Bathroom Project

This past weekend I set a goal of getting one room finished.  The room of choice: the half bathroom on the main level.  I figured it is the smallest room of the house, so it had the best chance of getting finished.  My main issue with the bathroom was finding wall art that I liked and didn't cost an arm and a leg.  Finding art to fit my criteria wasn't easy.  I checked multiple TJ Maxx stores with no luck.  I cruised the internet and found plenty of art I liked, but nothing I was willing to ship from overseas.  I went to Michaels and Hobby Lobby thinking they might have something, but had no luck at either.  Finally, Friday night I went in to Gordmans on a whim and found just what I was looking for.  I hadn't been in Gordmans for a long time, and I can see why.  If ever I needed to spend $1000 in one place on home décor, that would be the place to do it.  I found tons of stuff I loved for other rooms in the house as well, but I focused on the bathroom. 

On Saturday, we made a Menards run for some bathroom towel holders and assorted other items.  While we were there, I picked up a couple of paint cards for possible bathroom paint colors.  The colors in the bathroom are gray and a golden yellow.  Check Pinterest sometime for gray paint colors and you will find out just how many gray options are out there.  I previously picked up some gray samples, but when I put them in the bathroom they looked more green than gray.  I was able to find the perfect colors at Menards in the Dutch Boy paint collection.  We went with an accent of Honest Abe and main color of Empire State.  I was going to go with the darker color for the whole bathroom, but Andrew suggested using it on only one wall and going with the lighter color on the others walls.  I'm glad I took his advice because I really think it would have been too dark with all the walls painted the accent color.  I opted to paint the wall over the sink in Honest Abe and use Empire State on the remaining three walls. 

I made sure to use Frog Tape to get clean lines on the edges where the two colors would meet because I wanted it to look crisp and not bleed into each other.  I have to say, I'm really happy with the way it turned out. 

 

The large wall as you walk into the bathroom was my DIY project.  We had several picture frames we used at our wedding that I have been trying to decide what to do with. 

 

We used the frames to line the aisle with photos of places we have either visited, or want to visit.  We have had about thirty of these frames sitting around since the wedding.  I have been waiting for some kind of a project to use them on, and came up with one for the bathroom.  I found wooden letters at Michaels that I painted gray with wood paint.  I bought yellow paint for the frames.  Luckily, I had some primer on hand because going from black frames to yellow took about three coats of primer for each frame.  I bought a café rod from Target, and this is what I came up with.

 

 

 

 

I realize in this photo that wall looks blue, but I can promise you it isn't.  I put the letters on the wall using scrapbook adhesive squares.  The frames are hanging with black ribbon left over from the wedding.  I'm still not sure how I feel about the frames just dangling there; I feel like they should be attached to the wall.  I'm thinking the frames might grow on me though. 

 

Here is my find from Gordmans

 

 

 

 

There you have it, the finished bathroom project.  I could also tell you how much of a hunt it was for me to find bathroom rugs I liked.  I finally ended up getting rugs from JC Penny after reading some not so great reviews of other rugs.  I didn't want to pay a crazy amount for rugs, but I also didn't want to get something that was going to fall apart after six months of use. 

 

I'm not sure what the next room to tackle will be.  I have been pondering on the kitchen, but perhaps I will go after the living room next.  We will see what mood strikes me next.  

 

The New Digs

Alright, it isn't as pretty and put together as I would like, but it will have to do.  If any of you have moved recently, you will understand the pain of the random boxes that sit around after all the important stuff has been unpacked.  There are boxes I open up and think "I have no clue what to do with this stuff" so I walk away and leave it for another day.  I think the bulk of those types of boxes are now sitting in the living room.  My goal is to get through one box at a time.  We took a load of stuff to Goodwill before we moved, and I'm still wondering why on earth I kept some things.  I have attachment issues, that is the only way to explain it.  While unpacking my office, I finally had to part ways with a few things. 

Here are some first look photos of the way things look now:

Above: Andrew's Library

Below: Andrew's Library/Computer Area

 The guest bedroom, good-bye full sized bed!

 Guest bathroom- still working on the rug placement

 Favorite part of the master bathroom-- the skylight!

 Master bathroom

 Master bedroom and the new KING bed! 

 Living room-- I told you there were boxes

 1/2 Bath

 Dining Room, I was finally able to put both leaves in my grandparents dining room table.  This makes me happy!

 Kitchen-- so much counter space!

 

First thing to get set up was the coffee station-- priorities people.

 

 

So, there you have a quick tour of the place.  I just realized I forgot to take photos of the basement, which includes my office, the laundry/storage area, and the basement living room.  There isn't much in the basement living room right now other than boxes, so you don't really need to see that space.  Next time I head down to my office I will take a photo and update.  Or, I might wait until some artwork gets on the walls.  I think my office is going to be my travel area where all my travel photos will go.  I haven't quite decided though. 

 

 

So far, I'm fighting the urge to run out in the yard and plant things.  We have decided we are going to be here for a little while before we start digging the yard up.  The same goes for the walls; we haven't hung anything up yet.  My current project is to put something above my coffee station in the kitchen, I just haven't decided what yet.  I was standing in Hobby Lobby for over an hour the other day trying to decide what I wanted to do.  I finally gave up and walked out without buying anything.  I figured if it was that hard of a decision, I wasn't ready to make it yet.  We will get there.  Heck, we haven't even hooked up the TV yet. 

 



Closing Day

We finally made it to closing day!  I lost track of how many times I didn't think it was going to happen.  We had several bumps along the way, but here we are.  I'm reminded yet again through this whole thing that I should really stop doubting things will work out. 

Tomorrow is the big move day.  The moving crew will be here at 8:30 to start loading.  My goal was to have everything centralized on the main floor to minimize the steps the movers had to take.  Short of having everything sitting in the driveway for them when they get here in the morning, I think we have done a pretty good job.  Everything is out of the basement and upstairs in the living room.  As I look at all this stuff, I'm wondering where it all came from.  I remember when I called to schedule the movers, and they asked me how many boxes we would have.  I told them we would have around one hundred, and I'm pretty sure the lady I was talking to thought I was nuts.  When packing up the library took twenty boxes, I knew one hundred was going to be close.  No, I don't want to discuss how many boxes my clothes, shoes, and purses are currently taking up; a few, that is all you need to know. 

We still have some packing to do before tomorrow, but I am on the upper limit of what I can handle for packing.  At one point last night, I looked at Andrew and told him I was all packed out.  I will have to find some motivation quickly because we do still have some kitchen items to pack along with the bedroom, the bathroom, and finishing up the living room.  Thankfully, we have some awesome family who have helped out a ton.  All our boxes and packing materials, including some packing tape, have been given to us by family members.  A huge thanks to everyone who has helped and will be helping the next couple of days.  This is likely my last post for a few days until things get settled in a bit.  Not that no posting for a few days will be out of the norm for me since I haven't posted in over a week... blogger fail. 

Everything we own in boxes:

Experiments In Quinoa

I was cruising through Pinterest on Sunday morning, with my coffee in hand, looking for healthy recipes for the week.  Sure I have a board full of delicious recipes, but they are all what I would consider less than healthy.  I have come across recipes using quinoa before and thought what in the world is this jazz.  We're pretty experimental with our food in this house, so I thought why not give it a whirl.  I read a little bit more about quinoa before I wrote down the recipe for the week.  I was impressed to find out that it is a great substitute for rice because it is high in protein, gluten free, and is a good source of calcium and fiber.  This information is courtesy of Wikipedia, and the historian in me just cringed for saying that.  Wikipedia wasn't the first place I read that information though, so it has been confirmed with several other sources, which I can't remember at the present time.

I will preface these recipes by saying when you are on a mad hunt for quinoa, check the health food section.  I was about to have a melt down in the grocery store one day while trying to find this stuff. 

So far, we have tried two different recipes with quinoa, and I think both turned out quite tasty!  The first recipe was a broccoli cheese casserole. 


The second recipe we tried this week, is a corn and quinoa recipe, it was also quite delicious!


So, there are the recipes I will share with you for this week.  I encourage you to try one of them if you are looking for something healthy that wont leave you feeling like you just ate a leaf of lettuce and you can't wait for your next meal! 

Our First Home: Before and After

Two weeks from today, we will be settling into our new home.  With the date closing in on us, I thought it was only fitting to do a before and after look at our first home.


Front of the house
Before:

 

During 

 After!

The random ugly bush in the front is gone and the front landscaping is more defined.

 

 

Kitchen

 

Before

 After with a new coat of paint!

 6 months later with the new fridge!  Have I mentioned how sad I am to be leaving this fridge behind? 

 

Bathroom

 

Before

 Not so white with a new coat of paint!

 New lights!

 How it looks today

 

The attic

 

Before- not a true before because this is after I painted

 After- my office I never use 

 

The Living Room

 

Before

 After

 

The Yard

 

Before

 newly stained deck

 Finished Side Yard!

Bye bye beautiful hostas.

 

 

There is a recap of the evolution of the house.  Although we questioned quite frequently if we made our decision to buy this house in haste, there is no doubt we have loved our time here.  This was our first space that was all ours, Maya's first house, and our first crack at homeownership. 

 

 

Our first place together - the apartment

 

House #1- Our First House

 

House #2- In It For The Long Haul

 

 

Since When Is Foam Acceptable Work Footwear?

Unless you work at a beach or a pool, I really don't think flip flops should be appropriate work attire.  Now I will admit, there are some situations where it cannot be avoided.  I work with more than a few women who, in their last several months of pregnancy, couldn't get anything else on their feet.  However, if you don't have some kind of medical condition which necessitates wearing flip flops or similar footwear, I don't think they should be worn to work.  The same could also be said for crocs.  As I walk through the halls of the multi-million dollar company I work for, I see entirely too much foam.  I seriously wonder what goes on in peoples heads in the morning when they are picking out this attire.  Is this convenient? Did they walk out of the house this morning without shoes and this was the only thing in the car? Do they think that footwear choice is actually appropriate? 

When I sit at my desk and hear the familiar flopping noise, I cringe.  Don't get me wrong, I love flip flops just as much as the next person.  I wear them when I finish working out and generally whenever I can in the summer.  I just don't love flip flops at work.  The argument always rages on in my department about attire.  We are desk people; we sit on the phones all day and aren't seen.  That being said, I don't want to go to work looking like a slob on the rare chance that I might meet someone important and that might be a connection I want to make sure I made a good impression on some day.  I wouldn't want to be wearing flip flops and torn jeans on the day I happened to meet the CEO.  We wont get started on the torn jeans rant, that is a story for another time.

Sorry for the total lack of posting lately.  I have thought about posting several times, does that count?  You're right, I guess it doesn't.  I think we can almost officially say we are moving.  Everything is good to go on the house we are buying, we could literally close tomorrow.  Ok, maybe we couldn't close tomorrow, but we have everything lined up.  On the selling end of our house, things have been a bit of a nightmare.  I guess all can't go smoothly.  We have a buyer that we had to go back and forth with on the offer, which almost tanked the whole deal. Luckily for us, we have an awesome realtor who worked some magic to make this thing happen. 

Then, we had to wait almost a week for the inspection report to come back from the buyer of our house, and that came back with a bunch of stuff the buyer wanted fixed; including a radon mitigation system.  The buyer had our house tested for radon, but it was on a weekend where it rained almost all weekend.  From what I have been told, and what I have read, rain can really mess with those tests.  We went back and forth again for a while and in the end decided we were going to have to give a little if we wanted to move.  The latest stressor with our buyer is that as of earlier today, the appraisal on our house hadn't been ordered by the buyers lender.  We have had a purchase agreement signed for almost three weeks, I'm not sure what the hold up is here.  Close date is supposed to be July 17th, someone needs to light a fire under some butts.  Can you tell I have no patients for this kind of lax attitude? 

I hesitated for the longest time to get things set up to move: moving company, time off work, transfer utilities, etc.  I wasn't sure the deal was going to go through.  Even now, I'm slightly concerned about the appraisal, but there is really nothing I can do about it and I can't prolong setting these things up anymore.  At this point, I will cross my fingers and hope for the best. 

The house we are purchasing is a three bedroom, two and a half bath two story home with a finished basement.  We will have a large yard with a wooded area on one side of us and a green space belonging to the city behind our house.  We really couldn't ask for a better property.  We will be getting the formal dining room we have wanted and a larger open kitchen.  I'm excited to have more than one bathroom and a master bedroom that we can fit a larger bed in.  Last weekend, we found an amazing deal on a king sized bed in the clearance center at a local furniture shop.  The bed and the mattress were each about half off.  My quest now is to find new bedding that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.  TJ Maxx will be my best friend for the next couple of weeks I think while I peruse the shelves. 

Yay for mature trees all around the property!

The view from the two tier deck to the back of the property. 

Awesome granite counter tops and lots of counter space!

We will have our fireplace back and a vaulted ceiling in the living room

 

Here is the new bed!

 

 

There are just a couple of teaser photos, we will of course post more after we move and things get settled in.  Andrew has claimed his library, so he will work on that first thing while I work on unpacking the kitchen.  I will try to update on here on a regular basis, but we are going to be in the packing frenzy for the next three weeks I imagine.