Finally - "current" pictures that actually looks presentable!
And the other side...
It's amazing the motivation that having company over brings! :-)
And the other side...
It's amazing the motivation that having company over brings! :-)
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
A Huge Thank You!
The last few months have been packed full of house projects: sanding, staining, patching, painting, packing, you name it. There's no possible way that I could be sitting in this Smoky Blue office with its refinished floors, working on our white IKEA desk, if it wasn't for many many people who have helped us along the way. My husband and I have been so overwhelmed with the generosity of our family and friends who have gone out of their way to lend us a helping hand, or to pray for us. We are so grateful!
Thank you to...
Our parents, who have listened to us and cared about us the whole way through, fixed the numerous plumbing issues in the house, installed our new sliding door in the rain, painted in those last stressful days before the move, helped us plant gardens, left us gifts to keep us going, and many many other things that did not go unnoticed.
Our family, who planted a vegetable garden for us, painted a ton of trim, and who went out of their way to help us move.
Our friends, who helped us prime and paint until 1am, who were eager to help us move, who listened to our progress each step of the way, celebrating our successes, and praying for us.
And, our realtor, for being patient with us as we searched and searched for just the right house... it only had to be cheap and exactly what we were looking for, was that so difficult? :-)
We feel so blessed to be here, and so thankful for our family and friends who have made it possible. I'm sure I missed a few things, but we just want to say a big
to all of you who helped, whether physically or in your thoughts and prayers. We appreciate you!
Thank you to...
Our parents, who have listened to us and cared about us the whole way through, fixed the numerous plumbing issues in the house, installed our new sliding door in the rain, painted in those last stressful days before the move, helped us plant gardens, left us gifts to keep us going, and many many other things that did not go unnoticed.
Our family, who planted a vegetable garden for us, painted a ton of trim, and who went out of their way to help us move.
Our friends, who helped us prime and paint until 1am, who were eager to help us move, who listened to our progress each step of the way, celebrating our successes, and praying for us.
And, our realtor, for being patient with us as we searched and searched for just the right house... it only had to be cheap and exactly what we were looking for, was that so difficult? :-)
We feel so blessed to be here, and so thankful for our family and friends who have made it possible. I'm sure I missed a few things, but we just want to say a big
to all of you who helped, whether physically or in your thoughts and prayers. We appreciate you!
Monday, June 27, 2011
A Successful IKEA Trip
Last weekend, we finally made it down to IKEA - it's nice having an IKEA within and hour's drive! We'd been wanting to upgrade some of the flat sheet curtains to the curtains that we had in the townhouse. We were in luck - they still had the same ones! We love them because they're white, with a bit of texture, and they're surprisingly thick for their $20 price tag.
For the living room, we actually got a little crazy and purchased curtains with some pattern to them! I think they update the space wonderfully - I love the pattern and how it is subtle, but still noticeable.
Here is a close-up of the pattern:
During our curtain-hunting we also found a few other things we couldn't resist coming home with.
A new pillow for the couch:
And a new lampshade! I love the update from the cream lampshade to the white, with just a hint of pattern. The patterned parts are actually just more transparent than the background.
It's fun to start decorating - but we still have a lot of unpacking to do. I'm not allowing myself to hang anything on the walls until more is unpacked! I need some serious motivation! :-)
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
We Moved In!
The last few weeks have been quite hectic as we've been trying to prepare the house for moving in, packing up the old house, and moving! We moved this past Friday, and then conveniently were not home for the following two days :-) So on Monday, the unpacking began!
To show you what our last few weeks have been like, I've prepared a few photo strips of our progress.
Here is how our living room has progressed in the past few weeks:
The color we chose for the walls in the living room is called Sharkey Gray by Martha Stewart, color matched by Sherwin Williams. We painted all of the ceilings in a flat extra white, and the trim is semi-gloss extra white.
And here is the office progress:
The office color is called Smoky Blue by Sherwin Williams. I am completely in love with this color! Anything I put against it looks amazing. Our white Ikea desk is against it on one wall, with dark brown modern chairs. Beneath the window you can see the rustic glove box, which I put a wicker storage piece next to for now:
The curtains are actually just $5 flat bed sheets from Walmart! And the curtain rod is from Lowe's, I love the opalescence of it.
And lastly for now, our guest bedroom, which we've decided to use as our master until we can work on the upstairs. We've pretty much left the 2nd floor as is for now!
The color we chose in here is called Celery, again by Sherwin Williams. The one window isn't painted yet, because we need to do some work on it - the old paint is chipping, and the trim needs to be wood-filled.
I also just put in the new blinds today - I am in love with them! They are also from Lowe's, and they cut them to the right size for me while I waited! That's pretty awesome considering our windows are apparently not a standard size. The blinds also come with a privacy liner already on them, which I love, since the bamboo is a little bit see-through at night.
Here's a close-up:
Whew! We've also made some progress in the kitchen, as well as the dining room, but there's much more to do still, so I'll save it for another day!
To show you what our last few weeks have been like, I've prepared a few photo strips of our progress.
Here is how our living room has progressed in the past few weeks:
The color we chose for the walls in the living room is called Sharkey Gray by Martha Stewart, color matched by Sherwin Williams. We painted all of the ceilings in a flat extra white, and the trim is semi-gloss extra white.
And here is the office progress:
The office color is called Smoky Blue by Sherwin Williams. I am completely in love with this color! Anything I put against it looks amazing. Our white Ikea desk is against it on one wall, with dark brown modern chairs. Beneath the window you can see the rustic glove box, which I put a wicker storage piece next to for now:
The curtains are actually just $5 flat bed sheets from Walmart! And the curtain rod is from Lowe's, I love the opalescence of it.
And lastly for now, our guest bedroom, which we've decided to use as our master until we can work on the upstairs. We've pretty much left the 2nd floor as is for now!
The color we chose in here is called Celery, again by Sherwin Williams. The one window isn't painted yet, because we need to do some work on it - the old paint is chipping, and the trim needs to be wood-filled.
I also just put in the new blinds today - I am in love with them! They are also from Lowe's, and they cut them to the right size for me while I waited! That's pretty awesome considering our windows are apparently not a standard size. The blinds also come with a privacy liner already on them, which I love, since the bamboo is a little bit see-through at night.
Here's a close-up:
Whew! We've also made some progress in the kitchen, as well as the dining room, but there's much more to do still, so I'll save it for another day!
Monday, June 6, 2011
Photoshop Magic
Quite often, date night for my hubby and I turns into going to Borders, getting a mocha from Seattle's Best (don't you just love the chocolate stick?), and reading some magazines. Yes, I'll admit it - we don't always buy them when we're done. We're not alone are we? *crickets*
Anyway, during our last Borders trip, I actually did purchase something - the Photoshop CS5 Genius Guide. It's full of tutorials for Photoshop CS5 (duh), and is increasing my knowledge about the program a ton, allowing me to do things I didn't even know the program could do. There's something to be said for tinkering around on a program and learning it yourself, but some programs are just so intricate and involved that you'd never discover enough of it on your own.
Here's what I worked on today - transforming a cute digital collage sheet from PaperStreet into a piece of digital artwork.
I'm not sure how I'll use it yet, but I did mess around with making it into a chevron/floral fabric, possibly for office curtains. What do you think?
Anyway, during our last Borders trip, I actually did purchase something - the Photoshop CS5 Genius Guide. It's full of tutorials for Photoshop CS5 (duh), and is increasing my knowledge about the program a ton, allowing me to do things I didn't even know the program could do. There's something to be said for tinkering around on a program and learning it yourself, but some programs are just so intricate and involved that you'd never discover enough of it on your own.
Here's what I worked on today - transforming a cute digital collage sheet from PaperStreet into a piece of digital artwork.
I'm not sure how I'll use it yet, but I did mess around with making it into a chevron/floral fabric, possibly for office curtains. What do you think?
Saturday, June 4, 2011
A Few Plants...
...can make a world of difference! Here is an updated picture of the front of our house.
In other news, we finished refinishing the hardwood floors on the main level! We are VERY excited to be done - it took us many weekends of long work days to get them to this point. We sanded, stained, and polyurethaned... and are finally DONE! We still need to put the shoe molding back on... but that's a project for down the road.
In other news, we finished refinishing the hardwood floors on the main level! We are VERY excited to be done - it took us many weekends of long work days to get them to this point. We sanded, stained, and polyurethaned... and are finally DONE! We still need to put the shoe molding back on... but that's a project for down the road.
