couple of students whose families work for wineries and got some wonderful wine as teaching presents. I have such a great class and we had a lovely last week. 

This is our view from our bedroom at sunrise. I am so happy to be waking up to this every day. Today's goal is to get as much unpacked as possible and really turn this into our space! Hopefully, our counter, sink, stove and dishwasher will go in this weekend and I'll share some more pictures when I can.

Happy Holidays!

Last Visit Before the Move...

Believe it or not, we're moving in next week! Now, our house won't be 100% done - the countertops won't come in until the 15th, which means no stove, sink, or backsplash that first week. Plus, the fireplace may not be 100% done either. But, as long as the floors are in, we'll be good to go :).

I had a productive weekend, painting Evan's room and removing the rest of the wallpaper in our bathroom. We made the judgement call to  have our guy paint the rest of the upstairs, since it wasn't going to be too pricey and then it'd all be done without having to stress.

So, I've decided that this will be my last visit inside the house! I want to have a little bit of that feeling of surprise when we show up on moving day to see all of our new floors and the rest of the paint (and hopefully kitchen cabinets!). We're in the middle of some frenzied packing over here and getting ready to say goodbye to our lovely townhouse.

Here's one last "progress shot" of our paneling room. Can you believe the transformation?!?

Painting!

It's starting to look like a new house!

Our guy got up a couple coats of paint so that we could approve our color choices. I am thrilled.

The walls are a really nice neutral gray. You can see up close (with our new floors!). The true color, looks darker, but it is very light and neutral on the walls. 

As you can see, we decided ( from advice from our guy) not to paint the entire paneled ceiling, just the beams. We really love love it - it feels updated with the white beams and it provides a nice contrast with the paneling. 

Our front window looks great, now - the white trim really brightens everything up. 

For reference, here's what it looked like before:

The family room also looks completely different with primer on the walls. So much bigger. 

And, our kitchen is turning white! Also very exciting :).

We are so happy with the decision to raise up the ceiling. Now that it's all up, it look like it's always been there, and it makes such a difference. 

Painting will hopefully be done by Thursday, and then I'll be coming in to prep for painting upstairs this week. 

Less than 2 weeks until move in!

Last weekend in Rohnert Park

A bit late, but here are some pictures of our last trip to our favorite neighborhood park by our old home. We sure will miss it!

No More Jungle Room!

I have this whole week off, so what better way to celebrate than to spend the day stripping wallpaper?

We had hopes of getting our handyman to do this, but he convinced us that it was something we should tackle ourselves, since we're trying to save money. I showed up planning to paint today, but since Danny (our guy) was going to take off the popcorn ceilings, I decided it made more sense to tackle the wallpaper instead. It was exhausting!

Master Before (well, with 3 top layer strips pulled off)

:

After! No popcorn on the ceiling or wallpaper!

This wallpaper was the worst, since I had to pull off the top layer, then do about 5 soaks of the under layer with sprayed water. And then I had to use a scraper for most of it, since it was too fragile to come off in large strips. But, so much better!

Here's Evan's room without the popcorn - it feels so much bigger. I also took down one set of closet doors to make a reading nook.

And the biggest transformation - the Jungle Room.

From this:

To this:

Of course, now that we've taken off the wallpaper, I'm wanting to paint the rooms before we move in. Where we'll find the time, I'm not sure. But, it sure is fun to see everything transformed. 

Be the time we get back from Thanksgiving, the drywall will be up downstairs and there should be paint on the walls! 

Life Updates

Here are some pictures from this week:

Our sweet bunny! Evan loves these pjs. He points to the feet and goes "grrrrrr" because of the bears :)

Peaking out the windows by our front door (with our new bright lights!)

Recessed lighting is installed and it's fantastic. We can actually see in our house now!

I took Evan for a quick play at the park tonight. So many leaves everywhere - fall here is gorgeous. 

The sunset couldn't be beat - it was stunning.

Watching Evan playing, I couldn't get over what a big boy he is becoming. 

More Beach Pictures

Stinson Beach Race

This morning, we took winding backroads south to Stinson Beach to watch Ed run a 30k.

It was chilly to start, but it was gorgeous. 

After we did a quick run around on the beach, Evan and I had a mother son breakfast date. It was surprisingly relaxing and wonderful. He sat in a regular chair like a grown up little boy and ate a ton of food. 

Then we headed back to the beach for some fun in the sun. 

Evan ran around for over 2 hours, and was especially excited about all the dogs playing on the beach. 

He was so tired by the end he passed out in my lap for about a minute, before a helicopter flew overhead and woke him up. 

As soon as he saw he was still at the beach, he leapt up with a smile and continued to play. 

A little after 11am, we changed into some cooler clothes and then waited at the finish line for Ed. Evan was so cute, clapping for all the finishers. 

Finally, "dada" rounded the corner and passed through the finish chute. Evan was so happy to see his dad finish and Ed had a great race. 

It was a lovely day!