Old Soul, Young Heart

The dining room was the first room that we painted. It was this weird purple/lavender/gray color that I might've otherwise kind of liked... but not for a dining room.   Before: Testing out our two neutral tan colors. There's that god-awful carpet and curtain situation again. The only good thing about the dining room was the light fixture. Glad we didn't need to change that! Awe! But there's that nasty brown trim again! After: Don't mind the wrinkly curtains. After This dining room table and hutch came from my dad's. He and I together carried those pieces from our dining room at his house to our new house (with some help from his pick-up truck on the way). It was so heavy! The set is what my mom picked out years ago and it's not the most modern furniture ever, but I wanted to have it because it's high quality and sort of sentimental for a few reasons.  The dining room is the only room where I have Precious Moment...

The front room is the room that's right off the foyer. It was this terra cotta color when we moved in. The walls were in pretty good shape and we didn't hate the color, so instead of trying to paint another room, we decided to just keep it. We still had to paint all the baseboards and trim around the windows, though! We took down those hideous curtains god-awful curtain rods. The new carpet makes a huge difference. Before Before After After After Right now I think the front room is the coziest. It's nice because the sun shines right in and I can see the sunset through the windows if I happen to catch it. The front room is kind of "my room." I'm struggling with decor because I don't the house to be too matchy-matchy, but also not hodge-podge. #firstworldproblems

It's been quite a while since I wrote a real blog. The fall semester at work felt a little crazy. I taught for the first time and some of the volunteer roles that I took on had a lot happening. And most importantly, we closed on the house and moved in! 203 West Monroe We did work on it for about 4 weeks before actually moving in. It was a lot of cleaning and painting with some small renovation projects. (I can say small projects because the boys did them and I wasn't really involved. I'm sure Philip would say they weren't all that small.) We had so much help from our families and for that, we are so grateful! I want to start sharing some of the pics that show you all of the work we've been doing! So to start... what we'll call... the foyer! Before After Any trim in the house that is now white was that nasty brown color before. We also got all new carpet (thanks to our negotiated carpet allowance from our offer on the house). The wall color i...

I'm kind of having body image issues lately and this might be why. This is Robyn Lawley. She is a plus size model. Plus size. I bet this woman is like a size 9, because she's about the same size as me (maybe a little taller?) and I wear an 11 in jeans so that my love handles don't pour over the sides of my pants. (And sometimes on a bad day, they do anyway!) If I can say so myself... I think this woman is fucking hot. I wish everyone agreed with me.

I thought it would be cute--since I have a brother and Philip has a sister--to do a "sibling dance." Also, I had never heard of that before, so I thought it was a unique idea. So that's what we did. We danced to "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King. It was fun.

We got three things this weekend for the house so far and will get three more tomorrow! Purchase #1:  Bedding for the guest bedroom. I saw a yellow and gray set that I really, really wanted at Kohl's... but it would've ended up being like around $300 total and that is not in our budget. So this 7 piece set from Bed Bath and Beyond was only $80 with my 20% off coupon. I will get a couple of yellow throw pillows and some yellow window panels, because I like the idea of a yellow and gray bedroom and Philip's black furniture will look really nice with it. Purchases #2 and #3: Downstairs half bath vanity and sink. We also got a mirror to match. The half bath on the main floor definitely needs a facelift and this was on sale at Lowe's this weekend, so we couldn't pass it up. We actually don't know if it'll fit yet, but we'll be at the house on Wednesday to measure (and to do the inspection!). We also got paint chips! (Is that wh...

Life is just the craziest. We offered on the house in Towanda last night and after a few negotiations (that went until 11:15 pm)... we got it!  On October 11, this gem will be ours! It is exciting and scary and overwhelming all at the same time. We're so lucky to be able to purchase our first home together. :)