thoughts about the progress this week on the house

Okay, so we went to our house today. And all I can say is, wow, I am so happy this is my house, that at times I can barely even believe it! I swear, I should pinch myself to make sure I'm not in some really good dream about all this! Ha ha ha! This sounds so cheesy and all, but this really is my dream house! I am so completely floored and in awe by this house! Geeze, I don't even think I can actually even write or type my real actual thoughts or think of the words that could match what I'm feeling. I'm just on cloud nine!

Now for the progress for this week! The scaffolding *did* come down. And it looks great. They also put the shutters on. They also put in place the plastic coated wire wracks for our shoe closet in the genkan (entrance way)! We were going to go with solid wood. But we chose the pricier plastic coated wire shelving, because we wanted air flow, because to be blunt...shoes can stink! And we know that! And we want all the ventilation we can get in a shoe closet! So, which is a major reason why we wanted wire, but again wire could possibly tarnish or rust, kwim (know what I mean?) so we asked for plastic coated wire racks. We also made sure each rack would be able to have enough space and we purposely left a gap on the bottom for rain boots and boots in general! See? We were so smart about our shoe closet huh? And for what it's worth, the shoe rack alone cost us a whopping 70,000 yen or if it helps my mostly American readers, it's $700.00 US, isn't that ridiculous? Like I said, it seriously would have been way cheaper to go with plain wood but we really were worried about getting air in there. So we splurged and just got the plastic coated wire racks we were hoping for. Just tiny little things like this we considered and mulled over, forever it seems! And we are so happy about our choices!

Also, most of our kitchen is done now. The cabinets are in and the counter tops have all been built. And even the green counter top is on, but it's being covered for now but it is on. The Kohler sink is installed and in place, but the faucet isn't yet (faucet is still in the box). Also the oven/stove is in place as well too. The shelving is in place for my food pantry and dish cabinet. And the doors were not up but they were leaning, so I did see them there. Also the wood flooring is done in the living room but it's being covered too.

The upstairs is basically finished. Even the boys bedroom closet doors are up. And all the doors are on and stuff.

What still needs to be done? Well, the kitchen floor needs to be put in. And the wall paper needs to be put on in the upstairs and downstairs. And the carpeting upstairs needs to be put in. Also the front porch needs to go up and the terrace tiling needs to go up as well. So there is still stuff that needs to get done.

But, we are getting there! I will share a few pics with you all : )

More pics of our oven.: )

The house has been painted!

Our house has been painted! We were so excited and surprised today as we were driving up and parking our minivan. The colors for the house, we chose are a light pale butter yellow.That is the base color of the entire house. Barely a yellow actually, but a super pale buttery one...almost white but it's a pale yellow. The trim is a beautiful evergreen color. And the white accents on the windows give it dimension. This is actually a color, that one of the model houses, United Homes has and actually an American designer came to Japan to choose all the color schemes for all the model homes they have here in Japan. We liked it and wanted the same colors for our house. We are so glad the colors look so good with this house. Nothing flashy or daring with the coloring, just simple and understated and we absolutely love the way it came out, we actually walked all over the entire house and inspected every inch of it and it looks fabulous! I had a grin, ear to ear today just looking at it!

BTW the scaffolding is coming down next week and my house will be making it's grand debut then! Ha ha ha! : )

The front porch, still has to get built yet, but it's really coming along isn't it?

Here are some pics of the paint job. Knowing what it all looked like in the beginning hasn't it come along way?

Update on our new house and when we'll be moving!

Today we went to visit the new city, where we will be moving. Most of you already know that we are in the process of building our dream home. And it's actually almost done! We will be moving in, starting January 22nd. So in just about 6 weeks we will be all moved out and gone from this house we are renting now. By February 1st we will be completely gone from here. We are really looking forward to this. Not that we dislike the city we live now, because it is great, but we are just ready to take the next step in our lives and finally become homeowners! Oh man, we are so happy you guys!

To preface this just in case any of you have been out of the loop and don't know, let me just say. We are building a totally all American house in Japan. Gigantic American GE oven, GE dishwasher, central air and heating which is *very* rare for Japan! Nice tall counter tops. Virtually everything for our house has been imported from the USA. Okay so now that everyone is up to speed let me say what's new this week! : )