More house

I am REALLY over the bedding in my room, but Dave Ramsey isn't allowing me to redo it anytime soon, so I figured I would have to work with what I have for the time being.  I decided last night that we needed something above our bed, and voila...I painted our monogram.  There are about 12,000 pinterest projects that I would like to do, but I figured these would do for now!

And here's a kitchen preview.  More kitchen to come soon!

Work in Progress

So we're first time home owners.  We spent the first six years of our marriage living in apartments in Memphis.  Lovely.  This was certainly not because we didn't want to live in a house; we just knew that we would be moving away from Memphis eventually and we didn't want to be stuck with a house we couldn't sell when we needed to move.  Therefore we were able to somewhat keep our sanity for that long! :)

So since this is our first house, we are extrememly hesitant to do anything with it.  We wanted a "move-in ready " house, and this one was just that.  We have had ZERO experience with painting walls, mowing lawns, caulking things, and so on therefore we have basically just decorated around the current colors and what not. 

Lainey's room is a sage green color and since we have an older house all the trim in our house is oak.  Don't get me wrong...I would rather have the good quality woodwork we have than cheap crappy white stuff, but I do like the look of white more.  Previous homeowners have painted the trim white in our family room, our bedroom, and Lilly's nursery, but the rest of the house is the oak color.  Painting the trim white is something I REALLY want to do in Lainey's room, but that is a large task that we just haven't had the time or courage to do yet.  Soo....all of that to say that I had to figure out some way to decorate her room leaving the green walls and oak trim for the time being.  So for the time being we went with a green, pink, and white theme with a possible pop of aqua here and there.  Here are some current pictures of her room.  There is still plenty I want to do with it, but that will have to wait for when we have more time and money!

The view from her door.  And yes, her Christmas tree is still up and will probably stay that way for awhile!



Her reading nook

Barbie World!

Refinishing her furniture is my next big task.  It belonged to my mom and then me, so it's in desperate need of a facelift!  I am feeling somewhat accomplished though seeing as we have lived here for almost a year.  I could get used to this maternity leave stuff! ;)

Sneak Peek

I have been kindly reminded lately that I have not posted any pictures of the new house and that there are people out there who would actually like to see it, so here's a sneak peek!  It's not much, but there will be more to come once I can find 5 more minutes to snap some pictures (or actually, get my dad to snap some pictures!)  It is definitely a work in progress, but it was totally move in ready, and all of the things we want to do in the near future are either minor cosmetic things like changing paint colors, or adding more decorative stuff to rooms.  Mr. Dave Ramsey that I live with has me on a strict schedule of when I will be able to do these other things, but you can get the general idea of what our home looks like for now! :)

We are in desperate need of some patio furniture.  Definitely on our "To Do" list!

LAINEY'S BEDROOM

Lazy me has decided to keep her walls the same green they were when we moved in.  Ultimately they will be painted blue and the trim will be painted white, but I just decided to do green, reds, and pinks in her room for now.  Her bedroom furniture was actually my mom's when she was a child, and then my set as a child, so it is in desperate need of a facelift this summer!  Lainey's room is no where near complete, but she's sure loving it for the time being!

Stairs leading up to her room

 

This is her "libary"

LAINEY'S/HALL BATHROOM

Not really easy to get a good picture of this bathroom. On the opposite side is a toilet and her bath/shower.

 

 DINING ROOM

View looking up from the living room

Our kitchen is here to the right of the dining room. These doors lead out to our upper deck.

 

See?  Not much of a sneak peek, but a sneak peek nonetheless!  More house pictures coming soon!

Our New Home

I figured I would post pictures on here as opposed to posting them all over the Facebook world...

Getting ready to leave Memphis...

Arriving at our new home!  The first thing I did was put my "T" flag in the yard...this shouldn't surprise you!

DISCLAIMER::  I feel that I must tell you that we are renting this house for at least a year.  Those of you who are familiar with renting can empathize with me when I tell you that we are extrememly restricted as to what we can do to the house.  Forget that all the changes I want to make (paint, cabinets, light ixtures, mailbox, etc) would all IMPROVE the quality of the house...our landlord still feels the need to be stuck in 1970, and I guess I have to come to terms with the fact that it's his property-his rules!  That being said...ignore the WHITE walls and know that I will try to do all I can to work with these things I cannot change in the meantime! :)

THE DINING ROOM

This is my new Pottery Barn table that I have been wanting FOR-EV-ER!!!  The chairs were my parents that my mom repainted black.  I found fabric I love at Premier (of course!), and my mom took over from there.  She redid the chair pads, and she made the cute little window treatment for my lovely vertical blinds.  Some of you are undoubtedly laughing at my giant silverware.  I'm in love!  I found them at Hobby Lobby awhile back and have been dying to use them!  The end result...attaching them to mat board to somewhat achieve the look I was going for.  (Hopefully this light fixture will change in the near future!) 

GUEST/LAINEY'S BATHROOM

This is one of our two TINY bathrooms.  Although we've lived in an apartment for the last six years, we've had decent sized bathrooms.  This is an adjustment for the Tosics, but we are learning things we don't want in a house we buy!  Don't be fooled by the shower curtain...there is only a bathtub behind there, but I felt the need to use my pretty shower curtain I made, so there ya go!

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GUEST ROOM

I just smiled as I typed that!  It's been 3 years since we've had a guest room (obviously since the little blonde one came along), and let's just say it has been interesting seeing how many people we can fit in our tiny apartment when my family would come in town.  Now they all have somewhere to stay!!!  Lainey refers to this room as "Nana'sRoom" as she stayed with us the first few days and will hopefully be returning soon!!  This room (as with the whole house) is still a work in progress!

LIVING ROOM (a.k.a. my favorite)

So I've always dreamed of having a living room that's just for sitting and talking...no tv's, no toys, nothing!  I get that in this house, and I have loved every minute of it!  That blue chair has become my most favorite spot in the house.  I can sit there and look through the mail, read a book, work on school stuff, or simply stare out the window...all of this while still being able to hear Lainey downstairs playing.  It has been SO nice to have a "toy free" living room!  Any of you who have been to our old apartment(s) will notice a big change of color.  Insert AMAZING Mom here!!  While I was at New Teacher Orientation she was hard at work on these window panels and pillows!  She did such a good job!  Thanks, Mom!!  About the only thing I contributed to this room was the fabric/color choice, and I did the shade on my Goodwill find lamp.  The walls are bare, but they will be filled eventually...just not sure with what yet!

BASEMENT (otherwise known as the PLAYROOM & MAN CAVE)

Oh wow!  I mean, I knew having a basement was going to be great, but I did not know just how great until I finally got one!  We have put ALL of Lainey's toys downstairs and made the rule that they are not allowed anywhere else in the house.  She has tested that about twice in the last week, but I think she's catching on.  She LOVES her new playroom, and has "cooked" for us a lot more lately, ha!

Man Cave

So Jovan finally has a man cave!  He has to share with Lainey, but I'm sure he would tell you he doesn't mind one bit.  He has both TV's down there and his PS3 (which conveniently broke earlier this week).   Both of our DVD players also decided to stop working this week, but we have since replaced it.  Seeing as we have no cable and will not for awhile, we were in need of something for those rainy days! 

The lovely bachelor-looking furniture came from my grandparents' basement and will soon be reuphosltered once I can decide on a fabric.  You may also notice even though this is technically his man cave, I still get to have my Huskers and Tigers stuff in there too. :)

LAUNDRY ROOM/CRAFT ROOM

So this is a MUCH needed space for me!  My laundry room is an actual room with a good amount of extra space.  This room truly creeped me out until we fixed it up a little bit and got all my crafty stuff in it.  It's home to the heaters, the washer and dryer, and a constant drip.  The only lighting in here was a light bulb with a pull string...are you getting the creepy picture?! 

We have since added a little cute fabric, my old rug, and all of my crafting equipment.  It's made it much more homey, and I am no longer afraid of being in there!  Best part is, just as Lainey's toys were overtaking our space, so was my craft stuff...now it all has a place!

Hope you enjoyed installment #1 of pictures.  Kitchen, Master Bed, and outside pics to come!!