House Surprise

Before I left for NY, I knew we would likely be closing on the house while I was gone, so I signed power-of-attorney paperwork before I left so Kristoffer could sign for it without me.  With my stay being extended from Wednesday to Sunday, I thought for sure he would close that week, and I kept asking him if he had closed on the house.  And he kept telling me no!  I was starting to get a little worried thinking that something was wrong, I mean...who knows what could happen with a big purchase like a house!  My family kept asking me if we had closed on the house, and I kept telling them no, so I would ask Kristoffer what was going and he said he wasn't sure, but not to worry, just be with my family and take care of that and he would take care of the rest.

I'll admit, on the plane ride back to SLC, I secretly wondered and hoped that perhaps Kristoffer had closed on the house and moved everything up, keeping everything a secret (which he LOVES to do).  I quickly dismissed the idea telling myself not to get carried away, and just plan on going home to move.  So as I hugged and kissed my family hello, we hopped into the car and headed home, and it wasn't until we hopped onto the freeway heading North instead of South that Kristoffer divulged his secret.  He *had* closed on the house the day after my dad passed away, and had cleaned (as much as he could) and moved everything up to the new house with the help of some close friends and Melodie and Justin.  

I was ridiculously happy and fell in love with my husband for the 985,447th time.  He is such a sweet man, and I am so SO blessed to have him.  He is such a hard worker and wants only to make his wife happy, and it just melts my heart.  I love my hubby.

OK, so we are doing a few things to the house now that we are in.  And truthfully, it's actually kind of fun.  While it's still a ton of work, we both LOVE projects and making the home our own, and considering it's our very very first EVER home that we've bought, it's exciting.  The house has great bones, and we love the layout, but it's about 20 years behind in updates, and needs some TLC (which doesn't always show up in pictures).  We are still working hard!!

The first thing we're working on is a hen house/chicken coop for my chickens.  This needs to be done *pronto*.  I came home from NY and my chickens were fully feathered!  So, during the day, they run around in the dog run, and at night I bring them inside and put them in the unfinished portion of the basement in some boxes.

Before pictures:

The formal living/dining room.  We're almost done painting the walls, which makes it look very different already!  Next up is getting rid of that blue carpet, blech.  We're still deciding on flooring. 

 If we choose to do hardwoods, I think we'll stick with carpet on the stairs.  As much as we like the look of hardwoods on stairs, it's CRAZY hard to do yourself and CRAZY expensive to have someone else do it, and truthfully, we don't have the cash for that.  But, we will paint the banister white to match the trim and crown molding.

 Again, blue carpet must go.

 The window on the right is actually a window seat, and I can't wait to make cushions for it.  But I have to be focused on the big stuff first!

 Kitchen.  Plan is to paint cabinetry white, add hardware.  remove gold backsplash and replace with white subway tile.  Paint over the orange/red with color: mint fizz (love it).

 We've already painted over this yellow color, and it looks great, at some point we would love to make this window/door combo into french doors.  That's lower on the list.

 Burnt orange wall is almost done with mint fizz.  The mantle is not actually white, it's kind of a whitewash called pickled oak (it matches the kitchen cabinets), so I need to paint that white.

 Main floor half bath and laundry.  Needs new flooring for sure, I don't think it's been changed in 20 years.  For sure some paint on the walls.

 Still the bathroom.  I need to paint the cabinets white and new counter top.  And that toilet?  Ummmm, it's also from the prehistoric era and will find it's final resting place in the dumpster very soon to make way for a more water friendly and less gargantuan-sized toilet.

 Laundry room needs paint, some pretty natural wood espresso shelves, I think.

 Guess what this is.  That's right...an actual drop station.  I am so excited to finally have one of these.  I can't tell how pet-peevey I am about stuff on my kitchen counter, so here is a new spot of that.  I'm still debating what I want to do with this space.  Any ideas are welcome!!

 These shelves in the kitchen are going bye-bye.  Yup.  Just to the right is huge, lovely window that brings in so much light, and then you move to the left and see big, boxy cabinets.  My plan is to remove the shelves (perhaps for use elsewhere) and do a simple feature wall and place natural wood espresso stained open shelves for our white dinnerware and cups.  This will even out the bright window on the right with some reflective surfaces just to the left.

 The pantry.  Thank the good Lord I have a pantry!!  I'm so happy!!!  I'm still thinking of ideas for these doors.  Maybe paint, maybe not, but new hardware for sure.

 I would love to add some more molding above the door to fancy-it-up.  But that's lower on the list.

All of these projects are going to take some time, and we are taking it slow, only because we have to wait for the money to replenish before we move ahead.  This is just the main floor, and we'll work on this first before we start anything else.  Now that the walls are almost done, I can start painting my furniture projects with my new paint sprayer....can't wait!  And sorry, but you'll be seeing lots of house updates this summer and fall!