By the time we were able to make it back to see progress on our house, the drywall had been put up. Residency had been completed two days prior, so checking on the house seemed like the best way to kick off the six weeks in between jobs.

Even though we didn’t have work calling us back to Memphis, we did have to get back quickly for family pictures (Hi, Karla!) and to prep the rental house for the move. Husband also had to meet with his future partners, so I was left to make the bulk of the interior aesthetic decisions without him… in four hours. In the car on the way home, I was really shocked that we had picked out just about everything for the interior of the house, minus the light fixtures in the dining room and breakfast nook.

Without further ado, here are some pictures.

I can’t tell you how excited I am about our front porch. I’ve never lived in a house with one before; I’m hoping to spend as much time out here as possible. If you remember from earlier pictures, the porch wrapped around the side of the house. We took that in to make room for the dining room, but it still left us with a good size area on the outside, too.

With a conventional foundation, we needed to build up a brick skirt, which you can see has been completed. Y’all… these bricks.

On a completely odd side note, I remember attending my first bridal shower and seeing the bride gush and gush over a griddle. It hit me at that moment, that getting excited over things like kitchen tools meant you were a grownup, and that I simply wasn’t there yet.
By using that reasoning, gushing over bricks must mean I’m no longer using binoculars to see middle age in the distance.

Walking inside, you can see the dining room expansion from a different angle:

Hard to tell from the picture, but the ceiling is slanted to keep with the original roofline before the expansion. It’ll make for a nice feature and it won’t effect much, given the ceilings were 12 feet tall to begin with.

Breakfast nook, with Husband trying his best to not pass out in the Mississippi Summer heat.

A look into the den (breakfast nook to the left, out of the picture), and the kitchen. Sink and storage underneath the window on the far left, hallway to back door, and inset for fridge. Other appliances will be in the second inset. Island with cooktop will be in front and center.

These two pictures were taken standing in the door of the master bedroom. The large, tarp-covered area is going to be a giant window (I’m sure there’s a proper design name for it, and I actually just googled “design name for giant window”, but apparently Google also is uncouth, so we’ll just keep it at “giant window”) that looks out into our backyard. I envision myself sitting in my room, watching netflix, and madly tapping on the window every ten minutes while Gracie tries to poke a stick into a wasp nest.

Alright, last two pictures are what we spent the bulk of our time working on. Thankfully our designer had done the bulk of the work and narrowing down our choices.

The two quartz samples are for the countertops- the speckled one on the main counter, and the brown-grey on the island.

I think I spent more time thinking about kitchen countertops than I did picking out my wedding registry. When I’m confronted with a lot of decisions, I tend to focus in on one thing and get lax about the rest of it. Long story short, I really wanted a white marble with a grey vein, but the durability became an issue, so I looked to a quartz copy instead. Turns out, it doesn’t look as organic as I had imagined (which is ironic, given quartz countertops are completely man made). So we went with the speckled white and the grey… because, and yes, I did say this out loud, “They were unapologetically quartz and didn’t try to be something there were not.”

I tend to personify things when I focus on them too much. I also get obsessive about self-actualization when I’m overwhelmed.

White cabinets and white subway tile (there’s my design nod to Joanna Gaines) complete the look.

That tile to the left, by the paint chips? Ignore that, it’s the sample below the tile we were using.

The three paint chips are the main colors of the house. Trim in Sherwin Williams Extra White, the bulk of the house in Sherwin Williams Accessible Beige, and the slightly darker color is…something. It’s mixed with sand so it gives this super cool texture that, if a cat should happen to walk by, would immediately rub up against. We’re using it on an accent wall.

So now I’m looking at this picture and I can’t remember which tile we picked out. It’ll be used in the bathrooms and sunroom. The dark grey, I think?  I also have no idea what that beige square is for.

The green paint swatch is Sherwin Williams Recycled Glass. We’re using it in the two bathrooms for the kids, and after looking at it next to the fabric I picked for the master bedroom, decided it’ll look nice in the master bathroom, too.

As far as a timeline, I’m hoping it’ll be done by the third week of August. Husband starts work August 1st, and Gracie and I will join him once the house is completed. Until then, I’ll be in Birmingham with my parents.

Thanks to everyone who’s taken such an interest in our “new” house! It’s been so fun to see the interest y’all have had in it, and we have felt so supported as a family by your encouragement.