Our New Home

We are in! I can't remember when I've EVER been this busy! Last week was a whirlwind of picking out appliances, trying to decide on new paint colors and granite counter tops. We (barely) closed on the house on Friday the 12th & spent that weekend painting and cleaning. We moved, in the huge thunderstorms, this past Saturday & I'm so glad we hired movers.



We now officially have a giant foyer & this is our front door view. To the left is the sitting room, directly in the back is the end of the kitchen & to the right is the formal dining room. The upstairs room you can see is now my office. The laundry, linen and master are to the left. The 2 guest bedrooms & guest bath are to the right upstairs.



This is our new sitting room- I think. This is the front room, connected to the living room & it is HUGE! We're not exactly sure what to do with it, but for now our old sitting room furniture will go in here.



And here is our living room! The 7' windows here & in the kitchen are probably one of our favorite things about the house. They let in so much natural light & I can't wait to install the plantation shutters that we've ordered.



The view from the back corner of our living room which opens wide into the kitchen and the sitting room. Renovations & remodeling began yesterday, but most of the work in the living room will be overhead. The ceiling is now gone, lights are being moved and installed, the speakers are on their way, the molding on the back wall is gone & new TV is waiting to be hung.




What really sold us on this house was the kitchen- it's so huge & has so much potential! We're going to make the island a few feet longer, replace the wine rack with a beverage/wine fridge, add granite counter tops, and get all new appliances.



The kitchen layout is very similar to my dad's house & it is really great for hosting parties and dinners. The wall of windows along the breakfast area makes this room so bright & we'll have a little walk-in pantry now.



I really didn't like the current granite tile counter tops or the white washed look of the cabinets. The cabinets are going to be stained a rich, dark color & I'm having a heck of a time picking out granite that I like. Hopefully this weekend I'll have some better luck shopping around. Some of the back splash has already been knocked out & I still need to decide what to replace it with. I'm thinking some funky, colorful glass subway tiles.




Imagine the island extending a few more feet out, nice shutters on the windows, a new light fixture, some happy paint on the walls & our table sitting here in the breakfast area.



These are all pictures I took weeks ago with the seller's furniture still here & with my super-wide zoom lens, so there is quite a bit of distortion in the photos, but you get a great view.



Last stop on the bottom floor is the guest bathroom. This wallpaper will be history soon & I think we're going to put in a new vanity to spice up the room a little bit.



And this is our master bedroom! We've already painted it since this picture & the high ceilings and molding really make this room lovely.

There are 2 master closets & this one is all mine! Now that I have my clothes in it, it shrank considerably, but I think once I get accustomed to everything in it's new place I will really enjoy it.



Besides the 3-car garage, this is probably H's favorite part of the house. We have a huge master bathroom with the closets right there, a big shower, a fan to cool me down after my morning jog in the summer, a big bright window. It will need some updating, but it's nothing we can't live with for a little while.



This is now my office- filled with my desk & all the pups stuff. The closet is nice & big, so hopefully I can put more of my stuff out of sight. I haven't decided what I'm going to do decorating-wise with this room, but I'm leaning towards a brown/pink/red theme. I've got quite a few other projects on my list before tackling my room though.



The guest bathroom is fairly typical, but with this horrible wallpaper on all 4 walls- floor to ceiling. Luckily, it will be gone in a few weeks. And since there was a plumbing leak in the wall, we will just go ahead and get all new silver fixtures for the shower and knobs when we are replacing the plumbing in the wall.

Maybe this weekend I'll have a chance to download & upload all the moving-in pictures & share a few photos of this place with our furniture in it & the demolition that started yesterday. If I get real ambitious, I might even start with my New Zealand blog posts.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Headed to Dallas for work today, but thankfully it's just a day trip.