We did a quick run through of the house last weekend to see if all of the wiring and plumbing was correct after seeing a few errors, and it is in fact good to go. They'll likely start on drywall this week, which is when the space becomes a lot more real. We'll no longer be able to look from one end of the house to the next!
While we're still a few months out from closing, it's completely odd to think this will be the first place we've lived in four or five years that won't be transient. I mean, anything can happen, but we don't intend to up and move again any time soon. (Or if I'm really managing expectations, the lender could conceivably flake out still before we close.) With this newness comes the opportunity to really make the house our own, something we've wanted to do since the time we moved in together.
For inspiration, we made a trip to Ikea last weekend, and did a little bit of window shopping. I know some people don't care for Ikea, but they have some nice stuff. Their "expensive" furniture looks pretty much like the stuff at "real" furniture stores, but at half the cost. It's probably all made in China regardless. In addition to furniture, there's inspiration to be had with rugs and lighting.
There were several take-aways from the visit. The first is not to stick by this ridiculous notion that all of your furniture has to match. I'm not sure where that comes from, but I've bought two sets in my lifetime, and they were matching sets. So while we're sure we will likely buy a couch and some kind of chair at some point for the living room, they don't have to match.
Lighting matters, and you can do some really interesting things with it these days. You can hide LED lighting pretty much anywhere. There were some really nice LED lights for under the cabinets. They're expensive, but I think it will add a nice touch that's also functional. The backsplash will definitely impact that as well.
Speaking of lighting, I look forward to choosing some kind of pendant lighting for the area over the kitchen sink. The recessed lighting will be over the rest of the counter space, but that we had wired for a separate switch. We just have to figure out what to put there. The same is true for the patio lighting, and we want something cool, and perhaps slightly whimsical.
Shelving is hard. We have now toted around a bunch of cheap bookshelves over 6,000 miles, and if you had to look close to see if it was cheap before, there's no question now. What surprises me is that really nice freestanding shelves can cost hundreds of dollars. There is a little hallway area between my office, the foyer and half-bath that is a good candidate for shelving, because there's nothing else to realistically do with that space. I think that's where the books will go.
Open floor plans are hard for painting. The living room fades into the dining area, which fades into the kitchen. There aren't a lot of distinct boundaries. To make it more tricky, we opted for rounded wall corners, and there will be a lot of them on the first floor.
The thing about decorating is that, if you get too carried away, you run the risk of either junking up the space or making it look like a showroom. I think we'll be OK in that sense. I'm also excited to put some photos on the wall, especially around the stairs. I even have an idea of where my Mt. Rainier canvas photos can go.
It's going to be a lot of fun making the house feel like a home. It will probably take awhile, which is definitely OK, because it would be expensive to go nuts all at once. Because of the transient nature of our rental, my college dorm rooms had more personality than this place.
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