Our Guest Room

Today I'm linking up with KellysKorner for her house tour link up.  Today's post is on guest rooms so here is ours!

The furniture is Husband's childhood furniture.  The quilt on the bed was made by my grandmother when I was growing up.  She made a quilt for each of her six grandchildren.  This is the wedding ring pattern.  She hand quilted it.  The blue throw on the end folds into a matching pillow.

The black rocking chair is child sized and just got pulled out of my mother's attic.  I will probably be repainting it at some point.  The

The bookcase and desk have lots of the books I collected from my childhood and the scrapbooks of my early years.  Several of the smaller items are from Husbands' childhood.  You can also see my Molly American Girl doll on top!

We haven't done much in this room yet (including hanging anything on the walls) because I figure at some point (as our family grows) this room will have a different purpose and look.

Hope you've enjoyed!

Moving Day!

 Moving is probably one of my least favorite activities.  It is a pretty awful reminder of how much STUFF you actually own.  

To be clear, I've never technically moved before.  We moved into our family house when I was about 3 (so I remember nothing of that) and my mom still lives there.  When I went to college, it was just a few minutes down the road and I was living on campus (read: furnished) all four years.  When husband and I bought our house, he lived there for over 6 months before I moved in; so we just moved a few things on weekends as we felt like it.  This time however, was going to be an actual MOVE.

As soon as we found "the house" the packing began.  My mom came out to our house almost every day for a month (bless her) and helped pack every box.  Since I'm not supposed to be lifting heavy stuff, she did all the lifting and helped keep me from getting too overwhelmed.  She also made pretty frequent trips to Goodwill to get rid of the crap we didn't need and took home the super awkward and fragile pieces so they wouldn't get messed up in the move.  We made sure that boxes were organized by room as much as possible and labeled as much as possible.

A week before the move, husband and I finished up the packing and furniture wrapping.  We packed our suitcases for a week and moved in with my mom.  (He then went out of town for work for almost the whole week.)  I did employ 2 friends for a few hours one afternoon that week to help me finish the last little bit that he and I didn't get to, but for the most part, it was all done.  Meanwhile, we closed on the house and the painters came and painted our entire house, which mom and I checked out each evening.  

Saturday was moving day.  We loaded a cooler with water, husband got a large U-Haul and drove out to our old house.  Mom and I headed to the new house (they're about 30-40 minutes apart) and began cleaning.  The house had been professionally cleaned before we closed, but there was still sheet rock dust and general dirt from the painters.  We wiped down everything in the kitchen and cleaned all the floors.  

We were expecting to have several hours to clean while the old house was getting loaded on the truck.  When husband called to say they were heading our way, I was shocked.  Turns out there were TWENTY-TWO people at our house to load the truck. 

We had created a Facebook event and asked friends to help us move, but I had NO IDEA that many people would show up.  They emptied the entire house into the street and two of my more spatially skilled friends packed the truck.  All the boxes marked fragile were placed in cars.  All the other boxes and furniture were piled (quite neatly from what I understand) in the truck.  In just a few hours they had loaded everything and were headed out to unload.

I labeled each room with sticky notes (what good is a box labeled "Living Room" if nobody knows which room in the house that is) and stuck sticky notes on the wall where the furniture pieces were going.  That way, as it came in, I didn't have to be there to answer the "where do you want this" and we didn't have to move boxes out of the way to put the furniture where I wanted it.

Eight more people showed up to help at the new house, meaning there were THIRTY (!!!!) people to help move us in.  I hated not being able to help, but was seriously overwhelmed with the outpouring of love that day.  By 1 pm everything was unloaded, furniture that had been taken apart was getting put back together, and boxes were starting to get unpacked.  We had expected most people to leave after emptying the truck, but a lot of them hung around to help unpack.  By 4 pm, we were pretty much COMPLETELY moved in.  Never in my life have I heard of a move quite like this.  The only thing left to do is hang all the pictures on the walls, but I have to make some decisions on that stuff first.

That night we felt like we had lived there for years just looking around.  It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen.

We weren't in any kind of rush to get moved in before Baby... but now we really don't have to be.  When Baby comes-- we are settled in! (Baby's room is still kinda lacking in furniture, but we're getting there!)

Nursery Sneak Peak

In my house hunting post I mentioned that I wasn't sure about the baby's room.  I knew that spending too much time planning it could be a colossal waste of time; the kid might not even move in there until they were 6 months or even a year old!  Of course, now we know that they will be getting a room so the nursery decor can officially be determined.  

Since we aren't finding out the gender of this baby (which you may or may not think is crazy), it means our nursery decor options are slightly more limited.  Also, since I'm super picky, they're even more limited!

For example, anything pastel was definitely out as was anything related to elephants (jungle/circus).  I'm not crazy about characters, so the Lion King or Monster's Inc. themes were out too.  

I had pretty much settled on a woodland-ish theme... camping, trees, foxes, owls, etc.  I had found some cute stuff, but nothing that I was really crazy about.

Plus, I do recognize that the whole "designing the nursery" thing is really more about me than the kid and since I had initially planned on not even having one, I really didn't want to lose my mind and go crazy with a "theme" and insisting that everything be perfect.  

So after a few unsuccessful trips to baby stores, mom suggested we try a fabric store and see if there was anything I liked there.  I found some cute owl fabrics and a few things in that woodland theme that were options, but again, nothing that seemed like what I was looking for.  Then on a whim/as a joke, mom pulled out this black fabric (in the middle).  

You know what is gender neutral?  MATH.

Now I realize that this is pretty much the opposite of a traditional nursery inspiration (and way far away from the woods) but it seemed pretty much perfect. 

 

My mother has graciously agreed to make a quilt using the fabrics shown above and I will be making curtains out of one of them.  

Nursery plan: DONE.

House Hunting

What's been going on lately?

Lots of this: packing, packing, and more packing! 

We bought our current house a little over 5 years ago, before we got married.  The first-time homebuyer credit was going on and we took full advantage of it.  We bought near where I was (am) teaching because we didn't know (professionally) where Big A would be ending up at the time.  Immediately after we married, he completed a one year masters degree program and then secured great a job about 30 minutes from our house.  Of course, 30 minutes is in ideal circumstances.  If there is traffic, especially Fridays during the summer when everyone is headed east towards the beach, that 30 minutes can turn into 60 or even 90 minutes.  The plan was always for this to be our "starter home".  When we decided it was time to "start our family" we planned it around the time that we would be able to afford our "family home".

As soon as we knew I was pregnant, we knew it would be a few more months before we were ready for that next purchase (we are keeping our current home as a rental).  We had agreed to start house hunting in July and to really take our time.  There was no expectation to be moved before baby.  In fact, I fully planned on NOT being moved by then.  People kept asking about "nursery themes" and I had little to say on the subject, as I wasn't completely sure if baby would even have a traditional nursery. 

So our house search began.  I had every intention of being very critical and particular (ok, really not that hard for me).  I was going to be doing much of the preliminary looking as Big A would be at work and often out of town for work, where as I would be available (yay, teacher life!).  Houses in our market and around our price range are going VERY quickly- like some less than 24 hours.  This meant that while we could take our time with the search, we couldn't take our time with the decision. 

As houses came on the market our realtor's system emailed them to me.  Many were "too far" away.  If we were moving to be closer to Big A's job (and my mother), the commute was going to have to be significantly less than 30 minutes.  I had a pretty large wishlist must-haves list including a 2 car garage, a laundry room (those 2 were also the only thing's on Big A's list), 4 bedrooms, a room to hold the game table he brought back from Italy, a fireplace, a yard big enough to hold a swing set and run around a little, a kitchen with substantial cabinet and counter space, a coat closet, and so on.  We weren't opposed to a house that was at the low end of our price range that needed updating, as long as the layout was ideal.  Several houses we looked at online had yards that were too small or kitchens that were too small (or had tiny wall ovens with the stove top on the island... which I decided I was not a fan of after seeing a few).  I also eliminated some that had the family room open to the upstairs (noise travels). 

As houses came on the market, mom and I would go see them with the realtor.  The first day we went to five.  I had originally thought 3 of those might be possibilities, however, after more careful, critical consideration that night, 2 were eliminated.  Big A and I decided to go see the 3rd together the next day.  It was a short sale, but would be a great deal and a TON of space.  After the realtor sent us the inspection report, we decided this was probably a little bit out of our league and therefore possibly out of our price range. 

So I resigned to wait. 

And then I found it.  It was a house that had been on the market a little longer, but they had just reduced the price, putting it in our range.  It showed beautifully and I was able to check every box on the list.

So much for waiting...

Which means now, pending any major issues with the inspection next week, we will be closing on our new (amazing) house in less than a month!  And boy do we have some packing to do! 

It also turns out that packing while pregnant is an exhausting process so thank goodness for my mother who has been incredibly helpful the last few days getting me organized and started.  I know it will all be worth it in the end and I'm sure I will be extremely grateful to be completely done before baby arrives.  But right now, I'm just ready for a nap!