Countdown Week 1

I've decided that we're close enough to our move-in date to begin a weekly countdown. Everyone keeps asking, "when will your house be done?" or "when do you think you'll be in?" Since we don't have a clue ourselves, I thought it might be fun to try to guess how many weeks until the house is complete. I think we're about 32 weeks out; my husband says 42. Might as well be 142 at this point.

I'm going to post weekly on something that's going on at the house. Maybe that will take my mind off how long it's really taking and also help me keep on top of all the decisions we have to make!

This week we're looking at all things wood: beams, mantles, doors, flooring...have I forgotten anything?

We are so fortunate that my dad and step-mom gave us some wood they had left over from the house they just built (they used it for beams). The wood has a history. It was salvaged from buildings that were in the path of Hurricane Katrina. I just hate that it had to arrive in our hands through such an ill-fated journey but I'm happy we can give it a new home.

There's not quite enough left for us to make beams so we're going to use the wood for mantles, newel posts and possibly some columns. I think the wood is white or yellow pine and will be perfect for the distressed look we want to achieve.

The wood is so massive; I can only imagine what heroic purpose it had in its former life, holding up some grand building. Now it can hold up our growing family.