The official unveiling!

We've been in our house for about a month and a half now, and we've been working hard to make it feel like home. In a previous post, I mentioned that I would be posting pictures of the changes we were making, but I never got around to it. I guess I wanted everything to be done and perfect before I showed it all off to the internet world. While things are far from perfect (and will be for a long time), we got quite a bit done in preparation for our housewarming party this last Saturday. And I figure if I can show off my house to my local family and friends, it's about time I show some pictures to my distant family and friends. So...

This is the moment you've all been waiting for!

Some of the first things we changed after we got into the house (other than the magenta fireplace) were the light fixtures.

The before (top) and the after (bottom) of the hall, kitchen, and dining room lights. If you can't tell from the pictures, the old fixtures were brass and dark iron colored, and the new ones are brushed silver.

Not much has changed in the living room, but it looks different with our furniture and art in it.

It was exciting to put all my strawberry accessories up in my kitchen. While the green will not be permanent, it doesn't look too bad with the green on the strawberries.

Notice my beautiful mixer on the counter. She's happy there.

One of the changes I'm most proud of is in the dining room. The previous owners had some odd, mismatched curtains hanging, but I knew they had to go. So I made some new ones.

The before and after of my dining room.

Though there's really nothing special about it, one of my favorite rooms is the basement. We have our old college furniture down there, and it really feels a lot like our apartment we had in Emporia. Oh, how I miss college...

We didn't do much to the guest bedroom, and yet it looks pretty nice:


My craft room is definitely functional (see the pretty curtains I made above), but it's not the most beautiful room in the house. Though I'm sure it was loved by the little girl who lived here.

My craft room will not stay this color for very long. I promise.

It's crazy how much putting art on the walls can change the feel of a home. We put up all our vacation pictures in our hallways, and now it really feels like our place.

We only made minor changes in the bathrooms.

We added some art and shelves to the half bath.

I made a little "shower valance" for our master bath. Because there's no door, the air would just flow right into the shower making me cold. But not any more.

For outside, we purchased a nice patio set and fire pit. And Matt's gigantic grill, of course.

We still have some painting and other changes to make in a couple rooms, so I'll continue to post pictures as we continue to do work. But now you've seen most of our new house!

As for our housewarming party, it was a success. Yet again, I forgot to take a picture of the TONS of food we made. Matt grilled and I made sides and snacks. It was a lot of fun to just enjoy being in our new house.

Toasting to our new home, and many happy years in it!

So sleepy...

Well, it's almost bedtime, but if I don't post something now, I'm not sure if I will anytime soon. This last week has been pretty busy, and I haven't had much of a chance to update. And I only have a little bit of time before I pass out from exhaustion so: quick post, and then to bed.

First, the weekend before last, we went to a Colorado Rapids game. This was going to be a post of its own, but new house stuff has monopolized my time. So I'm a little late. But it was pretty awesome. Neither Matt nor I had ever been to a soccer game, or really gotten into the sport in the past. But now we both are liking it.

Dick's Sporting Goods Park

We won! 2-1 against the Kansas City Wizards. It was kinda fun to be rooting against Matt's brother's team.

Matt's hat was probably confusing to people, since we were playing KC. But I promise he rooted for the Rapids.

I was very, VERY cold. But it was fun.

Last Tuesday, WE CLOSED ON OUR HOUSE!

At the closing.

We got into our house for the first time Friday night. And I'm warning you, the following picture of me is extremely frightening, but it captures the exact moment we first stepped into our house, when Matt carried me over our threshold. So... don't make fun of me too much because it was very exciting.

I brought bread and salt because my aunt told me about some tradition involving bread and salt. It was fun.

That's a better picture of us in our new house.

Since then, we've been spending all our time at our new place. We won't officially move in until this Saturday, but we've been changing light fixtures and painting, etc.

We spent some money at Home Depot. Mostly on light fixtures.

And Matt got a nice, giant grill that he put together this weekend. He was very excited.

I'll have many more house pictures over the next few days. We've already gotten rid of the magenta fire place, so I'll be excited to show you that picture soon!

And finally, I'll leave you with a picture of a good-looking fireman. The fire department came to my school today. The kids loved it, and so did most of the women teachers. A little too much I would say...

And now, to bed.

It's really happening!

Well we had our inspection, which went awesome. And we had our appraisal which is enough to get us our loan. So, we can't really back out now. We're buying a house!!

And I have more pictures.

The living room.

Another view of the kitchen.

From the dining room.

The basement.

Yay!! We wont move in for another month or so. Then I'll have fun pictures of the house without strangers' furniture in it. Yay!!

I guess we're buying a house!

So, the homeowners didn't accept our offer. But they countered just a little bit higher, and we're ok with that. That means we're now under contract!


So now we have inspections and appraisals to worry about. If all goes well, we'll have a new house!

House hunting is way too easy...

Matt and I just started looking for a house! Our lease on our apartment isn't up until July, but we figured it might take a while to find a place we like. We were aiming to close on a house in May or June.

So, in the middle of January we met with a realtor. We made a plan to start looking in February, after I finished my ridiculous costuming. Last Thursday, we went out to look at houses for the first time. The idea was just to get ideas of what sort of thing we're looking for. We saw eight properties, some were pretty good and some were... not. But we began to get a feel for what's out there in the market, and it was a lot of fun!

Monday, we went out again to see a few more houses. And surprisingly, we found one we really liked. We were very hesitant about it, though. We weren't quite ready to put in an offer since we'd only been looking for a few days. And the house had some things we weren't sure of. For example, the living room was long, narrow, and akward.

We weren't sure how we would arrange our furniture in the akward room. But we like the large kitchen, an additional loft "bonus room," and the low PRICE. We asked my folks to meet us on Thursday to take a look at the place and get their opinion.

But Timmie (our realtor) wanted to show us a couple more houses before we went back to the one we liked. So on Thursday afternoon, we went to a neighborhood REALLY close to my
parents' to see a few places. And there, we fell in love.

We ended up asking my parents to meet us at this new house instead. They agreed that this house was basically awesome. It had a good sized kitchen...

... that opened up to a large open living room.

The master suite was nice and large:

And the yards were well-landscaped:

The house has a finished basement, four bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, and a 2-car garage.

This house cost a little more than the other, but it was easy to see why. The other house is a nice starter home that we would be happy in for maybe five years. This house is one we could stay in for years and years.

So on Thursday night, exactly one week after we first started looking, we decided to put an offer on a house.

We put it all together today, and we'll hear back tomorrow if they accepted it.

I can't believe how easy it was to find a house we love. We knew there was a possibility that we'd find one sooner than expected, but we didn't think it would ever be this fast! Unfortunately, now we're at the hard part. A lot could still happen that could make this whole thing fall through. So we're trying not to get too excited, but we're hopeful!

And now we wait...