details & resources - upper floor

i'm doing the opposite of saving the best for last ... i'm actually saving the least interesting - the basement - for last. only because i haven't yet gotten into marc's office to take pix, and that's only because i honestly have no idea how to turn on the lights in there, and a flash just wouldn't do the room justice. but he's home more now, so hopefully i can get in there tonight or tomorrow.

but today: the second floor.

first, though - one question i received that i forgot to address about the main level: the floors are forli verona by bella cera, hand-scraped, engineered (which, yes, sounds like an oxymoron) hickory. the finish is dark but not ebony dark. and there's no reddish-orange undertone. the floors are lovely.

now that that's settled ...

upstairs.

the main thing we changed in the layout of this house back in the planning stages was the landing upstairs. in the floor plan, the entry was supposed to be two-story, with an open staircase. marc and i feel that two-story open areas are, while lovely, a waste of what could be useable square footage. so we closed off the majority of the open space of the foyer to create a loft for the kids' computers. this is where they play minecraft, where marc researches guns and watches car videos on youtube while the kids are getting ready for bed.

the little desk hiding on the left will be set out for the neighborhood yard sale next weekend. and at some point i'm going to add an art shelf behind the computers and add photos of the kids and things they've created. that will come. we've added next to nothing to any of the walls at this point ... i'm still shuffling things around.

(by the way, every time you see a ceiling light in this house, there's a better than good chance that it's norwell's clayton light. it had a bit of an old school look to it so we used it quite a bit. and it was relatively inexpensive.)

across the hall from the loft is the laundry room.

same tile as the mudroom. the counter tops are a gray laminate with a subtle tone-on-tone grid pattern. laundry bins are from the container store. cheap light in here will probably be replaced someday, but for now ... it's a light.

while i wasn't initially in love with losing my huge laundry room with a ceiling full of lines on which to hang wet things, i do, actually, like my storage shelves. the shelf above each bin is labeled, and everyone (theoretically) puts their clothes in the right bin at the end of the day. i'm still trying to get certain people (ahemharper) to put things in the bins right side out and unballed, or to put things in the right bin (ahemmarc), or to actually put things in the bins at all (ahemhenry), but we're on the right track. and it saves me a lot of time in the long run. apparently not enough time to fold the loads that come out, as evidenced by the pile on the counter, but it's a start. i still miss my drying lines like you wouldn't believe, but i have a system up now that is ... okay. unfortunately, it is also really flimsy. within the first month of having it up, i had four fleeces and a bra drying at one point and the whole thing just jumped off the wall, ripping out drywall in the process. so marc nailed up a 1x6, painted it the same white as the wall, screwed the racks back in, added some hooks to hold my laundry bags, and since then it's been much better.

i have a feeling i will tweak this room as i go.

what i won't tweak, though, are the anthropologie knobs on the laundry sink cabinet. because they are adorable.

and because they, along with the colorful bins, work with this print that i hung above the sink:

and that's all i have to say about the laundry room.

next to the laundry is the kids' bathroom. i love this room, even though it is also still not quite finished. (you'll find "not quite finished" is a running theme around here.)

white hex tile on the floor, white subway tile in the shower. two more barn lights above the sink, which is a kohler brockway sink. ikea hemnes cabinet and wall hooks. the medicine cabinet was built by our cabinet guy, and the knobs - like the laundry room - are gorgeousness from anthro, which are, sadly, no longer available.

they were actually a serendipitous find. i had already bought towels for the kids' bathroom (lime and ocean stripes and dots) and was searching for fun knobs, but nothing quite worked. then i found these and they were perfect. the turquoise, bright green, and fuschia of the towels were perfectly matched in the knobs.

even more serendipitous, i was scouring etsy for some neat art to hang on the wall and bring the colors together, when i got a sale notice in email from serena & lily ... their zodiac prints were on special, already framed and ready to go. the colors worked well enough for my taste. but the best part is that my kiddos are a pisces and an aquarius - watery symbols that are perfect for a bathroom.

perfect, i say.

speaking of the kids, here are their rooms:

henry really cleaned up for this, didn't he?

henry's room is the only one upstairs that is a color. we had his room painted benjamin moore classic gray. looks really gray, doesn't it? sigh. oh well. i'm sure we'll paint it something else someday. there's a lot to do in this room still. he needs curtains of some sort - i'm thinking plumbing pipe screwed to the wall, and white ikea grommet curtains. he also needs an actual bed ... we're planning to get this one or something like it:

young, yet masculine, but could still be so cool as a guest bed down the road when my kid leaves home. and it will work just fine with the camo bedspread he has, and the striped sheets i'm planning to get him as soon as they go on sale.

we used ikea billy bookcases from the old house and screwed them to his wall, and a stainless steel ikea tabletop fit perfectly in the remaining space to create a little built-in desk for homework. it works for him ... he has more books than anything else, so a wall of bookshelves made total sense. continuing the ikea theme, his ceiling light is also ... ikea.

across the hall is a much different space:

there is more "not quite done yet" in this room ... things missing, a box of stuffed animals shoved in the corner because i have no idea what to do with them ... but it's a tad closer than henry's. we had an antique jenny lind bed from my parents, and i found a second on craigslist. we had them both painted black, which i think was the right call. they're gorgeous. and the white of the room and the little bits of black help keep the Crazy that is those bedspreads from being too much. we added another ikea billy bookcase (why do my kids have so many books?! that's rhetorical ... it's totally my fault.), and i strung adorable buntings made from vintage sheets that i found through this etsy shop. (looks like she may be taking some time off from her business.)

on the other side of the room ... more ikeaness.

i didn't take a photo of how they turned out - must do that at some point - but the ikea trofast units with the white drawers were stenciled with a lovely leafy/flower pattern in the same simply white as the rest of the house. the plan now is to add some narrow shelves above both drawer units to put all of the special things and keepsakes up and out of harm's way, and then use the top of the storage units for littlest pet shop houses. the pottery barn dollhouse bookshelf is strictly hodgepodge barbie storage right now, but there is a plan afoot to make it all much more calm and organized. and there is much art to hang in here. i'll get to that later, too.

gotta have a summer project, right?

what you can't see is the ceiling light - it's a fuschia ikea lamp shade hung from a $10 light kit, like the one in the mudroom. it looks like a really neat pink drum shade but cost, like, twenty bucks. and this weekend we will be putting up her curtains. she had curtain rods with bird finials from land of nod (it appears they no longer sell hardware) in her old room and loves them, but their off white/antiqued look won't work in this room. so i'm going to spray them black, then hang these curtains ...

it should be pretty cute, and will block out all of the summer evening light that pours in at the end of the day around the edges of her blinds. blocking that light will be the big win.

moving down the hall, this is the upstairs guest room:

the side table is actually a metal foot locker that marc's grandpa had in world war II. the name "skinner" is written on the top. i love that. the lamp is from target a million years ago ... it isn't  permanent, but it works. the floor lamp is vintage pottery barn. ("vintage" being circa 1998ish.) the bed is ... drum roll ... ikea. it was originally in harper's room at the old house ...

remember this?

when you pull out the trundle, it's a perfect king-sized bed. technically, it's the biggest bed in our house.

who wants to come visit?

we had the builders add shelves to the niche that was created when the loft was made, so that guests have a place to put a laptop or whatever. i kinda dig the niche.

bedding: west elm quilt and shams (no longer available), macy's sheets (which i love love love. so much so that i want to get the exact same ones for our room. would that be weird?), discontinued pottery barn accent pillows, which i got for a smokin' deal nearly two years ago and saved just for this room. yes, i did everything else in the room around those pillows. still need curtains ... need to get a chair for the desk area so we can take that one back to the basement, but i haven't decided between a slipcovered parson chair or a black crossback one. also need to figure out the art situation, but at least this room is functional, sweet, and cozy.

finally, last bedroom and bathroom upstairs ... ours.

continuing with the "work in progress" theme ... this room is ridiculously empty. we opted to stick with a queen bed instead of shelling out the cash for not only a bigger bed frame/headboard, but also a new mattress, new bedding, new everything. that seemed excessive. however, our bed kinda floats in the room. even worse, we have yet to figure out bedside tables or lamps, so the ones we have are puny and ineffective.

our dresser from the old house, which i love more than life itself and seemed so gargantuan in our former room, is perfectly sized for the new space.

we did managed to hang a bit of art in this room ...

priorities.

bed is from crate & barrel. shams are from que sera. accent pillows from macy's, years ago. duvet is pottery barn, also from years ago. sheets are from tj maxx. dresser is restoration hardware.

at some point, we'll figure out nightstands and lights (it's annoying to have to walk across the room to turn off the light at night. i miss my little bedside sconces.), and i'll put a bench of some sort at the foot of the bed to catch the duvet that we inevitably kick off most nights. and the farther out plan is to get a little bookshelf and reading chair for the corner opposite the dresser so i can have a little quiet nook. or to eat up floor space. same thing. honestly, i like a clean, white, calm bedroom, so there won't be too much of anything added just for the sake of adding.

through the bedroom is the master bath ...

it's super pretty.

let's see what we have going on in here ...

the vanity/tub is painted benjamin moore alaskan husky. white on white on white on white seemed a bit much, so the little hint of gray is nice. the vanity and tub surround are carrera marble. the floor is hex and dot ... why it is more off white than white, i have no idea. however, i went off reservation and ordered the tile from somewhere else because our supplier didn't have this particular pattern, so i was stuck. that's what i get for being picky. the shower tile is 8x10 white ceramic and a stacked accent of glass, frosted glass, and marble. it's lovely.

hardware on the vanity are the chatham pulls and the green glass knobs and hooks from restoration hardware. other hardware - towel bar, train rack, etc. - are from the mercer collection at pottery barn, and the mirror is the kensington tilt mirror, also pb. lights above the sink are norwell dahlia. shower, bath, and sink fixtures are brizo baliza in chrome. towel cabinet is restoration hardware.

the only hindsight issue i have upstairs is the master bath. we were asked if we wanted radiant heat installed under the tile. we thought that sounded a bit much - and my feet are always hot - so we declined. however, because this room is in a far corner of the house and it so wide open, it's cold in the winter. like, freezing. those tiles might have been nice. so we're going to look into how much it would be to swap out the ceiling fan/vent for one that also has a heat setting. and the window, while lovely, is static. i have learned that i would have preferred something that would open to allow for fresh air and ventilation. also? it's high on the wall. i can't see out of it. even on my tip toes.

so ... two floors down, one to go. the basement will be a much shorter visit.

details & resources - main floor

okay. i've been working on this for awhile, but the house was finally clean enough top-to-bottom to take the pix to go along with it.

we're officially at the eight month mark of living in the new house, as of today. over the course of those months, i've received more than a few emails from people who have stumbled upon pix i posted and asking where i got something, etc.

so here - and in a following post or two - i'll go through the house, one room at a time, and list where we found things, what we learned in the process, what we'd do differently, etc.

grab a drink.

so, here's the place today - with grass, vintagey-looking porch chairs, and a cutie-pie seven-year-old welcoming committee:

starting at this point, everything that is white in this house - including the exterior - is benjamin moore's simply white. i love this white, which is a weird thing to say. but it isn't stark, it isn't overly blue-cold. there's just a touch of green in it to keep it fresh and natural, but it works with everything. (oh - there is another color. the porch ceiling is wythe blue. and the front door is some gray/black color, but i can't remember which one. alrighty.)

the exterior lights are all from barn light electric, and all are in the galvanized steel finish. these are the lights by the door and in the back of the house, these are the lights above the garage, and by my office door is this light.

the chairs and glider are from grandin road and are super comfy and full of that charm i wanted. need to get some cushions and side tables to hold a lemonade or fat tire, but those will come. i'm actually thinking about finding old tablecloths and making pillow covers out of those. something kinda like this:

hopefully, some planting will take place soon, too. harper and i have been making our dream flower list. it looks something like this:

lilacs

peonies

more peonies

hydrangeas

lots of daisies

and forget-me-nots

and more peonies

roses

lily of the valley

bearded iris

bleeding hearts

hosta

cosmos

phlox

alyssum

and peonies

and that's how we started our list.

so now let's go inside ... we'll go through the mud room, because that's the door we always use.

(ignore the scattering of shoes. it is what it is.)

obviously, this room is not simply white. i wanted a little color in here because, really, a white mud room? so this room is palladian blue. and it's a perfect color. floor tile is old-school vinyl composite tile. i love how it looks, and it's pretty easy to just mop up and be done with it. there IS an acrylic sealer you need to put on it once a year or so to keep the tiles from staining. truth be told: i haven't done it yet. i know. honestly, i'm waiting for summer, so the kids can use a different door and i can put the sealer on, block off the mud room from feet and paws, and it can get the 24 hour drying time it needs. however, it's a mud room. if there are minor stains on the tile, i'm not going to fret.

if you've been following this build process since it became a possibility two years ago, you'll remember i had something different in mind for this room. the wire wall baskets and bench i'd wanted got vetoed ... marc was pretty insistent we went the built-in route. he really loved how they looked in every house we toured. so i acquiesced, but only if the built-in was minimal. we compromised, and we're both happy with it. and our cabinet/trim guys were amazing ... they surprised us by putting up brackets for the shelf that mimicked the lines of the brackets on our kitchen shelves (we'll get there). we love it.

other things in the room:

the ceiling light is an antique wire waste basket that i found at an antique store for $15. marc drilled a hole in the base, slipped a $10 light kit through it, and voila. ceiling light.

on the shelf above the coat hooks (which are super fancy home depot chrome hooks) is some art and some vintage wire locker baskets to hold our gloves and hats. and a jar that harper uses to catch bugs.

art - the katie daisy "love" print that she made to benefit haiti relief; a dazeychic "so happy" print in a cheap ikea clip frame; a piece of red and white polka dot scrapbook paper in an ikea frame.

the mudroom is also our command central for keeping track of who has what when, papers we need to remember, invitations, etc. we keep track of everything with the pottery barn wall system and use it all. the. time.

just off the mud room is the main floor bathroom and my studio/office.

the vanity cabinet is painted benjamin moore camouflage. the floor is simple 8x8 white ceramic tile. hindsight: we should have used gray grout. this is such a high traffic bathroom, and much of that traffic involves dirty feet and shoes. gray grout would have been smart.

the vanity top/sink is cultured marble. not my favorite, but it will do for now. we had to save money somewhere, so going standard in this bathroom and the one in the basement became the places where we stayed cheap. however, i clean this freaking vanity all the dang time. every little water spot and kitty paw print and soap puddle from rushing children shows up.

(the mirror is from target ... i know - this mirror is too small. but it was cheap, and it works for now. i'll replace it someday. the light is norwell nexus, chrome finish with two lights; and the faucet is kohler archer in chrome.)

now - sidenote: the intention for this house from the beginning was an industrial farmhouse. and while there are definitely farmhouse and industrial features, i could have gone way more overboard on keeping true to more 20s/30s/40s fixtures or going full-on industrial. however, where i veer more to vintage farmhouse, marc veers more to modern. so we compromised. the interior of the house is a reflection of that. there is a way more modern edge than a vintage or industrial one. hopefully, it will stay clean and timeless. industrial is getting a bit too trendy and i didn't want our house to feel too much like "oh, hello, industrial trend of 2012-2013!" though i may totally snap one day and order all new lights for areas of the house to make it feel more like "grandma's farmhouse." oh yes. i just might.

quick peek at my studio - this is still an almost 100% work in progress.

eight months in, i still need to paint the barn door with chalkboard paint. i don't think the pictures will stay where they are. i'm not in love with the desk, but i had to get something up fast to get my computer up and running. it works for now, but i'm not in love with any of it. sadly, this space has found itself waaaaaayyyy at the bottom of the list.

okay, then ... on to my favorite space: the kitchen/dining/great room.

i love this space more than words.

cabinets are all shaker style - simple and clean. all of the perimeter cabinets are painted simply white, and the island is painted camouflage. the perimeter counter top is soapstone, and i still want to marry it. the island is topped with stainless steel, which we love love love. yes, it shows fingerprints. so what. a quick wipe with a damp microfiber cloth and it's all good.

(no, i didn't see the wine cork on the floor until after i uploaded the photos. in my defense, we keep a bowl of corks by the kitchen window, and it was really windy that day. so ... that's my story. while we're at it, the rug is this one.)

we used three different types of hardware in the kitchen, all from restoration hardware. drawers have aubrey pulls in chrome, double cabinets have the utility latch in chrome, and single cabinet doors have the aubrey knob.

the kitchen lights are from pottery barn - the porter adjustable pendants in white ceramic. there are two large ones over the island, and a small one over the sink. they're gorgeous.

the island stools are from overstock. the price is unbeatable.

the faucets - kitchen sink and prep sink - are both hansgrohe talis high arc faucets in chrome. the one in the prep sink is smaller and doesn't have the pull-down sprayer. an oversight. a sprayer would have been a good thing.

the kitchen sink is a stainless elkay single-bowl undermount sink. i love it; marc's on the fence. he can't figure out how to do dishes in a single sink. i really wanted a white fireclay-type farmhouse sink, but i was too nervous about it getting chipped or staining. we looked at a stainless apron-front sink, but were told that belt buckles and zip-front sweatshirts tend to leave a scratch pattern over time. so we went with the undermount. i haven't been (totally) sorry.

appliances: we researched obsessively, not wanting to get a room full of the same brand only to find that while the stove is great, the refrigerator sucks. et cetera. so after doing months of research, we ended up with a bosch dishwasher, a samsung fridge, a kitchenaid wall oven/microwave-convection oven unit, and a wolf gas cooktop. totally schizo, i know.

verdict? the dishwasher is awesome, despite the fact that sometime between ordering a $1,500 dishwasher and getting it installed, bosch decided it needed a more "consumer-friendly" price point in their line, so it started making less expensive machines, with the cost brought down because they used some cheaper parts. so while we got the not-cheap dishwasher, we DID get a cheap dishwasher latch. and it broke within three months, and we had to have it repaired. at which point we were told about bosch's little scheme. so ... we'll watch that. the oven/microwave combo is working great so far. we've used the microwave's convection oven mode only twice, but it seemed to work just fine. the cooktop? i'm in love. i've missed gas for 15 years, so i'm a happy camper about the cooktop. i have heard nothing but mixed reviews about wall oven units, so i hope i don't regret that we didn't just get the dual fuel cooktop/oven we went back and forth about but nixed in the end because it took the bulk of our appliance budget all by itself. the fridge? i go back and forth. i adore the door ice/water dispenser - we haven't had that option ever, and we all go through the ice/water way more now that it's handy. (and now that we actually HAVE ice to use.) however, it takes up a ton of door space. i haven't yet figured out the best way to configure the space for storage. still working on that. i do wonder if we should have gone the counter-depth side-by-side route. there was less interior cubic feet of storage, but thinking back, the storage was laid out more usably. on well. it's all good.

the kitchen makes me happy.

(note: the white ikea vase? know what that's for? i turn my iphone on to the pandora app while i do dishes, and stick it in the vase. the accoustics amplify the volume and it sounds amazing. i know we have fancy schmancy ceiling speakers, but honestly - while doing dishes - i prefer this $3.99 method. oh, and the little cork bowl is from here.)

(coffee tin; tray; utensil vase)

the only real hindsight issue with the kitchen is the cabinets and hood above the cooktop.

it was all installed at standard height ... but we never took into account the fact that marc is 6'4". the hood hits him right about nose-level. it's inconvenient, and he's going to whack himself on the corner one of these days. at some point (we're going to look into having it done at our one-year walk-through, since the various trades will be out here touching up things anyway), we'll get the cabinet above the stove replaced with a single-height one, like the glass-front ones on either side, move the hood up, and add tile. get that hood above marc's head.

the dining "room" area has worked out nicely so far. we don't miss a formal dining room. however, the table snafu was disappointing, and we're left with a table way smaller than what we'd wanted and planned for. we'll work around it for now, until we can find a table that extends the amount we need a few times a year.

(table - pottery barn (discontinued), chairs - crate & barrel, pendants - shades of light)

 

the great room ... is pretty great.

you already know about the couches (restoration hardware. kensington. army duck in fog.) and the chairs/pillows. we haven't done anything to this room since then.

(fireplace surround is brick-pattern marble subway tile. lights above the fireplace are hudson valley keswick in chrome.)

in the spirit of keeping it real, this is the front room. it is also painted palladian blue. it will be lovely. someday. right now, it's where we put the things with which we have no idea what to do.

movin' right along.

next we walk through the front entry to get to harper's and my crafty room, and that will be the end of today's tour.

 

(stairway lights; rug.)

i found a cute little spoon-carved dresser on craigslist that i'm having restored then will paint and put in that empty spot above. can't wait to get that area dressed up.

(yes, mario literally follows me around all day long.)

we have three barn doors in the house. they are all on tracks from rustica hardware, in raw steel finish. (as much as we wanted to get stainless tracks, it would have been an additional $420 per track. um, no.) great company to work with, gorgeous product.

(vintage metal locker shelf found on craigslist; pendant is a hack of ikea's maskros light, ikea alex storage drawers, pottery barn rag rug (discontinued). this room is still very basic and unfinished, but it's functional.)

there you have it. the main floor. hope i've hit everything. i'll get to the other two floors later this weekend.

we're still here.

things have been getting in the way of blogging.

truth be told, i'm growing bored with blogging. but i don't really scrap much anymore, so the stories have to go somewhere. so i keep blogging.

just, apparently, not very well.

and right now, the weather is amazing, so i'm getting pulled away from the computer by nice days, bike rides, weed pulling, sitting on the couch by a window that's open and letting in an amazing breeze ...

or by a little girl who asks me to play barbies outside, then she gets sidetracked by chasing butterflies and dragonflies and rolling down the hill ...

(click on the pic and you can actually watch her roll down said hill:)

and then i get sidetracked by how pretty she is ...

then i get sidetracked by boys who trudge across the empty lots to shoot at things ...

and the biggest guy tries to give the not-quite-as-big guy pointers on how to aim, how to stand up straight, and how to please stand up straight, and how to just stand up straight already ...

and then i start thinking about how the biggest guy's only real regret in life is that he didn't go into the military like he wanted to oh so desperately, and that he never got the chance to see if he could have made it as a sniper ...

and then i get sidetracked thinking about how neat our kids are, and thank god that mchotness didn't enlist because then we never would have met and fallen in love and made out and created those kids ...

and then i got sidetracked by mother's day, and the plan to go to the arboretum that was waylaid by a line of cars about a quarter of a mile long, waiting to turn into the arboretum; cars full of families and mothers who, apparently, had exactly the same idea. so we ended up at lake minnetonka, watching sailboats and ding dong people who had no clue how to fly kites. and then i look through the four pictures i took that day and get sidetracked by how giant my eldest is and the fact that he still has, according to his doctor, about a foot more to grow ...

(no, he is not standing on something. no, i am not sitting on something. he's that much taller than i am. shut up.)

and then when i finally do sit down to type something, i get sidetracked by my assistant, who chooses to sit right in front of the keyboard. it's really hard to type with your wrists resting on a cat, and i'm sure it isn't ergonomic. but you do what you have to do.

so i will try harder from now on.

so, that happened.

there has been a general air of funk-ness around here for the past week or so, and writing anything seems completely uninteresting and depressing.

a couple of weeks ago, a stager contacted our realtor, wanting very much to break into her market and offering to stage our house free of charge, no strings attached, and put a property manager into the home to keep it lit and clean and care for the lawn, etc. our realtor checked all the language in the contract, added and subtracted a few things to make it no-risk for us, and we agreed to let the stager in. we took it off the market for a few days while she added art and furniture and tchotchkes all over the house, then new photos were taken and the house went back up for sale.

that weekend we have a zillion showings.

on sunday, we got two offers and notice that a third was potentially coming.

one of the offers was amazing - perfect - and we accepted. the purchase agreement was signed on monday, and on wednesday the buyers had their inspection

which was done by a structural engineer.

on a house built in 1965.

needless to say, he convinced the buyers that the house was not up to code (duh ... how many times has code changed in 47 years?!) and would likely disintegrate into a fatal hole of horribleness. so the buyers walked.

and when the third party heard the buyers walked because of the inspection, they too hauled ass away from being interested.

sooo ... back to square one. after a year on the market, we still have nothing to show for it.

and we're so done. everyone who looks at the house loves it. feedback is great. there is no one smoking gun reason from any of the showings as to why this house isn't selling.

so i now hate this house beyond all logic and reason, and am kinda praying that god strikes it with lightning and it burns to the ground.

no, i'm not being hyperbolic.

on top of that, while marc was gone for work, the little cat ate two new areas of carpet. no matter what we did to stop him and distract him, he just moved on to a new area. brand new house, brand new carpet, now full of chewed up, shredded spots because little cat was an idiot. the stress of not selling the old house and  of the new house being destroyed by a seven-pound piece of crap cat were too much for me. i packed up little cat and took him back to the pet store from whence he came and walked away. it killed harper for about a day and a half, which killed me (and was even worse because, like everything else in life, i was left to deal with it alone), but she got over it and my carpet will no longer be at the mercy of little cat teeth. granted, it looks like shit in about five different places, but oh well. it's just money, right?

so all of that, plus some other things, led to a really, really bad week last week. we're still stressed out about the house, but have decided that we'll give it until july - hard stop, and then we go the rental route. maybe we'll specifically look for someone who wants to run a meth lab out of the bathroom and cross our fingers that they burn it down for us.

i'll get back to fun stories and pretty pictures soon. i'm working on a list of resources for the new house and will write that up here pretty soon. an amazing about of emails have made their way to me, asking where we got this light or found that sink or what our countertops are, so i feel the need to address that. and maybe i'll even clean the house and post new pix of the place with actual furniture in place.

at least in the rooms that have furniture.

we're still missing quite a few things. because the other house hasn't sold yet. but i already told you about that. so, okay.