Move-in Special

Above you'll see some of our midway progress before paint, floor refinishing and molding went up. 

Eleven long months ago we announced we were taking the plunge into home ownership, we found the perfect little fixer upper in May and finally got everything squared away to purchased it in late September. It's been a long and windy road and now we finally have a move in date! And it's this weekend! We spent this past (beautiful) week sanding, tiling and finishing up small projects. There is still a ton of projects left, but the upstairs is to a point that we can live in it without going crazy. We are so excited to finally enjoy all our hard work. I'm looking forward to showing everyone the before and afters, for me it will be the icing on the cake.

Budget Lighting for the Glam and Girly

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 

As I mentioned before, we are still running like maniacs trying to get this house done and um, move in. But the very exciting part is that I actually get to start buying stuff to decorate. Yay. First up is lighting fixtures since the electrician has to install them. Since renovations are never cheap or on budget (we are crazy broke right now) the internet has been my best friend when scouting cheap fixtures. Here are a few of my budget favorites! 

I'm back! House progress

Okay, it's been awhile. And it's time for some major catchup. Like the fact that our house is almost done. It's been super crazy, super exciting, and yes, super stressful. Things have been moving lighting fast, which means decisions have to be made lighting fast. Here's a quick snapshot of where we are.

Kitchen:

•  We've decided on an Ikea kitchen, it's layout and everything that goes inside it - we bought it all on Tuesday and trucked it home.
•  Kitchen tile (we decided to do a wood-looking tile and heated floors)
•  Style of backsplash (my favorite, subway tile)

Bathroom:
•  Bathroom floor tile (white hexagon, how I love thy)
•  Shower tile (subway tile, yet again)

House Walls:
If any of you are thinking about drywalling, I hope you have a lot of time and patience because while it's not extraordinarily hard, it takes forever. I'm so thankful we don't have a huge house. We ended up hanging all our drywall and doing the first and second coats of mud. Our wonderful contractor then came in (fixed what we messed up) and did a beautiful third coat. We're so happy that we won't have to texture the walls. Check out my vine of Billy taping our entryway. 

Windows: 

The basement and bedrooms got all new double paned windows! The basement windows were quite the headache to install (we had to deal with fitting them to concrete) but the bedrooms it was a breeze.

Stairwell:

I've convinced Billy that a pantry is needed. We live in a small house and storage will become increasingly needed. This however might have to wait until after we move in.

Today:
Right now I'm contemplating paint colors and light fixtures. Our budget is near depleted so I've been hunting in second hand building supply and thrift stores in the hopes I'll score big!

I plan to blog more soon. And can't wait to share pictures with everyone! 

Cabin Cozy at Mt. Rainier

This past weekend we were able to break away from the daily grind to visit Mt. Rainer. It's amazing that driving just over an hour can get you to such beautiful scenes. We did a short day trip up to Paradise on Saturday - the weather was perfect; it was so sunny, but the snow was deep. It was my first time sledding since I was a wee one, and I can't fathom why we don't do it more often. It was also so fun to reconnect with college friends that live just out of reach. We're looking forward to making it an annual (maybe bi annual!) affair.

Cupcakes and Seattle

Life has been very exciting lately. We're inching closer and closer to the finish line with our home renovation and wedding planning is in full swing. The back of our house is no longer gaping open and all of the big elements of the wedding are set - except for the cake. So, naturally we've been indulging ourselves in a taste of cake, any chance we get. Or creating cake outings. Last weekend we wandered around Seattle tasting what sweet offerings our city had to offer. Above, a set of six Cupcake Royale treats - the lemon drop was the winner by far, followed by the lavender. Yet the quest continues...