Romanticizing sleeping bags

Rob loves to camp.  He loves to sleep outdoors and, when indoors, insists on having the windows open year-round.  He gets excited about the fresh breeze blowing through the house whether it means snuggling up under wool blankets in the winter or, in the summer, taking cold showers before going to bed.  For a long time, I fought the whole "camping indoors" game.  I remember, on at least one occasion, furiously arguing that it was not fun to sleep in a down sleeping bag in my own home.  In moments like those, I would close my eyes and imagine central air, new windows, clean, freshly painted walls.

Our master shower is built for two!

Look at that shine!

Today, those fantasies are so close to becoming a reality.  We've moved past the trades--HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and on to the finishes--drywall, trim, tile!  I can actually run my fingers over the texture-free walls I've been dreaming of.  The tiles glimmer!

The entertainment center will go on this wall.  We plan to install a projector and screen one day!

The kitchen!  That door on the left will be a pantry.

Looking from the living room toward the front of the house. We kept the layout of the original footprint the same.

The dining room is to the right when you enter the house.

Sean's design for the fireplace will make that living room! I can hardly wait to see the stone go in!

This is our master bedroom. There are two more windows on the other wall.  No more duct tape holding our windows together! ;)

Looking out the master bedroom.  Our closet and bathroom will be on the left and Maya's room just down the hall! 

The shelves for the master closet went in this week!

Maya will have plenty of closet space for all her hand-me-downs from her cousins! Thanks Eva, Tycho, Owen, and Tate!

For all of the nights that I spent imagining saying things like, "I'll be in the other room," you'd think I'd have no problem anticipating what this new life will feel like.  However, as the shell of our house has begun to look more like a home, I am truly having a hard time believing that ours will be the family living in it.

Maya recently received a gift from my cousin, Marie, and her family.  In the card, Marie told me about an apartment that she, her husband, and their first two children lived in for awhile. She said that while the small space drove her nuts from time to time, she now romanticizes that time in her life.  It's true. Today, as our actual, final, real move-in date seems to be within reach, I find myself trying to commit to memory this stage in our lives. When I'm trying to skip the creaky rung on the ladder so not to wake Maya, I try to squeeze my eyes shut for a moment, holding the moment in my mind, knowing that when we move into the new house, these memories will fade quickly.

Today, as the end of this project finally draws near, instead of imagining my surroundings away, I try to trap in my mind the memories of the first years of our marriage and the first months of Maya's life.  One day soon I will be in my new home, closing my eyes, and trying to remember the house as it was when we were newlyweds, snuggling up in down sleeping bags.