The Big Reveal!

Our living room painting update is officially finished. Notice I said painting update. Our living room is nowhere near complete there is some serious decorating that is going to need to happen but painting the walls provided a huge update in its self...drum roll please...

Ta-Da! We have our self a new fresh living room. Big difference right?

You can see the process of the living room here, here and here.

Living Room Part 3: Baseboards

The last step to our living room project was the baseboards. Our hope is to paint all trim and doors white throughout the whole house but for starters we just did the living room. At first we thought it would be a challenge to paint baseboards next to carpet but ended up being very easy.

With light sanding first, we started out with a clear plastic drop cloth. Then cut in 6-8 inch strips. Take a putty knife and push the plastic under the baseboard.

I went along after Jesse tucked the plastic under the baseboard and taped the plastic to pull it tighter. This helped keep the plastic out of the way when painting.

It was super simple and a lot less of a headache than expected. Stay tuned for the before and after on Monday:)

Living Room Part 1: How To Paint Wood Paneling
Living Room Part 2: Painting The Walls

Living Room Part 2: Painting The Walls

After we primed everything we needed too it was time to paint. I was so excited to finally get color up on the walls and see it come together. 

I took on the fire place and painted two coats on it. It was kinda my little project. While I did that Jesse was off taping and trimming. I helped with the walls but he did it for the most part. I was too short for the job! ha!

One day I even came home to this...Hey at least he is having fun right?!

For our first time painting it wasn't terrible although at points I honestly thought it wasn't going to end. We used Behr for all the paint. Its not Benjamin Moore but it is good quality over some other box store paint options so we went with it. 

Living Room Part 1: How To Paint Wood Paneling

Living Room Part 1: How To Paint Wood Paneling

Lets take a trip down memory lane back a few months ago...in the house tour. Remember this dated and dark living room? Well I sure do and I'm beyond excited its gone! Spoiler alert. 

I am so thankful we tackled this painting job while we were still on the honeymoon phase of our house. It was a three week long project and after working all day it was the last thing we wanted to do but we keep chugging and made it through. Whew! At least the hardest room is done painting wise. 

This will be several parts so stay tuned this week. 

First we primed the paneling and brick. We felt it was necessary to paint the brick too because there isn't a ton of light in the lower level and we really wanted to brighten everything up. 

We primed it with kills complete oil based primer and boy did we learn a few lessons with oil based paint. 

1. Its almost impossible to get out of a paint brush so don't use your nicest one. Get a junky one and throw it away when you are finished.

2. Kills complete stinks! 

The good thing about oil based paint and why we used it is because it helps cover up stained wood and wood grain as well as sealing the pores of the brick. Both of which we needed it for. Overall though it wasn't a bad experience we just learned a lot and had countless trips to Home Depot. 

What were some of the hardest projects you've done in your home?

House Warming Party

This past weekend we had our first big party in our new home. After much contemplation we decided we would host a house warming party for friends and family. Although there was a lot of prep work involved it turned out to be a blast!

I wanted it to be very casual nothing over the top so we decided to grill out. Being new home owners and not have a ton of money we chose hot dogs only because they are much cheeper than hambergurs. But to spice up the hot dogs I turned it in to a hot dog bar. I am not a cook so I made the menu easy.

We had:

Hot dog bar:
  BBQ bacon
  Chili dog
  All American
Watermelon
Loaded potato salad
Veggie
Baked beans

Because I'm not a cook and didn't want to try a new recipe on my guest for the first time I asked my mom to make the loaded potato salad. Boy was that a hit!

I have seen on pinterest the idea of putting paper down and then writing with sharpie to label all your dishes. I just loved the idea and knew I had to do it. It was super inexpensive and cheep... which I love! Thanks to my sister for doing all the awesome writing. 

Overall it was a hit and everyone had a great time. Did you have a house warming party in your new home?

Living Room

After being in our house for a month now we are starting to get things organized and planing out what we want to do in each room. We are going to start the the living room first because we feel it will make the biggest impact. Its current state is dark and dated. But our challenge is coordinating it with the mural in the dinning room. Although we went back and forth on keep the mural, for now its staying. Thankfully there are lots of colors in it we can pull out.

So some living room inspiration...

via

We are thinking lighten everything up, brick included. Paneling and mantle white, brick light gray, walls a soft mint/teal blue. I'm so excited and cant wait to get started...now if only our weekends could settle down a little so we can make some time! Oh well:)

Updates on the House

Although we haven't done a ton of updates we did do a few. The same night we got the keys to the house we changed all the looks to the doors. For privacy and piece of mind. The very next day after we move Jesse replace the upstairs toilet. It was broken and took 5 gallons every time it flushed. He did a great job and now we have a high efficiency 1 flush/2 flush system. To spare you looking at our before and after toilet here is a before and after of our new locks. It just goes to show little changes make big differences.

Now we didn't just have one door to replace the locks we had 3. Thankfully my husband and dad made it look like a breeze. 

After Moving Tips

I am rounding out my series of moving/packing tips today with some after moving tips. You can find the previous tips here and here. Our overall move went very smoothly. We got 99% of our belongings moved in on the first day. I'd say that's success.

To Change

• Your address. Its important to change your address with the post office. You can actually do this ahead of time on the website. Its super easy!
• Billing address. Don't forget just because you changed your address with the post office that your are good to go. That will only forward mail for a short time. So change your address with the credit cards, phone, etc. 

To Unpack

• The necessities. When we first moved I wanted to unpack everything. But that's not possible so we concentrated on unpacking the master, bath and kitchen. From there we just slowly opened a couple boxes at a time

To Be Grateful

• Your new shelter. With all the craziness on moving day it easy to get lost in it all but step back and take it all in. Be grateful that God provided you with a wonderful shelter. Thank the ones who helped and always remember your house is not a trophy for how much you can afford but a gracious gift from God. 

Hebrews 13:2 

Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.

Sneak Peek

Want to sneak peeks of our new house? Well today is your lucky day! There will be a full house tour this Friday. You may have already seen a sneak peek if your follow my sister. She posted last week about how entertaining the mural in my dinning room was. We talked about painting over it but have decided for now to leave it up. Here are a few shots we got before all of the stuff was moved in.

We cant wait to show you the whole house as well as updates we want to do to it. Hope you all had a great weekend. Happy Monday!

Moving Day

Moving day was crazy but in an organized way. Most our family came to help, which we greatly appreciated. While packing I labeled the boxes "bedroom 1", "bedroom 2" etc. Instead of "master bedroom" or " Alex's craft room". I then labeled the room doors with the corresponding number. It made it easy for our family to get the boxes where they needed to go.

Once we got our first load (we have more stuff than we thought) in the truck and cars we met my mom and sister at the house. They were getting lunch ready and finishing some last minute cleaning. Our lunch was our traditional moving day lunch we have done for every other move...sloppy joes! My mom are the bomb! As sides we had pasta salad, pretzel salad and chips. For dessert there was cookies and homes made brownies.

Shortly after lunch Jesse and I ran out to the appliance store to get a washer and dryer with my dads help. We came back and installed them both and headed off to a relaxing dinner at CiCi's.

I'm so thankful for all the help we got from our family. House tour coming soon! 

We Are Buying A House!!

Today's the day! It's house buying day! We officially buy our first home:) We are beyond excited! I'm keeping this post short because I'm buried in boxes and must.keep.packing. I plan to share all about moving day and the new house next week so check back!

Trying to pretend to know what we are doing. Let just say we spent more time than we needed in home depot last night

Parade Of Homes 2013

Like I said here my sister and I have made it a tradition to go to the Parade of Homes every year. We went this past Saturday. They were beautiful! I took almost 300 picture (yikes!) and have chosen some of my favorite rooms to share with you.

There were 13 houses total all with different decorating styles. Some even had themes like Christmas in June. The house even smelled like Christmas time. Anywho, sit back relax and with out further ado...

Before Moving Checklist

Moving can be hectic and unorganized if you don't plan properly. A few weeks ago I talked about packing tips while moving. Today I have come up with a before moving checklist.

To Call

• Utilities. Its a good idea to call them about a week before to make sure you aren't out any necessities like power. 
• Cable and Internet. Same as utilities I would suggest calling approximately a week before.
• The City. Or area you will be moving to. For us we will want to know more about the city and important information as a new resident.

To Rent

• Moving truck. If you don't have vehicles big enough to move all your belongings like most, it is likely you will need to rent some sort of moving truck.
• Supplies. You can rent anything from cardboard boxes to dollies. 

To Gather

• Movers. Make sure you have confirmed with friends and family who is available to help you move. You wont want to be short handed on moving day.
• Food and Drinks. Its always nice to provide some sort of food and drink for you helpers. We are moving early morning and plan to be done around lunch. I have organized my mother and mother-in-law to help with food. I will provide drinks and a side dish for the lunch.

Here are just a few tips. Happy moving!

Packing Tips

As I mentioned before my husband and I bought a house! So this means the packing and moving process begins. I want to make it as smooth as possible so I have come up with some tips. 

Write it down

Make a schedule. We both work full time so to come home after a full day of work and pack is not happening. This means we only have weekends to pack which limits our available days to get it all done. Planning out ahead of time is key. 

We only have 6 weeks from Saturday till we move (eeppp!) so I have broken each area or room down to a weekend making the spaces we used most last. 

Purge then Pack

DONT.PACK.JUNK. In this process I refuse to pack junk. Use the rule "have you used it in the last 6 months". If not its out of here.

Label everything

On moving day you want to make sure your boxes are clearly labeled so the people that are helping you know where the box goes or whats in the box... fragile. Another point when it comes to labeling  make sure not only your box is clearly marked but the room to where the box is going to go should be clearly marked. It maybe obvious that "kitchen" boxes go to the kitchen but what about the bedrooms? My plan is to have the bedrooms labeled 1,2 and 3 as well as the corresponding box. That way there is no guessing and makes it easy on everyone.

What are some tips you have when it comes to pick up your whole life and relocating? I have only done it a few times in my life so I am not an expert and would love to here some suggestions!