This or That, That or This?

Have you ever had too many choices to make at one time? All this home remodeling reminds me of all our wedding decisions. Too many choices, a tight budget, and being not very particular (but particular enough) is exhausting.

Have you ever shopped for light fixtures? There are plenty that are not suitable, plenty that are so-so, and plenty that are great. Problem is finding the matching chandelier-type, the fan-type, and the regular-type that match our style and the style of the home and the furnishings we have.


UnFortunately, there are many choices. I just have to keep telling myself that.

PS anybody else have inches of snow falling today? That's Utah's Spring Break for you. :)

Calling All Moms of Little Boys

Know any fabulous toys that would be perfect for a little Easter basket? I'm in need of some good, tried-and-true little toys to entertain (and educate) a particularly curious (and cute) 10 month old.

Nothing too fancy or too expensive--we're remodeling a home, you'll recall--but something to spice up his play time.

Ideas?

All Work and {very little} Play

In no more than a week since we started working on it, the house is gutted. Sam and company managed to throw out all the baseboards, molding, doors, light and outlet plates, and carpet (with padding).

They also knocked out a wall (on purpose) so that we can do some minor remodeling to build a pantry in what used to be the kitchen/hallway entry. 

Sam has also patched all the holes, and is beginning to experiment with a new texture to all the walls. He's never done this before, but so far the experimenting is going well. It will add a more modern look to the house.

Last week we spent a lot of time getting bids for a new furnace, a/c and water heater. The plumber also came and installed a new toilet, shower head, kitchen faucet, and fixed the major plumbing leak from the main water line. We even had a few minutes to check out laminate and carpet choices, but nothing is finalized yet in that arena. Oh, and the garage door man came and installed an opener (which was more expensive than we thought, but now we have an automated door). AND (yes, I said we did lots in one week) Sam's friend came and did some wiring for us (more of that to come yet).

Today, Sam and his younger brother put up sheetrock in the storage area under the stairs to cover the nasty looking installation. Looks much, much better.

Winston has come along for much of it, commanding from above what needs to happen next, and dropping graham cracker crumbs down our back.

So far, so good.

Movin' Up In The World

No longer content with the bottom drawer, he's movin' up to the next. Soon he'll be walking without the help of chairs, cupboards and other furniture, too.

This little guy is growing like crazy. Now 10 months old, but just yesterday he was this cute teeny little thing.

At least he's still a cute little thing, if not teeny.

He is becoming independent with eating. Starting the day after I blogged about making baby food, he decided that pureed stuff was no longer for him. Figures.

But, he is better and better with his little finger-to-mouth coordination. Each day there are less food pieces to pick or vacuum up from below his high chair. As we speak (errr...as I type) he is fingering peas with amazingly intense interest.

Keep or Toss: Round 3

This is the bathroom. You can't really tell in the photo, but the wall is painted a light blue. Not really a baby blue, and not a sky blue but something similar.

Obviously the makeshift wood molding is not going to stay.

But what to put in its place? There's something like this from Ikea, but I want less cupboard and more mirror, ya know?

Then there's one like this, also from Ikea, but it may be too much mirror (tell me I'm not the only picky person...).

This countertop is quite long, and I'd like to have a long mirror, too, which might mean 2 of the above cabinets.

Anyway, the countertop is going to stay, at least for a little while. It kind of has white and blue-ish chips/sparkles in it.

Any paint color suggestions? I don't mind the light blue, per se, but it needs to be re-done. Bad paint job.

Eww

My brother helped Sam tear out ALL the carpet on Friday. Best. Decision. Ever. 

Look at all this dirt that was under the carpet! And it wasn't like the carpet was THAT old. 

This is just a little bit of what Sam swept. It's not all that was in that room and not even close to all that was in the rest of the rooms.

Ick. Eww. Gross.

We've been debating what type of flooring to put in, and now I'm even more seriously considering NOT replacing with carpet, and instead doing laminate. The thought of all those little microbes and dust mites and filth hiding in and under the carpet pad just grosses me out.

Keep or Toss: Round 2

Round 1 was basically a joke--the silly thing is comin' down soon.

But this one isn't so much a joke. We want some opinions.

What do we do about this fan? It currently overpowers the master bedroom.





















Or all these others?

These have already been taken down:

And I'm still not sure as to whether or not this is really ugly or kind of vintage-y cool...(Sam says they're disgustingly gaudy.)

And Now It's Ours

That's it. We are now homeowners. Closing was....well...very anti-climatic. Just a bunch of signatures.

I'm amazed at how much of that legal jargon I actually understood, thanks to college classes and internships, and my master's thesis. I used to teach and counsel on first-time homebuyer stuff, so it has been nice to actually put all that know-how to use. I don't think I would have understood much of what the title company's agent was summarizing, if it weren't for those things.

I think one of the best resources on home-buying is this little guide called Keys to Homeownership by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, if you're interested.

And to spice up our apartment that is badly in need of de-winterization (welcome to you, Spring weather!), last week at  a conference, I was the one with the lucky program with a gold sticker. The gorgeous centerpiece was mine to take home. Don't we all love winning something?

Closing, Formatting Woes, Ignorance is Bliss, and Cheesecake

I'm excited to announce that we will be closing on our home Monday! Wahoo! Watch for more rounds of "To Keep or Toss" and photos.

And I must announce that sometimes I very much dislike blogger. Often when I want to post multiple photos and text, it freaks out on me and arranges it chaotically (like the last post). I always format it to match my computer screen, but when I see it in Google Reader or on Sam's iPod it's all messed up. Drives. Me. CRAZY. However, I just found some nifty little setting on the "settings" menu that should help from now on. (keep your fingers crossed)

As I was looking at the settings, I realized how little I know when it comes to the world of internet. Some of those settings descriptions I have to read very slowly and carefully, and I still don't get it. I wish I would have taken some sort of html coding class or something. It's amazing to me that such a thing was ever created--how do people think up such things? Amazing. Really, really, amazing. I think the same thing occasionally as I use a fax machine or a copy machine (not that I take it seriously enough to figure out how it works...). We take for granted sometimes how miraculous those day-to-day things are.

On another note, we celebrated our home buying and Sam's mom's b-day tonight by eating at the fabulous Cheesecake Factory. Sitting next to me are the small remains of a wonderfully delicious Adam's Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple cheesecake. Oooohhhhhh, it's yummy.