Lovin' It!

There is a chance that the one or two people who read this blog have been wondering what happened with our project. They may think that the job went south and I lost all hope for it to ever be completed. Or, they might think that we ran out of money and got so upset that we couldn't dream of writing anymore. Or, that I'm plain lazy and have been looking for inspiration these past few weeks. We'll go with the latter of the three. Life is busy and inspiration was lacking. Tonight, however, I got an injection of enthusiasm - not that I haven't been enthused all along!

Enthusiam is easy when a job goes as well as our did. When we talk to friends, neighbors, strangers (yes, Rob has a penchant for chatting up random strangers in restaurants and Lowe's!), they all express awe at the fast pace with which we completed the renovation. In fact, as I was walking past an impending renovation at a neighbor's house today, I wondered if they had begun packing everything up to get ready for demolition. Then, my mind wondered to the fact that their project has been in the works for months and they still haven't started.

It took us five years to decide to stay put, but once we made our decision to renovate, it was a race to the finish. No marathoning for us - we made our decision in early January and one month later were living in a rental down the street. Within eight weeks we were back home and during the past four weeks, we have been settling back in. Only one small detail in the kitchen is still incomplete, but if that is all we have to worry about, then so be it.

We are LOVING our new old home. Wow, what a transformation! A friend told us last night that even though so much is so new, it still feels like our house. I took that as a compliment!

Things we love:

• The countertops
• The kitchen floor
• The cabinet drawers and their "soft" closing mechanism, no more slamming for us!
• The views
• The connection to the dining room
• The master shower
• The radiant floor heating
• Dimmers!
• The powder room - especially the sink
• Copper pipes (Rob found an old galvanized pipe and it is no wonder our water pressure was so poor)
• The new siding
• The windows
• EVERYTHING

We still have a few boxes to unpack and furniture to move and sell. We also have a a bunch of small projects to complete ourselves. We've accomplished a number of things and even though we seem to work our weekends away, the work is a lot more enjoyable due to our new surroundings. 603 Mitchell has never been better!