I stared at the screen for a while trying to come up with a title to this post and the only thing running through my mind is how tired I am! So tired, in fact, that I was actually looking forward to coming to work today as a day of "rest." (Don't tell my boss I said that.) I apologize for the long hiatus from the blog, but we have been working so hard lately there just hasn't been time to sit and type! I feel so behind on blogging that I don't really even know where to start to catch you up on everything that's been going on. So, I'm just going to post pictures the random pictures I've taken on my phone along the way and hope they will suffice as some kind of update.
Ok, we closed on our new house on Thursday, August 2nd, but weren't able to take possession of it until the following Monday evening. We had a long list of things to do before we would move in two weeks later. First up? Pick paint colors.
From the get-go, I have said that I am only focusing on decorating two rooms right now: the nursery (for obvious reasons) and the master bedroom (because we desperately needed new bedding). I was set on a shade of grey for both rooms, but the same shade wouldn't work. Grey is quite possibly the hardest color in the world to get right - it can have so many different undertones! The final decision ended up being Requisite Grey for the master and Essential Grey for the nursery (both Sherwin Williams and neither are in the picture above!).
The nice thing about the setup in the new house is that the nursery is almost right across the hall from the master. The two rooms are carpeted and connected by a carpeted hallway. This section of the house is what we decided to spruce up first (we will tackle updating the home in phases). I think it was day two or three that Doc and my dad ripped up all the carpet.
Speaking of carpet, why are there so many daggum choices?!? It took us at least 3 trips to Home Depot and Lowe's (only one of which ended with me sitting down in the middle of the store and complaining that "I just can't do it") to settle on a carpet and get the installation scheduled. And after mulling over aaaaallll the different kinds of carpet (billions, I tell ya!), it all came down to what was in stock and could be put in in time. That narrowed our choices down to about two. Uh, couldn't they have just told us that from the get-go?!
Here's the lucky winner. I was not very happy about it in the store but it's down now and I'm pleased with how it looks. By the way, we ended up going with Lowe's and were very pleased with their services.
Here's the nursery after the carpet had been ripped out. Those two roman shades were left behind by the previous owners and are really nice curtains. Definitely professionally made. I'm not using them though, so if anyone has any interest in them, let me know ASAP! They are a pale-ish green silk fabric and the tassels have pink and green in them. And see those nice, heavy duty curtain rods? I almost jumped for joy when I saw that they left them! (The roman shades are not hanging on them, they are on a board.) Our contract stated that the seller would take all window treatments - and trust me, they did. But, they left the hardware in the nursery and master bedroom - the two rooms I'm focusing on! - and they're really nice, wooden rods. I'm way too cheap to have replaced them with something similar, so I'm so glad to have inherited these!
While I was super-stoked to have the hardware, they weren't the right color for what I was thinking in the nursery. So Mom and I took them down and spent one Saturday morning spray painting them. But, before I made it to her house to paint, I stopped by the new house to see the other work going on in the nursery.
I had decided I wanted a wooden plank wall in the nursery and somehow managed to sweet talk my husband and Dad into making it happen for me! They hired a friend of my Dad's to "lead" the project while they were his little helpers. By the time I rolled in that morning, they had already popped off the baseboards and crown molding and had the first two boards up on the wall.
I found my dad hanging out on the front porch. They were having to feed to wood through the window as they needed it because it was too tight in the room to bring it all in at once. I think he got the easy job while Doc assisted with all the measuring and cutting.
I was zero help to them so I loaded up the curtain rods and headed to my parents' house to get to painting. Mom and I had to do a little brainstorming but with the help of a ladder, tree, and rope, we were able to rig up a system where we could paint all the curtain rings at one time without having to flip them over.
Don't they kinda look like donuts? Made me pretty hungry! (Actually, everything makes me hungry these days...)
We just laid the curtain rods out on the ground to paint.
I keep saying "we" but really it's my mom who did all the hardwork. I, of course, picked a metallic paint that is not VOC-free, so I had to keep my distance. I have a feeling she's probably ready for this pregnancy to be over so she doesn't have to do my work for me anymore!
While our line of donuts curtain rings sat out to dry, we picked up some pizza and beer and went back to the new house to check on the boys and the progress of the plank wall. We arrived just as they were popping in the last of the plank boards!
They insisted on re-attaching the baseboards and crown molding before breaking for lunch. I was impressed with how quickly they were able to get the whole wall done! I have a feeling if Dad and Doc had been tackling it themselves, I may have been serving them dinner there too...
Here is the finished construction. In this picture, the crown molding is still a cream color but it has since been painted white to match (the walls have been painted too). It looks so good now that it's all cleaned up - I'm eager to show it to you soon!
I took off work one day the following week so that I could do some packing. We had a limited number of boxes to use so my mom and I packed them up, took them to the new house, unloaded them, and took them back to load them up again. It was a long day of back and forth trips but we were able to get a lot done. Of course, as we unpacked them, we just sat everything down in our new office. As of right now, everything's still sitting on the floor in there! As I unpacked the box of our everyday dishes, I decided to put them in this set of glass cabinets. It may not be where they really end up staying, but I was just glad to have one thing put away!
Later that night as I finally sat down to rest, I decided I needed some ice cream. That's when I realized I'd already packed up and moved the bowls to the new house. I did not let that become a problem...I ate straight from the container. I eventually made Doc take it away from me because I'm pretty sure I would've sat there and eaten it all.
At the new house, there was a whole wall (the back of the garage) covered in vine. There's no telling how many years it'd been growing up it. Our inspector recommended tearing it down before it damaged the brick, so one day - I don't remember which one - Doc pulled it all down. Obviously, the wall still needs some scrubbing and pressure-washing.
He said it would've all come down in one piece, but he cut it into 4 smaller sections to make it more manageable. Luckily, the only critters he found in the wall-o-vines were a couple of lizards and some empty birds nests. Oh, and about 20 baseballs. (These rolls of vines have been out by the curb for a few days. I really hope the trashmen took them away today!)
After a week of construction (plank wall), tearing down the vines, pulling up carpet, getting the walls painted, getting new carpet installed, and having a refrigerator, washer, and dryer delivered, last Friday was finally moving day! Since I can't lift anything, I decided to go ahead and go into work and leave Doc and the movers to it. When I stopped by the old house after work, I had to choke back tears. It was so empty!
We still have several odds and ends to wrap up at the old house, mostly things like spackling and repainting holes, having it cleaned, and getting the carpets shampooed. We heard this weekend we may have some interested renters, so fingers crossed that goes through. That would be a huge blessing to get somoeone in so quickly!!
We have now slept in the new house 3 nights. If you were to stop by, you'd think the movers just dropped our stuff off today. Even though I know I worked hard all weekend, it looks like I've done nothing at all! I spent a lot of time this weekend working on things that will be seen by noone but me and Doc. For example, I scrubbed out every cabinet and drawer in the bathrooms and laundry room (my mom helped me do the kitchen ones the week before). Some of them were filthy!
Here's a before and after of one of the drawers...the pictures really don't do it justice.
Even after all that scrubbing, I still ended up putting contact paper down in several of them. I was not willing to unpack any boxes until I could put the contents away in clean cabinets and drawers.
Yesterday (Sunday) we finally brought all of our hanging clothes to the new house (we didn't put them on the moving truck). It did not take long at all to realize that, even with a bigger master closet, there was not enough room for all of them! And see how the rod is about to buckle in the picture below?
And that's after we'd taken some clothes off! So, around 5:00 last night we decided we needed to figure out a way to rework the closet to make it hold more. We decided that on this side of the closet, we could raise the two hanging bars up and add two lower bars underneath them for additional hanging space.
Off to Home Depot we went to get all of our supplies. Demo starts tonight! Did I mention that this closet is freshly painted with brand new carpet? And the nursery is still without furniture? Yes, we are certifiably crazy. But hopefully by the end of the week, all of our clothes will fit in the closet, instead being strewn all over the house like they are right now. Wish us luck!
Hopefully, that gets you caught up to where we are now. Questions? Comments? Concerns? Let's hear 'em. :)