stylin' up the place...

Good thing I don't make a living off bloggin' - life has been happening between last post and this post.  Work and my new found love of tennis keep me pretty busy.  I picked up a tennis racquet back in August, so I will never be Rafa, but it has gotten a previously out of shape me into shape.  I do think that McKinney adapted to the house quicker than we did, but we weren't too far behind the dog.  The house is great and is starting to really become our home and now that we are nearing completion of the design project, it is ready for the official house warming party.  Invitations to come...

There are the minor new house things that pop up from time to time (but these get fixed fairly quickly - thanks Tom!).  But I will definitely take the types of problems we have in our new house compared to types of problems that happened at our old house.  And, it is nice to be able to plug in electronics that have 3 prongs!

Enough about that - we finally got around to hiring an interior designer and she has been such a pleasure to work with.  Emily Ann Jackson of Jackson Interiors grew up in Dallas is uber talented at both interior design and real estate.  But stylin' up the place has taken some time...  and it sure ain't no HGTV, false reality get your space renovated in 30 minutes type of project...unfortunately.  Most of you know how impatient I am - the whole instant gratification thing...  So, what happens is...I keep forgetting that HGTV is not reality and Emily keeps reminding me that I am forgetting!  I guess we get each other?

Now that we have established that interior design takes time, I have provided some pictures of what the space looks like now.  We are very close to the finish line and the pictures would be much better, however the drapes are still not complete.  Apparently the drapery lady only works like 3 days a week and I am not even sure if she works that many...cause we have been waiting on these drapes for a long time - the sofa took less time to make!

For before pictures, you will have to look back through various previous posts.

One of the biggest challenges was the TV wall, in particular the size of the TV - we did get the question, "Does your TV have to be that big?"  I just stared at her and she quickly realized that the TV wasn't changing - she, of course, had no idea how much I love my Crimson Tide.  Also the open floor plan required a consistent style, not matchy matchy as they like to say, but a nice flow throughout the kitchen, dining and living room.

So here is a tour pre - drapery.  Imagine ripple fold linen drapes spanning all of the windows from floor to ceiling.  Once installed, I will have more control of lighting and can provide better quality photos.  Oh yea, and the floors will be cleaner...and don't look too closely at the actual windows either!

 

This is the view from the kitchen - we only asked that the dining table and the counter stools remain in the space (oh yea, and the TV) - everything else is new. 

 

The sectional is a custom piece of furniture based on a photo we saw on Houzz - we didn't even have a full picture of the sofa, so the sofa lady had to guess at times, but she did an amazing job.  When they delivered it, they snapped a lot of pictures so that they could post it to their website...which reminds me, I want to visit their website.  It is so comfy and is covered in gray velvet Sunbrella fabric.  Sunbrella makes outdoor upholstery material, so it is very durable.

 

McKinney approves - but even he realizes that the space needs drapes real bad!  Two of the three tracks have been installed and ready for the drapes - we only have one half of the final track because the drape lady is apparently using it to make sure that the drapes do not puddle (designy term) but touch the floor.

 

And probably my favorite of all is the coffee table.  This is a custom design made of acrylic with a mirror base - I found those cool yellow casters online which makes the table completely mobile and awesome!

The TV no longer "stands" out as a design dilemma - although it can pivot, tilt and pull out, so in a way it kinda still stands out.  The challenge of incorporating the TV into the design was a success.  Still have no idea what to put on the shelves, so dont pay attention to that part of the picture -just focus on how the wall is now balanced and the marble is carried to the living room.

McKinney and the Blue Dog - just another example of how unphotogenic our dog is!  But, it does look like he was trying his best to do what the Blue Dog is doing.  He so cute!

Dining chairs allow us to seat 8 - we also have the table fully extended all the time pretty much to accommodate the chairs. 

The rug initially was going to be gray, however I am really happy that we went with the yellow (it is actually more of a subtle lime-ish yellow color and is one of the few times when something being on backorder until October was a good thing...).

You can also see the reflection from the coffee table - optical illusion is that the mirror looks see through - like you can see carpet under the coffee table.  But the mirror is not see through - promise.  By the way, you cannot clean plastic (if you don't equate acrylic as plastic - you aren't the only one).  And, you should not use windex or paper towels - there is a special cleaner for plastic and 100% cotton towels must be used...just in case you ever get asked that question, probably won't.  Luckily Emily provided these instructions to us prior to any disasters.

between then and now...

As it turns out, if I had to make a living blogging, I would be an epic fail.


On the bright side, there were no broken bones this year!  But unlike previous years, you could not see our house from space like occhristmas.  At the new house, we really scaled back the Christmas lights - a tree, some garland and wreath…  Taking down the outside lights took 15 minutes - compared to previous years, that is about 2 weeks faster than normal!

Luckily, the house on Montreal sold before the New Year and we appreciate Kathy Hewitt and Steve Habgood from Hewitt and Habgood for their help.

I also traveled to Paris for work just after Thanksgiving which required that I miss the second half of the Alabama/Auburn game - as it turns out, Auburn forgot to show up and we embarrassed them and disposed of yet another coach!  For the record, I did not support the Chizik firing!

Paris was cold and I sure am glad that it is called the City of Lights since I only got to see it at night.  We were staying at a hotel close to the airport, so it was mostly work, but I got to see the main things – very beautiful city, but everyone smelled like cheese!

Since I am on the topic of Alabama, I do realize that my last blog post was nearly 4 months ago.  That was the weekend that we moved to the new house and beat Michigan at Jerry's world!

My parents visited me in Dallas that weekend and we all went to the game hoping that it would be the start of a great season.  As luck would have it, we just returned from Miami where we saw Alabama complete a magical season with a win over Notre Dame in the BCS National Championship game!

So, even with all of that, we are settling into our new home.  McKinney quite possibly settled in the fastest!  Notice the green ball under the hearth!

 
On October 6, we hosted my "surprise" birthday party.  No one can keep secrets, so it really wasn't a surprise.  While the house was clean, I did take a couple of photos.  There are still many things we would like to do to the interior, but we are trying to get a feel for how the house lives before we hire an interior decorator.

We have started working on the upstairs loft/tv room/office project and I will write about that next time...

roll tide... we've moved!

The big day was August 30, 2012 (began moving) - and an equally big day was September 1, 2012 (Alabama beat Michigan at Jerry's World).

It is unbelievable the amount of stuff that can be collected over a nine year time period - just the house, outside furniture, and attic filled up a 24 foot moving truck.  24 feet is pretty big...and it was full!

I have been so busy with work, the move, and football that I have neglected the blog (I know, I know, enough already...I get it, I haven't posted in a while!).  And, unfortunately, this post won't be that exciting. 

Moving is awful!  And now comes the really fun part - putting the OC home on the market.  We hope to have the house ready for MLS in two weeks.  It will be sparkling thanks to the wonderful guidance of our realtor Steve Habgood! 

I do have to admit that while we love our new home, not living by our neighbors and close friends on South Montreal is very sad.  But, it isn't like we died...and it isn't like we are far away! 

For the most part, the punch list is getting addressed.  We finally got landscaping and the deck was installed!  So awesome to feed the fish and not have to walk in mud!  There are still items that I do not think will EVER get finished...  I hope that by November, our life has settled down, the OC home has sold, and most of the boxes will be unpacked!

I do want to thank Mom and Dad for helping me with the move - I couldn't have done it without them!  And, we still had enough energy to help Alabama beat Michigan!  Here we are - with our game faces on!

And, last but not least, a couple of photos of the landscape and Daniel Padilla's awesome artwork!

If my life settles down in the near future, I will post some updated photos and hopefully get to report that all punch list has been completed...  But, for now, I will go to bed because I should be sleeping and not updating the blog!

photo tour...

I have tried to provide an idea of what it would be like to walk through the house through photos.  I am not going to caption all of the photos, it is just going to be a bunch of photos kind of in order from downstairs to upstairs.

I also created a video tour, but it is worse than amateur, so I am still debating whether or not to post it.  Maybe after a little bit of editing, I will post it.  And, then maybe these pictures would make more sense.  Well, here goes...hope you enjoy.