this and that

I figured another random post thrown in between all the pregnancy posts was better than nothing.  Currently my external hard drive that has my photo library on it isn't hooked up to the network so I can't get to any of my pictures from my big camera.  So random seemed like the way to go!

::  First things first, we moved!  It has been a week since the movers showed up to our house and started putting everything in boxes.  The company had estimated two days to pack our house, one day to pack the truck, and a day to deliver and unload.  I felt like that seemed a bit extreme seeing as we don't have THAT much stuff, but I went with it.  Yeah no.  They ended up packing everything on the first day and loading the majority of it on to the truck.  Wednesday morning they came back and finished loading, drove our stuff to the new place, and had everything unloaded by 6:30pm.

At any given time there were 4-6 guys working.  They were incredibly impressive hauling all of our crap around.  But apparently they SUCKED at labeling.  And when you have movers pack you, they do it in the most efficient way possible.  Not the most logical.  We've opened quite a lot of boxes, and still are missing random things.  The first day we spent forever trying to locate all the cushions to one of our couches.  They were in a variety of random boxes.  We're getting settled, but we've still got a LONG way to go.

::  I guess one major important thing before the move... Chris graduated from fellowship.  HELL YES.  He is done.  Done done done.  I mean there is the whole starting a real job thing, but it is going to be a real job with real hours and I don't know.  It just isn't education anymore and that is the best feeling ever.  Congrats Christopher, I am so very very proud of you!

The graduating fellows are so cool they got their names on the menu! Haha.

::  Another thing we tackled this past weekend?  Getting Elsie in a big girl bed!  I wasn't sure when to do it, but it seemed easiest (I guess) to just bite the bullet when we moved.  We talked it up a lot, that when we moved to the new house she would have a big girl bed and it was going to be so awesome and comfortable and on and on.  She was pysched.  Sunday was the first night, and she was a little apprehensive at first.  I think more because of the new house, not the new bed.  But it didn't help.  I had to go back to her room to comfort her, but then she seemed ok when I left the second time.

Until our new neighbors opted to blow up the LOUDEST FIREWORKS EVER what seemed like right out her window.  Naturally she was freaked out.  I ended up laying with her until she fell asleep that first night, but she has been doing great ever since.  She has yet to consider getting out of her bed after we leave the room, and has slept the same amount (including naps!) as she did in the crib.  She waits for us to come get her not matter what.  So far we're two for two on my thinking the worst about the big kid bed transition, and the child proving me absolutely wrong.

::  And a few house pictures before we destroyed its beauty by moving all of our crap in.  ;o)

On a side note, WTH flickr?  I don't want to embed the photos with a border.  How do I get rid of that??  Edited to add a thank you to Erin for passing along this info.  Come on flickr, you seriously thought it looked better with those dumb borders?  Now I get to edit photo code for every picture I post, or I need to find somewhere else to host.  Dumb.

this and that + some nursery progress

::  My blog is annoying me.  The fact that I barely post anything and the fact that I haven't changed the look in FOREVER.  I keep wanting to, and start designing something, and then I hate what I've come up with and give up for a while.  The lack of posting is simply because I can barely sit still long enough to come up with a complete thought.  Restless legs are just no freaking joke and I am starting to lose my mind.  Hence the tidbit like post with crappy iPhone pictures.  You're welcome.

::  In less than a week the movers are coming to start packing up all our stuff.  I'm still in denial.  Partially because I don't want to move out of town and partially because our new house isn't finished yet.  How this renovation is taking so long I have no idea.  I'm 90% sure it will be in a state that we can move into next week, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't bitter that it is coming down to the wire.  But uh, yeah.  Moving in a week.  !!!!!!

::  Speaking of the new house, some of the progress!  I am absolutely in LOVE with our master bathroom.  I can't wait until it is finished.  The floors are awesome, the shower is going to be awesome (and huge!).  After spending the majority of this pregnancy attempting to shave in a tiny little shower stall you better believe I'm going to be taking some long showers in that thing as soon as I can.

You just have to pretend that you don't turn around and see this right now...

It will be done.  It will be done.  It will be done.  Maybe if I keep telling myself that it will actually happen.  My mom said all the kitchen appliances were installed today.  That is certainly a bonus!

::  This past weekend we were back in town checking on some things, and spent some time working on the nursery.  I am so excited to get the furniture in here and see the whole room take shape.  My mom had already painted the walls, but with Christopher and my Dad's help we got some stripes on the walls.  We did these stripes in Elsie's current room and I just think they are so pretty.  So the poor guys got stuck helping me with them again.  I'm lucky my dad and my husband love me so much.

And my dad, wow, he definitely wins bonus points.  After seeing this on pinterest I decided I really wanted to put heart decals in the closet.  Yes in the closet.  That still has doors on it.  My dad didn't really see the reason.  But he helped me measure out all the spacing for the hearts on father's day and I'm incredibly grateful.  I mean closets full of little baby clothes are adorable.  Closets full of baby clothes with little gold hearts all over it?  Exactly.  I purchased my decals from Wall Dressed Up.  Her prices were slightly higher than some I've seen on etsy, but her customer service is top notch and she is local.  She dropped the decals off at my door step just two days after I ordered them.

::  I wish I could sign up for a daily delivery of fresh watermelon.  That is all.

design disagreements

Our home renovation is trucking along and I'm loving it.  New kitchen cabinets have been ordered, a large opening has been created between the kitchen and the family room, all the trim has been painted and new hardwood floors are being installed.  I've only been over there once, but my mom and dad visit and send me updates occasionally.  I get so giddy to see the progress.

I'm hoping this weekend we will get to go and finalize the master bathroom design and finishes.  We also might try our hand at white washing the fireplace.  I don't want to paint it straight white, but the straight red brick just isn't working for me.  So I want to do a really really thin wash of white over it to tone down the red and help it blend in to my more neutral palette.

Now that the trim is painted we can get to work on doing the walls in the upstairs bedrooms.  I thought I'd be a good mom and include my kids in the design process as much as I could, but there is where we've run in to an issue.  When I asked Elsie what color she wanted her room, she quickly shouted "RED!"  Not exactly what I was wanting to hear.  As luck would have it, Ryann keeps requesting that I paint her walls purple.  Red and purple.  Quite possibly my two least favorite colors to design with.  In general I just find red too harsh.  And I think as a Jayhawk fan I just have this ingrained aversion to purple.  So I'm working on how to come to a compromise with their rooms.

For Elsie's room, I've actually become a little excited about the color scheme.  Along with red she requested pink.  Oh my little February baby, forever a Valentine!  Haha.  When I searched red and pink bedrooms on Pinterest I found this winner via 6th Street Design School.

 

via 6th Street Design School

Most of the main walls in our house are going to be varying shades of grey, so I was hoping to put some color on the walls in the kids room.  However I love how the bright colors of that room pop against the neutral walls.  I think the use of the red is just the right amount, and Kirsten was able to bring other colors into the room in fun ways.  Definitely a great jumping off point for me.  My plan is to use Ryann's pink upholstered headboard and probably her white comforter.  From there I'll add fun pillows, hopefully some DIY abstract art and who knows what else.

Ryann's room is a different story.  Right now we're leaning towards a coral, pink and purple color scheme.  I was imagining something like this:

via JB Smith Photography | via Phoebe Howard

But Ryann isn't sold.  She wants a 'real purple'.  Apparently I picked a fake purple?  And she is seriously adamant that I paint the walls purple.  I have never in my life imagined painting any walls in my house purple.  But maybe I'll cave just for her.  Really I'd be alright painting one wall purple (but more of my version of purple!) but her room stumps me.  It has a long hallway leading in to it, and then the wall attached to that hallway is where the bed will go.  Usually I would imagine the bed wall as the feature wall, but I don't know how to deal with the hallway.

Oh life's dilemmas.  I'm sure we'll figure it out eventually.  Ryann's room will certainly need the most 'stuff'.  Most of her furniture is going to Elsie, and most of Elsie's will go to the nursery.  Speaking of the nursery, I'm not really sure what direction I want to go in there either.  I still love the dresser we have in Elsie's room, and it won't fit in her new room (color wise or size) so it will probably go to the baby.  But I don't think I want to stick with the same color scheme.  Here are a couple of rooms I've been loving lately:

both via Apartment Therapy, here and here

I'm not sure what exactly draws me to them, but I just love them.  I'd look to incorporate a little black and white, and a lot of color.  The room on the right gives me hope that I can utilize Elsie's dresser while pulling in some other fun colors.  The only thing I'm slightly sad that I don't think I'll be reusing are Ryann's curtains (see them here).  They are just a little too pastel for what I'm going for.

I can't wait to see our house come together.  The design and decorating process will be long.  It has to be.  I don't want to rush just to get everything 'done'.  But I'm getting more and more excited the further we get!

we bought a house!

Ok, well really we were under contract for this house in August.  We didn't actually close until November 8th.  And we don't plan to move until sometime between May-July.

Wait what?  Yeah.

Christopher has signed with a hospital system, so we started browsing the housing market.  We had been following it for a good 6+ months, knowing we most likely would end up there, and hadn't seen anything that I loved for a price I was willing to pay for it.  So we moved towards building, found a builder and a plan we thought we liked, and started meeting with a bank.  While we were waiting for approval on our construction loan, this house popped up on the market.

It was 1200+ square feet more than we could afford to build, and was listed for over $100,000 less than we were going to spend to build.  And while I loved the house we were going to build, I wasn't 100% I love loved it, if that makes any sense.  There were still some things missing from my dream house list, and it was a lot of money.  So since I didn't hate the listing photos and the house looked to have more space than we could have dreamed of, Chris called the listing agent to see if we could look at it.

Honestly I was hoping I'd hate it.  I wanted a new house.  I'm tired of dealing with some of the issues in our not so new house right now.  But I didn't hate it.  I actually really liked it.  Well crap!  I mean who buys a house 9+ months before they actually need it?  Us, apparently.  We went back and saw the house again.  I still liked it.  A lot.  The laundry room is huge and there is space for a playroom and a workout room and the number of closets in the house is just plain insane.  We were referred to a relator who could help us since the listing agent couldn't really be our agent.  There was some back and forth with the sellers, but ultimately we got the house and they agreed to a long closing period.

We decided to buy this house because if we were going to have to put down the money now to build, why not put down the money to buy instead.  We plan to do some renovations, and a whole lot of painting.  I'm so excited to have a house to decorate and renovate again.  And a little stressed too.  But mostly just excited!

Here are some photos of the house right now...

So. Much. SPACE.  Those pictures don't even begin to capture it.  I can't believe I didn't snap any pictures of the mudroom/laundry room area.  It is easily the space that made me really REALLY want the house.  There is going to be a lot of trim painting happening (hopefully by a painter!).  And a complete gut job on the master bath.  I can't wait to get started and have before and after pictures to share.  But it will probably be a while!

We are truly so excited and blessed.