House Updates Galore!

After going through photos on my computer, I realized there is a good number of pictures I haven't posted. They're not super exciting, and they're not the most up to date - those will come later. But it's fun to look back and see how things have progressed. Notice how I didn't say how far we've come, because we really do have a long way's to go, but for now it's comfortable and it's becoming home more each and every day.

We've updated the basement since these photos were taken - we've put the bookshelves together, and moved SO many more boxes down there! We'll show an update later but for now, this is the progress we've made. We still need to get a TV stand/entertainment center for our TV, but that's been put on hold because of our lifestyle right now. We've been spending the majority of our TV-watching time upstairs in the living room, so we're going to put our strength, effort and money into that room right now (in addition to an office), until we start clearing out the basement and making it more of a space we'll hang out in. It's only two of us here, so we don't need multiple spaces for downtime quite yet.

Basement Progress:

The next set of updates is our kitchen - we've added island chairs, and they've been awesome! We had a hard time deciding what we should do, and I think I've said before that in a perfect world, we would have gotten different ones, but it wasn't in the budget, and won't be for awhile, to spend $150-200 on a chair. We bought two different ones to try them out - they were two totally different styles - and ended up with this one. They are so comfortable, and that's what mattered most to us because we spend so much time sitting at the island - or rather, I do, watching Mr. K cook!

The most amount of work has probably gone to the outside, mostly the backyard but also the front yard! We've gotten really into flowers and herbs, so I'll share a few with you now, and then post the updates later to see how much they've grown until now! 

Before the mulch:

We used Garden Pro by Harvest, Espresso Brown mulch. We really liked the color of it, plus it was "on sale" at Home Depot for 4 for $10. I say "on sale" because the bags are usually $2.50, but doesn't the 4 for $10 sound so much better?!? Anyways, we were told at Home Depot that we had to be really careful and only handle it right out of the bag with gloves (I wouldn't have done it without gloves regardless, but it was a good tip) because of the dye that was in the mulch. After it got wet and then dry again, it would be fine. I still have to wash those gloves soon!

After my amazing mulching skills:

If you have any good tips about growing sod and keeping it super healthy, feel free to drop me a line! The sod was put down in mid-late April and we still have a few patches that are struggling and there are still lines between the pieces of sod. Soon and very soon we hope to have a regular-looking lawn full of healthy, beautiful green grass!! 

A close-up of our trellises - the flowers are mandavilla flowers combined with annuals around the edge of the pot (They've since grown, especially the one on the far right in this picture, so I can't wait to show you soon!): 

Decorating: Shifting Priorities

I keep thinking almost every day that it's been yet another day (weeks at this point) since I've written a post. To be honest though, not much has changed in the house since the last update. The majority of the changes have actually happened in the backyard which I'll be sure to post soon. We've added fun plants and lots of herbs, and have a table and chairs that we've already enjoyed a few times. We're starting to pick back up where we left off in terms of furnishing the house. Our priorities have shifted a bit, sort of.

The living room is our main priority now since we find ourselves spending the most amount of time upstairs in that room even though our basement is outfitted with our new couch and TV. But the living room is just so convenient, and we're still looking for the perfect TV stand for the basement in order to really tie everything together. But back to the main priority... we're looking for a new coffee table and end table set. Not necessarily a matching set, but some sort of combination. Right now we have a glass coffee table which is very pretty, it just doesn't suit the needs of the room. But it's working for us for the time being, so we're thankful for that. We're really into the natural, distressed wood sort of look, or anything that's more casual and shabby-chic, cottage-esque feel, if you will. We found a set on Craigslist that's only 2 years old from Pottery Barn, that's antique white/distressed wood so we're crossing our fingers that we get it.

When we moved we said we wouldn't buy any furniture from Craigslist for our house, but certain things like this we're okay with because we know it's good quality and it's really exactly what we're looking for. And sometimes you come across some great deals on really amazing furniture. We'll see though - they had the ad up and it didn't say a retail price or what price they're looking for; they just said to make an offer. I feel like we're bidding on a house, not knowing what other people have bid. I find that a bit strange but oh well.

Besides the coffee table and end tables, we're really looking to complete the room with a rug, a reading nook complete with an accent chair and cute side table with a basket for blankets and a book. We have a great floor lamp already in that corner, so we just really need to complete the look. But wow, finding a rug has probably been the most difficult part. We stopped looking for awhile but now we're really picking up steam, it's just been so hard to decide if we want a solid color, bordered rug or patterned. We were leaning away from patterned and more towards a bordered because a patterned 8x10 might get a little too crazy in terms of matching other accent pieces with it. But a bordered one might be too boring. And I'm not sure if a solid color will do what we want it to. However, after starting to look at rugs again online, we've been looking at everything!

I think our biggest problem is knowing HOW to decorate, what goes with what, and what is acceptable to actually put together. We're learning, and we'll get a good theme going on sometime soon!

As for painting, because a lot of people have asked us when we're going to paint - that won't be happening for awhile. We've already noticed a fair amount of nail pops all around the house, to be expected as the foundation settles, and even though we haven't seen cracking yet, that's expected too at some point in the next 10 months. Since our first floor is so open, we're going to wait the full year until we paint because we don't want to have to patch it ourselves (when the builder fixes the cracks or nail pops, they will only paint over the with the standard color, not the one we paint it with ourselves). We decided though that we might start with the upstairs bedrooms as practice if we decide the downstairs is something we could indeed tackle ourselves.

Basically how this whole new house thing works with our builder, is that we have a 60 day warranty check, and then a one year check. At the 60 day they'll do things like fix doors that might be off (our powder room door is a tad off in terms of how it closes. It's a bit higher off the ground on one side than it is the other. They might hammer in the nail pops and fix some hardwood flooring that starts to separate (again, to be expected). They said they know the areas that are most prone to it throughout the house depending on where the floor joists are. All of the crack repairs aren't done until the one year mark though because they will continue to happen. It's so interesting to go through this process and see how much a house shifts over the course of just a couple of months so far. Yeah, it's annoying to see the studs through the wall and the nail pops throughout the house, but it's just the way it goes. It's what we signed up for!

(Edit: We didn't end up getting the coffee table and end tables that we really liked :/ We definitely didn't offer enough money, but oh well. We'll find something even better!)