Decisions, Decisions

Picking a paint color isn't usually that hard for me.  I get an idea of what color I want, and then just have to pick a shade of that color.  I knew that I wanted something neutral and light for the hallways.  Boy, did I have my work cut out for me.

I think that we're going to go with the swatch that has the arrow pointing to it.  It's called Patience.  How ironic, right?

We're Cool Homeowners!

We got our first snowfall recently, so, of course, we had to shovel the driveway for the first time as homeowners.
Aren't we so cool?

And you can even use this picture as a before picture. We're painting the kitchen and dining room! We're hosting the Christmas Eve party for my side of the family and we figured that we needed to at least paint the kitchen and dining room before everybody comes over. As of right now, the kitchen is finished and work has begun on the dining room. Here's a before of the dining room.

Calling All Decorators

I guess that this post is going to have a couple purposes. One, to ask for some suggestions and two, to serve as before pics. We have a HUGE dining room. And I have absolutely no idea how to decorate it.

I've seen lots of dining rooms where they used a burnt orange color and I really, really love it. The problem is that I don't think it will flow well with what I want to do with the kitchen. We seem to have a blue thing going in the kitchen with our dishes and towels, so I'd like to stick with that color. I also would like to tie in sunflowers, so yellows and maybe a few greens. But, at least some yellows. What do you think? Do you think that a burnt orange would work well with blues and yellows?

So, without further ado, here are the pictures. And by the way, the existing window treatments ARE NOT ours. They were left by the sellers. Suggestions would be appreciated for window treatments also. I would like to put in wood blinds along with some draperies.

I would love any suggestions. Either leave some love in the comments section or email me. Thank you so much!

Hold Your Gasps!

I'm finally posting some pictures from when we first moved. Of course, Drew had to carry me over the threshold.
Please ignore my folded up pants! This was when we closed, on Thursday the 26th and it was a nasty rainy day.

The greatest part of our house? The electric chair lift. It's the running joke that you can get drunk downstairs (that's where the poker/game/Drew's man cave will be) and still make it upstairs.

We, seriously, had to buy about 25 light bulbs when we moved in. All of them were either burnt out or missing. Some light switches didn't turn anything on because the bulb was missing. So for about a week, we had no idea what all the switches were to in the house. We have since figured it out. The next picture is so dark because, as you can see, there are only two bulbs in that light fixture.

Yeah, the carpet needed a GOOD cleaning before anything else. We also let off two, count'em two, foggers on Thursday before we moved in. I have an extreme dislike for bugs, especially in my house. I don't think they worked very well because I still find things crawling around.

I am so thankful to all the people that helped us move that Friday. We couldn't have done it without them. The guys took it upon themselves to arrange our living room. I was forbidden to enter until they had it set. Once they did, I was called and three of them had assumed position to show me where exactly we should hang our pictures and things.

That's Josh, displaying where we should hang the clock.

Well, there you finally have it, some pictures from the move. I will be posting some more pictures soon of before, during, and after painting in the living room and master bedroom.

Small Update

I know, I know, bad blogger! I have been such a slacker lately on the blogging. It's not even that I've been that busy, I've just been super lazy. I think the rush of moving really tuckered me out and I've needed some time to just relax. I thought that I would take a few minutes and update what's been going on lately.

Drew and I hung out with Adam and Nicole on Sunday. The boys stayed home with their kids, and Nicole and I went shopping. We bought paint for the living room and master bedroom. We also bought all the window treatments for the master bedroom.

Drew is painting the ceiling of the living room as I sit and type this. Painting has begun!!! I don't think the ceilings really make too much of a difference since they're just being painted white again. I will be taking pictures of all the other transformations though.

A few days ago, my right eye began to ache a little bit. At first I thought that my contacts were old, so I changed those. Nothing really changed. Then, I thought that my mascara was old, so I bought a new tube of that. Yesterday, my eye hurt enough for me to start complaining about it. This morning, I woke up and my eye hurt a lot worse than yesterday, plus my upper inner eyelid was swollen. I knew I had to go to the eye doctor. I called mine and they weren't open yet. Drew called his and they were able to get me in. The doc took one look and basically said that I had a bacteria infection in my eyelid. He said that he had a sample bottle of antibiotics that he would give me. I have to put the drops in every four hours. The bad news. I have to take my contacts out to put the drops in, then put my contacts back in after a few minutes. Pain in my ass while I'm at work. The good news. The whole visit and antibiotics only cost $20. Woo hoo!!!!

Drew and I both have the day off tomorrow. We'll be doing lots of work around the house. I'll try super hard to post some pictures!

Ok, I Lied

I know that I said that I was going to post a video tour of our house today, but I'm not. I told Drew what I wanted to do and he said no!! He wants us to get the house in a little better order before I take a video of it.

The living room is arranged, but nothing is up on the walls. We want to paint before hanging stuff. The kitchen is part of the way organized. We've gotten our new appliances in and Nick (Drew's buddy) installed our new faucet tonight. It seems like all the rooms are part of the way done. The master bedroom is done for the most part, except for paint.

Things are slowly coming together. I'm thinking about purchasing stock in Menards based on the amount of money that we've already spent there and I'm scared to think of how much more we will be spending. Hey, at least we're doing our part to stimulate the economy, right?!?!

Let's Decorate

I've been thinking a lot about how I'm going to decorate our new home. It's a little bit overwhelming considering I've never really done this before. I've never had free reign over what I'm going to do.

I received a catalog from Seventh Avenue in the mail the other day and I really like a lot of the stuff in there.

I really like these for the entry way.
This would be cute to place on the table in the dining room. Or, we have a space on top of some of the cupboards in the kitchen.

Of course, Drew will need some decor for his game room that will be down in the basement.

I thought that this would be a cute idea for around the door leading out to the garage.

I am absolutely in love with this piece!

If anybody was looking for some suggestions for a housewarming present, I hope I helped you out. Drew and I would love and appreciate any of the above!

Step 4 - Inspection

I should probably clarify that we have ended up purchasing this house. We actually looked at a lot more than two house, contrary to what may be shown in my blog. There were some that I was not impressed with at all, so I didn't waste my time blogging about it.

Today, we have the inspection on our soon-to-be home! I'm really not too worried about it. From what I understand, the house was sold over the summer and it passed inspection then.

Drew will be taking some measurements while he's there so that we can go appliance shopping this weekend. We'll also start looking for and pricing flooring. I have already purchased a paint palette book from Sherwin Williams. I have probably looked through it everyday to try to choose colors. They all start to look the same after awhile.

Our Homey Home

Drew and I decided to go shopping at IKEA yesterday. I convinced him that we should go shopping yesterday as opposed to today because it would be easier to get our place organized if we went shopping first.

Drew had never been to IKEA... until yesterday. That excited me so much!! I was so shocked when he came to me and told me that he wanted to go. My jaw kinda dropped and I looked at him like he was crazy. He obviously had no idea what he was getting himself into. My darling husband, the man who hates shopping, wanted to go to a home goods shopping mecca!! I wanted to squeal.

We got to IKEA at about 11:00 AM. We went straight up to the the top (3rd level) and began wandering around. We found a bunch of pieces that we liked and wrote them down and took pictures. After walking around the entire 3rd level, it was about noon, so we decided to grab some lunch.

After lunch, we went down to the 2nd level and began wandering around there. We found some more stuff that we liked and wrote those down too.

Then, it was time to make some decisions. We ultimately decided to purchase:

* a bookshelf
* a table for behind our oversized loveseat
* 3 shelves
* a BIG picture for the dining room
* some curtains

After struggling to get all of those items in Drew's car, (Ya, that wasn't very bright. We didn't actually think about how we were going to get everything home. But then again, I don't think we thought that we'd buy so much either.) and discovering that we picked the wrong color in one piece and one piece was damaged so that led to exchanging them, we headed back home.

We got home somewhere around 5 and promptly began putting things together. We put the bookshelf together, the table together, assembled the picture, and began hanging the curtains. We also organized the kitchen too. Drew and I didn't go to bed until after 3 AM!!! We both just want to bring some organization back to our home. We've been living in chaos for months because of the wedding and now, it feels so good to make our place feel like home.

As soon as I finish this post, I'm going to go get Drew out of bed so that we can begin work today. We don't have too much left, but we've still got a full day of work. Plus, I need to finish laundry. Boo!!!

Oh, and I'm sure you're wondering about pictures right? Well, I'm not posting any!!! Haha!!! Now, I'm forcing all of you to come over and see our new homey home in person. Ya, I'm evil like that!!