...And 5 months later! Pt. 1

It's so funny when you buy a house.  I went through it and saw it empty or with other people's things in it and man, I had a list a mile long of all the things that would *have* to be changed ASAP.  THEN you move in.  And you paint and paint and paint and paint and clean and clean and clean and unpack and unpack and move things around over and over and over...you get the idea.

Anyway, so now we're 6 months in and I'm tired.  I'm tired of painting and moving things and decorating for Christmas and undecorating... And there's still this list a mile long of things I want to do but haven't.  But hey - it's my house and I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, so we're good. We're settling and budgeting and living.  So here's the tour 5months after moving in (and somewhat decorated for Christmas at the time).  And I'll still point out all the things I WANT to do someday* :)

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...Just Kidding!  Obviously nothing has changed except there's no sweet Mary and there is a few new items.  What's missing?  There's NO outdoor light!!!!  Drives us crazy - and probably our guests.  That's next on our list!

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Again, nothing changed but my furniture added.  I loved sitting here late summer and reading or working while watching the kiddos play out back.  I do wish there was a back yard entry though here though.

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Our table JUST fits in this space.  But I love that we get to use it everyday.  On the "to do" list is to build two benches for it so we can get rid of some of the bigger, bulkier chairs that make the space tighter.

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We'd love to turn this window into french doors someday and build a deck off here and into the back yard!

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All the trim IN.THE.WHOLE.HOUSE was a creamy, off white.  It was ALL painted 2-3 coats of glossy white.  Ugh.  The fireplace was white washed and the back of the bookcases were papered.  Missing:  a nice old piece of barn board for my mantle.  Someday!









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Every wall in the dining/living/bedroom area was a different color when we moved in.  This entire living space is now a gray/blue.  Wanted:  an area rug for this space.


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Down went the curtains - now we can see that amazing backyard!





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Master/Guest Bath.  This will be our next big project.  A shower will be installed and then all new white subway tiles in the bath/shower area.  Pine boarding will go up on the rest of the walls.  The sink and vanity will be taken out and replaced, along with the medicine cabinet on the wall.  Finally new floor tiles will go in...someday :)



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Guest Room.  Everything painted white and wall paper put up on back wall.  Still left to do - 2nd coat of paint and hanging a few more things up.  Plus sometime of privacy curtain for window over bed.





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Kids Hall.  So, just raising the shades helps a ton.  I LOVE this hallway and have big plans for it.  Each door is going to get  numbered with a bright splash of yellow.  Going down the right hand wall, I'm going to paint big, white navy and white stripes.






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El's room.  Everything was painted in here, including  her furniture!  Still a lot to hang on the wall and in her closet we're turning half of it into a play/work space.



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Boys room.  Pretty drastic changes in here - well color anyway.  I love the gray and Addison is still hoping for some navy, yellow, red and white striped accents around the top of the room.  Some of the trim in here still needs to be painted.  The windows are a pain!!  The massive shelves that got left were taken down and put on the opposite wall.  

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Home Sweet Home - Move in Edition

So as you can see by the last post - September 2013! - I haven't had a whole lot of time to do the bloggy thing.  But now that we've moved and we miss a whole lot of people and a whole lot of people ask to see pics of Maine life, I thought I'd at least start uploading some pictures.  Pictures of Maine, Augusta, our fam, life.

Let's start with our new home.  I've never done a visual "walk though" so we'll start there.  This is how the house looked the day we toured it for the 2nd time (making sure we really wanted to put an offer on it.)

An easy little Christmas...

I LOVE decorating for the holidays.  As a little girl, the Friday following Thanksgiving was not for shopping, but for decorating!!  My dad would leave for work and my mom and I would pull all the boxes out of the attic and clean house.  Now, we did not skimp...every surface was covered.  Dad would come home and put the final touches on the tree - the plastic icicles.  It was pure delight for our little home.

I still love decorating, but in a bit more moderation AND I don't like to spend money on decor.  I love the challenge of finding things outdoors to use or at a thrift shop for a buck or walking around my house looking at what can be repurposed into a holiday feel.  I did this last week and came up with three easy new pieces for our home.

I really enjoy fresh garland.  I would drape it over every doorway, window and mantle if it wasn't so expensive.  

I really wanted some coming down my stairs this year and I also was trying to think up a new way to display the Christmas cards we get every year.  We usually just tape them around our doorways, but I wanted something different this year.

Going for a little hunt outside, the kids and I cut a bunch of fresh greens we found.  I always do this and just stick them in vases and watering cans around the house, but this year I thought - why not use them to make my own garland?

I did not spend time wiring them together, I simply grabbed a branch and tied it to the banister with some twine.  I thought I might cover the twine with Christmas  ribbon, but ended up loving the look of the twine.

After tying up the entire length of the banister, I then thought why not just use it to display our Christmas cards too?  Going outside to grab our clothespins and then searching for some christmas paper and my glue gun, I covered the clothespins paper which I've seen so many people do.  Now all we need to do is clip the card to the greenery and line our stairwell with it.  I love it!

The next idea is easy peasy!  Every Sunday night of advent we do a little reading and singing and light the advent candles.  This year I could not find our advent wreath.  No idea where it went!!  I didn't want to go buy a new one, so I just arranged some candles on a platter.  The red candle is the "pink" traditional candle and the center one is our Jesus candle.  Done!!

Lastly, every year we read these 25 little books that tell the story of Jesus' birth and ever year I struggle with where to put the books we have read.  Well last week, Addison was out on the porch with a piece of wood and some nails and - voila!!  he solved our problem!

Enjoy getting creative this year!!