Settling in

{tulips from the new yard}

I realize it's been too long since a post. I don't post nearly as much as I'd like to, but I think the main issue is I have a hard time remembering to take pictures, during the day, when the kids are running around and life is crazy.  Also, life has been even more crazy than normal the past few weeks.

Over the past couple weeks I turned 30 (!!!), moved out of our beloved home of almost 6 years, and moved into the new house, our forever home.

Moving was one of the most stressful experiences of my life! I don't recommend it, unless you must, or found the house of your dreams. I have a lot of respect for people who have moved multiple times, especially if you have kids. My plan is to stay here til I die, or til I'm so senile, I won't know that I'm moving. By the way, we only moved 2 blocks away, probably making it the easiest move ever...and it was still crazy stressful. But in all seriousness, you don't realize how much (necessary) stuff you have, til you move.  I'm someone who basically makes weekly trips to Goodwill. There was NOT a lot of stuff that we needed to get rid of when we moved, because I/we do our best to not let things pile up. So, if you're planning a move in your future, I highly recommend to start this process before you have to pack, it will make packing go faster and the whole process easier. That's my two cents.

So, now for a house update. I love it here. I always thought if and when we moved out of our other house, I would have a difficult time, and I am a little bit sad. But, this house is already making life much easier in so many ways. Even though the dining room  looks like this....that wallpaper may take years to get down.

Here's how life is already much easier...

First of all, having the boy's bedroom on the same floor as our room and the bathroom is life-changing. Bedtime goes much smoother and if I forget to grab socks or something, it is so much easier running up only one flight of stairs!

{that chair does not fit, but I need it there right now}

Having an entryway is amazing. There's a place to dump things when you first come in the door, and it's not in the way if I don't get to put it away until later.

The living and dining rooms are bigger than in our old house, which is something I didn't realize at first.  And the layout of the downstairs has a much better flow, making it feel like we're not always on top of each other.  Even though the boys are driving me a little crazy running around the circle (entry, living, dining, kitchen), it still feels less hectic.

Our goal this summer is to make the front porch awesome. I think concentrating on this space feels attainable and something we will really use. It's large enough for a small table and 2 chairs, and a sitting area.  Once the shrubs are cut back and we can actually see the sidewalk, it will be a great place to hang out with the kids.

We still have a lot to do in the kitchen, but it has come a long way since the beginning.  Right now, I love this little corner with the shelves and the little kitchen cart from Ikea.  

We've slowed down a little bit with getting things done around here.  Our renters move into our other house next week, so we are taking this weekend to finish some things up over there.  I am hoping to paint our bedroom next week because it looks so dirty and painting it will make a world of difference.  Hope to be back soon!  Until then, enjoy this spring weather!

The floors are done!

The floors are officially done.  Rob spent a lot of time putting 3 coats of polyurethane on both floors, but they look awesome.  After the second coat, he used a fine sandpaper and lightly sanded by hand and then brushed on the third coat for a smooth finish.  Obviously, this was more time consuming, but now they are nice and smooth.

Master bedroom (this was actually right before the 3rd coat).

Living room...

There was one water spot (?) on the right in the middle that didn't come up, but our area rug should cover that.  

The boy' room...

I spent yesterday totally cleaning and touching everything up in here and I am so glad that now their room is totally done.  I mean, besides the floral wallpaper in the closet and a new ceiling light, they could move in there tomorrow and it would be fine.  Oh, and Rob and his dad are hoping to install quarter round under the trim this weekend.

As you can tell the floors upstairs are different from downstairs.  We believe downstairs is oak, and they are thinner boards.  Upstairs we found out might be fir, and they are wider and have kind of a reddish tint to them.  They feel a little more rustic, which we like.  

I finally remembered to take a picture of my pocket doors.  Be still my heart.  I am so excited about these.  I hope we actually use them.  We also like that they are the original wood, which there is not much of in the house.  There is some paint on the side where they close, but we're hoping we can strip it off.  

My (30th!!) birthday is this Friday, so Rob and I are staying over night in the city tomorrow.  Even though we feel like we are in total crunch time right now with the house, we need a break.  We have no big plans, just walking around, going out to dinner and sleeping in.  I'm so excited.  

We're planning on moving next week, and I don't think everything that I would have like to get done will be done, but I'm ok with that.  We are so anxious to move in and live there.  

I showed Aiden the picture of their room last night and he was so excited, he said "I wish we could just go live there right now!".  I'm so excited that he has so much enthusiasm about the new house.  It makes us even more excited than we already are. 

I'll try and get back with a few more updates after the weekend.   

Coming along

We got a lot done this past week at the house.  Most of the time was spent cleaning up after all the sanding Rob and his dad did last week.  It looked like there was a sandstorm in the house.  I was honestly shocked at how much dust there was.  We got the downstairs 100% cleaned up and got the first coat of finish on the floors.  Here is a sneak peak (taken with Rob's phone).  I'll have more pictures later.

Rob and I spent a lot of time this weekend talking about the kitchen and planning what we want to do. We're hoping to make an Ikea trip within the next week or so and want to be prepared for what we need before we go so that we don't end up spending more money than we need to.

We've been planning on making an island for the kitchen, similar to what we did in our kitchen now, but probably not as big.  It will actually come out from the wall that is in between the two windows in the kitchen.

We have been looking on Craigslist, trying to find something to use for the base.  we don't want to spend a lot of money and were even trying to figure out if there was a way to use our current MALM dresser that is in our spare room.

Yesterday when we were driving to church, we found some cabinet pieces on the side of the road.  They were in excellent condition and we quickly swiped them up.  The one piece is a set of drawers (which we desperately need because the current kitchen cabinets have none).  And the other piece is a large cabinet that is probably from a wall cabinet.  So, it is a little shorter than the drawers.  Rob has the idea to do something like below since they aren't exactly the same height.  He's so good at this kind of stuff!

One thing we are definitely getting from Ikea is this cute little cart.  When it came out in the new catalog this past year, I loved it and was hoping that some day I would have a place to use it.  I realize it's everywhere and everyone seems to have one, but it's just such a great design!  We're gonna tuck it next to the stove to store lots of cooking things.  

 I'm getting really excited about moving into the new house, which we're hoping will happen in about 3 weeks.  I am hoping to get the foyer and kitchen painted this week.  It feels like things are really coming together.  After last week when I was very sick and feeling pretty depressed about the state of the house, I'm feeling much better this week.  Even though it's SNOWING on March 25th!!!  I'm not letting that get me down.  

I'll be back with more pictures this week.  Happy snow day!

House update

I think we are about due for a house update, don't you?  The past couple weeks have been crazy.  Not to mention the kids and I have been sick off and on.  On Friday I was so sick I actually thought, "this is the end!".  I know, I can be dramatic, but it's been years since I've been that sick.  Thankfully, other than some congestion, I am feeling pretty good.  I am blaming it all on this blasted weather.  I mean yesterday I came out of the Y and it was icing, on March 18th.  I mean, c'mon.  I would also gladly skip over spring and all the allergies that come with it.  I said it before and I'll say it again, I love summer- the hot, the sweat...I'll take all of that over this stuff.  Ok, I'm done my rant, I swear.

Rob and his dad basically almost killed themselves this past weekend getting the floors sanded at the house.  They did it in 2 days, and it looks awesome.  Even though there is about a half inch of dust everywhere, it looks amazing.  I am so thankful for a husband (and father in law) that are so handy and willing to work so hard.  I'm also thankful for my mother in law who took care of the kids those 2 days since I thought I was on my death bed.  SO thankful for family.

Here is a corner in the boy's room.  I'll take more pictures this week once we get in there and clean things up.  We're not planning on staining the floors, and I'm still a little unsure how they will look with just the clear finish, but I think it is the way to go and more what we like.

Before they started the floors this past weekend, we took a couple of shots of the house to show the progress we made.  The boy's room is done being painted, walls and trim.  It's amazing what paint can do!! There was lots of prep in all the rooms before we could paint, like spackling, sanding, taking down borders.  Rob and his dad did most of that prep.

Before

The living room also got done.  We decided to use the color in our current kitchen now, Seashell Gray from Valspar.  Trim also got repainted.  

Before

And, maybe you noticed in the one picture above that that horrible green is gone in the foyer.  We got 2 coats of primer in there and it is just waiting to be painted a fresh white.  Hoping to get that done before we move in, but we'll see.  

I got 2 samples. and we're going with the one on the right, Pale Bloom by Valspar.  

And then there's the kitchen.  This room is by far the one that has had the most done to it and it looks the worst.  Rob's motto is "it has to get worse before it gets better".  This room looks like a crime scene right now.  We're not doing a major kitchen renovation right now because we don't have the money, but, we are making some small and inexpensive changes that will make a huge difference and make it a great kitchen for a few years until we have the money to do what we want to. 

The one thing we are doing is moving the refrigerator and stove.  The fridge is going in the corner where the stove is.  Wallpaper is all down and the stove is out of this corner.  Plastic backsplash thing is also torn out.  Leaving it to look like this....

Remember, "it has to get worse before it gets better"!!  So, the fridge will go in that corner.  The stove will go to the left of the door where you walk into the kitchen.  We'll be putting some open shelves above it.  I don't have a great pic of that area, but here it is before.  

The kitchen has me the most stressed right now.  We're really hoping to get it all painted and fairly arranged before moving in.  We're planning on making an island, but that probably will not happen til after we move in.  

Ok, so I think that pretty much sums up where we are now.  I admit that I am feeling overwhelmed by all there is to do.  PLUS moving on top of all that and those logistics.  We're moving 2 blocks away and it is stressful, I can't imagine making a big move to another town or state with kids.  The good thing is we have our house rented for May 1st, and that gives us just a little more time to get things done, so I feel good about that.  I think we are both anxious to be living in the new house as soon as possible though.  We figure it might be easier to get some things done if we were living there, like after the kids are in bed at night.  

I'll be back with another update soon!

New house inspiration

 Over the past couple weeks, Rob and I have had a lot of paint discussions for the new house.  I really don't want to rush into things too much. I want to take our time decorating and figuring out what works best by living there.  However, there are some things we have to make decisions on before moving in.  Like, some paint colors.

I want to get the boys room and the living room completely painted before moving in.  These are the 2 rooms that would be hard to accomplish too much in once we are living there because of the kids.  For the boy's room, we've decided to paint it the same color it is now in our current house, so that everything we already have works.  (We're also working with a minimum budget, so using what we already have is best)

The living room is where we kept running into problems.  We have gone back and forth on whether or not to keep things neutral downstairs or go for a bold color.  Part of me wants to have the guts to paint our living room something like this...

Deuce Cities Henhouse

But, I just can't do it.  I think that I may like it for awhile, but I know myself too well and know that I will get sick of it.

I'm aware that I like to switch things up, like, curtains, pillows, etc.  Having a neutral pallet allows me to do that.  There are so many other ways to add color, I would feel better having the freedom to do that with keeping the walls neutral.  Plus, I think the house will look so good with fresh white, or light gray paint.  I'm also really particular about lighting in a house, and until we live there and I get to know the natural light in rooms, or how it feels at night with lights on, I just can't do something this daring.  

The only room we may get a LITTLE more daring with is the dining room.  But, that's covered in wallpaper and has two chair rails, yes two...why have one when you could have two?!  So, we have a lot to do before making any decisions in there.

Here is my favorite house right now for inspiration.   I love everything about this house, it feels more like our style.  I love what Maria says about old houses in this interview,

“I love the fact that old houses have nicks and aren’t perfect; the floors aren’t level, the windows aren’t square,” says Maria. “Old homes are a lot more interesting and forgiving, so your lifestyle can be more forgiving.”

It's so true and exactly why I have such a love for old houses!

I love the kitchen.  I'm all about mixing black and white cabinets and butcher block!  Just check my Pinterest.

I love how this desk space is a little messy but stil looks pretty.  

Bedrooms

And, I just love this shot from the hall looking into the master bedroom.

all images from Vintage Simple blog

I'll share more inspiration along the way, but right now I can't stop thinking about this house and these images.  They just make me so happy! 

New House...this is a long read :)

As mentioned previously, Rob and I (and Aiden, B has no idea) are very excited that we are buying a new house.  Settlement is this week (what?!?!?!!) and it's all starting to really sink in and hit us.  It's been a crazy month.  In fact, I just realized today it was exactly one month ago on January 24th, that we we went to look at the house.

I'll back up a little bit...

Over the past few months Rob and I have been open to moving, although we have not really been crazily looking at houses.  We've only seen one other house, which was back in November.  We did end up putting in an offer, but it just wasn't meant to be.  After that happened, the holidays hit and things were a bit crazy, so we didn't have too much time to think about it.  After the holidays, Rob and I had a conversation about what our plan was- do we keep looking? do we feel like we need to move? can we inevitably stay where we are?  The truth is, we are very happy in this home, but we are realizing that as it is right now, it's not conducive to our growing family.  After that conversation we basically said that over the next year we would be open to moving if the right house came along.  But, we were not going to feel pressure to move somewhere.  It had to be the right house.  And if after a year, that didn't happen, then maybe we would look into finding ways to make this house that we love so much work for us.

About a week or two after that conversation, this house popped up on the market.

Rob looks at real estate every day.  He pays close attention to new listings, reduced listings, he's all over it.  It was a Wednesday afternoon and I randomly decided to just go on my phone and see if there was anything interesting.  I saw this house immediately and was drawn to the price and location.  It is a street that is literally 2 blocks from us, and one that we actually looked at a house on back before we bought our current house.

From the pictures I could tell it needed some work, but it didn't look terrible and had some things that we don't have in this house- half bath downstairs, front porch, garage, one more bedroom.  Rob was sleeping upstairs after working the night before and it was about time for him to get up anyway, so I immediately called him on his phone to wake him and I said, "there's a house you need to see, it listed today".  His response, "I already know which one you're talking about".

The next day we went to see it and the rest is history :)   We found out that there were 8 showings that day!  So, we quickly got our offer in the next morning and by the following evening, we found out that they had accepted our offer.

The past month has been busy, and we can't believe that in just a few days it will officially be ours!  Our plan is to take a little bit of time to do some work before moving in, but there are a lot of projects that will keep us busy for a long time in this house.  But, we're very excited.

We are going to be renting out our current house, so there are things we are trying to get done here as well.  The close location of the new house should make the whole process easier.

Things are about to get even crazier than they've been the past month, but did I mention we're excited?

This house has so much character, I'm looking forward to sharing everything with you!  So, stay tuned.

PS. it has one of my all time most coveted thing in an old home...pocket doors!!  Somehow, we failed to take a picture :)

5 years...and some big news

Aiden turned 5 last week.  I can't believe he is 5 years old.  I know everyone says it, but it's true, time is going by so fast.  In the fall he'll be going off to kindergarten, and while I am super emotional about that, I am also a very proud Mama.  Aiden is a sweet boy, and watching him learn and grow over the past 5 years has been a blessing.  I am so excited to see how he does with his next journey in life.  He's so social and loves school, so I am eager to watch him blossom even more over the next year.

We celebrated with family last weekend, and of course I had to have somewhat of a theme, so I went with mustaches.

We decided to forgo the "friend" party this year and instead took Aiden and two of his best buddies bowling.  Aiden has been asking to go bowling for a long time now, and I think it lived up to all the anticipation.  They had a blast and Rob and I had so much fun with the 3 of them.  Doing things like this for Aiden bring me so much joy.  

It was a good birthday.

Unfortunately, we ended the week with the stomach bug.  Brady got it first and then Aiden and I followed.  Thankfully, Rob stayed healthy and was able to take care of the 3 of us.  Brady is still recovering, he hasn't bounced back as quickly as his big brother.

And now, for the big news...

Yup, that's our soon-to-be new house.  We're so excited.  More on that soon...