We're IN!

Hello everyone! We are officially in the new casa! And thankfully - most of the little things we needed to do have been done! We have picked out a painter named CJ, much to the chagrin of some awful other guy who chastised me for not picking him when he quoted almost 100% more than the other two painters... However, that won't start for another few weeks so we are still with the same old colors! We are going to go with the tried-and-true Paris Rain and Texas Sage for the bulk of the house, and keep the three bedrooms in lighter shades except the 3rd bedroom, which will be Raccoon Hollow. BTW- Once we got here we realized our king bed wouldn't fit well in the 'master' bedroom, so we are using the blue room, previously referred to as bedroom #2, as our bedroom, and the old 'master' is now my room for my clothes and vanity, which I have always wanted! It is also the guest room when we have guests, so I guess I just pull out some clothes and makeup before they come over. Piper is loving her new yard and dog-door, and everything else is good (including the recent extermination of the bugs). I need to post a picture of the table Cover bought us as a house-warming present, which goes in our little kitchen! It is from Nadeau, which is this amazing store in Homewood (and I think there are others in the US), that sells furniture very very affordable that looks like antiques! My next project will probably be a HEADBOARD! I actually already have the fabric - for the 'bedroom #1' aka the previous master bedroom, our guest room, and my vanity-room. It is from Market St. Fabrics in Pensacola (I think that is the name). And I got this fabric about 1 year ago, so not only am I pumped to use it, but I am completely surprised that I bought enough at the time!

More colors!

Living Room as is:

I really really am pumped about the living room. Here are three pictures from different angles. As much as I am not a huge fan of throwing massive flat screens above fireplaces, I think for now this will work for us and save some space we'd need to put up the tv stand. Also - it is wired behind the fireplace somehow, so we won't have those tangly things tramping around the living room!

In the top picture you can see the adorable shutter-doors that lead from this room into the front office. In the second and third pictures you can see the great cabinets that hold all the tv stuff as well as movies, etc. The same cabinet look is in the kitchen, as our food pantry, in the same dimensions! I am thinking we will have our furniture in the same layout, but would love to hear other suggestions! This room will probably be done in the same color as the kitchen... probably Paris Rain like the pictures from my previous post.

Bedroom #1 as is:

This looks like a queen bed to me... that is a bummer because our king, while I love it, will make this room seem smaller. But it will have to do! From this angle, we are looking at the backyard, and the master bath is to our left-back. Behind me to the right is the closet and built-in shelves that are also cabinets. This room color is a mystery for me!!! I picked out a color in Chapel Hill for our master bedroom that I really don't need to repeat... and so I must find something new! The colors we have are a grey-brown and a celedon and white, similar to bedroom #2. I could do a light blue hue, like emerald vapor (Nick Olsen's suggestion- actually a mix between blue and green and very light) or .... ?? They are taking these curtains as well, so I'll probably throw up some white ones I have until I get truly inspired!

Master Bath as is:

Let's be honest---yikes! Unless you are a New Yorker (Lindsay and Kathryn!), this is super duper tiny. It actually was our main hesitation with the house. While we know that the other bath is around the corner and fully accessible to us on an everyday basis, when we have people over this is cramped! Are the rules to keep small spaces light, AKA, keep this color?? Help again! One thing this bathroom has that makes it seem smaller is the ceiling-high shower curtain, which I have and love in my Chapel Hill guest bath. Should I take it down in favor of a shorter style so it doesn't seem like the bathroom wall is right there though?? Or maybe a darker color curtain to offset it from the lighter walls??

Guest Bath as is:

ooh it is adorable. I really wanted waist-high tiling = so I think that I need to make something of it and paint the wall above it a different color to accent it. The black detail in the tiling and floor will limit me... not necessarily in a bad way though! I may have to do something like what they did in terms of shower curtain and mats. Throwing a colored wall with all the black and white may seem weird though. Maybe I should get my basic grey fix with this room...

Backyard as is:

Ok so the picture is showing the winter's wrath. But trust me, this is the coolest backyard we saw on our whole day of searching (yeah, I know, a whole day...), and we definitely admit that we picked our house ultimately for the greatest pride in our lives, our little PD, Piper Dog!

Room Colors!!

I posted the layout so that I can refer to it when I am deciding the colors of the rooms, other furniture, etc. Since painting will come first when we move in, I think it is important to consider all the colors sooner rather than later!

Kitchen as is:

I love the kitchen in the new place, and especially the fact that I now have a window ledge over my sink! However, it is a bit drab despite its brightness. It needs some contrast between the all white cabinets, backsplash, and counter, with the walls. I love greys with whites, they seem so crisp. But, I want to avoid the darker and more basic man-grey, which can seem way too much like a scary metrosexual bachelor pad! So - I may keep the color I have in the Chapel Hill house kitchen, Paris Rain, which is a green-grey! You can see it below, in the foreground. It looks really nice against the white. Following this picture is a picture of Allison Godwin's kitchen, with a similar look.

But I'm not going to lie, when I see the two pictures below (also from runner-up houses in Birmingham), it makes me want a color that is more grey than my Paris Rain!! I don't know which version! help anyone!!

Dining Room as is:

Ok, I hope they can't find me online, but I am really really glad that the people who lived in this house before wanted to take those curtains! I guess they are ok, but I don't want to be tempted to leave them up! So....since the flow from the den to the dining room to the kitchen is nice, I may try to go by the words of advice from Julie Lemen, my mom's best friend from the DC area, and let the colors flow as well! Below is a picture of the color of my dining room here in Chapel Hill, Texas Sage. I do really like it, and I like the idea of the dining room being a darker color (and I have a chair rail as well!).

The Office as is:

This office is so adorable! It gets great light during the day. I can picture a piano in here instead of desk maybe too, especially if we end up using bedroom #3 as a psuedo-office. We will need a good desk regardless... In addition to some paint! What does anyone think of the odd inverted ledge at the ceiling top?? Should this match the wall color, as they did, or be white? This next picture is of another house we really liked, and I loved this fireplace color! It kindof reminds me of raccoon hollow from Benjamin Moore but a bit darker. We have Raccoon Hollow in our study here in Chapel Hill. I might want to use it in the office in the new place as well. I actually really like this color for the outside of a house too, or maybe a color a bit greener.

Raccoon Hollow - in our Chapel Hill house

Bedroom #2 as is:

First of all, I hope you see the great plantation shutters! Initially I was thinking we could keep this color, as it is pretty similar to the color we would change it to (see the next picture). But now I am wondering if these two are totally different! The existing color is almost Carolina blue (yuk when it comes to walls), and the color upstairs in our Chapel Hill house is really a blue-green-grey, much more subdued. I might need to switch it, while we are at it! This color is Wythe Blue. Following is my awesome print that I now have framed to put in this room to tie it together.

Bedroom #3 as is:

Kindof grandma. I actually like the color of this wall. This is the room in the back of the house that you can get to from the kitchen or from the hall (you are looking at the hall door), so we can choose to use or not to use the kitchen door. Jimmy really wants us to put up our bookshelves in this room, and make it a reading room since we both will be studying our cases each night. I like that idea, otherwise we'd have to try to study in the den on the couch....zzzzz..... not so efficient. So, here is my corresponding room in the Chapel Hill house. Yikes I need to make some headboards too...

And this room - regardless of whether or not I do the bookshelves & reading area, I want to make a color similar to the study. Below are two prints from online some other blog, with the perfect palate of colors! The third picture is of Allison's fireplace, which also has such an awesome color! This room gets a ton of light, so I think this color will be safe.

You might notice - hey! no master bedroom or bathrooms! No den! just a little more to come. I will post it in the future when I have more time!

Layout

Jinx city

ok biggest Jinx of all, i am going to post about a home that we haven't even put an offer on yet... nonetheless closed on! here is my plan of attack for things to do once/if the magic does occur... Things to do before move-in or right after: - doggie door downstairs - paint the inside of the house - set up ADT!! - get microwave - set up cable/internet - find a lawn service Things I could plan to do if I still have motivation after intern year starts: - get a curtain made for the kitchen window - get a little table for the kitchen - make some headboards! - get a flagpole apparatus - figure out something to do with that tiny bathroom - paint the downstairs small room - get a great rug for downstairs that I wouldn't mind walking on barefoot - make a game-plan with Aunt Anne for the yard - paint the exterior of the home Things to do if we want to invest in the house: - granite countertops - tile backsplash - add crown molding where it doesn't already exist - add heat/AC to basement - finish dry-wall the basement, according to the code so we could count it as live-able space - add bathroom into the little basement room - re-concrete the driveway