Weekend Recap

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a nice and relaxing weekend! Here’s a bit of what we’ve been up to this past week.

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Home Projects & Updates

Lots of exciting updates over at the new build. They started our countertops (with several rain delays) and it’s starting to make so many of the spaces feel much more finished! Now that the counters are on, we’re blown away at how much larger our peninsula feels! I made Kurtis stand here for scale, because sometimes it’s hard to gauge with the 12′ ceilings. He’s 6’2″ for reference.

Honestly, we were a bit concerned the night we first popped in after they were installed. They looked so dark – especially in the spaces with the blue cabinets or those where they don’t get much light! But I remembered our sales person saying that with the mitered edge, they’ll absorb a lot of water in the process, and it may take a month or so to fully try and lighten. Apparently that’s just the nature of quartzite. We can already see that in play once the other peninsula slab arrived. You can see it’s darker even though they’re from the same large slab/lot. The one on the right had already lightened so much in a matter of days! Side note: the counters by the range will not remain black. That’s a story for after we move in… 😉

Not sure why they didn’t attach them Friday. Hoping it was a time management thing and not an “issue” thing. I’m sure I’ll hear one way or the other yet today! As a reminder, we went with a leathered finish rather than a gloss. Seeing it in here with the natural light, I’m so glad we went that route. These still need to be cleaned and have dust all over them, but I can tell a polished finish would have been a nightmare with all the light!

Because we ended up having to buy three slabs for our kitchen alone, we had a bunch of the countertop material left from those slabs for other spaces. Here in the laundry room where it gets a lot less light, you can see it definitely looks darker. We’re hoping there’s still some water in there and they’ll continue to lighten up!

In our bathroom, the standard material the builder offered was Carrara marble, so we just went with it. It’s turning out really nice!

We got so much rain last week, it basically filled our pool! That will be nice and gross for them to pump out 😉

They made some further progress on the outdoor kitchen. The wall behind the grill will be slatted up several feet to protect the screens from heat, but also to give us some much-needed privacy out here!

Moving into the carriage house, you can see the quartzite and blue cabinet combo here too. Hoping once the walls and ceiling are all painted and the counters dry more they’ll look lighter!

Our lighting should get delivered this week. I’ve been instructed to run over and write on the walls to tell them the lighting placement for all the bathrooms based on the various mirrors I ordered.

Around Town & For Fun

Tuesday night we had dinner at 30 Avenue again with our friends, but this time at Amici (the Italian sister to our favorite, Amigos). We threw a few bags afterwards and listened to some of the live music before running over to our new houses to check progress.

Prime week and Anniversary Sale week wore Henley out too 😉 The other two don’t follow me around quite as much as she does, so she seems to be the subject of more of my photos lately.

Kurtis flew to Omaha Saturday morning to spend some time with our besties and family before heading to the office today. Two little girlies were very excited to see him!

I definitely have FOMO! I miss our friends, goddaughters and family so much! I also miss Roja, one of our favorite restaurants 😉 Our lighting was scheduled to be installed this week originally, and they asked me to be onsite for that. That has since been delayed so I’m bummed I didn’t try and make it work but it was such a last minute call. Kurtis is going to have dinner with his family tonight after he wraps up at the office!

I threw together this pasta salad version of caprese for lunch and it was so delicious. I basically used all the regular versions of a caprese salad but added in some pasta once it cooled. Then I just added the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt to taste. Yum!

We finally had new pictures taken at Hola Beaches if you want to check them out here. Message me if you have any interest in the remaining dates of summer that are still available. I can offer discounts! And how cute is this watercolor of the house that Breanna Megan Studio made for us 🙂

The Nordstrom Anniversary Sale opened to the public last night! You can see all of my top picks here and some of Kurtis’ mens picks here and here.

I’m in charge of moving our friends’ kitchen tomorrow for moving day! We’re excited they’ll finally be in their new home only a few doors down from our new build! With that, and with Kurtis gone most of the week, I’m hoping to finally start some packing around here. I finally bought some moving boxes and have been collecting them from orders, too. Our friends’ move definitely makes ours feel a lot more imminent!

Recent Buys & Sales

Following are some sales from the weekend that have carried over and are still going strong!

• AMAZON has a number of daily deals happening now! You can shop their site here.
• ANN TAYLOR is offering 40% off your full-priced purchase. You can shop their site here.
• ANTHROPOLOGIE is offering up to 40% off bedding, pillows and more and has a number of new items in their sale section. You can shop their site here.
• BALLARD DESIGNS is offering 20-40% off sitewide! You can shop their sale here.
• GAP is offering 60% off hot picks as well as an extra 40% off sale styles. You can shop their sale here.
• HOMEGOODS has a number of new arrivals, as well as free shipping on orders $119+ with code SHIP119. You can shop their site here.
• J CREW is offering end-of-season cashmere sale at up to 40% off and an extra 70% off sale styles with code SHOPSALE. You can shop their site here.
• J CREW FACTORY is offering up to 60% off everything, plus an extra 70% off clearance styles with code SAVE70. You can shop their sale here.
• LOFT is offering up to 50% off full-priced styles! You can shop their sale here.
• LULULEMON has a large sale section with some major markdowns. You can shop their site here.
• MADEWELL is offering 25% off your purchase. You can shop their site here.
• MARK & GRAHAM is offering an additional 20% off clearance styles with code EXTRA20! You can shop their site here.
• MARSHALLS has a number of deals sitewide plus free shipping on orders of 89+ with code SHIP89. You can shop their site here.
• MICHAELS is offering 20% off regular priced items with code DAILY23US. You can shop their site here.
• NORDSTROM is hosting their annual Anniversary Sale! You can see my top picks here. You can shop their site here.
• OLD NAVY is offering up to 75% off in their clearance section, plus 25% off your purchase (including clearance) at checkout with code BONUS. You can shop their sale here.
• OVERSTOCK is hosting their summer home savings event. You can shop their sale here.
• POTTERY BARN is offering up to 50% off furniture, outdoor, and more. You can shop their sale here.
• REJUVENATION is offering up to 60% off items in their summer sale and up to 75% off clearance items. You can shop their site here.
• RUGS USA is offering up to 75% off sitewide. You can shop their site here.
• SERENA & LILY is offering an additional 20% off and free shipping on their clearance pillow covers (see my top picks above). You can shop their sale here.
• SUMMERSALT is offering 25% off sitewide with code SALE25. See all of my top picks in this post. You can shop their site here.
• TARGET has a number of home deals, including 20% off throw pillow and throws, 20% off dorm essentials, and tons more! You can shop their site here.
• TJ MAXX is hosting a clearance event and is offering free shipping on orders $89+ with code SHIP89! You can shop their site here.
• TORY BURCH has a number of new items recently added to their sale section. You can shop their site here.
• TUCKERNUCK has a lot of cute new items in their sale section. You can shop their site here.
• WALMART still has our favorite outdoor swivel chairs on markdown, as well as the coordinating sofa and entire conversation set. You can shop their site here for other deals.
• WEST ELM is offering an additional 15% off clearance with code EXTRA15. You can shop their site here.
• WILLIAMS SONOMA is offering up to 70% off items in their clearance section. You can shop their site here.
• WILLIAMS SONOMA HOME is offering up to 50% off in their sale section. You can shop their site here.

I hope you all have a great week!

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