House Update - Stairs, Closets, Granite and Landscaping

Wellllll, it's been a big week at the house and I hope more stuff will actually get done next week. 

We decided to use the smaller ballaster (1 1/4") on our stairs.  There will be two per stair. 

Our curved stairs create kind of a weird bottom newell post.  Usually it would be round and the banister would wrap around but we didn't really want that look.  We hope we can do something like this.  This newel is almost like an octagon?

In other news, the quote for all of our closets came in almost 3 times our budget.  So now our trim guy is likely going to build them all for our budget number.  He's awesome. 

Granite is getting cut this week.  I met the guy out there again yesterday to confirm the overhang on our island around our sink.  We are going with 1" and the sides will have a 1.5" overhang and the seating area will have an 18" overhang.  I cannot WAIT to see the end result of all this stone being installed.  I hope it's more gorgeous than I thought.  We ended up doing Shadow Storm Quartzite in the kitchen! 

This is the island piece.  About 20" of the left side will be trimmed off.  The sink will be cut out of the middle bottom.  We have 3 other slabs of shadow storm for the rest of the kitchen and bar.

This is the piece of carrara marble we chose for the master bath and my dressing area.  We are hoping to get it all cut out of this one slab but we do have another one just in case.  

This is a piece of marble I think but it will be for a bathroom, I think a guest bathroom but not positive.  

We may use this piece too.  We are waiting to see how much carrara and shadow storm leftover we have because we may use some of that in the secondary bathrooms.  Otherwise we will use these remnants.  

And we may use this piece too for a bathroom.  We'll see.  

I didn't take any pictures but the landscape guy got out there on Tuesday  (finally) and cut a few more trees down and spread some dirt around.  It is looking more like a yard.  I think we are going to bring in a bunch of loads of dirt to raise the lot.  We'll see.  

Last weekend we bought a built in grill and it's getting delivered today.  We'll have the mason back over to build the grilling station when he does the front and back steps.  Yesterday I looked at bluestone tops for the grilling area and the hearth of the outdoor fire place.  Oh la la!  Also, may do a bluestone entrance like the below on our driveway, we'll see.  

What Up Wednesday

Helloooooo Wednesday.

Been a busy week of work stuff and house stuff. 

Yesterday I drove 4.5 hours to a city outside of Atlanta, had an hour meeting then drove back.  Got back in time to grab Molly Anne, make it home for leftovers and then had some folks from Craigslist come over to buy our foosball table.  Thankfully that only took 30 minutes and now it's gone.  

Molly Anne ASKED to go to bed last night so she was down for the count by 7 and Kevin and I did house stuff.  Last night - it was figuring out what we want the post at the bottom of our stairs to look like.  

I'll save my house updates for tomorrow but we are in crunch time now yall!  

Today I'm staying organized and getting my act together for the second half of this week and a busy weekend coming up.  

Chat soon friends!

Groceries and Meals

Alright here was what I got from Teeter on Sunday afternoon for our week.  I think all of this was around $72.   It includes some staples but I already had 3 half gallons of Molly Anne's milk so I didn't have to buy any of that.  We already had cereal and most breakfast stuff for the week.  Here's what I'm making with this stuff....

Italian Chopped Salad - I modified her recipe but mostly followed it.  

Baked Potato Soup - this was pretty heavy so I was glad we had a salad with it.  

Taco Salads - I already had the meat (and I cooked it on Sunday to make my Monday night extra easy)

Slow Cooker Sausage and Potatoes 

We'll have leftovers one night.

And I made some egg and sausage muffins with no shell for breakfasts this week.  

Low Key Weekend

We had one thing to do all weekend and it was GLORIOUS!  Basically this house has been A LOT of work lately and we are just absolutely zapped by Friday.  

The one thing we had was soccer on Saturday morning!  She had her game face on!

The first half she actually followed most instructions.  The second half, not so much.  Ha!  My Dad enjoyed watching her play via FaceTime.  It's these times they wished they lived closer so they wouldn't miss these fun things!  

That evening the three of us had a hot date to Kabuto.  Molly Anne LOVED it.  I say that every time we take her there. I wish we had gotten a picture but when the chef was tossing the zucchini in everyone's mouth, she had her mouth so wide open but missed it.  She giggled so loudly, she was tickled!  She was enthralled by the fire.  She kept saying, "more fire!"  

Chopsticks were a big highlight and she did pretty well with them!

Sunday we did nothing.  Well, Mills and the three of us went on a long walk but that was about it.  I meal prepped for the week.  Molly Anne said this bear looked like Millsy!  I thought that was a hoot.  You just never know what is going to come out of her mouth!

I promise she didn't play on my iPad all weekend. Actually here is a little iPad update.  I took YouTube and YouTube Kids off my iPad.  I had to do it.  You Tube was gone months ago when she figured out what it was.  YouTube Kids was consuming her mind even though she was only watching it a max of 20 minutes in the morning while we got ready for work. She was singing, "baby finger baby finger where are youuuu?"  You parents know what song I'm talking about.  I was tired of that and of her begging for my iPad.  SO, we cut all of that out.  

I have some apps on there for her to play with now - she loves all of the Video Touch apps and they are educational.  And I have the Frozen app that she can do puzzles on.  Let me tell you, two weeks ago she didn't know how to do a puzzle at all.  Today, she can do an entire puzzle by herself.  Good problem solving, good fine motor skills.  Learning!  MUCH better than worthless YouTube Kids videos of learning colors which she already knew.  

Last night we had a good dinner and got our act together for the week.  Tomorrow I'll be back sharing my grocery haul of the week and a few meals we are having.  

Molly Anne's Halloween!

On Halloween Eve we carved a little pumpkin and Molly Anne loved it!  Well she loved it all except that I wouldn't let her have the knife to carve it!  And she wanted to scoop the insides out with her little tool, not her hand!  Miss Priss!

Halloween was SO much fun.  Kevin came home from work a little early and we had our usual Halloween dinner - chili!  

Then I got Molly Anne ready.  As I was putting a little blush on Elsa, I just had this flashback to when my Mom used to get me ready as Pippi Longstocking (I was this like every year!) and when she would put extra freckles on my face.  I was like THIS IS SO COOL to be doing this with my own daughter!  It was just FUN!

She was soooo excited and we rehearsed about saying Happy Halloween and Trick or Treat!  She twirled around and she said, "Mama look, I'm a princess!"  It was precious! 

Poor Mills, a lion for the 4th year in a row!

Our friends Gigi, Mary Scott and Elizabeth came over per our usual tradition for pictures on the front steps!

Practice was at our house!  

Then we all set off in our wagons to the neighbor's homes!

Molly Anne had no trouble going up to everyone's houses and when they opened the door, she walked right in almost all of them haha!  

Along the way, she had two lollipops and a kit kat bar!  She was soooo thrilled with those.  We let her trick or treat until about 7pm and then called it a night.  She was in the bed fast asleep by 7:30pm!  

House Update - Paint

Is anyone else interested in our paint colors?  Honestly, I'm not sure but I thought I'd post our list here and maybe it helps someone?  Or maybe you all don't care and just like looking at the pictures below!  Either way, here they are!  Most of these Mom and I decided on and then my friend Ashley and I fine tuned!  Whimsy is responsible for the BM Decorator's White!  I'm SOOOO happy with how everything turned out...it's so much prettier than I thought!  

Exterior:

Fascia – SW Morris Room Grey

Soffit – SW Morris Room Grey

Shutters – SW Outerspace SW 6251 or SW Gibralter 6257 – still deciding

Interior (all Satin):

Trim inside – BM Decorator’s White – Semi Gloss

Theatre Room walls – SW Naval 

Mudroom, Kitchen, Breakfast, Bar, Pantry, Dining Room, Office – SW Sea Salt 50%

Closet under stairs – BM Decorator’s White

Guest Bed – SW Sea Salt full strength

Guest Bath – SW Sea Salt full strength

MA Room – SW White Dogwood at 50%

Closets – BM Decorators White

MA Bathroom - SW Incredible White

Guest Bed – SW Agreeable Gray

Guest Bath – SW Incredible White

Playroom/Guest – SW Incredible White

Master Bedroom – SW Reserved White

Master Bath – SW Reserved White

Exercise Room – SW Reserved White

Kevin’s Closet – SW Reserved White

My Closet and Extra Room – SW White Dogwood 50%

Hallways – SW Sea Salt 50%

And here are some pictures...

Sea Salt 50%

Sea Salt full strength and you can see sea salt 50% in the background for a good ole comparison!

Reserved White

White Dogwood 50%

Incredible White

Decorators White trim, above not painted yet in this picture. 

White Dogwood 50%

Naval

Agreeable Gray

New Things

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!  I'll post pictures of Molly Anne on Friday!  Yesterday we finally got our heat working again after not having it since last Thursday!  Whew.  It was only out in the family room side of the house but still!  

Just a few random things I've checked out this week...  

First I ran into Belk and tried these new Lilly travel leggings on.  Who remembers THE travel pants from a few years ago?  They were the BEST and I still wear mine all the time.  I liked these and I think they'll hold their shape better and the seams that run down the front are sewn in now so they won't pick like the other did.  The only thing I don't love about these are the pockets in the back.  I think they make them look less dressy.  Anyway, they have navy at Belk and black/onyx at the Lilly store if you are interested!  

My latest order from Christine!  She makes the cutest things doesn't she?!  These plain shirts are from Blanks Boutique and then she monograms them or puts an applique on there.  You can't beat an adorable shirt that looks put together for under $15!  

The other day I went to the Lilly store in Charlotte and got these leggings for Molly Anne.  She has them in a couple other patterns and they are so cute and she says they are comfy on! ;)  I plan to pair them with one of the monogrammed shirts above or a couple plain tees in navy and white that she has.