It was inevitable...

We decided late last night to go ahead and raise our hallway ceiling a foot from its 8'6". Duh. I don't know why I was so hesitant from the beginning to just go ahead and do it right. "Do It Right." That's our motto...although it seems to be pushing our kitchen renovation back entire years instead of months. Oh well. More time to plan where the spices go. And so, we are going from this...

And now this...

...to it's original grandeur...or almost. 

Today the foundation was repointed by our mason...no pictures because it isn't exactly thrilling stuff. PLUS. I have a real bone to pick with those in power that declared Daylight Savings...HATE IT. I'm going to bed at 9:00 PM and waking up early...early for me, that is. My point is that it is dark when I get home from work so I cannot show you the handiwork. 

Our front steps should be in the works soon, as well as our electrician rewiring the upstairs, the chim-chimney man fixing the chimney for a hot buck and Nate is tackling restoring our front porch floor to its original level this weekend...wish him oodles of carpentry luck... 

I started this post last night and do not remember what else I was going to tell you. I do know that I love a cold, grey fall morning when all the leaves just pop with color and are falling. Beautiful. 

When I can't see past the piles of dust I think of this...

Beautiful moulding....where can I put it? Future 1/2 bath?

I have design paralysis

The most stressful part of our renovation thus far has been the feeling that someone is standing behind my shoulder whispering in my ear that it is time. That someone is Nate, and he is whispering that it is time for me to make some freakin' long-term design decisions about the house. What? He wants me to buy furniture? Paint? How on earth can someone with the design world at their fingertips pick what they want to live with long term?

Design paralysis.

Here is where we are so far...

This fabric will become the window treatments in our bedroom. It is silky, luxurious, multi-dimensional. Nate's response was "It's sheen-y". Yes. There is a bit of sheen but it will rock. 

And for the walls and trim: BM Iron Mountain.

It will be dark and lovely...sort of like me right, honey? And the ceiling? BM Candle White

Not really as pink as it seems. This could change. We want to do a sparkly chandelier...vintage or antique...but I do love this one, too:

Our hope is that the room will be a balance of masculine and feminine...we will see, we will see. 

On the lookout for:

Maple, mahogany highboy...preferably antique. I want that warm old glow to it. 

Two vintage benches/stools to be reupholstered to go under the windows so we can toss our clothes on them. 

New lamps

Bedside tables

OK. On the lookout for a lot apparently. 

Other than those decisions I have paralysis. 

I have to choose whether or not I want fixtures or can lights in our hallway...I want fixtures. 

In other news...my (Nate's) awesome cousin just moved here from Dallas and we are so excited to have her! This is a picture from her welcome to Charlotte breakfast this morning (she is not in the photo, but look at that cute kid candy!)

Is anyone else out there counting down until Breaking Dawn comes out? You know me and my tween books and movies. This morning we (no, not Nate)  made plans for a very adult, sophisticated evening watching it at the MEZ. I already looked to see if I could buy tickets yet...I can't. But its in my iCal.

Our very own money pit

Note: I have tried (to no avail) to fix the formatting of this post. I give up.


In spite of
all the problems...

in spite of the prospect of indentured

servitude for the rest of my life...

in debt beyond my wildest dreams...


I love the house.





Couldn't say it better. Anyone out there that has ever renovated should watch The Money Pit. To some, it would be a slapstick exaggeration of your experience but the principles remain true. To us, it was ALL true. The absurdity ofthe bathtub falling through the floor and the Tom Hank's hysterical laughing? Been there. In the end it was worth it though. Right?

Nate literally spent the weekend wielding his ax on the holly bush root systems encroaching on our house...remeber these?



They housed fleets of Tracker Jacker mosquitos. Killer mosquitos.



This was the first root system, I encouraged him to smile instead of grimace when he held it up to make everyone think the root was light...or he was strong. I think he took out 8 in all. One tired boy. Between the roots and Clemson losing (everyone. EVERYONE we saw on Sunday brought it up...first time I have heard Nate say he does not want to discuss football) Nate had a long weekend. 

I spent the weekend doing an equally glamorous and fulfilling job: vacuuming the previous owners pet hair out of our floor duct thingys. G.R.O.S.S. We couldn't turn the heat on (well, wouldn't) until the hair was gone-zo. And since our house is about 56 degrees when we wake up, we thought it was time...

Meanwhile we wait, apparently that is the name of the game. Wait for bids, for applications, for historic review committees, for the weekend when we can squeeze work in, for Christmas (that may just be me, I am always waiting for Christmas), and mostly just for progress. 

When there is progress you will get more pictures. You just wait.