Slowly, We Are Getting There

While I am not even close to being finished with any room in our condo, I am making progress...so I thought I would share a little. When we were looking at different units to buy and we were looking at the unit that we would soon pick to be our home, my husband looked at me and said, "Are you sure you can make this place feel like us?" My husband is not one to be able to visualize, so I understood it was hard for him to imagine us living in a place that was filled with another families taste and things. I told him I could, and so he had faith and we bought our place. He told me the other day that he is finally starting to feel like this is his home. My son said something similar a few days ago. I am glad, especially because I am not done so it will just feel more and more like ours as I continue to work on it.

Today I am sharing some before and after pictures of Noah's bedroom and the living room.

The way Noah's room looked before we bought the condo.

And here is what Noah's room looks like right now. We still have a lot of work to do here. You can see in the picture all of the posters and pictures on the floor that we still have to hang. We still have shelves to put up, and the curtains he has already picked out that are not up yet. I just still need to find a rod I like for them. Noah picked out the tan, brown, and red color scheme. His favorite color is red, and he wanted a more grown-up looking room.

Here is the way the living room looked before we bought the place.

Here it is empty, vertical blinds and all.

And here it is with the vertical blinds down and curtains up (which I had already showed you pictures of in a previous post) and some furniture in and pictures up on the wall.

This is the side of the living room we are still working on. We eventually want to get a nice entertainment center, but right now we are making do with the pieces we have. I also want to have something above the TV, but I haven't figured out what yet.

And here is a preview of what will be hopefully coming soon. This is the "lovely" dining room lighting that came with the condo. I swear to you the flash on my camera dulled down just how gold this thing is. It has got to go, but we have no money for something like that right now. We have a light fixture still in the box that I bought for our old place that I never ended putting up. In the old house everything was in brushed nickel, so so is that light fixture. Now I am decorating with oil rubbed bronze in this place. I am going to try to spray paint the nickel fixture and see if I can use that. We shall see...to be continued!!

Something Old, Somthing New, Nothing Borrowed, A-Whoo-Hoo!

In our new place we have had to make due a lot with things that we don't love (the greenish carpet in the bedrooms for one). We have also been decorating with most of our stuff from our old place. That can always be a little tricky. When I buy things, I buy them with the place I am going put them already in mind. Here I am having to "make it fit" into a space I didn't plan for. We have been able to buy a few new things (like the curtains from the previous post) here or there, but it has been small things. New flooring will just have to wait, and that's fine.

Here is the thing...when I take one little new item, and mix it with my old items and they work well together in my new space...I get a little rush. It's silly, I know. I care too much about these things, but it makes me happy.

In the picture (above) the only thing that was new was the Q-tip holder (which is really just a tumbler). Like I said we have a greenish carpet in the bedrooms of this place so I wanted to add some green touches in our master bath since the green carpet is right next to it. Every time I go into my bath I see this little combination of things and I like them.



In this picture (above) the couch, pillows and everything on the table is our old stuff. The table and lamp were from Ikea and I paid about $35 for both. On Sunday night I was able to sit on my couch and read by this lamp and it was so nice, and when I see that little table I am happy.

I guess what I am trying to say is that we won't always have money to do every project we want, or to completely remodel our homes all at once, but a small change can bring in that little something to make a place feel fresh, and that might be just what you need to say, "This is my home and I like it!"

What a Difference a Drape Makes!

Here is the first before and after post for our condo. Our condo came with those "beautiful" vertical blinds. I loath them so! It's one way to make any place feel temporary, like you just don't care. It is not a way to make a house feel like a home...not to mention they made my living room so much darker.

Well, I looked and looked for something that would give us privacy when we needed it, but was still beautiful. Something that made the place feel more like "us" and less like the previous owner. And of course I looked for something that was inexpensive. This is what I came up with.

I decided on a double rod I found at Target. That way I could let in lots of light through the sheer panels during the day, but could still pull drapes across when we had our lights on at night and needed more privacy. It was $40...not too bad for a double rod. So I got the matching hooks as well to let as much light in a possible during the day. Then I looked and looked for all the panels. I looked at just about every major store I could think of that carried drapes and was getting pretty frustrated with my choices until I just wandered over to the drapery section at Walmart during a regular shopping trip. I found the sea color faux silk panels for $13.99 a piece, and the sheer panels for $7.99 a piece. That's 6 panels (4 sheer, 2 faux silk) for about $60 bucks!! I never expected to pay so little for all the panels I needed.

I hung them while my husband was at work last week. All our furniture had already been in place, but when he came home that day he said, "Now it feels like we have a living room". Again, it's about making a house a home, and I am so glad we feel more and more like this place is ours.

It's Alright To Be Little Bitty

So, we are now living in our condo in Eagle Mountain, Ut...and LOVING IT! Not that condo living is perfect (the lady next door already flooded my kitchen), it's just perfect for us right now. My husband and I looked at LOTS of places online from 3 story beautiful homes, to mid-range townhouses before we decided on this little place we now call home.

This place was the obvious choice when we asked ourselves which places were most in-line with what our real goals were. Our goals we to not be stressed out by our mortgage payment, to have more money for fun as a family, and to live with as little impact on the environment as possible. So, yes, we are 30 somethings living in a condo complex with a bunch of newly-weds...but that's alright with me. Last night we hopped on a Trax train, got dinner and went to a Utah Jazz game and I wasn't stressed out about how much money it would cost. What a great feeling! We live on the bottom floor and use very little energy to heat our tiny place, it makes me feel good. I can decorate my place with most of my old furniture and by re-doing almost everything that was already here, it makes me feel great. It's our home, it works for us, and I love it. I bet more people would find happiness if they really thought about what they needed to make them truly happy, instead of what they needed to keep up with the latest trend in McMansions. I live small, and that's not only alright...it's happiness.

Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tock

I just don't know if time can go by any slower. I am still in Southern Utah. I have been moved out of our Ivins home for weeks now but still have not closed on our new place up north. The good thing is we have found a place, we are now just trying to wait for it to close. The problem is...I am SO tired of waiting. I have officially lived apart from my husband for a year and a half, and now these last few weeks are just dragging. I know it is because I can see that light at the end of the tunnel and I want to make a sprint for it, but can't because I am waiting on paperwork (which I have decided is one of the most annoying things to wait on).

I can inform you that we didn't end up in any of the places we thought we would...no Daybreak, Herriman, or Saratoga Springs for me! We are going to be living in The Ranches of Eagle Mountain. And no dream house or fancy upgraded townhouse for me either. My husband and I have decided to put our of goals of green and simple living where our mouth is and buy an over ten year old condo.

Now it wasn't just the green, simple lifestyle that lead us to this choice, but also what would be best for us and for Noah. Buying this condo will make things much more comfortable for us financially (and who can't use less financial stress), and there is a charter school just a mile away that Noah will be able to attend clear up until he graduates high school. We did a tour of the school and he is excited about the things the school has to offer which makes it much easier for him to deal with the thought of his having to leave his beloved Vista, were he has attended for the last two and a half years. It is just such a practical choice for us. Now practical does not always lead to thoughts of excitement, but I am excited...let me tell you why. I am so looking forward to making this place our own. It is so bare-bones and plain right now and I just can't wait to get my hands on it. We of course do not want to accumulate debt right as we are making things more affordable for us, so I will save up and do projects one at a time. This is also exciting for me because it should give me lots of future blogs to post as I keep you all updated on the changes I make.

So, here is a little preview (please ignore all decorating and furniture as it is not ours, but the previous owners and our taste are not alike) so you can see how much work I will have to do to make this place our own and give it a personality,  but I am so blessed that we will be together as a family again and that we will have a place to call ours.

Movin' On

My house in Southern Utah has sold. We will be moving out in February, and then it will take us awhile to close on our new place in Northern Utah. Once that happens I hope to take lots of pictures and post about transforming my new place. Hopefully I will be keeping this blog up much better soon, until then I have to pack. So, for those of you wondering if I would ever post on this blog again, it's coming soon. I can't wait.

Altadena Beauty

Here it is, my first friend feature! My feature person is a girl who went to Citrus College, joined the dance team, and later married a cop. Sound familiar??? But I swear it's not me, it's my amazingly beautiful friend Kin-Ming. We met while on the dance team at Citrus together in 1996. (We are the two on the left) (And here she is in her beautiful kitchen)

I have always dreamed of owning a small Spanish style house in Southern California with fun details like arches, wood floors, curved windows, and a fireplace. It would have a cute little backyard with a place to dine and a little water feature, and maybe a fruit tree or two. I also love to decorate in blues and greens, and I LOVE white kitchens. One day while looking through Kin-Mings pictures (after we had reconnected on facebook) I saw she had an album with pictures of her house. I was amazed to see that her house was my dream house. It had everything I had always wanted, and she has decorating tastes that are so similar to my own. I feel in love with her 1926, 1050 sq ft, Spanish style home in Altadena, California. I will warn you now that there are a lot of pictures in this post, but I wanted you all to see the little charmer for yourself. Kin-Ming and her husband made such smart choices when doing the remodel on their home. They kept things like the original curved window in the living room, and the arch in the living/dining room. (Two of Kin-Mings favorite parts of the house.) But when they did total re-do's on the kitchen and bath they mimicked that original arch, and made smart choices to stay with the period of the home while giving it all the modern conveniences of today. They were true to the house when they put down new wood floors instead of choosing tile or carpet, and they picked beautiful wall colors when they painted the whole inside of their house. Everything is beautiful without distracting from the gorgeous bones of the house. Even the landscaping (which Kin-Ming's husband did himself) just makes the house a complete package and looks like it belongs with the neighborhood. So well planned. I just love pretty much everything about this house, and thought you guys would too. Congratulations to Kin-Ming and her husband on creating such an amazing place to call home, and thanks for letting me spotlight all your hard work! (Isn't it so charming?) (Such a warm welcome, and the "S" is one of my favorite little touches.) (I love the fireplace)

(I love a kitchen with a desk)

(Sigh!...Even a Sun Porch!)

(What a beautiful place for a warm So. Cal. evening)

JUST GORGEOUS!!!