It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!! Before we head off to be with our family, here's a little peek at some of our Christmas decorations around the house.

Our first Christmas tree in the house

We finally have a mantle to decorate!

Nativity from Chris' grandparents

So cozy! Now we just need to use that fireplace

We found these stocking holders at an antique store down the road

It wouldn't be Christmas without the ceramic tree!!

Living room finally looks lived in

We've been working hard at making the house into a home. And while this post mainly focuses on the things we've done to the main living room, we've also touched a few other areas.

A few weeks ago we spent a day doing yard work. The yard was full of leaves (and it's even worse now!) and we decided that some of the front bushes needed to be trimmed up so you could actually see our front stoop from the street. They were overgrown and didn't make for very good curb appeal. The yard is far from where we want it but just these few small changes made a big difference. At least to us.

So overgrown and out of control

Taking a break from digging up dead bushes

Much better.

Now on to the living room. The most change has happened in this room in the past few weeks. The first thing that we did was paint the tv stand. We originally bought it from an antique store down the street and knew that eventually it was going to evolve. It had a big drawer on the top and a cabinet on the bottom and was a chocolate brown color with this old timey travel paper modpodged on the top. Not the best look but good bones. First step to making it a good tv stand was to take out the drawer and turn it into a shelf. We drilled a hole in the back for cables to go through and got a piece of MDF cut to size at Home Depot. Next was picking a color. After tossing out a couple ideas, we landed on going with a turquoise color. We picked up a couple color swatches and taped some options to the stand to see what color worked best. The winner: Blue Jewel by Behr. The next weekend I got to work on the transformation. The hardest and longest part was actually taking off the stupid modpodged paper from the top. Two coats later and some new hardware and we were done!

And for comparison sake

Next up, an area rug. The room felt more like a space that we just hung out in rather than an actual room. But with an area rug in there we knew it'd feel more homey and warm - it would definitely become a room. We'd be on the hunt for one at a reasonable price but we needed an 8x10 and knew that finding a good quality rug for until $300 wasn't going to be easy. Then I stumbled on RugsUSA website and saw that they were running a 65% off sale on select rugs. I knew exactly the color and style that I wanted but finding it was difficult. It seemed like every rug I clicked on that fit the criteria was sold out of the size we needed. Go figure. And then I saw it - it was perfect - and less than $200!! It took about 2 weeks go to be delivered but when we finally got it down, we were in love. It was exactly what we wanted and instantly transformed the room

Two other minor updates were putting up different curtains and finally getting something hung on the wall above the couch. We knew we needed some color and landed on a picture I took of the Colosseum during our trip to Italy. Since the wall is big, we had it printed as a poster, 24x36 in size and got an antiquey looking frame. It is just what that wall needed.

Ignore the blurriness

Here's what the living rooms looks like now with all these updates:

Oh, and that bench. We love it. Scored it at a salvage store in Chattanooga on our way up to Nashville for a wedding. It lives under the bay window for now, but eventually it will move to the foot of our bed.

One last update. We hung some pictures down the hallway. Back in early October, we bought a calendar that had really need watercolor paintings of cities and places in the US. We bought it with the intention of framing some of them and that's just what we did. We picked out 4 and hung them down the hallway and it looks awesome.

It's amazing what small changes like these can do. The house is slowing progressing and starting to feel much more like our home. We have some other ideas for the living room, especially for the spaces next to the tv and behind the couch (built-ins anyone?) but for now, we are happy with how far the house has come in just a short amount of time. Our next big project will be painting the two spare bedrooms. We finally picked a color and bought the paint, so now we just have to find the time to actually do the painting. I think that might be a Christmas break project.

Lazy Gray by Sherwin-Williams

While we're waiting to find time to paint, we're on the hunt for a new dining room table. We actually found the most perfect set over the weekend at a furniture outlet, but of course it was sold and they didn't have any more in stock. I also found a great set on Craigslist but somehow the seller didn't put any contact info in the listing so I have no way of getting in touch. I stalk the listing multiple times a day with the hope that they've updated it, but so far, no luck. 

Show me the wood

Our first major house project is in the books! It definitely took longer than expected but we finally have hardwood floors. We knew almost from the beginning that we wanted to tear out the ugly 70s carpet and put down wood - we just didn't know when it would happen. At first we thought we could pull it together right after closing but before we moved in but then we quickly realized that we didn't have enough time. So we wrote it off as a project we'd get done in at some point during our first year in the house. One month later, we can't stand the carpet anymore.

First thing we do - start pricing out floors. We head to Home Depot, Lumber Liquidators and Lowes to see what kinda of prices we're looking at. Right off the bat we knew we were probably going to have to go with laminate flooring since that was much more in our price range. Next on our list was actually picking the floor we wanted to go with. We settled on a Pergo. Last thing to do was figure out who was going to install it for us. We got 3 different quotes and ended up using the guy that was referred to me by 2 people in the office.

On a whim, I asked him to send me a quote for hardwood floors in addition to the quote for the laminate install. I'm glad I asked because in the end, we were able to get prefinished hardwood floors for only $0.10 more per square foot than what the Pergo was going to cost. Score! The whole thing was slated to take 2 days to complete....which turned into 5 (4 days of work). It was chaotic and a mess but the end result looks awesome.

Now we're on the hunt for area rugs. We already found a navy and white chevron pattern rug from HomeGoods for the living room. But we still have the family room and dining rooms left. Rugs and decorating - that's next on the list for us!

Happy Fall Ya'll

This past weekend was quite busy! But it was an awesome way to start the fall. It started with a Braves game. They had just clinched the National League East title and were looking to maintain the top stop so they could secure home field advantage in the playoffs. Chris was offered tickets to the Wednesday night game against the Brewers and of course we couldn't say no...the seats were in the 2nd row! 

It's quite a different experience seeing a game this up close and personal. Definitely a must whenever the opportunity comes up!

Next up, Friday night football under the lights. I'm sure Chris will talk more about this football season, but this week, the Walton Raiders were away as they took on the Cherokee Warriors. It was a great game (well, for us Raider fans) as Walton went on to win 38-14, making that their 3rd win in a row.

The follow day we decided to make a trek up to North Georgia and go hiking and apple picking with our friends Joanna and Pat. It was a gorgeous, sunny fall day and perfect for the day's activities. We decided to go to BJ Reece's Orchard where we picked our own apples, bought a fried pie and some homemade preserves.

After we were thoroughly stuffed on apples, we drove about 20 minutes down the road to Amicalola Falls State Park to do some hiking. Chris and I have been talking about going up there since the spring and sine we were so close to it, we knew we had to take advantage and make the extra drive. It was beautiful!

It started off as a fairly easy hike that follows the river and eventually brings you to a viewing bridge of the falls.

If you plan to hike to the top of the falls, it isn't so much of a hike as a climb. You have to walk up 450 stairs. Talk about exhausting! But the view is well worth is!

For those who don't know, Amicalola Falls is where the Southern Terminus approach trail for the Appalachian Trail begins. It's an 8.5 mile hike to Springer Mountain where the App Trail begins. Hiking the approach trail is on our list to do in the spring. I've heard it's a pretty strenuous hike, but if we can do Half Dome, I think we can do the approach trail!

Rounding out the weekend, was the Falcons/Patriots game. Of course we had to go! Thanks to our friends Matt and Amanda we scored some tickets and had a grand ol' time watching the Patriots pull out a win (though they almost scared us at the end!). It was a fun day spent with all our southern Pats fans.

Now, we can finally rest! Although, not for long since we have a huge house project starting in a couple days!

 

We bought a house!

Almost exactly one month ago, we bought a house. It's still a crazy concept to us - there are many night that we're sitting around and one of us says to the other "holy crap, we own this!" But let's go back and talk about how we got here.

We knew we wanted to buy a house and we knew that we should start looking during the summer. We weren't sure how long it would take us to find our house but we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time before our lease was up in January '14. Our realtor took us to a few houses but none of them were what we were looking for, they were either too far from where we wanted to be, not the kind of neighborhood we were looking for or just in general not the house for us. Before even looking at our house, we actually put in an offer on another place. Thank goodness we didn't get it!

Fast forward to July 10, our 3 year anniversary. Chris arranged to see 2 houses before we went out to dinner. They were actually on the same street! The houses had similar footprints, but the 2nd house we looked at felt right. It was just what we were looking for: right part of town, great neighborhood, flat back yard and great flow. It didn't need a ton of work but there were definitely opportunities for upgrades and putting our stamp on it. We knew - this was the house. Before heading off to dinner, we told our realtor that we wanted to put in an offer. The next night we were at a Braves game and signed the counteroffer...we were officially under contract!!

Next up, the inspection. Chris was the most nervous about this. The inspection came back with no major issues and we both finally breathed. I think we were holding our breath from the moment we went under contract. We loved this house and didn't want anything to cause it to not be ours. The entire house buying process went so incredibly smooth. I know it's because we were working with some great people who made everything so easy for us. 4 1/2 weeks after we went under contract, we were closing on our very first house.

It's crazy to think that we've only been in the house for 3 weeks - it feels both longer and shorter than that. But it's the best feeling to come home every night and be able to say: This is ours.

~ Lauren