It’s Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas…

12/12/2012

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On the eve of moving day, Jason and I went to a fundraiser dinner and a friend snapped this picture of us in front of the ginorous Christmas tree in the lobby. I would just slap it onto a Christmas card template and send it out to our friends and family this year but it’s missing a certain little cutie pie. I’m going to attempt to get a picture of the 3 of us and whip something up in time to send out. I’m also hoping to have time to do some Christmas shopping before I run out of shipping time. Yikes! So much to do this time of the year and we kind of have our hands full with unpacking and all… I did put up a few Christmas decorations as I was unpacking boxes.

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I bought 3 more boxes of vintage ornaments this summer to add to my collection. (Sidenote: I still have a couple of 11×17 Wishing You a Shiny Brite Christmas posters for sale at my etsy shop, as well as some digital download prints.)

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The silver wreath Jason and I made many years ago made it’s way onto our new front door.

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A year or two before she passed away, my Granny gave me two boxes of her vintage Shiny Brite ornaments. They’re half broken and the glitter is a bit corroated but I treasure them. That’s why they’re on this tree stand on the counter, away from toddler hands.

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Speaking of toddler hands, yeah, this is going to be interesting… I’ve already said, “No, Ali, we don’t touch the Christmas tree!” about 500x. Which just makes her want to touch it more, I’m sure. “Ball,” she says as she pokes at the ornaments. No picture of her with the tree yet for obvious reasons.

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We’re Home!

12/11/2012

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Friday was moving day. It felt so different than when we’ve bought houses in the past…we would close at a title company, get our keys and let ourselves into our new, empty house. This time we’ve been in and out of the house almost daily for the past 6 months while it was constructed. On Friday Jason was cleaning the windows while I moved a few things over from my parents house. Then the last inspector from the city came and we paced around nervously while he walked through the house. Our site supervisor Scott put the last of 4 final inspection approval tags on the kitchen counter as he walked the inspector out. And that was it: we’re allowed to move in! Jason and I looked at the 4 final inspection tags on last time and gave each other a high five. Go time.

We met the movers at our storage unit and spent the rest of the day—the rest of the next several days, really—slinging boxes, moving furniture and unpacking. We are physically exhausted but oh-so-happy to be finally in our new home. I had hoped to sneak over early Friday morning and take final photos of a clean, empty house before we started moving in but it didn’t happen. Why? Because early Friday morning the tile guy, Peanut, was finishing grouting the fireplace and the bathroom; John, the painter, was doing touch-ups and Scott, our site supervisor/problem solver extraordinaire was putting the final touches on our front porch railings. In other words, the house was not clean or empty.

When we arrived back to our house, my mom had set up sloppy joes in her crock pot for us, as well as dropped off a bunch of food to get us through the first couple of days. She’s the best!

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After her afternoon nap, my parents brought Ali down to check out her new room. She hasn’t seen most of this stuff since she was 7 month old…so basically, she’s seeing it all for the first time. Who needs Christmas gifts!

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She was so excited about all the “new” toys that she climbed into her toy box.

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…and assembled:

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The first morning in our new house!

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On Day 2, my sister-in-law Ginger came over to help while my niece Eliza played with Ali. After they left, my parents and Jason’s parents helped us unpack and move more things from my parents’ house all day. It’s so wonderful to have such an awesome family to help us! I was too preoccupied to take many pictures on Saturday but I did snap this one of Ali. Nana (Jason’s mom) was unpacking a box with Ali and found some of my sunglasses…

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Day 3 in our new house: Sunday.

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Ali seems to really like her new room. It’s one of the most complete rooms in the house. All that’s missing are things that hang on the wall: pictures, book ledges, curtain rod, etc.

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Ali also seems to love her playroom (AKA the den) and it’s nice to have 2 rooms in the house that are mostly kid-safe.

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The hall bathroom is for Ali and guests:

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The living room is pretty much a big mess because the two couch pieces of our sectional and an armchair are being used in a home staging project. They’ll be back in a few weeks. I’ve been meaning to write about that. I’ll do that soon…

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Meanwhile, this is our makeshift couch: a pile of old blankets and pillows on the floor. Lucy approves.

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LuLu can be a very anxious dog but she seems to be adjusting really well. To my knowledge she hasn’t peed on anything or had any seizures so that says a lot for her.

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The kitchen is almost mostly complete, however it’s still a big mess because it’s the heart of the house. (Note the tool box and cleaning supplies on the counter, the step ladder in the dining room.)

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I really, really love how the kitcehn came together.

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We’re planning to add a tile backsplash at a later date.

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The coffee and tea bar is pretty much my favorite thing ever.

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After three days of hard work, we decided to use our last bit of energy on Sunday night to set up the TV so we could properly relax. It involved a mount that fixes to the concrete fireplace with a floating shelf below the TV. I’ll tell you about that later. We don’t have cable or internet yet, but we could use the DVD player so we found our box full of Seinfeld DVDs.

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Random: Any Nashvillites interested in a beautiful, big, heavy gold vinyl sleeper sofa? I was planning to use it in the den but it’s too big for that room so we’re selling it. It’s on craigslist for $100. Sold! Thank you to Mark and his wife. I hope you enjoy it!

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Phone Photo Friday

12/07/2012

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My one and only attempt at a Pinterest craft this Christmas. The candy cane wreath on the left is actually the second one I tried. The first one immediately fell apart. This second one stayed together long enough to fool me. I hung it up above our bed and a few hours later returned to a pile of candy canes on our pillows and this one lonely cane still dangling. Bah humbug!

Most of my Phone Photo Friday pictures are from my Instagram feed. Follow me @mahlbrandt if you’d like!


New Home Update – The End is Near

12/06/2012

Weak, I know… it’s the day before we move in and I really (still) don’t have time for a proper blog post. Instead, here is a dump of photos from my iPhone from the last week. I promise a proper “New Home Update” or perhaps… “New Home Tour” next week!

We had our first meal at our new house last Wednesday. We ate pizza as these guys were installing our granite countertops.

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Den/Playroom … I still don’t know if this wall is chalkboard paint or if it’s just painted black. Our contractor needs to ask the painter.

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The fireplace is not quite complete (though as I’m writing this, it’s getting finished). Lights and fans are all in.

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Bathroom vanities, medicine cabinets and sconce lights are in. Plumbing fixtures, too, but I guess I don’t have a picture of those yet.

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Ali playing in the playroom.

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And in Jason’s studio closet/recording booth.

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For the past week or so, as soon as Ali is asleep for the night (at my parents’ house where we’re living) Jason and I head over to our house to work. One night we assembled this MASKROS light from IKEA. It’s means “dandelion” in Swedish. I wonder why?

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Jason is so excited about having a gas range. I think he’s fired it up about 15 times just to make sure it’s still working.

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We had a gorgeous first weekend in December with sunshine and highs touching 70 degrees. After a bday party in the morning, we stopped by Jason’s favorite garden center. They had everything 40% off so we decided to go for a few big things: two arborvite and a topiary.

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Ali was zonked out in the van during the entire plant buying process.

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Naked house.

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Dressed house (though still scantily clad.) It was dark when we finished up so the pictures aren’t the greatest, but we’re still very pleased with getting a start on our landscaping.

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Later that night we went to Home Depot to buy closet shelving. We had the most awesome lady helping us. She was so cheerful and patient. She took all of our measurements down and did the math so we’d have little waste, and she even took the time to label each shelf with the measurement so we’d know which was which when we got home. You just don’t get customer service experiences like that often enough!

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A few daylight pictures from Sunday…

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Yeah, still looks pretty bare.

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My tea and coffee bar! I’m excited about this.

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The 4 yellow stools I ordered arrived this week. I love.

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Jason and I spent another evening cleaning. This kitchen is now sparkling clean, even the insides of the cupboards! Ready to unpack this weekend.

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The kitchen is missing a few things… the doors for the corner cabinet and the metal chase for the vent hood above the gas range. The chase and vent hood are stainless but have a white protective sticker on them. (That confused me for a minute.)

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Jason and I (mostly Jason) made this walkway in the courtyard with super, über, really-really heavy paver stones. Eventually we’ll get a load of gravel and we’ll build a gate.

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As of the writing of this post (Wednesday evening) we’ve passed 2 of the 4 needed inspections. We have the other two scheduled for Thursday and Friday. It’s all starting to get REAL!!

(PS. WordPress has new photo upload software. Yay! Made this post quicker. 😉 )


Phone Photo Friday

11/30/2012

Most of my Phone Photo Friday pictures are from my Instagram feed. Follow me @mahlbrandt if you’d like!


New Home Update

11/29/2012

It’s been 2 weeks since my last update so there is a lot to share. Two big things: our wood flooring is all done and our kitchen cabinets and appliances have been installed. This week the electrical is getting finished, the countertops are being installed and the plumbing will be done. All of that makes for a pretty much finished house. I’m a little behind in my picture taking so next week I will probably have pictures of a completely finished house. We’re moving in next Friday. Holla! On to the pics:

Den/playroom

I’m loving this fancy pull out trash and recycling drawer!

There will be doors on the corner cabinet up there, they just didn’t have the right hinge with them.

Those upper cabinets of the pantry will have white doors sometime this week.

That air compressor around the corner is a bit scary…

Blowing kisses at the granite yard

We chose these slabs of kashmir granite

Ali knows this is her room. She runs up the pink wall and slaps her hands on it, babbling incoherently. I think she approves.

Master:

Next kids room:

Ali’s room:

Master bedroom

Cherry cabinets stained a walnut color (I don’t remember the name of the specific finish)

I love the white ice appliances in our house as much as I did in the store.

I’m realizing I haven’t taken many new photos of the laundry room or Jason’s studio – those were the last rooms to have the flooring finished. I also haven’t photographed the bathrooms lately. We did have one little snafu with the tile in the master bathroom. We didn’t order enough the first time around so we had to get some more. The tile company sent the wrong color and the tile guy installed it anyway. (What the ?!) So that needs to be scraped up and the tile company promises the new tile will arrive by the end of this week. So, no big deal but a small set back nonetheless. It may or may not be fixed by moving day, but it will be fixed soon.


Posters for Sale

11/27/2012

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it seems everyone is getting into the Christmas spirit. Here we’re getting into the almost time to move into the new house spirit. Christmas decorating is in the way, way back of my mind. I wanted to remind you that I put the Wishing You a Shiny Brite Christmas poster back in my Etsy shop again this year. It’s 11×17 and $12 plus shipping.

I’m trying something new this year. I also turned two color variations of the Shiny Brite Christmas poster into downloadable PDFs that can be printed at home on 8.5″ x 11″ paper. They’re $2 a piece and free shipping, of course.

Shiny Brite Poster – Green Print-at-Home   /  Shiny Brite Poster – Brown Print-at-Home

 


Recent Estate Sale Finds

11/26/2012

I head out to estate sales looking for mid-century modern treasures. Like this Cosco stool that doubles as a step-stool and metal wastebasket with cut-out circles.

Sometimes I end up finding a bunch of kid stuff that’s too cheap to pass up. I’m particularly excited about this swing and finding a place to hang it in our new yard.


Phone Photo Friday

11/23/2012

Most of my Phone Photo Friday pictures are from my Instagram feed. Follow me @mahlbrandt if you’d like!


Little Free Library

11/21/2012

I recently paid my first visit to a Little Free Library in our neighborhood. Have you ever heard of this movement? I think they’re all around the country but I’m not sure if there is an extensive list anywhere. It’s an honor system book exchange with a simple policy: take a book, leave a book. Anyone can use it. Anyone can start one. I left 4 of Ali’s board books that we no longer use and picked up a new one, But Not the Hippopotamus by Sandra Boynton. Isn’t this precious? I love how the owners built the little free library to match their house. This one had one shelf of kids books and one of adult books.