Step by Step

We are getting settled in, step by step, bit by bit. Yesterday was CARPET day! Woo hoo! It was quite shocking to see just how disgusting the carpet was under all the previous tenant's belongings (she never really picked up when we'd go to showings). Now we know why--the carpet was GROSS (yes, all caps!). Praise the Lord, we'd already scheduled to have the carpet and carpet pad replaced. The installers came yesterday morning and worked until almost 5. It's like a whole new house! Seriously, between fresh paint and new carpet, the house looks several years younger and SOO much home-y-er. :) If you've been to my parents' house, the carpet is similar in color to their upstairs carpet. If you haven't been to their house/had no reason to memorize their carpet color when you did :), it's kind of a beige/tan-ish color. Dark enough to help hide dirt (which we will vigilantly remove) and light enough to brighten the house. It is amazing to have clean, supple, soft carpet in the house. I can finally go around my house in socks or barefoot!

After the carpet was installed, the next task was putting furniture where it goes. I think we had it just about finished (minus re-assembling the entertainment center and finding places for our filing cabinets) before dinner! The master bedroom looks incredible! We also got the guest room set up, the dining room put together, and the living room. The kitchen is getting there, but there are many more boxes to unpack and decisions to make about organizing varoius kitchen items. :) The den is sparse right now, but that's fine. It's so much bigger than I remembered! It has a desk (the one from my bedroom growing up) for the computer (until we find a real computer desk we like) and an small entertainment center with an extra tv (not sure that will stay) so that it's not completely empty. The down the road plans seems to be moving our current couch to the den and getting a new couch and love seat/chair for the living room. That is DOWN the road though. :) I love how everything looks! We also have a spare bedroom that is affectionately called "the box room" right now. Mom and I started lugging boxes down to it from the garage and organized each corner of the room for boxes with items for each room in the house. Pretty soon we realized the box room is the absolute farthest room from the garage, and just organized in the garage. :) We'll be able to park our cars in the garage pretty soon though.

I should be able to set up our internet at home today. If not, I'll upload pictures at school tomorrow. I'm sure I'll have little comments here and there. :) I do want to paint the trim white eventually. It's all an odd pinkish-beige color. I think it will look much cleaner and fresher with the walls and carpet to have white trim. But other than that, the inside is pretty much done! We will change the paneling in the den (paint it for now, replace with dry wall later), paint the laundry room (a nice, soft yellow), and paint the hallways/entryway, as well as "the box room." Then the whole inside of the house will have been painted--is my mom amazing, or what?!?

Dad got so many details taken care of--garage door, curtain rods, closet rods, door stoppers, new locks, new deadbolts, etc., etc., etc. We would not be NEARLY as moved in without Mom and Dad. We can't thank them enough! And I can't wait to show you pictures of the fruits of all our labor! :)

Lastly, the paint color... for now it's called "Spanish chestnut," VERY close to the Benjamin Moore "Cream Fleece." We will be doing a faux finish, but I don't know when I'll have time to do it. So I picked a base color slightly (ever-so) lighter than cream fleece, which is the color Stephanie used in Knoxville. Eventually, we'll be doing a faux finish that involves glaze tinted with a darker enamel. It should give it a "Florence" kind of feel. If you've been in the prayer rooms at CSPC, it's that faux finish. The color we have is a creamy color that's more than just off-white. It really has some color to it, which I like. :) I did have a blue bedroom and bright yellow bathroom at my parents' after all. :) It's a great neutral with enough depth to it to look like a wall color and not just a neutral wall. And it seems to vary a lot by how much sunlight is on it, etc. It's fun to see how different it looks in each room! :)

I need to get back to grading, but there's an update for now! Hopefully you'll have pictures from me tonight--after our walk-through at the townhouse for move-out. Wow! :)

Love,
Becca