The Shopping Starts!

Today Mike and I ventured out to see if we could find a couch for the living room. Below is a picture of my inspiration for this room. I love the serene feeling (and if only we had vaulted ceilings to allow for those gorgeous beams)! The nuetrals with the pop of rich blue - LOVE.

Credit to www.houseofturqouise.com

As of right now we have ZERO furniture for this room. Big job I know - but go big or go home right? You'll probably read this phrase a lot here ...especially once you all figure out my rapid fire game plan of getting things done in the house!

First, we went to World Market (one of my all time favorite stores that I can never leave empty-handed). Unfortunately, Mike is not nearly as enamored with the store as I am. We walked around - I fell in love with a couple pillows, a vintage coffee table, and window curtains. The hubs was apathetic at best. He's more of a traditional man and doesn't understand why you would want to buy a weathered piece of furniture at a full-price store.

So our search continued at Steinhafels. We've walked this store numerous times, mainly dreaming about what we could maybe afford. Today was a nice change of pace! Except for Mike threw me off by wandering around. This store is a circle. I like paths. Clearly I won out by refusing to wander after him. Another thing Mike and I probably should have discussed is what couch we were looking for. I assumed the couch for the living room; Mike, however, thought we were looking for a much larger couch for the family room (think large L-shape with a chaise). Don't worry though - we got on the same page after about a solid 20 minutes of wandering around!

 The options we found are shown below. I love the writing on those pullows and that chair! But I love the pop of color of the blue/brown chair - I'm just not in love with the pattern.

So none of these options made my heart race - and that's what a good chair (or any decor for that matter) should do. Alas, our search was unsuccessful but that just means more shopping in the future! (Mike's excited)

So it begins

All I have to say is WAH-HOO!! Mike and I are beyond excited! I left work this afternoon and headed straight to our mortgage broker's office. Of course I got lost (more on my inability to navigate myself anywhere later) - but only having to turn around once is completely normal so do I even consider that lost?

Anyways, I got there BEFORE Mike. This is also a big deal considering his on time is 5 minutes early, and mine is 5 minutes late (on a good day). My early arrival though allowed me the opportunity to see the sellers and their realtor (I love to people watch). The sellers were what I expected, and I've assessed that it was their realtor that was less than friendly. How do I know this? Well, we both got lost finding the buidling and entered it at the same time. To which she greeted me, "I can't find anything in this $@!# building!" Lovely.

Once Mike arrived we were put into a room next to the sellers to fill out all our paper work. Of course I took the time to make it a photoshoot.

Our closing attorney (who was so nice!) said people took pictures all the time. So I'm not crazy - he even said people ask him to point like he's saying something important. Clearly I had him demonstrate (see above). The whole expereience was wonderful. It's crazy to think we're home owners. WE ARE HOME OWNERS. Obviously, handing over the check was a tad difficult. But we actually received a small check back because the originally quoted number came in lower. Small victory!  Oh, and here's one more picture with the closing attorney. Had to!

After all the papers had been signed and we had left the office, our realtor gave us a wonderful surprise. She made a huge gift basket full of yummy treats (cookies, pretzels, wine, etc). She said it's an Italian tradition to gift food to new homeowners to symbolize that their pantry will always be full. SHE IS SO SWEET! Of course, I teared-up to which Mike's laughs at me. And she found the most perfect card. It said "A house is made with walls and beams. A home is made with love and dreams." These are definitely words to remember as we begin this journey - that I'm sure will be full of paint splatters and project gone awry.

Only a day away!

It's crazy to think tomorrow is finally here. We started our house hunt back in Febrauary. And now here we are, waiting for the ink to dry tomorrow and we'll officially be home owners.

It's been quite a journey. We've seen houses with beautiful natural hardwood floors, and then saw the foundation wall on a diagonal. We saw a house that claimed to have 4 bedrooms - one must have included a room off the garage that had no door; but it did have an extra front door. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this house had two front doors. My very favorite experience is when Mike (the hubs) almost tripped over the house owners' cat - it was so still he almost ran it over! So besides running into cats, we trudged through snow, held our breaths in less than wonderful scented atmospheres, and got our hopes up just to have them dashed.

And now we're here! Even though our sellers have worked hard at making this a less than desirable experience, we couldn't be more excited to start this adventure!

(My Adventure Book = blog; and if you haven't seen Pixar's UP! I'd highly reccomend it)

Here we go

Welcome to our work in progress!

The year has been many first's for the hubs and I. We graduated (for the first time), started our first jobs (and got our first paycheck!), got our first apartment; oh yeah, and we got married (HIGHLIGHT)! So ths post begins another amazing first - our first house!

Today marks the beginning of an amazing journey. We did our final walk through after an exhausting house search. We've seen at least 20+ houses trying to find the perfect one. As first time home buyers, and at the ripe old age of 23, we had to stick to a budget. Luckily, the hubs was crafted from God's own DIY cloth. A project manager by profession and all-around stubborn handy-man, we're looking forward to building up, tearing down, and everything in between. So updating the house wasn't our issue; it was more about the location and overall feel of the house. It might have just been me - but I had to be able to SEE us living out our lives. So thank goodness our realtor has been awesome, helping us not just find a house but a home.


This blog is meant to document our adventure of turning this house into a home. I want to look back and say "We did that!" with an exhausted laugh and memory full of unforgettable moments. Please join us on the journey. It'll be crazy and ridiculous, and quite often dramatic if I have any hand in it. But when isn't life, right?!