I didn't forget about you!

Hey hey! I'm still here, we've just been so ridiculously busy I haven't had a free second to update this guy (seriously, Jeff is in manic-get-everything-done-mode and I feel as though I should take advantage...and also, I have to keep up so that I don't feel like a lazy bum next to him). I'll write up a real post in the next couple of days, but until then, here are a couple mini updates:

• Most of what we've been doing has been painting, so you're not really missing out on anything exciting. My life has become a non-stop cycle of going to one job, going to the other, coming home, painting, eating, cleaning, more painting, and sleeping. That's literally just about it, save a baby shower here and there.
• I HAVE started to tackle the yard...kind of. Or at least the patio. I swept and hosed it off the other day, and pulled the weeds out from between the bricks. Jeff bought a grill and a new fire pit, and cut down the tree that was hanging over the gate to the backyard. He's terrified of spiders, and it was not only driving us nuts, but he was afraid to enter the yard through the gate for fear of web-attack.
• The rooms that we've painted so far are as follows: living room, foyer, dining room, powder room, and the wall going up the stairs...and Jeff's working on the upstairs hallway as we speak. We noticed upon painting the powder room with semi-gloss paint that the walls are in HORRENDOUS shape, so we're going to need to address that sometime down the road...for the moment, I'm just going to try to strategically hang art, but it's really driving me bonkers. The molding and baseboards upstairs are also in terrible shape, and we're going to try to salvage them with sandpaper/spackle/caulk/prayers, but I don't know how great they're going to turn out. Fingers crossed. AND! I noticed the other day that the CEILING in our office is blue. Good lord. I thought we could get away without painting any ceilings right off the bat, but apparently not. Oh, and two of the walls in the kitchen randomly have some kind of ugly texture work on them, or are just all wonky, so we're probably going to have to dry-wall them. Neat-o.
• The reason that we're working so exhaustively this week in particular is that we're having a housewarming party this Sunday, and we're trying to get as much done as possible prior to then. I'll post pictures of the party next week.

That's it for now. Like I said, I'll have a full post with pictures of progress in the next few days. I just wanted to say hi and let you know I haven't abandoned you :) Off to paint!

I just wanna decorate, y'all!

I'm starting to get impatient.



Well, I'm always impatient. But even though we've only been living here for under three weeks, it feels to me as though we've been here for a year. And there are still SO MANY big-picture things to do. Over half the house still needs painted. Our dining room is basically just a dumping ground. I need to organize and clean out about a billion little nooks and crannies (starting with our laundry closet thing, which is a big yuck). The stairs need refinished or SOMETHING desperately, which I just noticed last night (maybe we'll invest in a runner like this?). I've basically forgotten we have a third floor, which is pretty much the best part of the house. The whole outside needs a whole lotta...I have no idea what, but it needs it. And while I genuinely don't mind painting, and it's exciting to see the transformation that painting brings about, my brain is starting to get whiny about it. "I don't WANNA paint anymore, I wanna DECORATE!"



I know that owning a house is literally a never-ending process, and that it takes YEARS to develop a fluid design personality, but all I want to do is make this house feel like ME. Unfortunately, that's pretty much impossible until we have at least a big chunk of the major stuff that needs done out of the way. Also, it feels like we're bleeding money out of our eyeballs (probably because we are). So, while I want to buy 10 area rugs and 3 armchairs and 6 console tables and new bedroom accessories and knick knacks out the ears and and SO MUCH WALL ART and don't forget frames and candles and lamps and window treatments and oh my lord you guys, I wasn't kidding when I told you we had NOTHING decoration-wise to start with. But anyway, I can't buy all of that stuff at once, and certainly not when I still have about a million gallons of paint to buy, and a guest room to furnish, and poor Jeff's office, and I need SOMETHING to put in the dining room by Thanksgiving, because it's looking like we'll be spending it here. It's a little overwhelming, and it's starting to feel like this place is going to feel stark and empty until 2075. Deep breath. Little by little. I know that the best way to do things is to go room-by-room, but when EVERYTHING needs done, it's kind of hard to prioritize. Maybe we need to start making lists. For now, I'm just thankful that we're at a point where it feels liveable and we can be comfortable. Does anyone have any prioritizing suggestions?

Two-week update

Sorry. I know that I said I'd post this yesterday, but, well, life and such. You understand.



So, we got the keys to our house a week from Monday (yesterday), and we moved all of our stuff in that night (it had been raining CONSTANTLY, and we figured since it wasn't raining at the moment, we had better move our stuff in before it started again). We moved ourselves in on Wednesday. So tomorrow will actually be the two week mark of us living here. Two weeks is kind of a random update; I know, but I hadn't started this blog yet on the one week mark, and I figure now's a good time as ever to show our (small amount of) progress. For the sake of avoiding a ton of repetition, for the most part I'm just going to show current pictures-you can see the before pictures here. Basically the only major things we've done so far is paint the living room and foyer, and arrange our living room so that it's livable for the time being, but I figure at least I'll show you what the place looks like with our stuff in it. Here we go.

This is what our driveway currently looks like with the hydrangea in bloom. As you can see, we haven't done ANYTHING out here as of yet. I think we're both feeling kind of overwhelmed as to any kind of landscaping that needs done, but I want to at least rake dead leaves up and clean up the patio so that we can enjoy our outdoor space while we still have some summer left.

This is the main view of our front porch. We basically also haven't done anything out here, though I did sweep the porch off and throw away a bunch of trash that had been laying around and driving me insane. I also washed the windowsills off and vacuumed up a bunch of spiderwebs, because it was pretty gross. I eventually plan on re-painting those chairs and that table, and probably getting some fun cushions to put on the chairs. I'm thinking about a big cushioned porch swing down the line as well. Oh, and there's the guest star of the house tour peeking out the door. Hi Grooby.

This is just looking towards our backyard on the porch. Obviously that table and kitchen rack thing will be gone soon; the table to the back porch and the rack probably to the basement. I have plans for that bench as well: a paint job and a nice big comfy cushion. On a related note, we also need to re-pain the entire porch, but that's probably a job for next spring.

Okay, so this is what our foyer currently looks like when you walk into the house (except if YOU were to walk in, Grooby would most certainly not look so calm). Oh, and please note that these pictures are all very "true to life", in that I didn't "stage" anything to take pictures. So in other words, please excuse the (huge and seemingly never ending) mess. I'm going to eventually get a big comfy slipcovered arm chair with a cozy throw blanket to go in that corner where the tupperware container is, and I'm currently on the hunt for the perfect console table to go on the wall where you walk in. You'll also notice that I haven't hung anything on any walls yet (art, pictures, even curtains), so I need to do that as well. The color on the wall is Benjamin Moore "moonshine", which is the color we're using for a large majority of the house-the living room, the foyer, most of the kitchen, and the staircase and upstairs hallway will all be moonshine. I like the way that it's neutral and breezy, and has just the slightest tint of silver or blue, depending on the light that it's in.

This is what you see when you walk into the living room. The space is begging for window treatments and wall art, but for now it at least feels liveable and home-y. I don't know if I'm going to keep that area rug there or not (I do think it's a great rug-Ikea's "Gislev" rug, which is a steal at $19.99-but I feel like a lot of people have it, and it's not quite as plush as I'd like for this space. I'm definitely going to use it, I'm just not sure where, exactly). That crate in the corner is books, and needs to be carried to the third floor.

So, about our couch. You may have noticed that it's HUGE for this space. We discussed the size of couch we were going to put here at length, and ultimately decided that the comfort of a large sectional was worth the slightly awkward appearance. We've been living for several years with a small couch and a loveseat, and one person always ends up getting stuck with the loveseat while the other sprawls out on the couch. Not only did one person always get hosed, but we were never able to sit together. It was certainly not ideal, so we decided that we'd make this tight squeeze work. And now, looking at this picture, I'm wondering if a larger rug would look better . Hmm...

I just can't get enough of that exposed brick. It's off-white, though, and we've debated painting it true white to match the trim in the rest of the room. We're going to hold off on that for a while. Oh, and also-again, I apologize for the terrible picture quality. My camera was misplaced at some point during the moving (twice!) process. I think it's at Jeff's mom's house, but until I find it I'm stuck using my phone. You can't really see the ceiling in any of these pictures. but Jeff is chomping at the bit to add crown molding.

Yikes. This is what our dining room looks like right now. Since we don't have a dining room set yet, we're just using this room for all of the empty boxes from moving, and we're also throwing all of the stuff the previous owners left that we don't want into this room (note the curtains and lamp). Some of it will get thrown away, some of it will be donated to goodwill, and we'll probably try to sell some of it on Craigslist (their curtains are really nice quality and in great shape, and there are a LOT of them, but the heavy maroon color just isn't my cup of tea at all). This room will be painted a slightly darker gray shade.

More junk.

This is our half-bath. We haven't done anything to it yet. I think this is the next room I'm going to tackle...I'm thinking about a coral theme. I'm probably going to paint this room moonshine as well. I didn't take any pictures of it, but our laundry is to the right of the sink, and there's a kind of utility closet area to the left of the toilet where we're keeping all of our tools and painting supplies and cleaning stuff.

This is my kitchen...island. Not a great picture. But that red is going (probably this weekend or the weekend after that). It's really driving me bonkers. Moonshine is going where the red is...

...and anywhere you see tan will be a slate blue color. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep this bookcase here or not, but since we don't have a pantry it adds some pretty useful storage. For the time being, I just kinda threw Grooby's treats and grooming stuff on there, along with some random stuff that hasn't found a home yet. I'm going to paint that chalkboard, probably white.

I'll probably rearrange the whole kitchen once we paint it, but this is what it looks like for now.

 

I'm also thinking about replacing the hardware on all of the kitchen cabinets and drawers in favor of something lighter, or maybe some fun colored glass.

So, moving upstairs. I didn't take any pictures of the backyard or porch, because it's literally completely the same as the last pictures I posted. This is (obviously) the hallway. 

The first room you run into coming up the stairs is what will be Jeffrey's office. It's also the only carpeted room in the house (besides the third floor), for some reason. It's a pretty cool room, with all sorts of built-ins and a little window seat with storage. This is where Jeff is keeping his clothes until we convert the sunroom off of our bedroom into a walk-in closet. 

Jeff insisted on keeping the loveseat from our apartment to use in his office, so there's that.

Jeff's super girly closet

One of the cool built-ins in the office, along with a coat hanger that the previous owners left. I think Jeff wants to paint this room either a grayed out navy blue or dark gray. The wainscoting is staying (thankfully) white.

This is our master. I'm on the hunt for a new duvet set, and then this quilt will probably go in the guest room. All we've really done in here so far is thrown in our bed and nightstands. The window treatments were there. We're going to put in some faux-wood white blinds, and probably some sheer white curtains, but I'm actually okay with the color for now-it's not high up on my list to paint, anyway. The size of the actual bedroom part of the master is kind of small, but the fact that it leads into a sitting room with attached sunroom makes it feel a lot bigger. The floors in here need refinished pretty badly, but I think we're going to save up and just re-finish the whole second floor at once (the guest room floor is painted white for some reason, and the hallway needs re-done as well. We're not sure what's going on under the carpet in the office.)

This is my closet. I literally just grabbed my clothes and shoved them in there. It needs organizing desperately, and I really need to upgrade to matching hangers. But I surprisingly don't hate it as much as I thought I would, coming from an apartment with a cavernous walk-in closet.

Shelving in my closet, where I'm currently keeping my workout clothes and the stuff I sleep in.

A better shot of our bay window situation. I love these guys.

This is looking into the sitting room part of the master. We're going to turn this room into a master bath probably two years from now, but for now we're using it to keep Grooby's crate and Jeff's dresser. That rug was left here by the previous owners, and is getting chucked soon. The mirror was also left, and is NOT getting chucked. And yes, those are our stuffed animals. Shut it.

Looking from the sitting room into the hallway. I keep my socks and underwear and swimsuits in that white tupperwear thing. I'm going to get a real dresser soon, but it works for now.

This is the sunroom off of the sitting room, which we'll turn into a walk-in closet. When we put the bathroom in, we'll probably have one of those closet-solution companies come in and install built-ins, but until then I think I'm going to just get some garment racks and shelving and make a make-shift closet. That way Jeff can move his clothes back into the master, and I can have a little dressing room.

This is our bathroom. Again, it's pretty small, and it's awkward, but I'm working with what I've got for now, and it's been fine. Within the next several months we're going to re-tile in here (a lot of the tiles are cracked or damaged), and put in a new vanity. In the next several WEEKS, I'll be painting the walls some shade of gray (do you sense a theme here?), and the ceiling thing to the shower will be white.

A better shot of my "storage solutions"-I just bought a couple of decorative trays and put the stuff that Jeff and I use most often on them, and used glass jars to store things that I use frequently, such as makeup sponges, cotton balls, and hair ties.

This is (duh) the inside of our shower-the tile work isn't really my style, but it's way better than one of those porcelain shower-surround things, in my opinion.

The linen closet, which is behind the door in the bathroom

This precious little room will be our guest room. I'm not sure what color I'm going to paint it yet. Maybe I'll just leave the pint stripes and glow bug lamp? And maybe the sesame street couch?

I will say that this rug (which is a huge area rug, not a carpet-like I said, for some reason the floor in here is painted white) is not the prettiest thing ever (it's a dull kind of moss-green color), but it's in great shape and it's SO SOFT and cushy that I'm having a hard time getting rid of it. I think we're actually going to leave it in there until we refinish the floors. maybe I'll layer a smaller area rug over it.

This is just another shot of the hallway, going the other way.

This is what the third floor looks like right now. We got our TV and surround-sound and whatnot set up, but all of the stuff that needs to go in the attic just kinda got thrown up here and is waiting to be organized and put away (a lot of it is Christmas stuff). So it's a huge mess up here. It's also about a million degrees, to the point where we have window AC units installed to override the central air that doesn't quite make it up here. You have to turn them on about four hours before it'll even get to a tolerable level. So we're kinda dragging our feet, but this will be a great rec room area in the fall and winter for watching sports or just hanging out. 

 As I said before, this room is going to be a nightmare to paint-to the point where I think we've agreed to hire painters when the time comes, just for this one room. I have no idea what color we're going with, but I'm fine with this sort of mustard color for now. 

Jeff found this foosball table in one of the attic nooks and started to put it together, but apparently got bored with it and quit. So that'll be a project for future Jeff.

Welp, that's about it. We obviously still have soooooo far to go, but it's starting to feel more and more like home every day. And while I'm truly enjoying working on it, and actively want to do projects pretty much any free time I get, it's starting to feel okay to relax every once in a while-it's past the point where it feels like there are things we NEED to get done, RIGHT NOW. Next up: painting the trim on the stairs! And I also want to get the 1/2 bath knocked out. I'll keep ya updated!

In regards to taste...

So, there's something I've been curious about for a while now. Whenever I'm reading home improvement blogs written by couples/a married person/anyone who is living with their significant other, they always refer to "our taste". It's a consistent thing. I understand, to some degree, that whomever is writing the blog post says "our taste" instead of "my taste" so as to include their spouse or significant other, and to reflect that the house is a team effort. And I also understand that as you work on a house together, the house eventually ends up feeling like a blended effort of "you"-"you" being your essence as a couple. However, it usually seems as though both parts of every couple in all of these blogs has a relatively similar style preference. So, I guess my question is: how in the hell is this possible?



Jeff and I have totally opposite taste in EVERYTHING regarding interior design. I always knew that our styles weren't exactly the same...I tend to lean towards clean, breezy, feminine styles while he tends to like super modern decor...but during the process of actually buying a house and trying to put actual thought and purpose into our decor, we've realized that our taste isn't just not the same, it's almost literally opposite. He likes things that are either SUPER MODERN (to the point of looking stark and industrial-think of Ikea's most European looking stuff) or REALLY REALLY old, like to the point of falling apart and weighing 8 million pounds with scrolls and heavy wood coming out your eyeballs. I lean more towards contemporary or vintage. He HATES gold. I generally don't like silver. He hates white. I love a nice clean, crisp white...well, just about anything. He tends to choose things that are simple and even builder-grade type stuff. I like to add trendy elements into a room here and there. He thinks a lot of the more vintage-y looking stuff that I like is tacky.



I don't know if people just don't talk about disagreeing with their partners' design choices, or if the couples in the blogs I read (and real-life couples that we know) just happen to be really well-matched style-wise, but this has been a lot more difficult than I predicted. Jeff's been really easy-going about everything, decor-wise-he generally gives me final say in pretty much everything (unless he ABSOLUTELY HATES it, or there's something that he TOTALLY MUST HAVE), as he always says that he "doesn't care nearly as much as I do", but I don't want to steam-roll him into having a house with decor that he hates (I can be a tad bossy). And of course, I want the house to reflect BOTH of us. I want this to feel like OUR home. I don't want to be one of those Stepford wives who has her house decorated like the inside of a greenhouse. I keep getting Jeff's opinion on everything that's going in the house before I buy it, but he usually just says something to the effect of "yeah, it's okay".



I suppose that it's possible that a couple's collaborative style naturally develops over time. And of course, Jeff isn't as into design as I am, and he has basically no experience in decorating a house (nor do I), so I'm sure he'll develop more of a style/opinion as we go. I'm definitely lucky that he's being agreeable instead of arguing with me over everything. I'm also lucky that he's clearly actively trying to have an opinion instead of just saying "I don't care". We've agreed that the office is going to be his room, and he said that he's going to choose a few options out of everything he puts in it, and let me choose my favorites out of his options. I'm curious to see how the room progresses. One thing that we have agreed on is that we want to have a globe bar cart in our dining room...like this one:

So anyway, I'll definitely keep you updated on the progression of "our style". It should be an interesting ride.



Tomorrow, two-week progress report.

Meet our house.

So, about this house.



When Jeffrey and I (Jeffrey is my boyfriend-for more details about my/our personal lives, see my personal blog) decided to buy a house over two years ago, we originally planned on buying a new construction. We both liked the idea of being the first to own the home and to use everything in it, and to be able to customize everything to our liking without having to worry about anything or do any work. Fast forward a year and a half later, and I was totally over the idea of a new construction. I had started to get a little bit into interior design (interest-wise, believe me-I know NOTHING about it), and had started to read a few DIY/home-improvement blogs, plus Pinterest had become a thing and suddenly ANYTHING was possible. After having viewed a few new constructions, I started to hate the way cookie-cutter, builder grade everything looked in a house and wanted no part of it. It began to feel like it would actually take MORE work to inject personality into a NEW home than tweak the character of an old home to our (my...that's something we'll get into soon) personal taste. So we started to think about fixer-uppers.



And then, suddenly, THE HOUSE fell into our laps.



Seriously, we hadn't even hired a real-estate agent yet. Jeff's co-worker and friend casually mentioned to Jeff that his neighbor (he lived in a twin house) was putting his house up for sale, and that we should move in. He was actually probably half joking. The house was OLD (built in 1920), and it was all the way in CLAYMONT, which was way further north than we wanted to move (almost in Philly!) and also, it was CLAYMONT. Yeuch! But, not having a real-estate agent and chomping at the bit to start looking, we decided to take a look just for fun, since Jeff's friend had access to the house (his neighbors had since moved to North Carolina and left him in charge of his house keys). Little did he (or Jeff!) know that the minute I would walk into the house, I would be sold. I fell in love. The house was a big, rambling, gorgeous Victorian with a WRAP-AROUND PORCH!! Who on Earth my age who isn't a millionaire has a WRAP AROUND PORCH? Sold. And then we went inside. The house was completely updated, but kept all of the charm and character of decades of use. Exposed brick, a working wood-burning stove, bay windows, hardwood floors. Brand-new kitchen with stainless steel, a breakfast bar, AND granite. Fenced-in backyard. Screened in back porch ASIDE from the wrap-around front porch. Third floor with vaulted ceilings overlooking a private school's soccer field. Are you kidding me?! The only disadvantages to this place were that it was only one-and-a-half baths (no master bath OR walk-in closet), there was no garage (but there was a long driveway), and the location. But we really hated Claymont for no real reason. The neighborhood that the house is in is a very nice residential neighborhood, and as I previously mentioned, the house is directly across the street from a really nice private academy. It's within walking distance of a train station, and within minutes from tons of shopping and great restaurants. It's right off of 495, which is a major highway, so it's super convenient even though it's a bit of a hike from where we were used to living and from my work (Jeff's work is equidistant from both this house and our old apartment). And it has super quick and easy access to Philly. So, even though we had it in our heads that we hated Claymont for some reason, there were pluses all around.



The house had been on the market for a while, so we took some time to think about it. We went to a few open houses. We looked at what felt like thousands of online listings. We considered hiring a real-estate agent, but ultimately decided not to because we knew in our hearts that we'd inevitably end up wanting to buy THE HOUSE, and hiring a real-estate agent would raise the price of the house. In the meantime, Jeff's co-worker's neighbors had fired their agent and taken the house off the market, with plans to put it back up with a reduced price and sell it themselves. When they heard that we were seriously interested in buying, they told us that if we were willing to work sans-agent, they'd pass the savings directly to us, which ended up saving us over 10 grand and kept the house well within our comfortable range. They even threw in some furniture (a REALLY NICE sectional couch that they had left on the third floor and all of their outside furniture, among other things). And then after what felt like forever, we finally bought our first house! Unfortunately as I said before, I'm terrible at life and didn't take any very good "before" pictures prior to moving in. The pictures that I'm going to post are just iPhone pictures I took during our home inspection for my own personal planning purposes, so they're pretty bad (and of random things/rooms). But at least you'll get an idea, and I'll post better pictures as we work. Here goes, the before photos:

Exterior shot of our side of the house

Shot of the front yard from the porch. There's a big hydrangea bush in bloom now that I love, but this needs A LOT of landscaping and cleaning up.

Shot of the foyer from the living room. Again, these were before we moved in, so any furniture pictured in the previous owners'. In fact, this is currently a half-painted, empty room.

Shot from the foyer going into the living room. The wood stove is working. We've talked about tearing it out eventually to make more room, but I don't think I want to now.

Another shot of the living room, from the stairs this time. It's small, but there's a huge living space upstairs.

This is the view when you walk in from the front door. Unless you walk in right now, in which case you'd see an errant loveseat and a bunch of paint.It looks and feels bigger in person.

This is the dining room. Not pictured is the half-bath that connects to it, which includes the laundry area.

This is our kitchen, entering from the dining room. It will soon be painted a light neutral gray with a sort of turquoise accent wall.

Another view of the kitchen. They left us that pot rack; we were pretty excited about it!

Shot of the Chimney in the kitchen. Love that exposed brick!

Shot of the backyard from the back porch.

Nice little shed in the back yard, and a nice little Jeffrey in the shed. Along with a bunch of foliage we have no idea what to do with, and a hammock frame that is no longer there.

Our patio. It needs re-done, but it'll do for now. Jeff wants to put a hot tub out there. We'll see about that.

Bay windows in the master bedroom. There's a sitting room connected to the bedroom that we plan on making into a master bath in a couple years, and a sunroom off of the sitting room that we plan on turning into a walk-in closet.

The main bathroom .It's tiny and awkwardly shaped, but we're working with it. There is a light in the shower though, which is pretty cool.

The third floor, which was pretty much the selling point of the house. It's awesome. It's also going to be a bitch to paint, but I'm in no rush to do that any time super soon. That's the couch that they left us, which is awesome, because who wants to carry a huge couch up two flights of stairs?

The vaulted ceiling on the third floor. Seriously. Awesome.

Just for fun, here's a view of our front porch. There are a lot of cocktails in this puppy's future.

And that's it! There are also two more bedrooms, one of which we're turning into a guest room (it's currently pink and white striped, having been a nursery), and one of which we're making into an office (which is going to be Jeff's domain, and it's also where he's keeping his clothes until we renovate our master suite). We're already shoulder deep in multiple projects, and I can't wait to share them. Hope you enjoy what is sure to be quite the adventure with us.