Reflection

If you would have told me at the beginning of 2012 how our life was going to be turned upside down this year I don't know if I would have believed you.  This past year has been cut up into two different times, BF(Before Fire) and AF (After Fire).  I have to admit, immediately after the fire I had some, "why did this happen to us?" and "who did we piss off in the world?" type of moments.  I am happy to say now that the words I will use to look back on 2012 absolutely include blessed, thankful, gracious and positive.

Not only did this situation change our physical surroundings, but it has changed the fabric of who I am.  I have never started a year like 2013--truly understanding the meaning of life is too short.  I have used that phrase before, but never, ever have I really lived that way.  I have also realized how wonderful our family is and have learned who are true friends are.  I also can say my faith in God has been renewed.  I have always been a little bit of a natural skeptic in everything I do.  This experience has taught me the power behind having faith in something you can not see or touch and the comfort in being able to feel like everything is going to be okay and this is just a moment in time.  I know this might sound strange, but I needed this to happen--I needed this perspective.  I am beyond excited to see what 2013 holds and or course, can't wait to move home :)

As for the house, we are in the home stretch.  The finishing touches are being done before the hard wood floors are sanded and stained.  We should see many pretty things in the few weeks!

Yes, that is our steps leading from the first to second floor...a little tricky to navigate :)

Happy New Year everyone!

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 :)

Happenings

Tons of improvement has happened at the house since my last update.  Again, so darn busy and way behind...sorry!  First of all, we have walls again and I have to say, it feels good.  Our addition is complete and the deck is halfway done.  The "bump out" (as we call it), although only about an extra 100 square feet, makes the BIGGEST difference in our kitchen.  In addition to walls, hardwood floors are all in, cabinets are in, the exterior got a fresh coat of paint and trim and tile has been started.  Here are several pictures documenting the progress:

We made a last minute decision to also finish part of our 3rd floor unfinished attic space.  This will be my new office and I am VERY excited about it...can't wait for it to come together!

White subway tile in one of our guest bathrooms

Deck underway

Walls, trim and windows!

French doors leading from our kitchen to our deck

Kitchen cabinets

Other wall of kitchen cabinets

Okay, it is the little things in life.  Our old lazy Susan was plastic and I really wanted a wooden one.  When I opened this cabinet to discover this beauty, I admit, I let out a squeal like a 12 year old at a Justin Bieber concert :)

Madeline running on the deck. 

Madeline's bathroom tile...In love!

Master Bathroom cabinets

Marble Hexagon shower floor---Can you say excited?

Farmhouse sink installed

Third floor bathroom, attic without any remnant of fire and new area outside of bonus room leading to my new office

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Madeline's new bathroom cabinets and tile...might have to move in to her room with her!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!  If you have read this blog before you know we are looking at this life changing situation as a positive thing and Thanksgiving was a great opportunity to reflect on all of our blessings.  In a way, it is so comforting and peaceful to know with all of this craziness happening, we will still look back on 2012 very fondly and as these details are coming together with our house, it makes us even more excited to go home.

Megan

Renovation

Our addition started and is coming along nicely.  One might think we are putting a pool in the backyard with all of the dirt, but we are adding some extra square feet to our kitchen and a deck.  Here are some pics of the progress:

Backyard AKA Mud Pit :)

Hard to see, but holes six feet deep, filled with concrete

How cute is our little crawl space door?

The start of a floor system!!!

I know, not a lot of space for the amount of mud, but the space will make the biggest difference in our house!  Very excited and will post more pictures as it continues to come together.

On another note, I am having the hardest time selecting the right all over interior gray paint color.  I want a light, warm gray that keeps the place open and airy, is clearly gray but not cold and clinical.  The joke around here is, "50 shades of Gray, try 150 shades!".  Suggestions are welcomed :)

Megan

Slackin'

I have been slacking on writing this blog for a few reasons:

1. I usually only keep my iPad handy versus the laptop and this blog site I don't find very easy with the iPad.
2. Not a lot of noticeable things have been happening at the house, but the progress is coming very soon and we will see major changes in the near future!
3. I am busy!  Our business has been in overdrive (not complaining!) and we have had to spend much of our time staying focused on those things which make money...to pay for all of the budget blowing I am doing :)

So first off, ALL of our personal items have been returned to our rental home.  I thought it sounded like a good idea, but I think I might be regretting the decision.  I might be wrong, but I think I have discovered the name of the game.  These companies that pack up your home, take everything, clean it and bring it back to you are paid by the box.  SO, they pack things in the smallest possible boxes and in some instances you will open a box to discover 1 lonely wicker basket...no joke!  Needless to say, we have a lot of boxes

This the Dining room of our rental...floor to ceiling boxes; all the way deep :)  

We were able to have the tree removed from next door that lighting struck.  To say it was a big relief is an understatement!  I honestly don't know how we could move back in if the tree remained.  The removal process was nerve racking.  They literally hoisted a man up from the ground with a crane as fast as a carnival ride, positioned him over the top of the tree, lowered him into the middle, had him strap a harness around the trunk and whip out a chainsaw.  He cuts the whole top off the tree and the crane lifts it to the street...insane!

Don't know why, but this pic will not save correctly, but you get the point. 

Moving on to the fun stuff!  We have pretty much finalized all of our selections.  Our freestanding pedestal tub is ordered, cabinets are ordered, paint colors are pretty much all selected, tile has been picked (this is what I am referring to about blowing the budget!), farmhouse sink was ordered and arrived in less than 24 hours, all the lights have been purchased, all the towel bars, the toilet paper holders, appliances are done, yeah, pretty much everything.

Our addition is underway and our backyard has a lot of holes in it, but we are really excited about the extra indoor and outdoor living space and think it is going to look great!

Here are a few pics of the tile and granite we have selected for the kitchen:

Backsplash

Chair rail to frame out above the range

Kitchen Granite

I will post pictures in the coming days of the progress with our renovation.  Again, sorry for the time lapse between posts...I'll try not to slack so much!

Megan

Milestones

We have reached a MAJOR milestone--Monday we start to put things back together again.  It has been a long road, close to 2 months since the fire, but we are finally at the point we have been waiting for.  I am excited to post pictures of progress!

Here is a little walk down memory lane:

This is the side of our house that was struck by lightning.  You can see the hole in the siding where it shot right through our house.  The piece of siding flew down the street into our neighbors yard, two house down.  Mother nature is a powerful lady my friends!

This is what it looks like when someone takes your roof off :)  My husband posted this picture on Facebook with the endearing caption, "Going Topless"...too funny!  This picture REALLY puts things in perspective for me.  I can't recall if I have shared this yet or not, but my husband was outside when the lightning hit.  If you look closely you can see the mark down the tree that is there.  The lightning hit the tree, was drawn in by the electrical field of our house and went horizontally across and through our house.  My husband was standing at the grill letting the dogs out before the storm rolled in.  We are so very lucky...this could have been SO much worse!  The tree is mainly on our neighbors property, but they have graciously agreed to let us take it down.  It will be nice to not have that constant reminder there.

 This is the view from the front.  Sorry neighbors for the Port-o-Potty...not attractive.

This is our sweet little girl who is stronger, smarter and braver than she will ever know.  She is wearing a sweater my Mom had made for me when I was little.  when it came back from the dry cleaners she said she wanted to wear it, so on it went.  This face is what happens when you say, "Pose, honey".  She has been AMAZING through this whole ordeal.  She is completely in tune with what is going on and will tell you that our house is being upgraded, we are living at a vacation home and her room is going to be really nice when we move back in.  She will sometimes out of nowhere say, "I want to go home".  I will ask her if she means the vacation house and she will say, "No, our real home."...then she keeps playing.  She will ask for random toys that we no longer own, but she does not fixate on them, so I think we are doing alright :)

I just had to post...random "just because" gift from my wonderful husband who, even when our stress level is through the roof (no pun intended), always reminds me to stop and smell the roses.

Megan

Absence

I have not composed a new post in several weeks because to be frank, not a lot has happened.  We finally had the roof removed and replaced, which I will say was a huge milestone in so many ways--no more fire damaged materials in our house and the official start of the rebuild process!  But, still not very exciting for me yet :)

I never realized how much I loved our house until not living in it.  I also never realized how many of my kitchen gadgets were useful!  Right now we are working with plastic utensils and plastic take-out bowls are definitely being recycled :)

All of our clothes were delivered and the prior weekend was spent going through each box, smelling each item and hoping that my self-proclaimed photographic memory was working and that everything is there.  We have discovered a few of Chris' things missing...where in the weird dry cleaning abyss do these items go exactly?!?  Most of our items are okay, but not great.  Unfortunate for the dry cleaning company, my old Sorority shirts are fine (Go Alpha Xi!), but two of my handbags and some shoes were not so lucky...they are just not designed to withstand chemical based cleaning treatments.  Some of our items have a really strange chemical smell and I have decided I will be donating all of Madeline's clothes and starting over.  I am sure they can be washed and be just fine, but since we are heading into a new season, I would be buying her a fall and winter wardrobe anyway.  I am disappointed to not be able to pass down any cute 18-24 month items to my friends and family.  The smell and feel just makes me a little nervous for sensitive little baby skin!

Most, if not all, of our selections have been made, which is a huge relief for me.  I think I am pretty good at making up my mind and sticking with it, which hopefully will give me some relief in the stress department.  I have so much confidence in our builder that he is going to knock this project out of the park and we will start to have progress galore as soon as we get it officially turned over to him.

We have decided to put an addition on our kitchen and a deck on the back of the house.  I am really excited about it, as it will give us that extra little space I have been craving in our kitchen area and a nice amount of outdoor living space.

We are looking forward to fall for so many reasons and I recognize that it is going to be Halloween and Thanksgiving before we know it.---Here's to hoping we are spending Christmas in our House 2.0 :)

Megan