Shim the Trim, Paint the Shelf

The past week or so, John's workers have been busy finishing up the trim around the window, doors, and closets. Painters have been appearing randomly to prime the trim that is done, and returning again later to prime others. I think it is safe to say that we are starting to get close to the end...of what seems like the long, twisty path to completion. It's been interesting to see each of our decisions come to fruition.

Basement trim completed. We love the shelves that resulted from our thick walls.

Along the way we have turned to various people for advice. Sometimes it just happens to be an innocent friend/family member/acquaintance/random person on the street who was unfortunate to offer us a polite, "hey, how's your house coming along?" and sometimes it's people we actively seek out in the middle of decision-making panic attacks. I guess we figure that if we follow their advice and don't like it we can blame someone besides ourselves. However, in other cases we have to give credit where credit is due.

Windows at the top of the stairwell

Jamey got the window trim phone call late one night. He has art degrees and Urban Outfitters cred so we figured he knew what he was doing. His design input was to look at white like the matte of a framed picture. Now that the white (which is way cheaper) trim is in we can really see what he means. Especially when that "picture" is of the pond or the trees. Bright, clean, pretty...

Living room windows

There are other parts of the house that have turned out surprisingly nice, especially those that we didn't really think about ahead of time. Along the edges of the thick basement walls, we let the sash of the window extend and create a shelf. For many of these items, it's been a struggle to get our builder to find the joy in doing something creative and unique, so when we end up with something like this it's extra exciting.

Checking out the view from the room in the basement

In addition to the trim, the carpenter has been busy installing shelves and rods in the closets and pantry. We had to peer into the crystal ball of our future lives and try to figure out what belongings we were going to put where and what the arrangement of shelves and rods should be. We won't really know how we did on that until we move back in.

Upstairs linen closet with shelves

I guess if it doesn't all fit we can always store our extra stuff in my parents' barn or my in-laws' basement (just trying to see who's reading all the way to the end...).

-J