House #2: Our Current Abode (Part 1)

When we walked into the house that we currently live in for the first time, I fell in love with it...yes, through all of the nick-nacks and poorly applied wallpaper and color-tiled bathrooms, I knew this was the house for us (at least for the time being).

Here's what it looked like when we first looked at it:

Living Room

Dining Room /Additional Living Room

Den in Basement (future "man room")

Detached Garage

Rear of House (notice the lovely burgundy awnings)

Here's a little before and after tour of the main level of our home...

Living Room

Things we didn't like: wall color, window treatments (this room was one of the best)

Things we liked: hardwood floors, antique mirror and brass andirons, marble fireplace with great details, crown, baseboard & chair rail moulding, high ceilings, size of room

We went with a neutral color scheme for this room (Lowe's Seaside Retreat Collection - Light Khaki above the chair rail, Garden Urn below..that was Billy's idea!!) and painted the trim and ceiling a crisp white. Hand-me-down hutch and chairs, garage sale sofas, and clearance coffee table.

With the natural seagrass rug, lots of candles, lovely Target pillows, and the sentimental touch of my great-grandmother's brass fireplace tools, this room is done!

Dining Room

This was probably the worst wallpaper job in the house...the worse the application, the tougher the removal. So, we had to get help from friends and eventually a professional to get this stuff down! The curtains that so nicely matched the wallpaper had to go too.

The previous owners did leave us with a very nice chandelier and antique brass switchplates throughout the house!

Again, I like colorful dining rooms (not so sure if Billy is too keen on them, but he did pick out this color - Aloe Essence from the Seaside Retreat collection at Lowes), and ours is a very happy yet soothing room. The chair in the far corner is a prized project of mine...my mom purchased the chair at a consignment shop in C-ville for $23, I removed the nasty mildewed cushions, sanded and stained the wood dark brown (instead of the yellowy original color), and had a seamstress make a new cushion in this Darjeeling - Sorbet fabric I love. All for under $100 was I able to make a chair similar to this one but with a little bolder fabric and back cushion as well. An easy and cheap do-it-yourself project, even less expensive if you know how to sew!

We were very fortunate to have received my aunt's old dining room set, complete with eight chairs, a table with two leaves, and a beautiful hutch all in a pretty cherry finish. Picked up the painting that matches the color scheme perfectly for a mere $50 on clearance at TJ Maxx to finish out the room!

Kitchen

Our kitchen had a very outdated, country look, with stained cabinets and our favorite...the classy metal-edged countertop. I do love the vintage appliances though!

This was another fine wallpaper specimen, again with matching curtains on the window and back door. A little easier to remove than the dining room but still no walk in the park.

After testing out the 4th color on our little "colors that work well together" paint card (Atlantic Gray), we decided not to go with it and instead went with Seaside Villa...a grayish blue color that turned out perfect for our kitchen. We also painted all of the cabinets white to brighten up the space and invested in a new countertop, which is Formica - Basalt Slate, a textured laminate top.

You may notice the large empty space between the two base cabinets above...the fridge that came with our house died right as we were moving in, so it went away with the wallpaper, curtains, and linoleum floor. Not such a bad thing, though, as it was off-white, clearly not going with our vintage stainless appliances and cosmetic updates in the kitchen. So, we held out for over a year, trying to find a vintage stainless fridge, but those are pretty expensive, so we settled for a petite stainless fridge that fits perfectly in the smaller-than-normal-fridge-sized alcove. We love the floors, which are basically fake hardwoods. Same price as vinyl square tiles, look like real wood floors, easy to install! And we love the color actually more than our real hardwoods throughout the rest of our house. Here they are with my "rooster rug", another favorite purchase of mine from TJ Maxx.

The eat-in portion of our kitchen, which is cute but probably needs a new light fixture...maybe a nice pendant or small chandelier for some soft overhead lighting.

Porch

Back porch with lots of potential once the awnings, nasty lace curtains, and fake wood-paneled walls go far far away (or are somehow remedied).

Stage one of the porch re-do: Add some furniture and decorate. We chose to do this prior to painting the walls because of the short timeframe within which we had to get in our house. So, we added a seagrass rug, iron tables and baker's rack, and Billy's great-grandmother's wicker furniture. Plus a cute antique table I found at a consignment shop and our "love ficus" (a plant Billy bought me in college which we named after the "love fern" from How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days :)).

So that completes our first floor tour...more to come in Part 2 of this post.

Work in Progress

One of our favorite hobbies is fixing up houses and the subsequent decorating (that part tends to fall more on my shoulders, but with the excellent design sense of my husband). We started on a house that Billy bought before we got married, which now serves as our rental property, and have kept on going ever since.

After I moved into Billy's house, we started looking around at houses just for fun. He knows I always love to see what all is out there, after all, my family's "Sunday drives" growing up usually consisted of checking out the latest open houses or houses under construction (which sometimes required a little creativity for getting in). And, we ended up buying a house down the street from us a couple of months later. The second I walked in, I couldn't resist, with the ten-foot ceilings, crown moulding and tall baseboards, two fireplaces and great potential. Thus began our second fixer-upper project. Not wanting to be without a house project for too long, we invested in a third home with his dad, which we fixed up (with the help of contractors for the first time ever) and are currently trying to sell. Not so great with the timing, but the house looks pretty nice if I do say so myself.

European Vacation

So this fall we decided to take a spur-of-the-moment trip to Europe...the real estate market is slow, we had been saving since before our wedding, and we figured now was as good a time as any to take a big trip since we don't have kids yet, it will only get tougher to find time to go, and who needs a savings account anyways???



We made a whirlwind trip, visiting 7 cities in 3 countries over 15 days, and it was great! And my wonderful parents were kind enough to take care of Jefferson (he loved being with them and actually pouted on the way home), so we booked our flights one Sunday evening and were on our way to Europe two weeks later!


Here's how our trip went...



First stop Paris (we loved it!!)


























Eiffel Tower, just 5 minutes from our hotel

Arc de Triomphe

Early train to Munich with lots of people who had already been drinking for quite awhile!



















An Essential Fall Stop: Oktoberfest
Willkommen to the land of drunk, lederhosen-wearing Germans!


















Enjoying a beer at the Augustiner beer garden (since we couldn't get in any tents)



Train to Berchtesgaden for a couple of lazy days

Beautiful view of the Alps after our boat ride on Konigsee


Night train to Venice...our most fun train experience of the trip!















Venice, the land of no wheels and lots of graffiti (but we still loved being there)

















Train to Sorrento through Naples (the opposite extreme of our lovely night train)
















Hotel Minerva overlooking the sea in Sorrento
















Top of Anacapri - so beautiful!!


Back on the Circumvesuviana to Naples with a brief stop in Pompeii















Pompeii Forum with Mt Vesuvius in the background

















Wild dog in Pompeii trying to get some lunch


Train from Naples to Rome...our last train ride!
















Trevi Fountain our first night in Rome

















The Roman Forum






















Last night of our trip


Back to ATL on the 10+ hour flight!

Introducing Jefferson...

aka Jefe (soft "j"), J-doo-doo, and a multitude of other nicknames. He is our Welsh terrier with whom we are slightly obsessed and treat basically as our child (although Cesar, the Dog Whisperer, would probably be critical of how much we dote on him...I do try to use lots of Cesar's training ideas though).

Here is the 4-1-1 on our little guy:

• Born August 8, 2007 in Nevis, Minnesota
• Arrived at Norfolk airport October 26, 2007
• Loves all people and animals, especially large dogs and his life-sized Curious George doll
• Knows lots of tricks, the latest of which is getting him to politely beg by sitting and raising his hand to ask for the food
• Has a great personality and is a source of constant entertainment for us

Jefferson's first trip to UVa, just a week after we got him!

Helping rake leaves

Action shot of his refined begging

A little history of us

So here's a glimpse of our changing lives over the past couple of years...

We love Jesus. He is the center of our marriage, and we are thankful for His abundant blessings in our lives, for His unending love, and for His saving grace. We seek to follow God and seek His will for our lives. He brought us together and will keep us strong as we go through all of life's ups and downs together.

We love our families and friends. We are blessed to have dear friends with whom we can pick up right where we left off, despite not seeing them for long periods of time. We are both blessed to have grown up in Christian homes and to have had lots of fun with our families over the years.

Spring Break 08 in Mexico with the Choreys

Wedding in Philly with the Steeds

We love UVa. We met there, got engaged there, and got married there. We love the grounds, the traditions, and all of our friends who helped us make so many great memories there. We still go to most of the football games, even though we are envious of our SEC friends who get to experience tailgating the way it should be and watch good football all season long. Our dog, who will undoubtedly be making regular appearances on the blog, is named Jefferson (not entirely for the University's founder but I guess it goes with the UVa thing).

UVa Chapel before our wedding

We're married...yay!!!

Veritas Winery, our beautiful reception site

That brings us to the present, where we are currently trying to figure out our next steps, but in the midst of all the craziness, we are very happy together and look forward to God's plan for the future.

Wine tasting at Veritas

(wedding photography done by Marty Moore Photography - we loved working with her!)

Joining the blogging world...

With work being pretty slow but life remaining busy, we've decided to jump on the blogging bandwagon so we can keep our friends and family up to date on our current projects, trips, and any other life adventures. Enjoy!!