Happenings January 28, 2012

During the past few weeks, Trevor has been working hard on finishing up final touches with the house.  It’s nice to have it complete and cozy!  Maylee has been loving school and continuing to grow into such a good little girl. She also been LOVING tea parties…every day when she gets home from school she says, “Tea Party? Tea Party?”  She definitely has a girly side to her  She has made two new good friends  - Luca and Elli across the street who are so adorable and sweet. Maylee also has been helping to get the nursery ready for her baby brother.  She’s busy testing out pacifiers and sippy cups to make sure they’re working properly

Daddy’s Little Girl!

Tea Party!

Mommy and Maylee

Elli at West Egg Cafe

Little Luca Buca and Gosia

It’s a Girl….Just Kidding January 17, 2012

Trevor and I went to my 20 week ultrasound appointment yesterday looking forward to seeing our baby girl’s’ growth and progression…..As a reminder, we found out the gender of the baby by visiting 3D baby images when I was 16 weeks (and the tech was POSITIVE it was a girl).   We showed up at our appointment yesterday and the ultrasound tech started taking measurements and asked us if we already found out the gender. “Yes, we know it’s a girl,” we said.  A few minutes went by and more measurements were taken before she said, “Wait, what did they tell you the sex was?” …”A Girl” we replied.  NO, NO…this is definitely not a girl. We were stunned and shocked to say the least.  It’s a full day later and I’m still shocked and thinking that someone will pinch me and I’ll wake up.  Of course, we would have been happy with either a boy or girl!…but we’re thrilled beyond belief to have a little boy.  Maybe this would better explain all those active early kicks, and why Trevor could only think of boys names from the beginning

Construction – Week 11.5 January 11, 2012

With the whirlwind of the holidays, I didn’t get to post pictures nearly as much as I wanted to. Between all of the stuff with friends, family, work, and construction, this Holiday season felt like it came and went in a blur.

Kyle Drake and his team at Sensible Home Solutions have been amazing to work with every step of the way through this home renovation/construction process. I have recommended him to pretty much all of my friends and family and hope that they will look to him for any construction needs.  Kyle has been one of, if not THE most honest, straightforward, trustworthy, and competent contractors I have ever worked with … and considering I was in the home building industry for a long time, that’s saying a lot! Kyle has helped me figure out ways to get what I am looking for, effectively solve roadbumps, and save money along the way when possible … something you really don’t find often in a contractor. With less thana week left in our project it looks like we are going to come in under budget and ahead of schedule – AMAZING.

So much has happened in the past three weeks.  We got all of the trims in – electrical, HVAC, and plumbing. Countertops, interior trim, carpet, tile, and all of the miscellaneous touches.  The pictures really speak for themselves …

Front of house is complete, just need to get the last of the shutters mounted

Our architect, Dawn Bennett, did an incredible job helping us with colors and textures.

Finally got the last trees down in the back yard … no more leaves or pinestraw to manage!

Garage has cleared out for the most part, although we are going to close in the side and add garage doors in a couple of weeks

Laundry room looks amazing. We are using Dawn’s design for cabinetry and lockers (had to make some small tweaks)

Finally got the exotic granite we wanted. Just need to get (or refinish) a mirror and we’re done with this room.

The stairs turned out so nice. We were going to put carpet up them but they looked so good bare we decided to leave them that way for now.

Upstairs really shaped up. We love the space and plan on using every square inch.

The built-ins are almost done and the kids area has already proved to be a huge success with the munchkins.

Alternate view of upstairs main room and built-in. Wetbar on far left is complete as well. Just need the fridge.

I’m happy to have an office back. The light and spaciousness has really helped me focus!

The exercise room is big enough to comfortably fit all our equipment and we were able to take the mirrors from the weird room (now the stairwell) on the first floor and repurpose them for the gym.

Finally got Amber’s office finished up on the first floor.

We had the nursery ready for decoration but I just HAD to go and cut more holes (to run all of the media wires up to my office)

The main guest bath looks great. Just need mirrors and we’re done.

Finally got that tacky pink tub refinished!

Kitchen pantry is completely done and the workstation on the left is almost complete!

Fun at the Park January 9, 2012

Maylee is such a cutie pie and over the past few months her vocabulary has been expanding so much. She’s saying 5+ word sentences and she cracks us up because she’ll say “I’m tired” or ”Help Daddy” with such a southern hick accent. Who knows where she gets it from!  Over the past few months she has taught herself to potty train without us pushing it.   Her favorite show is still “Yo Gabba Gabba” along with her favorite book at nighttime. She LOVES to dance and sing, especially her owl dance where she’ll shout out “OWL, OWL” and spin in circles with her hands up until she gets so dizzy she falls down. 

Ringing in the New Year! January 6, 2012

2011 was supposed to be a year of change and that is was!  So much has happened….We were thankful to start the year off by traveling to Thailand to see family and friends and have them meet Maylee. After about 7 months on the market, we sold our house and moved to Sandy Springs. We are currently finishing up on renovations and love our new home and neighborhood.  Maylee turned two and we found out the exciting news that we are expanding our family! We had to say goodbye to our loved cat Woody, but thankfully Jackson and Brighton are happy and healthy.  The best part of the year was spending precious time with family and friends throughout the year.  We look forward to what 2012 brings us….our little one is healthy and growing.  She is our “little dragon” since she will be born in 2012- the year of the Dragon for the Chinese Calendar which is good luck!  We’re so grateful and appreciative of all that we have in life and look forward to the coming year!

 

Happy New Year to all and best wishes for a wonderful year ahead!

 

Holidays December 25, 2011

We always look forward to the holiday season because it’s an extra special time with family and friends. We kicked off the festivities by going to see a Christmas Carol at the Alliance Theater which was one of our favorite performances – beautiful set and moving story.  Maylee is still a bit young to see performances so she enjoyed the night with her favorite sitter Allison. We enjoyed Christmas Eve at our house with the extended family and as usual, had an Asian-inspired feast with garlic pork and cashew nut chicken. Although our house is not completely finished, it was so nice to celebrate in our new home! After doing our traditional Secret Santa exchange everyone turned in for an early night to enjoy the festivities the following day–a wonderful day at Estelle and Hugh’s house with great company and food!

 

Construction – Week 8.5 December 19, 2011

Wow … so much has happened in the past 2 weeks.  It is hard to believe the end is in sight! The exterior is completely finished and only needs to be painted and slap on some gutters. The inside has really shaped up.  Sheetrock went up, trim and doors went in, everything is painted, the kitchen cabinets have been moved, an awesome pantry was built on the fly when we realized we couldn’t do corner cabinet units the way we envisioned. The kitchen workstation area is ready to go in. All the bedrooms are complete. Electric trim is happening today, HVAC trim tomorrow, and plumbing trim Wednesday, and carpet on Thursday. We may just finish up 2 weeks ahead of an already compressed time schedule!

All done on the exterior … just need paint and gutters

Should be painting the house this week

We’ll be adding garage doors soon

The laundry room is getting tile this week, then built-ins

Powder bath just needs plumbing fixtures installed and it’s complete!

View from the laundry room, powder bath to the right

Hallway to powder bath and laundry room. No more sheetrock dust!

We have access to the stairwell hall now

Upstairs looks great. Carpet goes in this Thursday.

Accent wall for the new 2nd den/man cave

Wetbar will be installed later this week

Exercise room is shaping up. Just need to get the equipment up there.

Guest bedroom still needs paint, but it’s pretty much done

My office looks great. Looking forward to not working from the couch.

View from the desk of the head honcho

View from the desk of the head honcho

Toilet room got its window finally

Kitchen looks awesome. Pantry is 95% done and holds more crap than we ever imagined.

Workstation on the left is about to be built, upper cabs are already in

It’s nice to see the dining room looking more and more normal

The 3rd bedroom (Amber’s office) is done and is temporarily the workout room

This is the new nursery for our baby girl

My project is wrapping up. Just need to get the tub painted!

Master bedroom color looks good

The main room color looks great and we’re all decorated for Christmas

It’s all finally starting to feel at home

Construction – Week 6.5 December 6, 2011

Seems like things have slowed down a little now that the framers have gone and we had to lose a couple of days for mechanical/insulation inspections. The reality is that there is always at least one trade at the house every day doing something. Over the past two weeks the copper roofing has gone up, the trim has been completed for the most part, and the chimney has been completed with the exception of the copper chimney cap. On the interior we passed inspections for plumbing, electrical, HVAC, insulation, and for the footings in the basement. Sheetrock started today and they are hauling ass on it. Should be done by this weekend so we are still pushing to try to be complete by the first or second week of January.

Also inside, we moved the oven and microwave to their new locations in the kitchen. We had to make some design changes on the fly and are now going to go with a small walk-in pantry with decorative door in the corner instead of cabinetry due to the strange configurations of the cabinets. The new idea should look even better than the cabinets we envisioned! I also installed the pendant lights over the island. They look great and add a nice accent light to the room. In the past two weeks we also finished the hardwood floors on the main level. The pain of that process was moving the furniture out into the kitchen and family room. We had to live like hoarders for several days, making small paths throughout the rooms to get to and from different areas. Brighton got lost repeatedly. Jackson just jumped on top of everything and walked across the room that way. Jacob & Saul have been painting away and finished all of the downstairs rooms except for the kitchen. As you can see from the pics, Maylee’s room is now 100% complete, including new wall art with owls.  She loves them and exclaims “OWL!” every time she walks in her room.  The soon-to-be nursery is the temporary furniture staging room while we wait to finish the last bedroom. It may be a couple more weeks til that one is done while we finish out the kitchen.

Stay tuned for more updates to come!

Decorative windows are in and stone is almost done on the front

Copper roofing is up on the front and sides, looks great

Stacked stone porch facade and flagstone patio are coming together nicely

Back of the house still missing two windows, but copper roofing is done, and chimney is just waiting for cap

Sheetrock started today and is going up quick!

Sheetrock should be done by this Saturday

Guest bedroom is shaping up

That’s hot.

This will be my office, lots of room for the foosball table and darts (necessary decision making tools)

Exercise room after insulation

Sheetrock in progress

Powder bath window is in and the framing for the wine fridge is done (lower left)

Oven/microwave and fridge moved, exterior door removed, and pendant lights put up

The kitchen does not look like a storage warehouse anymore

The hardwoods are finished and the floors look awesome. Painting is also done.

Maylee’s room is done. She loves the owls.

The soon-to-be nursery is the new storage room since it is 100% done.

The main guest bath is almost done. Vanity is here, granite and plumbing trim this week.

Still need to paint the beautiful pink tub … probably later this week

Celebrating Maylee’s Birthday (part 2) with family November 26, 2011

Gobble Gobble! November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving! Gobble, Gobble (as Maylee would say).  Aahhh…thanksgiving…one of our favorite holidays of the year!  This year was no exception….We had the whole crew over to mom and dad’s house and enjoyed a traditional feast (with an Asian twist, of course!) and lots of laughs and smiles. No Thanksgiving would be complete without each of us saying what we’re thankful for.  Thank you to my wonderful family and friends.  I am so grateful for  your love and hope that each day we can live life to the fullest.