House Update - Flooring is in!

Our trip to the new house was extra exciting this week...we have flooring throughout the house! Previously we only had tile, but now the wood floor and carpet have been installed as well. It's so amazing to see it all come together. We love it. :)

We have a driveway now, too! It will be stained a pretty brown color to match the rest of the neighborhood. We still need landscaping, too, but it's come a long way from the huge piles of dirt and broken shingles/debris that were there only a few weeks ago!

Olivia on the back porch. :) She loves exploring our new house. I'll like it a lot more when the side gates are installed and she can't wander out front by herself....

The kitchen was one of the biggest surprises this week...it's basically done! We have countertops, cabinets, a backsplash, and appliances! It's SO pretty. I just couldn't stop smiling at how well it came together!

A close up of the backsplash and our cooktop. I love the little bronze tiles in the backsplash; they add such a nice touch.

A side view of the kitchen...you can see our oven/microwave. You can also see a sliver of the wood floor in the living room (where I'm standing to take the picture), though it's mostly covered by brown protective paper. Thanks goodness! I don't want anything to scuff up our pretty floor before we move in.

Our staircase/foyer, with freshly stained banister and carpet! I love the dark wood on the white wall. Again with the brown protective paper...once we move in I'll take a picture of the actual wood floor!

Bonus room with iron railing...there's bubble wrap all over it still, which makes it look funny.

A little blurry, but this is our master bathroom. It has a HUGE mirror. I knew there would be a mirror there but I didn't realize it would take up the entire wall. I love it! It's directly across from a west-facing window, so we should get lots of natural light in there.

That's it for new pictures. There really isn't much left for them to do...some small fixtures inside (ceiling fans, fireplace mantel, doorknobs, etc.) and all the landscaping outside. It should be done in just a few short weeks! Our closing date is May 15th...we'll probably move in slowly since we have our rental house through June. I have lots of decorating plans, including painting some of the walls, and would like to do that before we move everything in...we'll see!

I can't believe it's almost done. The process went by so fast...and it was so much fun watching it develop. Levi and I both think it will be a very nice home to raise our family in...and to have guests in! Who wants to visit? ;-)

House Update

Our new house is coming along nicely! It's amazing how fast it goes up. This is what the outside looks like now:

Pretty!! Love the stonework on the bottom and the ceramic tile roof! soon that pile of dirt will be gone, too, and we'll have an actual driveway!

The inside is really starting to look like a real house, too. It's so great to see everything starting to come together, and to see the design selections actually in use! So far we like everything we chose! :P

View from the family room into the dining & kitchen. We have countertops, cabinets, and tile floors!

A close up of our granite countertops and a sliver of a cabinet. Which is not black. NOT. BLACK.

Going up the staircase...pretty iron spindles (covered in bubble wrap).

This is the view out the back of our house, from the second floor bonus room windows. You can see the tops of houses out there but the rest is green space that will STAY green space. No peering into neighbors' houses & backyards! Yay! It makes up for the tiny backyard, I think. :)

This is our back patio. The windows are in the family room and the door leads to the dining room. It'll be a great place to have a BBQ and patio set someday!

This is our bonus room. Love the iron railing in the arches. The small door leads to the attic space...or as Olivia calls it "The Dangerous Place." It's good to know that she does listen, sometimes. :P There are similiar doors in her closet and in the guest room (which will someday be Caleb's room)...we'll have to invest in some good quality childproof doorknobs, I think. Calling it "The Dangerous Place" won't deter them from exploring forever...

Olivia in her room. She's so excited. I'm so excited to decorate it! :)

Master bathroom. Try not to look at the gross bathtub and instead focus on the pretty tile in the shower. :) The tile is the same throughout the house - bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, and laundry room. it's a very pretty swirly brown/tan. Darker than I expected it to be, actually, but it turned out very nice.

Our foyer reaches up to the second floor, then you walk through the arch to get to the family room. It's very elegant.

It's been so great to go by the house every weekend and look at the progress. It's so amazing how fast it happens. There are, of course, things we don't like or would change if we could...but not many. And I've watched HGTV enough to know that there "is no perfect house." It may not be perfect, but it's ours and it's going to be really nice. :)



Hoppy Easter! :)

We had a lot of fun with Easter this year! Olivia is getting old enough that she knows what to expect for holidays now, so we had several days' worth of "where's the Easter candy" and "let's go hunt for eggs now!"

It was also the first year that I dyed Easter eggs with her. Yes, I know, it's shocking that she's never dyed eggs before...but she was always too little to understand how to be careful (and if I'm honest I was probably working...) This year, though, I really wanted to make sure it was something we did. She helped me hard-boil the eggs (she's such a big helper in the kitchen), and then we set up 4 glasses with our chosen colors - pink, blue, green, and red. It was amazing to see the look on her face when we pulled the first egg out of the blue dye - lit up with so much wonder and excitment. It was so much fun, and I wish I'd taken pictures but I was too preoccupied with making sure the dye didn't end up all over everywhere. Next year!

I am proud to say that we have some very good pictures of her hunting Easter eggs (both the dyed and the plastic variety) and in her dress before church. Those are below...

The eggs seemed to like hiding in the grass but she was pretty good at finding them!

Pulling eggs out of the front bushes.

That's a lot of eggs!

Her Easter basket had books, colored pens, a memo pad, and stickers!

New Easter dress and new summer sandals!

Such a beautiful girl. (wish I'd curled her hair - it's really cute that way - but we ran out of time before church)

Emptying all of her candy into a bag...that she's still slowly working her way through for dinner time desserts! :)

It was a lovely day. Hope you had a lovely Easter Sunday with your family as well!