Anyone still home?

Anyone still there?

I know I fell off the bandwagon big time after the holidays this past year and then only followed up with 3 posts in March.  I had every intention of making my return to the blogging world a regular one.  I absolutely love it, after all. So March came around and I got all excited with those 3 posts.....and then the hubs and I decided to put our house up for sale.  Little did I know how many changes such an endeavor would bring.

It went something like this: the Saturday before Easter the hubs and I went to look at a few homes to see if we could find any we liked.  If we could, then we agreed that we would put our house on the market.  Of course, we toured THE house that day.  You know, THE ONE.  You walk in and just know from the moment you step inside that it's where you're supposed to be.  It just has a peace about it and feels like home.

A lot of times this gets confused with a home just being super nice.  This home wasn't the biggest or the most expensive home we toured, but it had the most charm by a long shot for us.  It had character and we loved that so much attention was paid to the details.  You know those mammoth homes you walk into and it seems like they just went big for the sake of going big?  We wanted plenty of room to grow as a family down the road, but certainly didn't want the aforementioned feeling.

People kept reminding me that home is wherever you make it and that you can be incredibly happy in several homes.  While I know without a doubt this is so very true, I still kept going back to "Yeah, but this is different because I just know we're supposed to be there".  I even referred to it as "our house" when talking to other people.  Lordy.  Dramatic much?  My poor husband....when we walked out of the house after touring it I looked over at our real estate agent with a big cheshire grin and shouted "We'll take it!".  I turned back to my hubby only to see a look of pure bewilderment, as we obviously had yet to discuss it ourselves.  Whoops.  Too late to shovel the words back in now.  He kept telling me I was a real estate agent's dream.

To make a long story short, we listed our home 2 weeks later on a Wednesday, sold it to the first potential buyers 3 days later, offered on "our" home 2 days after that and closed on both 4 weeks later.  To say it was a whirlwind would not even come close.  A good whirlwind though. 

We've been in the new place for a little over two months but it still doesn't feel anywhere near settled.  We were lucky that we didn't have to do any major repairs, but there were several cosmetic things I wanted to take on.  Of course there is this little thing called a budget (smile) and I have been trying to spread the projects out.  

One of the things that needs to be replaced is the double oven.  It's a great brand (Thermador), but it's an older model and never heats evenly.  I've tried to bake 3 different layer cakes only to have them burn and/or cook so unevenly that they weren't edible.  While we have certainly been busy moving, one of the biggest reasons for the lack of food blogs is this issue with the oven.  Because of its issues I don't feel like I can even begin to give someone instructions as to how to prepare something.

Exhibit A: The Culprit

Hopefully there will be some food posts soon!  I certainly hope so because I miss this blog something terrible.

Below are a few pics of our new home and things we want to work on.  I figured this could be a peace offering since I don't have any food pictures to share at the moment.  I won't regularly post pics of my home and/or household projects considering it's not an area in which I hold any ounce of expertise.  Rather it's just a means to help explain my absence.  That and several out of town friends kept asking for pics.

Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: Nothing is clean or "finished" per se.  Beds are not made and wallpaper is only partially removed.  But I figured it will be a LONG time until everything is done, so I might as well go ahead and share.  That and all of these pics were taken with my iphone.  Not the best quality, but better than nothing, right?

The play set needs a bit of cleaning off, but considering its use

isn't imminent we should be fine for a while. 

PS Those are blueberry bushes to the left behind the tree...one

of my favorite finds!

 Next up is the foyer...

It needs some love and a few prints for the

stairway, but that's pretty low on my list right now.

The dining room...one of only two rooms that I really consider to be "done".

The other "done" room.  Of course I chose the two least practical rooms (the

dining room and the formal living) to finish first [insert sarcasm].

There was that one lone window on the only wall that made

sense for the couch and I was at a complete loss as to what to do with it.  I used

these prints to make a gallery of sorts until I find a more

permanent solution.  At least they can distract a bit, right?

Other side of the formal living

The other "least done" room in the house besides the bedroom: the den.  

Just ignore the fact that there is no coffee table, no lamps, the fact that the TV is not yet 

mounted and the ironing board over there in the corner.  

The TV is currently sitting on my beloved mirrored buffet  until it gets mounted.  

I kindly requested that we at least drape a blanket over the top lest it get scratched.

The good news is that we have several things on their way to round out the room.  

A pair of chinoiserie lamps very similar to these will find their homes on the end tables.

These chairs are coming in the Martin Sapphire shade for more seating. When

they arrive the tan chair will go upstairs.

Martin Sapphire 

The cane chairs up towards the fire place are ones that I found at a tent sale for 

90% off (score!) We had them recovered in the fabric on the left below.  We are going to 

have some pillows made in that fabric and also in the fabric on the right.

*So sorry for the small size..when you try to enlarge it everything gets blurry.

  

Probably my favorite room in the house.  The kitchen: where the blog magic will finally happen one day.  

I love to cook and one of my favorite things about this kitchen was the amount of space it has.  

Perfect for having groups over.  And since it opens up to the den I won't feel

shut off from everyone when I'm in there.

In several years I would love to redo the counter tops with marble, but

that is definitely a ways off.  It's a dream inspired by Pinterest :)  One day....

More wallpaper (smile).  This is the powder room right off the kitchen.

I know it sounds crazy, but I'm really hoping to put fabric up on the walls like you would

with wallpaper.  I saw this done at Phoebe Howard's showroom in Atlanta and 

have been coveting the idea ever since.

These are my favorites now...

  

  

I know, I have officially lost my marbles.  Wallpaper and the like is outdated and those 

colors/patternsabove are nutty.  And considering I'm a pretty "vanilla"

person about everything else you would think I would get tired of them in a matter of months.

But I love them.  A lot.  We'll see....

I decided to get a bit creative with the panoramic feature for the mast bath....

The wallpaper will most certainly go, but I'm going to hire someone

else to do that because of all of the angles, nooks and crevices.  I'm thinking of a light

cream..??

Benjamin Moore Cloud White - 967

One day I would love an oushak rug in there...maybe like this one....

The bedroom is really the only room where anything major will

take place.  While the tile floor is really nice, I can't quit wracking my brain trying

to figure out why in the world you would pull up nice hardwood floors to put this down

in your bedroom of all places.  I'm still undecided between carpet and hardwood

but we'll be switching it out one way or another by Christmas.  

*Those are most certainly not our regular sheets.  Yikes!

We don't have nightstands right now (can you spot that lovely

plastic drawer set on the right), but I found some at Scott's Antique Show

that I plan to purchase this next month.

As far as the color goes, I had already purchased 2 cans of Benjamin Moore Spa in

anticipation of painting at our old house.  When we suddenly decided to sell I opted to

save it for wherever we moved.

Benjamin Moore Spa - AF435

It looks a little more lime in this pic, but it's really soft in person.  That's what I'm hoping anyways. 

Once we get the room painted I will finally hang all of our prints on the walls. 

I've got some Ryan Studio slubby linen double flange pillows that will go on the bed

along with our regular bedding.

Aloe                                                       Ocean

 I debated over whether to dress the plantation shutters

but am going to end up doing pinch pleat panels flanking them.  I think this will 

look better especially considering that the only good place to put the bed

was right in front of a window.

Now upstairs...kid room #1

Kid room #2.  We are leaving these empty for the time being.  I

just don't want to spend money decorating them only to have to 

get rid of everything when it's time for a nursery.

More wallpaper!  This is the bathroom adjoining kids rooms #1 and #2.

Guest bed.  Also known as our dumping ground for

extra clothes at the moment.

I spotted this bedding at the Mart not too long ago and would

love to get a version of it for this room.

The bath for the above room...and the only place where

I have started to tackle the wallpaper.  

Oh.my.lord.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  It's not a hard job at all.  It's 

just that it takes tons of patience and is super time consuming.  Maybe in 3 months I'll be done. 

I'm hoping to do a cornice for this bath, kind of like the one below.

And last but not least, the hubby's office.  There are still several prints and

paintings that need to find a home, but it's getting there.

He loves it so much he didn't even want to move for the picture :)

And now for what has been added to the outside..

Hydrangeas along the corner of our property.  Hydrangeas are so southern

and have always been some of my favorite flowers.  These are the endless summer

kind, so I'm hoping they live up to their name and bloom from spring-fall.

Some baby blooms...

That apparently turn purple...

Love.

Added some ferns to the front door..

and a climbing rose around the side by the bathroom

window (this thing has grown like crazy!)

some lovely red impatiens along the walk way

and a mix of different flowers by the patio.

I just wish I had know how aggressively some of these plants were

going to grow.  I figured there was no way a teeny container of lantana could 

ever get this big.  Wrong.  Do you see those tiny white flowers underneath?  

The ones getting choked?  Sigh. 

Several rose bushes were planted.  I was kind of intimated by them at first

because I've always heard they were high maintenance, but thus far

they have been pretty easy to deal with.

Lots of baby buds!

That's a bout it for now!  Hopefully I will have some food posts very soon :)