We officially signed our old house over to the new owner on December 2nd so on top of having Thanksgiving at our house, as we do every year, we also had to move the rest of our stuff out and into the new house. It felt as though we were running a marathon... the end was in sight but we still had a long way to go. We'd already been in the house for about a week but still hadn't finished moving everything. (I was honestly contemplating just leaving the rest of it there.. we'd survived a week without even missing most of it.. did we really have to go back??)
Our first night in the new house:
This pretty much sums up how our move went.. we had everything we needed.. except the essentials. We ended up having to use chopsticks to eat our first dinner at the new house because our silverware was still at the old house.. whoops...
Since we've moved in we've been busy unpacking and painting and staining and just getting settled. We couldn't paint everything before we'd moved in because the sheet rock crew had to come back and finish evening out the walls and joints in some spots. They're actually here right now fixing some marks in the floor and finishing leveling the sheet rock on the walls as I type this. They'll be here tomorrow too, to officially finish and then we can finally finish painting! The living areas are primarily done and our master bedroom is done but the bathrooms have a ways to go and the entry and upstairs foyer haven't been done at all yet.
So! Here are a few pics of our progress before we moved in:
Here's the den:
Kitchen:
We painted, ordered the hardware and finally got it installed. Let me just share that standing on the counter tops to paint above the cabinets is no fun... and with the molding on top of the cupboards it was very hard to reach since we have 9' ceilings... and I almost died a few times... and thank God we love the color because that will be our kitchen wall color from now until eternity because we both refuse to paint it ever EVER again. :)
thankfully it looks AMAZING and we couldn't be happier with it.
Living room:
This was before during and after staining the mantle in the living room. we absolutely love the wall color and how it accentuates the fireplace in between. My friend Matt helped us stain the mantle and it looks great!
The only pics I have of the dining room are from Christmas so here come all of the Christmas pics of the house!
The close up of the door in the dining room is more of what the color actually looks like - it's a buttery yellow. We made sure when we were selecting wall colors that they all flowed and worked together - the yellow, green, blue, and beige that will go in the entry- since all of the spaces are pretty open to one another. We plan on adding some more of the living room slate blue in the breakfast nook too because I can't get enough of it! I painted a wall in the master bathroom the slate blue as well! (sorry no pic) our master bedroom is "Apple Cider" It's an orangish beige and looks really nice. (no pics of that either)
This year was the first year we had Darrell's side of the family all over to our house for Christmas. Usually we go to my in-laws to celebrate but with Ellie (our new furbaby addition this past June) and my in-laws new hardwood floors, they didn't think that'd be such a good idea so we decided to have everyone over to our house instead! It was nice seeing everyone and getting to spend another holiday in the new house. Getting everything ready was a bit of a challenge - we wanted the house to look nice so I mopped all the floors (for the 23902493th time! sheet rock dust will be the death of me, I swear!!) and trying to finish unpacking so the house looked presentable, installing the washer and dryer - which was a feat in itself - and oh yea.. working 40+ hours a week, we somehow managed to get it all done. We were exhausted and so was Ellie
It took a lot of work but it was all worth it in the end. The house looked great and we couldn't wait to show Darrell's grandmother, Aunt, and cousin who hadn't seen it yet. It was nice having a lot of space for everyone to meander around (we're still working on having enough seating... ) but it was nice being able to work in the kitchen with everyone gathered around the peninsula or watching TV in the living room and still be a part of the conversation while I was getting things ready for dinner. The fact that we have 3 bathrooms in this house was amazing in itself because no one was waiting for anyone at any point in time (our old house only had 1). All in all we had a fantastic time and it was nice getting everyone together.
back to the house
We've also stained the banister in the entry way:
After the crew is finished (hopefully tomorrow) we'll be able to finish painting the entry way, the upstairs landing/foyer, the bathrooms, the breakfast nook, and touch up the other walls that might need it. It's a bit disheartening at the moment because we still have so much left to do that we're wondering when we'll ever get to sit back and enjoy it... but we know that time will come eventually and all the hard work will be worth it. It looks pretty good so far, if I do say so myself.
