House Update: Dining Room (Buffet Hutch)

Storage and space has definitely been an issue in our kitchen, and when we moved in I started brainstorming what we could do about some of the problems that we didn't have in our rental. A few months ago, J. put up this pot rack which significantly helped the flow of our kitchen. A little over a month ago, World Market was having a 50% off furniture sale. I had been eying a buffet for a long time but couldn't feel comfortable with the expense. Well, we went ahead and took the leap when it was 50% off and I had a $20 off coupon. J. put it together a week ago or so, and with my mom's help, we found a place for it in our dining room. Since we were hosting our Tuesday Night Group this evening, I made it a priority to finally stack some of our dishes on it.


Did you know these dishes were the ones we used for our wedding? A good friend's mom collected them from local thrift stores. It was actually cheaper buying them than renting them! After our wedding, we took them all home, decided which ones to keep, gave some to a friend, and donated the rest. I love the ones we kept so much, not only because they have the memory of our wedding, but also because they are mismatched and fun.


Gilly had to explore her new climbing pedestal. (We're bad parents. I swear I disciplined her after this photo was taken...)





The curtain pictured is also from World Market and was not a part of our original dining room update post. I would link both products but they are no longer available via their online site (you can probably still buy both in stores while supplies last).

Do you have a hutch? How do you organize and style it?

House Update: Kitchen

Okay so I have showed you the new bathroom and dining room, but let me tell you, the kitchen, by far, has been the biggest improvement. At first we thought we might like the pea-green color, I mean our old bathroom was a greyish green version of it. But no, it's not true, and I hated it. Whenever I would wash dishes, instead of happily gazing out the window at our beautiful tree-lined backyard, I would just grumble angry thoughts to myself about how much I despised the color and make a mental list of all the thing I would change. It was quite a negative process, and I am so happy that we have fixed a huge part of it! As always, the before and after shorts:

BEFORE








As with our dining room, we had a few unexpected issues along the way, like multiple coats of primer, the tedious job of painting brick, and incorrect colors. The time with the color, though, it was mostly my fault. I envisioned super soft mint green walls, so chose Valspar Belle Grove Sorbet. Almost immediately after putting it on the walls, though, I knew it was on the extreme end of super soft and would not provide the contrast to the white brick/crown molding/white ceiling that I wanted. I stomped my feet and pouted, succumbing to this barely-noticeable green color...until my ever-patient and loving husband reminded me that we can easily choose a different color. Isn't he wise? (: We ventured back to Lowes, and after scouring over all of the super soft mint green colors they had to offer, we settled on Valspar Pillow Mint, which sounded just delectable. And it is. I love our new kitchen! We painted the wall of the stove Valspar Du Jour white (that looks pinkish on my screen?), because we plan to put some white tile backsplash behind the counters.

AFTER:










Other things on the to-do list for this room include:
- removing that awful blue hanging light over the sink
- installing a pot rack to the left of the stove
- attaching a magnetic knife holder to the wall (place to be determined)
- hanging a shelf to the breakfast nook area to place our iHome, along with cookbooks
- attaching plant-hanging hooks to breakfast nook wall
- creating a chalk board for the wall

House Update: Dining Room

We've been busy little bees and the past few months have just flown by!  After tackling the downstairs bathroom on very little sleep, our next painting project was the dining room.  If you remember from our introductory photos the dining room was a very bold reddish orange (more on the red side than the photos show):



While my in-laws declared they love the color (and I did too at one point -- my bedroom at the age of 16 was a very similar color), I've realized that my personality as-of-late has been leaning toward the "colder" colors: blues, greys, whites. This, of course, has started many-a-hot debate in our household, as my husband still enjoys yellows and browns. Anyway, I digress.  One Saturday afternoon a little over a month ago, J. primed (three coats!) and started painting our red dining room a deep blue color. Naturally, not much comes easy to us, and after several runs to Lowes (a certain paint-mixer incorrectly mixed our lovely Valspar Belle Grove Victory Blue in the wrong base which produced a peachy orange, resemblant of our new bathroom color), along with arm aches, stained clothing, and much complaining, we have our new dining room color:



Isn't it wonderful? Please ignore the strange shadows on the walls; rest assured that we do, indeed, have even paint strokes (after two or three coats...).  Aside from the paint, we also purchased a new craftsman dining room table from World Market (and we love it!).  Our families will be in town for Thanksgiving and I'm excited to serve the meal on a proper piece of wood.  You might also notice that the electrical outlet covers are no longer the garish gold plates of yesteryear; I used a textured brass-hammered spray paint (that I purchased last December in hopes of recovering some old ornaments..with no luck).  We both like the look so much that I will probably spray paint the rest of the covers from the hallway and bathroom with the same color.  And today I removed those lampshades off of the chandelier. I have a few ideas for it, but this was my first step toward a more stylistically-pleasing piece.  What do you think?  We still have a curtain to hang on that window -- just haven't had the time yet -- so I will be sure to update with that.  We've been scouring the internet for possible and appropriate prints for our dining room (again, my husband and I can't come to an agreement on what is appropriate...), but we haven't found anything yet to suit us. And lastly, on our long list of "wants"/projects is a breakfast hutch for the corner, where we can store our mix-matched plates that we have from our wedding!

House Update: Bathroom 1

Last week after working a night shift I drove to Lowe's and stared blankly at a wall of color, unable to focus on even the names of each one. Giving up, but in need of supplies, I drove to Target..and that is where I got my second wind. I fell in love with a shower curtain and mentally came up with something that would be sure to please [my husband]. I raced back to Lowe's, found the paint color, purchased primer, brushes and rollers, and somehow made it home. But that's not the miracle.

The miracle is I was able to stay awake until 4pm, taping off the room, priming, allowing it to dry, and painting our first floor bathroom "Peach Frenzy." I hung our new curtain, cleaned the counters, lit some candles and called it a day. I texted sneaky photos to friends and my husband found me two hours later drooling on our new mattress.

You see, I painted the entire room without even consulting him. Daring, I must admit. I knew he would love it (okay that's a lie, I totally freaked out after it was all said and done with, but friends told me it would be okay and he would love it). Do you know why?

BEFORE


MID


AFTER


Yes, that is right.. Gator colors! The Peach Frenzy isn't as orange in natural light (seen in these photos with tungsten; it was getting later out when I finally snapped photos), and I love staring at the color when I am sitting on the toilet. (TMI?)

We are purchasing these prints:





from Society 6 by the artist Abby Diamond.


Shower Curtain
Paint



What do you think?

Introducing: The House

LIVING ROOM




DINING ROOM




KITCHEN





(in the kitchen, looking into the breakfast nook)


(in the breakfast nook, looking into the kitchen)

BEDROOM 1

(in the living room, looking down the hall into the bedroom)


(currently being used as an office)

MUDROOM

(attached to bedroom 1)

BATHROOM 1

(could the vanity get any larger?)


(pretty sweet granite, though! please note the white 40s tile that will be replaced.)

BEDROOM 2


BEDROOM 3


UPSTAIRS!

(carpet to be replaced with hardwood)


(future crafting space / brother's study area)



BEDROOM 4


BATHROOM 2



(HERRO!)


(planning to remove this "insert" and tile instead)

BACKYARD

(where will our vegetable and rose garden grow?)


(planning to border the chainlink with a wooden fence for more privacy)


(driveway up to the 1-car garage that will be used for storage)


WELKOMMEN!



What do y'all think?

**apologies for the poor scale of the bedrooms; the lens I was using wasn't wide enough so it's hard to capture the entirety of the rooms

On Purchasing Your Own Home

I don't think I've really talked about (at length, anyway) our house buying fun that we've been experiencing for the past couple of months. I was wary of getting too excited about it in fear that something wouldn't work out. Our friend K. wanted me to kind of blog about the process (probably while the process was happening), but to be honest, you wouldn't have wanted to read about it. Aside from a few gleaming possibilities, most of the house "shopping" was torturous. I never thought I/we would be this way, but we're one of those typical couples you see on Property Virgins that drives you crazy because they want the Perfect House.

One house I fell in love with immediately. It was over a century old, in an older part of town, closer to work and parks, and I don't know...seemed very "us." And though it was old, all of the major upgrades (read: kitchen & bath) had been taken care of. Cork kitchen floors? Yes please! I was sharing my excitement with a coworker and instead of encouraging me, she did just the opposite and told me how terrible it is to resell your house. She is moving with her husband and kids to Florida (her husband is in the service) and she is very excited to be renting an apartment. Basically she told me every possible horror story there could be about selling your house and it totally freaked me out. So, on our second visit to House #1, I couldn't get over the negatives (weird floor plan, poor insulation on second story, not as good of school district) that could possibly impede a resell. Sad, because my husband was just starting to warm up to it. (See, I am the difficult person in this situation.)

We decided to take a second look at another house we liked, which is in a different part of town with better schools, and generally a better resale area. Called our realtor to set up an appointment and found out twenty minutes later that the house was under contract. Booo. I was very sad that day, but worked it off with a exhausting game of tennis in 110-degree heat, and came home to pleasant and encouraging messages from friends.

Well, the next day we were at it again, visiting every house in this city with our dear and patient realtor, Earl. He is seriously so patient with us and deserves every penny from the sale. Going out to look at houses was quickly becoming a tiring thing and not the way I wanted to spend my days off. I told my husband that if we didn't find something in a month, we were calling it quits and just renting. The realtor and owner of one house we wanted to see weren't returning Earl's phone calls, so instead we looked at another ten. The next day I was to fly out of Charlotte and into Seattle and I wanted to get it over ASAP.

And this is the part where y'all call me/us crazy.

While I was out of town, the realtor for that one house (which will now be called The House) finally contacted Earl and they set up an appointment with my husband. JP excitedly texted me that night, "I have warm fuzzy feelings about this house and I knew it was ours right when I entered the door." I had only seen The House from the outside and the photos from Zillow or Realtor.com, but I told him to make an offer. I figured after us seeing about 80 different houses together (yes, that many), he knows what I like and I trust him. For some people that is too huge of a thing to trust somebody on, and I wouldn't have predicted I'd be doing it if you had asked me at the beginning of all of this, but boy... He did good.

The House was built in the mid '40s, is a 4/2, just a little over 2000sqft, has a chain-link fenced in backyard, is landscaped, with original hardwoods inside, and completely remodeled bathrooms and kitchen. It's our dream house and we close on the 26th (assuming everything goes as planned).

My dear husband got everything rolling while I was touring the Pacific Northwest, from securing interest rates, to scheduling house and termite inspections. We now have a Google Document of things to do before closing, things we want to work on, and things we will probably need to buy. It's all happening so quickly, and I do feel a bit overwhelmed, but I have faith that God is in this and I have been praying every day for serenity in this situation. If I start listing my life to-dos on top of The House to-dos, I get very anxious, so I have been taking it one day at a time.

I am heading out for the termite inspection in a bit and am toting our camera along. The next post will have photos plus a grand list of projects. Happy Monday!