Coming Together

Okay, so clearly I am not too good about keeping up with this blog thing.  So sorry!  Last I posted was right before Thanksgiving.  We had an excellent holiday with family who came to visit from Maryland.  I was beyond thankful to be surrounded by family because to be honest, it was tough not being home cooking in my kitchen like I had done every year since we built our home in 2008, well built it the first time around :)  The first 3 weeks of December found me traveling for business non-stop--what a marathon!  As exhausting as it was, it was nice to stay so busy instead of fretting about not being home for Christmas.

As odd as this is about to sound, in light of all of the upheaval of our life this year, this has by far been the BEST Christmas celebration we have had in a long time.  Shopping was pretty stress free, more focused on counting our blessings, and our daughter was very excited about Santa coming to visit.  I love that she understands Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus and not just about that guy who lives at the North Pole.  It is very sweet.

Many things have happened at the house in the past month---mainly trim, tile and paint.  We are in the home stretch now, with a target move home date in early February.  Next up is the hardwood floors, then more paint, lights, final touches, etc.  It sounds simple, but I know it is this detail work that can take the longest.

The main challenge in this most recent phase was paint colors.  I seriously think my husband was about to go out of his mind if I asked him to go to Home Depot one more time and get another light gray paint color.  The joke around our house has been to forget 50 Shades of Grey, try 150 shades!  All of this being said, I am so glad we sampled so many colors because the one I was all ready to give the green light on ended up being too beige and not enough gray. 

There still needs to be final coats which will look different, but here are some pics of the progress:

This is our hallway on the first floor and you can tell we are not in the final coat phase yet, but the trim is called Oxford White and the wall color, which is the color throughout most of the house, is called Balboa mist

First Floor Mud Room

Very hard to see in this picture, but we went with a super pale blue for this bathroom.
It is called Breakers.

  

Our Daughter's pink bedroom.
Would never have guessed this color is called Patient White!

This is our Dining Room and the color is called Intellectual Gray.  If we did not have this color in the house before, I would think it looks way too brown (and probably have a minor freak out), but I know it will be much darker after the final coats.

Instead of a back splash behind the sink, per the recommendation of our builder, we had a piece of granite installed. I was hesitant at first, but really glad now that we did it!  The rest of the back splash (to be completed still) is a subway tile that I LOVED at the store---hoping I LOVE it installed :)

I am SO looking forward to moving home and posting pictures of it all put back together again :)