Move It

The big move happened on Monday and the remnants at the old place were loaded up and moved on Tuesday so I'm officially in at Huron.

Right now I'm living in the midst of packing boxes and trying to find the essentials. My winter coat (still very necessary here), printer, books and drinking glasses are all mia. No alarm clock or table lamps. It's a little unsettling, I like when my stuff is where it belongs.

Most of the contractor's work is done, just a few minor fixes left. And then it'll be onto the furnishings and figuring out the yard.

Up and Out and Wash and Dry

Room and board sent out an email today offering modern outdoor furniture with a fresh perspective (their words). 

I thought, hey, that'd be nice at Huron. 

The sofa and table could go down here

and the chairs up here. Too bad this house has completely drained my bank account. Although it could be too much of a cedar planking look to incorporate it in the furniture too. 

I have friends who used to live in Minneapolis and they got some great deals at the Room and Board outlet store up there. Their advice was to go early and go often. It's a shame it's so far away. 

For my non-midwestern friends and family, Chicago and Minneapolis are in different states. They're separated by a high mountain range and a deep deep river gorge.  Impassible.

One thing I did buy (two things, I guess) was a washer and dryer. They will be delivered tomorrow and live up here in the closet in the guest bedroom. I'm going to take over a couple bags of laundry, sit on the front steps and wait for the delivery truck to show up. Just like a kid waiting for the circus to come to town - circuses are bad and mistreat animals.

It might be a while before there's any furniture in this room.  I'm not too sure what will really fit. My plan is to use it as an office and guest bedroom. So maybe a daybed and a desk. 

                                              

I bought this table thinking I'd use it as a dining table but it's too large to fit downstairs. So that may end up here. At this point it's a big question mark.

I kind of like the emptiness, apart from the floors it's so clean.

The bedroom's easier to furnish, I already have a bed and dresser.  

I just need to buy two night stands. A couple desk lamps. Rug. Curtains. Something to go on the walls, etc., etc., etc.

Super Stair

From this angle those two large light fixtures look like disembodied cartoon eyeballs. The house is always watching you.

But really the point of this picture is to say look at those stairs.  The thinking behind the design was to keep them open and airy so the house wouldn't get bogged down with a big heavy staircase that sits right in the middle of everything.  

The spindles and handrails were kept thin and the treads kept open so the whole thing could float against the wall and not take up too much visual space.  

There's a nice amount of depth on each tread so the stairs can be tackled at a comfortable gait; no need to carefully shuffle up and down terrified you'll topple over and break your neck. Two skylights over the stairs let light pour in during the day and when the sun goes down, thanks to the 4 light fixtures required by Chicago's building code, it's still very well lit. All in all a perfectly beautiful design and execution.

Kitsch

The kitchen is looking a-okay. Having open shelves along the wall means I should probably buy an eclectic collection of cream colored pottery to put out on display. The pressure's on.

If I had any doubts about the counters (and I did) they are now all laid to rest.  I think they look great.  Super glossy, lots of depth and surprising variations in color depending on the light.  

Every so often they have a prehistoric looking detail that adds a ton of character and the super simple edges help soften them up.  

                 

They were worth all the effort it took to get them.     

The color works with the dark brown cabinets on the island

and with the stainless cabinets that run along the wall.

I'm super happy with the counters and with the kitchen overall.  And if I were pandering for comments I'd ask if you like them too.

Library / Den / Front Room

This room is missing a couple things. A good, pithy, descriptive name for starters. 

 

According to one friend I need to get...

a Roomba vacuum. Asap.  Come on. The floors are covered in construction dirt. Not my fault.

I bought these chairs a while ago and just need to schedule the delivery.  I think they'll work in there.

It needs a rug of some sort to warm things up

and curtains to keep out the looky loos.

And finally books books books.  Which will just be props to make me look like a smarty.

Bathroom Humor

Without the humor. Below are pictures of the bathrooms. Keep in mind that they still need the mirrors installed. Lately it seems like every post says the house is completely done and then goes on to list all the work that still needs to be finished. So sue me.  

This is the cute little downstairs half bath. It took its inspiration from that super cool bathroom in New Jersey. The amount of room in this room doesn't allow for half the grooviness of New Jersey but the detail of the dark grout and the tile baseboard is super sharp and makes the room feel like it's wearing a well-tailored suit.

The walls are Anchor Gray but even though they're dark it doesn't make the room feel small. The tall, narrow window lets in tons of light which reflects off the bright white wall tiles.

And the acorn light, a super generous gift from my friend Malina, is the perfect finishing touch. It's a very cozy and very functional room. I deem it a success.

And here's a look at the upstairs bath in its more finished state. The marble on the shower tread and half wall is in and the floor and wall tiles have been grouted. The fabricator picked a great section of the slab to use for the threshold, I love that it's so dramatic and pretty.

And I also love the edge detail that you can just glimpse on the wall ledge.

The awesome shampoo nooks are done but almost better than those and probably the most practically brilliant part of the shower design can be seen right here. You can turn on the water while standing over at the shower entrance -- which is at a safe, non-water-drenching distance from the shower head.

So no worrying about getting blasted with cold water. Thanks Bill, God is in the details.

And over here, opposite the shower, is the genius little soaking tub. Calgon, take me away. The tub marble looks a little monolithic from this angle but it's less heavy-handed when you see it in person. (I hope.) When Bill first drew up the plans for this room there was just a shower, no bathtub. When I said I'd also really like to have a tub he looked through the catalog in his robot brain and suggested this tub from Kohler that's short enough to fit in the room and deep enough to soak away all your troubles. Can't wait to give it a try. I can not wait to move in!

How to Make a Decision

By mid-week the plans for the move should be set.  I'm hoping to get out of here and into there soon. The floors need to be cleaned and sealed, the house needs to be cleaned and that's it. Well, the fence hasn't been built yet but that's not holding up the move and anyway it should be in by the end of this week. It'll take time to get used to not operating on super speed and having a billion build-related things to do but as a consolation prize the house needs to be furnished and landscaped so the spending spree won't end any time soon.

Now that the floors and stairs are stained and all the painting has been done the house is like a gooey chewy piece of chocolate cream.  It's all this gorgeous dark brown offset by clean white walls. It's unexpected, I didn't realize the browns would play such a strong roll in the color scheme. I really kind of love it.

Choosing which whites to use was super tricky and then super easy. One day I was on the phone with Mark (sitting right on those stairs) talking about how much trouble I was having picking out my paint colors and he scampered off to check with Alisa, his friend from New York and my friend from our trip to Pennsylvania, to find out what colors she used in her place. It took about two seconds to decide to go with the same thing. Alisa's really cool and she has good taste and I'd seen pictures of her apartment because it was in O Magazine about a year or two ago. So with all of that I reckoned there wasn't much of a risk to just do what she did. I'm really happy with it. It's warm and there's exactly the right amount of contrast between the walls and the trim, it's really lovely. I mean, you can judge for yourself.

But you need to look past the filthy floors.

Yum, Benjamin Moore Moonlight White on the walls and Simply White for the ceilings and trim. Thanks Alisa.

And then there's this super yum chocolate pudding color on the front door. The trim needs an adjustment, when Bill saw it he suggested a way to correct the misstep. Once that happens it will be perfection.