Since there aren’t any full rooms really ready to show, I wanted to share some of my favorite little corners and details of our new place.

Master bedroom mantle.

My closet. Completely in love. Between the brass clover light and shoe display, its perfection.

Our new shower. Its amazing how happy a new shower can make me. Absolutely love the mix of the large pieces on the walls and the herringbone floor.

Master bath sink and faucet. 

Kitchen pendants and a pretty orchid from my fam.

Kitchen stove, backsplash and accessories.

Powder room. Between the wallpaper, the oversized hex floor, and that sink console. I could live in there.

A little bit wider view of our built-ins. Slowly but surely getting some love. Including our new ceramic magnolia from Vintage Grain! 

And just to keep it real… A pile of art, a faucet, boxes, a chair and a bag of games. Oh and half of our dining table.

Renovations are not glamorous, but I am LOVING the outcome of everything. We turned over keys to the new owners of our old place yesterday and I didn’t even cry. I haven’t looked back once since moving in. 

I’m back! I’ve never taken that kind of leave of absence from TTS, but I really needed it… so thanks for sticking by.

The past week has been nuts. We moved out of our old house, and into this one (with a little construction still happening). At this point everything is done with a couple exceptions: Powder room is being wallpapered today, waiting on fireplace surrounds and shower doors, but otherwise, we’re in really good shape.

Because this was all sort of a whirlwind, I didn’t put a lot of thought into decorating before we moved in. I wanted to focus on the kitchen, bathroom and family room construction first. So now that we’re in, its time to start brainstorming decor. I knew that our current sofa wouldn’t work in this space so that our number one priority right now. We also need new dining room chairs ASAP. But for now, we’re making what we have work and loving our new home.

Its amazing, a week ago I was sitting at our dining table, crying to my husband about how sad I felt leaving our home and now, only seven days later, I’m so happy and excited about our new place and haven’t looked back once. Its funny how these things happen. I don’t love the anticipation of change, but once it happens, I am always alright (a good thing to keep in mind).

So now, a little peek into our new home

The new built-ins in our family room. Turns out I need lots more stuff. We don’t have nearly enough to fill all of these shelves.

And our kitchen pendants. These were such a struggle. I knew the space needed something with dark metal and a little edge, but I couldn’t pinpoint the ones, until I found these beauties.

The master bath is almost done. Getting our mirrors installed today and totally in love with the sconces.

That’s it for now but I’ll have plenty more updates soon. 

This is what our kitchen looked like the day we closed. Not bad, just outdated and didnt take any advantage of the space. Small island. Tiny cabinets. Sink facing a wall (never like that). Tile floors. It just needed to go.

This is what it looked like the next day. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly demo goes.

This is what it looked like last week. Cabinet boxes going in felt like Christmas.

And here is what it looks like today.

WHOA. Counter tops go in on Friday. Backsplash over the weekend. Appliances on Monday. And then we move in on Tuesday. 

We are so love in this with this kitchen. Every time I walk in I say to Spencer that I can’t believe its mine. And I still cannot believe the lightening-speed progress of Scott Lyon and Co. I am endlessly impressed!

Yesterday I mentioned a couple things we decided not to do at the new house, but today I thought I’d share progress on the things we did do.

Here is a before picture of the family room. 

Its enormous, this only shows half of it. For some reason the fireplace was awkwardly placed in a corner, on a weird angled wall. When we first looked at the place it was the number one thing that drove me nuts. So when I realized we could move it to the center of the wall, get rid of the angled wall and do built ins all around it… it was a done deal for me. 

Here is the progress as of today.  It completely transformed the space. and the built-ins, mantle and marble aren’t even in yet.

We had to build a rather large soffit across the top to run the fireplace chase back to the original spot. I’m not crazy about the look, but once all of the bookcases, cabinets and moldings are in, I’m confident I won’t even notice the soffit. 

They also finished up the master bathroom grout today. I am so in love with the way it turned out.

I’ve also been struggling trying to decide on which wallpaper to use in our powder room. I can’t believe how hard its been for me to make a decision. Everyone always says that you are your own worst client, and its really true. I wish I could hire a designer to help me make all of these decisions for myself. When it comes to a client I never second guess my decisions, but for my own house its a totally different story. I’ve gone back and fourth a hundred different times… and its just the powder room!

These are a couple that I’ve been considering. Talk about being all over the board.

That’s about it for now in terms of updates. The floors are getting finished tomorrow and then the kitchen boxes go in on Thursday. I’ll have lots more to share next week.

Given that our new house is not our forever house (oh and you know that little thing called a budget), there are quite a few things that we are not going to do during this renovation, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t on my wish list. Here are a couple of those things that will be saved…

Herringbone floors and moldings make me crazy

Marble counter tops… just can’t rationalize the maintenance, but ohhhh I love them.

A dining banquette. One day I will find the perfect spot for one.

Steel windows. Enough said.

What interior details do you dream of?

Now that demo is in full swing at our new house I am spending all of my free time trying to get things decided on and ordered. As I realized with this home, Spencer is a very opinionated “client”. We spent last night looking at mantles, tile, pendants and wallpaper. All things I never thought he cared about… all things he feels very strongly about.

Here are some of things we considered, decided on and/or discarded. Just thought it might be fun to share where my head is at

This sofa is fabulous. Love how streamlined it looks but is probably still really comfy.

(via Sheryl Crow’s home)

Love this mantle profile, its different than what you see everywhere, but ultimately we decided it might be a little too simple.

This beautiful parquet is serving as inspiration for a couple different things

(via)

We’re going white on our main level, but other than that I totally undecided on decor. Surprise, surprise, I do know we’re going a very different direction in our bedroom at the new house. So if anyone is interested in a coral/pink, custom, king sized headboard at an awesome price (in the Chicago area), let me know!

Photo by Anjali Pinto

In case anyone is looking for a Chicago area contractor we’re working with Scott Lyon Construction. They are fantastic!

You guys have followed along as we’ve settled into our first home together. I decorated, redecorated, photographed and rephotographed every square inch of this place. It has been a labor of love in every sense of the word. Spencer proposed to me on the roof, my first (and only) magazine cover came from this living room, we hosted endless ridiculous dinner at our dining table. We are in love with this little condo of ours. But yesterday afternoon, we took the next step. We closed on a new house. I didn’t want to share anything on here until everything was finalized, and now it is.

 (us in our new / about to be ripped out kitchen last night)

I keep comparing our moving to someone breaking up with a long distance boyfriend they know will never move for them. We love our current place, but long term it isn’t right for us. We need space to eventually have a family, and in our new home, we will. We aren’t moving to the burbs, its the same neighborhood we’re in now, just with more space.

When we put our house on the market I had a total melt down. I sat outside in my car sobbing as I watched strangers go into our open house. Crazy huh? Especially considering this whole moving thing was my idea to begin with! I love this condo, it has been an incredibly meaningful home to me in every way. But now, it is time for the next chapter and I can say, with 100% certainty, I am so excited for it.

Our new home is a serious project. As we speak they are demoing a large percentage of the interior space. Kitchen, master bath, powder room, floors, fireplaces and a couple other little things. Deep breaths.

We feel so lucky to be moving to home that we can customize and make our own. I know that one day, very soon, I will love our new house as much as I have loved this one because what I really love about this place are the people and the memories. Yeah. I’m a sap. 

I will be posting about the progress, the decision making, and the process of the renovation and I hope you guys enjoy it. I know I have loved following along other bloggers’ home renos.

xx

A.