I Can See the Light! Yay!

 We're more than halfway through our renovations before selling the house, and we are all loving the look of it...almost enough to stay! I said "almost". :)
The trim work is done, with a few nail holes and paint touch ups left, which I'll get to today amid my laundry folding. Mike re-hung the last of the newly painted doors downstairs, and I need to finish painting some baseboards down there yet, but we started on removing the carpet from the stairs. And that is a yucky chore that we were almost regretting. The carpet is over 30 years old however, and needs to go...it's dusty, tromped down shag that would have been all the rage in 1982. We're covering the stair treads in stained oak...after we get rid of the nails and staples that is. Of course when you start removing that kind of thing you always have to fill unsightly gaps with some nice trim boards or something, because the left side of the staircase has a gap where the drywall didn't quite meet it.

We have found the area we'd like to build a house in, and with that in mind have also picked the school the kids will go to. It's a pre-kindergarten to grade seven school, with the high school that they would be going to just around the corner from where we will build. I'm loving the idea that, while they will get bused to school during elementary, they can walk to high school easily. That being said, we'd be renting a condo or townhouse while we build, and if we aren't lucky on the location the kids will need to be driven to school for the first year. It's an experience that we're looking forward to going through...picking out colors, carpet, and cabinets and for the first time ever letting someone else do all the work!

Some examples of things we love, without giving too much away:

chocolate subway tile in kitchen 

light lino

kitchen countertop in quartz on top of dark cabinets

contrasting kitchen island counter top in quartz, and in butler's pantry, on top of ivory cabinets

my very own butler's pantry, minus the window..a place for appliances, toast making and cookbooks, as well as tons of storage

trim work darker than the wall...love all this storage for backpacks and shoes

carpet

As you can tell, I'm much more excited about the kitchen than anywhere else...I'm fine with style and design as long as it's functional and practical. But the kitchen...that is my favorite place to be, and so I'm putting all my eggs in one basket and having what I like in there. Thankfully my ideas mesh with Mike's, and so we're on the same page in that area. And of course, I'll definitely keep you posted on this!