Apartment finished!

We put the final touches in last night on the one-bedroom apartment under our house, and our first tenants move in today! (This is part of the whole scheme we have to cover our ridiculously expensive Ithaca taxes. Seriously, property tax is cheaper in NYC.)

Paul put A LOT of time into this place - painting all of the kitchen cabinets and laying new floor in the kitchen and bathroom. There's also new light fixtures throughout, and paint on the walls. With the carpets cleaned, it looks like a completely different place. Check it out.

Shiny new kitchen


Spiffy bathroom


Happy Paul

First load

It's a red letter day on Meadowlark Drive. We can actually do laundry!

One of our splurges in the house renovation were these beauties. They're tiny compared to other front-loaders, but still with 3.7 cu. feet of capacity.

They were installed today in our hallway closet, which formerly served as a coat closet. While I would LOVE the extra closet space - really I would - the inconvenience of no easily accessible washer and dryer with a newborn was not something I wanted to deal with. (There is a coin-operated washer and dryer in the basement for the tenants, but that involves a flight of stairs and a trek through the garage.) Paul was sold because he really wanted a front-loader. Our antiquated top-loaders don't even exist in England anymore. The first load is rattling away as I type - music to my ears.

We're in!

...just, but we made it. We've come a long way, but it feels like we still have a pretty long way to go. Since today is the first day that the computer is up-and-running, I'll post a few pix and then get back to unpacking.

Great color!

I want our kitchen walls and breakfast bar to look like this!:


Kudos to Beach Bungalow 8 for the inspiration!

Moving week...

I haven't posted this week because I've been busy packing boxes to prepare for the big move this weekend! - and there's not much interesting about that. The house is coming along, though. I had my doubts as to whether it'd be liveable by Saturday, but I think we'll make it.

Wood floors are now down everywhere and the kitchen appliances are in place (minus the microwave, which has been on backorder.) By the end of the day, we'll have at least one functional bathroom - VERY important for the pregnant chick this weekend!

Paul has had a few unexpected business trips, including one this week, so we have much less painting done that we originally planned. But now I'm thinking it will be better to live in the space for a while before we finally settle on colors. (I made some spur-of-the-moment, very bright choices for the bathrooms, and now I'm wondering if I should have thought about it a little more.)

A few more days, and then we'll actually be living in the house, which will make it much easier to clue y'all in on what it looks like.

Until then, this picture was the inspiration for our guest bathroom. I was thinking bright, cheerful, fun...but in real life the paint on the wall looks a little day-glo.
Colors are Laura Ashley Haystack and Summer Pudding.

Stay tuned for a pic of the real deal.