4 Months Later...

After reviewing some of my posts, I realized that I haven't blogged much about our house. It's been almost 4 months since we closed on our little love shack--but due to the sparse furniture, it still looks like we just moved in! The spare bedroom aka "The J-Money Shrine" is completely done with the exception of hanging Justin's GIANT poster from his Senior season playing at K-State. Considering we have plaster walls, I'm kinda scared to hang it...I know that with the right "equipment" it won't fall but I just don't have a good feeling about the whole thing! The bathroom is pretty much done. It's been repainted, the mallard duck border was replaced with a custom stripe border (I like to call it that since I had to cut rolls of wallpaper into a border!) and I found a super awesome retro-inspired clock to keep me on time in the mornings...I would LOVE to find some really neat black vintage figurines to put inside the nook of the built-in cabinets...but I'm really particular about my accessories. I may have to set aside an "eBay Day" and scour the world for just the right item. Our bedroom...well, it has curtains hung!!! There is nothing else on the walls...and it'll probably be that way for a while. At some point, we want to replace our old tube TV with a flat-screen that has a built-in DVD player...there's this random square hole in the wall that was framed out with crown moulding and an electrical outlet--perfect place for the tv! Eventually we'll get some wall art hung but all we really do is sleep in there so I'm not too concerned about what's on the wall... So far, the dining room has been my favorite project!!! I wanted a dining set that had an old, antique feeling without being too antique--if that makes sense--but could be modernized as well. Thank you, Craigslist, for hooking me up with a Thomasville set that is at least 60 years old, is made of either cherry or mahogany and is in perfect condition...all for $100. That's right!!!! I've had several people say they bet it's worth at least $1,000 but I absolutely love it and wouldn't trade it for anything. A few weeks later, I found a cherry china cabinet on none other than Craigslist for $65 ...Then I found a more contemporary area rug that's the perfect compliment on Overstock.com for $150. Let me tell you, I was on lucky streak! We have yet to replace the black-and-gold 1980s style ceiling fan with a pendant fixture, but we'll get there :-) Then there's the living room...it seems so large and spacious. Probably b/c we don't have any furniture in there! We hung the TV above the fireplace so all the components are in a huge tv stand on the floor...eventually we'll get the wires professionally concealed and I have a crazy idea for component storage. But I'm not spilling the beans until we know if it's even possible! We finally ordered our couch this week...we are getting a custom piece so it won't be here until sometime in September. However, I was able to bring home the arm chair & matching ottoman. Justin's been out of town for work and thinks we'll pick it up tomorrow so he'll be super surprised to see it when he gets home tonight :-) Finally, we have the kitchen...and it was pretty much good-to-go from the very beginning! Other than replacing the stove that died and replacing it with one that matched the other appliances, I made some curtains out of tea towels and fabric from JoAnn's. With my 40% off coupons, the cost was pretty much nothing! This past weekend, I did some landscaping in one of our flowerbeds. I pretty much bought all the So Sweet hostas that Hort Services had so I will go buy more for the other flowerbed after they have a chance to restock. I still want to paint the floor of our front porch...I have just the right color in mind--but have I even gone to the paint store to see if I can get exterior paint in that color???? By the end of the week, we should have our fence plans finalized and it will be going up by the start of August...things are slowly coming together but it all takes TIME, ENERGY AND MONEY!