Dining room updates

The day I photographed the first floor, we actually made some changes in the dining room so it's been looking a little different from what I originally showed you. For Christmas my parents got me these Pottery Barn shelves, and I am in love with how they add some character to the room! I love being able to display my wine glasses instead of having them hidden in cabinets, and displaying them here also gives me more cabinet space in the kitchen. It's a win win all around. We also turned the table, which gives us some extra walking space from the living room to the back door. I think the room looks better without everything lined up down the middle. It's not so straightforward, and has a little bit more dynamic to it. What do you think?

First floor details: Before and After

I suppose I should have posted the "before" photos before posting the "after" photos. Oops. Here's what the foyer and living room looked like when we bought it, with some of the seller's furniture in it. From these photos, it's a little more obvious what kinds of changes we made, and I'll give a little more detail about what we did. There aren't any huge changes, since the house was fairly updated and kept up well, but I always like to see befores and afters, so here we go!

Foyer before:

And after:

Home tour: part 1

So I finally took some time to snap some photos of our house this morning! This tour is just of the first level, and I'll do the upstairs in another post. There are a lot things we still want to do, but I wanted to get a snapshot view of things as they are right now. We want to buy a big sectional couch for the living room, so that is going to change things a lot. We are still looking to try to figure out exactly what we want but I'm hoping to pick one out soon. I'll have to post updates as things evolve! (Confession: I actually made some changes in the kitchen and dining room today after taking these photos, so I'll have to share those with you soon!)

Tips on Home Buying

Well, we are moved in! It's been a lot of work and at times I wanted to pull my hair out thinking about all of this junk that we have to organize, but we are slowing chipping away at it. I'm hoping to have some pictures to show you soon! Even if it's not totally "finished" I would love to do a tour of the house here on the blog. I took some "before" photos on my phone the morning before we moved our stuff in, and unfortunately those photos are gone. I accidentally washed my phone in the washing machine (don't ask) and anything after my last backup on iTunes on October 1st was lost. In better news, I think I have a little more knowledge on the iCloud now, so hopefully this won't happen again.

Anyway... back to the point of this post!

While it's still fresh on my mind, I wanted to share some tips we picked up on buying our first home. This is our first go-around with this whole process, and I know we're not experts. And this list is by no means exhaustive. But I thought I'd share some of the experience I've gained during this whole thing!

1. Research first, online and by driving around. Look at location, different price points, different styles of homes, etc. BEFORE you go out and look with a Realtor. Find out if price, location, or size is most important to you. For us, we wanted a very specific area, limited to only a few neighborhoods. Once we figured that out, we were able to see what type of house we could afford in our price range. I wanted a single family home but quickly realized that what we could afford was a townhouse, and that was okay because the location was more important to me. Use the internet and go drive around. It's worth it before you start touring homes!

2. Make a wishlist. I would actually say make two lists - one list of things that your house MUST HAVE, and another list of things that would be nice, but aren't deal-breakers. I gave these lists to our Realtor as well. Some things on our "must have" list were: garage, 3+ bedrooms, price, and the location we wanted. On our "would be nice" list we had: hardwood floors, updated kitchen, outdoor space, neighborhood pool. There is no right or wrong way to do this, it is totally up to you what's important to you (and your spouse or partner!).

3. Save. This might be obvious, but even if you are not doing a full 20% down payment, you will have so much to pay for and it's wise to have a good amount of savings on top of the amount you've saved for a down payment. Things like closing costs, the home inspection, moving costs, installation fees for moving your cable or satellite service, etc. are all extra costs not included in the purchase price and they can add up really fast. You also have no idea what may happen in the first few months (AC unit breaking down, water heater leaking...). Even though buying a home is technically better in the long run, it's expensive beyond just the cost of the house, and it's good to be prepared before jumping in.

We Bought a House!

Yesterday, we closed on our very first home! We signed about a million pieces of paper, handed over a very large check, and just like that, we were homeowners. We drove over to the new place and just walked around in the empty rooms - this place is ours! And it's such a good feeling.

A post about stuff

We have 8 days until we close on our first home.

8 days to pack, declutter, and prep for the move to our new place.

In the past few weeks since we made our initial offer on the house, I've found myself scouring the websites of World Market, Pottery Barn, Target, Ikea, and Joss & Main for things to fill up our new home. It is so easy to get caught up in all of these things I think we need - a sectional couch for the living room, a new bedspread for the master bedroom, Pottery Barn drapes, a large bookshelf. In all honesty, we have all of these things already in one way or another, and we are not going to be "house poor" by any means. The new house is not really any bigger than our current rental, so we don't actually need anything. Yes, we will probably buy that sectional couch because we do actually want more seating in the living room. It would certainly serve a purpose. But we can live without it for a little while.

On the other hand, I find myself rummaging through all of our things and looking for things we can pitch or give away. Does this make any sense? Probably not.

Our next adventure

Fall is unexpectedly proving to be a busy season for us.

It started off with my cousin's wedding on Labor Day weekend, then we went to the beach for a weekend with my in-laws to soak up the last bits of summer. Thankfully we had a couple weekends at home after that, which were so, so nice and refreshing. We went to the farmers' market, watched Hokie football, grilled out, biked, and enjoyed time with friends. Oh yeah, and we also started looking at houses.

And guess what? WE BOUGHT A HOUSE.

Home Reveal: Guest Bedroom

Tonight my mom is coming to stay with us on her way down south for my cousin's wedding this weekend, and I thought it was only fitting to finally share pictures of the guest bedroom. This was one of the first rooms I got set up when we moved here as I was really excited to have an official place for family and friends to stay when they come visit. We were really lucky to be gifted these two twin beds from Michael's family, as well as a twin mattress, and my family donated a twin mattress as well. Michael slept in these beds all throughout his childhood, and then took them to college with him.

Renting & living

I want to buy a house.

I'm not discontent where I am. I actually really love the townhouse that we're currently renting. I love our brick patio. I love being right around the corner from the grocery store. I love walking and running through the neighborhood. But sometimes I really just want it to be ours. I want to fix the chandelier that's located in a very awkward place in the dining room because we keep bumping our heads on it (not to mention it's u-g-l-y). I want to paint all the walls. I want to add a screen door in the kitchen so we don't have to shut the big one every time we go in or out for fear that bugs will get inside (they always do anyway) and so that I can talk to Michael while he's grilling. I want to paint all the trim and molding bright white because some of it is white and some of it is off-white and it's really bothering me. I want to strip the wallpaper in the kitchen and paint the walls and add a pretty tiled backsplash.

I know these things cost money. And we probably wouldn't be able to do them all if we owned the place, because of some little things called budget and saving for the future. But it sure would be nice to have the option. To save a for a project and do it ourselves and be proud of our accomplishments.

I know that since we don't know where we'll be in the next few years, it's probably best to keep our options open until we have more solid jobs that we love and can count on staying in for more than a couple years. I don't know if this piece of the world is our forever place. We need to be a bit more sure about that first.

I also know that we are blessed for this to even be something that's an option in our future. I know some people can barely cover their bills or have a lot of debt and buying may not be an option for them ever. I know that the place we currently live in is comfortable and nice and bigger than we really need. We are blessed for certain.

Gallery Wall: Updated!

The past couple weeks I've been inspired to change up the gallery wall. I felt like it was lacking something, and I knew it could be put together a little more beautifully.

I don't really have a good straight-on view, but here is what it looked like before (click here to see the full living room post):

The bathroom update that I forgot to show you

Back in the fall (I know! so long ago!), I took on a bit of an adventure in our guest bathroom. It had some dated wallpaper that was already peeling up a bit, so I decided to dabble in wallpaper removal. It can't be that hard, right? Here's what we started with:

Yeah, so do you get why I wanted to get rid of it? I started by simply peeling up the wallpaper all over the entire room. The paper itself was pretty thick, so it came up pretty well for the most part. This part probably took me half an hour.

In pulling it up, I found out that the room had never been painted! The wallpaper was placed directly onto the drywall, which I don't know if it was a good or bad thing. I had to use a putty knife and a spray bottle full of water to get the bottom layer of paper and adhesive off. It worked great in most areas, but some took some extra tedious work and it only came off in tiny pieces. This was the most time-consuming part, but I just did a few hours at a time on random week nights and some on a weekend. I was amazed at how much paper came off those walls in that small room!

Once I got that done, I gave it an overall sand and also filled in some uneven spots with putty, and then sanded those parts down. After that it was time to go buy myself some paint! The bare drywall made me feel like I needed to prime it first, just to seal out moisture (since it does have a shower in it) and help the paint to stick well and look polished. I know it's not my house, but I wanted to do it right. I was glad that I did this step!

Doesn't the paint make the white tile look so much "whiter" than before? I chose Behr's Mineral for the color, which is sort of a greige (gray + beige). I saw it on Michelle's blog in her kitchen makeover, and I knew it was the color I wanted. I'm so happy with it!

And here is the finished result...

It's not a huge difference color wise, but it getting rid of those... stripes? woven spirals? bamboo? whatever you call them... made such a difference to me. I think it was worth it! If it were my own place I would probably do some more things, but for now I am happy with these results that only cost me the price of the paint.

Both of our other two bathrooms have wallpaper, so we'll see if I get around to doing those too! I'll keep you posted :)

Christmas is here.

You guys, it's all sorts of Christmas up in here! We actually got our tree last Friday night, but we've been so busy that we didn't really have time to finish decorating until tonight. But we finally did, and it's glorious. I've never had a fireplace right next to the Christmas tree, and let me tell you, it's so cozy! I just love all the twinkly lights and red and green and sparkles. I feel ready to tackle this weekend. Tomorrow my Christmas cards are going in the mail and in the evening we'll be attending a Christmas party. Then Saturday we're going to the Nutcracker! I kind of bought the tickets on a whim for a show at NC State. Hopefully it's good! There will also be some Christmas shopping and baking mixed in there. Doesn't this season just make you feel so wonderful? It took a while for me to really feel like it was here, but it's kind of contagious, you know?

Hope you all have a magical Christmas weekend!

Linking up with

Ten June's link party:

Scenes of Fall

You guys, fall has come in full swing. And I love it! Last year I felt like we almost didn't get a fall. It was so warm here in NC all the way through November, and it didn't even get that cold all winter. I hardly got to wear my favorite sweaters. But this year... this year has been wonderful already. We have crisp, cool days & evenings. The leaves are already starting to change. It's made me feel right about putting my wreath on the door and decorating my house with pumpkins. And that I have! I also made a batch of these earlier this week. At last, we have a real autumn season.

To continue with the spirit of fall, last night my friends and I got together to carve pumpkins and eat pumpkin cookies. I think I have maybe carved a pumpkin only one other time in my life. It was so much more fun than I imagined! I wonder why I haven't done this every year? We had such a fun night! I am so thankful for these ladies!

I thought we had such a fun array of designs. Everyone's was so different!

Now my mouth is already watering for Thanksgiving food. What have you done to celebrate fall?

Home reveal: Kitchen

So remember where we left off? A few weeks ago we were looking at the living room and dining room, and now I've finally photographed the kitchen. This room was probably the one that came together the fastest, since there wasn't much furniture involved. I did change things around a lot at first though, like the stuff in the cabinets and the appliances on the counters. It's always so hard to figure out how to organize a new and different kitchen! Let's take a look at what it's looking like now...

Of course since we're renting I have no say in what the kitchen looks like, and while it's a little dated with the wallpaper, the stainless appliances and white corian counters make up for it! And at least the wallpaper is neutral. The blue tile is also not something I would pick, but it somehow goes with my kitchen colors and I love that it's unique and a little old feeling.

One thing that was tough to get used to is the lack of a pantry. My apartment had a great pantry in addition to a good amount of cabinet space, so coming to a kitchen with the same or maybe less cabinet space and no pantry was tough (my New Yorker readers are probably laughing at me). Those baskets that I found at Michaels were perfect for storing our coffee/tea on the counter and snacks above the fridge. We also ended up buying a small cabinet at Home Depot for extra food storage, which helped a ton. It's sitting in our dining room right outside the kitchen door.

This is probably my favorite thing about this kitchen! I don't love how it's closed off from the living room area, but this breakfast nook is its saving grace. I really love having a mini table where we & our guests can eat meals, or just hang out while there's cooking going on. I also like having wall space to hang things. Our old kitchen didn't have any wall space!

So that's the kitchen. Maybe in another month I'll post pictures of another room. Just kidding! I'm hoping to post more in the next week or two. Get ready!

Also, for those of you who care, here's a source list:

Table & chairs: Craigslist find

White desk organizer: Pottery Barn

Red pitcher: HomeGoods

Glass canisters: Ross

Baskets: Michaels

Rugs: HomeGoods

Extra cabinet: Home Depot (Martha Stewart brand)

Happy Friday!

It's Friday! Whew! SO thankful that it's here. Work has so been busy this week, and we've been busy too. This weekend I'm looking forward to having the time to finish a couple projects in our house. I'll share soon! I'd also love to do some fall shopping. I feel like I only own spring/summer colors and it's time to change that! And baking apple pie... that's also on the list.

I've been running low on blogging inspiration lately so let's call on some from others...

+ If you'd like some fun music for this beautiful Friday, check out Anna's playlist! That girl is just so creative. Seriously, you should look at her photos. She's quite the photographer. And her happy attitude is infectious!

+ The woman at the well story told beautifully and real. Annie's writing is so fantastic! I just found her blog recently and I've loved every post.

+ A wonderful reminder that we were created to create.

+ I've been reading a book called Feminine Appeal with some friends, and though it's geared more toward wives, it's a really great read for any woman. So many challenges to live in service instead of the way we selfishly want to.

Happy weekend!

Home reveal: Living and dining room

This is post long overdue! I finally got to take some pictures of our place in good lighting (not that they are professional by any means) and I'm inviting you in to see! Come on in...

(just pretend that ugly green tarp over the grill isn't there...)

This gallery wall is one of the things I was working on this past weekend. There are a couple frames that still need to be filled, and I may add a couple more frames on the bottom. There will be a post on the details of this wall coming soon :)

I just love the hallway!

Well there you have it - the work in progress that is our home! You can see why I loved the place so much. It has so many things on my wishlist: hardwood floors, good layout, and character! I loved it before we even furnished it, so I knew that was a good sign. We pretty much moved all of the same stuff from our apartment into this space and it's working well! We did have to buy the rug (found on Overstock), and I've bought a few knickknacks for those built-in shelves, which are not even close to being finished. Here's what we still have to do:

finish gallery wall

finish decorating built-ins

decide on curtains

find something for the wall behind dining room table

buy a longer chain and hook for the chandelier and center it over the table

possibly replace chandelier (to be replaced again when we leave, since we're renting)

do I need something on that big wall over the TV?

I'll be sharing the kitchen, patio, office, and guest room in the near future! Be sure to check out our painted master bedroom if you haven't yet :)

Home reveal: Master bedroom

Our place is starting to come together! We finally had a full weekend to work on some projects last weekend, and we got SO much done, thanks to Michael's parents helping us out all day Saturday. We organized all of our closets, cleared out all the boxes, and painted our bedroom! I know it would make more sense to show off our living room or kitchen first, but I thought I'd share pictures of the master bedroom since it's the only room that's mostly "done" right now. It's not going to seem much different from the way it looked in the apartment, but I really think painting the walls made a huge difference and it really feels so much more homey now. This is what it looked like before we painted...

And here's what it looks like now!

The color is "Sparkling Spring" by Behr.

My dresser is not pictured because I still need to arrange some pretty things on it, and I need to figure out something to decorate the top of Michael's highboy dresser, but it feels so nice to have one room that feels totally homey and lived in! Painting makes a huge difference, and now I'm wanting to do it all over the house! I guess that's the downside of renting - I'll have to repaint it all when we leave so I don't want to go overboard. However, I'm glad that we put in a few hours' work to really change the space. My motto for our new place is to truly move in and make it ours because we never know how long we'll live there.

As you read this, we're on vacation down in Florida, so I'm off to soak up some family time and get my tan on! Hope everyone is having a good week!