Thursday, August 22, 2013

What a difference a coat of paint makes!

Here is the before picture of my new living room. This mess was driving me C-R-A-Z-Y! I can close the door to all the other rooms that aren't put together yet and kinda forget about them, but this is part of the great room and no one can possibly enter from the front or back without being confronted with whatever this room looks like. First impressions are important to me, so this had to be painted and decorated ASAP!

Very, uh, un-inviting. To say the least.

So, I headed out to Lowe's to shop for paint. And of course, I forget to take my pillow to color-match the paint with. So I guess. I have had successful guessing episodes in the past when selecting paint, and I have had some not-so-successful ones. Like the one I just had for the spa room. The initial paint I picked out for my spa room was called "aloe", a very soothing, mellow citrus-y green. The name itself evoked soothing, nature-like connotations. I laid that puppy on the wall, and instant "neon, light up glow stick"! It was really awful. BUT, I digress. The color I picked for my living room was DEAD ON PERFECT. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it. It is called "Royal Palm" and it is everything I wanted. Striking, but not overbearing. Colorful. Modern. Soothing. Peaceful.
Here is the picture. I don't think my little Galaxy 3 photo is the greatest, but my other camera is probably in a box labeled "cook books" or "bathroom knick knacks" and has yet to make an appearance.

Da-da- da!


Monday, August 12, 2013

Moving-Another Love/Hate Relationship

Well, it happened! With only a minor hiccup and one unplanned night in a hotel, we closed on our new home and are now the proud owners of a 5 bedroom, 3 bath mortgage! Woot woot! Only two plates suffered fatalities, which in my book is a pretty darn good moving job. Our movers (Mayflower) did an excellent job of packing our belongings one day and getting them in the new house the next. This is the first time I have ever had the pleasure of having professional movers and it definitely spoiled me. We will have to use them the next time we move, which will hopefully be NEVER!!!!!!!!!!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new home. It is big and beautiful and represents everything I was sure I wasn't going to be able to have for a long time.
I absolutely hate the digging out. The disorientation. The sheets hung on the windows so you don't scar the neighbors by flashing them. The inability to locate things-like the title of a car that you have had for sale for six weeks and the week that you move and the movers pack the title in a box labeled "kitchen utensils" is the week that someone decides to buy it.
My house is a disaster zone at the moment. Surveying the never ending mountains of boxes and living with the chaos and disorganization is hard for me. I want everything done NOW. But of course, we had to have a few exciting bumps in the road just to keep things interesting. I have finals-this week. Makenna starts school-this week. Brad is on his last week of furlough (Thank you, God!) and he wants to use his final day off to take baby girl to the mountains-this week. And I wanted to get my house put together-this week. Alas, I will have to be patient. For now, here are some pics of the wonderful mess that I am so very grateful to be living in.