Best.Part.Ever

One of the best things (and worst, at times) about this whole house process has been picking things out. Some of it was a challenge, as I felt frustrated with so many choices. I know what I like when I see it, but I can’t design a whole room from scratch. What is in my head does not come out on paper. And sometimes Jay and I didn’t see eye-to-eye on a few things. But overall it hasn’t been horrible. Would I do it again? I’m not sure of that answer just yet. I’d like to say it’s been easy, but it has been incredibly hard, tedious, stressful work for Jay. He’s working day and night, 7 days a week. I help out on the weekends when I can and sometimes during the week. I think I would do this process again if we could have the luxury of Jay not being the builder, so he could relax and enjoy it from afar.

That being said, one thing I really did enjoy, was picking out furniture. We knew we needed a few key pieces and figured we’d get them once we moved in and got settled. But recently on a Saturday, I went to Ethan Allen ‘just to look’ and got so excited about what I found, that I ran home to get Jay and go back out to the store.  I can hardly wait to get it all delivered!  Hopefully it’s in time for our Friendsgiving (where we host 20+ people on Jay’s kickball team the Sunday before Thanksgiving) and Thanksgiving:

The fabric we chose for this sofa will be a charcoal gray. It will also have a wood base, instead of metal (not sure if you can even see the metal in the pic). Without realizing it, I picked the exact same sofa that my sister has. Exact, except for fabric color. I must have really liked hers! And, seeing as hers has lasted at least 8 years now, I know I’m buying a solid piece. I also got coordinating pillows with birds on them. If you know me, you know I love song birds. So not surprising with the bird pillows

This chair will be in the family room, but because it will also have its back facing the kitchen/dining room, I liked that it had some detail to the backing. It’s one of my favorite things about all the furniture we picked. This one we got in a black and gray houndstooth pattern:

This piece will be used in the front den, under the main windows, as storage for books, etc. The color is called Poppy and while I don’t like red at all, it’s really not that red. Plus it will look great with the floors….and it was on sale. Who doesn’t love a sale?!

 

 

This one I’m really excited about, too. Well, I’m excited about ALL of them, but I like this one. A lot. We’ll use it as a bar in our family room. The top is marble, which is nice for making drinks and not worrying about spilling (yes, I’m sure I’ll still put some sort of cloth or something down when we have a party, only because I’m so crazy-obsessed with things looking like a museum piece. I can’t help it. and yes, it does run in the family):

Note: We did not get that skull on top. I know, I’ll probably regret it at some point

We did also get a buffet, but I failed to take a picture of that. I had one from the web site, but the color is so dark that it’s hard to see. So, I’ll provide an update once it’s delivered.

More to come! We’re getting very close to the end. We have to be out of our apartment by the end of September, so I’ve started packing. It’s been great purging things I don’t need and discovering treasures I forgot I had. Some funny, some ‘why did I even buy this?!.’ I’ve come across childhood pictures that have made me laugh, newborn pictures of my niece and nephew (now 12 and 14, respectively), and drawings that Jay did as a little boy. It really hasn’t been as bad as I was expecting. I started early, with a few boxes here and there. Plus I’m pretty organized, so most of our stuff is already in Rubbermaid bins and labeled, for general storage purposes. I know my sister can relate to what a great feeling it is to have it all organized! Nothing makes us happier than cleaning out a closet or labeling boxes. That’s my idea of weekend fun. 🙂