Christmas Rush

Again, the more I work on the house, the less I post. In this instance, correlation does mean causation.

I do feel like I have a true following because I'm getting requests for photos and updates. So here goes.

I took this week off from work. Some call it vacation. Others call is "staycation." I call it more work than my work. But it's been a productive week thus far.

First, Jay Wilichoski, our super painter, finished up painting everything but the breezeway/den. I am really loving the colors. The white dove is the perfect trim - a lovely soft white that goes well with our kitchen cabinets and the colors we chose for all rooms. The fact that he sprayed all the trim, doors and ceilings really makes everything look uniform and perfect. We did a semi gloss on the doors and trim but, since it was sprayed, it comes off as more of a cross between satin and semi gloss. Which is perfect, because I couldn't decide between those two finishes.

Of all the colors, we love our master bedroom most. The Manchester Tan is THE perfecte neutral.


Second favorite is the Revere Pewter, which is a perfect "greige" for our open floor plan.


Thirdly, I am a little bit obsessed with the Van Courtland Blue in my office.


Lastly, I am very happy with a soft but rejuvenating creamy yellow for our guest room.


The painter plans to come back in a week or so to finish/touch up...

In the mean time, I've spent my vacation...cleaning. And if you ask my husband, it is a chore that I am actually pretty awful at doing. Not this week. This week, I rock at cleaning. To the point that my hair is covered in sawdust and my fingers are shriveled from spending countless hours in a soapy bucket of water.

It took forever, but I can finally say that all of the kitchen cabinets are clean and READY FOR DISHES!

While I was cleaning today, I was also on standby to answer questions from the electirician like... Where should I hang the wall sconce, how long do you want the pendant light to hang, what should the order of switches go on a certain switch box?

We're making good progress on the electical front. Our electrician is coming back next Tuesday to finish up, but check out some of the more exciting lighting intallations:

Pendants!


Office light! LOVE IT (see above) - thank you Nate Bennett!

Murray Feiss Barrington Sconces for living room - thank you Nate Bennett!


HVAC came and installed all of the vent covers today as well as thermostats...that, combined with the fireplace install, means thats I was nice and toasty at the house this week.


What else can I update folks on...

...Kel is installing the stairs between the breezeway/den and house.
...I can't tell you how messy, dusty and gross everyhing is in the house. It took me an hour to clean off fan blades for the electrician to install.
...The granite on the island just got installed...as did the quartz on the master vanity...and the window sill in the kitchen. It took a couple trips to get it right, but they figured it out and we're happy with how everything looks. Kel will install brackets on the island so the 12.5 inch overhang won't cause a major issue if someone decides to lean on it.



...We. need. furniture. Anyone heard of Modern Rust in DC? We may check it out over Christmas while we're in Virginia and have some items sent.
...I love wayfair.com
...We are moving December 29th!!! Let's hope we have an occupancy license before then.
...Carpets arrive in the bedrooms one week from today.
...We bought stools for our island. Who knew World Market, our favorite place in DC delivers?


...I need to rent a husband. Chris is working all week and I really need a husband to: hang mirrors, install doorstops, swap out our side door, patch a hole in our master bath (Long story there but not incredibly interesting so I will save for later), and install closet systems. I found Steve Butcher on Craiglist and we're going to give him a whirl...in hopes he doesn't butcher our walls. I mean, he can't screw them up any more than the guy who actually plastered the walls did!

That's all for now. Wanna know something kind of silly but true? The simple act of installing the plastic covers for the outlets really made the house look like a home. We can't wait to move on in to Salt Wall...in time for our second anniversary on December 31 - and even before then - our first overnight guest...Ms. Ellen E. Carey

Lights, camera...

This was our first weekend away from Salt Wall Lane since we moved. We went up to Lake Winnipesauke to visit Sarah and Ramin Taheri and the Bruson family. It was wonderful to get away from all the stress of the house and chill on a boat on the lake on a gorgeous New England summer day. Chris even caught a fish!

But, fear not, Salt Wall was still on the mind. Even before we got up to the lake, we made a stop at the homestead to see that Kel had already ripped off almost all of the shingles on the front of the house in preparation for the building/siding job that commenced THIS MORNING! That’s right, as I type, the “raising of the roof” is taking place.

We needed to pull the shingles off so we can accommodate new windows on the first floor in the front of the house when we put the new vinyl siding on. We only need to do this to the front of the house because we're only replacing the first floor windows in the front.

After snapping a photo of the shingle-less house (which you'll see in our next post), we headed north to tax-free New Hampshire, stopping along the way at Stone One in Methuen, Mass. where we're getting our granite and tile so Chris could give the "stamp of approval" on the tiles I picked out for the guest bathroom.



Score! He liked them.

The rest of the day was renovation-free, though we did talk shop with the Taheris who are going through the same type of project with their new house in Capitol Hill.

On Sunday, we were trying to kill time before meeting the Mlinar family for breakfast at Sunshine & Pa's in Meredith, NH. Randomly and conveniently, Amanda, Gavin and Halsey were up at Lake Winnepesauke this week, as well, so we were lucky to have the chance to meet up with them before we all departed. As any home renovator would know, Lowes and Home Depot are two of the only places open for business at 6:30am, which was around the time the Taheris left us for the airport. We took full advantage of our small pocket of time and picked out some cool indoor/outdoor fans for the porch. We plan to have two of them on our wraparound.

Unfortunately (or fortunately as you'll learn), it was "donkey day" at the Lowes in Meredith and they couldn't find my account number and phones were down and we were about to be late for brekkie. We pulled the ripcord and decided we'd hit up another Lowes before crossing the border to Taxachusetts.

We had a field day at the Lowes in Tilton, NH.

Maybe it was the slight hangover or egg-induced food coma, but we were (read: I was) uncharacteristically decisive.

We grabbed our fans and then spent some time in Lighting.

A lot of time.

"I'm so excited about our pendant lights!" Chris just exclaimed as I write this blog on my blackberry, sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on 93 South.




It is true - we found and somehow agreed on pendant lights at Lowes. It is a type that is new to Lowes so maybe that's why we'd never seen them before. We'd actually found and almost purchased similar pendant lights online for $160 a piece. The Restoration Hardware ones I loved were upwards of $450 each! These were such a steal that we got three. We can always return one if we only use two, though I read somewhere that "there's something about the number three when it comes to pendant lights." (I think 3 is a good number for a lot of things when it comes to decor/design, btw.)

We didn't stop at pendant lights.

We found wall sconces for our master...






...and guest bathrooms.




I read (and the awesome bathroom designer I met with on Friday confirmed this - more on bathroom design in a future post) that light strips over vanity/medicine cabinet mirrors are the dated way of lighting a bathroom. Sconces on either side of the mirror are a preferable, esp for makeup application, and more flattering. The master bath light fixtures are chrome and align well with the 1920s vintage luxury look we're going for. The brushed nickel fixtures will be great for our New England cottage-style guest bath.

We also got a flush ceiling mount light for the upstairs hallway...

...and black motion censor outdoor sconces for either side of the garage door.
That was it for lighting.

We were similarly decisive in the bathroom section and purchased our faucet and shower head/valve set for the guest bathroom. We went a classic/traditional Moen brushed nickel matching set.




While we were in the faucet aisle, we decided to buy our kitchen faucet. To match the polished nickel pendant lights, we got a chrome Delta model that looked traditional yet sleek and had the features we cared most about: one handle for hot/cold, matching soap dispenser, a button you press that serves as a toggle between a concentrated stream (think: filling up a glass of water) and a rain-like stream (think: doing dishes), and good warranty. We also really like my mom's Delta faucet.

Last but not least: Chris did some in-store research on disposals and bought an In-Sinkerater "Evolution Premier." He was pleased with the reviews, particularly those commending the disposal for purring like a kitten and chomping like a beaver. (His words.)


Before heading to checkout, we strolled down the tile aisle and found two final candidates for the powder room, though decided we'd table that decision.

Debbie, the head cashier, was a dream. She looked up my credit card number with no problem, honored a 10% off coupon that we didn't even have, and gave us 6 months of 0% APR.

Our savvy shopping saved us $110 (coupon) plus another $78 in avoided state sales tax. If we can find a way to convince the state of NH that the energy-saving electrical fixtures we purchased (8 total), we can get an $80 rebate.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Bruson, thank you for allowing us to stay at your lovely lake house in Gilford, NH. Can we please borrow your address for a rebate form? We promise these fixtures will be installed there! Your (cheap) friends, the Paynes.