The Dining & Living Rooms

The dining room was painted a peachy orange color, and the living room was a yuck yellow. I love how the paint colors turned out - much improved!! This is the first time we have ever had a dining room. We eat in it all the time and the kids love it. We plan to have big family dinners for the holidays and already enjoyed the space it provided for Justin's party.

View of the dining room into the living room.

View of the table and dish hutch

For those of you who don't know me well I'm obsessed with vintage dishes. I have so many I needed a hutch to put them in. I got this cute hutch from a friend for a great deal and I adore it.

View of dining room from living room. For some reason the walls look alarmingly like the old color in this picture - yuck!

My side antique side board, I got it for $100 on Craig's List.

Our two ton entertainment center Ron almost refused to move again. But it looks great in the room!

Living room through dining room.

What you see when you turn to the right after coming in the front door.

The Kitchen

We're starting to get unpacked in our slow and steady style! Some curtains are hung, and a few rooms are completely finished, but there is still lots to unpack - will it ever end?! We are loving our new house so much. I still can hardly believe we're home owners finally! It's been lots of fun creating each space and making it our own. Here are some pics of the rooms we have mostly finished and presentable.

The Kitchen: This room gets little light, and it was painted brown which made it even darker. The appliances were way old and worn. We brightened it up with white paint and a bold red accent wall and a new stove and fridge. My mom scrubbed the cabinets for days - people even asked if the cabinets had been replaced because they looked so great! I LOVE my new kitchen! It's roomy and has space for a table as well.

(Going counter clock wise) Our new sleek black stove. I'm elated to have drawers! I had one semi functioning drawer at the old house so I'm in heaven!

The cute original window and awesome window cil. I've never had a window cil wide enough to put anything on. I'm loving making it look cute!! I have plans for some cute vintage curtains to add to its cuteness as well.

Our new fridge, and more counter and cabinet space.

The cozy breakfast nook area: Table - Ikea, antique porcelain lamp - from my Grandma's farm house, pie safe is also from her house, (on loan to me from mom!)

Justin's Birthday Party

We had a belated birthday party for Justin about a week and a half after his actual birthday at our new house! With all the moving chaos going on we decided to wait until things were situated, (a bit anyway!) It was fun to have our first "event" here at the house, especially since it was one of the kids' birthday parties! Seven of Justin's little friends came and a great time was had by all! Here are a few pics of the big day:

Hard to believe our "baby" is three now!

The cake I quickly whipped up.

Matchbox cars from Isaac - the kid didn't want to open any other presents after these, and they were the first gift!

Wow, cool Mom! Yes, that's me - evidence I was there.

Cute and stylin' Fiona enjoying some cake.

Bethany with her precious brood.

Fiona and Rowan enjoying the fun.

The shy birthday boy hiding from a present bearer.

The Move

I finally have my Internet connected on the main computer, so I can upload pics here - wohoo! Here come a slue of re-caps from the past few weeks, starting from the move! As I mentioned before, my family came up to help and were AMAZING!! They have so much energy and were ready to go every day. They stayed almost a week, and I don't know how we would have done it without them!

Beginning stages of the move. Justin thought the U-Haul was the coolest thing ever!

Hangin out on the ramp.

My bro Geoff putting together one of the many Ikea pieces for us. He was an amazing mover as well, moving much of our stuff upstairs, (and down from the old house), for what seemed like days!

My Dad: Mover extraordinaire and Mr. Clean. He could clear out a room full of boxes and have it all put away in no time - Thanks Dad!!

My bro Eric: Painter and all around awesome help! He painted Justin's dresser, and the remaining walls and some ceilings we hadn't gotten to.

All Moved In!

We started the marathon move last Saturday, and here we are a little over a week later! We were officially all moved in as of Thursday after days of packing boxes and moving them over in the truck. My family (Mom, Dad, Geoff and Eric), came up from Sac to help us out and were such an amazing "moving team." Mom and Dad helped clean both houses and dad helped with the moving aspect as well. Thanks so much Dad and Mom - you were miracle workers!! My brothers both helped move, and Eric finished up painting our bathrooms and a few ceilings. Geoff did the task of assembling most of our Ikea furniture so we have more closet space now! We could not have done this move without them - THANK YOU ALL!! I feel so blessed to have had so much help, beyond what I could have imagined! (Pics to come.)

I hadn't realized just how much stuff we have until we started packing. We have sooo much stuff, even after throwing/giving/recycling much of it. It seemed that the boxes just kept on coming and I was thinking, "Where in the world did this all come from?" I'm to the point where I just want to give stuff away - we have too much! So, you may see some give aways listed here in the near future.

Yesterday we had the first ever party/event at our new house - Justin's birthday party! We decided to wait until after the move for the party since our old house was in a state of moving chaos. I had NO idea that we would still have so much stuff not put away, etc. but somehow we pulled it all together with the exception of the play room and the mud room, (which were full of boxes.) We had a great party with our friends and Justin's little pals. It was so nice to have a house people could spread out in and enjoy themselves in. It was the first time people have seen our house since it was refurbished too, so it was fun to take people on the tour of our new house.

We don't have our main computer hooked up yet so I can't post pics, but as soon as it is I will post pics from our new corner of the world! We're still in the throws of unpacking, which I'm sure will continue for quite a long time! We're gearing up for a house warming party in the next month or so which will give us some major inspiration to get the house put away.

HAPPY EASTER to all of my blogging friends! We have eggs boiling on the stove as we speak. :)

The Move Is On!

The day has finally arrived! We're officially in moving mode complete with the U-Haul. This weekend will be the big push and we plan to be in the new house in the next day or so. I won't have internet for a few days, so good bye for now! The next time I "see" you I will be in a whole new world. I can't wait to start blogging about life in our new house.

Today when we were over at the house, (cleaning floors, etc.) it finally hit me - we're home owners! As I walked from room to room looking at the new flooring and paint I realized how much I love our new place. It is perfect already even without any of our stuff cluttering each room. Ron said it sunk in with him when he mowed the lawn for the first time, then it really sunk in when he paid the mortgage! I think that's why I'm up at 12:30, the excitement is almost too much to bear. But, tomorrow is a long day so I better get off to bed. More to come on the other side!

Justin's Birthday Celebration

Today we had a fun little birthday celebration for Justin at my mom's group. He loves sprinkles, so I made him cup cakes with lots of sprinkles on top. Here are some cute pics from the day:

Wow, fire!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Mmmm, good!

He made his own little artistic creation with candles.