House Tour Part Un (That's French for One for the Less-Cultured

I know you're just dying to see the new house aren't ya??? Well here's the main living, dining, and kitchen area. It has good bones and I'm excited to decorate!

This is from the ad for the house. The grass is brown and dead now...

Entrance

Dining room, ugly chandelier

Fireplace and awesome windows!

Breakfast nook. I saw this light for $37 on Overstock.com. I don't know why it is hung so high up...awkward.

Kitchen, that huge gaping whole on the right is where a fridge may go some day (sarcasm).

I HATE the brown grout it is way too high a contrast with the tile and I'm looking into ways to some how make it light!

Curtain Call

The previous homeowner of the house was ever so kind to leave us her BEAUTIFUL drapes...not. You know that was the first thing the I had the man slave take down! (I can pretty much say whatever I want on the blog because one thing I've noticed is that he doesn't read it; he only looks at the pictures.)

I could stare at that view all day ;)

I've taken fabric classes and I don't even know what these were made of...Can you see the icky dull gold leaf rods??? In regular lighting they are gold and pee yellow mixed together.

Curtains are super important to any room and I wanna keep things fresh and simple with some texture. I've found a few possibilities online! I wanna go formal with a silk/faux silk. I also think it will add another texture to the room. I'm all about mixing lots of textures!

Gala Panels, Z Gallerie

Boulevard Panels, Z Gallerie

I love-y the Z Gallerie ones but they are a bit expensive considering they are 100% silk. So I've been looking for faux silk options and found these at (of all places) JC Penny.

JC Penny Antique Satin

The JC Penny ones are faux silk and lined. They are supposed to be "energy efficient" and keep cold/heat out/in. Obviously would go with the cream color. I'm thinking about ordering a trial pair to see the color and if they look cheap. They are a good alternative to the Z Gallerie panels...or I'll be waiting for a 20-25% accessories email from Z Gallerie! Or maybe just splurge on the quilted for the master bedroom.

I also have these damask curtains from Target from our apartment. I am pretty much obsessed with anything damask. Stephan calls damask "that old-lady pattern" but what does he know, he wears camouflage. I always think that damask is pure glam and that Marilyn Monroe's curtains were so totally damask! I can put these in the guest, maybe layered with my old black velvet ones like David Bromstead on Color Splash does (I'm pretty much convinced we would be best friends!)

Waverly Damask Curtains, Target

Once the paint is actually done I can order and hang some (err, have Stephan hang them; I'm the brains he's the brawn)! Can't wait to see the ivory against the Essential Gray!!!

Gray's Anatomy

So we were blessed and cursed with all white walls in our new house. Blessing because we have a fresh palette to imagine whatever we want, and curse because being surrounded by white walls is rather like being in a mental institution.

Asking an artistic person to pick out colors is to say the least difficult. For an artist there isn't just blue or green, there is turquoise or celadon and thousands more with, warm or cool undertones. And you dissect colors and pick out what colors were mixed into it, like if there's green or blue in the gray. Basically your head turns at a mile a minute. Another thing an artistic person relies on is first instinct.

I did two things to help visualize the colors both Sherwin Williams' website and Olympic's website. have color viewers that you can either download pics of your rooms or use stock photos to view the color on walls. I had tons o' fun with this!!!! Then, Stephan and I picked an enormous number of samples and put them on the mantle. We (I mean I, like a crazy) took pics of them at different times of the day in different lightings. And I noticed I had picked basically the same colors from 2 different brands so I knew instinct told me they were right. I then held these up to tile, countertops, linens, and furniture. Here's the inspiration and the plan:

Sherwin Williams' Color Visualizer Screen Shot...I'm not computer savvy but you get the idea

Our collection of samples

Master Bedroom and Bathroom: Kim Kardashian's bedroom is my inspiration. Love the grays and the light walls with dark ceiling. (Olympic Gray Beard with Sherwin Essential Gray on the Ceiling)

Guest Bedroom: Something neutral to go with our bronze-y bedding, black and white (still haven't found the right one)

Baby Girl Room aka Man-Entertainment Room (I'm not pregnant but in Stephan's career field there is a "Romad Curse" where they always have daughters so just to bother Stephan, I've started calling the 3rd bedroom the baby girl room): I think it will stay white until it becomes a nursery when it will be a beautiful turquoise with red and white accents (sounds weird, but I saw a wedding the the palette and it was fierce!) (Sherwin Reflecting Pond)

Living/Dining: I nice medium shade of gray with warm undertones to not be too sterile. I also wanted warm so as not to come off as purple or blue in certain lighting. (Sherwin Essential Gray)

Kitchen: Same light gray shade as the master bedroom. It will have white, black, and tiny bits of yellow accents. (Olympic Gray Beard)

Guest Bath: Same gray as living/dining (Sherwin Essential Gray)

When we went to buy the paint last Saturday I had priced out the Sherwin William and it was a good $6 more than the Olympic at Lowes. So I picked the closest shade, regretfully. As they started to mix the paint I had a mini panic attack and made them stop (luckily they had only done the lighter shade that we knew we wanted). And changed my mind to the Sherwin Williams, had to trust those first instincts! We got 10% off at Lowe's for their military discount and 10% off at Sherwin for joining there loyalty club. Totally worth it for no regrets and peace of mind. Stephan just rolled his eyes at me and apologized for the crazy lady he was married to.

We bought Gray Beard similar to Sherwin's Snowfall and was going to settle with Gray Marble before the panic attack.

Bought the Essential Gray happily!

I'll show some before and after pics soon!

Sleepy Puppy

His life is SO hard. Love that he fell asleep with his toy in his mouth. Is it creepy that we take pics of him sleeping???

A Guy, A Girl, 2 Dogs, 2 SUV's, And A Uhaul

AKA...We've moved in to the new house!!! After 8ish hours with stops in G-ville and Tally we finally made it!

We were roughing it with no cable til last Thursday and internet today. We also are still using my old dorm size fridge and are going to the grocery store every other day...it's getting embarrassing. The dogs love the new house and run around in circles. It is still empty due to the fact that we are doing a mini top to bottom overhaul with our tax credit. We are:

-Scraping the popcorn ceilings off (adds $3-5 for every $1 spent)

-Painting the ugly white walls

-Putting some wood floor in the main living room and hopefully new carpet in bedrooms (the current was installed very poorly and is stained beyond repair...and we also found a dozen boxes of wood floor in our bonus room, but that's a later post)

-Clear and fence the backyard

Basically it will just be pretty empty for a while after we pay for this crap. But we will be here a long time and it's much easier to do these things with the house empty.

I'll do a full house tour soon (when it looks clean enough to take pics) but here's what's been going on so far:

-We took down the fugly curtains left by the previous owner (future post)

-Done a mailbox makeover for under $20 (future post)

-Picked out some paint samples

Do you love that my manslave is doing most of the work in these pics???

I'll leave you with this pic of the new couch. I asked Stephan to grab a blanket to throw over it and left the room. This is what I came back to. His mission in life is to "white trash up" everything nice I have...le sigh.

Yes, I sleep next to this man every night... So proud...

I'm Leaving The World of White and Black...

And rejoining the world of color!!! I'm excited to start my new life with Stephan but will miss all my girls at White House Black Market! I had some great times with some great girls!

My last day was also my Store Manager Ashley's last day (we also had our first day together so it was kind of an end of an era.) The girls made a big deal and decorated the back room with streamers and pics and posters. Then we met up after work... I heart them all!!!

We were banned from the back room and came to find this!

We loved this part of the poster! We were both quitting for our hubbies so they pasted a pic of them together (It kinda looked like they were a chic gay couple)

Iris, Veronica, Me, Ashley, Dawn, and Barbara XOXO

Devil Dog

Notice anything weird about this picture? This was either a really bad angle or Bentley was temporarily posessed by the devil. The best part is Diesel looking like a dumby who doesn't even know what's about to hit him:)

Anatomy Of A Christmas Card

I wanted to send out a little Christmas card this year and kept waiting for all four of us to be together. My friend Kim took a photo of us by the lake behind our house. The only problem was the extreme wind. Bentley looked like he was in a wind tunnel in the majority of the photos. Of course Diesel still looked perfect! We ended up picking the first photo we took and then downloaded it the the Walgreen's photo center and were ready in about an hour. I also used a coupon from retailmenot.com.

My lack of preparation kicked me in the butt though. I started a 6 day work stretch and had no time to get them out on time. Then I had to hunt down addresses (hard to go off a two year old wedding guest list). And the address labels I wanted would take 2 weeks to come. Grrrr.

Here's the pic we used:

And the card design:

And what the address labels would have looked like (le sigh):

New Year, New Life

Happy New Year!!! I'm excited for 2010!!! This is the year we move into and fix up our first home together, have a new second puppy, and celebrate two of my best friends weddings!!! My BFF Kim and her fiance Kyle and my brother Matt and his fiancee Rich are both getting married this year...and I'm a bridesmaid in both! Looking forward to this year and glad a year of moving and deployments is over!

My resolutions:
-Pray more
-Spend more time with Stephan
-Have a hobby that doesn't include watching tv or shopping
-Learn all the words to "Don't Be Tardy for the Party"
-Work on lots of home projects
-Be more involved with church
-Be nicer and more patient
-Tone up (two bridesmaids dresses comin' up)
-Wear more red lipstick
-Shop less, save more
-Eat out less, cook more
-Treat the people that matter to me like they matter and make sure that they know they matter to me

"I Like To Work with Leath-ah"

So Stephan has always longed for a leath-ah chair. (Ever since the season of Project Runway with Stella I will never say leather normally again...)

I don't exactly understand men's obsession with leather furniture but Stephan did have a valid point that it would add a masculine element to the living room. And I agreed that it might be a nice contrast with the velvet, fur, silk, mirrored more femme stuff.

So for Christmas I decided to find a leather chair...for under $250. Not easy at all. I was thinking more club chair than recliner. We looked at Home Goods, Target, and IKEA. We found one at IKEA that was very sleek AND comfortable. It was the JAPPLING chair for $249 (under budget by a dollar). So I rushed over on Christmas Eve after work and picked it up (with lots of lifting help, trust me) and the best part was that I had some gift cards from there too!!! I hid it in the garage and told Stephan his present was a small bag I brought in when I came home (actually a gift from my boss). Gotta love Christmas mind games.

It is staying packaged up until we move, and I can't find a pic on their website but I found one on google.com so these images will have to do for now. Stay tuned for the big reveal!

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