House Progress – Outdoors

Part 3 (final part I promise) – are you still with me?

Front Yard – 0%
Kyle's dad gave us an old hedge trimmer so I got to release some pent up stress by taming the large bush by our driveway.  I should of done a before and after that thing had developed a mind of its own.  We’d like to put in some lights for the path, probably solar but there is an outlet for the plug in ones if we decide to go that route.  We’ll also be adding a UGA garden flag to proudly declare our loyalty and alliance to red and black.

Back Yard – 10%
We finished our first big project of building our fire pit.  Now we need some more river pebbles to fill out the rest of the area and some chairs.  I found some plastic Adirondack chairs at Lowe's or Kroger that will be good for the short term although long term we'd like to upgrade to wicker or wood Adirondack chairs. Kyle dreams of a bocce court next to the fire pit area which sounds awesome to me.  We got bad news during the inspection about the deck so our plan for next summer is replacing it and building our dream deck complete with screen porch as well as some open deck space.  I want to add those light strands above it like you see at restaurants and all over Pinterest.  

(I can't wait for this gorgeous hydrangea bush to bloom!)

Garage – 0%

It is in major need of paint and storage solutions.  My dad is going to paint it for us as a housewarming gift.  The plans for storage include some shelving and installing some hanging tracks for storage on the walls.

House Progress – Upstairs

Part 2 of the initial house progress posts.  This is focused on the upstairs.

Guest Bedroom 1 – 60%
My parents saved us big time when they gave us this bedroom set.  Next steps are hanging some art on the walls, finding the right touch up paint color (from the sea of gallons of paint in the basement), choosing a nightstand/pair of nightstands, and choosing a lamp/pair of lamps.  Longer term I’d like to add some curtains to this room. 

Guest Bedroom 2 – 30%
Right now is basically is a bedroom simply because it has our old twin bed and a dresser in it.  Next steps are hanging some art on the walls, putting up the headboard/bunky board, finding the right touch up paint color (from the sea of gallons of paint in the basement), choosing a nightstand/pair of nightstands, and choosing a lamp/pair of lamps.  Longer term steps are replacing the twin mattress with a full size mattress and replacing the headboard.

Music & Craft Room – 0%
This room needs a lot of work.  I need to repaint.  I picked a really nice bluish gray color.  We need a guitar stand for Kyle’s guitars.  We are eyeing one on Amazon that would hold all 5 guitars.  We have a lot of music posters that we want to hang up in the space.  I need to set up and organize my craft supplies in the desk and closet.  Longer term this room is planned to become a nursery so we’ll have to figure out where all the stuff for our hobbies goes when that time comes.  But let’s be honest when that time comes we won’t have any time for those hobbies for a while anyways.

Guest Bathroom – 70%
I need to find the right touch up paint to cover the few places I had to Spackle/repair.  Right now our plans include hanging some art, framing the mirror, and buying some new towels.  Longer term I’d love to update the counter-top to stone of some kind and get rid of the carpet in the front half of the bathroom.  Why do people put carpet in bathrooms?  At least the part with the shower is tile but you walk right from there to the vanity with wet feet onto carpet.  Blah!

Laundry Closet
Look at those beautiful giant appliances.  It’s still hard for me to wrap my mind around how much higher their capacity is compared to the small stacked set we had previously.  I still hate folding clothes but these are a definite upgrade to our laundry process.

Master Bedroom – 80%
We are using the same canopy bed and bedding.  Isn't the bedding dreamy with the wall color, I’m still amazed how well that worked out.  Our most recent addition is those beautiful mercury glass lamps on our side tables which are just our old dressers which are being re-purposed as large night stands.  Next up is finding a pair of art to hang above the dressers.  I’d like a little pop of color but still a mostly calming color palette.  I also dream of putting a chaise chair under the window so I have a cozy place to read and feel fancy.  Every time I think of it that commercial comes to mind with the lady who keeps saying chaise as she poses dramatically on her chair.  I can almost guarantee I will have the same level of attachment to my chaise once I find and obtain it. 

Master Bathroom – 70%
This bathroom is crazy big.  It’s bigger than our old guest bedroom.  It is seriously absurd and awesome.  Right now our plans include hanging some art above the tub, framing the mirrors, and buy some new towels.  Longer term we want to update the counter-tops to granite.

House Progress - Downstairs

I wish I would have taken a picture of each empty room when we first moved in but I was moving at million miles an hour that weekend and it totally slipped my mind.  This weekend marks our second full week in the house.  I loved following the progress on young house love so I’m stealing their format so I can track our progress over time. 

Dining Room – 95%

This room was by far the easiest.  Everything we had from the old house worked pretty much perfectly in this space.  The only thing we added was the BJURSTA bench from IKEA to give us two more seats at the table.  The only other plans I have for this room at this time are to add accent mirrors on either side of the china cabinet.  I have my eye on some from Hobby Lobby.

Living Room – 80% 

We reconfigured our old couch to use two of the pieces.  We also re-purposed our rug and my favorite floor lamp into the space.  We just bought the accent chair, the art on the mantle, and the side table.  Next steps - I would like to restyle the bookshelves to look more streamlined and polished.  Kyle wants a bigger TV for the media built in since ours is getting up there in years and is pretty small.  I also want a few new throw pillows to tie in the color of our new chair.  Let’s take a moment to swoon over our new accent chair with the nail head trim and side table combo.  Camel and gray are a neutral match made in heaven if you ask me!

Study – 30% (or less)
This room has a looooonnnnnnnggggg way to go.  Please pardon the still unpacked boxes.  This is the room we really didn't have any furniture for.  We did find this incredible mid-century modern record player table at a local antique store and it is the first positive step for this room.  It has character but also has clean lines which I love.  I also found a desk that I love, it has so much space and presence.  I even ordered a dock so I will have all the same tools including an extra monitor to use when I work from home or have to bring work home on the evenings/weekends.  The vision for the space is to replace that big square bookshelf with lower bookshelves.  Above the new bookshelves will be those ledges for a gallery wall.  On either side of the record player table will be accent chairs.  We've seen a couple patterned fabric options we liked as well as some dark leather options.  I want something with some character but nothing too outrageous.  Toying with the idea of a rug in the center of the room but I need the other furniture pieces in place before I can make an informed decision on whether that will look great or totally bizarre.  

Kitchen/Breakfast Area – 100% (for now)
We got such a great deal on this table set.  A lady was moving out and sold it to us for $50.  I think it’s a perfect fit for the space.  My only complaint is how often the glass has to be cleaned.  It shows every single fingerprint.  Adding the succulents to the middle of the table is one of my favorite details.  It’s amazing how much a small $10 addition can make a space feel special and more like home.  

Entry Hallway 

Welcome to the Burbs

It’s been really nice how welcoming our neighbors have been so far.  We've met several of the people that live in the houses around us.  Our next door neighbors are my favorite so far but everyone has been really nice.  Karen from the corner came over with a beautiful strawberry plant, some blueberry muffins, and a card from the neighborhood welcoming crew.  I’m looking forward to our pool opening up so we can get to know some more people and start to build some new friendships.  Plus after all the stress of moving I could use some lazy days of soaking up sun by the pool!

Beauty Is All Around

While I’m not the biggest fan of my afternoon commute I do really love having a yard.  Several of the plants in our yard have started blooming and it’s really beautiful.  I also love the feeling of grass on bare feet; it brings back memories from my childhood.  I can’t wait to continue to work on our yard to turn it into the outdoor entertaining space we've always dreamed of.   Our first project will be putting in a fire pit in the gravel area of our yard.  I’m hoping we can get to work on that either this weekend or the next weekend!

#thegreatjonesmigration2k15

I have been so busy with both moves I have done a terrible job writing about the whole experience.  So here is my recap of the last two crazy weeks.  Packing was harder than I thought although Kyle didn't mind it as much as I did.  We were both surprised by the mountain of boxes in the loft once we finished packing.  We managed to fit way more than I realized into our 1200 square foot space.  Packing the last box felt so rewarding and we got done just in time.  We had saved to pay for movers which I would recommend to anyone planning to move.  It is an expense but for us it was worth every penny.  Things started out very smooth but we came to a glaring realization that everything was not going to fit in the POD.  Panic set in at first and then we mass texted a bunch of people looking for help getting the extra help moving the leftover items to my parents’ garage.  Since it was so last minute we had some difficulty but then Kyle’s dad and brother in law stepped in and rescued us.  We got all the remaining items in one trip and although we took over my mom’s parking spot for the week it all fit nicely. 

The next day was our final walk through at the house we were purchasing.  To say it was disappointing or disheartening would be a complete understatement.  They were only halfway moved out and the place was a wreck.  We were there only about 10 minutes before we had to leave as I bit back tears.  They were sad tears but also angry ones.  I got in the car and totally lost my composure, Kyle referred to it later as rage crying.  As a result of the terrible state of things we got them an extra day before handing over possession of the house.  I really wanted to go straight from closing and take photos and celebrate but our agent pointed out that the extra day would them a chance to make it right.  I’m really glad he talked us into this.

On Monday we had the closings back to back.  The closings both went pretty smoothly which was nice after the emotional roller coaster of the previous weekend.  Afterwards we went and had a nice lunch at JCT Kitchen to celebrate and then went to IKEA to get some items for our soon to be home!

Tuesday we took possession of the new house.  I drove straight there from work and couldn't wait to get in the house where we would begin the next chapter of our life.  My heart sank as I drove up the hill and saw their U-Haul was still in the driveway.  Thankfully they did clean although they left a lot of nail holes and patchwork for us to have to take care of.  You don’t expect people to leave things in that condition but as my parents said more than once that not everyone is as considerate as we are.  In the long run it only took about a day to repair everything but it was not fun to start out in our new house that way.

After that things started getting really exciting.    The move in on Saturday was very smooth which I had a true appreciation of after the bumps from the previous weekend.    Since then we've been working to unpack boxes, hang art on the wall, and make it feel like home.  My favorite moments so far were this weekend when we got to host Chad and Amanda and then hosted a Mother’s Day dinner for my parents and Kyle’s grandparents.  People think furniture or decor make a home feel like home but I truly believe it’s filling the space with memories with the people you love.

Some Hilarious Graphs About Being 30

Some hilarious (and very accurate) graphs about turning 30:

http://www.thebolditalic.com/articles/6550-turning-30-described-in-charts-and-graphs

A New Decade

A new decade started today for me and while it is bittersweet to switch from my twenty something blog to my new thirty something blog I like the symbolism of each new age milestone being a fresh start.

"Do not regret growing older.  It is a privilege denied to many."