Joie de Vivre

Wow it's been a while since I have blogged! Life was a little busy (understatement of the year) there for a while, but we are finally getting back into the swing of what normal life and a normal schedule looks like.

Long story short....we had to do a major push to get our house "done" in 30 days. Ready, set, panic attack! Luckily, I have been blessed with a husband who can do anything as well as amazing family and friends who were willing to help in the midst of the chaos.

The day we found out we had to "complete" our house in 30 days Brian and I decided that we had to be a team...there was no other way to get it done. Though I never want to go through what we went through again, we have lots of fond (*cough, cough, nudge, nudge*) memories of staying up til 3 a.m. drinking Simpler Times (how appropriate) while painting, floor prepping, running speaker wire, etc. By the way, since I'm on the topic of running speaker wire....I have a major aversion towards seeing wires, it drives me nuts! The night we had to run the speaker wire in the living room I was not a happy camper...I was grumpy from the lack of sleep, and knowing that I would be going to bed at 3:00 a.m. or later, again, was not making me any happier. I kept saying that we should just forget it, the wire wasn't cooperating. Who cares if we have to see wires when we put up the surround sound, I just want to go to bed! Brian kept reminding that I hate wires and that I would thank him later...really? Would I? Are you sure about that? After far too long that night, we finally got the wire to cooperate (too confusing to explain the process here)....and yes, I thank him all the time now! Do you know how nice it is to have speakers in the wall with no wires hanging from them? It truly is amazing! Thank you husband for not giving up.

Now back to the real reason I am writing this post. We were running on empty, not really sure how we were gonna make it another day. Late one night I was making us some burritos (for probably the 5th night in a row) and Brian was working on the floor. He had mentioned that he wasn't feeling that great. "Poor guy," I thought...and continued making burritos. About 15 minutes went by and I realized that I hadn't been hearing any noise. "Brian...Brian, are you ok?" No answer. The first thing that flashed into my head was an image of him collapsed on the floor...why wasn't he answering me? I rounded the corner to the living room and this is what I saw...the same image that had flashed into my head seconds earlier....


"BRIAAAAAAAN!!!!!" I yelled as my heart was beating a mile a minute. I ran closer to see what had happened.


"Brian!" He slowly opened his eyes and mumbled, "I fell asleep..."


Talk about a panic attack! The poor guy was just so exhausted that he fell asleep with his face right next to floor glue (gnarly stuff) and his head on a razor blade. So happy we are done with most of this chaos :-)

Oh, and don't worry, I took these photos after I found out he was ok.

First of all, forgive the quality of these pictures; they look horrible. Secondly, if you haven't seen or heard from us in a while, this would be why.

Poor Brian, I can't even tell you how much cement cutting/grinding he has had to do since we bought this house. I'm not gonna lie, it looks like a horrible job. I'm so happy that he is willing to do it :-)


We decided to move the location of the closet door in the master bedroom. Here's Brian in the process of changing it from the wall when you first enter the room to the bathroom. This way it will give us more wall space, plus with the lay out of the room/bathroom we thought it made more sense to enter the closet from the bathroom.


This job did not look fun! Brian and Luke were able to tackle the marble tiled wall...it took quite a bit of effort, but now it's empty. YAY! Thanks Luke, you were a huge help!




This photo is to prove that I do help from time to time :-)


And lastly, here is our "new view" from our "new bench." We love taking bike rides and going to one of the many benches along the water. This is the closest bench to our new house and it's about two blocks away. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. When Brian and I started looking for houses a while back we would pray for a house close enough to the water that we could ride our bikes. God totally blew us away with this one!

Aaaaaaand, we're back to working on the house. Actually, I should say that Brian is back working on the house. He is no longer bound by the knee brace...he was like a giddy kid in a candy shop the day he was able to start working on our house again. Here are a few of the projects that have been going on lately...


Here's Brian's dad, Brendon, helping out with the stucco on the outside of the sunroom. I can't even begin to tell you how helpful Brian's parents have been! Brendon has done everything from painting and plumbing to fixing our chimney...he is a man of all trades. And of course there is Pat, Brian's mom, who I could not have done without! I can't even count the number of times she has cleaned, picked up trash, and organized. They are amazing; I've been blessed with wonderful in-laws!


Brian and Josh working on the drywall on the inside of the little sunroom.


My dad and Brian putting up the crown moulding around the beams in the living room...it's looking amazing! I'm so thankful that my dad was able to help out this week. He is a trim master!




Oh yes, and that's me. Like I said, Brian is the one who has been working on the house. I basically didn't leave the couch all week. And the reason that I have this lovely picture is because Brian thinks it's funny to take pictures of me looking my best :-) Isn't that sweet?


Well that's all for now. Cheers to the house progress being back in action...one day at a time.

I have never designed a master bathroom before, and yet that is the next feat to conquer on our house "to do" list. Do you know how many kinds of tile there are in this world? Far too many for a person to handle!

As you can see below, the salmon/coral/creamsicle swirl color that is going on in there right now just isn't working for us. Not to mention the "rivers" of pebbles throughout floor (I'll take some more detailed photos so you can see what I'm talking about). We feel a bit bad ripping it all out since it was just put it and hasn't even been finished yet, but it's a little over the top for our taste. We are about to start tearing it all out and then we will have a blank slate.

I need the new colors to be fairly neutral. The bathroom is literally attached to the master bedroom...there is no door, just a large open archway, hence the need for the neutral color palette. We need the bathroom to be able to fit with whatever we decide to paint the bedroom.

What would you do if you had a blank slate to work with? I need ideas! It's hard because we kind of like a bit of everything...classy, modern, casual, contemporary, etc. Oh, and of course I would like a few feminine touches, but that mainly comes with accents and decorating.

Here is what it looks like now, YIKES!




The cabinets will stay, but do we paint them white? Or do we stain them a rich, brown color? There are two vanities, which will be nice so that we can each have our own sink and mirror (hard to see from the photos). What do we do to the countertops? Any suggestions on materials? And then there is the walk-in steam shower which you can't really see here...what do we do there?

If you had a chance to design your dream bathroom what would you do? I would love to hear!