House-iversary

I didn't mention it here, but I did on Facebook. We passed a milestone coming up on two weeks ago: the anniversary of buying and moving into our house! It's crazy how fast the year went by. It's also crazy how much we've done, and how much we've still got to do. Here's a quick rundown of our list of projects (crossed out = complete) since our move-in date of March 11, 2011.

Last updated 4/9/12

Living Room:
- Buy a new couch
- Art on the walls
- Replace entryway lighting fixture
- Install doggie door
- Replace porch door
- Refinish fireplace and mantle
- Wood floors (although Young House Love is making me think seriously about cork)
- Gallery wall

Kitchen:
- Paint
- Install fan
- Replace countertops
- Replace appliances - technically, we haven't replaced the fridge yet. There's a part that needs to be fixed and then it can be replaced.
- Refinish cabinets
- Replace sink - oh how I love my granite composite super-deep sink
- Replace overhead icky lighting with can or track lights
- Get art for walls
- Chalkboard menu
- Decorative apron hanger - it's kind of done, just haven't hung it yet
- Get a bigger kitchen table
- New: install base cabinets and countertop for workspace on back wall

Bathrooms:
- Paint
- Replace countertops and sinks
- Replace lighting
- Remove shower doors for curtains
- Replace large mirrors for single mirrors over each sink
- Monogram letters (master bath)

Master bedroom:
- Paint - oh, how I want to cross this off. Still not done though
- Buy a king-sized bed Completed 4/1/12
- Make headboard

Nursery/Guest Bedroom 1/Craftroom
- Paint Completed 4/8/12
- Build desk/storage
- Paint dresser
- Make pillows for futon
- Closet storage
- Replace closet doors with curtains
- Decorate/art

Guest Bedroom 2 (currently occupied by roommate until April 6th)
- Put our current bed here when we get our king-sized bed Completed 4/6/12
- Decorate
- Paint?

Yard
- Remove trees and shrubs that offend Dan in any way
- Install awning on front porch and in backyard to shield master bedroom windows
- Remove built-in brick grill
- Buy patio furniture - unfortunately I went the cheap route, so we'll be in the market for something sturdier again
- Plant flowers in front of porch wall

House/Garage
- Exterior and motion-sensored lighting
- Paint house - the paint has been purchased, it's just a matter of doing it
- Install front security door
- New house numbers
- Install floor-boards in over-garage attic for additional storage
- Install sun-blocking screens on East- and West-facing windows


Phew! I'm tired all over again just thinking about it all. It's really exciting to see how much we've done to make our house our home. Can't wait for what the next year brings!

If YHL can do it, so can I

This was a weekend of renovation (on the small scale) and organization. We got a lot done. The laundry "room" got a makeover, my baking stuff got moved into the dresser in the kitchen, the green couch is gone (sorry, Paisley) and the sectional has been separated and rearranged to make it feel like less of a monster in our small living room. I also got a start on a couple DIY projects that will be coming soon.

First, the laundry room. Dan had talked about painting it when we first moved in, but hadn't so much as mentioned it since. Well, apparently, Saturday was the day he decided to not only talk about it, but do it. He went to the gym on Saturday morning and came home with some paint swatches.... paint swatches that made me cringe. Most of the colors chosen could best be described as "breastmilk poop yellow." Kinda icky. But he loved them. As we were arguing about discussing the color options, he mentioned that he wanted to put the red chandelier in there. This red chandelier was actually a gold chandelier that hung over the entryway when we bought the house and was replaced and then repainted the day after we moved in. It's not that I don't like it (it IS pretty cool) but not for that space. I had a better idea. So I decided to go for a give-and-take approach. I agreed to let Dan choose the color if I could pick the light fixture.

My grand inspiration?

The clothespin chandelier from Young House Love. Totally brilliant right? And perfectly suited for a laundry room. Upon seeing the tutorial, Dan agreed that it was a pretty cool idea and the red chandelier was nixed. So off we went to Lowe's where we picked up 300 clothespins, wire gardening mesh, and a gallon of Dan's color choice, Valspar Golden Avocado.

It took me roughly an hour to assemble the chandelier, between cutting the gardening mesh (wire cutters are a bitch) and clipping the clothespins. I was a little short on the number - I need to get another bag of 50 to finish off that little bald section as well as another full row to hide the bottom of the wire frame. I'm pretty psyched about the result though. In total, it took us about 3 hours to take our boring laundry closet from white-with-floral-wall-paper blahness to this (it's a closet, so hard to photograph, sorry):




I didn't even realize it at the time, but even the yellowness matches somewhat with YHL's color scheme. I want to get some baskets or something to put the shelf contents in and maybe an art print so the walls aren't so plain, but I think it's already a vast improvement. The chandelier was actually pretty heavy, and I thought hanging it might be a challenge. There was a glass dome light fixture - the kind where screws hold the glass on, ya know? (This is my clueless girl-meets-house lingo, BTW) Dan just made loops out of a heavy wire that he attached to the top of the mesh frame and hung them on the screws. So it hangs a little lower relative to the the bulb in comparison to the YHL version, but because it's a small space and the viewing angle is essentially straight up, you can't really tell.

And even though it won't be finding its home in the laundry room, the red chandelier is still haunting me. Dan is threatening to use the same fire engine red shade to paint our washer and dryer. Why he wants the room to look like ketchup and mustard, I'm not sure. But I have a feeling I may come home one day to find it done, and I'll probably hear "I told you it would look good."

I need a Pinterest project intervention

One of the things that we noticed instantly when we shopped for our house was that the bathrooms had shower doors. Meh. Dan said immediately that we'd get rid of them, but they didn't bother me so much. That is, until I had to try to give the dogs a bath and couldn't lean in very far to wash them and even then I was leaning on the metal door tracking. Not good at all. For Dan, it's even worse that he has to kind of scrounch down to enter the shower.

So it should have been no surprise to me to come home on Friday and find that his shower door had been evicted, and that mine was up next. I got way more excited than I should have because it meant I got to pick out shower curtains. Because we'd been talking about taking the doors out at some point I'd been surfing the net looking for a design I liked. I even pinned a few on Pinterest.

Unfortunately, all my pins were from online dealers, and since we were about to be completely without shower water barriers, they didn't do me much good. Off to Bed Bath and Beyond I went with my coupon to find a substitute. I was pretty excited, y'all. Shower curtains are kind of one of my "things." I love picking out a cool one and planning the rest of the bathroom around it. This time, since we already have all the towels we need and color schemes in place, I needed to work in reverse and find something that would go with our "milk chocolate" walls and the green and purple accents in each of our respective bathrooms (yes, we have our own bathrooms). I was pretty disappointed that I couldn't find anything with a chocolate or brown pattern with pops of accent colors. The only awesome think I found with purple was sold out and very hard to keep in stock apparently, according to the manager at BB&B. I went from BB&B to Target (which sucked even more) and then back and finally settled on these:

Not what I was expecting, but I found that I loved how they were both modern and organic. And even though the shower doors had been frosted glass, the white lightened up the room. Dan bought curved rods, which makes the tub space feel even bigger, which is very nice. Not to mention, he was able to hang them at a nice and comfy 6'7" off the ground, so he can step into it without any crouching, scrunching, or otherwise shortening himself.

Dan also took the icky old security door that was on the little shed out back, cleaned it, and sprayed it with new metallic paint to go on the door leading from the garage out to the patio. He was a very busy guy on Friday afternoon.

We have another big improvement coming to the house this coming Saturday, too.... a new couch! A sectional to be exact. Our living room is kind of odd with it's shape and multiple focal points. Even more annoying about it is the lack of seating with just the couch and our Cracker Barrel (thanks, Dad) rocking chair. When we have two other people over, we're one seat short. So we decided to fix one of those issues and ordered this lovely thing:

It's the perfect shade of lightish brown and it's nice and comfy. It's also not as deep as the current couch, so the part of it that will be where our couch currently sits won't seem as big and bulky and eyesore-ish (which crazy emotional me has been crying about for like 3 weeks, but that's another story for another day). However, it's huge lengthwise... 12x8'. So that chaise part will likely be parked in our bedroom, meaning I'm getting one of those fancy seating areas in my master bedroom to read in like you see in Better Homes & Gardens. Awesome. Living the high life, people.

My next project:

A chalkboard menu! See, isn't Pinterest fun? I need to find the right frame, and I fully intend to paint wood with chalkboard paint (even though Dan insists you can buy chalkboards, pshaw) and hang it on a blank kitchen wall. I also want to make a cute monogrammed something or other to hang my aprons in the kitchen. Dan wants to paint the tiny wall behind our built in shelf the same dark blueish grey as the hallway and then set some of our own original artwork on an easel up there. Lastly, we want to fix up the dinky fireplace. I'd like to have it done in time for Christmas, but it just remains to be seen whether or not that happens. Dan's plan is to replace the blechy tile around it and build a new solid wood mantle. The one there now is literally a piece of flimsy wood and I have to be very careful with putting anything heavy on it. We want something more substantial and grand looking. See? We have all sorts of things going on, and hopefully the weather will start to cool down and we'll feel less blech (how many times have I said 'blech' in this post?) and get to work on them.

What projects are you working on? Have you discovered Pinterest? Do you need an intervention, too?

Gallery wall: check!

I finally got something done I've been saying for weeks that I need to do: my gallery wall. I'm really happy with the balance and arrangement, and it's put together in a way that stuff can be added later. Check it out:





I didn't do it quite the way I'd intended. I read on Young House Love that they made a newspaper template for each frame, arranged the templates on the wall with painter's tape for the proper placement, then measured and nailed so that each frame would hang precisely over its template. Great idea in theory, but it wasn't visual enough of the actual finished product for me. I had a collection of mix'n'match frames, photos from 3 occasions, and black and whites to balance out. So I laid all the frames out on the floor behind the couch to see what they would look like, and moved frames around to get everything balanced: no alike frames next to each other, no pics from the same occasion next to each other. Then I called Dan over to see what he thought because he's got a great eye for balance. We only swapped two frames and then got to nailing.

The great part is that this project didn't cost me much. The four wedding photos were a gift from my mom. The three large 8x10's from our This is Life Photography shoot were framed with Michael's coupons for a total of about $45, most of which I used a gift card for. The remaining 6 frames were bought for $4.49 each at Target, and finished with $2.50 mats from Joann Fabrics. Not bad for a display that I'm pretty darn happy with.

Gimme gimme! Update - my life in crappy Blackberry photos

Remember this fun little post about some things I was pining for? Well, some of my dreams have come true. I ordered my letters from Letter Chef on Etsy just before I wrote that post. What I didn't tell you was that the seller was awesome to work with. I wanted them on a pretty big wall, so 4x6 prints weren't going to cut it. She sent me a list of all the prints I could choose from to get the 8x10 and 11x14 prints I wanted. I had about 12-14 options for each letter. I showed them to Mrs. ESPN, Salt and my friend, Natalie, to help me choose. I got them in about a week, which is awesome, considering their custom size, and framed them right away.

But I didn't like something about the white on white on white. I had tried to pick prints that were dark around the edges because I knew the frames I wanted were white with white mats. But something just didn't look right. I wanted the mats to be purple to coordinate with my candles and bath mat. So on Mother's Day, my mom and I went to Joann Fabrics to search for a solution. We considered buying/custom ordering new mats, spray painting, and even covering the mats in scrapbook paper. Ultimately, we decided to try the spray paint. We figured that the worst that would happen is that we'd get too much moisture on the mat and it would ripple and we'd have to buy a new one. Spray paint was the easiest and least time consuming solution to start with. And this is our end result:


I love how they came out, and it was a fun project to do with my mom.

Next up, I mentioned my friend Jennifer's cards in my Gimme, gimme! post. It wasn't entirely a surprise because she asked for my address, but I was stunned to find these beauties in my mailbox when I got home yesterday.


Aren't they amazing? I wish you could see the details - there are hat pins, glitter, embossing, buttons, cute bows, and tiny Bingo cards. Five gorgeous, hand-made, and one-of-a-kind thank you notes. I love them all, and I can't wait to order some cards for upcoming birthdays from her. Again, if you'd like to contact Jennifer, her email is vogtdesignco@gmail.com. I think you'll be amazed at seeing her work in person

So there are just a couple of my little desires satisfied. Now all I'm waiting on are my chairs.

My new kitchen!

This was one of the fastest and busiest weekends in a long time. Right away when Dan got home, he got to work cutting the last of the tile pieces for the counter top. Saturday morning, we were up early to do the grout and install the appliances. Dan worked on it until about 4pm when my in-law's and his aunts arrived for dinner (along with my mom, yay!). And just as soon as the dishwasher was up and running, the ladies swooped in to put away all the stuff that had been waiting to for the kitchen to be finished to find its home. In all honesty, I wanted to be the one to put my kitchen away. I'm generally not a fan of people cleaning or arranging for me, but they didn't leave me much choice. It mostly got put away, and in record time.

So, as a refresher, here was the kitchen before:



And here is the kitchen now:


We intend to put in a back splash of small glass tiles all the way to the cabinets, so I didn't bother to paint the rest of it red, though I probably should have. Hindsight is always 20/20, ya know. I'll need to at least paint around the window. Maybe that will be my project this weekend. Of course now, I'm terrified of getting paint on the granite.

We spent Saturday evening with family, grilling (on Dan's grill for the first time in 2 years!) and hanging out on the patio. Yesterday, we cashed in our Groupon deal that I bought back in July for a 1 hour photo session. We met with the photographer in downtown Phoenix and had a lot of fun taking photos in the industrial areas and on the train tracks. I can't wait to see our proofs in about two weeks.

So that's about it for the weekend. It was a lot of work, with no rest for the the weary. I can't believe it's Monday again already. The only really awesome thing is that we should see the result of our awesome prank when my coworker tries to clip his nails sometime in the next couple of days. Unfortunately, Mrs. ESPN is leaving for a work trip today and I might have to witness it all alone. I just hope I can keep a straight face.

The first weekend

This was the first weekend in our new house. It started early Friday morning when Dan left the apartment at 6am to drop The Girls off at my in-law's house and pick up the U-Haul and his friend who would be helping with the move. I, the lucky one, got to go to work all day and leave the heavy lifting to the boys. I also went in early so I could be done early. My new commute involves a lot of rush hour traffic, so Friday was the first day of my new 6:30-ish - 3pm schedule. I arrived at the house before Dan and the truck. It took him nearly 7 hours to load the truck and drive to the house. But the unloading went quickly. The guys hadn't eaten, so I left to get some pizza. By the time I got back, all the furniture was in the house. It only took 2 hours to unload. When my mother-in-law got home from work, I picked her and The Girls up and brought them over. Clover instantly got to digging. I got to work unloading what boxes I could without getting in the way. By 10pm, we'd started hanging pictures and hung out just enjoying being along in our first home. We sipped some wine and sat on the couch and discussed our redecoration plans.

Saturday was even busier. I had to go get a haircut in the old 'hood in the morning, then stopped at the apartment to pick up the few things Dan had left behind and ran a few errands. My dad came up in the afternoon to help with some projects. We all ran to Lowe's and picked up some new light fixtures. The previous owners were apparently obsessed with polished brass lighting. Not our style, at all. So we replaced the entry way and porch lights with silver fixtures that are more our taste. We also picked our paint colors and got to work. We spent Saturday night and all day Sunday painting. We painted until we couldn't see straight. Then we painted more.

Our kitchen went from boring white to red:

It's the same red we used in the apartment, just on a bigger scale.

The master bathroom went from this awful green and gold...

... to this warm "milk chocolate." Isn't it gorgeous?




The guest bathroom, also known as Dan's bathroom, is the same beautiful color. He chose it, and he won't let me forget it. "Isn't my color awesome?" Yes, honey, yes it is. I cannot emphasize enough how awful that green was. And it was everywhere. They painted everything green: the ceiling, the toilet paper holder, even the baseboards. Let me tell you what a pain it is to paint baseboards when they're already installed and touching your brand new carpet. We also replaced the light fixtures in both bathrooms. They used to have light bars with 5 plain ball bulbs that reminded me of hotel or something. So we switched them out for something prettier (I'll update with pics from the real camera later), and it really made as much difference as the paint.

Last night, we headed to Lowe's to "just look" at the appliances, although we'd already done that. They were having a sale that ended that night, and the range model that we'd liked but had been out of our budget was $200 off and now firmly in budget. Not to mention, the matching dishwasher was $100 off. We also had a 10% off coupon for being new home-buyers, which basically made the whole deal too good to pass up. So I currently have a stainless steel Frigidaire Gallery range sitting in my living room waiting for its home in the kitchen to be finished some time this week. The dishwasher should be here Wednesday. Renovation on the tile counter tops starts this evening, and we're hoping to be done Thursday. And then we'll be done with projects for a while.

It dawned on me that we'll have so many stories to tell our kids about our first weekend in the house. About how Dan taught me to mow the lawn with the lawnmower Dan's parents gave us that's missing a wheel. About how friends popped in here and there to see the place and congratulate us. About how I dripped red paint from the garage to the dining room and fast-acting Dan and the Spot Bot (seriously, love that thing) saved the day. About how my dad spent the whole weekend with us, doing almost nothing but painting and enjoying every minute with us. About how Paisley spent as much time in the yard as she could, literally soaking up the sun.

It was a weekend of wonderful firsts. I'm exhausted and sore from painting baseboards and badly in need of more hours in the day. I'm actually so excited to get home today and unpack more boxes. I couldn't have asked for a better first weekend.

...make that 14 days!

Dan (with my apartment-hating support) has decided that we'll just move the Friday after we close on the house.... 2 weeks from today! Eek! The packing began last night. We filled some 8 boxes and took all the art off the walls. Still, it's like there isn't even a dent in what has to be packed up. This is going to be a couple weeks of packing. But the end is in sight. The best part? They need our apartment early for new renters, and since we'll be out by the 13th, our rent will be cut in half. And? And, we don't have to do any cleaning or repaint the walls we painted, because they've somehow decided we're doing them a favor. Woohoo!


Our loan has been fully approved, so we're at the point where I can safely and securely say that this is a go. So, here are some pics of the house from the MLS sites. I can't wait to start doing stuff to our home so that I have Before and After posts.

The street view

Living room with bay window...

... and fireplace

Where the magic happens - this picture doesn't adequately show all my cabinet space

Master bedroom with huge walk-in closet and french door entry - that's a queen size bed, y'all, which means the king we want will more than fit

Patio for entertaining. There's also a place for a fire pit and a built-in BBQ, so we'll have both gas and charcoal grills

It's really happening... excuse me while I squeeee!