new light fixtures!

Well, I totally had a plan...and it totally went out the window when I saw all the amazing light fixtures at Lowes! The plan was to buy a new one for the dining room and then spray paint the existing fixtures to match it. Well, how can you turn down three MATCHING fixtures for the dining room, breakfast nook and kitchen? You can't... that's how.

Here's the dining room before and after:
before: (click to make larger)...this was her Japanese glass fixture that she took with her.

after: this is our new one from Lowes! (#3 on the lighting post)

here's the breakfast nook:
before: lovely brass.
after: rubbed bronze! much better.

and the kitchen pendant...
before: (click to make larger) brass
after: matchy matchy!

It's amazing how lighting can TOTALLY change the look & feel of a home!

connected!

We're finally all moved into our house! We had our first night sleeping here last night, and we got our cable/internet set up just now! I'm so glad to be connected to the world again! The big move yesterday went off without a hitch...thank goodness! We were just in awe of how blessed we are to have amazing family that help us in our time of need :) Now, we'll be unpacking, setting things up and decorating. I'll be sure to post lots and lots of pictures!!

the perfect weekend for moving, eh?

Lord, maybe a few droplets? Or at least a breeze?

dining room table

I really want this dining room table set from jcp. Really.

the plan.

Well we have a plan now which makes me feel better :) We are officially closing on Thursday at 3pm. Which is only a day's delay so that's not too bad now that I've heard about some of you being delayed for weeks!! So that means we'll get the keys to our home on Thursday evening!!! I've said it a thousand times already but it remains true: I'M SO READY FOR THIS TO BE OVER. To take a breath, relax, and focus on moving rather than all this legal junk. Now it just looks like we have to wait for about 48 hours more until this home is ours! Hooray!!!

frustrated!

Well our closing date got delayed. Instead of being on Wednesday, it's now "hopefully" Thursday. Apparently "this happens a lot" in this process, but that doesn't change me being annoyed! It's for reasons that are totally out of our control, which is frustrating because if I was in control, we'd be done by now! I'm so ready to have all this junk done. This is definitely my least favorite part of the home buying process. All this waiting, paperwork, terms I have to strain to understand, etc. ANYWAY, if y'all could please pray that everything goes smoothly and that we'll be signed, sealed & delivered on Thursday, that would be GREAT!!

Thanks, friends :)

help the mccradys: volume 3

So, our seller is taking her formal dining room light fixture with her when she leaves...which is fine with us because it is an antique Japanese-inspired glass fixture which is obviously not our taste, and it obviously means a lot to her anyway. SO, that will be one of the very first purchases we'll be making because we can't have a dining room without a light fixture! :)

This is actually proving to be one of the harder decisions for us because whatever finish this fixture is, we'll want to make all the other ones in the kitchen and living room match. (Remember, they're all brass so we're going to be spray painting them for a more modern and unified look.) We can't decide between brushed nickel (an opaque silver) or oil rubbed bronze (a dark brown) look. I think we're both leaning toward the latter, but who knows.

Here are some that I like...
And, just for kicks, since we're closing in 2 days, here's a glimpse of what our dining room looks like. Remember that basically everything in this picture will be different :) We're changing the window to have blinds and pretty, long draperies, we're probably painting the walls, we'll have a long dark brown dining room table and chairs, and we'll most likely have a matching cabinet to go with it. Oh, and eventually hardwood floors and a pretty rug. Just to name a few...

Thoughts?

mental accessorizing...

These are the items that I'm wishing for in our living room after we've settled and have some more monetary cushion :)

This sectional from the good ol jcp.

This rug from Target.

Since our living room windows are facing west in the evenings, we'll need some good thermal window coverings to keep things cooler. I'm loving these from jcp.
Maybe we'll get them in the foxtail orange or chocolate color..or maybe toffee.

Annd... I kind of like this lamp from... you guessed it...

the walk through

Last night's walk through went really well! We didn't find any issues at all, and it was really fun to walk around and imagine what our furniture will look like! The seller was there, and she graciously showed us all of the landscaping, hot tub, sprinkler system, etc. so we'd know how to do everything. She is this really cute little old lady, and she said that she knows "the house will love us" and she was so excited that we'd be starting our lives together in that home. She said that the house has seen a lot of love and she hopes we can continue that tradition. :)

She told us all about the neighbors (there is a young couple with 2 very young children living next door!), and she left us a ton of information about the house. It was really great to talk with her, and I'm so thankful we have such a nice and welcoming seller to deal with. I know most people don't even meet the seller when they're buying a home, but I'm glad we did!

We were so encouraged after the walk through, and it made everything we've been going through totally worth it! I had forgotten how much I loved the house, so it was good to get a reminder! :)

Now I just have to finish packing... woohoo! :)

big days coming up...

Tomorrow is our final walk through of our home! I can't believe it's here already! Basically we'll just walk through it and make sure that everything is up to the standards from inspection. I sincerely hope there aren't any issues. We're bringing along Ryan's mom because she has a LOT of experience with these walk throughs (they were an army family that moved around a lot).

I think the seller will be there too so we can ask her any questions we have... aka how to work the sprinkler system and how to landscape her beautiful yard! Stuff like that. I'm excited to see the house again...as silly as that sounds :)

7 days from now is our closing date! We'll be going on our lunch break because apparently it only takes about 45 minutes to sign your life away! And then I'm taking Thursday through Monday off for vacation and to get moved/settled.

Whew... I'm glad I got a lot of relaxation time in the last few weeks because the next few ones will be a doozy!

office inspiration

We will have 2 extra bedrooms, and 1 will be used as an office. I've been looking around for inspiration, and here are a few office examples that I love :)

I think the first picture is my absolute favorite. I need that Roman shade pronto.

black out.

So, funnily enough, one of our top priorities once we get all moved in to our house is to get

black-out curtains

for our bedroom. Sure, we could have gotten them before now, but we didn't want to spend money on curtains that may or may not fit our future home's windows. And we both LOVE to sleep, but it gets too bright in the mornings. Thankfully our bedroom will be facing the west in the mornings so it won't be as bright as it could be..but still. We want blackout curtains.

Do y'all have any recommendations?

JCP is obviously what we'll probably use...what with my fantabulous discount, and the fact that they pretty much specialize in window treatments...Oh and I WRITE about them each and every day, so I know what the good ones are. But, I'd like to know if any of y'all just adore the ones you have... so let me know!

Until then, I wouldn't mind having this instead:

a ball of nerves.

So, it's crazy to think that a month ago we weren't even really looking at houses yet. And now, we close on our very own home in 9 days! Ummmm talk about fast moving! As excited as I am about finally being in a house, I have to say that I miss sleeping soundly and not thinking about money every second of the day. Ever since this all started, I haven't really relaxed yet. I've just been a big ball of nerves worrying that something will go wrong, and somehow we'll lose it all (the house and all of our money).

I know that's silly, but this is a BIG DEAL. A huge deal. We're buying a house. And on June 24th, we'll sign a thousand sheets of legal documentation saying that we are now responsible for that house. And we'll hand over a very hefty cashier's check for that house. I know that millions and millions of people go through this exact life stage, but it doesn't make me any less nervous or freaked out about the responsibility we're about to take on!

I think I'm just ready for this whole process to be over and to finally LIVE in our house. There has been soooooooo much documentation, faxing, scanning, emailing involved with all the mortgage stuff and pre-closing details....I'm sick of it! I'm ready to be in our house and not worrying about printing off all of our pay stubs or signing a gajillion sheets of paper. Ya know?

Is it "normal" to be so nervous about the closing date?

P.S. I don't think anyone hates filling out tax forms as much as I do.

this is me...

...continuing to force the subject state my desire for white cabinets and yellow walls in our kitchen. it's my blog; i can be really annoying and persistent if i want to :)

let's all picture it together, shall we?

the breakfast nook

I'm really excited about our breakfast nook. It's connected to the kitchen, and it's surrounded by a bay window that looks out on to the backyard. Ever since we started thinking about this house, I've been daydreaming about enjoying my coffee and laptop in this room :) I'm thinking I'd like to paint this area (as well as the kitchen) a light yellow to cheer it up... Here are some inspirations!

This one isn't yellow, but I'm loving the Roman shades!

P.S. Just so you can picture it... here's the picture of our actual breakfast nook. Yes, those are Japanese decals on the wall. Don't worry--they aren't there anymore! :) Basically the whole house is currently decorated with a tropical/asian/bungalow look....which will soon be turned into our Pottery Barn-esque look. What do you think about yellow in this room?

packer's block.

We close on our house in 18 days.

There are 2 years of stuff, furniture, wedding gifts, clothes and junk to pack up.
You do the math.

I'm literally sitting here and looking at all of our stuff, and I can't make myself pack yet! I don't know what the deal is! We technically don't have to be out of our apartment until August 10th, but we really want to live in the house as soon as possible... Argh.

Any advice on how to get my lazy, procrastinating self to get up the will to pack?
I've heard the whole "do it room by room" thing, but that's not working either.

buying a house is really expensive.

I knew this going into the whole process, but what I wasn't prepared for was the unexpected expenses that keep popping up...and we haven't even moved yet!

First it was the down payment. Great, good. We know about this.
Then it was the closing costs. Ummm alright... a bit more than we were expecting but still fine.
THEN it was paying for the inspection and appraisal. Really?

Oh, and then the loan application, title premium, homeowners insurance, option fee, paying for all the start-up fees for utilities, the list goes on.

I'm a little overwhelmed. This is only my 2nd freak out since this whole thing started, so that's not bad right?

I have to keep remembering that this is EXCITING. See? We're getting THIS house:

Remembering to breath...

we got a lawnmower!

I know this doesn't really have a lot to do with our house, but I'm just super excited about this. And, for the record, I never ever thought I'd be excited about something like this but I am.

Jason and Angie (my step-aunt & uncle?)... anyway, they're selling us their lawn mower and weed eater! This was something Ryan and I had been semi-anxious about because we didn't have either one, and we would definitely need it when we move into our house!

They're really good quality, and they gave us a STEAL of a deal! YAY!

(Umm... have fun with that, Ryan) :)

Isn't she a beauty? I think I'll name her.

help the mccradys: volume 2 & update

This volume 2 of "help the McCradys" is focused more on DIY (do-it-yourself) projects...

1.) Almost all of the light fixtures, fans, etc. in our house are in a brass finish. Have y'all heard of any kind of spray paint or something to refinish all the brass into a brushed nickel look? Have you had any experience (good or bad) with that? I remember seeing it on HGTV but now I don't remember the process :)

2.) Have any of y'all had experience putting up crown molding? This is totally not a "must-have" but it would really make the house look finished. I've seen online that there are kits for that, but would y'all recommend hiring someone? Have y'all tried to do-it-yourself? What were the results?

3.) We're getting a kitchen table and chairs from my grandmother (Mimi)'s house. However, the legs are currently a sage green and the top is natural. What color should we re-paint it in? Y'all have seen the kitchen, so what color do you think would "go"? To give you an idea of paint color in there, I'm really wanting to paint or living/dining/kitchen (all open to each other) a light yellow.

4.) As mentioned, our master bathroom has carpet in it because the seller's husband had arthritis and didn't want him to fall. However, we want to put ceramic tile in there. Have y'all ever done this before? We have access to a wet saw... which is scary enough :)

Okay that's all for now... see the update below from last week's edition!

Update from volume 1:
THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the input on our last "help the McCradys" post! All of the calls, texts & Facebook messages have helped so much!!!

As of right now, we're not going to do any big projects right away. My mom is being gracious enough to get our house professionally cleaned as well as having a carpet cleaner come out because "it's gross to live on someone else's carpet". I had no idea :) But other than that, we're going to move all of our stuff in, get unpacked, and then live there for a while as we decide what projects are really important to us vs. what we can live with for a while longer. The carpet is in wonderful shape so we don't need wood floors right away, as much as we'd enjoy them.

I've also heard that there are a lot of random necessities that pop up after you move into a home, so I don't want to spend all of our money on aesthetic stuff when we really need those other random items.

Thanks again for all your input!!!