Home Update

We have the bulk of our 'home updates' complete so I thought I'd post some pics. Most of the rooms are nothing major, but the added elements really brought the house together.

Here's the front room. Our friends had bought a house last summer and these lights were hanging from their massive ceilings. They were going to throw them away so we swiped em up and have been waiting to get these hung. It finally happened and we LOVE them! The master electrician made me soooo happy and didn't do any drywall damage, he was amazing! (The pictures don't do them justice.) And they look even cooler when they are all lit up. A picture also got hung by the front door...


On the big brown wall I have been envisioning some 'wall circles'. I found them online when we moved in and finally made the purchase. I still need to design on the computer how I want them to look on the wall so that is still to come. But my inspiration was this layout...

I think they'll look pretty much awesome on the brown wall...

Here is a picture of the back part of the front room (BEFORE)...

We had these bookcases in our office (in our Georgia house) and I've never loved them in this house. So they were placeholders until we could put Adam's Church book collection in a new entertainment center. Once that was purchased a few weeks ago, we sold the bookshelves on Craigslist. We debated about putting a nice looking office desk there with the computer but that got thrown out when I could not find the perfect desk. So instead we found the perfect frames (from Aaron Brothers) that are the right brown I was looking for and super plain looking. If you know me, you know I'm not into frills and ruffles in my decor: I like it clean and modern! Another addition to this room is the PIANO!!!!

This was my Valentine's present, well not really but we made the purchase the Saturday before Valentine's so it made my day. Adam has been looking for a piano on Craigslist for months now. Nothing really caught my eye, colors weren't right or the look wasn't right. I wanted either a really dark brown piano or a white one to match the decor of course! Well last week Adam found a piano on Craigslist and knew it was the one for me...boy was he right. I instantly loved it from the pictures - white and contemporary looking. They wanted it gone by the weekend (February 12th) because the daughter was flying in to move her 90 year old parents into a nursing home (her father owned the piano for 25 years and could no longer play it). So we went to see it that Saturday (the 12th) and we both LOVED it even more in person. Talk about pristine condition, not a scratch or dent on that baby. We ended up making the purchase that day and found ourselves piano-owners, kind of crazy. Adam jokes that he was looking for quality and I was looking for style. Well we both got what we wanted I guess. It fits our style perfectly, I couldn't be happier. And it's already proven to be very therapeutic for me. I have found myself getting frusturated, overwhelemed, or stressed so I'd sit down and play; instant relief allowing me to focus on what I needed to get done. I'm loving this new addition!!!!!



Living Room...new wall unit (mentioned in a post before about the Besta series from ikea). We were able to custom design it somewhat, deciding width, height, space for tv, doors, and colors (still thinking about painting the area behind the tv a dark brown giving it a full wall unit look. You might wonder why the area around the TV is so huge...Adam didn't want any space restraints for when we buy our next TV - which is not in our near future but he wanted his options open :). I wanted all hidden cabinets on bottom (housing office stuff, DVDs, blankets, toys, and coming soon: diapers & wipes). I then wanted bookshelves on the sides to hold Adam's books. We added in our own little style with the three white doors. I'm quite happy with how it turned out. (It looks extremely black in the pictures. But it is the black/brown color with brown throughout the wood grain as well. I've convinced my eye that it is super dark brown :) pulling off our dark wood floors and the dark leather on our couch). We also decided to put a small desk next to it to house my new computer (my G4 Powerbook was on the outs so it was a much needed update).


My parents drove down a chair from Grandpa's house last Fall. Adam loved it from the day he first went inside my Grandpa's house (9 years ago!) so we were super happy to become the new owners of this beauty. It needs to be reupholstered in the future but is the perfect fit. We also need 2 or so more frames for that wall and more color, maybe a plant next to the chair...


Next up, Lincoln's room. Here is the before... (sad huh!)

The only thing in his room has been Kenedee's old toddler bed that he slept in. I definitely wanted him to have his new bed before the baby came so I've been searching for months now. I actually bought his bedding a year ago when we moved in which is why the colors in the room are they way they are. (I love his bedding!)

The plan was the put a double/full bed in the room for the two boys to eventually share and would also be the guest bed. Once we found out we were having a boy Adam made it well aware that he did not want our boys sharing a bed so I had to re-figure out what to do in there and by another bedspread in case I needed two (which ended up working out since I found out Boodalee was then going out of business and the bedding was now 80% off!). We found a sweet bunk bed with a full bed on bottom, twin bunk on top. But when we came home and measured his room to see if it would work, the fan went half way into the top bunk. And no fan in our Arizona house is not an option. So the bunk bed got thrown out. So it left us with two twin beds but I found the PERFECT beds and couldn't be happier with how they look in there. I was able to use the 'full' bedding on the one and bought a 'twin' for the other. I also found these gray black-out curtains at Walmart that match perfectly, bonus!


(Obviously his walls are super bare, so those added elements will have to come later).

And lastly, Kenedee's room. Nothing major was done to her room. The gray black-out curtains matched her bedding too. I've been wanting to create some artwork for her walls as well. Her bedding is made up of animal graphics but there are three icons that aren't animals. So I re-drew those on the computer, printed them out, and framed them. They turned out perfect!!!



I also framed these pictures and put them on the opposite wall. The one of her and Adam is my favorite!

So there you have it...our house is finally coming together! Just in time for baby!!!