Unpacking, Uncluttering, Un-enjoyable :)

We're moved into the new house! Finally, and we have about half of it unpacked. We are counting down the days now to our obx vacation which is much needed at this point. My dad brought Aaron and I these two chairs which I love! They could use some reupholstering but they are really neat, plus any deck furniture at this point is a plus! Aaron's mom also brought us four different potted tomato plants for the deck since there wasn't any time this year for garden planting.

I only have a picture of part of the kitchen to release for right now :) the kitchen is still a work in progress but it should be done soon. I'll also post pictures of the remainder of the house later, it hasn't changed much, now there are just things filling all the empty spaces. The Home Goods store opened up down in Collegeville so I finally got to experience it and I wish I hadn't! There were cart loads of things I would have purchased given less restraint. I did manage however buy two lamps for the living room, a mirror/artwork stand for the bedroom, and a decorative mirror that we'll be hanging in the living room. For now I have the mirror on the stand for the effect.

We ended up buying all of our appliances this week, the refrigerator came first since our old one decided to die during the move. As you can tell we haven't finished the doors on the cabinets yet, or the countertops, or the backsplash...or the base of the cabinets for that matter. But like I said it's coming right along! Below are my Home Good purchases:

We plan on getting everything (as much as humanly possible) unpacked this weekend, the stove and dishwasher should be coming soon, either today or Monday. Then in a few short days we'll be laying on the beach drinking margaritas :) I'll try and be more diligent about updating our progress now that we are moved in!

Moving Day!

Here it is two months to the day since Aaron and I bought our first home and we will be officially moved into it on Saturday! It's hard to believe it has been two months already! I'm anxious to be in the house and start unpacking and rearranging what little bit of furniture I feel we have. Patience Patience Patience, one of those little things I absolutely do not have. I want all the furniture, decorations, appliances, lights, and fixtures right  now as well as wanting to take numerous vacations this year and we just can't have it all I suppose.

I've been wanting to take an elaborate vacation and am having a hard time waiting until the "Big Day" (whenever that might be) to take one,  so for now I'm planning a Napa getaway and hope those plans hold for this September. Some wine and travels will do us good after this busy transition we're having into home ownership. Moving week has commenced and the big moving day is on Saturday. Updated Kitchen pictures to follow!

Artwork for the kitchen

Today Aaron made one last push to finish as much as he could before going back to work. The tile is all laid and grouted and it looks awesome! The tile needs to be cleaned up a bit but I think we are so close to pulling this all together before we move in and I'm getting really excited.

I'm jumping ahead of myself and if Aaron knew I was trying to buy art for the walls already he'd likely say "It's not time for that yet, we still have to finish the cabinets, molding, baseboard, light, build the island, and buy the appliances. But what's a kitchen without paintings on the walls?! Either way I ventured on over to Overstock and decided on some pieces that are a signature for our kitchen.

Now if someone could go ahead and paint these for me, I would love an amateur (or professional) version :)

Here are the best pictures I could grab of the kitchen floor when I was over there this evening. There isn't a light in the kitchen yet so it was a little dark to take the picture but it still turned out pretty well. I think the grout looks wonderful and I can't wait to see what the before and after pictures of the kitchen look like.

Also due to my impatience and Lowe's not having the light fixture I orginially set out to find, I settled for one that was in stock and equally charming. It's a bronze traditional 5 light track that ties in nicely with the rest of the browns in the kitchen. (Purchased at Lowe's for $88)

It's a Coffee Tile weekend

We had lots of help this weekend from both our families and sunny (but very hot) weather. I should have taken a picture of the front of the house but forgot, Deb cut down the rest of the hedges that overtook the front of the house. It opened up the front and looks so much better already with just stumps haha. We just have to decide what to plant there now to make it pretty.

The men stuck to the kitchen for nearly 8 hours after a water pump scare. Thank goodness it was revived, what a disaster that would have been. My dad provided the tile saw, and with lots of man power the beautiful coffee tile turned our kitchen into a very inviting space (that is as long as you can close your eyes and envision, cabinets, appliances and a light fixture haha). All coming soon!

The grouting will be done tomorrow, we chose a grout color a bit lighter than the actual tile. The color is called haystack.  It's hard to tell the true color of the tile from these pictures (and all the dust) so i'll try and get some better pictures taken this week with the grout in place.

It's starting to finally hit me that I can do things to the house since I own it. It's a strange feeling having free range, but it also made me realize how many projects actually need to take place to get the house looking the way we envision!

Slowly looking like a Kitchen

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day Weekend. We decided to take a little break (I decided...) and go camping with some wonderful college friends down in Maryland. The weather was great and my dad went crabbing on Sunday so we even got to come home to a bushel of crabs and feast with the family (oh how I miss Maryland)

The kitchen is finally taking shape, we only have 23 more days to move out of our rental home so we are in crunch time now getting the kitchen to a functioning point. Here are a few updates:

I guess it's been about a week and a half at this point but we have managed to lay the hardie backerboard on the kitchen floor, tape and mortar the joints, patch holes in the wall, sand the walls, and primer.

Aaron's dad generously took a day to cut the backerboard to fit around the pipes and baseboards. We bought 4-50 lb bags of versabond tinset mortar (gray) to seal the boards to the floor. Home depot also sells special screws and bits to use to screw the board to the floor.

It's a long process but after we got all the boards down we had to tape the cracks with joint tape and then mortar over the tape.

We will be painting the walls today and laying the tile this weekend. The next pictures you should be up this weekend of the final paint and tile progress!

I'll also be discussing our cabinet situation once I have more time. We have decided to scratch the staining idea due to the type of wood and go with painting them a mocha brown color. Details to follow.