So, technically not for a few more days, but the weather and temperature outside is telling me otherwise. I am so excited, I am a huge lover of all things Fall: sweaters, jeans with boots, leaves (though our new neighborhood probably won't have any aside from the 50+ year old trees surrounding the edge of the neighborhood which will definitely be absolutely gorgeous), pumpkins (and most things that have pumpkin in them or in the name).
I also am a huge lover of all things Pinterest. Surprise, surprise. I realized that I have a board for Christmas and another one for Holidays in general, but I don't have one just for Fall. So that happened this morning. Decorations, fall recipes, you name it, it will be on there. I found these super cute leaf placemats and coasters from Bed Bath and Beyond that I haven't yet ordered, but they're in my "save for later" cart, which I can bet will be ordered within the next week. Perfect timing for when we return from our second-to-last wedding of the year.
We've finally started updating our home - the accent chair I've been dying to have? - finally here! Our guestrooms - two out of three rooms are "done" (for the time being). We only need to put the headboard together that we've had for, oh, almost a month for the second guestroom. I can't wait to take more pictures and post these updates. It's been a long time!!
Friday, September 19, 2014
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Progress is being made!
So we've been on a huge decorating hiatus because we just got overwhelmed - as did our wallets - so we stopped making these big decisions. BUT we've started up again and I can't wait to show you what we've come up with. As a tease, what we've been working on...
- 2nd Guestroom
- Living Room coffee table (to replace our current glass one)
- Kittens (that's right, we adopted two kitties)
- To be decided this week: basement TV stand because the aforementioned item(s) are just too curious and love all of the cords and cables that are on the ground right now.
I just got the notification that our coffee table has shipped, so hopefully we'll have updated photos this weekend!! Nothing is better than updating the blog (finally) with a kitten or two in my lap :)
Until later...
Friday, June 20, 2014
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!
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:
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!):
Thursday, June 5, 2014
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!)
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!)
Monday, May 12, 2014
Online Furniture Shopping
The next items to come in our list of priorities:
Living room coffee table - right now we have the glass one, which is so pretty! But we're finding that it's not so functional for the space that we've turned our living room into. We hang out upstairs a lot more than I think we planned on. We watch a lot of our shows upstairs (in the living room) instead of going into the basement. We want our living room to reflect more of a comfortable and casual kind of place, so we're thinking a wooden type piece, something like this:
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| Coffee Table from World Market |
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| Love the Coffee table - image from arhitekturaplus |
Dining Room chairs - we have a set of 4, plus two dining room tables, but I'm not so much a fan of the chairs. They're not the nicest (they're pretty), but just not what we're going to want long-term. I thought about how cool it would be to resurface an older set, if I found some at an estate sale, antique shop, etc. But I'm not sold on that anymore. Instead, here are a few options I thought of:
Dining Chairs #2 by krista-montes featuring italian furniture
The patterned ones would be the heads of the table (although i'd like something pretty different for the heads, maybe with arms, or semi-arms.
Also, an accent chair for the living room is what I'd love right now to create a reading nook of sorts with a cute side table and a basket for magazines/blankets, etc. But again, we're needing to find a rug that we love too. All in due time...
My point really for this post was to showcase the websites I frequent for furniture, and to gather other input as well. What other sites (fairly priced) am I missing out on!?
Hay Needle (love their styleboards)
Stores: Target, Kohls, C&B 2, West Elm (sometimes, usually their sale section)
What other ones are good? I'm sure I'm forgetting some off my own list.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Joss & Main, How I Love You
So, can I furnish my house in everything Joss & Main?? Please? Every day I look forward to my daily sale email, and every day I find myself sifting through dozens of amazing pieces while simultaneously drooling over these gorgeous tables and chairs, all while checking my bank account, wishing and hoping that the headboard, side tables and rugs will all fit into my cart.
Some of the pieces I found today actually weren't too bad. Maybe someday soon I'll actually pull the trigger and buy one (or three)...
So three pretty different headboards (especially the first and second), but each give off a different, yet similar vibe. Comfortable and inviting. I'd probably go with the first or second though (looking at the bottom layout).
And then these pieces for the breakfast nook. Now, I know these colors don't necessarily go together, but it's the theme I'm really looking for. The hard, thick wood of a table, with some fun chairs. I don't want anything too fancy, I'm looking more for cozy and comfortable. Notice a theme here? At some point down the road, I'd imagine weeknight family dinners at this table, so I want it to be durable for kids, and super functional and fun.
Some of the pieces I found today actually weren't too bad. Maybe someday soon I'll actually pull the trigger and buy one (or three)...
So three pretty different headboards (especially the first and second), but each give off a different, yet similar vibe. Comfortable and inviting. I'd probably go with the first or second though (looking at the bottom layout).
And then you have some pretty ottomans that would be great in the living room! The only thing I struggle with is not wanting an ottoman to double as a coffee table, so it would have to find a happy place in the living room which I'm just not so sure about.
Breakfast Nook by krista-montes on Polyvore
Be sure to check out my Pinterest Kitchen, Bedrooms & Living Room Boards for more of my ideas and inspiration that I hope to actually put into action one day.
Monday, May 5, 2014
Our First Overnight Guests!
I had big plans to post updates of our house last week, but it really just got away from me! Monday was Monday, and let's be real, not much gets done that night. Tuesday was the Wizards game so we went across the street to watch it with neighbors, after going to dinner at our neighborhood hole-in-the-wall for some half-priced pizza. I've been there many times before, usually after Christmas tree picking with my family since our go-to place is right across the street. But it was Mr. K's first time there, and he approved. Loved meeting some of the locals. Back to our weeknight plans, my dad came over for dinner on Wednesday night, and Thursday night we had our first softball game of the season (and we won!). Friday night was happy hour with some high school girlfriends at Rosa Mexicano ($14 pitchers of sangria and Guac on Tap, anyone?!). So now that you know what I did all last week, let's get to the good stuff.
We had to make sure the guest room was all set for our very first overnight guests (hey Becker & Laura)! This is what it looked like less than 24 hours before they were arriving:
Paper shades from Home Depot have been a lifesaver throughout the whole house, and we put up in this room and the one across the hall because it's my favorite room (tons of sunlight), so I'm hoping I'll start using it as a yoga room or a zen room or something. maybe. we'll see. Until we get buy light fixtures for all the rooms upstairs (we have the wiring done, we just need to get the actual lights), a tall, standing lamp will have do. That's what we have in our Master for now, and it's been fine.
The bed that's going in there was in pieces in the room next door and the mattress was just on the floor in the room across the hall.
So this bed... it's our Ikea bed with the storage drawers underneath from our old apartment. We took it apart pretty quickly when we were moving out and the directions were nowhere to be found. We were doomed you might think, but luckily we were able to put it back together in less than an hour! So without further a due, the guest room:
Lastly, these end/bedside tables! I love these.
When we were across the street at our neighbor's house, they gave us a tour, I saw these tables against a wall in their master bedroom and commented on how I loved them. My neighbor said, "do you want them? They don't fit with our furniture in here." So of course I had to! We're so appreciative that they gave them to us, they're such cool pieces and I cant wait to really create a room around them!!
And with that, we give you our first guest room! This is probably it for awhile in terms of decorations until we really decide on a theme for the room, but it will come together at some point! Up next, the kitchen and living room updates!
We had to make sure the guest room was all set for our very first overnight guests (hey Becker & Laura)! This is what it looked like less than 24 hours before they were arriving:
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| Front-facing windows |
The bed that's going in there was in pieces in the room next door and the mattress was just on the floor in the room across the hall.
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| Middle bedroom with the bed pieces |
Lastly, these end/bedside tables! I love these.
When we were across the street at our neighbor's house, they gave us a tour, I saw these tables against a wall in their master bedroom and commented on how I loved them. My neighbor said, "do you want them? They don't fit with our furniture in here." So of course I had to! We're so appreciative that they gave them to us, they're such cool pieces and I cant wait to really create a room around them!!
And with that, we give you our first guest room! This is probably it for awhile in terms of decorations until we really decide on a theme for the room, but it will come together at some point! Up next, the kitchen and living room updates!
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