B and I spent last night working at the new place while the girls stayed home with their favorite babysitter (you know who you are!). There are no exciting photos to recount last night's events. Mostly we cleaned. B also hung a curtain rod or two and did some fix-it jobs like that.
Not the stuff of great photos, BUT ... it's all getting us ready for TOMORROW, which is officially moving day!
Friday, August 14, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Living room furniture arrives!
Bringing in the new couch.
This is the love seat in the room that is currently without a name. I am calling "the office," but I'm not sure that quite fits. It is really just a second living area. Will have this love seat, the computer desk and eventually shelves. (It is technically a formal dining room, but that's not how we want to use it now.)
Trying out the new recliner.
This is the love seat in the room that is currently without a name. I am calling "the office," but I'm not sure that quite fits. It is really just a second living area. Will have this love seat, the computer desk and eventually shelves. (It is technically a formal dining room, but that's not how we want to use it now.)
Trying out the new recliner.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Painting progress
Warning: If you don't care so much about seeing the decorating process of my house, you're gonna get tired of this blog .... I plan to chronicle every step of making this place our home. It's a great journal for me to go back and see all the "before and after" photos to mark this exciting time for us. So it's much as to create history for me as it is to share the process with friends and family. So, welcome to the "Decorating La Case Zoesphere blog!"
Worked last night on adding another coat of yellow in Big A's room and pink in Little A's room. I am frustrated that we ran out of pink paint, so we weren't able to finish in there last night. We are mostly done in Big A's room, but need to finish up the trim and corners (where lime meets yellow.)
BUT ... I was able to sort of finish one aspect of Big A's room. The window seat. Got three coats of yellow in the little wall spot and added the curtains and pillows to give us a sense of completion. We'll still need to add blinds. But here is the before and after.
Here you can see the window seat before:
Here are the throw pillows I bought to spruce up this spot, plus I've placed one of her pillow shams there so you can see how the bedding will match the color scheme. As you can see, there are lots of bright colors going on!
Worked last night on adding another coat of yellow in Big A's room and pink in Little A's room. I am frustrated that we ran out of pink paint, so we weren't able to finish in there last night. We are mostly done in Big A's room, but need to finish up the trim and corners (where lime meets yellow.)
BUT ... I was able to sort of finish one aspect of Big A's room. The window seat. Got three coats of yellow in the little wall spot and added the curtains and pillows to give us a sense of completion. We'll still need to add blinds. But here is the before and after.
Here you can see the window seat before:
Here are the throw pillows I bought to spruce up this spot, plus I've placed one of her pillow shams there so you can see how the bedding will match the color scheme. As you can see, there are lots of bright colors going on!
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Highlights of closing day
Monday was so exciting; it’s hard to pick just one “best moment” from the day. But here are my top five:
1. Hugging my Realtor after the closing, with the house keys in hand.
2. When B, my friend M (there to help paint) and I were having a “picnic” on the hardwood floors during a painting break and I tried to say the blessing for the food. I couldn’t get out the words, “Thank you Lord …” before my tears of joy started to flow. B had to do the prayer.
3. Sitting on the new porch swing with my friend M, after we had come to a stopping point in our painting. Just relaxing after a hard — but fun — day’s work and viewing all the pretty land and scenery around us. No duplex 10 feet away!
4. The moment when B and I were alone painting in Big A’s new room and we looked out her window and saw 23 wild turkeys in our yard. Amazing!
5. When my girls came home from violin, dance class and dinner with their grandparents and got to help paint their own new rooms. They were so excited!
Here is the story in pictures:
Big A and Daddy discuss whether we should go with green or yellow paint for her room. Big A makes a convincing case for both, and that's what we got!
"BEFORE" in Big A's room.
"BEFORE" in Little A's room.
Let's get this party started!
Taping done, primer going on. Daddy working in Little A's room.
How awesome is it to have a friend who not only loves to paint, but knows what she's doing and is willing to help you for a day??? M, you rock! Yes, that's looking like some fluorescent yellow (yikes!), but really is a lovely lime green (weirdly called "Yellow Lettuce") when it's all said and done.
Little A applies "Celebration Pink" to her walls.
Big A starts the "Chickadee" yellow wall.
"Honey! Look ... turkeys!" View from Big A's window seat.
Clean slates down stairs. They need no painting -- they just need to be moved into!
Another surprise! We have four tomato plants. These came off of them.
We worked until 10 p.m., but didn't leave without a shot on the porch swing with two painted, happy little girls! Of course once we got back to the duplex we had to scrub all that paint off them, so suffice it to say that it was a VERY LATE night for the kids.
1. Hugging my Realtor after the closing, with the house keys in hand.
2. When B, my friend M (there to help paint) and I were having a “picnic” on the hardwood floors during a painting break and I tried to say the blessing for the food. I couldn’t get out the words, “Thank you Lord …” before my tears of joy started to flow. B had to do the prayer.
3. Sitting on the new porch swing with my friend M, after we had come to a stopping point in our painting. Just relaxing after a hard — but fun — day’s work and viewing all the pretty land and scenery around us. No duplex 10 feet away!
4. The moment when B and I were alone painting in Big A’s new room and we looked out her window and saw 23 wild turkeys in our yard. Amazing!
5. When my girls came home from violin, dance class and dinner with their grandparents and got to help paint their own new rooms. They were so excited!
Here is the story in pictures:
Big A and Daddy discuss whether we should go with green or yellow paint for her room. Big A makes a convincing case for both, and that's what we got!
"BEFORE" in Big A's room.
"BEFORE" in Little A's room.
Let's get this party started!
Taping done, primer going on. Daddy working in Little A's room.
How awesome is it to have a friend who not only loves to paint, but knows what she's doing and is willing to help you for a day??? M, you rock! Yes, that's looking like some fluorescent yellow (yikes!), but really is a lovely lime green (weirdly called "Yellow Lettuce") when it's all said and done.
Little A applies "Celebration Pink" to her walls.
Big A starts the "Chickadee" yellow wall.
"Honey! Look ... turkeys!" View from Big A's window seat.
Clean slates down stairs. They need no painting -- they just need to be moved into!
Another surprise! We have four tomato plants. These came off of them.
We worked until 10 p.m., but didn't leave without a shot on the porch swing with two painted, happy little girls! Of course once we got back to the duplex we had to scrub all that paint off them, so suffice it to say that it was a VERY LATE night for the kids.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Final walk through tonight
This evening we do the final walk through on the house! We'll then celebrate with a dinner out (can't celebrate after the closing Monday because we have too much work to do there). After dinner we'll go pick out paint for the girls' rooms (the aforementioned work is the painting on Monday) and hopefully an area rug for the living room.
We close at 9 a.m. on Monday. We'll be over there painting all day, and the new living room furniture will be delivered that day! We also hope to find time next week to buy the panels B needs for the horses. (OK, doesn't "need," but wants!) His parents and sister got him gift certificates for his birthday to go toward these ... and we should be able to get them all in place soon.
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Can you tell how happy I am?
We close at 9 a.m. on Monday. We'll be over there painting all day, and the new living room furniture will be delivered that day! We also hope to find time next week to buy the panels B needs for the horses. (OK, doesn't "need," but wants!) His parents and sister got him gift certificates for his birthday to go toward these ... and we should be able to get them all in place soon.
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Can you tell how happy I am?
Monday, August 3, 2009
Family Portraits
Yesterday we got family portraits taken to hang in the new living room. I wanted a "brown" theme that fit the new furniture (when having pictures made, it's all about matching the furniture, right?), and I wanted photos of how we looked when we moved in. I thought the photo session went very well, but I got overwhelmed and rushed when it was time to order, so I'm going to have to go back today and order more that I've had to time to review them. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out!
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Countdown to home ownership
T minus 9 days until we take possession of the house (see handy dandy countdown widget to the left!) Remind me if I ever buy a home again not to let the "under contract" period go on longer than 30 days. Initially we asked for a closing date of July 31, which was actually longer than the traditional 30 days from the day we made the offer. But B was travelling for much of July, so it would have been a difficult month to move.
The seller counter-offered with a closing date of August 14. Wanting to appear as accommodating as possible (given that we were offering much less than the initial asking price), we agreed to whatever would work for the seller.
So we immediately took care of everything we needed to do on our end -- inspections, appraisal, finalizing financing, etc., and it's just been a waiting game ever since. I do appreciate having extra time to pack because it has given me the chance to really go through stuff, organize and purge. The move-in will be much easier because of all the time I've had to organize for it. But I'm ready now. I just want to move already. And all the extra waiting just serves to make me nervous that things could fall through. My Realtor said to me, when I confessed my fears, "Where's my mighty woman of faith?" She is right. God has certainly had His hand of blessing on this, and I do know everything will be fine. But I must confess that worry has gotten the better of me a time or two.
Since the contract was signed, we've juggled around closing dates a bit (for several reasons regarding the Realtor and seller -- not us.) It was the 14th. It was the 7th. It was the 14th again. AND NOW IT'S THE 10th. For real. So excited. Let these nine days pass quickly, Lord!
The seller counter-offered with a closing date of August 14. Wanting to appear as accommodating as possible (given that we were offering much less than the initial asking price), we agreed to whatever would work for the seller.
So we immediately took care of everything we needed to do on our end -- inspections, appraisal, finalizing financing, etc., and it's just been a waiting game ever since. I do appreciate having extra time to pack because it has given me the chance to really go through stuff, organize and purge. The move-in will be much easier because of all the time I've had to organize for it. But I'm ready now. I just want to move already. And all the extra waiting just serves to make me nervous that things could fall through. My Realtor said to me, when I confessed my fears, "Where's my mighty woman of faith?" She is right. God has certainly had His hand of blessing on this, and I do know everything will be fine. But I must confess that worry has gotten the better of me a time or two.
Since the contract was signed, we've juggled around closing dates a bit (for several reasons regarding the Realtor and seller -- not us.) It was the 14th. It was the 7th. It was the 14th again. AND NOW IT'S THE 10th. For real. So excited. Let these nine days pass quickly, Lord!
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