Little By Little- House Progress

I'm closing in on the end of the school year and I couldn't be more excited! We spent this weekend in Grand Haven, one of my favorite places on the planet, and then out on a friend's boat yesterday. It's been a lovely weekend!

I'm looking forward to being home this summer to hang out with my favorite little munchkin and also to getting our house organized and decorated!

We haven't done tons lately and to be honest, I don't know that we will do any huge projects in this home since it probably will not be our "forever home".

But just painting and doing little things here and there has made a world of difference. We've put a little work into the dining room and I think it's the first room in the house that we can call finished.

We had the wallpaper taken down, painted, put up curtains and a little art and called it a day. Gil also took down the terrible light fixture and switched it out with one I love!

Here are some photos from when the previous owner was still occupying the house:

Here are photos of the dining room in its current state:

The pictures are a bit dark, but the wall color is navy and I love it with the touches of red. There are also splashes of navy in the adjoining rooms. Can't wait to work on some more projects in the coming months!

Time is Flying By!

I thought I would be updating pregnancy related things on here all the time. But the truth is, once the school year starts, I don't end up doing much of anything else. On the weekends, all I want to do is veg out! It is also sports-a-mania in our house once fall hits. We been watching plenty of Tigers and going to all the Lions home games.

Playoff Game

Comerica Park

I am already 21 weeks preg and feeling good! I find myself getting bump-ier by the day! I was so ambitious with working out at the beginning and now I've kind of fallen off the wagon a bit. I move so much during the school day that I don't feel too bad about it though. At our 20 week appointment last week, we got to see our little baby. Everything looks good and healthy!! So thankful!!! We also found out that our little one is a...BOY! That was a great moment and has been gradually sinking in.

11 Weeks

21 Weeks

We have been busy busy searching for a new house. We put in an offer on a house over the summer and were outbid. Happily, I think we finally found a new house and will hopefully be moving by the beginning of December. It's an older colonial and needs some updating, but has the space we were looking for! The housing market has been a little crazy here, so I won't believe we bought a new house until the keys are in my hands! Now on to the huge project of getting our current house sold!

Wish us luck...things might be crazy for the next couple of months!

Little By Little...

When we moved in, it was hard to know what to do with this room. The dimensions were a bit awkward.

Since then, we've slowly been adding things. This picture was taken at night, so it's a bit dark. Not to mention our camera isn't great.

It is definitely not done, but it's come a long way. We need a mirror for over the fireplace and we need artwork on the walls. We also need some colorful pillows to make the room pop.

Now I can't wait for fires in the fireplace this winter!!

Some Details Around the House...

Here are a few updates from around the house. We are finally starting to get settled into the house and I'm getting excited again to decorate. Here's what the house is looking like these days...

Gil's sister was doing a study abroad in Ecuador and brought this back for our 1st anniversary. It fits perfectly in the hallway on the main floor.


The mantle is looking very bare right now. We bought a mirror from IKEA, but didn't measure first and it was too tall. Here are the accent chairs that we bought. We are in desperate need of an area rug. Maybe in chocolate brown? Not sure yet.


Here's the couch that we bought from Art Van. We need some artwork on that bare wall. I kind of like this from Pottery Barn for that wall.


This is a cute coat rack that I found at Garden Ridge in Shelby Township. I need a lighting solution for the bottom of the stairs. Notice how dark it is? There's a light at the top of the stairs, but not the bottom. It bothers me.


This is a tile that I love that we got from Gil's aunt for our wedding. It's hanging in the kitchen. "A toast to the night the magic began..."

The basement has furniture...Gasp! As you can see, I was watching "A Baby Story" on TLC. Since we've gotten cable, all I watch is TLC. Mostly "Say Yes to the Dress", which Gil claims he simply can't understand because I already bought my wedding dress. What can I say, it's just fun to watch.

Ignore the clutter on the bar, please! I bought these cute vases and flowers at, can you guess?, Ikea. I think it would be cute to paint the cutouts behind the vases. Any color ideas?


I love the bright yellow of these mums that we picked up this weekend. We still need a welcome mat. I bought one that was really cute this summer, but the big porch dwarfed it. It's now residing under the side door. We still need to find a cute, BIG mat for the front.

So there you have it, we have more furniture, we have some knick knacks. Give me aother couple months and we should be all set! I'm already getting excited to decorate for Christmas!!

Don't Judge Me As a Homeowner!

Can someone tell me if this is normal?? Our hostas look awful. Is this just how they look when it gets cold? Are they dead for all time?
Yuck, I do not want these in my front yard!

Look at the pretty colors on this little tree (Japanese Maple?)...I love all the colors of fall.

I can't wait til all the trees around us start changing colors! The weather today was also awesome. 72 degrees...perfect!

And just as a side note...reason #900 why I love my husband: He has declared it "his job" to take out the trash on Tuesdays, no matter how late he gets home from work. I'm soooo okay with that rule!!!

For the Record...

We bought the couch last weekend and the IKEA chairs today. We also bought a bed from IKEA for the guest bedroom (which we need to clean out before we can put anything in there). In order to get it home, we put it on the roof of the SUV and we definitely almost lost it on the highway. My heart stopped for a moment...then we decided to take a slower way home!!!

Today was super fun. We started the morning by meeting friends at Angelo's in Ann Arbor for a delicious breakfast. Then we went to the U of M football game (great seats)! We hit up IKEA on the way home and now I'm busy typing this while Gil puts furniture together. :)

I Need Decor...

Now that the basement is done!!! we need to finish the rest of the house. Once we move the basement furniture from the upstairs living room back down to the basement, we will have ourselves one empty room. We've been looking at couches for a while and may have found one. What do you think about this one in "sand" from Artvan?

Artvan.com
We also like this chair from IKEA...we were thinking of getting two, one for either side of the fireplace. But I don't know if I'm sold on the pattern yet.
Ikea.com

Then what kind of rug to get? I'm having trouble piecing patterns and colors together in a way that won't look hideous. I think I need a home decorating show to come take over my house and do it for me.

I've gotten some ideas about where to find nice decor for cheap. If you have a favorite home decor store, post a comment so that I can make my house look fabulous!!

Alright, You've Been Patient Enough...

So I'm hesitant to say this, but I think our basement is FINISHED. The last contractor finished up yesterday. Now I think the only things left are rehanging the towel rack in the bathroom and putting furniture and "stuff" back downstairs. Check out the life, death and rebirth of our basement below...

Basement as we bought it:



Basement 2 Weeks into Home Ownership:


And finally... The basement as it currently resides. Yes, we will one day add furniture and decor:

So glad that they were able to match the tile!

Now, onto the laundry room. All you need to know is that the tile did not match the basement, nor was it all the same tile. The previous owner had thrown in some random color variation for fun. There were also random pipes jutting out of the bathroom wall under the utility sink. We just wouldn't stand for that!

The tile in the laundry room is now a smaller cut of the same tile used in the main room in the basement. Cohesive, I like that.

Now, my favorite part of all. The bathroom.
Original Bathroom:


Bathroom 2 Weeks into Home Ownership:

We can't forget about that buried trash can...So strange.

Drum Roll Please...
New Bathroom:

I'm a big fan of the new tile. What do you think?


Now onto buying new furniture for the living room upstairs and decor (yes!!!) and of course, unpacking all the junk in the guest room.

It is so nice to have a functioning basement again!!!!