Projects, projects, projects...

A few pics of the decorating projects I've accomplished this past weekend... I'm REALLY excited about the valances I made (with Mom's help!) for the morning room...

and... thanks to my favorite store IKEA, I have bathroom storage :)

I did some other "random" shopping at HomeGoods yesterday and found this cute little stool for my flying pig ;) (that story was posted previously!!)

and a really, super cool table lamp... now to find a chair to put next to it...

no really exciting news going on here, just learning to live in our fantastic new house. Hard to believe it's been almost 5 months already! We're settling in and it's finally starting to feel real ... can't wait to decorate for Christmas time

HOLIDAY weekend? what's that??

So... with a couple of days off together what else was there to do but cross a couple more little projects off of the "honey-do" list ;)  

DH installed a ceiling fan in the great room (it kinda looks like the rotor blades on the helicopter!!) and pendant lights above the kitchen island and sink...  

My contribution to the weekend of projects was my undying gratitude (as always) LOL, I'm always grateful for DH's skill around the house as well as his great attitude when it comes to my "lists" ... However, I DID have a little bit of a contribution as well. I re-covered the lampshades on our fabulous bargain find $15 Target clearance lamps... I also put my many hours of web surfing on Pinterest to good use when I made Braided Spaghetti Bread to reward my man's hard work :)  

Here's the proof!!

awesome new ceiling fan

kitchen pendants

lampshade project

 





spaghetti baked INSIDE garlic bread!! Pinterest makes me look like such a great mom/wife!! This was a winner :) 











Even the "braided" outside crust looked pretty good for a first try!!


So, that was our thrilling "Labor Day" weekend... Tomorrow's agenda ~ light fixture in the craft room and organizing THAT nightmare!!!

Finally!! Some pictures!!

Now that school is back in session and my life has SOME sense of a regular schedule, I took a few photos of what we've done to the house so far.  As most of you know, we painted and bought new furniture but DH has also installed crown molding the kitchen/family room and the front living room. We are debating putting it in the morning room as well but the angles in there look like they might be a real bi...  challenge. 

We really are completely in love with the way things are coming together. Yes, I still have pictures to put up and chachkis that haven't found a home yet, but I think the major items have been accomplished. My craft room is a shambles. I've been so busy with the "public" parts of the house that I haven't even attempted to put my sanctuary together. That's next on the list...  

Last Friday night we had our first big soiree here. A fun open house with many, many friends showing up. We shared laughs and food and drinks (mostly drinks!!) and I can't think of a better way to celebrate this new phase of our lives. The house certainly lived up to it's "entertaining" potential as we envisioned it when we first walked through the model :) (did any of you know that whipped cream vodka is AMAZING in root beer??? tastes just like a root beer float!!) and soaking fresh strawberries in chocolate vodka (overnight) and dipping them in melted chocolate is like heaven in your mouth??? (like i said, there was a LOT of drinking going on Friday!!)

Here are the promised pics  

Kitchen view from family room

Morning room from family room (LOVE my IKEA rug!)

Family room from kitchen (&DH's smartTV!)

can you tell i <3 IKEA??

Family room from hall... more IKEA stuff :)

Front entry/living room

View from living room

Living room (minus the rug the cat ruined!!)

BAR (fave consignment find!!)

Morning room again

DD's room

Master bedroom

gentle reminder ;)

 

 

 

Master bedroom from other side

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crazy Summer!

Wow! the past 2 1/2 months have been ridiculously busy! Since closing, we have painted (the entire downstairs, bought furniture, gone to Charleston & the Outer Banks, taken the DD to Carolina Panthers Junior TopCats cheer camp, planned an open house for next weekend, gone to 4 concerts AND still worked full time!! I've taken very few pictures of the house but I promise now that school is about to start (next week) and our schedules become a little more regular, I will get on this and post some of the things we have done!  

This past weekend the DH began installing crown moulding on the first floor. I have to admit that I never really considered it a big deal and didn't understand why he was so insistent on doing it... UNTIL I SAW IT UP! WOW, it really does make a difference. I looks fantastic already and he's not quite done (another pic to post once its complete). We painted the DD's room (twilight meadows from Lowes) and put a really nice monogram detail (from Dali Decals) on the wall now she's in full "middle school mode" and decorating the rest of her room with brightly colored accessories and animal prints :)  We painted the accent wall in our bedroom a dark purple (valspar ~ purple rain) and silvery gray (valspar ~ silvery mist) with black furniture and silver accessories.  The small front living room, hallway and great room are all painted in a medium gray (valspar ~ opera glasses) and the morning room is a shade darker (valspar ~ bell tower stone). Our master bath is painted in a bluish purple (valspar ~ blue hydrangea) but I really don't think it's what I was looking for. I just can't bring myself to tell the DH that I'm going to want to change it ... maybe it will grow on me ;).  I haven't decided yet what I want to do with the powder room or the other bedrooms. I'm sure the DH is happy that I don't have any painting projects planned because he has his own "honey do" list, like the crown moulding that's going up!

Our open house/housewarming party is next weekend. After that I'll post some pictures of everything...

30 day inspection

Since we are awaiting furniture delivery tomorrow and still painting some of the rooms, I figured I would give  a quick update about our 30 day follow up. Jared (the BEST PM ever!) came by to see what kind of issues we had discovered in our first month. It was hard to find anything to complain about as we are very happy with the house AND we have really only been living in it for 2 weeks!! The only thing on our list was that the door to the master bedroom wouldn't close & lock. Jared called his punch list guy who just happened to be in the neighborhood and had it taken care of immediately.

The rest of the visit revolved around discussing the remaining lots in the neighborhood and the fast pace of both sales and building taking place around us. We joked with him that if it weren't for US taking the risk at being the first ones in... who knows ;)  Buying from Ryan was an excellent decision and as for the quality of our home, well, we couldn't have asked for more.

I WILL say that so far I am highly disappointed in our HOA. We closed almost a month ago. HOA payments at closing included a "buy in" fee of $500, a capital costs contribution of $500 and prorated fees for the rest of the year. Those were obviously paid in full at that time. We have yet to hear from the HOA or receive any information regarding the pool and amenity center. We contacted our sales person who is obviously still on site and he sent the management company an email 10 days ago. The representative for the agency responded that she had sent us a "form" to fill out in order for that to happen. Well, I know it's called "snail mail" for a reason, but I think even a SNAIL could've gotten that letter to me within the past 10 days!!  I hope this isn't an indication of what this HOA is going to be like to deal with in the future. If it is, well, they've got a rude awakening coming. I fully intend for DH and I to become active with the Association because if there's going to be a "committee" telling me what I can and cannot do to my house/yard, you better damn well believe I'm going to have a say in those things BEORE they become my headache!! 

That's it for tonight. Maybe I'll take some pictures and post again sometime this weekend. By then the master should be complete and I will have some "fun" stuff to share. :) 

Living room furniture delivered!

Just a quick pic of the "front" living room (dining option). Furniture was delivered today & it took some time to arrange everything but I'm loving it. Still need curtains & a small (white shag) area rug, maybe some floating shelves or other artwork but we'll see.

Preview Pics

So, we are STILL unpacking (where did all this STUFF come from?) but it's actually starting to look like a house... I'm really loving it and wanted to post a few "in progress" pics. I also wanted to mention that while we've noticed a few minor issues, overall this is an amazing house! I'm glad we chose a RYAN home!

It's been a busy week!