Saturday, Sunday and Monday were awesome, but nothing short of chaotic (in a wonderful way). This was Sara's graduation weekend from her MBA program and we had all sorts of family and friends around.
I think between Friday evening and Monday, Sara and/or I was at the house seven or eight hundred times. It was wonderful and we are so close to being done and in that it is kind of like showing people a completed house.
A few minor new changes and some big changes.
They installed our front door. For some reason, this was an early selection we needed to make. We did shaker everything, but not the front door because we chose this so long ago. Might be something we change out down the road, but for now we just need to decide what color we want it. Pre-weekend, we collected all sorts of different shades of red. I think after the tour of homes that we're going to do a white (still have to select among a pallet of whites) and let the focus be our awesome stone.
They installed the French Doors to our office off of the foyer. They look great. Just found out a few hours ago that the stained glass above the doors (a TJB hallmark) will be installed tomorrow).
They were able to pour the sidewalk last week as well. We met with a prospective landscaper last night, and he said I had them pour it perfect for what we were discussing as far as retaining walls go. That's my green thumb and landscape architecture proficiency in action. They also poured the patio off the walk out, which you'll see below.
They pulled the cardboard off of our wood floors. We chose Brazilian Cherry for the floors and selected a wider board. Aside from the inevitable coating of dust that still exists, we are very excited about the wood floor.
They also took the covering off of the granite. Sara and I detoured a week or so ago after being in Edina looking at closets and went to Hom (I spelled that correctly) to see if they had any cool bar stools. Even for the long term, we want to be able to sit at the island for meals, but in the near term we definitely need to because we're going to wait on purchasing a nice dining room table. I really like what we found. The color is like the floors rather than the stain. The chair covering matches our couch and chairs and really goes well with this whole part of the house. I think our plan is to keep these. We purchased five of them.
On Saturday morning, my mom, Sara's dad, Sara and me took a walk around the neighborhood. It was a gorgeous morning and someone was out on the lake on their pontoon. The chain of lakes is stocked with fish, and allows boats as long as they are electric.
We decided to go with The Container Store's Elfa shelving system for our closets and pantries. Thank you, thank you, thank you to Sara's mom and Dick for their help with this. The system is very user friendly and are set up to be fairly easy to install. That's true unless you are impatient or imprecise. I'm imprecise. So thank you, thank you, thank you for your help on this.
This is all of the "stuff" for the master closet. We met with a few people for options on this, and found the Elfa system to be best for what we wanted. It isn't as fancy as the California Closet's options, but it is as functional, less expensive, and much more interchangeable. And, while a little more expensive, we found it is a far better option than simple wire shelves.
Carol and Dick sizing up the directions. Getting ready to go to town. The Container Store does a great "how to" instructional video online. I think Dick viewed it several hundred times because when he got to the house, he knew exactly what needed to be done.
After Sara's graduation reception, we brought a crew over to help. Here is Grandma Labadie helping prep everything for us. Thank you!
This is totally posed. I have no idea what I'm doing. But I grabbed some tools, climbed a ladder (without crying. ok, I cried a little) and pretended to be helpful.
This is the final product for our Master Closet. The huge (really huge) side to the right is Sara's. She's going to get frustrated with the vacant hanging space and go shopping to fill it. The side on the left is mine. It is well suited for what I might own at some point. That back wall is Switzerland. It may remain empty forever out of fear of one of us being offended.
This is the Pantry off of the kitchen. We are thrilled with this system. We have more room to put stuff than we have stuff.
The coat closet in the Mud Room. Nobody will ever see this unless they wonder too far after using our bathroom. This is where we walk in from the garage. So this is the only time you'll ever see this.
Yesterday, my wonderful wife walked across the stage at Northrop Auditorium and got her diploma for her MBA. She hadn't received confirmation that she'd passed her last class, but since then we've learned she got an A-, so it's a done deal. I think she was hoping and praying last night would be relaxing before she left today for another stint in California. I scheduled two meetings with landscapers (one to walk through a bid and the other to show them around the property to get a bid) at 6:30 and 7:45. So much for a relaxing evening.
We're excited to move ahead with gutters and landscaping, which I'm spending time on this week while Sara is traveling for work.
I can't believe we're less than two weeks from closing.
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