A Quaint Housewarming

We picked the date of our housewarming based on two factors: our moving day and our first house guest. Troy's cousin has been staying with us for the first week, seeing friends and helping us around the house. Aside from the late night Magic games, everything has found its place. 

The housewarming was a potluck/banana split party, also to celebrate my upcoming 28th birthday. We went from worried about too many people, to not enough food, to having way too much food and just a small group of 8. Perfect balance. 

A quick tip: If you don't have banana split boats, use aluminum mini-loaf pans. They're the right size, and disposable. 

Much prettier than my banana split.
Source: www.completelydelicious.com.

I've never had a housewarming, or even a party based around me/us since I was 8. Presents are never mandatory, but these gifts I was excited to open. We received a gift card for Crate&Barrel, which I used on new wine glasses and an extra set of silverware. We also got a new whiskey decanter and serving dishes, something we are tragically low in. We also received our very own hookah for the house. Don't get all judgmental. It looks like it's out of Arabian Nights, and it's only a once in awhile thing.

Mostly from Crate&Barrel. Perfect fit in the new kitchen.

First breakfast in our nook, with our new table from Craiglist.

The final carpet installation is today, almost two weeks after move-in. The cabinet fronts are supposed to be installed today, too. I'll finally get to post pictures of a semi-furnished house. 

Design Inspiration

I admit to being an early Pinterest adopter. Some of the pins on my home design board have been in my mind for YEARS. 

So when it came to making this house our own, these were my main source of inspiration.
The photos on the left are my favorite pins. The ones on the right are our place. 

Grey office with Sherwin Williams "Software".
There isn't any overhead light in the office, so it's hard to capture the color.

Dark blue and white dining room. 

Guest room #2 in Sherwin Williams "Resonant Blue".

The very popular "Palladian Blue" from Benjamin Moore, Guest Room #3.

Our kitchen cabinet fronts are 2-3 weeks delayed.
Hope our party guests enjoy seeing all our plates...

We originally chose a sample from Martha Stewart Living. Since it was out of our budget,  our contract found some close samples. The first floor will be done on Monday. Second floor next Monday. 

Final coat on the Radish accent wall. It's a nice cranberry color, and perfect.

In case you're feeling curious, you can check out my board on

Pinterest: Our Little Corner of the World.

Instant Facelift

We put in another day of landscaping to kick off the last week before the move. According to our new neighbor Deb, the previous owners didn't do any yard work. 

I'm predicting it will take another solid weekend to get the yard in shape. That includes: 

tilling a side patch that is the current home to five dead woody bushes, 

raking up a ton of matted pine needle straw, 

ripping out an obscene amount of overgrown ivy (below), 

and trying to resuscitate 6 hydrangea bushes and 7 knockout rose bushes.

We are a few preview pictures of the renovations so far:

I attacked the ivy much more frantically than Troy. 

Guest bathroom.
The contractors are putting in a pocket door, which requires taking apart the actual wall.

My view from the office floor.
The hallway walls need a double coat of Sherwin Williams "Snowbound".
The trim and all the wainscoting was done in oil paint, so they will take an extra day of priming and painting.

The cabinet boxes, kitchen and backsplash all whitewashed.
Goodbye to the muddy pumpkin walls.

My accent wall in it's first coat of Sherwin Williams "Radish". It's not pink, don't hate.

Dining Room in Sherwin Williams "Blueblood".
One more coat so it's not so Captain America.

The worst thing we found in our closet so far: a seashell hat box that my mother gave me last year. On it's way to Goodwill as we speak.

Sunday Monday Funday

Here is a quick recap of our second (and probably the most exhausting) weekend as a homeowner:

View from the dining room floor

617 miles driving a U-Haul from Springfield, VA to Roswell, GA
83 degrees in our house before turning on the AC
14 boxes purchased at Home Depot
11 hours in said U-Haul
11 paint colors from Sherwin-Williams
10 mosquito bites before buying heavy-duty OFF
4 bags of lawn clippings from a lawn that hadn't been mowed for weeks
3 instances of termite damage (but luckily no termites)
2 slurpees
2 awesome guys working on our place, Fidel and Jesus
1.5 bedroom furniture sets nearing 100 years old
1 brand new lawn mower on our brand new Sears card
1 brand new weed whacker/trimmer that won't start
1 Georgia Peach Pass placed in a very weird spot on the windshield





We had a check-in with our contractor and our painter yesterday, in addition to tackling our yard. We can't start doing projects in the house, so we'll start with the yard. We didn't want to be the only house on the block with 5+ inch tall grass. 

I did a half lap around the property and the mower bag was already full. We resorted to raking the clippings instead of constantly clogging the mower engine. I relish the fact that my lawn will never again be as hard to mow as it was yesterday.

We also raked up what seemed like years of dead magnolia leaves, and identified 4 types of ivy growing on our house. I found myself midnight googling what plants will grow better since our house faces northwest. Troy also just texted that we need to plant Tall Fescue grass in our shady, completely-mulched backyard, after a morning of research. 

"Babe, I'm not into bright colors, so that's all you."

The contractors are finished with roof and deck repairs, and put in a new back door yesterday. Wednesday they will put in the new back garage door, and a pocket door for the guest bathroom. 

Thursday, we will pick carpet and glass samples to be installed next week. We have a friend who's family runs a paint company, and we've brought them in to do our interior. That includes all rooms and hallways, trim and doors. 

Move-in day is Tuesday, August 20th.