Making progress

Here we are, less than a week away from the big move. Most of our belongings are packed and stowed neatly in boxes in the corner of our former dining room. We still have the kitchen and bedrooms to pack, which somehow always end up being the most difficult part.
The new house is slowly being painted by Ben and friends. The entire downstairs, with the exception of the hallway, is painted. We found out after the most recent snowstorm, though, that the basement LEAKS. We are slightly dismayed by this prospect--nothing showed up on the inspection of the house. Most likely there is a high-up crack in the foundation that isn't affected by rain but is affected by snow. At the time of the inspection, there had been no snow, hence the dry basement. We're exploring our options. The main concern now is that in addition to perhaps having to fix the foundation we will also need to recarpet the whole downstairs. We're looking into "green" flooring options, including cork floors and and these

Here's some photos of the office:


Will post more pictures soon, once we take some new photos.
In the meantime, pondering a few ideas. I read an article on today's New York Times about No Impact Man. Essentially, a family in New York is experimenting with living virtually no-impact; they aren't using cars or trains or much in the way of electricity. They are only eating food that comes from no further than 250 miles from their home. I am inspired to find ways to cut back as we make this big move, even if only small changes at first. I'd like to cut down on our meat consumption, electricity and water consumption. I want to be better about using cloth diapers. We were so vigilant at first but have lapsed for the convenience and ease of disposables. Small changes, but maybe they will make a small difference.

First Post

Our first house blog post.
We are now the proud owners of a little pink house. The house needs very little in the way of structural work, but is desperate for some color on the walls inside. The main rooms are a standard linen white. The master bedroom is currently a pale yellow, and the second bedroom is a lilac color. All other rooms are some variation of white or beige, which is not only boring but also shows all of the irregularities.
The house was built in 1895 and has had many renovations and extensions. Right now, it has 2 full bedrooms, a living room and kitchen and a bath upstairs, and downstairs, technically the basement, has an office, a half bath with a laundry room, and for lack of a better term, a media room.
So far the colors have only been picked for the office. The house is full of light, save this tiny underground cave in which I am to write my dissertation. I had my heart set on dark brown for a room in the house, but it seemed wrong to have such a dark shade in such a bright space. The office, however, in its cavernous seclusion, is the ideal setting for the dark brown. Three walls are Benjamin Moore Java, and the fourth is a bright green called Citron. On the citron wall are platinum and walnut Elfa shelves from the Container Store.
If nothing else, this blog can serve to remind me, when I can't remember, the names of the paints we used for our little pink house.
In the meantime, we need color inspiration. We had hoped to do the main floor of the house in muted Pottery Barn colors, but somehow the citron and java have pushed us over the edge into brighter territory. I want a yellow kitchen, but now I'm thinking that the Concord Ivory we had picked, which looks yellow in pictures, may not be yellow enough.
Pre-paint kitchen: