First for the progress on the house. I have pictures of the back patio, front walkway and steps and the side walkway. I think they look really great. There's a small strip on the side that still needs to be poured as well as the driveway. The "junk" (don't know the word) they put on the outside of the house to prepare for the stucco is done and the texturing of the inside walls is complete (what a MESS that was!). Here are the pics:
And now for the near-nervous breakdown. For weeks I have been near the brink of insanity trying to get a grip on (among many other things) choosing everything from cabinet styles, cabinet colors, cabinet layouts, drawer pulls for cabinets, paint colors, floor choices and colors, granite, tile backsplashes and patterns, doorknobs, door hinges, door styles, wall textures, brick colors, every single appliance, window styles, lights, fans, fireplace styles and inserts, mantle designs, crown moldings, window and door trim, baseboards, bar stools, YOU NAME IT!! If you think this sounds like fun, please call me. I will send you to Home Depot or elsewhere with a list and a camera or assign you to 2-hour-shifts doing Internet research or 2-hour shifts looking through every magazine and library book (for ideas) that you can get your hands on. (And then I'll throw a couple of children in for good measure!) :) If you think this is starting to sound like whining and complaining, you are absolutely right. At least I can recognize and admit that I am doing exactly that. This is my outlet, so please know that I am not trying to take out my frustration on YOU!!
So here's the breakdown part. You thought I was already there??? Not quite ........... there's more. So on Wednesday, Ruel and I squeezed in an hour or so to go TOGETHER to the plumbing store that our contractor recommended we go to for picking our sinks, faucets, and a toilet for the new 1/2 bath. We enjoyed talking to the lady there. She was very friendly and helpful and we picked out two kitchen sinks (we'll have an extra one on the island), two disposals, two kitchen faucets, one toilet, one bathroom sink and faucet, and one laundry room sink and faucet. She said she would e-mail the bid to us the next day (yesterday). We left there feeling content and I was glad we had one more thing checked off the to-do list. I was so busy with so many other things, that I forgot about it until mid-afternoon when I checked my e-mail and saw that she had sent the bid. I opened it up and quickly scanned through it down to the bottom line, since that's all I really cared about. I don't remember where my children were at that point or what they heard me say, all I remember is this: $4,695.65!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO, I AM NOT KIDDING! THAT IS NOT A TYPO! Yes, that is almost $5 K for 4 sinks, 2 disposals, 4 faucets, and one toilet! I am seriously saying that if I have ever been close to dropping dead from a heart attack, it was at that exact moment. I absolutely, positively freaked out. I mean, are these faucets gold-plated inside or WHAT? Who pays $500 for ONE FAUCET?!! Well, for sure it is not me. I immediately went on to the Lowe's website and found some other great products for less than half the price. (And just a side note, I checked the exact brands online that we picked out at the plumbing store, and they were, across the board, more expensive online. Those were some fancy shmancy fixtures apparently.)
Unfortunately, the emotional damage was already done. After months of dealing with driving back and forth to school (4 miles each way) 3 times a day, having a cluttered, small apartment for the 5 of us where I can't find what I need half the time because it's in the storage shed, having to drag a 2-year-old up and down the stairs any time we go somewhere because he won't come by himself, trying to keep a 2 and 5-year-old away from a 7-year-old in the small apartment for about an hour every day so she can focus on her homework, and having Ruel be at home for a total of about 6 hours since we moved, I finally LOST MY MIND!!!! Sinks and faucets put me over the edge. It wasn't pretty. No gory details, but suffice it to say that I feel much better now and I am going shopping tomorrow with my sister without kids (window shopping, of course, since I'll never be able to afford anything else ever again as long as I live), and if I happen to pass by a plumbing store, you will know it because you will hear my scream!!!!!!!!!
WHEW! And now that I got all that off my chest, I'm going to go see if Oprah was any good today. :)
And last, but certainly not least, Andrew's latest haircut. Ruel has been saying ever since Andrew was born that he was going to be the one to cut Andrew's hair. I vetoed that right from the start because I didn't want him looking like one of the unfortunate kids you see from time to time who look like someone put a bowl around their head and then started cutting. So, I've always taken him in for the $8 haircut. Totally worth it in my book. Anyway, a few Sundays ago, I finally relented after all this time (I think the house is making me feel really poor and $8 sounds like a lot more to me than it used to!). Here's how it went.
Garage: (no, that is not a mirror ball in front, just the brightness of the sun!)
The forms are in place for the concrete to be poured next week for the front and side walkways and back patio (we chose the brick today for the trim around the edge of the front walkway and steps; Ruel decided on the shape of the walkway and patio):
