Year: 2014

So moving is a lot of work. Way more than I remembered from the last time we did it almost 10 years ago. I am pretty sure we have more stuff. I’m also pretty sure we’re secret hoarders. I mean … look at this:

… crap everywhere! And that’s not nearly the worst of it.

What have we been up to?

Tuesday: We closed and did a bunch of stuff that night, including hanging window coverings. Unfortunately, two of the ones that shipped (we had about 1/3 arrive before we closed, the rest are on backorder) didn’t fit right, so they should be back sometime this week.

Wednesday: We worked (at our day jobs) and our painter arrived to do the color for the bedrooms and powder room. I love every color we picked and will share soon. Matt and his buddies installed the mudroom cabinets. Kelly and I built pieces of the office furniture.

Thursday: We rented a Uhaul and loaded up almost all the stuff from my sister’s garage and our friends’ basement. Our painter painted ceilings, the granite guys came to take measurements for the mudroom, we had a washer/dryer, kitchen table and chairs and eventually the refrigerator delivered. We diligently unpacked like mad, trying to stay ahead (haha).

Friday: I met the movers at our storage unit, Matt met the other crew of movers at our rental house and we moved everything from those locations. See? Secret hoarders. In 6 hours they moved the big/bad stuff. Mostly furniture and power tools. We unpacked MORE. We got everyone’s beds setup. We built Tabby’s new desk. Loki peed on the floor and we discovered our brand new washer wouldn’t work. At all.

Saturday: We unpacked. We assembled. We hung Ben’s new fan. We spent hours harassing Sears about getting us a new washer, like NOW. We eventually had to call Lowes and order a new one through them. We unpacked. We went to Ikea to pick up a couple of things.

Sunday: We actually made breakfast (pancakes and bacon) in our new kitchen (after moving around a ton of stuff).  We went to the grocery store and Home Depot for various deficiencies. Our new new washer arrived. We did tons of laundry. We assembled more office furniture and installed it in the office. We made actual dinner. We went for a walk. We installed mudroom shelves and some hooks. It’s not done, but it’s looking good.

It was actually an odd pleasure to wake up this morning and go to work. I got to shower in my nice big shower. My car was right there waiting for me in the garage. The drive was about 10 minutes longer than the one from our rental house, but I will gladly take that so that Matt and the kids aren’t being run ragged on their commutes.

We’ve got a ton to do, but we are making good progress and really enjoying feathering our nest. I’m constantly amazed by my husband and his ability to work out stuff (like hanging our cabinets) and just get it done. He’s pretty brilliant. I’ve been impressed too at how the kids have pitched in and helped and how they’ve been happy to entertain themselves while we work. Life is good. And I really really appreciate it!

Well after much moving and shaking yesterday, we are in the new house!

There’s a lot of this going on … basically blank rooms with just a couple of random pieces of temporary furniture in them. This is the master bedroom. We borrowed our friends’ Aerobed and the ladder and chair are hanging around because we hung some window coverings last night.

We had a few people over last night. We ate pizza, mostly standing around the counter. We moved a junction box, we hung some more window coverings. Two fun things about this photo: 1) the green thing in the foreground is one of three pendant lights I picked up on the cheap from PB Kids. They’ll give some fun color pop to the room. 2) Tabby’s keyboard was brought over in the first load so she can keep practicing.

Loki has already gone walkabout and helped us meet some new neighbors. Contrary to how he looks in this photo, he seems pretty happy with his new digs. He is getting a nice brand new bed today.

We are kicking butt moving the next couple of days. Hopefully I’ll have some more fun photos to share soon.

When we first came to check out the models, never intending to move, one of the things that sucked me in was the outdoor space. Here in Colorado, we are blessed with the most awesome weather. That probably sounds crazy to an outsider who thinks of CO only in terms of snow and skiing, but while we can go very low (and usually do a few days a year), we have very nice, temperate weather (random 60 degree days in the middle of winter!), tons of sunshine, and the most gorgeous summer nights – crisp and perfect. In short, perfect to be outside. A room like this just extends your enjoyment of our great weather, taking that little nip out of the air.

Add into it, the fact that this yard is significantly bigger than our old one, and I’m actually pretty excited about decking out the back yard.

So back in January, when the snow was still flying (we were actually skiing at the time), and the ink had barely dried on our sales contract, I saw a screaming deal on an outdoor patio set (above) for the fireplace area, i.e. outdoor living room. I ended up buying it sight unseen. It arrived a few weeks later. By then, we were in the throes of staging/moving and all I could do was toss it in my sister’s garage and hope for the best. To this day, I still haven’t seen it. Here’s hoping I like it as much in person next week as I did in the online photos because I don’t think it’s going back now …

This area will also need some ambiance. I plan to achieve that with some string lights, and possibly this fun sign from Dot and Bo.

To keep the area cool when necessary, we have a few ideas. We had the area pre-wired for a fan. This is nice as well because it keeps bugs away. We also just saw a house where the owners had installed DIY low-pressure misters along the edge of their patio. That was a nice feature, but I’m not sure about the extra added moisture. We are also considering making – just saw a great tutorial on this – or buying curtains to hang along the outward edge of the porch both for shade and privacy.Since we will also likely be having our outdoor movie nights here, so this could be a good surface for the projection screen if we choose wisely.

The dining area (to the right in the photo), is pretty boring in my mind. We have a very serviceable table for six that we will not be replacing. The one thing we will eventually do to this area is add a fan above, both for the chill factor, but also for bug control!

The rest of the backyard is a complete blank slate. This is both thrilling and terrifying to me … I am not much of a gardener. Overall, I want to keep it pretty simple, plant wise. I know what I like … hydrangeas, honeysuckle, sweet peas, daisies, sunflowers, shade trees and a bit of grass, but I know squat about keeping up and maintaining that stuff. So vegetation wise, we will see. I’m talking to a landscaper we work with.

One thing I know I want is an outdoor shower. The house we rented in Hawaii when Tabby was a baby had one and it was great! Happily, it’s a pretty inexpensive thing to do when we are doing plumbing for sprinklers anyhow. There are solar solutions online for around $100 or we could have hot water plumbed out as well. I think it would be awesome for hosing off the kids and the dog!

I’d also like to have a nice little secluded spot for the kids. I’m not 100% sure what it can be. We have space, but not a ton and we are also bound by HOA regulations … and of course time and money. I have found a bunch of cool, but not crazy playhouses and I think it would be lovely for them to have something like this. They’re not going to be interested for too much longer!

We will also, possibly foolishly, put in some raised beds again. We’re not great gardeners as mentioned before, but we have had some success with the few things that you can pretty much just dump in the ground and leave, including: herbs (these go in pots with drip lines), tomatoes, raspberry bushes (along any fence with a little water) and strawberries.

I am most excited for the kids to be able to just go outside and play. Tabby in particular loves just sitting on the ground, checking out bugs (many of the same ones that make her scream in fear indoors) and “getting some peace and quiet.” And it will be great for Ben to have a place to run out all of his excess energy!

We’re getting close! And I find it fun and great that only now in the crunch is when some of my plans are starting to gel for certain spaces. The master bedroom was spurred along by my need to choose a paint color for our painter that will come in the day after closing and do the few custom colors we want in the house (mostly bedrooms). In the old house we never really decorated our bedroom. And while it was fine and cozy and really served us very well for years, it never felt very put together (see above). So we want to actually do it up right this time!

First, the inspiring new color. It’s called Nimbus Gray and it’s a nice grey with just a subtle hint of blue (less than in this photo, IMO). I’m really in love with it.

Though it won’t be for a while, with money not growing on trees and all, I’d like to get some new bedding to fit in better. I keep going back and forth between something subtle and colorful (like the above from West Elm) …

Or white with texture (like above from Target) with some colorful shams. The white with different shams seems a bit more versatile and this specific choice ($80) would be more affordable.

One of the big things our bedroom was always lacking was nightstands! We always had one – first it was a 3-canvas drawer affair that actually came from my childhood bedroom. It finally fell apart sometime after Ben was born and then we pulled an end table that was actually part of the furniture when our house had been a model before we moved in that came with the house. I’m actually still currently using that at the rental house. Matt has never had a nightstand. So that is a priority for us. The one above from Wayfair is a definite possibility.

Either way, once we get the nightstands, we will have something to put on top of them. We picked up these cute little Klabb lamps from Ikea a trip or two ago. And of course we’ll need some fun accessories, like maybe a gallery wall of framed black and white images of us and the kids? And/or this awesome pour deux print from Society 6?

And we will be needing some kind of light fixture since we opted to not have overhead lights put in the master. We will have the option of using the fan from Ben’s old room (he is getting his new earth/globe/stars one). But we’re not sure it will be big enough for the room or provide enough light. So … we will need something. And in the simple, modern family, me thinks. I do like a fan, even though they’re not so much the thing.

So that’s it! Looking forward to having a “grown up” kind of bedroom.