The day we get our keys and officially own the house looks to be….Wednesday? Maybe? There was an inspection on Friday by the city and a pipe from the water heater into the home needed to be metal instead of PVC, which was replaced yesterday. The inspector comes back tomorrow and then it’s a matter of days till the official hand-off can happen. WOW.
We’ve been scheduling deliveries and activities assuming the best, which is probably foolish considering the delays we’ve been living with, but we’re honestly just like, it’s there – c’mon. So the plan is to get a lot of stuff done this upcoming weekend that will be easier to get done while we have nothing else there to get in the way, including….
PAINT!
Well, you may know from previous of my adventures that I am definitely a fan of color in my house. Looking back to Colorado, I loved the ability to make my home have colors and I went to TOWN there. I didn’t do anything when living in NJ or NY as those were apartments and I didn’t really want to bother. In Santa Monica, I guess we didn’t do anything there either, but the house was really something to behold on its own anyway. Once we got to Silver Lake though, we knew that the living area HAD to be updated, which we did and it was awesome. Here at Glendale, they offered to have walls painted for a fee, which yes, please. So now, here we have a whole house-canvas to play with, and we’ve decided to do accent walls throughout.
As you’ll see in these pics below, there’s before and after to look at, and it’s all done via the magic of Larry’s Photoshop skills. It’s kind of amazing. I’m looking forward to comparing the end result to these simulations!
Entry Way:
Office:
Living Room Wall:
Kitchen Area:
Master Bedroom:
Guest Room:
Pretty snazzy, right? Here are some other pictures I took when we visited the place yesterday:
It’s sooo close to happening.
Anyway, today we then went to Living Spaces to order some furniture that we’ve had our eye on for a little while now. We’re getting a new bed to fit the king size mattress, along with some new furniture for the bedroom including a new dresser and a bench. Then some new side tables for the guest room, and finally a new coffee table for the living room. Goodbye Macy’s special that I got back in 2009!
Other than that, just trying to keep the stress levels minimized as it’s quite a month we’ve had and quite a month to look forward to!
So the good news that might be coming our way? It’s entirely possible that we’ll have keys to our new house before 2019 rolls around! That doesn’t mean we’d be moved in as that will be a process (it always is) but to think we may actually own the place and move in during January is awwweeesoooommmeee.
More to come, for sure, but it’s exciting to think about. Last time we were there, during the start of December, we met with the window coverings guy and got that sorted out. We also saw that we have appliances! Not the refrigerator, as that’s on us to get, but the dishwasher, stove/oven, and microwave are in! We just talked to one of the agents there and the carpeting on our stairs has been installed…so let’s hope that stays in good condition until then.
We just got back from visiting our in-progress home. Yes, we’d been there just 2 weeks ago and saw that there was some major progress made as drywall had been put up!
In two weeks time though, a lot has changed! First thing we noticed once we were there was that the drywall had been pretty much sealed up. If you look at the pictures from the post above, the drywall was up but it didn’t look finished yet. It looks finished now. What got us over here today though was that we had confirmation that all the cabinetry was up!!! And boy oh boy, finished walls and cabinetry up in all the rooms makes this place look that much more finished. It’s fucking fantastic. Look for yourself!
Cabinets & Finished Drywall – Sept 23, 2018
Phase 2 has a first layer of stucco up
The drywall has been properly finished up
These are some real walls now
Our staircases have railings now
Downstairs bath has a cabinet!
Office is bluuuueee
Look at that – a real railing
OUR KITCHEN HAS CABINETS
IT’S SO EXCITING
THE ISLAND EXISTS
Our TV alcove
Laundry room cabinets
Love our flat panel cabinets and the hardware
Where the stove, oven, and microwave will go
And where our refrigerator goes
Patio still in progress
Railings up to the bedroom level
Landing cabinetry in place
Looking up to the roofdeck windows
The master bathroom cabinets!
Our master shower, with tile
Toilet cabinets
Larry in Nicki’s nook
The guest room bathroom cabinet
Stairs up to the roof deck
Lots of exterior work still going on
A few more layers are coming
I’m a refrigerator
Went for a walk – here’s Valley Glen park
It’s beautiful
The Great Wall – a long mural of California history
You’ll see in those last few pictures that we ended up going for a long walk. Larry’s commute will be markedly improved once we move, as he’s no longer going to have to cross the 101/170 interchange or the 5/134 interchange – both of which are terrible and soul-killing. Mine though? It’s going to take some figuring out. For going into DTLA, I do have plenty of options but none of them are like, super easy. There’s an Orange Line stop about a mile south of the house, so Larry suggested we walk it to see how it goes. The day was right for it, so off we went. Saw the pretty Valley Glen Community Park before getting to the Orange Line stop. Definitely a do-able walk, but I’m thinking some kind of bike or scooter would make this easier. Anyway, on the walk back to the house, we walked up Coldwater Canyon and saw the Great Wall mural of California History. It’s pretty cool. Walking through the neighborhood was a nice way to get a better feeling for the area, and I think we’re gonna like it here.
YESTERDAY was the Sound of Music Sing-a-Long at the Hollywood Bowl, and it was wonderful. I don’t have to explain it again, do I? It’s what we do every year and we’ll continue to do as long as they keep having it. Based on yet another sold out crowd, I doubt it’s going away any time soon. Melissa Peterman was the host (for her 14th time in a row!) and is just fabulous and glorious and so quick on her feet. Love her. There was a marriage proposal this year, which was new! Anyway, The Sound of Music is just as glorious as it ever was, and I love it so.
Sound of Music Sing-a-Long, Sep 22, 2018
In our Terrace Box
Mila and Sonny
Larry with Mila
Enjoying our spread
Ilona and me
The wonderful Melissa Peterman
The remaining Von Trapp Girls: Marta, Gretl, and Brigitta
It’s been about two months since we last went to visit the construction of our house at the Glen LA. Last time we were there, we could only get up to the living room level as the stairs up to the third level were built but the third level itself wasn’t done. Well, both the third level and roof deck are now fully built with stairs connecting everything. It’s awesome. Still a ways to go, and fingers crossed that the construction completes in the October timeframe. What was cool was seeing that a lot of the plumbing has been installed as were some of the bath fixtures, such as the showers and tub in all the bathrooms. I know I needed to see this as it put me in a great mood, reminding me of the awesomeness to come. See for yourself:
GlenLA construction update – May 20, 2018:
Making lots of progress
Larry & Thais outside our garage
Lot 44
We’ve got a shower in the ground floor
There’s our steps leading up to the living room
Looks like hot and cold will be present
Outside our front door
The future awaits
The third floor and roof deck are new for us since last time
Our future front yard area
Some insulation has made it into the kitchen
Looking across the driveway
Not too much more progress in the kitchen and living room area
The living room 1/2 bath
Here’s our stunning staircase under construction
Our master bedroom is full of drywall for now
The wall that will be behind the bed
The view from our bedroom
The master shower floor
That’s where the sinks will be
Looking up from the landing on the bedroom floor
Stairs up to the roof deck
The tub in the guest bedroom bath
The guest room has drywall too
Looking up to the roof deck
What our roof deck looks like now
That’s the ‘solar panel’ area
The windows that look into the landing
The view down into the landing from the windows
That’s our view from the solar panel area
Our roof deck – can’t wait
The roof decks across the drive
heading back downstairs
Making our mark
That’s the living room wall we’ll put our sofa against
Prepping foundations for another phase near the model homes
Wow, where did February go? Well, when last I checked in here, Fran and Joel were out here and that visit was indeed a lot of fun! I do have pictures from it too, but I think I’m going to parcel those out over the upcoming week as I do intend to get back into the posting zone. But in the meantime, I wanted to post pics regarding the construction of our house! It looks like we’re probably going to be getting the house sometime in September, so we’ve got another 7 months or so here in Glendale to enjoy the amenities and convenience to Americana and the Galleria. I can’t help but get excited about getting into this new place though, especially with some of the choices we’ve made for the place.
Speaking of….here are the choices we ultimately made while at our last Interior Design appointment:
Here’s the wood flooring we chose
And this is the tile we’re using for bathrooms and laundry
Updated – new backsplash tile with speckle kitchen counter and white cabinets
Speckled countertop
Love the new backsplash tile we chose
All together
The grout color we’re getting
Bathroom countertop and tiled walls
The floor tile and grout choice
The backsplash and grout choice
What you see in this gallery are our choices for:
We’re going to do the hard wood flooring on all the floors of our house. We won’t be having anywhere carpeted except for the stairs/staircases, and that carpeting will be the Taupe color so it’ll be dark and hopefully able to help conceal any regular use.
The large tile you see next to the wood is the tile we’ll be using for all of the bathrooms and the laundry room. Wanted to ensure we didn’t have wood in those rooms that have the most risk of water overflows. The kitchen is an exception to that rule, but we’re fine with that risk. We know that likely this house will look a lot like the Santa Monica apartment in many respects.
For the kitchen backsplash, we’re using the long shiny grey tiles in a grid pattern. We had been leaning towards the small, staggered tiles for a while, but we saw this tile and saw some other installs and we loved how it looked.
We’re going with the speckled counter top for the kitchen area, which was a change as we were going to go with plain white. But the speckle looks good and will go well with the backsplash tiles.
The white, flat cabinet doors was a decision we already made, and we’re excited at how this will look.
The bathroom counters and tiles are basically all white.
We’re pretty excited about these choices and think that it will look very modern and clean. The colors we use for other things are what will help color in the house overall with whatever mood we end up being in for designing things.
So that decisionapalooza was done two Fridays ago (and happily, at the Glen itself and not all the way in Irvine). Today, we went back to The Glen and took a ton of measurements of the model home so we could start playing around with layouts and figuring out what will work furniture-wise. Before that though, we were able to get back to our actual house so we could see the progress. As you’ll see, there’s been quite a lot of progress!
Note the lack of any ceilings or such on this first level back in mid January. Yeah – we’ve got a whole ‘nother floor now and the 3rd floor looks to be on its way!
The canyon continues to grow
A 2nd floor now exists!
Here’s inside the garage – and the stairs to the 2nd floor have been built
Larry is standing in what will eventually be our ground floor bathroom
That’s our future office
Larry looking out the office window
Here’s the stairs up to the living room floor
And that’s our future Kitchen area
Looking up to the 3rd floor
Our patio will be overlooking our neighbors
Happy Homeowners
Looking towards where the stairs will be going up to the next level
Larry in what will eventually be our fabulous kitchen
Looking across at our neighbors
And that’s our future living room
Keeps growing
Even though it seems at this pace, they’ll be done in like 2 months or so, that’s certainly not the case. September is still our target date, and here’s hoping that indeed is the case. We’ve locked in our interest rate for 270 days (so until sometime in November) because with the Fed likely increasing interest rates, it seemed prudent to lock it in now. Hell, even from December to February, we lost out on a few tenths of a point already as the rates started climbing. ANYWAY, it’s exciting is what I’m trying to say, and it’s fun to think about what appliances to get, what furniture to keep, etc.
With the dimensions we’ve recorded today, we’re going to create some electronic floorplans that we can use to play around with layouts of furniture. One of the things we have to work on is our front “yard” – it doesn’t come finished and will be up to us. Likely we’re going to make it as minimal-maintenance as possible, so lots of zero-scaping and such. Lots to think about, but all worth it.
