Building from the bottom up

It is 24 degrees outside where we live – it is colder here than New York City right now.  But it’s pretty dang cold all over the country and I heard on the news that even in Chicago the snow was so overwhelming that Lakeshore Drive completely shut down with 900 cars on it, all stranded for about 12 hours.  Imagine that!  In addition, more than 6,000 flights were cancelled today. 

I winced at hearing that.  Sometime in the upcoming weeks (or months) I will be going through flight attendant training just so that I can be one of the lucky people who works in the air travel business and gets stuck in Cherry Point, North Carolina for 4 days.  I don’t have a complete grasp of what I have gotten myself into, but if I did that would take the fun and mystery out of it.  So full steam ahead!  Yes, I am willing to bring you that third gin and tonic on your flight that was delayed for six hours!  You deserve it.

But before I embark on that new career (a very low-paying one, I might add) I am going to finish building a house that I have been the general contractor on (an even lower paying job) for the last 12 months.  It is our house, the one we will live in, my husband and I.  I won’t get to live in it very long before I have to leave, but I am going to make the most of it when I am there.  I do have some construction photos here for that whole clay-mation feel. 

We are at that “final inspection” phase of the building process where days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months.  You want to move in but the city tells you that you have the wrong kind of faucet on your claw foot tub, you have the wrong form for your HVAC inspection, or that you must obtain a “tree prescription” for your city protected trees.  It’s enough to drive you over the edge multiple times.  I have been over that edge more times than I can count already.

My friend Meredith, the creator of this blog, sure helped me a lot with decor and color decisions.  I consider her input invaluable!  When you have been thinking about nothing other than where to get the best deal on 2x8 lumber or Simpson Strong Ties it is impossible to think of colors and tiles and flooring.  My mind would just go blank.  I needed help and Meredith came to my rescue.  Look at these fabulous light fixtures she found one day while someone was putting them on the curb as TRASH.  I think they came from a Bath & Bodyworks or something like that:  

We used a lot of recycled materials, renewable materials, and high quality materials in the name of energy efficiency, but I would say that these copper balls are the icing on the cake.  Someday soon I hope we live there and I can sit and play with the dimmer switch and watch these fabulous lights in all their glory all evening long.