On the Move... again

It's our 5th move in the last 6.5 yrs and I swear the last place I'll call home (knock on wood) until I take up residence in the cemetery. Right now I'm keeping my sanity by focusing on setting up the house... not navigating the workshop and garage bay full of things still needing to be unpacked. Because that's just the beginning. Once it's all unwrapped and revealed, I have to decide where it will go at the remodel. If we can't use it, then I have to send it to the consignment shop, donate it or just toss it in the trash. 

Scariest part of this process - we've purged with every move. So yeah, I appear to have proof that the boxes multiply at night while we're sleeping. 

Of Quartz it's Beautiful

Granite is nice, but we've done that. Ditto with tile and manmade quartz. I would have ADORED marble in the kitchen, but alas the husband and teen would have ruined it in quick time. So quartzite became the obvious choice for countertops. And I must say the island looks rather snazzy. It's got a bit of color and movement, but not so much that it's distracting. Muted. Soothing. The name of my select is Taj Mahal, which sounds rather opulent and borderline Vegas flashy... but it's not. And the fact that it's leathered (aka matte) rather than polished is just the icing on my kitchen remodel cake. I can't wait to see the quartzite backsplash installed once the range has been put in place this next week. 

Cruising into July

The time, it doth fly by on the wings of unicorns these days. I've got lots of tidbits I feel compelled to share here on the blog, but alas I've been busy with family vacation, the remodel, road tripping with the grad student to her new university and getting ready for our 5th move in about 6.5 years. All in the summer heat. And this middle-aged momma is tired of sweating. Bring on the fall cool fronts... PLEASE!

Until I can swing some blog time into my schedule, here is a pic of the girls in front of our floating home away from home during the Baltics cruise last month. It was fun and interesting and we enjoyed the trip, but 11 days on a 3500 passenger ship is just too long for me. So now I know. As much as I love exploring the world, Dorothy was right - there's no place like home.

The Cabinet Fairy

The past couple days, we've been delighting in the arrival of custom cabinetry at the remodel. The bright white is blowing my mind. It's hard to believe human hands made these because they're so fabulous.

My favorite thus far is the built-in banquette area right off the kitchen.

The open shelving will house my blue and green vintage glass collection. The banquette seat will have a nice thick cushion sitting atop it, upholstered in the striped fabric. While the pattern will be used on the bolsters. Can't wait to see it continue to take shape!

Slip Sliding Away

I'm trying to decide if it's just middle age or the fact that the baby of the family will be a junior in the fall that has seemed to put my life's DVD on fast forward these days. Seriously, time needs to slow down and let me savor it a bit.

This has been a busy month for us. We kicked it off with the younger daughter attending cheer camp with her school squad, so that required two roundtrips to that big burnt orange university just down the interstate.

Our girl is the back spot with both hands on the fliers ankles. Hold tight and don't let her fall! You'll notice the black knee brace. Her wiggly kneecap wanted to start sliding out of place and aggravating her the week of cheer camp prep, and so it seems she's back in black for the duration of the season to try and keep her injury free.

Then the whole fam headed off to Copenhagen to kick of a two week vacation on a Baltics cruise, but that's its own post. Lots of history and pretty vistas and blessedly cool weather that gave us a break from the Texas heat.

Now the about to start her program grad student is purging her undergrad clothes and miscellaneous stuff to pack up her car. She and I will leave bright and early in the morning for the almost 20 hr drive to North Carolina. We'll be seeing lots of interstate, stopping for a couple nights along the way because my old hip can't take more than about 9-10 hrs in the car at a time.

This is what the grad daughter's room and hallway looked like yesterday as she got started on her car packing prep. It wasn't pretty, but it's mostly done. And so now we just need to toss and donate some stuff to cross that off the to-do list.

Totally unrelated and yet intriguing... I had no idea it is possible to buy color coordinated books by the foot. And so now we both know that's a real thing. I read about it in a house remodeling magazine and am digging it. Need some blue books - no problem. How about vintage kid's books - here you go, Dick and Jane. Coastal colors - ya SEA, they've got that, too. It's the perfect solution for the lazy shoppers and non readers of the world.

Remodel Update

So yeah, the month of May is about gone and I swear the remodel house hasn't seen much accomplished. One big pain in the butt problem was the hardwood floors in the old original part of the structure. We had three separate hardwoods in there, so we found a great replacement, had it delivered and stored it for installation. But when they took it out of the boxes at the beginning of the month to let it get acclimatized, we were unhappy to discover there were huge variations in the stain. To the point where it looked as if it was something completely different from what we ordered, or two different dye colors. In addition, the boxes were labeled as a different type of wood than what we ordered.

However, none of that seemed to matter to the flooring company where we purchased it. We then spent the next ten days wrangling with Carlson Flooring that refused to stand behind their product and make sure the customer (ME!) was satisfied. Long story short, the company basically stole a 25% restocking fee from us when we attempted to have them right the problem with their manufacturer. There was lots of excuses and backpedaling and lying and acting as if they had no other choice but to charge us the 2K. And I was dealing with the owner's son and then the owner the entire time, not some flunky.

It was all super frustrating, as you can imagine. And losing almost $2K was crazy. I can't help but wonder if we're the first folks they pulled this my hands are tied routine with. Needless to say, we took the money they returned to us (minus that restocking fee they never mentioned in any of their paperwork) and now we're waiting on delivery of a different product from another building materials company that's even prettier than what we originally though we were purchasing with that other poorly run flooring company. Our new hardwoods are coming from the same place where we purchased all of the tile for our bathrooms. 

Hopefully we'll get back on track for a late July move-in. I'm getting tired of living like squatters in our rental and ready to get settled. Meanwhile... the search for furnishings continues. Some of the house will be outfitted with our current items, but we will need some new pieces to complete the transitional look we're aiming for with this remodel. 

Thus far the new high school junior has a tufted headboard, nightstands, and makeup table ordered. We're reupholstering her swivel barrel chair and have selected a dresser we'll order a bit closer to the move date. I'm happy her room is falling into place thanks to our amazing decorator. This woman works wonders with the teen. I suggested a custom tufted headboard, but all I got was disdain and the icky, ugly face. However, when the decorator suggested the exact same thing, the junior was all peachy keen and sounds great. Same with the dresser. The round pulls on the one I suggested were weird and ugly. When the decorator told her it was a cool and contemporary look, then she was all in with ordering it. I have to admit, I'm digging the teen's color scheme of gray and blush with navy accents.

SaveSave

Deciding on decor

I've just about finished with the selection and purchase of all materials for the remodel. So I've recently moved on to considering decor. We don't need a whole house full, thank heavens, but we do need some key pieces in the entertaining spaces so we aren't lounging on plastic chairs from Walmart. 

I ordered a four cushion sofa for the family room, with a matching tufted bench and two swivel chairs that the husband loves. He really got into lounging in the swivel chair we had in our England house. With that done, I've switched my mental power and search efforts to a coffee table. Something sculptural with a glass top is what I have in mind. I found the cool one below and fell in love, but of course it's not longer manufactured. Thanks, Pinterest, for teasing me with that one.

This one is my runner up at the moment. Not as fabulous, but still visually interesting. And very affordable.