We've Moved!

We have been in our new house for over three weeks now, and we absolutely love it. We're still in the process of unpacking (strangely enough, it takes longer with two little ones around!) but have whittled it down to just a few boxes by now. I had so many plans in my "decorating notebook" before we moved in, and am trying to take my time and do them gradually, so that A) I don't spend too much money at once, and B) so that it doesn't look cluttered or overdone. Slowly but surely we're working on them, however, and it makes me smile every time I see the real thing instead of just the drawing in my book. :)

We painted several walls before moving in - again, not too many because we've never had the opportunity to paint before and didn't want to overdo it. I did not want our house to be a different color in every room (been there, done that in a rental!) but rather to have a basic color scheme flow through the house. So...I chose the darkest shade of cream that the builder had as basic paint colors (it still looks very white) throughout the house. Then we painted our dining room a rusty orange:

I love the color (sorry about the glare from the windows). It took a lot of convincing to get Levi to be okay with orange...and he still says we need a big University of Texas Longhorn symbol to complete the look...but the color is perfect with our dark furniture and cabinets. Our dining room table looks really small in our larger dining room...a new one is next on the purchase list!

This is our family room, painted a nice brown (I think the color was called "Burnt Almonds"). We wall-mounted the TV ourselves, quite an accomplishment for two people who'd never even turned on the drill they'd had for 3 years...We also bought a new coffee table from IKEA with no corners for Caleb to run into as he learns to crawl and walk.

Another view of the family room. That hallway in the back goes to our room & the guest bathroom. And of course, you can see the stairs to the far left.

Our room! I told Levi I wanted to paint one wall as an accent, and let him choose between an aqua blue and a deep red. I think his choice was perfect! It looks very lovely with our new furniture and the iron wall decorations. We've never had new bedroom furniture (or two nightstands) before, so this is quite a treat! I am trying to decide if I want to carry the red into the bathroom and paint one of the walls there...

This is my "family" collage in the stairway. Words cannot express how much I LOVE it. The pictures are in old-fashioned style (remember this post here?), in black frames, hung gallery-style. I'll be able to switch out the pictures as the kids grow, too. Every time I walk by the stairway I smile. :)

Our office space in the bonus room. Yes, those are boxes in the corner of the picture. Yes, those are still there today. :P

The kids' playroom area in the opposite corner of the bonus room. Those shelves filled up fast! I still need to paint that blonde bookshelf white...but would like to get the rest of the house put together before tackling a new project. Olivia loves this space. We often find her up there, sitting on the floor with a pile of books next to her or playing quietly with a puzzle. She's such a good girl. :)

Speaking of Olivia...this is her room! While Di Massey (Nana) was visiting, she generously helped to paint the stripes on the wall (and by "helped" I mean that she did it while I held Caleb...) and Olivia absolutely loves them. She calls this her "Princess Room." She also has new bedroom furniture, in a pretty white that looks so good with her purple & pink walls.

On the opposite wall in her room are 3D fabric butterflies.

And some 3D fabric flowers with stems and grass painted on the wall (also Nana's handiwork). It really is a very cute room. :)

Caleb's room! I love how the decal stickers turned out...and so does he! I often catch him staring and smiling at the monkey on the wall. :) 

Our back porch. The kids and I bought Levi a grill for Father's Day! 

Finally, the view from our back porch. Lovely, yes? We may have a small backyard but at least there isn't anyone behind us!

So that's it for now...as I said, it's a work in progress. We still have artwork to put up on the walls in some places, the bonus room to finish (my craft nook), and the guest room to decorate. But all in all, it looks pretty great and we love to call it home!

So....who wants to come visit? :)

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. :)



House Update - Framing

Our builder is making great progress on our house! We've been going by every weekend and taking pictures. It's so much fun! Today Levi and I had a "pre-drywall inspection meeting" which is basically a walk-thru with the builder to make sure the floorplan is right, the electrical and plumbing is in place and makes sense. You can definitely see the skeleton of the house and get a good feel for what it will look like. Last weekend when we went by we took pictures and some measurements...

The first several pictures are a time-lapse of our house going up. so fun!

The lot

Preparing for the foundation

Foundation and plumbing

"The Stick House" according to Olivia

How it looks now! soon they'll be adding the stone and stucco...

Now for a few other random pictures...

Dining room

Stairs! This is looking from the living room towards the front door.

This is our backyard and the back of the house. Look at all the windows!!

The view from our living room. No neighbors directly behind us! We also discovered today at our meeting that we have a lovely view from the upstairs...I'll have to remember to take that picture next time.

Soon, hopefully, we'll be drywalled and will have more pictures to share...today the builder said the house should be completely finished within 2 months! The whole process is very exciting for us, especially since we've never owned our own house before. Olivia is having fun with it too. She loves to go to "the new house" and explore.

Pictures as art

I have been doing a lot of planning for the decorating of our new house lately. I've opened an account on Pinterest to keep track of good ideas or things we plan to buy:
http://pinterest.com/charityj02/new-house-decor-ideas/
http://pinterest.com/charityj02/diy/

I've collected lots and lots of pictures in a notebook. And I've done lots and lots of looking online at DIY projects.

One such project I came across appealed instantly because it combined two things I love: using pictures of my family as art, and using Adobe Photoshop to modify/change pictures.  I wanted to share them with you because I love them so much! :) The process makes regular pictures look old-fashioned. For instance, I took this picture of Olivia:

And made it look like this:

So pretty! I love, love, love the effect. Here are some other before/after pictures I've done:

I have a few more, but you get the idea!

Again. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the way they turned out!Now I have to get them printed in a large size (Walgreens, here I come!) and buy frames. And figure out where to put them...I'm thinking either a hallway/entryway, our bedroom, or the staircase. We'll see! :)

In case you want to do this for yourself, here are some links to tutorials on how to do it. Also, you have to have some working knowledge of Adobe as well as the program itself.

Original idea & sample layout of pictures

Tutorial for how to use the special effects

Like the tutorial, I used this file for my layering. I don't know who made it but I'm thankful it was free!

If you decide to make some old-fashioned pictures of your own, please share them! I'd love ot see them.



House Update - PreConstruction

Levi and I met with our home builder yesterday for our official "preconstruction meeting," which was basically a time to confirm all of the selections we've made, look at the blueprints and make sure they are building the right house...you know, the important stuff!  He said they should "break ground" on Monday (less than a week) and that our house could be done as early as mid-May! So exciting!

I don't have any new pictures of the house itself, obviously, because it's still just a lot with dirt on it...but hopefully starting next week I can start taking progressive pictures. What I do have, however, is pictures of our design selections, so I thought I'd share those now...

Clockwise from top: 18in tile for kitchen/dining/foyer/bathrooms; wood floor for family room; granite countertops in kitchen; and kitchen/bathroom cabinets.

I know the kitchen/bathroom cabinets look black. They're NOT. They are "espresso brown." It's very dark, but as I keep reassuring Levi, they're not black. :)

This is a sketch of our kitchen cabinets and backsplash. The diagonal tile will match the floor tile, and the small accent tiles are metal. Both are shown below:

Our front door selections - we chose the one on the right. Our front shutters will be stained to match.

Light fixtures...the left side are outdoor fixtures and the right side are indoor fixtures. I think they'll be very pretty!



I have an idea in my mind of how the house will look when it's all done and we've painted and moved in...I hope the reality will be as nice! :) I have a "decorating" notebook that I carry around, adding pictures and paint swatches for the different rooms...I think it will be a modern-traditional style, with lots of browns and neutrals with a few accent colors, and wrought iron details. Can't wait to see it evolve! :)