Improving the Home

I've gained some new readers in the passed year so I'm going to recap just a bit on our house.  BJ and I were able to sell my house last Summer and have a house built.  If you've never gone through the process, it's not as easy as it seems.  There are 1,000 choices to make before they even break ground.  Builders also make their money off of upgrades and options.  We were pretty smart about what we chose to upgrade, I think.  There are some things that we wished we had known because we would have done them differently but how much can you know before you live in a house?  And not only that, but the house we came from was so...ordinary, that everything we picked was like a luxury to us.  Anyway, certain things were not upgraded because we knew we could do it cheaper (and probably better) on our own or with the help of BJ's contractors from work.  How much work could there be in a new home you may ask?  See this post to get an idea of our plans.

We bought our hardware for our cabinets months ago.  BJ finally installed everything about a month ago.  We had our kitchen floor and backsplash installed in June.  I have been waiting since then for BJ to put the shoe molding up.  He finally brought some home Thursday.  We actually stained and painted all of it yesterday!  I will have a complete kitchen by this weekend (hopefully!).  I can't tell you how excited I am.  I will be able to take pictures and show all of you the transformation from the beginning.  I have been promising pictures for a very long time but I refused to post any until it was done.  There will be painting and more decorating along the way, but once the shoe molding gets put up, it's done for the foreseeable future in my opinion.

As we were walking through Lowe's, we casually strolled down the curtain aisle.  I need some sheer curtains for the office.  Of course, they didn't have any that were long enough.  However, we did stumble upon some red and black curtains that we grabbed for the Little Guy's room.  AND, we even put them up yesterday!  I ironed them and everything.  Aren't you proud of us?  I sure am.  It was a feat to buy them and put them up all in the same weekend.  Go us!

We still have a quite a few projects to complete but we are on our way.  I'm hoping to have my wood floors installed by Christmas but I'm not holding my breath.  Neither BJ nor I are getting a bonus this holiday season so the floors will probably wait until the Spring.  I absolutely hate our carpet.  It's so cheap and such low quality.  I can't believe they actually put it in people's brand new homes.  We haven't even lived there a year yet and we don't wear our shoes on the carpet and it's already smooshed down and looks like we've lived there 5 years.  The only time it looks decent is when I first vacuum it.  It will be fine until it can be replaced.  That is the only thing that keeps me sane about it...it will be replaced and soon.

We went looking for a pre-lit Christmas tree Saturday.  We looked at 3 places and finally found one that we liked.  It was the right height, width and price.  It only comes in clear lights.  Drats.  I like multi-colored lights on my tree.  So it's back to the drawing board.  I know it may seem crazy to be looking for a tree right now, but we only have until Thanksgiving weekend to find one.  The house gets decorated over the long weekend.  And you know what?  I'm really looking forward to it.  I was in a major funk last year but I'm ready to make my house pretty.  We bought a few things and have an idea of more things we'd like to get so we are on a bit of a roll right now.  I even made my first QVC purchase of the season last night!  I can't wait for it to come in the mail.  It's a wired strand of lights and it will have many uses...I bought 2 and I'm hoping that's enough.  :-)  Bring on the Christmas cheer!