What An Improvement!

Then

Now

Nook Beautification

Since moving, I've become a regular Craigslist peruser.  I have a laundry list of things I'm looking for to outfit the new house. At the top of the list were table and chairs for the kitchen. After having little success finding a table, we took a trip to the Habitat ReStore where we found a pedestal table crying out for some TLC. A few days later, I found some chairs on Craigslist that fit perfectly with the table.

For the last month, we've lived with them as is with the plan to do something eventually.  When I finally got around to figuring out that the something meant adding a pop of color and painting the table blue, my mom had the perfect color suggestion: Aubusson Blue. Well a can of Aubusson Blue paint sat on the shelf for a couple of weeks. When my step-dad offered to paint the table one evening we jumped at the opportunity.

When my mom brought the table back to us, it was as good as new! The peonies from her garden in the vase she found at Goodwill were just icing on the cake. My mom is so skilled at creating beautiful things! I added a rug from Overstock, with a smaller one by the sink. It's worth pointing out that with little ones in the house, the only kind of rug I'll buy for the kitchen or dining room are indoor-outdoor rugs. They are normally less expensive and can be washed off with a hose.

There's also a paint sample on the wall. I went ahead last week and put up paint samples in every room. It may take us a year (or more) to get everything painted, but we've got a vision.

The Starting Place

We've been in the house for just over a month. There are no longer boxes that need to be unpacked with any urgency. In fact, the boxes that remain packed up will stay that way until we get some more storage. We'll get around to making improvements but it's always nice to note where you're coming from. Without further ado, here is a quick, unedited, unstaged, glimpse-of-real-life house tour of our Starting Place. 

The living room serves as our laundry room. Don't hate. I'm planning on moving this activity to the basement. Sometime. 

My step-dad is refinishing our dining room table (Merry Christmas to me!). 

From the kitchen, I can see into the playroom. But, I would like to be able to see more of the playroom. So in a couple of weeks, we're going to open the doorway by at least four more feet. Peter and I both thought it would be a good idea then our neighbor, who has a home identical to ours, told us it was the one thing they wish they had done right when they moved in. That was all the nudging we needed. 

Here, in her natural habitat, you can see my diaper-clad first born enjoying an enriching episode of Curious George while sister naps and I snap a few pictures of the house. We love having a playroom!

This is the office. Yes, that is wallpaper designed to look like a cork board collage. No, we will not be keeping it.
Cole likes her new room. She also like "the friends" that adorn the border. I haven't had the heart to tell her that "the friends" are coming down.

Ibbie's room is always the most presentable! Maybe because she barely has anything. 

Our guest room is a holding pen. 

Now the master bedroom room is half awesome and half pit. And since the girls have been sick the top of the dresser is serving as a medicine cabinet. 

"All Good Things. All Good Things."

We watch Frozen, often. Please imagine Olaf reporting, "All good things. All good things."

Friday morning we closed on a new house. Effectively ending the current transition chapter of our lives. It's been five months since we moved. We've settled on a church, neighborhood, and preschool. Cole is already friends with five of the children that will be in her class next year! I know my way around town enough not to need the GPS. And we have friends. Friends that offered to watch the girls when we moved. Friends that popped-in on the day we closed just to say, "Hi" and offer help. It's overwhelming and, yet, not surprising. This is exactly where we are supposed to be, even on the days my heart aches to be back in Tennessee.

Even finding our new home was a testament to the people we have met here. Many of the best houses in Newark are sold by owner or even just through word of mouth. I'd been looking diligently for months with no success when two of my friends mentioned the same white house for sale by owner in their neighborhood.  The day I drove by was the day we told the owners we hoped to work out a deal.

Our new house sits on half of an acre, has four bedrooms, a playroom, dreamy hardwood floors, and lots of wallpaper. It'll keep us busy. Nearly every surface of the home needs paint, the bathrooms need updating, and one day, in the distance future, the kitchen needs a makeover. But all of it is very livable for right now. We're so excited to make this new house a home. Hopefully, our long-term home.

I made sure to take pictures of the empty house so that we can track the progress as it becomes our home. Even if it happens at a snail's pace. We have time. And I have ideas.

Playroom

Kitchen

Living Room

Office