Speed Bump

While living in the loft last year, one of the hardest adjustments for us was the tiny, apartment-sized kitchen. There was zero counter space, an electric stove top and a crummy oven that never cooked things evenly. For two people that love to cook, it was a major downer. During the entire remodel, dreaming about our new kitchen kept me going.

Life at Modern on Meadow is still a work in progress. The port-a-john is gone from the driveway and the floor grates have been installed  - so we no longer have large holes in the middle of the floor in which kids can drop small toys. Temporary lights have been removed and replaced, the refrigerator panels were installed - finally. The exterior steel columns and deck rails were painted, as was the garage door. Progress. There is still much to do. The basement is not yet usable - with tile that needs replacing, framing and closets that must be put back together. The walls need to be painted, cabinets need to go up in the laundry room. Hopefully we can make the basement space usable soon, and then getting it where we want it will take time - we will get a new couch and tv eventually. The office space will get spruced up with new shelves and my wallpaper ! We're waiting on the glass wall for the master closet, the sliding closet doors in the kids rooms don't have any hardware ...

We've been living in Modern on Meadow for a little over a week now. It is still very much a work in progress. The Punch List is a mile long! (This is the list of items that still needs to be completed as per the original design/construction contract - everything from outlets that aren't working, to putting the walls back in the basement). I had this idea that I would bust out my 'real' camera and take some fancy images before posting, but that's just not going to happen. So instead, here are a few iphone pics taken around our new digs...starting with the entryway and our bright orange mailbox! The master bedroom is full of natural light with windows along one wall and above the bed. I love how peaceful this space feels. And believe it or not, we have been sleeping great in the new house. We have reclaimed the master bed for adults only, and though I've have to spend a few uncomfortable hours wedged into a toddler bed to make that h...

Just a few more days and our hard hat zone will be gone!

This move thing is finally happening. This is the current state of Izzy's room in the loft (she doesn't sleep there anyway, perfect packing zone). There are a million gazillion things that still need to happen at the new house before we move in on Saturday.

It has been a rough week for the future dwellers of Modern on Meadow . I can say that we met our all time low last weekend. Rock bottom. I consider myself someone with a significant amount of mental toughness and effective coping skills. And yet, as I felt myself put to the test for the umpteenth time over this house in the past week, cracks in my armor began to show. I felt the wheels coming off and I was powerless to prevent it from happening. I was downright depressed over this house. Depressed enough to not shower for two days, to not even look in the mirror when I went out the door for the day. Depressed to the point that I went to the drugstore and stocked up on allergy meds thinking that might put a dent in the pounding ache emanating from my skull. Many things have gone wrong with the process of renovating this house. And I know this is part and parcel of every build, every remodel. I know that. I think we've put up with our share, not without complaining to be sure. T...

I've been dreaming about the day our kitchen cabinets would arrive for what feels like forever, and now that day is here.

Things are looking up on Meadow Lane! The front of the house is starting to resemble the finished design. The old front porch that ran along the entire front of the house is now gone, leaving lots of mud behind. A smaller porch stoop was poured a few weeks ago and the new steel columns are now in place. The columns will be painted black and will match the new steel deck columns on the back of the house.

Ryan and I are just about at wit's end -with all the financing worry, winter weather delays, apartment living, and the amount of time it takes to keep up on two households - we're feeling the strain of this remodel. But this process hasn't been easy on the kids either. About half of their toys are in storage and we're constantly carting them back and forth between the loft and the new house. They don't have a yard or neighbors to play with, and I'm pretty sure they are a bit worried about moving into this house that still looks nothing like any 'home' they've ever known. Izzy was just over a year when we moved out of our Brookside home. She has been in transition most of her life.

 It is finally Spring on Meadow Lane and much progress is being made on our new home.

It isn't really week 5002 of our remodel, but it feels like it. We're making progress, but it is baby steps and doesn't make for great blog posts. The drywall is up and the past several weeks have been all about mudding and sanding the drywall - I actually found this interesting because I've never seen it done. But it makes for some dull pictures. Things are going to pick up and get really interesting in the next few weeks...

We met with our architects this week to go over detailed shop drawings of all the custom cabinetry that will be in the house. It was so very exciting to think about how our amazing kitchen is going to look someday soon. I can hardly wait to cook our first meal in the space.  And just when I thought we couldn't get any more excited about our future home, our architects had yet another surprise for us. They finally revealed the designs for the screen elements in the house (space in the kid's landing, stairs going down to the basement, and soffit panel for the deck). They had originally talked with us about making unique metal screens, but the talk shifted to simple metal poles due to budget constraints. They figured out a way to make the original screens for the same cost - and I think they are really excited about this new design tool and want to utilize it - lucky us! I realize this picture is not as exciting unless you hear the story behind it and can envision them in the...

We have walls! What a difference a little drywall makes...

It may have been snowing outside when we made our house tour yesterday, but it was warm inside - finally! The insulation is going up and the house currently looks like a snow cave. What a mess! They were just finishing up on the first floor when we toured the house and were beginning clean up. I think we saw the mess at its worst.

When I ask Charlie if he is excited about our new house, he tells me he wants to go back to our old house. I can't really blame him. When we go over to check on the new house, it's cold and messy, and there are no toys. I'm not sure he understands that some day we will have walls, floors, heat, furniture and even toys in our new house. Most days I manage to convince him how great our new house is going to be. Lately, I've had a hard time convincing even myself. The month of February has been a bust for the house as not much of anything has been done. The demo, framing and roofing all happened really quickly and then everything seemed to stop. I'm not sure why, except that the hvac, plumbing and electrical contractors are all on their own time and don't seem to be in any hurry. Probably anyone that has built or remodeled a home has experienced this. But man oh man, is it frustrating.

It was a busy day at Modern on Meadow yesterday. Plumbers, a sound guy (speakers in the bathroom? Yes, please.), and the crew working on adding new support pillars in the basement were all in and out of the house during our weekly tour.

We visited the house this week on a wet and gray day. The site was very muddy, but I'll take wet and mud over the cold from last week any day.

I love our weekly house tours. I look forward to them and they are the highlight of my week. But this week, I wanted to be in and out and done. We toured the house when it was 18 degrees and I could not warm up for the rest of the day. Amazingly, they were putting the new roof on the house even in the bitter cold. It was a day I was glad to have my office job.

It's been another big week for our remodel, which was named last week and is now lovingly referred to as Modern on Meadow. In just a couple weeks we went from this....

This is an exciting week in our remodel process. We have the beginnings of our new second floor and our house has a name! A name? Yes, a name. See, it's kind of a big deal (our little home will be joining this lofty list !) and something I've been wondering about since we bought the house and signed on to work with our architects. All of their houses have names, special names that define the house and the design (check out Modern w/ Ranch  - the house that first drew us to Hufft,  Postcard House , and the Porch House , which was recently on the cover of Dwell ). They told us that they like to see the house start to take shape in the first couple weeks of construction before they finally give a house its name. It's akin to waiting until your child is born to see if the name fits. Are you ready for it? Are you? (Need to know detail, our street is Meadow Lane). Our house is now and forever more to be called...wait for it...