Are we done yet?!

Lord have mercy, y'all - I'm so very ready for the river house updating to be finished. I can hardly wait to drive up there and just enjoy it instead of having to work, work, work. Saturday the husband and I spent a solid nine hours schlepping our boxed lake stuff and new furniture from the garage into the house, rearranging rooms, doing final purges of the old owner's things and setting up the kitchen. 

The elk was taken down as star of the show in the cabana with the rest of the taxidermied lineup, and now has pride of place over the fireplace in the river house living room. We unboxed our new nightstands for the master, and I did a pretty good job of matching some I found online to the style of the massive armoire in there that we inherited.

A good friend of the husband's bought a pretty 19th century British train station bench at an auction in the spring. Since they were unable to find a good place for it in their home, we were the lucky recipients of the bench that's about ten feet long. I needed some extra seating in the living room, and had the perfect spot for it snugged up against the partial wall that leads to the landing.

My decorator has been out of town, missing all of the sweaty grunt work at the river house. She flies home tomorrow, so we'll be busy decorating together on Wednesday and Thursday. I stacked most of my decor on the dining table and hutch to get it all in one central location so it wouldn't be in the way of the cleaners. Plus the decorator needs to see all of her options amassed in a single area. 

Earlier this month, my husband's parents celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary. Then this weekend my mother-in-law turned 85. Since the husband and I were consumed with river house work to get it ready in time to host his side of the family for the 4th of July, our girls spent the day with them. The girls brought her flowers and donuts for breakfast, plus they took them out to lunch. They're pretty good granddaughters!

Countdown to July 4th weekend

This is the hottest June on record for our area, y'all, and I've spent it sweating buckets schlepping things to the river house in anticipation of setting it all up for the Fourth of July holiday weekend. I've reached that age where moving is just work, not fun, ha-ha!

The flooring guys were super speedy, and a thousand feet of new hardwoods are now in place on the landing and in the secondary bedrooms of the main house. After working for over a month, the painters will finally wrap up this job by tomorrow. The kitchen cabinets with their new paint really make the granite pop more. The hutch in the dining area seems a brighter blue than I anticipated, but I think it will look fine once it's accessorized.

Yesterday, I put together dining chairs and a bench for the master bathroom. Tomorrow I have to meet the cable guys up there so they can update our connections to improve the wifi. The cleaner is scheduled to come Monday and Tuesday to get the house sparkling so the decorator and I can spend the next two days putting everything together.

Happy belated father's day to my husband and father-in-law, two of the best men I know. Our girls have been blessed by them over the years, and I adore them for the outstanding examples they've set and love they've shown for their families.

River house odds & ends

This is a banner week at the river house. The painters will wrap up over a month's worth of interior work on Friday. The day before, an installation crew arrives to remove the old carpet and tear up the parquet to prep the subfloor for our 1000' of new flooring. They'll also be putting our new hardwoods in the house to acclimate for several days. I'm super excited, y'all, because the floor is the last update before we place furniture and decorate.

In other news, I received an email on Saturday that the anticipated delivery of our new master nightstands was moved from June 22 to the first week in August. Um yeah, that's not gonna work for me. So I jumped on the computer and scoured the offerings from some of my favorite stores. About the time my eyes were ready to stay permanently crossed from looking at the screen, I ran across a bachelor's chest that looked like a great fit for our oversized bedroom. And even better - it was on sale. I texted pics to my decorator for a look and she agreed this new option complimented the large armoire we already have in the master adjacent to the fireplace.

Jesus should be arriving sometime this week. Not the rapture... though the way things are going in this world it wouldn't come as a surprise to lots of believers. 

The former owners of the river house were devout Catholics. They had countless crosses on the property, including a couple plaques declaring it Casa de las Cruces (House of the Crosses). In addition, they had a spotlit niche on the hill with Mary in it. When the property closed, we realized Mary made the move. As a Protestant, I've decided to put Jesus in the niche. I'll be adding a little red to the palms of his hands to denote the place where He was pierced by the nails on the cross. I want this statue to celebrate my savior Jesus, the son of God who died for the sins of mankind but was resurrected just as He told the disciples. Hallelujah!

I'm making some final purchases this week. Things like cute little black makeup towels for the guest baths, and felt feet for the new dining room chairs so they won't damage the cow hide beneath the table. The decorator decided we should have two vintage oars above the hutch that's getting painted "In the Navy" this week. <cue the Village People> Now I just need to trek over to the local craft store to buy a spool of rough twin or rope to cross the paddles before they get hung. 

Old school country

Yesterday we had a fun ladies night, both girls and I attending the Brooks & Dunn concert. Even though this duo started their recording careers in 1991 with "Brand New Man" before either of our daughters was born, they still know some of their songs. 

There were two acts before the headliners took the stage. I didn't know the first guy, but enjoyed this song by Jordan Davis since I've heard it on our local radio stations.

Brooks & Dunn brought the hits, and they've got more than I remembered. It was fun to sing along with so many of them. "Neon Moon" and "Red Dirt Road" were special favorites of ours.

 

 

 

Creeping closer to decorating

This week the painters moved into the kitchen. The pantry and walls were painted. Plus they removed old cabinet pulls and puttied the holes in preparation for painting over them since new ones will be installed. Speaking of paint, now I just need to choose the "right" brown for them to paint the sideboard with its new granite top, plus a door that will be surrounded by the new hardwoods. See what I mean, below - the paint chips look different, depending upon the light and location. Making a definitive choice is easier said than done, I tell ya. 

 

 

It reminds me of tests where there are four multiple choice options. It wasn't difficult to rule out two of the browns because it was obvious they just aren't right for the space. That left the one my decorator favors, and the one I prefer. I'll have to sleep on it through the weekend before I make a final select because neither color would be a mistake. But the bottom line is that I'm the one who has to live with it and see it all the time, so hopefully I have a clear winner by Monday when the painter goes to make his weekly supply run.

In other river house news, the plumber installed new sinks and faucets, while the electrician was busy upgrading the house to rocker switches. His assistant was also scurrying around replacing plugs that need to match the new wall colors. The kitchen ones look snazzy with the granite.

Since the river house is officially out in what I call the boonies, none of the big corporate waste companies are available. We asked around and chose a private garbage company owned by local man Kenny to pick up our trash. I met Kenny yesterday when he and his daughter who works for him came out to haul away all of the stuff we removed when we purchased the river house furnished. Over the past month, I've taken things to the consignment shop, given them to friends/family and made donations. Part of the garage was filled with the remaining things that need to be tossed. With that space now available, we have the room to haul more things in our workshop from the lake garage (stored there since late March) to the river. Plus some more rugs and decor I ordered that were delivered this week and also need to make the trip to the river. 

With the new hardwoods arriving a week from today, as well as the painters finishing the last of their work next Friday, we're creeping closer to the finish line on interior updates. As you can imagine, I'm REALLY looking forward to an upcoming weekend when we can go to the river to enjoy the fruits of our updating and decorating labors rather than doing more work!

Progress at the river house

The painter and contractor are slowly but surely chipping away at the update list for our river getaway, Cliff House. This week I was thrilled to have the granite installed. It's got more movement than I originally thought I wanted, but I'm really digging it. The painters will soon move to the kitchen walls and cabinetry, which should lighten it all up in more neutral tones so the granite really pops.

 

My latest reno idea is adding timber to the kitchen arch that matches the ceiling beams as an attractive yet relatively inexpensive way to hide the dated orange talavera tiles and shoddy gray cement job. It's like that series of children's books with if/then events by author Laura Numeroff. If you paint the walls, then the counters need to be changed. If you put down granite counters, then the cabinets need to be painted. If the cabinets are painted, then the arch looks totally out of place and has to be addressed. And the cabinet pulls need to be replaced. It could go on and on!

The electrician was there mid-week to install some new ceiling fans and light fixtures for me. It's amazing how little things like that can make such a difference in the look and feel of a room.

 

 

I enjoyed some shopping for the river house decor this week, too. Doesn't every house in Texas need some sort of cowhide rug? The one I bought will go in the dining room. While snooping through a few local antique shops, I found a lovely old clock from the late 1800s that will be a great addition to a smaller wall space on the landing adjacent to the Jim Bowie and bluebonnet oil paintings I'm having reframed.

I've learned tricks about how to pull a house together from my decorator I've used the last 20 years, but I still look to her for guidance. New cabinet pulls, for example. They're everywhere and run the gamut from $2 for the small, factory made ones, to upwards of $150 for the larger handmade ones. Same with paint color. Just because I like something doesn't mean it's going to work with all of the other things in the space. And so she and I will be meeting on Wednesday to make selects for new hutch and sideboard pulls, as well as paint for a couple custom built-in furniture pieces.