Paint by number.

So after a weekend hunkered down with the Momma and approximately 3,482,904,328,901,849,032 paint chips, I think we've narrowed the choices.

I made the first big selection regarding theme, in that I'm sticking to neutrals and doing beige and grey throughout. Our current house is a perfect mix of blues and greens and yellows (that Joey the bachelor selected) and I love it, but it's really limited my ability (and want) to switch things up every once and awhile. So, in the new digs we're going neutral.

The beige was easy. I went with the shade in the spec house we saw because I know I love it. Relaxed Khaki. For the grey, it was hard to pick one that didn't turn "green" with the beige, but I think I'm going with the darker Mindful Grey. Trim is Alabaster.

Here's all of it in Sherwin Williams' design center. I'm going tonight to buy a quart of each and paint big boards to take over to the house tonight. Thank you, HGTV.

P.S.-In case any of you are riding my sister's crazy train, it is, in fact, Sherwin Williams. Not Sherman Williams, as she has thought for the last 30-odd years. Funniest conversation I've had in a long time. And now all I hear every time I look at my swatch book is Eddie Murphy clapping "Sherman's got relations...Sherman's got relations..." to himself in 'Nutty Professor'. 

Panic in the streets.

The day I dreaded most about building a home has officially arrived: paint color selection.

For the record, I can't even pick a pedicure color in less than ten minutes. I also wear black 90% of the time because A) it is my signature color, and 2) it's EASY. No thought required. So, part of me just wants to paint the house all beige like the spec house and never look back, but the other part of me knows that I desperately want glorious, cheerful colors in my home and I will NOT want to repaint a wall basically ever again for as long as I live. It's messy, annoying and causes me to sweat excessively. All things I despise. Therefore, I fully acknowledge that it's better to do it now while I'm paying someone who has a large, efficient spray nozzle, goggles and super tarps, yes? Yes.

So, here we are. My choices:

Cheese and rice I'm legitimately losing my mind. I know I want some sort of gray hue for the master, but which? Popular gray? Grayish? Gray screen? Network gray? Magnetic gray? Respose gray? Yes, those are all real names for paint. They should hire the people of Hallmark & get some better nomenclature. Also, it seems like "popular gray" might be the rather obvious choice here. Check!

For Alex's room, I know he wants blue. Buoyant blue? Meander blue? Byte blue? Open air? Stream? Balmy? Yes, balmy. Stupid name.

The whole first floor is a bit of a conundrum because there's no real great place to switch from one color to another. Plus the entryway has 2-story ceilings so whatever I do in there you can see from upstairs. The lower lever is all one big, open space (which I love), so the only wall that could really be an accent wall of sorts would be the one we plan to put a giant built-in entertainment center on. So that's sort of a bust. I suppose I could do a different color in the first floor bathroom, but I don't know what my theme will be in there yet. DO YOU SEE WHY I AM A CRAZY PERSON AND SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO MAKE THESE DECISIONS?

In summary, please just paint my house beige. Meanwhile, I'll be at Home Goods buying some big, colorful wall pieces to cover it all up.

Next up? Curtains.

So the house is speeding along rather nicely. In fact, our Realtor told us yesterday that they are 5-7 days ahead of schedule. AHEAD. This means I need to get my rear in gear as far as home practicalities (see also: curtains, lighting, shower curtains) and remove myself from the weekly semi-obsessive trips to Home Goods for all things decorative (see also: cute vases, charming rugs, delightful side tables). Momma needs a functioning home. A cute one, too, but mostly functioning.

As you can see, we now have drywall and brick. Siding should be next. Also, since Joey is away on his man-cation for the next week (more on that tomorrow), I've been entrusted to solely select the bathroom tile and entire house of paint colors. Listen, if he comes back to the cutest little damask tile pattern and wall hues of dark turquoise, mustard yellow and rusty red, I CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE. 

In unrelated news, I have a strong desire to go antiquing this weekend. Any takers?

Happy 4th of July!

High on thrifting Thursday.

Mandy over at Harper's Happenings does a link-up on Thursdays called "High on Thrifting." Considering that roughly 9 out of any 10 adventures to thrift and antique shops yield absolutely nothing for me, I've had very little to contribute to the cause.

HOWEVER.

A few weekends ago, Joey and I went to visit 2 of our favorite peeps in all the world, Jason and Sarah. (Yes, that Sarah.) They live in Grand Rapids, a place I could be convinced to move to in approximately 2.5 seconds. Moot point.

Anyhow, Sarah has the gift of shopping. For realsies. The girl can find anything. In any store. And it's probably also on clearance and the last one left or quite possibly ever made. And it fits perfectly and you already have shoes to go with it. She's a shopping savant.

She took us to this little gem of a store called Changing Thymes. Think antique store meets craft shop meets re-purposed furniture depot. Yes, heaven.

I found a number of delightful purchases, but here are my two most favoritest:

This little number used to be an old record player cabinet. In fact, still has the gold engraved plates in it and everything. I love it probably more than I should love any inanimate object. Plus, I love that someone already did the work of refinishing, painting and distressing it. Definitely worth paying a little more $$. And the color? Please. It will be so kickass in our new house.

These were SUCH a fun find--a bag of REALLY old wooden blocks! Sarah and I spent about 20 minutes on the floor of the store rearranging the letters to spell something...anything. I finally got our last name, and as if that weren't enough...there were enough letters leftover to spell HER last name (with a little creative use of 2 upside down U blocks). Only one block was left after we did that. Isn't that weird? I sort of love that there's a little piece of this set in each of our homes.

Head on over to the Haps and see what other treasures people are finding...and share yours!

Out of order.

So I have really funny stories about my obsession with buying things for a house I don't technically own yet, but in order to do that I probably should tell y'all how this magical house came to be. I've alluded to it once or twice (sorry for being all annoying and unspecific about that) but I REALLY wanted to tell the story once I had some pictures. I've resigned to the fact that I will not have the ability to take a photo of my family on an empty lot that we sort of own in the foreseeable future, so I'm just going to throw caution to the wind and tell the tale. But everything is better with pictures, no?

Anyway, I'm sure you all remember back in late summer when we were urgently looking for a new house? Well, we were. We had been sort of lazily looking for some time previous to that particular life event, but put our efforts in super gear when we had a deadline of sorts.

Let me just say first that I LOVE where we live. We are 6 minutes from daycare, a block from the community center with an indoor water park, 2 minutes from both major highways in the area, and 20 minutes to nearly every other neighboring cool city. I may or may not have a strictly business crush on our mayor and because of the many large businesses in our city, taxes are wicked low. Our neighbors are like family--almost like something out of a movie. I even borrow eggs and cups of sugar from time to time.

There's not a ton of new construction or newer homes in our area because it's an older community. So, naturally, I got really discouraged when we started looking because in order for us to get what we wanted (and enough motivation to leave what we love) we would have to move to a nearby city with higher taxes (and a smaller house) or move to BFE to get a bigger house with lower taxes. Both of these options, frankly, sucked, and were not enough to actually force the move.

Anyway, I was driving around aimlessly one day because Alex was sleeping. I was basically just turning down streets I'd never been on--not looking for anything in particular, just passing time. I came across this sweet little street that was carved out of an older neighborhood, but was new construction. Then, in the same moment I saw a narwhal crossing the street with a pudgy baby unicorn on its back, my eyes surprised me by seeing TWO "For Sale" signs. One of the houses was perfect. I had to have it.

We went for a bike ride that night so I could show Joey. Oh, did I not mention this house was literally ACROSS the street from our house? Not our specific street, but the main street nearby. Anyway, he liked it too so I made an appointment with the seller's agent to see it the next day.

We saw it and loved it even more once we got inside. We were leaving for vacation the next day but told the Realtor we would talk about it on our trip and get back to him when we returned.

So imagine my surprise when he called me the next night with bad news. Someone else was putting an offer on the house. But the worst of the news is that there would be offers on both houses. And the offers were from FRIENDS who were friends/worked with someone who already lived in the house next to the two houses that were for sale. Yeah. Just our luck.

There was no way we were getting that house. Even if our offer was higher, the seller/builder was obviously motivated to sell BOTH houses at the same time, vs. selling us one and sitting on the other.

This story is getting so long I'm starting to annoy myself. But stick with me. We're almost to the end.

Naturally, it would suck a LOT if this story ended here, but it doesn't. As it turns out, our Realtor turned out to be childhood friends with the guy who owned the whole street. And there were 4 lots left! Eegads!

And so, we got our pick of the lots (as fate would have it - a better lot than the house we originally wanted) and we are going to build the same house we wanted to buy on that lot. And, since we're building it, we can change any of the little things that we want like flooring, fixtures, etc.

The ts are officially crossed. We signed all the paperwork just before Christmas and they will break ground as soon as the frost ban is lifted...which in Michigan is always iffy. Our hope is to be in by mid-July. At which point I will commence with an emotional life breakdown because I'll be leaving behind my first married home, the house I brought my baby home to and had so many other "firsts" in...but change is good, right?

Since a post this long deserves at least one picture, here's the house we're building. I'm changing that stupid wonky, little window on the second floor - doubling its size and centering it in the siding space. We might alter the brick color to be a bit darker and the siding to a slightly more grey (gray?) color, but this is basically home sweet home.

Tomorrow I shall commence with many ridiculous stories of things I am buying to decorate/furnish said house. Joey is about at his wits end with me. But he knows it's all pretty things that will make our house a home. And, in turn for his patience, he's getting one of those giant fish mailboxes. For reals. #wifeoftheyear

Home Sweet Home!

The reveal!

So yesterday I posted about my crafting inspiration...and after a few tweaks to MY version last night, I'm ready to share it with the world. (Again, remember that what I posted yesterday was the inspiration piece from Pinterest. Yes, Dad. I'm talking to you.)

Armed with  my 40% off coupons, I hunted for letters at Michaels, JoAnn and Hobby Lobby over the weekend. It was SO STRESSFUL. I know they're just letters, but I was so concerned with what size would look good next to what font and what colors could and couldn't be side by side...oh, I almost had a coronary. It was like craftingmageddon.

I got over that fit, and aside from buying an extra E and two too many Os, I finished the day unscathed and with all the necessary tools and equipment to complete my very first big girl craft project.

Joey and Alex had a daddy/son day on Saturday, so I spent the afternoon arranging letters, planning color patterns and painting.

The big H and M were already gold - and half off at Hobby Lobby! I also got the tin letters (O, T, E) from the Hobs...I thought they would add a zip of "different" to the pattern. You know, not all "cut" letters...turns out I was right. The other letters were random finds from JoAnns and Michaels, but I found JoAnns had the best selection. Which is strange, because I'm usually a Michaels girl.

Instead of $6 spray paint, I bought $0.77 bottles of acrylic paint (Except the teal. That HAD to be spraypaint because I plan on using it a trillion times over. I love it so much I literally might spray paint Alex.)

Note the bowl of Baked Cheetos, can of Diet Cherry Coke,
and ever-so-fancy paper plate paint trays.
This is how I roll craft.

Last night, we laid them all out to try and arrange the best pattern. We tried a few:  
 

After much back and forth, I concluded that the black letter M was just not doing it for me. I painted it the yellow color and that for SURE didn't work. So Joey retreated to the basement and emerged with a random can of silver spray paint. Turns out, that's exactly what it needed.

Basically, I love it. I can't WAIT to hang it. In related news: there's a perfectly good reason it's not hung already. I will cover that soon.

My only hangup is that last H in home. I love the color, but I think I want the size to be bigger. Who's with me?

In summary: I think I have caught the crafting bug. Don't expect me to sew up curtains or decoupage a mural anytime soon, but if it involves spraypaint and shopping, I'm in. And for $30, I'd say this particular craft is a WIN.

The Best $ I EVER Spent, And I'm Not Talkin' 'Bout Ke$ha.

Yesterday was the day that the fated cleaning lady visited my house. Let's call her Fran, shall we?

Fran rolled into our driveway before we left for work. I gave her a quick tour and we high-tailed it off to work and let her do her thang. Yes, unsupervised. She came highly recommended from a friend, so I was cool with it.

I was secretly super duper nervous, because no one other than my Mom and Kelli have really ever explored the dusty, diapery, dog-hair-filled inner-workings of the VeeDub household. Would she scrub to my expectations? Wipe to a streak-free shine? Vacuum in perfect rows?

Let it be known: Fran did not disappoint.

I literally cried when we got home. Our house was sparkling. Like, she even washed the outside of all the windows. And boy did they need it! She folded laundry. Changed the bed sheets. Put away dishes in the diswasher. Not a single nook or cranny was left untouched. For crying out loud, the woman cleaned places I'd never cleaned! Even Alex enjoyed her work - he squealed with delight crawling around on the hardwood floors because I'm pretty sure he could see his own reflection.

It's seriously the best money I have ever spent. If you can make it happen, do it. Go out to dinner a few times less every month. It's not as expensive as you'd think, and I promise you won't regret it. I plan on making it a monthly celebration until it gets old. Which, let's face it, is never.

Oh, and if you're local, shoot me a note if you want Fran's info. I'll share her. :)

ROAR!

(as in, 'I am woman, hear me...')

Guess what I did yesterday, peeps? TILED THE BASEMENT. Boo-yeah.

As mentioned previously, Joe and I are transforming the basement into a livable space - somewhere we can keep all of Alex's toys and just hang out and be comfy as a family. Since the laundry is in the basement, we decided to tile that corner...ourselves. And, after a long, hard day it looks awesome. Special thanks to Mom and Dad who came to hang out with little man while we put in our sweat equity. We were a little intimidated at the thought of DIY-ing it at first, but I assure you the peel-n-stick 18" tile is the way to go. A little washing of the floor, a little priming of the floor, a little peeling and a little sticking and you've got yourself a fabulous space. It's that easy!

The carpet for the steps and rest of the floor is being installed (by professionals...not willing to tackle that one solo) on Wednesday. Bonus: I get to work from home that day and hang with Alex.

Then, I get the sectional sofa sleeper I've been wanting forever and Joey gets the flat screen TV he's been "needing" forever.

...and despite my underwhelming excitement about going back to work, it's nice to be a 2 income family again.