Our first Christmas in our own home: it was quiet; it was simple; it was cozy; it was a blessing.

Time was spent cooking, baking, decorating, laughing, wrapping, dancing, and relaxing.

A few of you have been asking for some photos, so I have posted a few here. Our family photo by the tree needs some lightening up, so I will send that out later.

This is clearly the largest Christmas tree we have ever had. Thanks to our neighborhood garden shop, Adams and Sons, for their friendly service and great prices.

A simple centerpiece for the table:

And for the kitchen:

                              Stella and I made snowflake ballerinas:

     Biz enjoyed napping:

We celebrated the start of 2014 by dancing and throwing confetti:

We have been home for 8 weeks now. And we still have a lot of work to do. Rather than dwell on what is left, let’s show off what we’ve done!

The interior walls are almost  all painted. I still need to paint closets and the mud room and do touch-ups throughout the whole house.

Stella’s room is painted (she picked a color much like orange sherbet). Stella helped with much of the painting in her room, and we added multi-colored polka dots today. Curtains in her room and the master bedroom are hemmed and hanging.

Chris put up all the shelving in the living room, installed the credenza cabinets, sanded and stained the credenza top and my desk.

Biz got a little tuckered when unpacking the books:

Chris also installed all of the cabinet doors in the kitchen, middle bedroom, and bathroom.

Chris assembled and installed the bathroom drawers, towel racks, etc.

And although the landscaping is not happening right away, we did manage to plant the small area between the front sidewalk and fence; Chris sanded, stained, and poly-coated the front door too.

I am looking forward to hanging artwork to make everything seem even more warm and homey.

Like I said, there is still so much to do, but we are getting there! And we are so happy to be home.

First of all, I apologize for my ‘accidental post’ yesterday. Here is what I meant to post:

Many thanks go out to Peterson Moving company! These guys were amazing: quick, careful, friendly, good price.

The first day was a little overwhelming:

But we are slowly making progress.

On our second day, we had a champagne toast to celebrate the first load of laundry in our very own washer and dryer. No more pumping quarters into machines!

We still have so much unpacking to do; most of which cannot be done until we get the book shelves put up. Chris is working on those as I type. We also have a lot of painting and trim  work and other odds and ends, but it is starting to feel homey. As we complete more work, I will post more photos!

Many of you may know we were scheduled to move tomorrow.

Many of you may suspect that that won’t be happening. We have pushed it back a week…still a lot of work to finish off…

The stairs were being worked on today:

The pendant lights in the dining area are great:

Feel free to send mail to the new address…Chris installed the mail box this week:

Another picture of the kitchen; we have appliances!

And then there is the finished wood floor…it turned out beautifully:

Walls are primed; tile and floors are nearly done; kitchen appliances were delivered today–to be installed this week!

There were several more mishaps and surprises this week—like, oh, the kitchen is 5 inches shorter than the drawings allowed for—which means Chris had to make two trips to Ikea in one day to get a new sink and cabinet that would fit. Then there was a lack of communication between project manager and flooring guys, which resulted in the guys having to pull up some of what they had already done and do it again (mind you, all of this was in the specs from the beginning!).

On the bright side, things are looking good, and my wonderful, supportive parents are coming this weekend to help us paint the ceilings and maybe work on the fence.

I have even started packing!

First Floor

Second Floor

Bathroom tile

Kitchen

The sheet rock is in! Things are starting to look more hopeful! In addition, a motion-sensor light has been installed in the gangway between our building and the large building to the south of us, and an alarm system has been installed. Hopefully these precautions will help see us through to completion without further break-ins.

Heading up stairs

Looking up from the entryway

Looking down from 3rd floor

First floor, looking toward the back. The wall to the left will be all bookshelves.

Window looking into the back yard

First floor, looking into the kitchen area

Second floor, looking into hallway from Stella’s room

Third floor

Here are the latest photos. All the windows are in; all the framing is done; the staircase goes into the attic.

New front windows

When you step inside the front door and look up, you see all the way up to the ceiling of the attic.

Entering the attic

This is looking ‘through the wall’ of Stella’s room, stairs going from 2nd floor to 3rd.

Inside Stella’s room

First floor

The big windows are installed! The second floor framing is done!
I think these are the first few items to have been done according to schedule!

(However, I can’t help but think that those big windows are prime targets for tagging. Always a dark cloud in the mind somewhere. Hopefully I am wrong.)

Next on the list is to finish framing the staircase up to the attic and begin work on above-ground plumbing.

Front window

Back window

Back window

Second floor framing

Opening into attic for staircase

Mostly masonry work happening as of this post. They are enlarging the window openings on the front and back for big picture windows, and they bricked up one of the windows that would have been bisected by the extended staircase.

We met with the project manager on Wednesday and received an updated schedule. Not that these are ever set in stone. But the windows are supposed to arrive on Monday, and they will continue framing the walls and the addition to the staircase leading up to the attic.

This is the window in the dining area.

Here you can see the size of the new window from the back yard.

The new picture window in the front will be the same as the back.

second floor, looking toward the back