shopping for toilets and other stuff

There has been quite a bit of of progress on the house since my last update. It is possible that I see a flickering light at the end of the tunnel. Some day, in the very near future, we will be living under a single roof and I'll feel like I'm ready to begin living my life again. I hope that doesn't sound too bad. Clearly, this is our life and we are still living it, and even enjoying parts of it, but it also feels like we've been in a holding pattern and are about to be freed. I'm ready. We all are. And while I don't have an exact move in date, I do know it will be very soon.

Enough with the metaphors, you say? Where are the pictures? There are pictures, except when I showed up the other day, I realized I only had my 50mm lens. What does this mean? It means I can only take close-ups, I can't get a whole room in the shot. But that's okay, these close ups are like little teasers, glimpses into the details. You'll have to wait for the big picture another day when I can zoom out.

~ the master shower ~ 

I could bore you with all the details of what has been done, and what still needs to be done, but I won't.  Because even I am bored by these details.  I will tell you that Ryan and I went toilet shopping the other night, which is absolutely a group decision and absolutely requires you to test sit on each commode (with your pants on, of course). You might not realize it, but a toilet you like is an absolute necessity, something I learned only after installing a free, yet terribly designed, toilet in our shop. I severely dislike that toilet, it isn't a good fit, enough said.

 ~ a cabinet door and pendant lighting over the bar ~

~ the stove hood...I really, really can't wait to use my stove~

~ which isn't installed yet ~

~ hence, no picture ~

I will also tell you that I worked with Ryan for a few hours in the kitchen the other day and I am repeatedly amazed by how long it takes to get things done sometimes.  My intentions were to start cleaning up, vacuuming the wood shavings out of the cabinets and getting the concrete prepped for flooring, but we got sidetracked by installing hardware on the cabinet doors.  I rationalized that drilling holes through the cabinet doors would create a bit of a mess, so it didn't make much sense to clean the cabinets and then drill the holes.  So, we decided to "quickly" install the hardware.  After debating for twenty minutes if the door knobs should be 2" from the bottom or 4" (yes, this required much discussion, and handle holding, and handle moving), we decided to go with our first decision, thereby making the previous twenty minutes a complete waste of time.  I then measured door and drawer fronts, made a stencil, marked holes, and Ryan followed with the drill.  Then it got fun.  The door knobs when on without a hitch.  Woohoo!  The drawer pulls on the other hand were a complication.  Some of the pulls came with two sets of screws, a long set and a short set.  Well, the long screws were too long, and the short screws were too short, and some of the pulls only came with short screws, and it all really didn't matter because NONE of the screws worked.  Thankfully, my husband is the kind of guy who just has a bunch of screws laying around all the time and we got enough to work.  And really, my point isn't about having screws that are the proper length, it is that this "quick" job took like three hours, and then I had to leave to go take care of our children, and I effectively accomplished NONE of the things I had intended to.  BUT our cabinets have hardware, and although they are a cheap replica of the handles I really wanted from Restoration Hardware, I like them and we can now move on to the rest of the tedious little projects involved in building a house.

~ bin pull handles ~

You can thank me now* for not boring you with a list of chores we have left to accomplish, but instead boring you with a short story about shopping for toilets and a less short story about screws that are the wrong size.  I'm sure this is exactly the way you wanted to start your weekend.  Also, I will hopefully get my act together and get better pictures this weekend, like the final color coat of stucco that went up this week, and the laminate that is being installed at this exact very moment.  But, getting my act together only works under extreme pressure, and if I waited until then to post pictures, it is likely they would never be posted.

*You're welcome!