Holy ****!

We are not the swearing kind .... not at all really ... well, maybe if one of us were to cut off a finger .... and definitely during labour - but any other time, it's pretty clean language around here.  We got to see the new house again last night and as we were leaving my soon to be handy man of a hubby blurted out "Holy ****!  This totally caught me off guard, and helped me understand a little better the stress that is on Pete.  I think when he said it, there was a little excitement too - in disbelief that this is really our dream home. 

Yesterday was a tad overwhelming for both of us as we had four contractors coming to the new house to take measurements.  Contractors included a roofer, a counter guy, a carpet installer, and a furnace dude.  Our general contractor (the one doing the master bathroom) had already been in to see the space, so he did not need to visit again.  We were supposed to have someone come to give us a quote on the windows too, but they never showed :(  BOOO!   The reason we had to have all of these "guys" in now is because we are participating in the Purchase Plus Improvements program for our mortgage.  We basically needed to get quotes from each of the contractors to send into our lender so we can get additional money to make improvements on our home.  We got a deal on the house, so we have some room in what we have been approved for with our mortgage to make it pretty :) 

Now it's decision time for so many things!  We have already picked out the carpet we like for the playroom and the upstairs kids bedrooms, but we have so many more decisions ahead of us like what tile to put in both bathrooms, what kind of tub we want, what kind of flooring we want in the main living area etc.  I am not the best at making design decisions, so I will have to lean on my sisters and a few friends for some help in this area, but I am GREAT with timelines, and I DO know that I have until the first week of May (or a bit earlier if materials take time to be ordered) to figure what we want. 

One major decision that we recently made was to just scrap the granite countertop on the island in the kitchen.  If you recall it currently looks like this:

The seller put on the listing that there was granite in the kitchen - which is normally a selling feature - but this is just so not us.  The dark greeny brown colour is just not going to fit with our vision for this kitchen.  Here is an inspiration picture I nabbed of Pinterest to help you imagine what we are going for:

We just love the look of the dark floors, white cabinets and white counter top!  The other reason we are taking out the existing island counter top is because it currently has a stove top in the middle of it, which leaves almost no space for me to make my tasty pastries!  My sister has an island with a stove top and she highly recommended that we do not do the same.  Her reasoning was that if you have anyone sitting at the counter behind your stove, you have the potential danger of catching your elbows on fire!  We certainly don't want that!  We will be moving the stove over to where the built in oven is currently sitting, and we will just replace both with an actual oven.  This also solves the problem of having no vent for the stove, as we will also be putting in a microwave with a range. 

We leave you today with a picture of my soon to be handy hubby freaking out at our celebration dinner: 

At least he had drink in hand!

Rebecca & Pete