Winter Wonderland

After three winter storms, our backyard (like the rest of the city) is covered in a deep, thick blanket of snow. To see how much more than our first snow, check out the picture on my White Christmas post. Polo seems to love it, but he might feel differently if he was the one who had to shovel the driveway. I may have to shovel my fair share, but I love the snow too.

White Christmas (a little late)

As much as Michael and I loved the warm weather in Arizona, we missed out on the white Christmas experience. However, we returned to a light snow storm in Columbus that was off and on from Saturday evening through Monday morning. It left everything covered in a beautiful blanket of white. Since most of our neighbors still have their lights up, and we still have our decorations up, it still feels a bit like a white Christmas. What a blessing!

Polo explores the snow in our backyard

Before and After Bedrooms

Moving into the house has definitely kept us busy. It's hard to believe it was only nine days ago. I have since painted the banisters and two bedrooms. Today I am working on the living and dining rooms. We don't have any furniture for them yet, but I'm plowing through all painting projects while I can. On Saturday, Michael and I went to Ikea in Cincinnati and got a desk, chair, and a table for behind the loveseat. We're picking up a couch and loveseat for the family room tomorrow evening. I'm so excited! A few photos to show what we've been up to:

Master bedroom (before)

Master bedroom (after)

I don't know what happened with the camera, but the wall is all one color despite what it looks like in the picture.

Bedroom 2 (before)

Bedroom 2/Guest room (after)

Bedroom 3 (before)
Bedroom 3/Office (after)

Painted the fireplace (sorry, Mark)

I debated long and hard about this decision. I looked at countless blogs, design and DIY websites searching for painted fireplaces and researching the pros and cons. It came down to three main points: 1 - I'd like to eventually remodel the fireplace anyway, 2 - the bricks were not really in very good shape or great looking to begin with, and 3 - I thought the white would contrast better and fit better with our plans for the rest of the house. A few before shots to refresh your memory:

the finished look

It was a tough, time-consuming project, but Michael and I are both really happy with the result. I also spent a day this week painting the master bedroom. The new color looked a lot like the old color when it was wet, which had me worried, but it dried quite differently. The original was a neutral beige-ish color with peachy undertones. We chose a neutral beige-ish color in the brown family. You can kind of see the difference in this picture. I had not painted the edging yet, so the original color shows near the ceiling.

Day 1 and 2 at the house

Little by little, we're making our way into our new home. Movers were supposed to arrive at 8am on Monday to get the last of the former residents' stuff. I drove over around 1pm with a carload of boxes thinking I would have the house to myself. Low and behold, there was a mix-up with the movers, so Mr. FR (former resident) and his daughter (little FR) were still there waiting. As eager as I was to get going on the house, I tried to be understanding of their situation. Little FR made it easy. She reminded me of a brunette Dakota Fanning at 8-years-old, telling me in a very grown up way all about her new room at the new house and how she was tired of the old room with its bright purple walls and painted dragonflies. (Don't worry, little FR, we'll paint over them soon!) I left the boxes in the garage and headed back to the apartment as I felt awkward hovering. I drove back around 4 and saw the moving van in the driveway, so I kept driving to a nearby park and waited another hour. By the time I was alone at the house, I only had ten minutes before Michael would be home from work. All we had time to do was put our paint samples on the wall, hook up the dehumidifier, and clean the laundry room (I scrubbed the floor on my hands and knees to prepare for the washer and dryer).

The top two colors were potential grays for the kitchen. The three blues below were contenders for the family room.






Little FR left us this adorable note on our sidewalk:
On Tuesday, I got to the house about 7:30am and spent the entire day painting. We picked Porcelain Shale (Valspar) for the kitchen and Celebration Blue (Valspar) for the family room. I didn't quite finish with the blue today, so I'll be wrapping that up tomorrow.

kitchen before
kitchen after

family room before

family room (almost) after

I'd like to paint the fireplace white but haven't settled on a shade yet. More to come. I need to rest now :)

Home Sweet Home

Michael and I are buying our first house!
After a month of searching and looking at nearly 30 houses, we finally found one we really wanted. It was the very last house we looked at. Go figure! We won't move in until mid-August, so I'm anxiously planning what to do with all the space. The only real furniture we have is for the bedroom, so we are starting completely from scratch. It's very overwhelming. Michael's going to start with the kitchen, and I'm going to start with the family room. This is what it looks like now with the current tenants' furniture. The first view is through the breakfast area, and the second is looking right over the railing.

I'm thinking of painting the brick fireplace. I really think it would brighten the room to paint it a light color. Of course, that means picking out a color, and I don't know where to start. We don't have any furniture or art or anything else to use as a jumping off point. I need to find something to use. I'll be sure to post some before and after pictures though.