busy bee

My posts have been lacking recently- here and on Deliciously Determined. I hope we don't lose any readers because of it but I promise I have a good excuse... this house has been taking over my life!! And it's not only that- it's hard to pick up and move to a very different place. Everyday is about learning new things- about ourselves, each other and this place we've decided to call our home. And the last week has been no exception. I have been up in Saratoga trying desperately to pull things together- knowing that the next time I come up here I'm here for good.. and while I started the week thinking I was going to get lots done, I've run out of time and it feels like very little has been accomplished.

In this post I'll share a few things that were done, but mostly I'm hoping to throw in a little bit of reality. Both Ben and I have gotten wonderful words of encouragement from friends, family and readers, but as exciting as it all looks- it's even more overwhelming. I have often times said I never get stressed out about work, only about my personal life, so this is a whole new thing for me as my personal life and work have now meshed into one.

This Week
Maybe I wasn't very fair to myself when I said I got very little accomplished. I have been working non stop, trying to make decisions and get things done- then trying to convince Ben to agree with them. I have been to Home Depot and back about 7 times in the last 5 days, I had hours of meetings about the kitchen and the yard, I finalized our bathroom plan.. you can read about it here, and I've even managed to do loads and loads of laundry, organize the house so that it's "livable" for Ben and most nights I've made dinner with just a microwave and a mini fridge.. all while dealing with our devil dog who won't leave my lap unless it's to pull a sock out of the laundry basket and do laps around the house while trying to "kill" it. To put it simply, I'm tired and very much looking forward to sleeping on a REAL mattress for the next couple of weeks. But I must say yesterday afternoon when I was driving back from Albany with all of our bathroom tile in my trunk and the dog in the passenger seat I thought to myself- "how do people with 9-5 jobs get any of this stuff done?" And just as I finished my thought the phone rang, it was the Invisible Fence lady.

Sunday
We've had a little bit of a standstill at the house. We're at a point where we can't do much until the walls have been lined in sheetrock and everything's been sanded- Ben said that's when I start painting..(notice the I?) So we mostly cleaned up a bit, Ben did a few odds and ends around the house while I paid bills, but we did accomplish a good amount by buying our appliances!

A few weeks ago Ben and I started to scope out appliances. We began talking to people with a little more experience than us. I must point out that I am in no way clueless about this kind of stuff- I knew what I wanted and I'm very aware of what the "best" is, but I also was realistic and knew I couldn't have the best. After talking to experienced appliance buyers and referencing our issue of Consumer Reports (it has become our bible), we opted to look at Sears and see if we liked any of the Kenmore options. And surprise, surprise (people upstate are so nice), we were told to wait and purchase everything on October 4th during their Friends and Family night so we could get 30% off everything. I guarantee no New York City salesperson would ever share that kind of information. Our decision was made- we found lots of wonderful options and felt like the extra 30% definitely made the deal-and because we got 30% off we were able to get better appliances and somewhat stick to our original budget (of course we went a little over but that's to be expected). On Sunday we walked into Sears knowing we were going to be spending A LOT of money, which we did. But we also walked out the new owners of:

a stainless steel gas range with 5 burners and a convection oven..

Kenmore Stainless Range model #78883

a convection microwave hood..

Kenmore Elite Microhood Combination model #88513

a stainless side by side, counter depth refrigerator..

Kenmore Elite model #45423

and an LG (Kenmore was too expensive) stainless dishwasher..

LG Built-In Dishwasher model #15533

It's amazing how grown up you feel once you own your own appliances.. now I just have to wait until November to use them!

Monday
Most of my day was spent at Home Depot going over the kitchen design. While I'll get into it later I'll share some of the the reasons why I was there for so long.

First I think I should mention that the Home Depot designers are GREAT if you don't know what you want/need. I knew exactly what we needed and felt a little bad telling him where to put everything, but there's nothing worse than a kitchen that isn't functional, so here goes..

My dream kitchen would have a big prep area like an island, unlimited storage, a baking station and a butlers pantry about as big as the kitchen (I'd also like a fireplace but I think that may be asking too much). Our kitchen is a 10x10 space and I needed to find a way to incorporate all of these things even though I wasn't going to get them. In other words I need to be able to do everything I could do in a much larger space. I need a prep area, an abundance of storage, a place where I can bake (I do that often) and food storage- I always buy too much, on sale and in bulk. And I have to say I take my kitchen VERY seriously. I am no chef, but I do love entertaining "stuff" so while I knew I would never have enough space for all of my platters and china I still wanted the kitchen to be able to hold most of our mini appliances and everyday dishes. I've now met with the designer 3 times and after our first phone "meeting" he prepared a layout based on what I described. And at first glance I was pretty sure there wouldn't even be room for our water glasses. But after a few hours of me really plotting out where everything will go- and even doing things he told me not to (like moving the dishwasher right next to the corner sink) I know that our kitchen will be entirely functional for us.

Just a few words for those of you who are or will be doing something like this in the near future. I am someone who doesn't tell anyone how to do their job, but if they're steering me in a direction that I know is not best for us, I always appreciate their words of wisdom but any decision I make is always based on our needs. When designing a kitchen it's wonderful to be able to incorporate the workspace triangle below..
But no two spaces are the same, so you need to do what works for you. Due to our space constraints our refrigerator, sink and dishwasher are really tight. I know it's going to be problematic at times, but if we didn't do it that way I would have lost every one of my base cabinets- leaving me with only three upper cabinets. I knew I'd rather be wedged in a corner doing dishes while Ben was getting something out of the fridge or loading the dishwasher instead of running up to the attic every time I needed an extra platter for the dinner table. And that is exactly why I basically spent my Monday at Home Depot.

Tuesday
When Ben and I bought our little house we made three lists..
1) things that need to be taken care of immediately
2) things that we'd like to do soon
3) things that we dream about doing if we decided to stay in the house forever

Many of the things from list 1 have been moved to list 2 and Ben has said from the beginning that he thinks we can start working on list 2 in the spring (don't tell him but I know it's never going to happen and that he only says that to make me feel better). And the chances of list 3 ever happening are so slim.. right now I'm feeling like we'll forever live in a house with messy walls and a nasty bathroom so life with a garage and a dining room is totally unimaginable. But our list 1 probably differs from your list 1.
Mine always consisted of: doing the kitchen, the bathroom and transforming the garage into a bedroom we can fit dressers in. Ben's consisted of: doing the kitchen, landscaping the yard and getting a fence for the dog! Because we're now married and I've heard the secret to a good marriage is compromise.. our joint list consists of: doing the kitchen, eventually getting to the bathroom, landscaping half of the yard and getting a fence for the dog. Can you believe it? Henry took one of the top priority spots- god forbid he ran on a line for the next few months..

Anyway, if any of you have looked into fencing in a yard before (and not a small one for city living at that), it's VERY costly and as soon as Ben got quotes the list began to look more like we were skipping everything else all together and just installing a fence for the dog! But then I jumped in and decided to schedule an appointment with an Invisible Fence rep without telling him (he was VERY against it) so that is how I spent my Tuesday. Eventually I did tell Ben I scheduled the appointment (yes a few days before they came) and we had a great meeting, figured out what package was best for us (even the most expensive option is a fraction of the cost of a real fence), convinced Ben there was no other way to let the dog run loose, and we even got another fence company to come and price out their product as well. Now we're just hoping Henry won't be tempted to run through the fence at dismissal everyday (we live across the street from a school).

Wednesday
I can't remember what I did on Wednesday.. seriously.

Thursday
On Thursday morning I headed to Albany to pick up our bathroom tile. I finally got to meet the guys at the Daltile showroom- they've been so helpful throughout this whole process and I'm looking forward to working with them in the future with my clients- (I'm hoping we're done at our house for a while). Now our garage is filled with boxes of tile that probably won't be used for a while, but I really want to be ready so that when Ben gives the bathroom the "green light" I'm fully prepared and nothing is held up.


Peeking at the tile this morning made me VERY excited for a clean, white bathroom! We also got the shower valve and now we're just waiting on the faucet (it's expected to arrive next week).

I spent the rest of my day finalizing the details with Invisible Fence and scheduling the installation, scoping out privacy fence options- in an effort to compromise again we have decided we'd put a privacy fence up to block the school and any temptation for Henry, and once again I took a trip to the Home Depot kitchen department.

possible privacy fence option

When I was driving from place to place (I drove almost 100 miles yesterday) I kept thinking about how much of this I could have gotten done in New York City in one day. I figured with public transportation, traffic and walking time I probably could have gotten one thing done.

Then to top it all off Ben and I ended our day with a trip to the lumber yard in his pick up truck (more to come on this). That was definitely the icing on the cake..
Friday
While the day is still young, I've spent most of the morning packing up to go back to New York City.. cleaning along the way. I also made some important calls to the Zoning Board (about fence and driveway questions). While I am looking forward to a real bed, I'm dreading the packing part- as once I get back it's up to me to get everything ready for the big move. I also know that there's so much more I need to get done here (and wish I could get done before our furniture was delivered). But I am practicing patience and hoping that I don't have a panic attack once moving day comes on the 26th.

Anyway, now can you see why I haven't had time to post?!?!

Monday I'll post about all of the bad news Ben has been delivering via phone calls during our time apart.