It's Around Here Somewhere, part 57

I seem to recall that I did a post many moons ago about not being able to find things when we (ok - I was the only one) were packing. Well, I am experiencing the reverse now that we have moved in. Since almost (emphasis on almost) all of the boxes are unpacked, I can't always remember where I put things. I needed to sew on a button the other day and looked high and low for my sewing kit. I remembered unpacking it, but it could not be found in the places I thought would be the logical home. Fortunately, I did find one of those sewing kits you get in hotels, so that sufficed for the immediate need. Naturally, about 2 hours later, I found the sewing kit no where near where I thought it should be. It was upstairs. What?? How in the world did I think it made sense to keep it up there? Oh well, now it is downstairs, so next time I need it I am sure I will head upstairs looking for it!

Double ditto for things in the kitchen. Sadly, I can remember where things were in the Dallas configuration of the cabinets, but have no idea where things are now! It usually takes about three tries to find the correct bowl or pan. Oh well, I'm sure I will eventually figure it out - or else I will just move it all!

Faux What!

One of the most exciting things we are having done is faux painting in our dining/wine room. Bob-the-Builder told us about an incredibly talented painting team, Anne and Hugh Meinecke. Here is their web site. Check it out. http://www.meineckeart.com

The wine room is the former den and the only main room on the lowest level of the house. This room has no windows, so we wanted to eliminate the total dungeon feel and bring a bit of Napa into it. I have hundreds of photos from our various trips to Napa, but we kept going back to one scene we really love, which is the road leading to Stags' Leap Winery (not to be confused with Stag's Leap Wine Cellars - but it is!) I have photographed the road in every season, but we loved the winter version because you can see the branches of the trees much better. So - that was the scene we wanted on our wine room wall. To be specific, the scene is actually heading out of the winery. Anne painted wine barrels on either side so that there is the appearance that one is looking out of the doors of a wine cellar and looking down the road. Here is the photo and Anne's interpretation of it. We love it!!

The Headboard Arrived Today

We purchased a headboard months and months ago so that we would have a new bed to sleep on even if we didn't have any other new furniture. It was delivered some time in April or May. When we finally brought it to the house and uncrated it, it was damaged. I'll spare you the saga with the shipping company (you SHOULD have opened it when it was delivered - not more than 45 days later.....) but anyway, our wonderful movers (yes, those are two words which rarely go together - more on them later) are great at furniture restoration. You see, I found them originally to move the piano and they also restore pianos. So, when I win the lottery, I'm going to get the Beckstein restored. Anyway, they fixed the headboard for us and delivered it today. Naturally, they were supposed to let me know when they were 30 minutes out, but they didn't call until they were at the house and we weren't. Oh well, fortunately, they waited for me to get home. They were also wonderful and assembled the bed for me. Yea! No more maneuvering around the footboard and slats that have been laying on the bedroom floor for the past 3 weeks. The bed looks marvelous and you can't tell at all where it was damaged. They did an amazing job. So..... one more thing off the list and one more room that is almost totally put together and finished. Note that there is not one room that is really finished, well maybe except for the powder bath - but I keep buying soap dispensers and matching tissue holders for that room that I keep taking back - so I guess even that, the tiniest room in the house, is not even finished. AUGHHHHHHHHH. Whew. Glad I got that off my chest.

A Sign of the Times

Even though it is not quite ready (translate - there is still stuff over there - lots more than I thought - mainly outdoor stuff), our town conveniently has re-routed all traffic down our street for two weeks while they work on a road project. We saw this as a perfect opportunity to put a for rent sign in front of the house-across-the-street.

It is astounding that so many people are being evicted from homes they are renting because the home was foreclosed and the lease was voided. How can the courts do that? Anyway, almost everyone has asked us if we owned the home. We thought it was a bit of a strange question, but it was not until later that we learned why that question is so important.

We hope to have it rented VERY soon. Send good rental thoughts this way!

Mid July Update

Okay, it's been two and a half weeks since the movers moved most of our things into the house. It is reasonable to expect that I would be totally unpacked and settled in. But NOOOOOO! I'm still unpacking - I'm in unpacking hell, to be exact, since it just can't seem to get finished. In my defense, the following rant is the cliff notes version of what's been going on. You may want to just skip to the last line.

So far, there hasn't been a day (except for last weekend) that we haven't had someone in the house looking at this that needs fixing or that which needs replacing. It takes several hours a day some days. It's unbelievable how unproductive it can be.

On the outside, many of the driveway pavers had to be replaced because they were deteriorating - apparently a manufacturing issue. Most of our grass looks great, but the St. Augustine is dying.....

On the inside, about 80% of the door frames have to be replaced due to a manufacturing defect that we didn't notice until we moved in. Odd that no one else noticed it....... I put blue painter's tape on all of the places that were a problem and it looked like we had blue spotted door frames everywhere. Anyway, there have been no less than 5 different people or groups of people over to look at them.

The floor is still warped. We'll still waiting, and waiting, and waiting.....

The septic system had a line cut (or something) so I ended up with standing water after a shower one morning. Was this a septic or a plumbing issue?? That took sorting out. Fortunately, the water was contained in the shower and did not leak out onto the bathroom floor.

The ice machine was not properly hooked up. That took two or three trips from the plumbing company.

We can't unpack many of the boxes because we are waiting (and waiting) for the painter to be finished with painting the entertainment center that will go in the den. It is huge and is the focal point of the entire room. It was custom built, and delivered several weeks ago. It just sat, disassembled, in the garage of the new house for a few weeks as the painter tried to figure out where and when they were going to paint it. We finally moved it to the garage of the house-across-the-street so they could spray paint it there. It's been over there for about two weeks and we learned today that it will probably be another week before it is installed and totally finished. After that, the electronics guy can hook up the entertainment system, THEN I can unpack the boxes of things that go on the shelves. (Beginning to get the picture???)

I could go on and on, but will stop here. Oh, the joys of a new house. It really is fabulous and we are really ready to enjoy it. NOW!!!!

Oh, an ironic thing is when I originally heard (back in May) the delivery date of next week for some more of our furniture, I thought it was wayyy out into the future and that we would be here and settled and just waiting for the furniture. Little did I know!

Whine, Whine, Whine, Wine, Wine, Wine. Life is good!!!

Thanks, Alice

My friend, Meghan, whose blog is iamaliceinwonderland, is the photo guru who changes the main photo for me. Thanks, Meghan! We are almost at the finish line - it keeps moving on us, but we have it in our sights.

STILL unpacking!

It seems it will never end, but the pile of boxes is considerably diminished. I do get depressed when I go over to the house-across-the-street, because there is still MORE stuff there. We plan to clear it out tomorrow. Really - we do!

I am very thankful for my storage closet. The Guy wanted the space for a workout room, but for various reasons, it kept shrinking so that it was not workable for anything except a storage closet. Yea! When we were packing oh those few short months ago, he asked me where all of those things in the boxes labeled "storage closet" were going to go. LOL, I just smiled and said nothing. Fortunately, the winds of change were blowing my way and those things did not have to go in the garage. I believe we will now actually be able to get two cars in the garage. Never mind that we have three......