Honey I'm home!

We are in! We are finally in! On our moving day we took a break for lunch and for some reason I cried. Like an idiot, in the restaurant. Great. Ha! Moving day went pretty well though! We were able to take the dogs to the groomers ((the best part about having 3 huskies is how long a trip there takes)) we had a good 4 hours with no dogs! ((Woohoo)) and when we picked them up our friend Steven met us at the house with a big bottle of Makers Mark to celebrate! ((He's a life saver)) and celebrate we did! At some point in that night our horrid cable company called us to schedule a new appointment for the one the botched the day before I won't name any names.... COMCAST! But they suck. Am I using them right now? Yes. Why? Because verizon is not in our area yet. 

Moving (3 days total) was less than eventful, our feet hurt from walking on the new tile, we had bruises and scrapes from walls and boxes, our old neighbors scavenged our "throw aways" before we were even finished moving ((we expected this, someone would come on trash days and grab all the cans from the recycle bins)) and we had to pay for two days rent. This was also expected since this creepy man we called our landlord was still driving a 1980 Buick. Is $73 bucks a big deal? No. But considering we payed our rent on time, cleaned the place better than when we found it, and we had to buy locks and chains to keep him out ((yes, keep him out. He liked to pop by to check things out and left our gates open)) you think he would cut us just a small break for 2 days. Whatever. It's over and done and never again will we have to deal with Drunken Mexican karaoke (unless by choice) , random hamburgers thrown over the fence, SWAT shutting down our street, or cat attacks. 3 days before we were to move I came home to SWAT shutting down our street and all of the surrounding streets, to this day I still don't know why.... My neighbor (who doesn't speak good English) made stabbing and wrist cutting motions so I'm guessing there was a serial killer on the loose. 2 days before we moved this cat (who I warned once when I found him) was in the yard and Remmi got ahold of him, thankfully he only knows how to play fight and when he was pulled off of the cat it seemed to be fine.... Well then it ran up the fence and my sweet sweet Sooks grabbed that cat by the back and body slammed it to the ground. If you know my girl you know she seems like she wouldn't hurt a fly.... 

I know most of you think I have abandoned ship.... Well we still have big projects in the works.... Like our new deck! 

Dean, our deck builder from Collins Construction was here promptly at 8:00am! I think I'm finally over the feeling of being annoyed by people working on the house.... Only to have more people working on the house ha. We met with him a little over a week ago and he came with a huge book of photos ((you all know how much I love pictures)) I was making jalapeño poppers when he came to measure everything out and I damn near choked him to death by it... But he still wanted the job! 

Santa dropped off the materials bright and early... No joke. Santa. 

I had a little talk with the dogs about micromanaging the project....

But obviously they choose not to listen to me. 

SANTA. 

After day one I am stoked on the progress! 

Yes, I felt like a creep taking photos from the windows but the dogs ((who had to be crated since they wanted to help so bad)) would have gone crazy if i was out there without them.

A little background on this project: We knew since the start that we wanted our outdoor space to really be something special not only for these beasts

But for us Humans to enjoy as well! It's florida for heavens sake! I mean it's December and I'm still blasting my a/c!!! Outside is where it's at!!! 

We have had 2 official quotes (1 unofficial but it was a good starting point) our first was from Dean and our second was from Lowes... After being dicked (lack of a better word) around by a couple goofs they sent over our quote a week later at over DOUBLE what Dean had given us. Seriously it was the most laughable quote I have seen in.... Well like a week but seriously. To make it worse they had 199 sqft of decking that they were either trying to slip in sneakily or they just really didn't want the job. We had our sod placed around the areas we were putting the deck so it's not like they didn't know how big or how small to make it. The CAD drawing that was sent over wasn't even right. I just don't understand but you know what... Thats Lowes for ya. ((They did fill a gap in our carpet with dirt. Yes, dirt.)) 

I know you guys are waiting for pictures of the inside but you'll have to wait a little while longer, we finished up the painting projects we started before moving in and have begun to decorate but we are still in need of some furniture ((dining room chairs, coffee table, night stands, lamps...ect)) in due time. All that matters is that we are here and we are home. 

Just a couple of 20somethings in love and living in our beautiful home we created from the ground up. I couldn't be happier. 

Not in time.

We will not be in our new home by our 1 year wedding anniversary. Bummed isn't even good enough to describe how I feel about that. 

We headed to visit the house sundy night at about 11:30. My Architectural Salvage find was hung finally and when we stood back to take in just how cool it looked The Hubs asked me how could I describe our style... It took me a second but I figured it out we are Modern and Contemporary mixed with an Eclectic, Industrial feel. Yea, I don't know either. I feel like I just can't commit to one style!

Thankfully this light ended up being just the right size for this area! I was so very worried about it looking small! We lucked out so much by getting this light for a steal of $150! Looking through catalogs from actual lighting places this would normally start at double that price! 

Heading inside.... 

Counter tops are in!!!

They are stunning! (Drawer pulls are wrong in this shot, all but one drawer had to be replaced because of this) 

Yes that's a black sink! Not being a fan of stainless steel sinks or even white sinks for that matter (I had a rental with a white sink we were not friends) we went with a black sink made of stone! Woop! It doesn't stain, scratch, and is heat resistant! Bailey proof! Ha! 

I haven't given my cabinetry much love on here since the drawer pulls went on wrong... Much more has gone wrong with them but since it's CLOSE to being fixed now on its 5th time I'll be easy on that subject. This kitchen has been the main focus since day one of planning (a year and two months ago) and I guess being that important it is only necessary to have problems with it. 

These cuties are in! I want so bad to unwrap them and make dinner and dessert at the same time!!! 

We have had the electricians in every few days now starting to install the lighting... 

Right before he got to work on the island lights we threatened him with his life not to mess these up.... 

Luckily for him he got it right! I guess we still arent in the clear yet... We did have a causality already with our dining fixture. 

I have shared the following picture with some of our close friends and family but I am finally ready to just put it out there. I know the kitchen still isn't done but it is my favorite thing to look at right now. 

This doesn't include all of the cabinets and this was before the top set was moved over about 2 inches to where it should have been.... I painted the island black as you can see, the counter top just didn't stand out when it was still white and I even tried the color that we will be painting the main room in but black is the color that did the trick. We decided to box these cabinets in for a couple of reasons, first the cost was lower to use drywall instead of finished backs on the cabinets, and the second is when kids (or some adults) will be sitting up here you know they are going to kick the wall and let's be honest fixing paint is going to be way easier than replacing a back! The island as big as it is now was shortened by two feet making it possible to have just once single slab! We did cut it super close and one mistake on an edge we would have had to scrap the whole piece. We also have a generous over hang for the barstools we will have here as well! 

This creepy photo shows the nice little light that the top glassed cabinets give off :) I think it's going to be a nice glow for movie night or when we have guests over who might need a midnight snack ha! 

Moving over to where our second room of counter tops were installed...

Master bathroom! 

Black granite is super hard to photograph! This is called Angola Black. We were able to save some money on these guys by getting what we needed from what our installer had on their lot. 

Our shower started to take shape as well.... 

Late nights got it this far... 

Nice corner bench, no there will not be any shampoo bottles, soap, or razors on this... We fixed that by adding 2 hidden in wall shelving in the half wall. 

I met with the glass and mirror guy while I was finishing up painting in the master bedroom... He asked me if I designed and decorated houses for a living! What a huge compliment :) it was just the pick me up I needed to not pull my hair out right now!  

Of course my chandy was hung in here.... 

But only two bulbs were working. Womp womp womp. Fix dis right now. 

I have been to mars and back trying to figure out a great way to cover this window and still have it look sexy. Thankfully my wonderful husband bought me a sewing machine for our anniversary and now since I can't find anything I can just make something for here! 

Moving into the master bedroom, we had to paint in here before carpet was installed. I found this inspiration photo:

I was hell bent on doing this in my bedroom! The photo above was made from sticking white duct tape to the wallsa me I only found this out after reading the site (ain't nobody got time for instructions) So my mom and I got to work!

Doing this with paint was a lot more involved and this wall alone took a whole day. We measured out our diamonds the same as the original photo 15" apart and 30" high. Once our chalk lines were figured out we headed on to taping. 

We had some issues with the white paint that has been painted all over the house so this made the project 10x harder than it should have been... We couldn't fully stick down the tape like it should have been and ended up with blurred lines

After rolling on the grey and peeling back the tape I then had to take an entire day and go over each and every line by hand. Yep. Full 8 hours on lines, my head hurt from staring at this all day. 

With this room almost finished they installed the chandy for over the bed. You know your husband loves you when he gives up his fan for crystals. :) The review for this chandelier was that it was hard to put together and too gaudy... Well Gaudy is my middle name so you betta believe I had to have it. 

This is how it came. Yea, it took an hour and a half for me to get it almost together, there was some wiring involved and I left that to the electricians. It took another half hour to get all 115 strands of crystals on this beast. 

Worth it. 

As of tonight our guest bathrooms have been completely tiled....

I am loving subway tile right now so of course I had to have it in at least one bathroom. 

This guy has been transformed

Chrome spray paint and some more hard work made this mirror just pop! 

My mermaid bathroom tile was also completed

She's super pretty! 

Another big change has happened in the back yard...

What used to look like that now looks like this:

Yep my fur babies get just under half and acre of brand new grass to poop on! 

The fence, thanks to my husband, father, brother in law, and mechanic is COMPLETE! 

Pizza was provided for both Sundays it took to complete it.

The caps for the wall also came in!

(Lowes should probably pay me for these photos of its lights haha) 

I'm sure I am missing a few other details that have happened since my last post but for now this is all I got :) trying to keep my head up even though I have officially reached 'Over-it' status.