Our First House : Home Tour

Oh look, a house tour...a year and a half later! But seriously, these pictures are better than any I could have taken, so we're rolling with it. 

It's very surreal seeing these pictures. It still hasn't hit me yet that we are moving, so seeing these is just really weird. It's also the cleanest the house has EVER been. Anyone who has been to it and knows me can vouch for that. I don't think the duvet on our bed has actually ever been ON the bed before this week. If this isn't motivation to always keep a clean house, I don't know what is!

So here we go, our first home! (Picture overload...)

-The front of the home-

-First of two spare bedrooms downstairs, with doors to the "backyard"-

-Jack-n-Jill bathroom downstairs-

-The second of the two guest bedrooms downstairs-

-Second floor landing-

-Living room with doors to lead out to balcony-

-Living room, view of the rock wall-

-View from the living room into the kitchen area, with stairs leading to the third floor-

-Kitchen, from the dining room-

-Kitchen, view from the sink-

-Kitchen, with view into dining room-

-Dining room with view into kitchen-

 -Dining room, with coffee station to the right (they took the coffee maker and tray off!-

-View of dining room and kitchen-

-Half bath on second floor-

-Master bedroom-

-Master bathroom-

-Bonus room/office/craft room-

-Reading nook. My little slice of heaven!-

-"Backyard"

-We are going to miss it!-

Phew! Lots of pictures. Not pictured is the laundry room, which is between the master and the office on the third floor. When we moved in, the office was the media room, hence the stage. We planned to use it as a nursery if that time came. 

It was the perfect first house for us - I will seriously miss it. 

We're moving to Mexico!

Juuuuust kidding. But seriously, close enough. Want to see how close?

See how close Brownsville is to Matamoros? As in, Matamoros, MEXICO? Yea. Super close. Super fun! (Sarcasm font needed.)

Let me fill you in. A has been working down there for the past 5 months. They have, surprisingly, gone by super fast, but that might be because his company pays for him to come back once a month for a weekend...with a few visits paid for by us sprinkled in. Well...two weeks ago we got his new assignment contract and they changed the terms to a relocation one. We are getting a lump sum to relocate to Brownsville. (MEXICO) It's slated right now to finish up in May of 2016. If I stayed in Houston, that would be us paying for every trip home for an entire year and a half. Aka - spending all and then some of his bonus and the extra bump in pay he's getting to be down there. And I wouldn't say these past 5 months have been easy, so I'm not sure I could handle another year and a half of it! 

We found out about the relocation on January 8th, and decided for sure that I would move down there  on the 14th. I gave notice at my job on the 15th (my new-ish job! I moved on and have been doing Social Media/Marketing for a local antique store. So fun!) and we decided on the 16th to sell our house. (Sidenote - I never did a house tour when we moved in, but you're in luck! Fancy realtor pictures mean I can finally do one. As we are moving! Check back in Thursday.) I met with the realtors on the 21st, and they were back again today to do a final walk through and take the fancy pictures. It goes on the market the 29th, we have an open house on the 31st, and then we move everything out on February 2nd and drive it all to our new (rented) house in Brownsville.

I am exhausted just typing all of that. 

This was a really tough decision for us to make - I went back and forth for a few days over staying here and "toughing it out" or moving down there. And then do we sell or lease the house? In the end we made the decision that was right for us and our marriage, and I know some people aren't happy about it, but it really is the best thing for us. Do you know how hard it is to think about starting a family when your husband lives six hours away?! HARD! My entire family is in Houston, I have three perfect nephews in Houston, we have an amazing house in Houston...but my husband is in Brownsville so that's where I have to be. 

And as of February 2nd...I will no longer be employed. For the first time since 2008. I will have more than just a week off once a year (who can take all three weeks of their vacation when you are so stressed out being away??) for the first time since 2010. I'm incredibly nervous about this aspect, but we're not going into it blindly. We won't lose money, even while we still own the house, and it'll be a lot easier once we sell. I plan on looking for jobs as soon as we move and get settled, but Brownsville is a totally different job market than Houston. Not to mention...I'm no where near bilingual. It's pretty much a requirement down there. I'm looking into (finally) going through alternative certification and teaching, and I am overly excited about that, but trying not to be because nothing is set in stone. 

Overall, I'm really just happy to be back with my husband full time. I know there are many, many people who have it worse than this, but man, it's still been pretty rough! 

(It's much easier to blog when you don't have a job. Aka, why I am back. And I have no friends in Brownsville. MEXICO.)

weekending means decorating

Look at me, I'm blogging! Every day when A gets home, it's all "why no post today??" NOT TODAY!

This weekend started off with a bang when the one and only Ashley came to shop! 

We picked out our re-do wedding dresses. What's a re-do wedding? It's a wedding that our blogger besties can come to. Don't worry, we're marrying the same guys. 

Ashley and I found the PERFECT gift for Alexa, fingers crossed that it arrives on either Thursday or Friday so she can have it in time for her birthday weekend! I'd check out her post after it does, it's a pretty amazing gift. 

We didn't have much luck in the clothing portion of shopping. Zara was having a massive sale, but everything was so unorganized and messy and we had to hightail it out of there in fear of being eaten by clothes. Ok, maybe it wasn't THAT bad, but still, nothing found and that's just sad. 

After dinner and drinks at Beaver's (yum!) we came home to watch some DM2. Too bad we fell asleep after 20 minutes. Oldies gotta sleep!

fuel for the longest two shopping days ever. tastes like tang!

Saturday morning A and I hit the shops and never looked back. We spent way too much money, but we officially have NO furniture left to buy! Here's a sneak peek at the house. We still have some things left to do/hang before I do the full reveal post. 

The king-sized guest room. The nightstands were found at an antique store on 19th in the Heights. Annie Sloan chalk paint for the WIN! And I found the lamps at Goodwill - 2 for $14 total. I need new lampshades, but they had the same details as the bed, how could I pass that up??

New side table in the living room. The pillows to the left are being put in storage at some point. 

I interrupt this post to show you the flowers that A came home with!

Hallway between the two downstairs guest rooms. Paint supplies are now in the garage, don't worry. Off to Marshall's today to find more goodies to fill the cart with!

Finally got a full-length mirror! Placing TBD, but I love it. I do feel like a super tall amazing model when standing in front of it. Liar.

Full-sized guest room. The beach room!

Gallery style-ish wall in the bedroom. 

 Not yet completed living room. We need to finish the media console, but we keep running out of time!

sneaky peeky

Fun story: One time I tweeted a picture of my save the dates and I put "sneak peak!" and was tweeted back by an account whose only goal was to reply to people who made that same mistake. I couldn't stop laughing for about an hour. Maybe you had to be there...

So, you wanna see my house, do ya? All you're getting today is a sneak peek. Things are not ready/unpacked/assembled, and by the rate I'm going, you'll get your full blog post in about a year. HA. I'm going to Round Top in September, so it's likely it won't FULLY be completed until then, but A would kill me if I took until then to get everything else put together. In reality, we only have 4 boxes left to unpack, but it's the ughhhhh stuff. 

Back to the interesting things, the pictures!

Easily my favorite part of the house, so far. And the couch is a PERFECT fit. By that, I mean there's not a centimeter to spare. Did I measure that? NOPE. Lucky ol' me!

I am kind of obsessed with this cabinet. It's ready for a party! I do plan on changing the hardware, it's too modern for my liking. And eventually we are looking into having the cabinets re-finished into an antique white. 

Helloooooo lover.

Upstairs is the third bedroom (to be my office and in the FAR future the nursery), the laundry room and the master suite. Can I just say how amazing it is to have the washer and dryer two feet away from your bedroom? IT'S AMAZING. Downstairs is the guest area - the first and second bedroom with a jack and jill bathroom. And then a linen closet and the front door and door to the garage. And the plantation shutters are on EVERY window. Swoooooon.

A complete work in progress, but this weekend we will be mounting the TV and also buying another identical shelving unit to place on the other side. I'll be painting them a bright color and buying some tall things to go on top. This thing looked tall in our old place!!

I should have taken these photos during the day so you could see how bright everything is, but I'll do that in the full reveal post. Now come visit!

if I'm being honest...

Soooo I lied. Said I was going to post Wedding Wednesday yesterday and, obviously, I did not.

I was going to write it on Tuesday night, but I went over to my best friend's house and helped her mom with the formatting to address her wedding invitations. We actually had a lot of fun doing that and I didn't get home until 9:30. Then I wanted to spend time with Andre'...so I did. And like I said Monday - it was kinda nice being away from the computer. I spend 8-5 glued to my screens, so when 5:01 rolls around...I want off. And I am sure as hell not going to wake up early to blog. Sorry, but I like my sleep. And when you work from home, one of the perks is having an alarm that goes off at 7:50am.

But then, as nice as it is to be away from it all - I miss it. I started this to have a creative outlet. And I can tell when I'm away - I'm more stressed out in those days. Because I need that outlet. I'm an extremely creative person, so when I don't let that out at least once during the day, I think I just freak out and get more stressed. Whether it be blogging, sewing, crafting or building furniture...I need to let it out in some form each day.

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Now that I've got that off my chest, let's move on. Truthfully, I probably would have time to blog if I didn't spend hours upon HOURS on Pinterest every day. I think I doubled my pins this week alone - and all in the Home Décor category.

Maybe I am biting off a big chunk and maybe these things will never get done...but I keep telling myself: "Kaitlyn, if you make these things, you can blog about them. So make them so you can blog every day of the week." Riveting, I know.

Anyways, today I'm sharing the things I want to make/do. Tomorrow I am going to the hardware store to buy a circular saw. Let's hope I remember my skills from the mission trips I went on! Though maybe I wouldn't mind if I chopped off my left arm on accident. That thing kept me up ALL night. I probably got two hours of sleep. COOL.

The now media room will be my office until it will be the nursery (many many moons from now), so I need to make sure that the built-ins I do work for both. Enter this built in bookshelf I will be creating.

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My plans for this are to put it along the back wall in the office. The end one will be on the other side, though. It will be along 3/4 of the wall, and then I'll have an accent chair with a small table to make it a reading "nook." Please tell me there are other people out there who automatically think of Boy Meets World when talking about a nook? Just me? These are actually from Ikea and it's just one tower, so I'd buy three and have those facing out with the fourth to the side and a chalk "wall" on it. This is probably the one I will start with as it only requires me to fasten it to the wall. I may add some crown molding around it to gussy it up, though.

 

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I'm not sure how I'm going to do this because we have plantation shutters on every window in the house, but ideally I would LOVE to do this on the two windows in the kitchen. Just the "cottage chic" look I am going for. But with fake flowers, because who wants to replace flowers every three days? Not I.

 

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This one you have to put on your imagination caps. It's just my inspiration. I'm going to take a 2x4 and secure it to the wall at chest level, and then put hooks along it. Then I'll take bead board and line it down the wall until it hits a storage bench that I'll be making myself. And then above the 2x4, I'm going to find an old window and hang it there to use as a wipe-off reminder station thingy. And then if there's room, I'll do small bookshelf tower things on either side. BAM - custom mudroom. But in white, not black. This will go on the wall next to the door to the garage on the first floor. I haven't talked much about the layout of the house, but it's three stories: first has the garage and then you walk into an entryway where the stairs are, a linen closet, and then a hallway leading to two bedrooms and a Jack & Jill bath. Second is living room, dining, kitchen and a half bath. Third is laundry, master bed/bath, media/office/nursery room.

 

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This one also requires your thinking caps. Got them on? Ok, good. I need a desk that is large enough to fit my double-screened work computer, our iMac and my sewing machine. They just don't make that - or ones I like, that is. The bookcases above are the 4x4 ones from Ikea that you put baskets in the cubby holes. I like that, but I also need one to hold the tower for my work computer, so I'll be making those myself so one has two cubby holes and then one opening without the middle board. (Added plus - I'll use real wood and not particle board!) So it will be two of those, one on each end facing out. Then I'll be buying 2x8s and securing them together to make the top. I plan on making 3 holes along the middle portion so all the cords can go in there. And then I'm going to stain it a deep wood color to match the "stage" in the Mediaroom/office. Voila! Custom desk for cheap. And much prettier and more functional that anything I could find online.

 

 

I have limited power tool skills - but in my head, these things seem SO easy. I know how to use a circular saw, so I should be totally fine...