Over the last week or so, we’ve been dealing with not so fun stuff. Electrical, Plumbing, HVAC options, etc. Before we get to the fun stuff (kitchen designing! new windows! furniture!) we really have to make decisions on the other stuff first. In fact, we are pretty far from all this fun stuff…the contractors remind us everyday. 

All this has been a HUGE learning process. I wish there was a checklist available that tells you the order you need to get everything done (I’m going to make one when this is all over) because we feel overwhelmed when we are caught off guard by a missing step. 5 steps forward, 2 steps back…

It makes me laugh when I think about all the time we spent last month looking for hardwood flooring. Flooring is the last step! And in our case, won’t be installed for a few more months. I should have really been spending my time looking at water heaters! 

By the way, a great article about tankless vs. non-tankless water heaters is here at Apartment Therapy. 

So remember that post yesterday? Already an obstacle. One of the challenges with an old house is that you have to work with somewhat difficult layouts. Turning a closed-in kitchen to a ‘great room’ style kitchen is not easy. Anyways, the appliance placement has been a big headache for us so that we can open up the wall into the family room successfully. You lose a lot of wall space doing this and have to make-up for it in other places.

One option we now must consider is having a corner range. I suggested it on a whim (not really thinking) and now it seems like a good solution so the fridge can fit in the space we want it. This also means that the sink will have to go on the peninsula looking into the great room. (Can wash dishes and watch TV at the same time- cool, right?)

This wasn’t my first choice, but I looked on Houzz (how I love you Houzz…) and its seems there are some nice kitchens with ranges designed in the corner.

Still not 100% sold, but I really think this fixes our other issues.

There are many goals (and obstacles), but I think we are getting closer to narrowing our options. Options that are realistic. This kitchen is pretty similar to what we want to achieve. It has the right aesthetic and colors (white! more white!),  and the layout is close. It was done by an architect in Austin- Tim Cuppett.

Back to the turquoise door idea. I love this one.

Just the right amount of blue and green in my opinion. I found it on this site:

Houzz

I’m embarrassed to admit how many times a day I check this site (beats Facebook by a landslide!), but we’ve gotten so many ideas here.

On another note, we just survived one of our toughest weeks yet. Too many things to explain here really.  Maybe after I’ve recovered and have a longer attention span to write it.

But the house is totally being transformed! It looks like a big skeleton right now, but its so much easier for us to visualize what it can become. Steve and his helper (Brent) have worked so hard and I’m so amazed at what they’ve accomplished. Its pretty impressive and I’ll gush about them in another post.

Still trying to figure out an elegant solution to gate this pool off. Safety over aesthetics- but wanting to achieve both.

Our dreams for this place include an outdoor kitchen and fire pit. But that won’t happen anytime soon- maybe we can have some fun 1970′s themed parties and embrace it for awhile.

In case you were wondering, this cute little side door will be painted turquoise at some point. Hence, the blog name (and lack of domains available).

After all these years as a renter, I’ll finally have some fun with my favorite color and paint.

And just so you don’t think I’m out of my mind, here are some examples of inspiration I’m pulling from (just color though):

After we bought our house, we would have this conversation a lot:

People: What changes are you going to make to the house?

Us: Just some new flooring and paint. Not moving walls or anything.

Move forward to Day 1 of having our house. Steve spent 10 hours knocking down walls in the girls bathroom.

People- you should never believe anything we say!

We also said we would be moving in in September. (That one has me laughing hard now- and sometimes crying…)

Anyways, this crazy mess will hopefully turn into a beautiful new bathroom for the girls.