Catching Up On A Few Things...

Hi everyone,

Happy New Year to you all!  I can't believe that I have been away from my blog for such a long period of time.  There is a lot going on over here, but I vow to keep you updated as we do things in our home.  I never fully shared the appliances we selected and still owe pictures of some decorating items in the house.  I will place those in the next entry…seems like this entry will be a long one.  Anyway,  I don't really want to post too many pics right now, only because I hate having white walls.  To me  no matter how much artwork I put up, the house does not look complete without paint and of course crown molding.  

We have decided to make a priority list of our projects, so here is our list below:

1. First room up for painting is the baby's room. We are in the home stretch now, about 100 days away before our daughter arrives.  Yes, I'm scared…but too late to turn back now, I willingly  signed up to be in pain!  Oh, sorry, I digress…. as I have shared in a previous post, we're doing a Parisian theme room and I met with the muralist a few weeks back.  I've decided on the art work for the wall, so I'm excited to move forward.  I will wait to share specific details as the work unfolds, but for now, know that our colors are black, white, and pink!  We also will add crown molding to the room too.  Does anyone know how difficult it will be to add a light fixture to the ceiling?  I could almost kick myself for not getting the ceiling fan hook-up in at least one of our extra rooms.  I guess, I will need to get a handyman out to tell us the damage.  We hope to have the room completed by March, so I will post updates.


2. Landscaping is something I want to do in the spring.  Our  lawn is amazing--barring a few bald spots thanks to our awful cable company, Comcast!  But my PM assured us that he'll get us some hydro-seed for those areas in the spring. And since most of our neighbors will need to be seeded in the spring, it should not be a problem.  Ideally, we'd like to create a flower bed and extend the landscaping to the side of the home.  I want to add trees to the front yard and would like to get some lighting around the house too.  We will need to focus later on the backyard.  I want a brick/stone patio but that will need to wait until next year or the year after that…who knows.

3. Painting!  Yeah, I'm sure many of you thought with my disdain for white walls, painting would be first on my list--well, we're going to wait until our first year drywall and then get to work.  We really want to add crown molding and other trim too. So, I will start researching  a few looks I like, and by October/November we should be ready to go.  In regard to paint colors, I think I'm using the palette that Ryan used in their model home from our community.  The only room, that I will probably look for my own color selection will be the kitchen/morning room area.  Here I think I want a pop of color…so we'll see. 

4.  We really need to finish our basement.  Patrick does all the laundry now because our laundry room is in the basement and it is really hard for me to carry laundry down the steps being close to 7 months preggers.  But truthfully, I hate going down to the dark and unfinished basement. So, we're going to make a budget to save so we can finish it.  Hopefully by the end of this year we'll have enough to start construction in 2014.  We want the space to be functional and fun.  Ideally, I want to  make the bathroom downstairs into a spa-like retreat. I also want to add a playroom for the baby.  This way all of her toys will be in one place opposed to all over the house... I know all my parent bloggers are laughing at me, but can't a first time mom have a dream?   Patrick of course wants an entertainment area and a work out room.  And if possible, I wanted to squeeze out a small guest room.  I know we probably don't have the space for all these wants--where is Hilly from HGTV, "Love it, or List it" when you need her? Either way, we think that this project will cost us between 20K-30K to finish and to furnish.  Do any of you know of a website that can help us create and draw up plans?  

So, that's our project list for now.  And who knows if all these things will get done because we'll have an added expense of childcare too.  But, we'll see what we can do. In the meantime, happy building and check out my next entry for pictures of appliances, window treatments and new furniture that we bought!