~59~ Winding down

Jake and I have now officially been homeowners a little over a month!

It's crazy how fast time has gone, it sometimes feels like it's only been a couple weeks.  Since moving in, we've been like little energizer bunnies, just going and going and going and going.  It's seriously been like having a second job.  We go to work all day and then come home and work all night long.  Jake has even been coming home and working over his lunch break!  I swear, if I never see another paint brush or roller, it will be too soon.  I've never minded painting before, but 6 rooms and 2 hallways later, I'm over it.  And truth be told, I'm  still not done.  We have an accent wall to paint in the guest bedroom and I still have some painting to do in my craft room (more on that later!).  

Thankfully, things have finally started winding down.  We got a chance to celebrate all of our hard work this past weekend and had a housewarming party for all of our friends and family.  I'd say it was a huge success.  We love being hosts and it was so nice to be able to have a group of people over and not have to have everyone sitting on top of each other like we did in our tiny apartment.   We were so humbled by everyone's presence, love, and support with the house and like at our wedding, almost 2 years ago, we felt so amazed and blessed by the people in our lives!

Of course a party isn't a party without food, so we fired up the grill that's been sitting on our apartment deck untouched for the past 2 years and had some burgers, brats and plenty of other yummy dishes.  All I have to say is thank goodness for Pinterest.  It seriously was my lifesaver.  Everything, with the exception of one dish was from that wonderful place and I got lots of compliments on it all day.  Of course, afterwards I realized what a terrible blogger I am because I didn't take any pictures the entire day.  I was just too busy enjoying the company of our guests :)

I will, however, show off some more pictures of our updated place.  Here's a list of what we've done since my last update:

*Added track lighting with a dimmer switch to our downstairs den.

*Jake built and installed a recessed shelf in the wall of our den (thank you to Jen at Iheartorganizing for this idea!)

*Bought patio furniture, scoring an amazing deal at Kohls-the entire set, including an umbrella was purchased for under $300)

*Painted the upstairs hallway

*Painted the border in the 3rd bedroom/office

*Got an L-shaped desk for the office

*Painted the 2nd bedroom/my craft room & began stenciling it (this I'm keeping under wraps until my big reveal!)

Jake and I finally feel like we've reached a point where we can slow down on the house.  All of the big things that we wanted to get done right away have been accomplished.  It's about time that we get to come home from work and just enjoy the house we've worked so hard for!  The only thing left on the list is my craft room.  I have a couple big plans for it, so expect a post in the very near future giving you a tour of my new space. I can't wait!

In other news, I am now officially half way done with my Master's degree having just finished my Action Research course.  I have a 2 week break before the next semester begins and I thoroughly plan to enjoy it.  I am also down to just 27 days of school left.  I had the day off today and with the warmer weather and our lovely house to enjoy, I am very anxious for the end of the school  year! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my job and the kids I have the privilege of working with, but I am eagerly awaiting the time where I can sit out on my deck in the middle of the day enjoying the sunshine, or dig in the dirt setting up my garden.  

What are you looking forward to this summer?

~58~ Bathroom make over

When we moved in to our new house, there were 2 rooms that needed a major make over: our master bathroom and our second bedroom, AKA my craft room.

Our first priority was our bathroom since more than just myself would be using it.  There were just so many things that needed to be done.

BEFORE

  

Step 1: Painting the vanity

Neither of us was a fan of the burgundy red-especially paired with the mustard yellow and the blue tile.  I love the look of black bathroom vanities so that was done within week 1.  Instant upgrade!

Step 2: Adding new drawer pulls and cabinet nobs
The vanity didn't come with any, so I picked up some silver drawer pulls at Ikea when I was home over spring break.
The nobs are from Menards. It really made the black look so sleek and pretty!

Step 3: Painting the wall
The bathroom is two-toned.  There's mustard yellow that is on the little end cap of the vanity, as well as the wall opposite the shower.  The rest of it was painted beige/tan.  To compliment the blue tile (which we'll eventually update), we went with a grayish blue color called "Glass Slipper" by Benjamin Moore.  We had it made by Sherwin-Williams.  It doesn't have as much blue in it as I would have liked, but it's not bad.  Opposite the mirror, we painted the wall a medium blue from the same color family as the blue tile.

Step 4: Painting the shelf over the toilet
To match the newly painted vanity, I painted the little medicine cabinet black as well.  Looks so much better!

Step 5: Changing the drawers on the vanity
I have never in my life ever seen such a thing, but our vanity drawers are made out of, wait for it….


…Plastic!!!!

The front is made of wood, but screwed into them is a plastic tub.  They are disgustingly gross.  Plus they are cracking and covered in crusty, dried tooth paste.  They are so bad that I refused to put anything in them.  The plan to replace them was a lot more work than it sounds like.  The biggest problem was that the drawers are held into the vanity by a piece of plastic that runs through the middle of the top of the tub, with nothing underneath supporting it.

The first thing we did was frame out the inside of the vanity with a piece of plywood underneath to support a new drawer. We used liquid nails and screws to hold everything into place.
Then, using the front of the drawer, we built the sides and a new bottom out of wood to fit the space.

Voila! A beautiful, fresh-looking vanity.
Doesn't it look so much better?!

AFTER

SIDE-BY-SIDE COMPARISON

We have a few more things that I want to do before we're officially done.  This includes replacing the faucet and framing the mirror.  We already have the trim picked out, we just need to cut, paint, and liquid nail them into place.
I'll be back soon to add those updates.

Until then, 

~52~New house = New Furniture

After buying the house and getting all of our ducks in a row, the first thing Jake and I started talking about was furniture.  While we have a lot of stuff (as evident by our never ending packing), we lack some nice, "grown up" pieces.  We have a good bed, an ok couch (which will be going to Jake's brother when we move), a recliner, and a love seat futon, but not enough to fill 4 bedrooms and 2 living rooms.  We started our shopping by browsing store deals and looking online.  Our first stop was a local store called Homemakers. They are definitely the largest and most popular in our area and notorious for having good deals. We found a lot that we liked, making a mental note-but didn't purchase anything on our first visit.  On a second trip, we went to American Furniture, but weren't impressed with their products or their much higher prices.  So, yesterday, we went back to Homemakers and took advantage of their 5% off everything sale paired with cheaper delivery and 10 months no interest financing.  After spending a good chunk of money, we feel so ready and excited to move in and set up our first home.  

Here's a break down of what we're doing in each room: 

*Front Living Room*

This will be used as a sitting room, but won't be our main living room.  We plan to put our newer tv stand in the same place as the red arm chair.  We liked their layout of the sofa and love seat and wanted to do the same thing.  We picked out a beautiful and very comfy cream colored couch on our first visit, but were dismayed to find out that someone bought it and they didn't have any left when we returned.  Luckily, they had the exact same sofa and love seat in a gray color.  I wasn't as thrilled with it at first, but I think it will be a good fit.  The walls will be painted a light sea blue/green, which I think will really accent/compliment the grey well.

We also got a beautiful coffee table and matching end table to tie everything together.

*Lower Living Room*

This will be our main living room, or den.  We plan to put a 55" tv over the fireplace and run the cords through the wall to the garage side and install a shelf to house our cable box and PS3.  There are some major changes I want to make to the look of the room.  First, we are painting the walls a beige color and staining the ledge under the window and on the fireplace a dark brown color.  The window trim and baseboards will be painted white.  We got a new 2 piece sectional along with a super comfortable leather chair, and a 2x2 storage ottoman.

*Kitchen*

There's really not a lot that we need to do with the kitchen.  There's no pantry, so I plan to buy a simple armoire and turn it into this inspiration pantry to put along the wall opposite the bar/long counter.

We also do not currently have a dining room table that we like or chairs to go with it, so we bought this table and 6 of the chairs:

The table is 5" at its smallest, and has 2 drop in leaves to make it a nice long table when we need it.  This is probably one of my favorite purchases that we made. Behind the table, we would like to take out the iron railing and replace it with a bookshelf or a wooden railing.
The final touch that we want to add is adding stones along the front of the bar using a product I found online called AirStone. 

*Master Bedroom*

We currently have only one bed.  When we move, this bed will go into the guest bedroom downstairs. Therefore, we needed a new bed for our room!  Jake and I tossed around the idea of upgrading to a king bed (from a queen), but decided that we really didn't need one.  We've done just fine on the queen one for the past 5 years, with a dog-I might add-so we feel ok staying with what we have.  Plus, we didn't want to take up more room in an already smallish master with a giant bed.  We found a great storage bed in black that was at a steal of a price (holy cow, bed frames are expensive!) and added on a really nice euro-pillow top mattress.  Unfortunately the frame won't be in until after we move, so we'll have to sleep either on the old bed, or on the box spring/mattress on the floor until we get it in. 

In terms of decorating, we are painting the walls a light grey color over their cream and lime green accent wall opposite where the bed is now. When we move in, the bed will go on the opposite wall of where they have it now, which is just way too anti-feng shui for my taste.  For our bed, I am in love with this duvet cover: 

*Main Bathroom*

I have SO many ideas for this bathroom.  First is to paint and get rid of the terrible mustard color.  Since there's blue tile around the shower, we need to keep it in a blue theme.  I love this color for the walls.

The vanity will be repainted black. As will the little wooden piece separating the toilet and vanity.  The most exciting project for this room is framing the mirror.  Currently, it's a standard glass mirror fixed to the wall.  I had never thought much of it until I saw them on Pinterest and knew that I wanted to do that to ours.  What a difference the look makes!

*Guest Bedroom 1*

This room used to house two little boys, hence the bunk beds and beautiful scenery on the walls.  This will be repainted eventually and turned into my craft room. (YAY!)  I plan to do 3 of the walls a really light yellow color and the 4th, a grey accent wall with pink stenciling.  I'm still not 100% set on the colors.  I'm not sure that I like how they all mesh together.  However, I WILL be using Valspar's paint crystals to add some glitter to the accent wall stencil!

There will plenty of posts to come as I put together my craft room-that will ONLY be my craft room! No more guest room/office/craft room combo.  I have yet to settle on any one idea because there are so many different options. 

*Guest Bedroom 2*

For the time being, this room will be an underused office.  We don't really have need for an office, but we also don't have need for an extra bedroom (sans bed), or a nursery (yet…)

*Guest Bedroom 3*

This room is in the basement and will be the official "Guest bedroom" because it is right next the 3/4 bath.  As you can see, it is painted grey.  We are going to keep it that color for now and paint just one of the walls purple.  Viking's purple to be exact.  The bed will go on the accent wall, and the room will serve as a Jake's Viking's shrine.

So there you have it, a pre-move in tour of our house.  I'm so anxious and excited to see how everything comes together.  I'm hoping that it comes out as good as, if not better than, what I'm envisioning in my head.

What updates did you do in your first home?
Until next time,