Happy 1st Birthday to Our House

Happy 1^st Birthday to Our House

We officially closed on our house on June 11, 2013. Our first year in our home has gone by quickly with no major damage. We did have one small bleach cleaner incident on our dark wood floors, but we fully recovered. What better way to celebrate your home’s first birthday than with a cookie cake? New life lesson learned: cast iron skillets rust and ruin in the dishwasher. 

The first couple of months after moving in we bought so many things for our home. Lately, I feel like I have neglected our house and haven’t bought anything new. So in the last week, we’ve redone Chad’s middle school desk and a dining room chair from my great-aunt’s, purchased a new door hanger, and a new sign for the kitchen.

Our new sign hanging in our kitchen

and now for a close up

 

 

I’ve never recovered a dining room chair, but my mom has done all of hers and said it is super easy. My great-aunt’s chair was at least 50 years old so we replaced the fabric and the actual seat cushion. We used Amy Howard’s chalk paint to paint the desk and chair an off white color. I am pleased with our results! My paint speed isn’t the best. I painted the chair in the same time Chad painted the entire desk.

 

the BEFORE

and the AFTER

While we were at my great-aunt’s picking up a dining room chair, we also grabbed an old rocking chair. We will only be polishing the chair. We have no way of knowing how old the chair is, but if my great-aunt was alive today she would be 101. The chair could have belonged to her mom and easily be over 100 years old. It is now in the guest bedroom where our desk used to be and our desk is now in our master bedroom. 

Moving furniture around and buying or redoing old pieces is exciting to me and I can’t wait to see what changes will be made in the next year.

West Elm Mirror and Banana Pudding

Project #3

I am so very thankful to have a crafty husband. I absolutely LOVE West Elm’s Parson Floor Length Mirror, but right now I have way too many “want list items” for the new house to justify spending $399 on a mirror.
Instead of ordering the mirror, Chad and I went to Home Depot and Lowe’s for an unframed mirror, wood, and a can of stain (for the wood). After barely getting everything to fit in the SUV, we made it home and Chad started building our mirror! I can’t say I was much help at all with this project.

I think the mirror turned out perfect and we spent under $75 on all the supplies to make it!  I am one proud wife and getting dressed in the mornings for work is so much easier with my new full length mirror!

Also this past week, Chad’s mom was in town. Ms. Lisa, John, and Leah all came over to see the new house on Sunday. I made a Banana Pudding Poke Cake from a recipe on Pinterest. This cake is now one of Chad’s favorite desserts and this was my second time making it this summer. Since everyone was over at the house for dessert, we decided to use our Lenox - Butler's Pantry Gourmet china for the very first time.

 
Project #4

Our next project is going to be making a barn door into a headboard for our new king size mattress and frame.

Weekend Recap - New House, Red Chair Project

Our home is complete! We closed on our house on June 11th and officially moved in June 14th! Being first time home-buyers is very exciting and we are definitely learning a lot.

Now that we are somewhat moved in, the Weekend Projects have started and Chad is probably already wanting to kill me.  He is either going to regret telling me that he likes to build things or put me on restrictions from watching HGTV.

Project #1

I’m not sure this really counts as a project. All I did was paint the monogram I ordered, add some burlap ribbon and hang the monogram from our front door. Either way (project or not), I think it adds some character to our home.

Project #2

When we went to pick up the barn door we purchased back in April from Perfectly Imperfect, I noticed two old kitchen bar stools in the back storage room. The stools were black and missing some dowels. I had one of the workers call the owner to see if she was interested in selling them “as is”. We purchased the stools for $30 each and a can of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Emperor’s Silk (red).

We finished our new (to us) red kitchen stools for right at $100 and they look just as good as the Pottery Barn red stools that are over $200 a piece! Saving on some pieces make us feel so much better about splurging on others.

Before

 

After Picture

Project #3

I fell in LOVE with the West Elm large wood mirrors. Chad started on our West Elm inspired mirror this weekend and I’ll post pictures as soon as it is complete.

3.24 Home Update

I have a whole month to catch up on. Wedding planning and decisions on the new house have both been keeping me extremely busy. I feel like I have had 3 jobs this month: Signature Homes (for the new home construction decisions), auditing at the bank, and wedding planning. It has been fun though and I am enjoying the process.

Here is the latest on the house:

February 14th – Plan Review
On Valentine’s Day we met our builder!! We had already selected a predesigned floor plan and we made very few adjustments to the plan. We added on to our porch, changed to a stone fireplace, and added a gas line on the porch for grilling.

 February 20^th – Design Meeting #1
We picked out our kitchen backsplash, cabinets, and granite as well as the cabinets and granite for the bathrooms. Then we called the next day to completely change some of our decisions. I’ve never been the most decisive person.  We ended up choosing a white subway tile for the backsplash with dark stained cabinets for the kitchen. The bathrooms will have white painted cabinets and very dark granite.

February 28th – Design Meeting #2
We picked our wall colors, carpet / tile / hardwood, exterior home colors, and light fixtures.

INSIDE: our bedrooms will have carpet; the kitchen, den, and dining area is all really open and will have a dark wood floor; the bathrooms will have tile. Our bedroom will be painted Grizzle Gray which is a really dark gray that has a navy tint; the guest bath, kitchen, den, and dining area will be accessible beige; our master bath and the guest rooms will be light French gray.

OUTSIDE: Our hardy plank color is roycroft pewter and our porch and trim will be natural choice.

Now, we wait!! We have been driving by every Sunday that we are in town to see the progress on our new home. We are always amazed at how quickly it is coming along and we love to watch it grow!
March 10^th Time to pour the foundation.

March 24th
Exterior walls and the roof are up!

Our next step is the frame review and at that review we will receive our closing date!