Emma and Melissa

Over the holiday weekend, we met my family at the beach. The Girls (Sophie and Emma) went with us. A good time was had by all, but an interesting thing happened.

My sister-in-Law Melissa is nearly four months pregnant and Emma was obsessed with her. As soon as Melissa would walk into the house, Emma was right by her side. As soon as Melissa sat down, Emma was right there, sitting beside her. At one point, Emma curled up with Melissa in a way that Paul swears she has never done for him. Emma clearly knows that a baby is on the way, and was just getting to know Baby Lehman before the rest of us!

New Doors on a Crookie House

So the new french doors in the dining room have been installed. They look great. Or they will, but I can see the potential.

However, this week, our GC has told us that we need to buy new windows because ours are in such bad shape. And oh by the way, they need to fur 3.5" off of the living room walls because our house is crooked. I'm not joking. Three and a half inches!!! In case your house is plumb, furing a wall or ceiling basically means that they add 2x4s to the existing frame of the house. What a mess!

Bored

Ever feel bored of yourself? I don't know if I've ever felt bored by myself before. And maybe I'm not bored by myself, so much as bored of talking about myself. There are some people, all of them well meaning, who always ask me how the house is going. It is going slowly. It is a source of frustration. It is a source of stress. I don't really want to talk about it. I would imagine that all of these kind people think that they are asking me about something good -- like how is the wedding planning coming or how are the kids. They're not. I don't really want to discuss the house. I'm tired of thinking about it and I'm even more bored of talking about it. But, social rules dictate that I answer their questions with a smile. So ask me if you must. I won't tell you that I hate talking about the house and I will put a positive spin on what is going on.

Better still, ask me how Sophie and Emma are doing.

This and That

The kitchen cabinets are in production and the countertops have been selected, so it is time to start filling in the gaps for finishing items.

As of this weekend, we have now ordered all of our big lighting fixtures. For the most part, we are using can lighting. Not a big surprise to anyone who has been in a home built in the last ten years. However, we are having pretty big fixtures in the front hall, dining room and over the island. For the front hall, we bought a caza sputnik light. Kind of funky and definitely a departure from the builders grade non-descript fixture that previously lived in the foyer. For the dining room, we have a vintage sputnik. And over the kitchen island, we are installing HUGE lights from Restoration Hardware. After two months of looking at light fixtures, I have tried my best to find budget friendly options. My final decision--lighting is not the best place to save money.

We have also ordered the new kitchen sink, bathroom sink and dog door. Of these three, I am most excited about the dog door. The Girls will now be the proud owners of a fully electronic dog door. If doors were like cars, they would be getting the mid range luxury. Perhaps the BMW 3 series of dog doors. Not the $1K+ model--that would be the huge Mercedes. But we're still excited about their upcoming freedom, even if it is tantalizingly out of reach for the next few months.

Advice

The funny thing about telling people that you've had a fire is that they usually don't really know how to react. Everyone you know will, at some point, experience the loss of a loved one. So when they share that news with you, you know what to say. Not so much when someone shares that they have had a fire.

Most people are great about it. Although, to be fair, I am really kind of tired of talking about the fire. So if you see me, you don't need to ask about the fire or the house or our renovations or anything about this stuff. I probably don't want to talk about it. And if I do, I will bring it up.

To avoid the conversation completely, I am currently telling casual acquaintances that we are just renovating the house. This is true, so I don't feel like I am lying, so much as avoiding a longer conversation.

A few times, someone has really offended me when talking about the fire. For example, the other day, I had to tell someone at a furniture store why we were shopping for so much furniture. I didn't say anything like, "but we're so lucky." So he said it. In a scolding kind of tone. I really did NOT appreciate it. Guess who didn't order any furniture that day!

Kitchen

This weekend, we ordered our kitchen cabinets and countertops. After talking to a couple of different outfits, we ended up going with Home Depot for both. Who would have guessed? They were running a great sale though, so we saved about $5000. And who doesn't like to save money?

If you are interested, we ordered KraftMaid cabinets--Madison style, Peppercorn color. For the countertops, we went with Maple Blanco Silestone. It is supposed to be virtually indestructible--far more so than granite. Never has to be sealed. I'm pretty sure it can also cook for you.

And yes, we are doing countertop pieces down the side of our island, like in the picture above. It should be fun.

If we get a kitchen and some indoor plumbing, I am officially going to feel like a princess.