Makeover Takeover

It's as simple as that. Our home makeover has literally taken over our lives. Exciting? Yes, of course!!! Exhausting? Yes, of course!!! Where have I been lately? Not blogging, that's for sure. And yes, it's killing me!!! That's why it's nearly midnight and I'm sitting here typing out my thoughts so that I won't forget them. Story of my life. So here's the deal....

We have until Christmas eve to move our belongings and ourselves to the new home. Oh and did I mention we have to have to entire house painted by then?? I'm really paranoid about having the baby around paint fumes and don't want to be working on continuous painting projects when we move in. This means we've been in overdrive trying to get things ready. As we worked this weekend our doorbell got plenty of practice when we had several surprise guests. I was thrilled to get to show off our 'before' home to Matt & Heather, Steven, our realtor Vicki, and of course Papa Bill, Nanny and Aunt Katie who have been keeping close tabs on our progress. A huge thanks to Steven for lending a helping hand an painting several walls for us Sunday afternoon. And thanks to Rachelle for letting us borrow him for a couple hours!! ;) I'm beyond pleased with how our first big weekend project turned out! We started on the living area, formal dining area, kitchen and breakfast room. Two fresh coats of white paint over the baseboards, windows and doors which used to be a frosted oak color. The walls were given a facelift as we decided to cover up the messy glaze job that the previous owners had on the walls with a chocolate brown and latte combo. It only took about five sample cans of tannish/ beigish paint to find the one. Van Dyke Brown and Latte were the winners and I couldn't be more happy with how they look together. Here are just a few before pictures of our first step of the makeover......

That white wall was a yucky green color before Riley primed it

Total mess

Making some headway

And here is our semi-finished living space and dining room......

Ta da!!!!

We still have to pick out light fixtures, brick the fireplace and oh yeah, fill it with furniture. The end of January seems like a reasonable time to have all of this done. Long term improvements include all new stainless steel kitchen appliances, patio furniture, a new big girl room for Hallie when she nears the big 2, and of course furniture for every room in the house. Remember, I sold about everything we owned in our garage sale. Step by step, day by day, little by little we will have a home again. I have so many ideas swirling in my head about decor, colors, patterns, furniture. This is all so much fun!!!! Between Pinterest and Houzz I have plenty of inspiration. Oh yeah, and the ideas that my husband comes up with. I've got to credit him with the idea to paint our accent wall the chocolate brown. He also decided to paint the back doors brown as well. I am not a great decision maker when I have endless options so in this case I'm very thankful for his enthusiasm. Now when it comes to furniture I will have no problem picking out what I like...that's when he can just step aside and let me do the work. A girl can dream, right? ;)

Projects coming up this weekend include removing and staining the kitchen cabinets, painting our bedroom and ripping wallpaper. Again, we pay in pizza and beer. I repeat, pizza and beer. ;)

I bet you can guess how badly Hobby Lobby has been calling my name lately...........

.....oh the damage I could do in that store right now. Alas, I will wait. ;)