finally....

TA DA!

The tv finally has a happy home 24 inches off the ground. This is our brand new "media Console" from Target. At almost $300 I thought this piece was WAY too expensive. However, when we finally decided to purchase it Target was running a 15% off and free shipping promotion. After we added in our additional AAA discount, we knew it was a great deal.

When looking for a TV stand we had a really hard time finding something that met all of our criteria.

1. I wanted something wood, with doors. I was tired of looking at tons of messy wires behind our old stand that just had open shelving.

2. It needed to fit our giant surround sound receiver. Measuring over 17 inches long, 6 inches in height and super deep it was hard to find centers with those shelf dimensions.

3. Fit all of our other junk! We needed storage space for not only the receiver, but the cable box, DVD player, wii and other games.

This stand fits everything with room to spare! The best part?? You can leave all of the doors completely closed and still operate the cable and other electronics inside. Remotes go right through the lattice!

Along with our TV stand we decided to get the matching coffee table. We scored this guy already on clearance. Adding in our additional discounts made it a steal as far as coffee tables go!

Both pieces are incredibly sturdy and I just love the lattice design.

Our other newest decoration in the great room? This GIANT plant from James' Grandma!!

It looks fabulous in the corner of our great room that we have been wondering what to do with for the time being. Let's hope I can keep this alive!

Moving!

We moved into our house last Saturday, April 24th. The day started out kind of gloomy and was sprinkling. I was so nervous the rain was going to ruin our move! The movers said they stop when it starts storming and either wait it out (while still charging you per hour!) or they take all your stuff they have already loaded and come back the next day. Uh....neither of those sounded like good options to me....

Anyways! Luckily it just drizzled for a little bit and then let up by late morning. It took almost 4 hrs. to complete which adds up when they are charging like $90 an hr!

We hired movers from All my Sons. It went ok. They weren't super fast, but did a pretty good job overall. James helped load and carry stuff the entire time and when it was starting to take too long we called in reinforcements from friends and family to help unload! Nothing was really damaged. We had a few scratches on big items and just a few scratches on the walls, but no major dents.

Either way I'm SO happy we hired movers or it would have taken probably at least twice as long and would have completely worn us out!

Instead I had energy to unpack the kitchen from this:

To this:

The rest of the house still needs some work. Like our living room:

These are our brand new couches we got (thank-you new homebuyer tax credit!) We discovered that the area rug we had in our apartment is WAY too small for the size of this room so we are looking around for a new (and affordable) one.

We ordered a matching coffee table and TV stand from Target.com. The coffee table just arrived last night and looks awesome! However, until we get the TV stand our brand new TV just resides on the floor.

We actually watched a movie while it was on the floor last weekend. James was really excited to try it out, so we just kind of slouched down on the couch to try and get on the same level. I"m sure it will be much more enjoyable once it is actually on a stand. :)

This week we also got the garage completely cleared out and mostly organized. Which means we FINALLY got to park our cars inside!!

With room to spare!

Things are definitely coming along! I'm hoping this weekend we can finally get stuff mostly organized in our master bedroom and move clothes from our old dressers that are currently in the guest rooms to our new dressers in the master. You would think we would have done that first huh?

Almost time

In the almost 2 weeks since we closed on our house we have been doing a lot of painting and other small projects to get things ready before we move in on Saturday.

So far we have painted our dining and living room downstairs. Upstairs the master bedroom/bath, loft area and guest bedroom are all painted. We only have 2 bathrooms left to paint at this time. Painting is HARD work! My body has been so sore after all that painting and I was actually starting to get calluses on my hands!

For paint colors we chose lighter earth tone shades to go throughout most our house:

I have such a difficult time picking out paint colors. It is so hard to get a good idea of what the color will look like on all 4 walls of a room from a tiny paint sample! Luckily we are happy with all of our color choices so far. :)

This week has been full of packing to prepare for our movers on Saturday morning:

Just 2 more days :)

Yard

When I got to our new house yesterday after work they were putting in the sod and landscaping.

Now it all just has to grow, grow, grow!

CLOSING!

We closed on Friday and are officially homeowners!

Mirror Update

A few weeks ago I puchased this mirror for $10 at big lots.


It was a GREAT deal for a good sized mirror, I just wasn't loving the gold. So I decided to give it an update! I taped around the edges and covered the center with old magazine pages to protect the glass.

I then sprayed it with the leftover paint I used when I redid the handles on my dresser.

I'm so happy with how it turned out! Job well done!

Final Days!

On Wednesday, March 31st we had our final walk through. Basically we spent about 2 hrs. going through everything in the house learning how to care for everything and making notes on final touch ups that need to be done. Our realtor insisted on taking a picture of us:
We went back on Friday to look over things again and I took lots of pictures!

Entry through garage. Laundry on left, pantry on right:

Yay...appliances!

Looking out through sliding door off the dining room:

Entry by front door/powder room:

blinds were included throughout the entire house!

Upstairs loft area (James is in the guest bathroom):

Guest Bathroom:

Master closet:

Master Bathroom:

Separate toilet area in master bath:

Typical:

YAY!

Our closing had to be pushed back 1 week because of miscommunication from our builder and lender about our yard...ugh! As of now our closing is scheduled for this Friday, April 9th, at 4pm. This entire process has been STRESSFUL here at the end! I think the hardest part has been the failing communication in the last several weeks from both our builder and our lender. James and I often felt like we didn't know exactly what was happening when. I have felt SO tense and on edge these last few weeks! I don't feel like I will be able to relax until we walk out of closing with the keys in our hand!