New House!

Whoa! It's been a while since I updated. Crap. Where have I been? What's been going on? Why have I been delinquent on posting?

Well ... drumroll, please ... get excited ... are you ready? ... Alright, here goes: I have been moving. Not moving as in dancing, but moving as in packing up our entire house and moving all our crap, ahem, stuff to a new location. Now, it's not the only reason that I've been incredibly far behind on updating the blog, but it's the reason I'll blame.

Here's the story:

Cory and I moved into our old house in October of 2003 when we were but wee babes and had been married for less than two years. We had almost no furniture, and I didn't really know my true decorating style yet. But, I did love our house. Fast-forward 10 years and two kids: I still loved a lot about our house (memories of bringing my babies home and them taking their first steps chief among the things I loved), but we were bursting at the seams.

Bringing Molly home to our house in 2007. (Eeek, and I thought I didn't get swollen while pregnant!)

We've always loved entertaining and having parties at our house (see all the parties on the party page), but, oh boy, our house was getting progressively smaller as our parties kept getting bigger. I guess that happens when you keep adding kids and the kids keep growing.

So, every once in a while, I would get an itch and start searching the internet for a new house. The problem was, I loved our neighborhood and neighbors a lot. I was willing to put up with a lot in our tiny house to stay in our neighborhood. But, then my BRF (best running friend) Sarah moved away. It had been so convenient to have another running stay-at-home mom to two girls living right across the street. When she moved, it was the straw that broke the camel's back. I started looking in earnest.

That's when I came across the listing for our new house. It had previously been foreclosed, but then had been flipped. Originally, Cory and I thought we might want a fixer upper. He had a lot of experience and contacts after fixing up so many rentals. But, then we fell in love. Yes, with a house.

We had some back-and-forth, but ended up getting it (obviously), and gained possession the week before Thanksgiving. We thought we might have a lot of time to move slowly and get everything ready. But, then we found the perfect people to rent our old house, and they needed to be in before December. That meant turning on our supersonic speed moving skills. It was insane.

But, we made it.

Our new house!

And, of course, I had already agreed to host my faith club's annual Christmas dinner before anything about the move happened. I decided to keep the date and use it as a deadline of sorts for myself to get our house semi-ready. I had about three weeks to do it.

Surprise! A whole new room!

I've been feeling a bit restless lately. Maybe it's because we have been denied a true spring and are still stuck in winter-like weather. Maybe it's because my neighbor/friend/running partner sold her house and is leaving me. Maybe I'm just in a rut. Whatever it is, I've been feeling like my house is closing in on my lately. Too much stuff. Too much clutter. Too little "ahhhhs."

Anyway, to cure myself of this feeling, I've been watching some HGTV. Ok, maybe a lot of HGTV. Alright, alright ... a TON of HGTV. Well, I started to get some ideas floating around in my brain.

Cory knows it's dangerous when I start to get ideas, and I think he gets very scared. So, instead of scaring him, I decided to surprise him. He was going out of town on Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon for the Berkshire Hathaway stockholders meeting in Omaha. This was going to be my chance.

I had been tiring of our bedroom for a while now. We had painted it a tanish brown color when we moved in  9.5 years ago. Yes, we've lived in our house almost 10 years. I know. It's insane. Anyway, I think almost 10 years with the same color is plenty long.

I wanted something fresh, crisp and clean. A place to relax and chill. My bedding was already white and brown, and I knew it would look good with a teal/blue/turquoise color. I was planning this all in my head without giving Cory a heads up at all.

So, on Friday, I go to Lowe's and get a couple testers of different colors. Saturday morning, Cory leaves at 3 a.m. Charlotte is up by 6:15, and I start painting the testers. I proceed to empty out the whole room and take everything off the walls. Then, when I see my neighbor/friend/running partner out at her garage sale, I make her come over to help me decide on one of the three colors.

Blurry, but the three choices. You really could barely tell the difference in real life, though.

I decided on "aqua chiffon," even if there was a little voice in my head that told me it would be too bold and too bright, and headed over to Lowe's to buy the two gallons of paint. My mom, painter extraordinaire, had graciously agreed to come over to help me paint. We stopped at Einstein's for breakfast as long as we were out and about.

Charlotte at Einstein's.

Charlotte wanted to take a picture. Please forgive the lack of makeup and crazy hair: I was going to be painting!

After we got home, and my mom got over, we started painting. It actually went pretty quickly, even after I decided to paint the windows and the big light box in my kitchen white. I figured, as long as the paint was out, I would just get it done. 

Sunday morning, the paint was dry, I hung everything back up, and even made it to the store for a couple new decorative pillows.