C'mon In

So many of you have been SO incredibly sweet to ask how the house is coming. In case you missed it: WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!

Our Home (before it was our home)

And it was awesome and amazing and overwhelming. For three straight weeks all available minutes not spent working or sleeping were spent scraping popcorn ceilings and painting every surface available. After we moved in, things slowed down, but there was still SO much to do. I'm ashamed to admit that we lived for WEEKS out of boxes, I used my iPhone as a light in the bathroom to apply makeup, shave, etc... I was looking rough for far too long.

There is still a lot to do, but I hear that's the norm with home ownership... there is always a list of things needing to be fixed/updated. Regardless, I think I'm finally ready to welcome you inside.

Hello there friend, won't you please come in:

C'mon in!

Imagine with me that you, dear friend, have walked up the three well worn (read weathered and in need of repair) steps to my front porch. You, the good, dog-loving friend that you are, have knocked quietly at the door as you recognize that the doorbell is the bane of Sterling's existence. Won't you please come inside and visit our new home? Please ignore the barking: he's loud and ill-mannered, but he won't bite. He'll just sniff inappropriate places and lick any exposed skin... but we're friends, so you're okay with that sort of thing, right? We'll of course only meander through a few select rooms today as the others are not quite done (read works in progress disaster zones)

The view from the front door. One of the things I like the least about the
house is the lack of an "entry"… I hate walking directly into the living
room, but this seems to be a ranch thing, and as just about every house in
our price range was a ranch, I guess I'll learn to live with it… and like it.

The living room: I'd eventually like a sectional sofa and a tufted ottoman,
but umm, priorities are all… air conditioning units and babies first, you know?

"Dining room"- it's probably my least favorite space in the house as it
feels a bit awkward in placement, but it's functional and the table we
refinished fits just fine. I've ordered a runner for the table to bring in
some color to the space, which should brighten things up a bit!

Right side of the kitchen. The counter tops turned out great! If you look
closely you'll see some imperfections in the topcoat (which drives me
crazy!), but all in all, I'm very pleased! Total cost was about $65. The
cabinets were incredibly tedious, and again, there are imperfections, but
I love the kitchen SO much more with these than the old oak color.
(Erika- look, the moldy houseplant is still alive!!!)

The left side of the kitchen. In one of our gutsier moves, we decide to raise
one section of the cabinets in order to install a microwave over the stove.
Sam worked very hard on that part, and I'm really glad we went for it!
It clears up a lot of counter space and I like the visual interest of the
elevated cabinetry. Eventually I'd like to add some molding to the
cabinets which will really make me LOVE them!

Guest bathroom- I love how this room came together!
The only purchase was new towels, a shower curtain,
shelf supports for some old, crappy floating shelves
from college, and molding for the mirror.

This counter top is my favorite. I did slightly different
colors, and added some metallic paint… really nice! I
also love the molding around this mirror… all Sam!

Guest Bedroom- a little plain right now, but it'll perk up once we
start decorating! 

Master Bedroom- this room was a pretty bold move… dark blue accent
wall. I thought my mom was going to die when she saw it. I had faith that
it would look awesome because most of my paint colors were selected with
the help of my AMAZINGLY talented interior designer friend. I love how
it turned out. Once we get some personal touches, I think the room will
really come together. And we're saving a spot for a TV (no lectures about
TV in the bedroom)… maybe Sam's Christmas present!

Master Bathroom: I have big dreams for this room, but
in the mean time, I love the way this came together. I
think this might be my favorite paint color… very serene!

I think the colors came together really well in the master
bath… I love the creams, browns, and blues. And the
frame Sam built for the mirror really adds a nice touch!

Thank you so much for coming, and for being such a polite house guest! Thanks for not looking under the beds or in the closets! Now if you'd like, just for fun, we can take a look back and see where we started:

Kitchen on closing day

The plastic was to protect the floors/carpet from the
raining plaster that fell like globs of mud.

The aftermath of scraping popcorn ceilings

Master Bathroom before

The counter had a bad spot on it that the previous owner had tried to
patch… you'd never know it now. Plus the mirror looks a bazillion
times better now.

Guest Bathroom before… as you might guess, it was
always our intention to paint this room.

Side note: I'm super sorry that I disappeared following an "I'm depressed" announcement. Apparently saying that you battle depression and then dropping off your blog for a few weeks causes concern: lesson learned. I'm here: alive and well enough. So sorry if I scared anyone, and thanks for checking in!