"It's the FI-NAL COUNT-DOWN!"

No 'tricks', just 'treats' for the Goldins this Halloween!

First, we spent the day with one of our good friends getting some 'puppy therapy' around town. 

We even found this beautiful Douge de Bourdeaux named Zeus who definitely almost made his way home with us 

Alas, it is not yet the time for a Puppy Goldin to join the family. But we both definitely agree that when the time is right, a big brute like Zeuss will be the protector of choice! 

After we had our puppy fill, we swung by the house for the FINAL sneak peek before we have our New Home Orientation on the 12th. We will probably go through serious withdrawal not stopping by for nearly two whole weeks, but it will be worth it to see the completely finished product. 

For now, we still have some pretty big reveals to show you!

Are you ready????

Drumroll, please!

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And now for the best part...

Ready?

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                        TA-DAA!!!

Look at that beauty! That grey granite, against that rich matte brown contrasted with the multi-faceted hardwood! It is EVERYTHING we hoped it would be!!

Arthur, who was originally a bit skeptical of the light hardwood, even commented on how great it looks - and on how bright it makes the space. That really says something considering we were there at 5:45pm on a gloomy night. 

We were also happy to see that our PM was able to have our chandelier hook up moved to the absolute center of the dining/morning room. This means that our farmhouse table will be able to go right in the center of the room, with the chandelier in the middle. 

We did notice a few little issues - such as broken tile in the Master bath, peeling trim in the stairway, and a few other little issues. But considering the crew still has a full 12 days before we see the finished product, we are confident they will have everything fixed up and ready for our inspection. 

We hope everyone has a great Halloween! Considering we have no young children in our house that we can steal candy from, I did my own trick-or-treating. At Costco. 

                Adulthood for the win! 

           Happy Halloween, everyone! 

Neighborhood Development Update

Yesterday, the city council had a meeting to discuss the 'green space' that is in the middle of our neighborhood. Our future neighbors have been really great about attending, and one even posted a link to the complete plans on her blog (which can be found here).  

Here is what the overall layout of the park will be. 

We are only one short block away, and look forward to all of the potential events that it seems like the city wants to host there. They listed quite a few exciting things in the development proposal (fingers crossed for the farmers market!!) 

 

I love the design of the park, and hope that they put some big, beautiful trees like pictured in the plans. I'm hoping that by Fall 2017, we have a beautiful space to walk to see some changing leaves!

As exciting as this is, there is some less-than-stellar news as well. It looks like it could be 18 months before we have a path to access the metro station. We are a bit dismayed at this news, but simultaneously hoping that big things are in store for our metro stop! In just a few months we should know if the FBI has selected our city for their new building, which surely would have an impact on the path and general development of the metro area as well. 

Our FINAL home update before we have the new home orientation will be posted in just 3 short days. We can't believe this process is already coming to a close! 

Shades of Grey

We went by the house today and the gas company was finishing up, so I dragged Arthur to Bath&Body Works down the street for their BOGO candle sale while we waited for them to leave. All of our future guests, you can rest assured knowing that your nostrils will be pleased with our new home over the holidays ☺️

Now on to our humble abode! The exterior had been power washed and looks awesome. They have the light fixtures in, the address plate up, and the front stoop poured. We will also have 2 steps coming down from the stoop to the sidewalk. 

We walked in and got all excited because we noticed that the first floor bathroom was pretty much complete, and THEN realized the most exciting part of the whole process: THE FLOORS ARE IN!! 

And goodness gracious are they BEAUTIFUL. We are so, so happy with the darker, truer gray that we switched to just a few weeks back. It was a great decision to go with our gut and make that change.

The above picture is a little yellow just because of the floor covering bouncing off of the lights. Below is a better picture of the actual carpet color, as well as the hardwood!!!!

As we mentioned in earlier posts, we really haven't seen the light hardwood in many homes, blogs, or online. Most people choose the engineered dark wood especially when choosing espresso cabinets. We went for high contrast, which is most evident in the kitchen and I think it looks so awesome and unique. 

We had to keep pulling up pieces of the protective covering to take pictures, so no photos of the entire look just yet. These sneak peeks are enough to make us so anxious to see the finished product though!

For those of you avid progress monitors, you may have also noticed the granite is in! Now that we see the whole slab we are extremely pleased with how much gray marbling there is throughout. We thought that we had similar granite in our current apartment, but this one is much prettier, and the design/color marbling is diagonal which makes it even prettier. 

Here are a few more random pictures of kitchen progress...

And our deck is finally in off of the kitchen! 

As we progressed upstairs we found the door handles in, the light switches up and even shower doors! 

Our bathrooms are pretty much complete throughout the house, although we unfortunately didn't get to see any master bath progress because the door was locked (?)

We wound down our visit by peeking off the terrace and then popping into the garage to assess where we can put a crafts/workstation. 

Walking up and down 4 floors worked up an appetite (ha)! So we drove down the street to a local Salvadorean restaurant and got a little 'crazy'... ('Crazy Margarita' from Azteca) 

Now back home to finish packing up some boxes. Only 3 weekends left until closing! We. Can't. Wait! 

Tile in Style!

First things first, the outside of the house is complete and it is BEAUTIFUL! We originally thought the siding would be lighter, and we are so happy it is more of a medium tan vs. a light beige. So perfect! Baby sister was in town this weekend, so we got to show her around what we HOPE will be her future home too if we can get her to go to UMD. Maybe touring our house helped, who knows? ☺️

The trim is up around the house, which definitely makes it aesthetically feel more 'complete'. 

Still no granite in the kitchen, and the carpets/wood isn't in yet. But the bathrooms are nearing completion! Below are a few of the guest bathrooms, complete with the white tile showers and gray swirled tile floors. 

The MOST exciting development came in the Master bath. The tile work is complete and the colors look AWESOME! 

The tile is carried throughout the entire bathroom, including the floors (hard to register because of the dust, but you get the idea!). 

We really love how the accent bar turned out. It is nice and neutral, and the bathroom itself feels very organic. 

We are hoping the county is able to come out and do the gas inspections tomorrow, if not we are told that may set our closing date back - which would be a mess for us because of our apt lease ending in mid Nov. 

Thank you to all of our friends and family for putting positive vibes out there for us to encourage this process to move along without any major hitches. We're hoping that the next time we post, we have some floors to show you! 

Now it is back home to enjoy all of the festivities October has to offer. Like homemade whiskey infused pumpkin pie. (Ugh, ok, ok...and packing.)  ☺️

Enjoy your Sunday, everyone!