A Little Color…

We all need a little color in our lives.  This Memorial Day Nate and I set out to add some life to our front porch.  We were excited to see if anything new popped up in our flower bed, but nope… nothing.  It looks very nice, but it is all green.  If we had money to spare we would put in a whole new flowerbed on the other side, but for now we just filled the pots we already had… and I think it did wonders for the front of our house.

Enjoy the colors of summer!

Kitchen Remodel!

This will be the last post about our new kitchen....

because, it's finished!

When we decide on something we go after it and get it done. We started with ordering the tile for the fireplace and back splash. When the fireplace was finished, we did the back splash. When the back splash was finished we started on the counter tops. Now after two full weekends working on it - It is done! We are so happy with how it turned out!

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This is how Claire felt the whole time we were working.

What a face.

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Here is a little section BEFORE...

Here is the same little section AFTER!

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How do you like the counter tops? Does it look like granite? It's supposed to, but it is really just paint. Ideally, we would have loved to get real granite counter tops, but that will never be in our budget, so I found this great paint online.

We re-did our fireplace and entire kitchen for under $300 and I think it looks pretty great. (Considering it would have cost around $5000 for new counter tops.)

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Some working pictures...

All taped off.

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Nate painting the "Iron Core Black Primer"

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Some Before and Afters...

DIY Back Splash & 20 lbs Gone...

This weekend the inner carpenter in us came out in full force. We tiled our hearts out. It was a lot of work, but the end result is totally worth it. We re-did our kitchen back splash. It was plain white and now it definitely has some character.

It looks expensive.... even though it wasn't ;) and it makes me want to cook!

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Enjoy some pictures!

Nate is so handy. I bet he could build a whole house by himself.

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We have lots of renovation memories together.

It was great for us to be home together for a whole weekend.

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Grouting

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Before and after shot. This turned out a little small, but when we are completely through with the counter tops and all I will post better ones.

................................................................................................................................................ And, for the weight watchers update:

I have lost 20 lbs!

I sit here (at work) wearing some black pants that I haven't been able to wear in at least 2 years. Woo Hoo! I don't know how I let myself get so big, but I am really enjoying losing the weight. Every Monday when I weigh and see that number go down it is like a little happy party going on in my mind. ha.

I can't wait to get to my goal! I'm half way there! When these next 20 lbs get gone, I don't know what I'm gonna do with myself!

DIY

One of the things that Nate and I enjoy the most is a little home renovation. We basically

re-did everything we could in our old house. Every little bit of extra money we had went into that place. We will never forget eating Ramen Noodles for a whole month so we could build a fence in the backyard, or eating cereal for a month so we could re-do our kitchen. Those were some good times.

We love that house and it will always be special to us, but we are really ready to get rid of it :) I am praying that everything works out with our current renters. I can't wait to NOT have two mortgages! They should have their financing soon... hopefully.

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Anyway, we were very blessed and lucky to get our new house! There aren't very many things that we want to change, but we got started on a couple things this last weekend. We got some awesome tile online at a discount store for a great price and re-tiled our fireplace.

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Some glue...

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Some tile...

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Some grout...

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and, there you have it.

We loved how it turned out!

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Now this weekend we will be using the same tile to do a back splash in our kitchen! I am really excited about that!

Back to Normal

We had our first big youth get together at our house. Yay! Things are slowly getting back to normal... A new kind of normal, and we are loving it.

You Light Up My Life

Front of our house.

Front Door.... (pictures of what's inside that door coming soon)

Roses

Old outside lights Nater working on a house again.

One old and one new

New outside lights

Old inside lights

New inside lights.

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I am doing good remembering to take a few before and after pictures.

Our House...

What's been going on with us for the last 12 days?

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We have been working hard to get our house in order. As of right now, I am happy to report we have new furniture, new paint, decorations in place, and every box unpacked.

Yesterday we got curtains so our bedroom, our bathroom, office, kitchen, living room, and entry way are finished. All we have left now are the two guest bedrooms and the guest bathroom. Then some day when we have the urge to paint we need to do our bathroom and the hall.

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We are pretty proud of ourselves for having this much done so fast, and people keep acting like we should be completely settled. I don't know how long it usually takes people to be done, but surely it's longer than 12 days. I mean if we didn't go to work and have busy weekends I bet we could have everything done.

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It is pretty great to have our own house back. We lay down every night and say, "I love this house." It is so open and so us.

We can't say "home" without giggling... actually, Nate can't say it yet. He comes in the office and says he's going to "the house." I can't wait to be completely comfortable in our home again and start having lots of people over.

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I haven't taken pictures of the finished product yet but here are a few from closing day. We closed at 3:00pm on September 30th.... Waited for the sellers to get out, and when they never did we went ahead and moved our cleaning and painting supplies in at 6:30pm. (They were there till 9:30pm. I guess they didn't get the memo about what closing on a house means.)

Then we cleaned and painted till 2:30am and got up at 7:30am to move everything we own out of the mission house. We were having to tell our legs that it was ok and to keep going.... one step at a time... till 8:00pm or so. What a weekend! We are very thankful for my mom, who came and helped clean and paint all night, and Nate's dad, that helped us move.

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Goodbye Texaco Green entry way.

Goodbye yellow.

Claire Bear is really loving our house too. She approves of the carpet and the new furniture. (She wouldn't lay on the floor or the couch in the mission house) It is funny how even our dog is more comfortable now.

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Another huge thank you to everyone who has prayed for our house situation this last year. We are incredibly blessed and thankful for your support. God delivered big time and gave us a wonderful house in His perfect time and we are thrilled.

Tough Lesson Learned.... check

Today is Tuesday... and we get to move this weekend. I am beyond excited and have maybe never been so ready for something in my life. Being physically uncomfortable with my surroundings for an entire year has really opened my eyes to a lot of things.

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I have learned:

~that God does not call us to be comfortable

~that I am selfish and at times not grateful

~that Nate is extremely patient

~that it is hard to be surrounded by boxes

~that I can't remember what I own

~that I don't like people coming to visit us in the mission house

~that we can be slobs

~that I hate hand washing dishes

~that I put too much stock into having our own place

~that windows (where the sun can come in) are an absolute must have

~that even dogs can get depressed

~that I don't like moving

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But most importantly I learned:

~that God will provide

~that His timing is perfect

~that Nate and I are incredibly blessed and I can't take that for granted

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And just because I don't like posting things without pictures....

Here are a couple of my favorite baby.

Gage and his sweet Mom (my sweet friend), Hollie

Me and Gage

PTL!

I take back my almost negative comment about how "nothing ever goes the way its supposed to with us."

We still get to close on September 30th!

Praise the Lord for a great realtor, a great house, and a great closing date. Yay!

Good things come to those who wait.... Right?

Well, now we don't know when we are going to close on our house. Something always gets messed up with us. Really... I feel like nothing can just happen the way it's supposed to.

But, the good news is it will definitely be before October 8th. We were trying to close early so the sellers wouldn't have to pay another month's mortgage, but our finance guy didn't get the memo.... or at least he forgot about that little detail. It is only 8 more days, but after waiting 11 months I can hardly sleep at night because I am so excited to unpack.

I am constantly thinking about how we are going to decorate. Like all the time. It is driving Nate crazy, but I am just excited.

Here is what "we" are thinking:

This is my inspiration. We got it at Garden Ridge and I am in love with it. I know exactly where I'm going to put it. I'm going for eclectic country.... or something like that.

And, I have a new theory.... less is more. I don't feel like I have to hang something on every wall like I did in our first house.

This is our new pantry. It is going to house all our food. It is currently sitting with all our other stuff in two boxes (one weighs 90 lbs and the other 70lbs...we figure it will be easier to move this way) just waiting to be put together. Can't wait to see it in person. These are our new outside lights. Nate already has some projects lined up :) New inside lights.

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Now, this is the stuff I am looking for.... and will buy when we replenish our bank accounts.

I want 4 antique ceiling tiles to put together in a square. I can't find these things anywhere. Where else do I look?

I bet they will have some at Affair of the Heart (a huge craft show here in OKC)! Can't wait for that.

Furniture! It doesn't necessarily need to be leather, but we definitely want a dark brown couch, love seat, and recliner. We have been married long enough to finally buy our own furniture, right?

A sofa table. Who knows what color or shape.... we just need one. Our new house is so open we don't want people just staring at the back of our couch. I plan on putting our digital picture frame on it. (my Christmas present from last year that's still in the box) I like little decorative chairs with weird fabric. I like this print, but would also be open to some polka dots or stripes :)

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That is all for now. I'm sure I will think of something else in about 3 minutes. ha.

Anybody out there have any questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions? I don't hate comments :)