Little Things

Now that we are moved into our house and feeling settled, it's the little things that are keeping us busy! You know, dotting the i's and crossing the t's!  I thought I'd share a few random pictures of our life lately with you!

 Finally!  A dishwasher!  After going two months without a dishwasher, I have a brand new respect and love for the fabulous machine!

Our dishwasher is from Costco... yay for Costco rebate checks!

We finally have hooks for our bath towel and a toilet paper roll!  It's the little things that make a difference in day to day life.

Spring break gave me time to organize my life... and all the closets in my house!  Now my coffee grinder and dutch oven have an organized home.

Excited that spring has arrived.  I am thrilled to have an actual garden!  Next weekend I plan on planting these unique varieties of cucumbers and tomatoes!  

This photo might seem odd or insignificant... but, it was a great moment and I had to capture it!!  One of the first Giants games of the season was on, I had a delicious glass of Sauvignon Blanc in hand, booty was parked on our new, comfy couch, feet were up after a long day, and my lovely husband was sitting right next to me.  In that moment... I felt that I was truly HOME.  What is it about the Giants season that just makes everything in the world seem right again??  I don't know, but I sure do love April-October for that very reason!

Life is good!

Reality

Want to hear a secret?  

Blogging has been tough for me lately!  There, I said it.  Why, you might ask.  Well, first off, I should start by telling you that I am a first-born, perfectionist, who likes everything "just-so".  I plan, I organize, and I analyze.  I recognize that life isn't always "just-so" and sometimes it's good to let go and let life happen.  I'm not perfect when it comes to that last statement, but luckily for me, I have a husband who has helped me greatly in that area.  I also find that the older I get, the easier it is to prioritize and let go. 

Back to my house.  My house is lovely, gorgeous, stunning... it's MY home.  I absolutely love it.  But, quite frankly, it is definitely still a work in a progress!  That's okay with me in my day to day life, but sharing my work in progress has been tough!  I started thinking about blogging and how it's been hard for me to find motivation to share.  I decided that it would be beneficial for me to take a step out of my comfort zone and get over it. 

Done, half done, undone, perfect, imperfect, and REAL!  

Now that I have processed with you and let you into my brain, let's get to it!

Want to see our bedroom?  It's not complete, the walls are bare, and it's great!  It's cozy and such a great place to relax after a long day.  

The view when entering the bedroom.

My dresser.  

The collage above my dresser.  I made this a few weeks ago.  It's a collage of some of my favorite photos from our wedding.  I absolutely love all the good memories that it holds and the fact that I get to see them on a daily basis.

Our bed and nightstands.  I still need some pretty, decorative pillows to help the overall appearance of the bed... but hey, in good time ;)

This melts my heart!  Nick still has this frame that I had given him when we were dating... from probably about five years ago.  Since we dated long-distance for awhile, I would always write little post-its and leave them around his room so that he would find them once I had gone.  The best part... that he has kept the little post-it notes!  

 This is a painting we are going to hang on a wall in our room.  It's special because it was painted DURING our wedding ceremony.  The picture doesn't do it justice... it's so beautiful!

  I figured I should show you the actual day it was painted!  Best day of my life!  
                                                         Thanks Allison and Lori!!

Hmm... Looking at pictures of my wedding makes me want to do a blog post about my wedding now....!!
ANYWAYS, back to our bedroom: 
 

                                            View of the bathroom from our bed.

                                                            

Our view of the backyard from the bedroom window.  Have a mentioned that I love our backyard?  

                                                   Well, that's it folks....
                         Not completely finished, yet perfect for this day in time!

My Home Sweet Home

What is your favorite place in your home?  Mine is a toss up between our family room and kitchen!  Perhaps it's because I spend majority of my time in these two rooms.  

I enjoy being in our family room for several reasons.  First off, it is very cozy and comfortable; I enjoy curling up with an over-sized pillow and blanket on rainy days like today!  I can read a book, watch something trashy like The Bachelor, grade papers, or take a power nap. Secondly, it's a place where Nick and I can put our feet up and connect after a long day at work.  Lastly, our family room is the perfect mix of Nick's and my style.  It is cozy, inviting, and warm; yet, it has a contemporary, sleek, no-clutter feel. 

Most of our home furnishing purchases over the past few months have been for our family room.  We bought a sectional couch from Costco (I tutored all last summer and saved every penny so that we could purchase a quality couch without feeling it in our bank accounts!), a large rug, and a coffee table.  The various furniture pieces that we accumulated from the first two years of our marriage are scattered among the house, in an effort to fill in the large, empty rooms!

Here are some pictures of our family room.  Since I the queen of disclaimers, here you go:  

1) The walls are bare!  Don't judge.  I am SLOWLY looking for pieces that I love and can afford. 

2) Yes, those blinds definitely kill me.  Dual pane windows and plantation shutters are in my near future.  Not sure what "near future" means in this case! 

3) My mantel is currently a hodge-podge of items.  I am in the process of framing a large photo from our wedding which will likely find it's home on our mantel.  Until then, it's a fantastic catch-all!

 View of the family room from the kitchen.  I love the open concept feel.  Whether you are in the kitchen or family room, you feel as though you are in the same room.  This is especially nice when I am cooking!

                       The closed door leads you into the indoor laundry room.  

Our new couch is massive!  Nick and I joke that we feel like we are sitting miles away from each other.  I like to claim that cozy corner right in the center of the couch!

Eventually, Nick would like to mount the TV on the wall.  For now, he is enjoying weekends that don't involve too many tools!

                                                                         Cozy!

                                     The view from the family room into the kitchen.  

Thanks for checking out my new favorite space!  Sometimes I look at this house and I have to pinch myself!  It is truly my "home sweet home".

The Great Unveiling

Now that my reports cards for the second trimester are finished... I'm ready to blog again!  Report cards have a way of zapping you and making you want to stay far away from your computer!  Glad I can check that off my list!

I thought I'd share our master bathroom renovation with you today!  We absolutely love our bathroom and often joke that it's our favorite place of the house.  Well, we actually might not be joking.  We love it.  It was by far the biggest project of our entire home renovation.  It took the most time, energy, planning, and money.  It was well worth it though!  Every day I feel like I am showering and getting ready in a hotel bathroom.  What a treat!  

Here is a photo of the bathroom when we purchased the house. Good condition, just dated.  The shower was extremely tiny.  

See this previous post for more pictures of the previous bathroom.

                                                           Here is the new bathroom! 

We opened the bathroom up by removing the wall in between the the vanity and toilet.  

Our new vanity (from Costco.com) helped to modernize the bathroom.  The previous bathroom only had one sink, so we plumbed this bathroom with a second sink so that we each have our own (praise the Lord!)

                            The under-mount sinks make cleaning so much easier!

We purchased Waterford sink hardware.  The sleek, clean look was what attracted us!  

Our mirror is actually a stand up full-length mirror!  We saw the idea of using a stand-up mirror as a bathroom mirror at an open house we went to.  We found our mirror at Ikea for $49.95... what a steal! 

We've already discussed my love for our new toilets... no nooks and crannies! The little white/blue box to the left of the toilet is our control for the warm floors.  Best. Invention. Ever. 

You've already seen the inside of our new showers in previous posts, but I haven't shown you our glass door yet!  We chose a hinge door so that we didn't have to have a bar over the top of the glass.  We also had a treatment called "Diamond Fusion" done.  Diamond Fusion is a wax coat put over the glass that allows water to bead up and not leave water marks. 

Our shower hardware.  We love the Kohler thermostatic gauge.  Our personal water temperatures are preset so all we have to do in the morning is turn the water on.  No messing with the handle to find that perfect temperature.  The little nozzle to the left is the plumbing for our handheld shower wand.  We need a special drill to install it... so for now, it's left undone!

Do you like it?  We feel pretty blessed!  A huge thank you to Paul Akimoff (aka: DAD) for all the painting and spackling and to Greg Gustason for help with plumbing and lighting!  We couldn't have done this bathroom without you two blessing us big time!

We still have little things to do, such as purchasing and installing a toilet paper holder and towel racks! But it doesn't matter... those things will come in good time!  

                                                   Thanks for reading!

Life Lately

Yes, we're still alive.  Nope, I haven't forgotten about the blog.  Yup, I've felt bad about not posting pictures of our beautiful, partially decorated house.  

We've simply been slammed with real life!  We have also been taking time to have fun... together and with friends!  The past seven months of house renovations really took a toll on our social life and our down time.  We have been trying to play catch up!

One more excuse.  We just got our Internet service connected this week.  It's hard to blog without the Internet!  

 

All that being said, I still don't have many "house" pictures to share.  But what I have is better! Real life pictures.  It's a good life, and I feel blessed to be living it!

I went to JC Penny's to look for window coverings for our master bedroom.  I didn't leave with any window coverings; however I did leave with this beautiful coffee table for our family room!  We just love it.  Plus, it was on clearance and it was a total steal!  

Confession: This photo was taken at JC Penny's because I wanted to text a picture to Nick in order get his opinion.  My smart husband replied back to me: "Do you like it? Can we afford it?  If you like it, go for it."  What a catch!

 We went to Redding for a quick weekend getaway.  We went to visit family and friends.  We stayed with my aunt and uncle and had a ball.  The photo above is the Sundial Bridge.  It was a glorious 74 degrees; we were both thankful for the Vitamin D boost!

 We checked out the new pub in downtown Redding.  Nick loved the "beer sampler".  He tried four different beers.  My favorite part was listening to all the hilarious beer names, for example, "The Kilt Lifter!"

 I've been coming home to sweet surprises.  Sometimes, Nick gets home earlier from work than I do and I find sweet things like in the photo above!  

I had been parking my car in the driveway because we still have "stuff" in our garage.  He knew that I dreaded scraping the ice off my car in the morning.  One afternoon, I came home to this cute note written on a scrap of linoleum.  He had cleared out my side of the garage so that I didn't have to fight with the ice anymore! 

 We are trying to decide what to do with our bedroom window.  Currently, there are no shades.  It backs up to our backyard so it isn't really a privacy issue.  However, it is a temperature issue!  The house has single-paned windows, and let me tell you.... it's COLD!!  We in the process of looking for curtains.  It's a bummer that I am so picky though... because as a result, we still don't have curtains!

Did I mention that our house is freezing?  We are putting "dual-paned" windows at the top of our priority list now.  Forget the guest bathroom; windows have become much more important!  

Since we are newly living here, we don't have any idea what our PG&E bill will be.  We have been pretty careful about running the heat because the bill could be horrifying!  So, we have a space heater that works wonders.  Our room stays nice and toasty as we sleep.  The rest of the house... not so much!  46 degrees... that'll wake ya up real nice and quick!

 The flu bug finally caught me.  It broke through my killer-teacher-germs-can't-touch-me-immune system.  Want to hear the reader's digest?  It's actually pretty funny.  

I felt sick.  I mean, really, ridiculously nauseous sick.  The worst part was that it was 1:05p.m. on a Wednesday.  21 students, reading centers in progress, and a teacher on the verge of puking (for lack of better terms).  The room got hot, I started feeling that horrible salivating, right before your lose it feeling.  I ran next door and told my fabulous teaching partner, Jaime, that I needed help.  She called my principal who graciously came over and took over centers.  

I went to the bathroom, cleaned myself up, got fresh air, and "pulled it together".  I'm pretty stubborn and convinced myself that I was fine.  I finished the last 45 minutes, released my students at 1:50 (minimum day, praise the Lord).  

At 1:54, our custodian walked in and was chatting with me... well, I wasn't really chatting back because I was sitting in front of the trash can ready to lose it.  And, I did.  Right in front of the custodian.  He was a doll and cleaned everything up.  Super embarrassing.  

Want to know the strangest part??  The DAY before this incident, one of my students RANDOMLY asked me, "What would happen if you got so sick that you couldn't teach?"  I laughed and replied, "Oh don't worry sweetie, I would drink some water and be okay!  I won't get sick!!"  Ha... ha ...ha.  Funny.

I've also been cooking in my new kitchen!  My new kick is trying to plan ahead and make 2-3 dinners out of one.  In the photo above, I was making lasagna.  I figured that if I was going through the trouble of making one lasagna, I might as well make three at the same time and freeze two of them.  Now when I have a busy night and I don't want to cook... I have a home-cooked, preservative free dinner in the freezer! 

 As you can see, life lately has been busy, fun, and eventful!  I'm pretty sure that's exactly the way it should be!

Home

It's official!  We live IN our home!  Today is day five.  We moved in on Friday, February 1st!

197 days later. With lots of hard work, sweat, hard earned money, and love.  

We did it.  

This entire process had made us feel SO incredibly blessed and taken care of by the Lord.  His provisions were so evident throughout the entire project.  Our family and friends pitched in with time, gifts, and energy.  They all helped us immensely.  We both worked hard by putting in extra hours and picking up side jobs to make sure that this entire project was 100% debt-free.  Every sacrifice, weekend, and night spent working was worth it. 

The first four days living at our house have been great.  We have spent a lot of time unpacking boxes and finding homes for our belongings.  We don't have enough furniture to fill the house... and it's okay with us.  We made the decision months ago to only spend what we have in cash.  So, that means we don't have furniture in our living room, pretty area rugs, or much decor.  It'll happen in good time!

Here are a few snapshots of the past few days.  I promise to post lots of pictures of each room once we have removed the boxes!  It's a little messy and chaotic right now!  

Getting ready to pull into the driveway on the FIRST night.  I admit... I was quite teary.  It was such a build-up... and my emotions got the best of me.  AND... to top it off... my sweetheart made me drop everything and carried me through the door to "welcome me home."  Dream man!

                                              Great friends helping us unpack!

                                                        How does it look here??

I have to start getting my domestic skills back!  I got very spoiled with my Mom's cooking over the past six months.  So, I went to Costco and started practicing this weekend!  By the way, I LOVE my kitchen.  It's perfect!

We came home from work on Monday evening to find not one, but TWO separate gifts from neighbors (or so I think it was from neighbors?!)  This sweet "Welcome Home" balloon!  No clue who it is from... but we sure felt special and welcomed!

 Fresh lemons on our doorstep from kind neighbors!  Wow! We are blown away by the sweetness of this neighborhood.  It will be fun to get to know everyone better!

That's all I have for now!  I can't wait to show you the final product... hoping this weekend will give me a nice chunk of time to finish unpacking and organizing!

Ten Notches

We have been working like crazy people the past few days because... our first sleep at our house is going to this FRIDAY NIGHT!  Yes, that is tomorrow night!  We are so thrilled.  Can't believe we are actually here!

Our house has come together so beautifully the past couple weeks.  We were given some gorgeous appliances by Nick's parents which took the appearance of our kitchen up about ten notches!  We were planning on keeping all the appliances that came with the house; so this was a complete surprise and bonus for us.  We feel so blessed with this amazing, generous gift.  Thank you Karolee and Stan!!

Here are some pictures of our new gems!

                                                          Stainless steel fridge!

                      Super jammed packed fridge!  What more do we need?!

                                                  Lemon Drops here we come!  

 Our lovely stove!  Isn't she a beauty?  I am so happy to have a gas stove!  AND it has five burners.   So fantastic!

 The previous stove was electric, so Nick (who knows how to do everything), plumbed it for gas.  Super awesome.  

                                                          Happy homeowner!  

I'll post pictures of the finished, furnished house soon.  We are still chipping away at those boxes.  I must say though... big house... not a lot of furniture/stuff!  Looks like we will be going for the "less is more" look for awhile!