Our Home So Far

Moving and unpacking has been an adventure. We've managed to get the necessities taken care of. Right now we have a fully functional bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, living room, and laundry room. Our office is mostly functional. Graham managed to get everything hooked up, and while there are still boxes in that room, most of them are books, so once we get me some bookcases that room will look completely different.

Our guest bedroom is still a mess of boxes, though we don't have any guests and don't have any guest bedroom furniture, so it's not like we're way behind. Our basement isn't functional in the way we envision it to be, and we don't have any furniture down there right now. Someday we're hoping for a family room and welcoming, warm "party space", but right now it's just a few empty bookcases, a dresser that needs to be painted, and lots of liquor. And our dining room? Still a mess. Thankfully we don't have any dining room furniture. Any boxes we have that are still packed aren't really necessities. Most of them are things that will end up in the man cave once Graham really dedicates some time to that. But for the time being, here are a few photos of our new digs (taken because I had a snow day and decided to clean, thus deaming my home photo-worthy).

Our bathroom. We only have one right now, though our plan for the future is to add another upstairs or downstairs. The previous owner dedicated this "the yellow room" because everything...the tiles, the shower curtain, the window curtains, the fixtures...was yellow. As you can see, we've managed to change some of that, but it's still not "us" so a paint job/remodel is in our future.

My/our hopes and dreams for the bathroom include:

• Taking out the sink and adding a vanity with storage and drawers under the sink.
• Radient flooring
• Raising all the towel rods a few inches so we're not bending over to wash our hands and dry them (this is mostly for Graham's benefit, not mine).
• Replacing the toilet with a low-flow model.
• Replacing the light fixture with something a little less dated, a little more us, and very much less blinding.
• Repainting and re-tiling. Ultimately, I don't dislike the yellow, I'd just like to touch it up. It's sponge painted (poorly) and looks a little dingy. Painting over it with a lighter yellow (somewhere between dingy and Easter pastels) is an option. I'm also a fan of green, though if we chose green I'd like it to be a deep, invigorating color (though not so bright we're blinded and reminded of Kermit everytime we have to brush our teeth).

Here are some photos of our bedroom. It's barely smaller than our previous bedroom, and the closet is huuuuuuuuuuge. I had to move my vanity to the guest bedroom (sniff) because the arrangement of the windows meant that my vanity would block out some of the light. Someday if we rearrange the furniture, maybe there will be some room for it, or maybe it can make an appearance once we get a completely matching bedroom set. However, Graham gave me his vanity to use, and since this set originally belonged to a woman at the turn of the 19th century, I'm okay with it. Please ignore the pile of Graham's clothes on the bed. At least I did laundry, right?

Our/my plans and hopes and dreams for the bedroom are:

• Repainting this spring and replacing the bright green with something else.
• Ripping up the ugly green carpet.
• Getting new window treatments (putting in shades and replacing beige floral drapes with something else).
• Updating the ceiling fan (either a new fixture completely or just taking out the floral, decorative glass and getting something new).
• Maybe installing some crown mouldings.

For the bedroom, we're going to accomplish a lot of it this spring. Graham is off for a few weeks in March, and I've got a week off at the beginning of April, so painting and carpet-ripping will make a huge difference, and the rest of it are things I can do on my week off. I haven't actually asked, but I've got a feeling that Graham could care less about picking out drapes.

So....a few glimpses of our home. Once the Christmas tree comes down I'll post photos of our front room. It's a total mess right now, even though I cleaned and organized and everything today. Where does all this crap come from?