Buying our first house has been quite the experience... Here are a few words that describe our experience: Stressful, Terrifying, Confusing, Overwhelming, Exhausting, and most important... EXCITING! The excitement definitely out weighs all the other feelings!
We started looking at houses back in April and found this cute little house at the end of July. We put our offer in August 2nd and signed the papers on my birthday. I'd say that's a pretty awesome present... Funny thing is, I drove past this house almost every day, multiple times a day, and didn't really think anything of it. It's crazy how pictures online don't do the house justice. As soon as I looked at it in person, I fell in love!
Finally, after a bit of waiting, Ian and I became homeowners October 3rd. We worked really hard, with tons of help from my parents, and spent our first night in our new home October 22nd!
Here are the before pictures:
Two things sold me on the house. #1. The updated kitchen. I love my counter tops and cupboards! Look close... you may see pears on our counter. They are from our pear tree! I'm pretty excited to see what kind of fruit comes from the tree when it actually gets water.
A view in to the dining room. I love my formal dining room! My dad spent hours and hours refinishing the original hardwood. I'll have to make sure to take an after picture. That floor looks awesome!
Testing out paint colors... The lighter tan is the color we went with for most of the house. That wall will eventually be red. Just not that red... Yikes! Way too pink. That's after 4-5 coats too. The red is currently covered with grey, waiting for me to find my perfect shade.
The previous owners were a very green loving family... While the dining room was a nice color, it was just way too dark. Out with the olive green, in with the tan. Eventually I will be painting this light fixture black. Someday I hope to get a new chandelier, but those things are expensive!! The Gold/Black will do for now. Even though it doesn't put off a whole lot of light.
Can you tell this was the first room... Ian is still smiling! Haha.
Painting everything took way longer than I ever expected. Two coats, corners, ceilings, trim... So much work!
Come to find out, the dining room ceiling was pink... weird!
Here's the living room. It's pretty big which is awesome. Gotta love that green carpet. It's a teal/hunter mix. So not me! Even worse, it shows every little spec of anything! I've never vacuumed so much in my life! Hoping to get the carpet replaced as soon as we can.
I LOVE MY MANTEL. It was the second thing that sold me on the house! Maybe even the first... We painted the white paneling tan like the rest of the room. Eventually the sage green fireplace will be painted clean, crisp white. I think the contrast will look awesome.
Old tan on the right, new tan on the left.
The office in between the kitchen and hallway. Same tan as the rest of the house.
The hallway looking in to the office and kitchen. Office comes equipped with an ironing board and 3 iron prints in the carpet... :)
Linen closet on the left, followed by the bathroom. I'm standing in the second bedroom with our bedroom directly on the right. Then we have the entry way and living room in the opening you can see on the right.
Take a close look at the trim! I don't know what color it was before, but it wasn't white. I love how crisp the white looks against the tan. I have the trim in this picture halfway done. Trim is definitely the worst thing to paint! Ever! Down on my belly working from small section to small section. Glad I had my mom's help for this. It was awful. I still have a few baseboards to go and all doorways. Sad, time consuming day.
Eventually I want to replace the baseboards. There are so many coats of paint on these ones, that it was very very hard to get a clean line. So frustrating!
Here's the before of our bedroom. Lovely sage green... With crazy wallpaper in the closet to match.
We had the ceiling and walls textured. I want my bedroom to look like it's out of a magazine. One wall will be a burnt orange. I still need to find the perfect shade...
Mint green in the second bedroom... It's now a medium grey color on the bottom with a crisp white on top.
Pretty pink bathroom... I've been told I'm lucky my tub and toilet aren't pink! Walls are now the same grey as in the second bedroom. Goes perfect with my navy and grey shower curtain and towels. The gold fixtures have got to go! I don't do gold. Right now we have a lovely mixture of silver and gold. Haha. Fixtures are expensive!
Take a look at those pink swirls in the wall... Very interesting! Eventually I want to repaint the white washed oak cupboards a crisp white and get a new (non pink) counter top. Also want to put tile in. Time and money... Something I will be doing soon is painting the wood mirror the same grey. I think it will look nice on the white wall.
Our little house is coming along. We still have a few boxes upstairs. Lots and lots of boxes downstairs. The basement is a whole other story! It needs a lot of work. That will come with time.
I have a nice big laundry room, 2 storage rooms (one that is a bright, neon, GREEN), a family room, and 2 more bedrooms. One of the bedrooms is nicknamed the Willy Wonka room because it has wild 70's carpet pieces! Pretty hilarious! The other bedroom has a neat feature! We call it the chokie... from Matilda. I still need to watch that movie with Ian so he knows what I'm talking about.
Here are some more pictures so you know what I'm talking about!
Here's a shot from the back yard. Grass is a little fried... We'll probably end up re-seeding next year.
We have a cute little patio on this side of the house. I'm super excited for our fire pit. This is also the pathway for children when they get off the bus... Oh well.
More of the back and side yards.
A glimpse of the condition the basement is in.
And the crazy Willy Wonka carpet!! (My sister doesn't normally look like this. Only when she gets home from scout camp... We were just so excited to show everyone the house we were buying!)
And... the chokie! Or the room for wood and where the water from the city comes in... but whatever. That's gonna be the place bad kiddos go :)
There's our house! Lots more updates to come!
I love Poinsettas. I don't really know why. They scream "old lady" to me, but whatever. I wanted one, so Ian let me get one. Like he would tell me no... I don't know if he's ever told me no to anything I want. Love that guy!
Getting our tree at the nursery was the best thing ever! They cut the bottom, bagged it up, and even loaded it in the truck for us.
It was such a cute, perfect little tree. We had lots of fun picking it out.
We are still collecting ornaments... This year for my filler ornaments, I made glitter balls. The best part... the glitter is on the inside. No mess! I found the fun tutorial on pinterest. Totally loved the way the lady wrote the tutorial. I was laughing pretty hard. 
I had fun decorating my mantel. I realized my mantel is longer than I expected... The lit garland I got was 9' long and fit perfectly! I got some other things to make some cute Christmas wreaths, but those didn't happen. We'll shoot for next year....
We had our usual Christmas Eve dinner at Mom's house. Although for the first time in 20 years... we didn't have clam chowder in bread bowls for dinner! (Appetizers as dinner was still pretty tasty though. I'm just attached to tradition.)
Kind of a crazy family picture, but a family picture none the less. RIP Winston. I don't like animals, at all, but he was a good dog.
The main thing I got Ian this year was weights. I had so much fun loading them in to the shopping cart... then on to the checkout counter. I'm glad he's happy about them though. And his arms are getting nice and big like they were when I first met him. Mmmmm :)
And my favorite gift of the day had to be Kaylee's one piece pj suit. Fits her perfectly! :)
