Chaos and Cupcakes

When I took the Christmas decorations down after New Year’s, the blah of the post-holiday comedown combined with the blah of the January skies gave me an itch to want to do some decorating around the house.  Jared hates when I get this urge.  Not only does he hate the expense of my proposed projects, but he is leery of what tasks will be required of him.  When we lived in Louisiana and bought our first home, he did a lot of painting.  First he painted our master bedroom and bathroom (which included many, many hours of stripping wallpaper), but that didn’t hold a candle to the next chore of painting the entire exterior of our home.  That made him decide that he had done enough painting to last him for many years.  So we came to an agreement that if he would tape (I am a terrible taper) than I would do all the painting in this house.  Here are the results of the fruits of my labor (and a little bit of Jared’s).  The pictures were taken at night so excuse the darkness and/or lighting glares.

Powder room (went from beige to green; added new towels, pictures, and switches):

Kids’ bathroom (changed from duck theme to penguin theme; painted an accent wall):

Living room (painted an accent wall):

Hallway (from beige to Tobacco Road):

Family room (painted the back wall; added new chairs and a rug):

Mudroom (from beige to green):

Dining room (Tobacco Road):

Bedroom (no painting done here; just added the chaise and a painting):

And here is a picture of my helpers:

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Olivia’s dresser and shelf before (I didn’t think to snap a before picture so here is one I already had):

After:

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

2 weeks from right now we will be moved into our new house! We close on Friday, March 16th, and will move in the next day. We are so excited. It seems like it has been a long time since we sold our house and have been waiting for our new house to be finished. It has only been 6 months, but 6 months with 7 people in 1300 square feet is a very long time. If we ever build a house again, I think we will just take our chances and wait to sell our home so that we don’t have to do the temporary living situation ever again! However, I am glad we sold our house quickly (in 1/2 hour!) and that everything went so smoothly. We have been so blessed in that both of the homes we have owned we have sold very quickly and seamlessly.

We went out to the house today and took pictures. I am so pleased with the job that they are doing. I love the house and can’t wait to be living in it. As far as the outside goes, they have to finish the stucco and trim, put the garage door on, pour the driveway, walkway, and patio, put up the soffits and fascia, paint the front door, and landscape. They are waiting until April, though, to do the landscaping when it warms up. It seems like a lot to me but they have been working their tails off and I have no doubt that it will be done before March 16. In the inside, they have to finish hanging some light fixtures, install the oven, put the pedestal sink and mirror in the powder room (and redo the wood floor in there- the cabinet guys put a cabinet in there, but we got a pedestal sink), change out the ceiling fans (the wrong ones were installed), touch up paint, stain the bannister, and clean it up. The only problems we have had so far have been very minor- the fans, the sink, and the wrong shelving in the toy closet. Easily rectified! Other than that, we have been so happy with the job Hamlet is doing.

We met some new neighbors Thursday night when they called the cops on us! They just closed on their house and haven’t moved in yet, but were bringing some boxes over to their house. They saw us walking through our house with flashlights and were worried that we were burglars. We are actually relieved that they did that as it is good to know that people are keeping an eye on things for us. The police were at the house in about 2 minutes. The husband works at Novell, though in a different business unit and building than Jared. They are very nice.

We will be kept very busy with lots of little outdoor projects after we move in. We are putting in an outdoor fire ring, putting in a trampoline that will be flush with the ground, having a basketball court poured in the back, planting gardens, putting in a swing set, etc. One of the best things about living in Utah is that the summers are not unbearable. We spend so much time outside in the spring, summer, and fall. In Louisiana, we just wanted to stay in all summer because of the humidity and the mosquitoes.

Here are a few pictures, but there are a lot more on the gallery.

6944 Exterior front

6951 Family Room

6960 Kitchen

6972 Looking down the hall- powder room and dining room are to the left, living room is to the right.

6981 Looking up from the entryway- master bedroom is to the left, kids’ rooms, laundry room, and kids bath is to the right; playroom is to the left and down a short, open hall.

6987 Playroom (flash on camera was acting weird)

6996 Master bath