Home Tour, Part 1

Happy Wednesday...Wednesday night..to everyone!

The time has come for a little home tour to finally be shared here. There are still lots of family who haven't had a chance to visit us at our new home and so until then I thought it would be fun to share some pictures of this house we call our home. I always love a good home tour to see how others have their place just so. A little background...We first saw this house on Zillow in August 2015 before we even had ours on the market but knew it was special. I mean the price was pretty decent for the home and the location we wanted with good schools? Yes please! We watched it closely until we put our home on the market in October 2015. It was the first house we came to see. I remember standing in the kitchen saying "I just really love this house". John definitely liked it too but had reservations on the age..it was built in 1999 which I funny to think that is somewhat "old" now. In comparison though our first home was built in 2009 2010 and we were the first owners. We would be the third on this home but it had been well cared for. We came to see the house again a week or so later and as we were on the top floor John says  "I really want this house". Uh huh. Coming around. So anyway fast forward through uncertainty, open houses, LOTS of panic checking of market status and one bid on top of another potential buyers and...SOLD! Relief in a materialistic sense but honestly this house just felt like ours and has very much so ever since we bought it. We toured other houses we liked too but we always said its just not the same. This was the one. So now after almost a year of living here (We closed in December 2015, Moved in January 2nd or 3rd, 2016) I can honestly say we (I) am quite happy and satisfied in my little head with how things settled, decorated, arranged...however you say it. The fact that some fall and Halloween décor is up just makes it a little better yet.

I decided to split this up in 2 parts, downstairs and upstairs. I don't want anyone falling asleep on picture overload...

So up first is our kitchen/dining area. My mom helped me paint the dining area grey, it was peach, back in January and other than that we have left it. (Just in case anyone was wondering, John and I are NOT DIY people in hardly any sense other than me making things here and there. We were not looking for a house to tear apart and redo!) The kitchen ceiling was one of my favorite parts here because it reminded me of something medieval for whatever weirdo reason. The style of it isn't necessarily all me but I do like it enough that I'm not itching for a redo anytime soon. The kitchen opens up to a deck which is nice, esp when the weather is good and we can pull the screen open on the doorway. We actually just had the tree cut down that was growing (purposefully) right in the middle of the deck. Boy was that tree a mess!! It was pretty I suppose but...bye.

The kitchen opens up to the living room. Open concept before it was cool... this room is where spend most of our time (duh) so it's nice that it is good just how it is. We have kept furniture here to a minimum because 1) our couch is big 2) its nice to have to space to move. Speaking of which, that coffee table may be replaced here soon for something soft... The only other furniture we have  is a beautiful bench my dad made us, our Turkish trunk from my brother as a wedding gift and a rocker that used to be in Ellie's nursery. The bookshelves in this room are kinda comical because unless you are in a library who needs shelves this tall??? We cleaned them all and decorated only the bottom half. I haven't collect enough random items to decorate all that space with good taste and maybe we will always keep the top half open...who knows. The bottom décor is a plenty for a while :) The doors here open to a pergola where we have a dining/grilling area.

Here is our room and bathroom...We actually liked the paint here and left it all alone. I got a new bed quilt and switched up throw blankets to match it a little better but otherwise it all fits just fine. The doors here open up to a screened in porch which was a selling point to me. One of the dogs now resides outside and she enjoys it too. The bathroom though is all about that tub. Never underestimate the power of a good soaking tub. Now if I could only fix the drain so the water would run out so fast...We also left the paint here. It's neutral and nice so it can stay. John hung up some floating shelves and we got some curtains up (used to be stain glass) so voila, good to go!

The only other room downstairs is a half bathroom by the entrance.

Up next will be the upstairs and a peak into the nursery!

When Your Parents Come to Town...

As promised here is a post dedicated to my wonderful parents visit from about 4 weeks back.
We were so so happy to see them. I'm not going to lie, we had a mile long now-that-you're-here-can-we fix-this list. My dad has an arsenal of supplies to get things done with and my mom is just like me in that when we get our minds on doing something, it's no sleep until its done! Ellie of course was just happy for all the extra attention and love from Grammie and Grandpa. We all were!

So the miracle workers arrived Saturday and after a fantastic REAL BBQ (from NC) lunch, my mom and I got to work on painting the dining room. It was a peachy-cream color which I didn't even realize at first it was different from the rest of house. I had chosen (that morning I'll admit) a grey color for the walls. I taped off the trim and she painted. Then I painted. It only took one coat and so I highly recommend the paint from the HGTV collection from Lowes. There is just nothing to motivate you like a little help! I mean, John is a helper but he had zero interest in painting.

On Sunday, we worked outside. Like all day. My mom and I raked leaves and sticks all over the yard, my dad cut down a tree (yay!!!) and John power washed our patio, pergola thing...you'll see. Our yard will perpetually be leaf and stick city so it was great to finally clean and reset it so to say. It looked (looks) so good! My dad also brought a handmade wooden shoe rack to match our coat rack he made and while I was outside staining it, some neighbors came by to introduce themselves....and brought sweets. Love some neighborhood welcome wagons!

Sunday night, my mom and I tackled Ellie's bathroom. It was quite late but we got it mostly done. It was a bluish-green but we painted it white, which made it actually light blue. I quite like it though! I will be posting a little home tour and show pictures of all our house soon! Nothing crazy but it is what we have done to make it ours.

On Monday (MLK day) my parents, Ellie and I went out to a Waffle House breakfast where Ellie had a stage 5 meltdown. The jury is still out on what upset her so. But her rare treat of apple juice calmed her down so I could eat my grand-slam hungry-man breakfast in peace. Seriously we (Ellie and I) ate so much food but it was dang good. After a hearty breakfast, it was time to say good bye for now. Never easy but we are hoping to be all together for Ellie's birthday in a couple weeks.

Thank you, Thank you mom and dad for always being there and helping! We couldn't have done so much so quick without ya'll's help. And...special shout out to my dad who is taking my non stop orders for wooden pieces for our home!

That's all for now, 3 cheers for an upcoming Valentines weekend! Show some love ; )

Well, Well...Look Who it is!

I'm Hello All!

Admittedly I never expected to go almost a month without dropping in on the blog but alas! here we are almost a month later. The biggest reason for the stage curtains is the move. We moved on the 2nd of January and we have so so enjoyed the new house. Truthfully it still kinda feels like a dream sometimes. When we were going for this home I said to myself more than once, if we get this house it wont feel real until we actually move in.
The move itself was very smooth and went as well as possible. We tried to make it smoother by using to our advantage the fact that this home is so close to our 1st home. With a 10 minute drive and the fact that we couldn't move until a good 2 (3?) weeks after closing, we were able to move A LOT beforehand and we came a couple of times to clean rooms, cabinets, garage, etc. The holidays gave us the extra time until I could take some PTO.  Now that being said we were still moving random stuff on our own a week after the fact.

The day we moved, John's parents kept Ellie. John stayed at our 1st home while the movers prepared all the big, cumbersome stuff which really wasn't that much. I went to target to start some home shopping :) It was for the best...I had worked late the night before and just needed to get out of the way. We met back at the new house and let the moving begin. I had the rest of the week off work to get the house straight and to go back and clean the 1st home. It was a well planned thing to have me take vacation to unpack. Even with that time off, I handled the chaos of moving (an easy move at that! ) with the grace of a newborn giraffe. I just don't handle messy, out of order things well. Shocker I know. By the end of the week things were coming into view and 95% of boxes were unpacked, 70% of rooms set-up and some sparkling clean floors from top to bottom. The 1st home was quickly tidied and scrubbed for showings. Fortunately Ellie was my buddy the whole week, with the exception of two afternoons when she went to see grandparents so I could get more done, and we had a good time having extra time together. Little Ellie loves the new place. She just calls it "Ellie's NEW how-se!".

Pictures for inspiration

This sums up our first morning...stuff everywhere! Who doesn't want breakfast next to detergent?

Finally getting all wedding presents out of storage and putting to use! For reference we will have our 5 year anniversary in July.

Little buddy 💜

Going to fetch more from the other house 

Fast forward a couple weeks through my parents awesome weekend here (which I will dedicate a whole post to for sure-they helped us accomplish so much), working and a nice little snow storm and now we are going to have our first weekend together here since we moved and I'm pretty excited to say the least.  Hope you all are doing well and I can't wait to share some home pictures with you!

Parents!

Leaving for work as the snow fell 

Tiny Ellie yesterday not even breaking the snow as she walked 

P.S. Our 1st home is under contract now- send good thoughts that everything goes through!