Picking Colors: Living Room

We have gotten our living room in some semblance of order, in fact I finished painting it last week. I should have some pictures of the semi-completed living room tonight but in the meantime let me tell you about how we decided our color selections. We selected the living room paint color way before our house was done because we had the model to base our selection on. The paint color we selected is called Opal Silk by Behr:

It's a little lighter looking in person but I love it. It's bright and welcoming. We loved this color so much we decided our couch color on it. Voila:

Ikea's Karlstad modular couch in Kordal Medium Grey. While we were at Ikea we also found this rug:

So we have this rug and the couch as well as some white shelves for behind the couch (it'll make more sense in pictures). We knew that we needed to pick some colors to accent the living room, so we headed to Lowes and Home Depot to take a look. We brought home some paint samples and compared them to the couch and wall color and wound up selecting these two:

Top color is Tibetan Orange by Behr, bottom color is Caribe by Behr. The media stand is going to be the Caribe and the Tibetan Orange we used as a basis for throw pillows and wall decor. I'm really excited with how this looks together. Hopefully you will see it in tomorrow's post and like it as well!

Overloaded

Our entire house is beige. AKA blah. Now I admit we did pick beige as our paint "color" but it really is overwhelming to be in a house that is suppose to be yours and not have it really feel like yours. Our house feels more like a model than a home. It's not just all the beige, it's also all the rooms that are half empty because we just don't have furniture to put into them. This has turned my head into a scary place because every day I am making lists of things I want to do to make this house a home. And folks my lists are like scary long. So to help make us accountable and also get my thoughts organized I'm going to share the list of things I would like to get done. To help us out even more I'm going to highlight the ones I want to get done before our friend house warming (We are also planning on having a big family and friend house warming in the warmer months so our families can make the drive down if they want). This list is in no particular order:

• Paint living room (Completed 1/12)
• Paint the front room, media room, office, and our bedroom
• Put mirrors in the hall and half bath
• Hang toilet paper holders and towel bar/circle 
• Hang curtains and/or blinds in all bedrooms
• Re-cover black and white chair for living room
• Put legs on the record player stand to make it higher
• Make or buy a liquor cabinet
• Finish media stand for living room
• Unpack all boxes that aren't going into storage
• Hang mirrors, shelves, and decor in living room
• Buy an additional chaise for the couch and shelf for behind couch
• Buy a bigger TV for living room
• Figure out art work for front room
• Buy Star Wars posters for Andy's office
• Buy desks for Andy's office
• Make accent pillows for living room 
• Get big TV and the old couch up into the media room

I know that there are more things I need/want to do but I just can't think of them all. I think I may have to start carrying around a small notebook and pen to keep track of things when I think of them. 

Moving is hard

I finally have access to the interwebs folks! We just got our internet and cable connected on Sunday, so freaking crazy! Anyway, that's my excuse for being gone for so long, plus the whole moving thing. Good news is we are all moved in to our house, not that we aren't unpacked nor do we have anything in the slightest semblance of order but we are working on it. Let me tell you having four days to get out of the old house and into the new house was crazy hard. It was so stressful and tiring but so worth it since we are in OUR house. We are homeowners, it still doesn't feel completely real, like some days I will be sitting in the living room and think "Oh my gosh, this is our house, we own it!" It sounds weird but I still do that sometimes about being married. I think it's the whole feeling like a grown up thing, I still see myself as a kid in college (and act like it).

Anyway, we are completely loving our place for the most part, there are a few minor annoyances but nothing too major. For example we don't have sod so our yard is just mud right now so we have to walk the dogs, which we haven't had to do in nearly 2 years.We freak out at any damage we do to the house (like a hunk of drywall that was taken out when we were moving furniture in). Plus no one can find us, since we aren't on Google Maps, people like the pizza delivery dude and our internet and cable provider. Other than that things are great. We've been working on organizing and unpacking, slowly but surely. We need to get our butts in gear though because the first weekend in February we are having a house warming party and I would like to have most of the house set up and organized. I actually planned the party to motivate us a little more, I think it's working.

Anyway, that's my little update, I've got a lot to share about the projects we've completed since moving in and all the projects I want to undertake in the near future. I promise to post a little more often now that we have our connection back up!

Building: Final Walk Through

Well our final walk through was yesterday and it went well. Basically we met with our contractor at the house and he walked us through the operation of all the things in the house (furnace, hot water heaters, etc.) along with some care instructions for the first year. We also looked for any trouble spots in the house to be fixed in the next week before we close. There weren't very many things to take care of, a lose floor tile, some spots that needed touched up with paint, one of the windows needs replaced, plus we need the right stove. We also were informed about problems to watch out for and what to do/who to call. I really can't believe that we move into our house next Tuesday, it's crazy. I can't wait to share pictures after we move in!

Kitchen is done!

Good news our appliances were delivered yesterday, check it out:

Bad news, our stove is not the right one. At least we think it isn't the right one. As we understand it the models change frequently so the model number doesn't match the one that we picked 6 months ago. However, the original stove we upgraded to was suppose to be a five burner but this one is only a four burner. According to our contractor even if the models changed we should get a model similar to the one we picked out, meaning a five burner, which he is working on for us (thank goodness he is so awesome). Although this is kind of a pain, it worked in our favor for the fridge because we got a really awesome fridge instead of the original model we were suppose to get. I suppose we can handle the trade off.

Oh and P.S. We move in less than 2 weeks! Woot!

Guess what we did!

Yesterday Andy and I headed to Ikea to grab some stuff for the new house. We aren't in yet so we have to store it for now. We would have waited until we were in but they were having an awesome deal where they would give you a gift card worth 15% of the price of a couch. Since we needed a couch we decided to go for it, that way we could get some more stuff for free. Take a look:

Yeah those three carts are ours, plus that package that I'm standing next to had to get placed on a cart as well. Lucky for us we brought a little U-Haul trailer, otherwise we would have been in trouble. It feels kind of weird dropping a ton of money (for us) like that, but we have been saving for this couch since we started building, so we basically paid cash. Plus the gift card deal helped out tremendously, we got two chairs for free. I can't wait to get it in the new place and put it all together, it is going to be awesome. Only 2 more weeks y'all!

The only thing I'm seriously worried about is the house looking too Ikea. I mean I love Ikea, I'm a big fan of clean lines and a slightly modern feel, but I think too much of their stuff together can have that first apartment feel that I really want to avoid. We plan on having a nice mix of stuff that we are building ourselves and buying from other stores as well, it's just a concern that I have, but I'm not sure how do you furnish a house on a budget without a little bit of Ikea in there. Any ideas?

A Bartering Christmas

Obviously this year Christmas is tough for us, with a new house and the cost everything that comes with it we are on a tight budget. Imagine my delight when my genius sis-in-law suggested that perhaps this year we barter for Christmas. I think it's a fabulous idea. So in exchange for them helping us with the new house projects (painting, sewing, moving, etc.) we will babysit the kiddos, so they can have some date nights (or sleep). We decided we will still do something small so we all have something to open come Christmas, but still, much easier. I only wish I could get my family on board with this idea.

Even without my family bartering, I think we did a pretty bang up job for Christmas this year, watching the sales and knowing exactly what we wanted to get each person really helped. As for Andy and I, we also have a limited budget for each other and a challenge to only fill our stockings. It's going to be a little bit difficult but I think it's going to be a lot of fun to see what we each come up with and if there will be any "cheating" involved.

Anyone else having a budget type Christmas? What are you doing?