Maybe A Cool Idea

When my family first moved to Maine, we lived with my grandpa for a year. He lived down a dirt road, where the houses were spread out, most of the neighbors were gone during the year, and the road ended at a nice sandy little beach. If that doesn't sound enough like a kid's dream land, get this: there were these really pretty little paths that snaked through the woods, starting just after my grandpa's house and ending just before the lake. What's more, they were open to the residents of the "neighborhood", so it was perfectly fine for me to run up and down those paths by foot or bike as much as I wanted. They were maybe the coolest part of living with my grandpa (besides, you know, getting living with my grandpa--who is, coincidentally, really cool).

The reason I bring this all up is because I would really love for their to be paths on our property. You see, we have about three acres going here, and while much of it is opened up (and filled with crazy huge gardens that are going to take the rest of my life to tackle), we have nice little swaths of woods that are within our property line on either side of the house. 

Wouldn't it be neat to create a little path that travels along the outskirts of our property, line it with pretty shade-loving plants, and maybe even lanterns and solar-powered string lights? I think that would be so freaking awesome! It also might make us the coolest house to hang out at in the world. It has such a wimsical fairy-Harry Potter-Midsummer's Night Dream groom to it. 

Okay, as if I wasn't convinced before, I am now. We're totally doing this. 

Movin' on Up!

Quite some time ago, when we first purchased this house, I showed you these picture of our upstairs:

Left side.

More left side.

Right side.

More right side.

That was waaaaaay back early last spring (April?). Since then, my AH-mazing dad (seen in "More left side") has taken this big open space and created TWO bedrooms. You see, the house was listed as a two-bedroomer, but one bedroom was in the basement (which is now our den) and the second was the massive upstairs bedroom, shown above (when we first looked at it there were a few beds set up sort of dormitory style). With a little one, this just wasn't going to work, so my dad sat down, created a new floor plan, and set to work. (I've recently informed my father he NEEDS to start a blog to showcase all the awesome stuff he's done in our house and his own, and maybe try some how-tos. He's got mad skillz when it comes to this stuff.)

Anywho, this is what where we're living now:

Left side, our bedroom.

Just had to show these off--they're pillows I made!

Other side of our bedroom.

Right side, Lizzie's bedroom.

I know, her window is crazy big (and beautiful, my dad and DOH installed this new one). Currently, there is a heavy bookshelf in front of this window prevent any little people from tumbling out.

Her closet and the chimney (which she thinks is so cool; she asks if Santa is going to leave her presents in her room ALL the time).

More chimney! What Lizzie's room lacks in width is made up by height. She has an awesome vaulted ceiling and when we get the ladder back down and she's a bit older, she'll have access to the loft that's just above our room.



The beams that go over her room. She now has a beautiful light-up paper star hanging from there as her bedroom light.

While anything was better than living in our old apartment, it was really nice to move ourselves to the upstairs bedrooms after a couple of weeks of all of us sharing a bedroom (and bed, most nights). It felt so good to be able to spread out and have our own rooms again! And, on top of it, they are such beautiful spaces. The last time I got to pick the color of any room, let alone two (and, of course, we've chosen colors for other rooms, too, but they're waiting to be painted), I was ten, so it was lots of fun deciding what we were going to do (seen in this post here).

A lot of things have changed since I last posted a "tour" of the house, so I might have to do that again, soon, or at least post the rooms that have changed. A lot still needs to be done both inside and out (the garden is INTENSE here--I ought to post some pictures of that, too), but slowly and surely we're getting there. My hope is that everything basic that we want to get done inside will be done by Christmas, if not sooner. Here's a short list of what we (and when I say "we", it's a combo of me, DOH, and my dad) need to complete:

• Repair the ceiling over the dining area (there was some water damage).
• Install the new side door.
• Paint the new stair treads and banister.
• Paint the upstairs bathroom and tub.
• Paint, stencil, or wallpaper the sections of the main floor that are currently covered in the hideous grandma wallpaper.

It's really not that much to get done, for which I'm thankful, considering I grew up in two houses that had to have MAJOR renovations done (like, entire sections of houses needing to be rebuilt and rewired). Also, a little more decorating needs to happen, so I'm looking forward to slowly but surely picking up a few pieces to add some character to the rooms in this house.

But regardless of what does get done and when, I'm eternally thankful to have this house, beautiful lot, and my family living in it. It doesn't get much better than that.





Party Time, It's Sofa Time!

The sofa FINALLY came today! I'm so, so happy! I was getting pretty tired of sitting in the super uncomfy rocker/glider and now I have a whole sofa to stretch out on. Plus, our families are pleased that there is finally a place for them to crash when they come over and stay late, since the sofa is a pull-out.

Here are some pics:

Here it is, with our FREE throw pillows that we got with the sofa.

Lizzie's pretty pumped about it. We've already used it as a car to driver her to school.

Lizzie pretending to be asleep as the sofa is pulled out.

Things Slow Down...And I Don't Mind

Door to our sauna.

So...We're still all sleeping on our mattress in the basement.

(I failed to mention this before, because I didn't think we'd still be down there after nearly a month in the house.)

We're relying a lot on our own manpower, and my dad's. He's renovated two homes, plus does home inspections--he's our expert, but is a busy, busy dude, so his help comes in spurts. So, while a lot of work has gotten accomplished (like, turning a large, open room into two, functional bedrooms), we've sort stalled. My dad's business has picked up more lately (yay!), DOH is working his butt off before he starts his new job in about a week and a half, and I have a three year old who makes it just a bit difficult to get much done.

So, we're left to the basement, all crammed in with the few boxes left to be unpacked (of course, it is a finished basement, and we have use of the rest of the house, but after nearly two years of our own bedrooms with Lizzie very rarely coming into bed with us, it's an adjustment, for sure). And while, had I foreseen this situation prior to moving in, I would have dreaded it, in reality, I'm really okay with it. Really.

There is something cozy about all of us snuggled in bed, waking up together on the days DOH is home, and sharing that extra time together that we ordinarily wouldn't get. What's more, after five years of dorm/apartment living, I cannot be anything but thankful for our home, no matter how...uncomfortable...the conditions currently are. I spent nearly half my life living in a house that was perpetually being renovated, so, this sort of semi-nomadic feeling (DOH and I have decided it feels like we're camping, which makes it a little bit more fun) is something I'm totally used to, if not entirely fond of.

The construction project that is our bedrooms (then will be our stairway, and part of the living area, and the upstairs bathroom, though those are all minor), will eventually come to an end, and we'll move our things up there, go back to having our seperate bedrooms, and things will resume a more normal, less camp-y feel, but I know I will look back on this very brief period in our first family home and feel a strong sense of our family, how much we love one another, and how very lucky we are to have what we have.

Good News, Bad News

I feel like every time I blog or talk about something in detail, it winds up not happening. *Sad face* Remember that lovely toile wallpaper I wrote about in the last post? Well, we misread how they listed the prices and it would have cost us well over a $100 dollars (like, $170+) just to wall paper a teeny section of our home. Not worth it.

While I really would have loved to gotten that wallpaper, we just couldn't justify it and figure we'll be taking a trip to Home Depot and pick out some nice but much less expensive wallpaper that we won't feel as bad about spending money on, being exposed to a small child (and someday children) and a small animal (and someday small animals), and feel like we can change, if we want, a few years down the road.

But I am a bit bummed, because I loved the paper, and I hate moving into the house with that stuff still on the walls (especially since I ripped some of it off already...thankfully not too much; sometimes I'm just too impulsive). And our Home Depot trip probably won't be for a few more weeks, so I guess I'm going to have to live with the stuff. I'll keep you updated.

Now on to the good news! As I mentioned Friday, my mom and I were on a mission to find a sofa for our upstairs living room area. The finished basement will have two couches from my parents' house (my mom is giving us a ton of stuff so she has a reason to go get nice, fun stuff, which is great since she went so many freaking years without new furniture--like, 20), but the upstairs needed something, too.

Mom and I set out early Saturday morning and headed south, towards Portland (a.k.a. civilization). Our first (and what ended up being our only) stop was Gobeil's, a furniture store in Gray, Maine that is, unfortunately, going out of business. However, sometimes these things can work to a consumer's benefit, which is why I was able to score a lovely Flexsteel sleeper sofa (bringing out number of sleeper sofas up to TWO, which is really awesome).

So, this isn't the exact sofa we got, but it's very similar. We love it. It is coming in this pretty, warm brownish color that the company is calling topaz, and the fabric is super, super soft and feels really nice, plus, as the sales woman was explaining, is pretty hardy when it comes to stains (which I know is something we have to worry about with Lizzie). We also were able to get two free throw pillows in a really pretty floral pattern. While I'm all about making my own pillows, it's kind of nice to get two free throw pillows, especially in a fabric that I actually like.

Delivery won't be for another few weeks (4 to 6), but we're moving into the new house on Friday. We currently have those free metal chairs I wrote about some time ago sitting in the living room, so, for now, that's going to be our seating in that area. A little uncomfortable, but it'll be so worth it when the couch finally arrives, especially after futon use for the last three years. Ugh.

Paper

I'm back! Between graduation, the temporary loss of my powercord for my laptop, and a couple of busy days (including a job interview and a day of subbing at my old middle school), I just haven't had any time. Who knew the end of school would leave me with so little free time?

Anyway, we have a couple small developments with the house (which we're moving into in about a week!). First of all, and pictures, I promise, are coming soon, my dad has started to divide the top floor into two seperate rooms. The "bones" of the rooms are up and he and DOH have started putting in wallboard. Once that's done, I'll paint. And while I posted about the paint colors here, they've changed slightly. Here's what we're going with now:
Lettuce Be Green (California Paints)
Morning Mist (California Paints)
They're slightly lighter than the original colors. My mom convinced me to go lighter because the bedrooms are going to be on the small side and the other colors, while great, where going to be just too bright and therefore overwhelming.

So, with the bedroom paints officially picked, the next thing we needed to tackle was the downstairs room and wallpaper. The downstairs "room" is really one big, multi-use room. It's our kitchen, dining room, and living room (plus we have a family room/mancave in the basement). There is one section that is wallpapered (the dining area), while there are two other walls that are painted (the livingroom is a really catchy red, that I LOVE, while the kitchen walls are green. Here's what the dining area looks like:

I know it's hard to see the wallpaper clearly (it's a sort of leafy, grapey, green/yellow color scheme), but I think that maybe you can tell it's not so hot. (Also note, the furniture is not ours. This picture was taken before the owners moved their stuff out. Also, also note, the incredibly horrible railing--if you can call it that--on the stairs is currently being replaced with one that Lizzie won't fall through.) Frankly, I hate the wallpaper. It's the one detail in the whole house that makes me cringe. I feel like it belongs as a print on an elderly lady's moomoo. Not attractive on anyone or anything, especially my walls.

So, the search for new wallpaper began. Initially I figured we'd go sort of arts and crafts/folk artsy, since that is the general vibe of the house. I grabbed a whole library's worth of wallpaper books from our local interior decorating store, flipped through the books, and marked a whole bunch of stuff. Then DOH stepped into the picture.

Unlike the stereotypical American husband, DOH very much likes giving me his opinion in how things like decorating will go (he was very involved in the planning of our wedding, much to my chagrin, since we are both somewhat type A when it comes to those sorts of things). As he flipped through the pages I'd marked, his responses to what I thought would look good and what I thought he would like were sort of "eh." Then he got to one of the pages I'd marked just for fun, not really thinking he'd go for or if it would even work for the house.

It was a toile. (If you're not familiar with toile, check this out.) It was green. We both loved it. But it wasn't right for the house. The color was off and the scenes were a bit too formal, so we continued looking. The next day I went back to the decorating store, returned a few books and picked up this gem: the Ashford House wallpaper book (sounds very posh, doesn't it?). It was an entire book of toiles. DOH was in wallpaper heaven.

This is what we eventually picked, which I love:

While it's not the traditional toile (with the formal little scenes of pastoral life), it is in a similar style and I think it fits well with the feeling of the house and the landscape we're in (lots of trees, wildlife, and land around us...I know, I need to post pictures). The colors are exactly what we need, and I think it will add a level of sophisitication to the house that wasn't there before. It will be the way we really make the house our own, which I feel like we need to do, because the house has so many distinct features put in by the previous owner.

The next thing on the list (besides actually wallpapering) is to get a sofa for the upstairs. We're getting the sofas in my parents' playroom (or, I should say, my brother's playroom) for our basement family room, but we still need something for the upstairs. Tomorrow my mom and I are going sofa shopping. We'll see what we'll find!

Whoa.

I went to the new house this weekend with my mom and we walked around the yard for a bit, trying to figure out what the different plants that were popping up were, and deciding what work needs to be done.

Holy fuzzibuns there is a lot of work to do.

While there is a lot of gorgeous plant life beginning to crop up (pictures at another time--maybe next weekend?), like peonies (YAY!), roses, tulips, and bee balm (my favorite flowers), the garden has not been tended for a couple of years and there is a lot of much needed raking, cutting back, and just plain old weeding and plant removal that needs to be done. And besides that, the stone walls that surround the property (so charming) need to be fixed up a bit along with the brick walkway coming up to the front door.

Granted, some of this stuff can be accomplished by DOH. He made quick work of the stone-ringed fire pit this weekend and did a great job, but he's not much of a gardener. And while I'm not much of one either, I think I have more ambition to become one than he does. Which means much of this work will fall on me.

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. Though much of my undergraduate work will be done after tomorrow (I can't believe I just wrote that--whole other post going on there), I don't have this endless amount of time to work on the gardens at the new house between now and when we move in. And though I don't expect to have everything done by the move in date (that would be stupid, considering how much we have to get done inside the house before we do actually move in), I want to get started as soon as possible, because I want to have a good sense of what everything looks like when it's decently groomed so I know what I want to keep and what I need/want to go. Plus, I am planning on (who knows if this is what will happen) having my graduation party in July at the new house. I'd like everything to look...nice (read: perfect).

Of course, I'm putting too much pressure on myself (something I am really excellent at). It's not like it's imperative that I get all my gardens in perfect order now (or any time soon or...ever). But I want to get started. I want to do it all. But it's so much. And I'm feeling overwhelmed by it, especially when I think of it in conjunction with all the cleaning/painting/fixing/spending of money that we have to do. It's enough to bowl a girl completely over.

This whole house buying thing, while totally awesome, is also a lot of work (if you weren't already of aware of that fact). I'm thinking some lists are in order (the cure for all things overwhelming--thank God for stickies on my computer).

I Have a Problem

I'll be the first to admit I'm no housekeeper. I never seem to have the time, energy, or attention span to sustain any sort of cleaning regimen. It gets done when it gets done. My goal the last couple of years has been to at least keep things sanitary, clean, and smelling...not gross, if not nice. It may be cluttered, but at least you're not going to catch some sort of bizarre disease if you come into our home. I know that's not a very high standard (you neat freaks can feel good about yourselves as you read this :-p), but that's just how it is at the moment.

Actually, at this very moment, our aparment is not only not disgusting, but is relatively organized and clean, as it should be, because I've spent the last three mornings working on picking this up and organzing them (I still have a couple of sinkloads worth of dishes to do--for realz--but that takes forever, because our hot water runs out so quickly). One of the big projects I had on the list was laundry.

Of all the chores I have around the apartment, laundry is the least painful. I can start up the washing machine or dryer, let it go for an hour, then come back and fold the laundry while watching T.V. or listening to the radio. It's relaxing and I don't have to dedicate an extended period of unbroken time to it (unlike washing all our dishes, which I have to do by hand). However, since we live in an apartment building that has a shared laundry facility, we don't just pop our clothes in the washer or dryer and let it go. You have to have quarters. $2.75 worth of quarters to be exact.

For whatever reason, we've always been bad about remembering to get quarters. While DOH sort of collects change (he doesn't ever really use it for some reason), he never seems to remember to bring in quarters for me and I never seem to remember to ask. Like a lot of my housekeeping duties, laundry gets shoved to the bottom of the list. This has resulted in a literal mountain of laundry. I'd show you a picture, but honestly, it's a little embarrassing. Admittedly, some of the clothes in our launry "pile" have been sitting there since we lived in our old apartment (which we moved out of in July 2009).

So, my goal for this weekend, in addition to to just getting some of our clothes washed so I had something to wear at home besides pajama bottoms, was to organize what we had and decide what could be packed up and sent to the new house. Now, don't think I'm starting that horrible cycle of leaving clothes to sit and never be washed after a move. Because I can finally (FINALLY) wash clothing without having to have an absurd number of quarters on hand, my intention is to get ALL of that laundry done and to have it organized even further (donate, keep, chuck or upcycle). So, once everything was said and done yesterday, this is what I had:
Okay, there was supposed to be a nice little example picture here, BUT for some reason I'm unable to upload it :-/ Maybe later.

The picture would show you a sizable amount of laundry still yet to be washed, BUT it was all neatly organzied into baskets, just waiting to be hauled off to the laundry room. And then I had a shot of my bed, where I had piled five (six?) trashbags FILLED with laundry that's heading to the new house this coming weekend. All this laundry will be done at the new house (maybe in a new washer and dryer?). Where are we going to put six bags of dirty laundry for a week in our insanely tiny apartment? Oh, they're still hanging out in our bedroom, piled up by myside of the bed. That's fun.

So, with all this wonderful access to my own laundry facility and even a line to hang laundry so it can dry outside in addition to using the dryer (I love the smell of laundry dried outside), my assumption is that more laundry will get done. Clearly, if that's not the case, then I really do have a problem.

Top Ten Reasons I Can't WAIT to Move, I Hate My Neighbors Edition

1.  I'd like to be able to open a window without worrying about the following: overhearing the neighbors, smelling cigarette smoke, or worrying about the cat getting out.
2. Having grass would be nice.  
3. Being able to use the laundry room without having weird neighbors up your ass, taking your laundry out of the dryer before it's dry, and hogging the machines. 
4. On the same note as number four: not having to hoard quarters. 
5. Not having to smell pot smoke wafting down from upstairs.
6. Not having our upstairs neighbors.
7. Not having neighbors. Period. 
8. Being able to spread out and leave our crap everywhere. 
9. Not being chased (literally chased) down the road by the random religious folk bearing fliers who appear in the downtown a few times a year. 
10. Being able to shower without a kid tapping on the window to say, "Hi!"

Welcome to Our Home

DOH, Lizzie, and I all went over to the new house with my parents (our renovation/interior design experts) earrrrrly this morning to get measurements and the like done (as described here). We took a whole bunch of pictures in addition getting our measurements and deciding what furniture we'd like to bargain for. I'm going to post come pictures here and give you a little tour!

This is the living room. We aren't likely to change things too drastically in here, other than mounting a smallish flat screen in the corner were the big arm chair is, adding our own furnture and hanging up some artwork. We like the wall and woodwork color. We're still debating what will happen with the double doors. DOH wants, and why I don't know, vertical blinds. Yuck. I'm pushing for regular, horizontal blinds, or, better yet, curtains, preferrably sheers.

Here's the kitchen, which is just on the other side of the living room area. Between the chimney and the wall that's opposite the wall with the fridge is space for a decenly sized kitchen table (which is where we're putting the beautiful pine table my grandfather made and was in my grandparents home for well over 50 years). Over by the counter is the wicked cute hoosier, which has a flour sifter in it. It needs some minor repairs and painting. We're hoping the seller is willing to part with it as we think it's an adorable feature in the kitchen. The countertops are marble, which we love, and we think we'll keep the cabinets the same color (but maybe give them a fresh coat of paint and, um, add some knobs). There's also some wall paper on one side of the room and on another side in the living room area, but I completely forgot to take pictures of those areas. Anyway, the wallpaper is...eh. I really don't like it and DOH isn't a fan either, but he's more than willing to live with it for now. We'll see.

This is the side entry, with a little communication center. I love the idea, but I think it needs a bit of updating and personal touches done to it. I haven't even begun to think of what I'd do, but I'm thinking something more personal, with family pictures, and slightly more organized. We can definitely make use of that bulletin board!

Here's the half bath that's just to your left as you enter the house. It's small, but cute, and will be very convenient to have when we're desperate for a place to pee and the other is using the full bath upstairs. You can also catch a little glimpse of that gross wallpaper on the right side of the picture.

As you come up the stairs (again, another picture I totally forgot to take), you see this beautiful, multi-paned window. I. LOVE. This. Spot. DOH gets the basement room, Lizzie gets her own special space in her room, and this will be mine. I'm picturing the bench (which opens up for convenient storage) covered with a long, comfy cushion, a couple of throw pillows. I want a lap desk, too, so I can get work done while relaxing by the window.

These are front and the right and left views of the upstairs room (featuring my dad and DOH), which we will be dividing into two rooms and a small hallway. The ladder leads up to a small loft area which we'll be using for extra storage. While we really need the extra bedroom (there is a room in the basement that was used as  a bedroom, but we don't want to be on two seperate levels), I hate the fact that we'll be eliminating a bit of the natural lighting.

Another reason why I love our new house--all these sweet little details.

The lovely clawfoot tub, though I definitely think it needs a new coat of paint.

While I'm a big fan of the bathroom in terms of size, I'm less of a fan of the color. I want something lighter, though still neutral, that will be relaxing and make the bathroom a bit of an oasis. I want that whole upstairs, a place where no one but family will really be going, to be an escape--a calming, beautiful, place where we can go to relax and unwind. 

So, believe it or not, that's the house, for the most part. At some point I'll have to post pictures of the outside, but I think I'm going to wait until the rest of the snow melts (yes, we still have snow) and things dry up a bit. In addition to the house itself, there is also a really good sized garage and a sauna as well (Now, don't get all worked up when you hear the word sauna--it's a seperate outbuilding with electricity that has a pump for water, a woodstove, and some rocks. You heat the rocks, poor water over them, and voila, sauna. Not too fancy.)

The house is small, but it's just right for our family at the moment and we feel blessed to call it ours.

Early Bird Catches the...Furniture?

Eight o'clock, Sunday morning, new house. That's where we're going to be. While I know DOH is not going to be thrilled at the prospect, that's what needs to be done if we want to take measurements of the rooms and take account of what furniture we might be interested in buying off the seller (we haven't completely closed on the house yet--everything still needs to go through; we're looking at another week or so).

At the crack of dawn, we'll make our way down from the western mountains to our new house (I always feel like we're returning to civilization when we drive down to visit our families). We'll go through each and every room, take some pictures, make some measurements (which may lead to furniture shopping later in the day--yay!), and decide if we want some stuff.

There was a lovely old hutch (I don't know if that's the official word for the piece of furniture, but that's sort of what it made me think of) in the kitchen that I know if I don't take it, my mom will want it. There was also a bed in the basement level bedroom that, if it's a queen (I can't remember) we'll probably take. There's also a sofa and a coffee table in the living room that we were interested in. And the bathroom had some lovely storage cabinets that I'd really love to hang on to.

Hanging on to all this stuff will make our lives a little easier, considering we're going from broken down college student furniture to real people furniture. Good-bye futons and milk crates! (Seriously.) We can't afford to buy a lot of furniture ourselves, so we're relying on getting some of this stuff at a slightly discounted rate, plus my parents have offered to buy us a sleeper sofa for the basement room, which will become DOH's "man cave" (side tangent - in my literary theory course last semester a guy did a 20 page psycho-analysis paper on the concept of the "man cave"--it was really interesting!). There is some furniture in storage that we got from my grandmother's house after she passed away, but it's unlikely much of it, if any, will make into our new house. I suppose my family will end up selling a lot of it.

Anyway, even if we decide we want none of the furniture in the house, I'm really looking forward to just being back there. I love that house (our house) and I'm looking forward to being in it and knowing it's going to be the place where our family will be living. I also can't wait to snap some pictures to share!

Fresh Paint

The last time I got to paint a room I was ten. My parents had been renovating our house for nearly and year, and it was finally at the point where it was sort of becoming a livable space. Finally, I was going to be able to have my own room with a four poster bed and a beautiful view of the lake. I chose to sponge paint my room blue. "It'll be like living in a cloud," I had said. It was nice...until it wasn't any more. It felt very juvenile at one point, particularly when my sensibilities were becoming more sophisticated (or so I thought). My parents toyed with the idea of letting me paint my room again towards the end of high school (red, with a kind of Far East/Indian theme), but they were a bit preoccupied with making the rest of the house suitable for the presence of people who weren't limited to our small four person family. My bedroom just wasn't top priority.

Now, some years later, I've finally come to a point where not only do I get to paint my bedroom, but an entire house. While the downstairs areas will likely be left for another time (except for the basement), the upstairs has to be reconfigured, so we'll get a chance to do fresh paint right away. So, we'll be painting a hallway and two bedrooms (ours and Lizzie's).

I had two clear ideas on what colors I wanted our bedroom and Lizzie's room to be. First of all, our bedroom. What woman doesn't want a little something from Tiffany's? I know that it's not likely DOH is ever going to pick up something for me that comes in the signature little blue box, but why not pay homage with a spiffy coat of that beautiful blue?

 

When we were in Home Depot yesterday (killing time while we waited to hear back from the buyer), I picked up a bunch of different paint swatches. While "Tiffany Blue" is a trademarked color, I did find something that I thought was, if not the exact same color, was strikingly similar:

 Pretty close, eh? And, of course, the color looks much more vibrant and rich in person (this is Glidden paint, by the way). Computers never quite do color justice. I finally convinced my husband this was the color to go with. He was a little reluctant at first (and this was without me pointing out that it was the color of a Tiffany's box), but I think in the end he realized it was best to just go along with me. Besides, it's a lovely color, it's soothing, but not boring, and I don't think it will overwhelm what will a rather small bedroom. 

Lizzie's room, now that was a bit of challenge. Of course, like many little girls her age, she loves pink. I'm not doing a pink room. The hope is that we'll be in this house for long time and while I expect that we'll probably be repainting rooms, including Lizzie's, at some point, I don't want to have to repaint every year. I would like to give her room a fun color that has some longevity, regardless of where her tastes and interest go. This led me to the color. It looks cute with pink, girly stuff, and it still works with less girly stuff (and, if Liz ever has to share her room with a male sibling for a bit, the green could work for him, too).

Then question was, what kind of green. I immediately wrote off any sort of dark green. It would overwhelm the room and look too adult and/or masculine. I also didn't want to do a pastel green--that would be too babyish after a while, or, if going in another direction, it might wind up looking to sophisticated for a little girl's room. When I found my "True Turquoise" with the Glidden paint, I also found "Fresh Green Grass": 

  

I looooove this color (again, though, it looks way nicer in person). It's crisp, fresh (as the name suggests), and the perfect color for a little girl's room. 

I'm so excited to get started on painting. Our move in date is June 1st, and we're PUMPED. This means we'll be getting the painting done pretty soon (probably as soon as the closing is official). This is going to be pretty awesome.

It's Ours! (Almost)

We finally (FINALLY!) heard back from the seller. He countered our offer (again), coming up just $2,000. We took it.

I cannot tell you the relief I'm feeling tonight (and the complete and total joy of knowing we are going to have a house). While things won't feel completely real until closing and even more so once we're officially out of our apartment and into the new house, I'm definitely chanting the, "It's ours. It's ours. It's ours," chant in the back of my mind. I've been fantasizing about this house since we saw first saw it and now I can really start planning in earnest (look out for a paint color post soon).

And, of course, amongst all my excitement and current brain-shift into full-on nesting mode (similar to what I experienced when I was pregnant), there is the new found anxiety of what it means to be a home-owner. We'll encounter expenses we did not as apartment-dwellers (I don't say this with any disdain, by the way--we've enjoyed our apartments, but have come to a point where it's just not working for our family), such as paying for oil/gas, a presumably larger electric bill, and home and yard maintenance. (I'm sure there are other things that I'm missing, but bare with me, it's just about 11:30 at night and I've been up since 6 AM.) I'm not so much worried about how we will handle these things, because I know we'll do it, but I do worry about the strain. I worry about money. I worry when I have it and I worry when I don't. I worry about how we're going to get it (i.e. how, when, where I'm going to get a job after graduation in May).

This may very well mean tightening our belts more than we're used to and forgoing a few purchases we were hoping to make. It also means I'm forcing myself and the Dear Old Husband (DOH--and yes, it is pronounced "Doh!", as in Homer Simpson's catch-phrase) into a crash course on personal finances. I imagine DOH and I will be spending the next couple of months curled up next to each other with a couple of books on personal finances and my laptop, pursing out our funds to the pertinent areas on a family budget.

But for tonight (what's left of it), I'm just going to enjoy the fact that we have (or will very shortly have) a home. A yard for our daughter to play in, a large open living space to spend time with friends and family in, no crazy neighbors crashing around above your head at 1:30 in the morning, and much closer to where we want to be (figuratively and geographically).