Our 2nd House - Year 1

Happy 1 year Anniversary to us and our 2nd home!

Here's a question: are you still allowed to refer to your house as "our new house" when you have lived there a year? I guess it just feels "new" to me because it looks almost exactly the way it did after we moved in last October.  While we have gotten some random momentum as of late, I often find myself feeling like such a slug when it comes to progress at the house. Here we are at the 1 year mark and we have made very little progress on the whole home improvement front especially as compared to the progress we made at our first house in the same amount of time. It's like, now that we have a house that we can actually stay in for a long, long time (forever?) I've found myself slow to commit to ideas or projects.  It's frustrating and exciting at the same time. I like that we are taking our time and thinking through things, but I also long to have a few rooms feel more complete and "us". We will get there I know, so in the meantime I thought it could be fun to acknowledge the progress we have made. Progress like...

Croix's Room:

OK, this was the first room we tackled upon moving in last Fall and for good reason! We were down to T-Minus 2 1/2 months until Croix's arrival when we moved in.

This is hands down the happiest room in our house and not just because of the tiny human that sleeps in that red crib. The space is bright, colorful and our one and only 100% completed space in the whole house.

Living Room:

This room has seen a fair amount of love this year. From new furniture and textiles like the giant sectional, Love Sac and rug, to new pendant lights  and a TV niche to our most recent add - some custom doors for the built-ins. Overall this space is really starting to come together and we are excited for all the progress we have made! Next up - curtains! 

Back Patio:

Oooooh the patio project. This guy has definitely taken up a LOT of our time, energy, sweat and first bites (croix and the concrete debacle) this year. We are still wrapping up final decisions but overall we are feeling good about this space. It has definitely come a long way and I'm happy to report not only are we grill ready at this point, but as of Monday night our pizza oven can make pizzas too!

Dining Room:

The progress in the dining room has been both mental and aesthetic for us this year. The wheels really started turning for us when we made the decision to turn this big open room into our dining room as opposed to the formal living room it was was for the previous owners. Since making that decision we had our dining room table custom made from a guy Brent found on Craigslist, scored these beautiful wing back chairs from Scotts Antique and inherited a beautiful 100+ year old mantle from my PapaJack and Grandmother. It's been slow, but I think this room could really be beautiful and rich with texture and history once it's all said and done.

We celebrated our 1 year anniversary this year by welcoming in some house guests - my sister Candace, her husband Jimmy and their pup-daughter Piper! They recently made the move to Atlanta and are staying with us while they house hunt! It's cool to have the house and driveway full and I'm excited to celebrate all the fun things ahead - Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Croix' 1st Birthday with them right by our sides!

A lot has changed over the past year, but all in all we are proud of the progress we have made in the midst of our new normal (family of 3!) and can' t wait to see what all we can accomplish before year 2!

All photos are my own. 

Living Room Updates

I HAVE SOME HOUSE PROGRESS TO SHOW YOU!!! 

I can't believe I'm able to even write those words as it seems like progress has been slooooooow around here lately. I guess this fact shouldn't come as such a shock to me seeing as how we welcomed a new tiny member to our family not even a month ago, but you know, I had big plans for my maternity leave. In addition to loving on my new baby I planned to tackle tons of house projects, do a lot of writing for my About.com Kitchens page, catch up on my DVR, finish my thank you notes and maybe bank a completed post or two for the ol' blog. BIG PLANS, y'all. In my mind it was going to be my time to get my life organized and get ahead of the ball for once, but alas we plan and in this case I think God must of been doing great big belly laughs up there as pretty much none of the above has happened. Apparently newborns are pretty needy...who knew? :)

Somewhere along the way we have made some progress on the house front. We have kind of bounced around and tackled random things here and there in various rooms, but at this point we have made the most progress in the living room. 

We began scheming for this room before we even moved in, not because we were playing favorites but because we knew the living room furniture we had would not work scale wise in this gigantic room. Here is a shot of the house from the real estate listing to jog your memory:

The overall scale of just about every room in our new house is much bigger than that of our old house. So, the plan from the beginning has been to incorporate as many of our existing pieces as possible and then integrate new pieces along the way. We both knew this would mean some rooms may be empty for awhile while we figure out/save up for what we want, but we were OK with that. The living room was moved up to the top of the priority list as we knew this would be a space we would utilize often, especially because we were hosting Christmas at our house + I would be home with a baby right after the new year. 

The first item on our list was a couch because no living room is complete without a nice comfy place to sit and relax. At first we were thinking of orienting the room with two couches facing each other. However, after we measured and played with the layout we quickly realized the best solution for this space was a sectional. The sectional gives us the most seating capacity, plus it sets the perimeters for the actual living area of the living room. The sectional we chose is 10' x 10', so it's big, but it fits the room nicely and really helped make the room feel less giant and more cozy. 

Speaking of cozy we also added a giant LoveSac to the mix. This giant bean bag is SO comfortable and soft (the name of the cover is Eskimo Fur). It's super versatile in that it can be moved around the space easily, plus it can comfortably sit two people, but over the holidays it was holding as many as 4 at a time!     

The space is full of can lights in addition to the ceiling fan, so we decided to switch out the can lights directly over the built-ins on either side of the fireplace for some fun pendant lights. We found these wooden geometric pendant lights in Chattanooga and couldn't wait to get them hung after the holidays. 

In order for the pendant lights to hang from the existing can light spot in the ceiling we had to buy these converter kits from Home Depot. 

With the kit the light fixture switch was pretty easy and the new look makes me soooooooooo happy. 

And finally the rug is the newest addition. I love that the rug has interest with the antelope pattern but with soft and understated colors. We were thiiis close to pulling the trigger on the Stark Antilocarpa rug when I randomly came across this rug from Ballards. It looks almost identical and was a fraction of the cost. WOO!!  This side of the room still has a ways to go as we need window treatments, art, styling a coffee table, etc, etc... In addition there is a large area of "dead space" behind the couch that we have to figure out, but overall we feel good about the general direction of the room and I for one am happy with progress, even if it does come slowly and in small doses!