25 March 2011

update

hey all!

i promise I will be back in the blog world soon.

we've had some drama with OUR (good news!) new house!
1. clogged sewage drain (aka poopy toilet paper in our basement. fabulous)
[insert annoyance]
2. clogged sewage drain... 24 hours later. And a 10,000 quote. pipe collapse.
[insert off and on freak outs that include lots of tears and irrational comments]
3. not. our pipes aren't collapsed. the first guy just guessed. not yet. a few years. maybe never. we'll see
4. messed up laundry stuff.
5. we love our family. they helped us in staying same. everything now works. i can pee. and do laundry. and wash clothes. and dishes... well, Kevin can. I hate doing dishes. punk pup can have his toilet drinks b/c the bowl refills. life is good.

now we're in! And getting settled and unpacked... we have so much stuff! goodwill is getting some hefty donations... and craigslist so great finds!

we're looking at different room set ups. deciding on what furniture we need to start thrifting/craigslisting and what is a good investment (sectional w/ a sleeper?) picking out color specifics. painted our dining room.

pictures WILL come. Promise. tonight we are doing nothing. nothing. taking a breako. and lovin' it.

TGIF.
Hope you're enjoying yours.
love you all.
for loving me and my inconsistency w/ this thing. someday it will get going. someday.

ps lisa leonard is doing a FAB giveaway I want in our house

04 March 2011

The initial plans...


As we're getting closer to CLOSING DAY (March 17), and we've got through the logistics, I have been planning what 'feel' I want each room to have... which is HIGHLY connected to color choices. I figured it will be fun to document the WHOLE process! So today it begins!

I have done a very rough sketch of the floor plan in the new house. We'll get to the upstairs later... it has my studio, which I will be making no decisions on any time soon, considering it has to be PERFECT :)

Living room: You walk into the living, which I want to be relaxed and inviting. Teal is the perfect choice for this one color room... blues are supposed to cause your body to create more calming chemicals and greens is the easiest color to look at. Thought the combo would be the perfect choice for the first room you see!

Dining room: The living room opens to the dining room, therefore this color needed to coordinate. We are going for a wine color (as previously discussed). No psychology behind this choice. We saw a home that had a BEAUTIFUL wine colored dining room and that was it. We just knew. Color love at first sight. Neither Kev and I are lovers (or even likers) of purple, so finding that perfect shade will be crucial.  It will also need to go well with our dark hardwood floors, so that the room isn't too dark. We intend to counter the rich colors with distressed white accents... buffet, curtains, my black and white wall mural, a fabulous table and mismatched white chairs to insure the room doesn't feel stuffy, but is a great mix between beautiful, yet casual.


Guest room: This room was inspired from these napkins. Loved the vintage feel, yet still had some great colors in there. 

Kitchen:
I still have an obsession with fun bright colors with Turquoise as my base. So my kitchen is going to take on the fun funky hodge podge tone, like our rental house had throughout. I still LOVE this look, so I had to incorporate it somewhere. It's inspired by this great find at Old Time Pottery. What's wonderful is there's a DOOR between the kitchen in the dining room! Meaning it doesn't have to be all matchy matchy! 



So there you have it! The initial color plans for the new house! Can't wait to show the exact ways we choose to incorporate them as we go! 





02 March 2011

House Hunting/Buying 101: The deal and logistics.

On with our House Hunt/Buying 101...
(I can't wait to get to the decorating of the house instead of the buying process... the fun stuff is coming!)

Now that our inspections and renegotiations were finished, we get to get the appraisal!
Here's what we learned about appraisals:
There was some sketchy appraisals before the economy downfall... some would get paid to give a certain appraisal price. That was a major part in our housing market downfall, inflated house prices while the economy was going down, and bad-a-boom! Ick-i-ness. Bad for the economy; good for us... until we have to re-sell.
So now, the trend is to appraise homes to the lowest possible realistic appraisal. SO, we wait. The general consensus by our real estate agent and inspector is that we'll be right on the money. But, the 'worst' situation would actually be good for us; our house could get appraised for less than our contract price, meaning we'd get a lower price! We're planning on our contract price; but we can dream!
Our appraisal is TBD when our financing is final...

As discussed, when you start your search, you get pre-approved. Then, when you find the house, you have to gather LOTS of paper work. I mean LOTS of it. That's where we're at now.

All that to say, get ready to get bank statements from months and months before, paycheck stubs, and tax papers for 2 years prior. Especially as newly-weds, we had a lot of gathering from our parents and personal filing to do.

We're FINALLY done with the boring stuff... we'll keep ya posted on the outcome of our appraisal! Next up, the FUN STUFF!!!! Friday, I'll share my initial visions for our downstairs color scheme. Can't WAIT!