Our Home: Now (July 2011)

So I finally got around to taking some “after” shots of the house so you can see the progress we’ve made since moving in. The word “after” should be taken lightly because clearly there is still some work to be done (like finishing the mantle…a project I’m working on right now and will hopefully share the finished product soon). Okay – I admit it – the house was only clean enough to take pictures of because we had people over last night.  I think we should have people over more often just so we are forced to keep the house clean!

Living Room: View from the front door before…

and AFTER!

view from the hallway into the living room before:

now:

another after (without the mantle) of the living room – this poor picture doesn’t have a matching before, but it will survive.  oh..and yes, it is July, and yes, we have a Christmas tree.  that’s how we roll.

view from the living room into the dining room before:

and now!

view from the kitchen into the dining room before:

and now:

master bedroom then:

and now:

and I don’t have a before picture of the master bathroom, but here it is now:

Guest Bedroom then:

now:

and the office:

now:

bathroom 1:

now:

 

Clearly decorating (and adding some COLOR!!!) needs to be a priority, but I think it is so much better than before!!!

Sunday Project

Joel decided to make some good use of his time on Sunday and build a drawer organizer for our silverware drawer.
Before:

Planning the design:

The builder:

a couple hours of work and an awesome new silverware drawer:

Outdoor Paradise

I got a spring magazine from Lowes the other day and it reminded me how much I want a great outdoor living space in my home someday.
Isn’t this just beautiful?

MISSING!!!

Joel and I got a pet for Christmas.  His name is Gus and he cleans our house.   
Gus cleans our floors every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but after about an hour he gets tired and goes back to his home. Since he only plays for about an hour at a time, he only does the main portion of our house on a regular basis.  When we don’t close the doors to the bedrooms, he wanders into the rooms and isn’t able to find his way home. 
The other day Joel was the last one out of the house and FORGOT to close the bedroom doors.  That evening we couldn’t seem to find where Gus had fallen asleep and somehow this sign found its way to our front door.

I think it is about time we got a real pet…but maybe not since we can’t keep track of this one!

I’ve got the whole world in my house

Okay – not really…but I do want to have a map of the world as wall art around the house. 
I haven’t decided which piece I want, but with as much as Joel and I love to travel, I really think it would be a really cool addition that reflects our personalities. 
There are some modern pieces I like, such as this one (comes in a variety of colors):

Or maybe something a little more traditional (and detailed) like this one:

Family Tree

I LOVE family history – old family pictures, family heritage, stories, all of it.  I’ve also been trying to figure out how we want to decorate our house since we’ve [mostly] finished our remodel.  Hanging up old portraits isn’t really our style – and wouldn’t really fit in our house, but I hadn’t come to terms with leaving all of my old pictures sitting on my laptop’s hard drive.  Imagine my excitement when stumbling across this:

Modern wall art using one of my favorite things…old family pictures!

I was SO excited about this, and actually couldn’t fall asleep the first night I saw it because I was trying to figure out exactly how to make it work. 

Now I just need to find the time to get it all put together.  Thank you Martha! 

project time!

it seems like I just did this:

Looking back, I guess it was a year and a half ago…which makes it somewhat acceptable that it turned back into this:
A quick 15 minutes later, a clean drawer emerged again.