House Update: Six Months Later

It's been a crazy couple of months. Don't worry I'm not going to try to recap everything that has happened since February. But I am going to provide an update on our house. Mainly for myself, so I can document our progress {or lack of}. 

So what have we been up to in the first six months in our house?

Spoiler: we haven't really done anything other than change some paint and make some furniture/appliance purchases.

So here's the before and the after. Obviously, the first photos were taken by a professional {I borrowed them from our realtor} and the second photo was taken by my iPhone. 

Living Room

My sister and I spent a week painting the trim and wall color a lighter color. It basically looks the same.

I promise we have a TV. I just forgot to take a picture of it. I'm too lazy to go back and take one now.

 Dining Room

I started my painting expedition in the dining room. It looks basically the same...

Brandon made our table. I've written a post about it but never published it. Yes, the chairs have crushed velvet seats.

Master Bedroom

You'll find we don't have window treatments in the house. I have commitment issues .

Guest Bedroom

We painted the blue in the first week.

I'm in the process of painting all the trim and doors in the house. I hate myself.

 Bathroom

Yes, it's still pink.

Office- see more on my office updates here.

There's a futon on the other wall. Again, too lazy to take picture.

Kitchen- I did an entire post on this.

 Backyard

I want a new garage with automatic doors. That is all.

We did add a garden in the backyard.

And hung the sign my Dad made from our wedding.

And cleaned up the front flower beds.

So thoughts after living in our house six months? Everything takes longer and costs more than I ever imagined. Our list of "quick fixes" basically hasn't exactly happened and it's even more evident now that I need curtains. Or something on our walls. Or an interior decorator. 

More at a later date. Probably months from now.

Kelly

Grandpa Johnson

Last week we said goodbye to Brandon's Grandpa. After spending a few days in the hospital, he peacefully took his last breath in the early morning hours on Tuesday. At 91, he lived a long, full life.

Telling stories and saying a prayer in his Seminole language at our wedding

The services this weekend were beautiful. There were many tears, lots of laughter, multiple heart felt stories from long ago, powerful hymns sung in the Seminole/Creek language, a touching military salute and beautiful Native American traditions.

I'm so grateful we were able to spend so much time with him the past 6 months.  He was a special person who touched so many lives.

xoxo

Kelly

Christmas is Over!

I know technically Christmas was over on the 26th but we had a whirlwind of food, family and fun from Christmas into the New Year. So, here I am blogging about it weeks after the fact. It seemed like December flew by with a wedding, work trips and preparing for the holidays. As I took down our Christmas decorations on New Years Day I decided I wanted to capture our first Christmas in our first House here on el blog. Then I went crazy and recapped our entire break. As I mentioned before, short and long term memory problems on my part have lead me to posts like this. Brace yourself, it's a long one...

The first weekend in December, Brandon and I went to a local nursery and picked out our Christmas tree. It was the only weekend in December we'd be able to go get one. I just prayed it wouldn't die before Christmas. I always grew up with a real tree and want to continue the tradition in our home. I know they are a huge mess but I like the smell of fresh pine. Growing up we'd go and cut down a tree in the forest. They never looked as good as the ones you can get at a nursery or tree farm. They had "character." We never had one this good looking growing up.

This one was the winner

I promise he's excited

Brandon was nice enough to help me get it into the house and in the tree stand. He spent the rest of the evening supervising Max and providing color commentary like "Why are you putting the ornaments that look like chew toys at the bottom?" Me: "I'm putting the soft ones at the bottom so Max doesn't knock anything off with his tail. And he doesn't even care about the tree." {Turns out they do look like chew toys and he does care. I have an ornament from '86 and '89 that need to be hot glued back together.}

Before

So, it turns out we are had a disco Christmas. Or at least that's what it looked like with our LED colored lights. When it comes to decorating Christmas trees I'm in the following camp: mish-mash of ornaments from years past and colored lights. Maybe because our tree always looked real "janky" growing up so a "themed" tree would never work. Also, who has time for multiple trees that are various "themes?"

Street view

The rest of the house was "festive" with decorations I've been using for the last couple years. I try to keep things simple because I don't want it to look like Santa threw up in our house.

I like to think this was a pre-Pinterest idea since I had both the lantern and holiday balls before Pinterest.

I like to call this "Throw some beads in a vase and call it decorations."

I think I saw a fellow blogger display their Christmas card from the previous year so I started doing the same last year. It's a fun way to see Christmas cards from the past years.

I wanted to buy or make a wreath from our front door. But I was too cheap to buy one and too lazy to make one so the snowflake I made in the 3rd grade out of beer can holders served as decoration on our front door. It looked good from the street... I think in the 3rd grade they referred to them as coke can holders but obviously now I know they were probably mostly from beer.

My parents and brothers came to visit us before Christmas and to see our house! It was great having them in town. We played games, watched movies and finished last minute shopping. The night before Christmas Eve we had some of Brandon's family over to our house to have Mexican food and to go look at Christmas lights and Rhema Bible College.

After going to the Christmas Eve service we went to Brandon's Dad's house to celebrate Christmas with his family. My family came along to crash the party.

Tacky sweaters and lots of awkward family photos

Grandpa and his great-grandson

Christmas morning was spent at our house with my family. Somehow I didn't take any pictures of our stocking hung by the chimney with care, or with them full after Santa came or opening any gifts at all. Santa left our present out in the garage. I'm ready for it to warm up so we can put it to use!

After breakfast, we packed our bags and headed to Dallas to see my Sister. She had to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas day so we headed south to spend the rest of Christmas Day with her. Needless to say we ran into a small snowstorm.

We arrived in Dallas safe and sound. Thank goodness for Saabaru all-wheel drive! That evening we went to a nice dinner out in Dallas. It was a nice change to have someone else cook you Christmas dinner. No dishes to wash!

The day after Christmas we headed to my parents house in New Mexico. My Mom's family were all coming to visit the following day. I think the final count was over 30. We spent the rest of the weekend eating, drinking, playing pub trivia, hanging out and building 999 piece awkward family photo puzzles together.

There was also another Cousin Cup soccer game. The first goals scored weren't by cousins at all but by girlfriends and in-laws. I guess we are just good at recruiting players.

Losers

Winners!

Missing a few cousins from the game if you can believe it!

It was good to be home!

After lots of the family headed home Brandon and I took Max on a hike. It was nice to get some fresh air and be out in nature. The trail was snow packed in some spots and it started to snow a little while we were out there.

Until next time New Mexico!

This was the first year that Brandon and I both had the week between Christmas and New Years off. It was so nice to have such a long break and to spend it with family.

xoxo

Kelly