The Beginning of the "Afters", also known as, "Geesh, I need a better camera!"

Welcome to our first home! It's been about 2 months of renovating (read: blood, sweat, tears, and oops') but we made it and we love our new home. We still have many projects calling our names each night as we go to bed but so is the life of being a home owner. Take a look around.

Office in progress. I can already feel a post coming in the near future about this space. Right now it's a little cluttered, but it's super functional and works for us as of now.

View of the front yard from our office window.

Office shelving, my favorite part of the office.

Did I say that the shelving was my favorite part of the office? I meant that having Jack's play area across from the office/ craft room is my absolute favorite feature!

Play with me, please!

Play area leads to the kitchen.

Kitchen. We still need a back splash, but other than that here it is. The color doesn't really show up in the photos, but it's a warm, creamy yellow.

View from the stove, love how open it the spaces are!

Looking from the dining area back into the kitchen. We're looking for some curtains to hide the pantry/laundry area. There's some of that yellow color.

Dining area and "bar".

Dining area rug

Our "bar" area.

Drink Up!

Fireplace, with child safety gate...anyone else feel enprisioned?

Mantel

Standing at mantel looking at photo wall.

View of the front door and bar area, Jack's favorite walker is a side table :)

Living area, lots of natural light.

Closer look at the vintage prints above the couch.

View from our couches.

All smiles, he's right at home.

Hallway photo collage

Bathroom

Well, that's the tour for now. As I mentioned, plenty yet to do, the list includes, in no particular order:

Master bathroom, yep...as in the whole thing.

Install door bell

Last coat on base boards

Crown molding in master bedroom

Re-center bathroom light fixture

Outside overhaul

and the list goes on and on...I think I'll stop here before I start hyperventilating ;) One step at a time, and now that we're in there is no rush at all. Stop by again soon for more projects and updates.

Fire In the Hole!

We picked up our stove yesterday and I cannot wait for it to be hooked up! I am ready to cook dinners that don't solely rely on the microwave.

The Busicks Have Landed!

Well, we're all in and LOVING it! It's been torture not having internet so get cozy and prepare yourself for a bunch of photos for one sitting.

Above, John gives the signal to move in....err, clean up and prepare to move over from the in-laws :)
Mike gets going on installing the dishwasher and fridge, turned out to be a pain and I'm sure he'll be perfectly content with life if he never has to attempt this again.

John finishes up the last coat of paint in the living and dinning rooms. One last coat of gray on the walls have really gotten rid of the blue-ish look. In my opinion, it's MUCH more gray these days. We still have to do one more coat in the hallway leading to the hall bathroom.

Moved all our furniture outside to bask in the sun, and so we could clean up and remove the thermal ply that was protecting the hardwood floors.

Fridge and washer good to go!

And the moment of truth....did we damage the floors? Did they buckled under really LOW temps?

Nope, shiny and new and ready for furniture!

Daddy breaks the news to Jack, "We can move in!" Smiles all around.

Our first night at the house, daddy tucks Jack into bed on Super Bowl Sunday.

Our house as of this morning at almost 7am (as you can see on our GIANT clock above the fireplace). And, yes...I let my kid get that close to the TV for his 20 mins that he gets a day. Now-a-days he only stays there for a few seconds on and off. Look at me trying to justify it, hahahah! Don't judge :)

Speaking of not judging....you are about to see our house, mess and all at day 3 of living here. It's NOT perfect by any means....as you can see.

Office explosion

The new plan for the pantry: washer and dryer not stacked, side by side. Venting the dryer outside would be quite a pain if we stuck with stacking, so side by side it is. Also, the pantry shelving will be much more accessible for us with all shelves on top at eye level. We have also decided to place the microwave above the dryer (on right) on a shelf to free up counter space.

Kitchen, and dinning area. Note: the stove is ready for pick up tonight and hopefully sometime this week it'll be up and running, dinners have been...errr interesting.

View from the dinning area to the living area, still looking for that perfect (and afforable) area rug.

Yikes, a bit blurry, sorry. Living area looking toward the dinning area and Jack's play space (for now at least).

More view from living area.

Jack's room.

Bathroom (yikes these photos are not the best).

Naked shower awaiting it's purdy curtain later this week ( it's in the mail).

The master bedroom all cozy and ready for us after a long day of work and unpacking. Thanks for stopping by and I will hopefully be able to update soon. Check back for more decorating, organizing and projects.

Sunday Fun-day!

Sunday is THE BIG day! We are all systems go for Sunday's move in day (PENDING catastrophic disasters) and we couldn't be more excited. We are as done as we "need" to be to comfortably live in the house...and John and Mike want their lives back, and so do I! There are a few "unfinished" projects majorly bothering John, but he'll have to live with them until he can get to them.

Like the doors, he wanted to paint them before move in, but WE'LL handle it for sure. We still need to paint the crown molding and base boards, but that should get done by Sunday. We also want to put one more coat on the living room, but that might have to come after Sunday. We still have to get appliances installed (minus the stove, we won't have that for another week), install the bathroom vanity now that the travertine is sealed, and do a major clean up.

Painted bathroom, ready for completion.

Office/craft room painted and ready to go!

Eat in portion of the kitchen (most likely a play area) painted and done.

John day dreaming of life in our new house! It's almost here!