Kitchen Inspiration

   Pinterest has probably driven husbands crazy and consumed hours upon hours and many ladies days. I can definitely say that is my case. I come home almost everyday with a new idea for our house! I love Pinterest and probably most definitely spend way too much time on there.

Ever since we first talked about our first home I knew the first thing I wanted to do was paint the kitchen cabinets white. The kitchen is the heart of the home and so much time is spent in there. It is also part of the home that almost everyone who visits will spend time in. So, that is why renovating our kitchen is first on the agenda! I started the process of sanding the cabinets a couple weeks ago and began priming them last week... It is a process that is for sure. But, I am hopeful that I do not completely screw this up. I have researched and researched the best paints and primers and read tutorial after tutorial. I hope to document my journey of painting the cabinets, but for now I wanted to document where my ideas and inspiration came from.

We have a fairly small kitchen and we don't really have a dining area, but we are going to make one! Farm house tables have been my favorite for forever. I just love the idea of having one big table for everyone to gather around. Since we do not have the space inside for a big farm table we are going to make a mini farm table and booth! I have been on the hunt for the perfect chairs and I love the aluminum or matte black chairs below.

We have a breakfast bar area and I can't decide if I want to paint it or incorporate some old wood like the picture above. I know that this area will need to be durable because there will be feet and dog prints and who knows what. We currently have wood floors throughout the house so we won't be changing any flooring in the kitchen. I am on the lookout for the perfect rug. I am loving all of the jute and sisal rugs. 

Our pantry currently has two wire shelves that don't hold much of anything so we will be completely redoing the inside. I am going to try to do something like this! I love the grey and white pattern and you can't beat some good organization. 

Pendant lights! I have been trying to find my most favorite and I think I have narrowed down my options. I would like to add one over the sink and two or three over our breakfast bar. We currently have three random lights in the kitchen as well as a fan.. there isn't even that much room on the ceiling so it just looks weird. Also, subway tile will be our backsplash! I can't wait to purchase that and get that going in. 

I hope to have a farmsink installed, but am looking for one on the cheaper side. We have also talked about new countertops. Right now we have really cheap formica, it is already coming off because they didn't even glue it on. But, we will see... I can live with the formica for now. 

We have an old screen door on our back porch and its pretty beat up. It would need some work, but I am really thinking about making it our pantry door! And as much as I love grey and white I am LOVING that pop of teal! 

*all of these pictures have been pinned on my Pinterest and you can find them and see the sources over there!

Our first home

     We have been living in our house for a little over two months. I am starting to feel more comfortable in it and it is feeling more like ours. I know making a house a home takes time and is a process, but I often times forget that and think that it should all happen over one weekend. It's been many weekends and I only just started putting stuff on the wall and we can finally say that we no longer have any leaks from any plumbing. I am going to go ahead and not hold my breath on that one... Seriously every day for two months someone (mainly my dad) was over working on a leak somewhere in this house.

I am starting to love our little home. I am moving on from the feelings of being claustrophobic in the small living area. I am also getting over the fact that my floors will always have paw prints, mud, dirt, sand, you name it on them.

With two dogs, one being a wild puppy, it's almost impossible to keep anything clean. The OCD clean person inside me is freaking out and the other part of me is singing "let it go" and laughing while watching the wild puppy jump from couch to couch. This crazy, unsure, not too comfortable season of life is where we are right now and I am learning to love it. I can only imagine what God is preparing my heart and mind for in the future with this season. On the daily I am texting cam at least 4 times asking when he is going to get home... because I just can't handle the dogs anymore.

And before you get too judgy just know that our yard has no fence other than the fence our neighbors put up. That means that my dogs, who normally listen fairly well, can explore and run just about every where. And that they do. I have to go to the back door every 5 minutes to make sure they have not disappeared. Once again, I know this is some type of lesson that I will need to have learned in the future and I will look back on this and roll my eyes out of my head.

Anyways... back to our Fixer Upper. I have a constant list of ideas and wants that pop into my head and am constantly texting Cam and my dad new plans. They both remind me that we have to go "one step at a time" and sometimes I want to throw something at them when they tell me that. But really our to do list right now consists of the following

• Mow and clean up the yard... the dogs do love playing in the grass that is taller than them, but we are starting to look like we abandoned the lot. Our yard is also full of just random stuff the previous owners left and we are contemplating what to do with it. I am itching to start our garden and flower beds! We have plum trees and a pecan tree in the front yard and I have big plans for the back yard.
• Paint kitchen cabinets- y'all I am getting my white cabinets! I cannot wait to share more about this... that would require me to take pictures, so I will get working on that. 
• Clean oven and fix the vent hood... we have been living like college students, running back and forth to our parents and eating pizza on the reg
• Fix front and back door... we have a beautiful old rickety screen door on the back porch and we have to figure out how to fix it so the door closes or get a new one. If we do get a new one I am hoping we can convert the old screen door into our pantry door!
• Speaking of pantry... we have to get that together too. It currently has two random shelves and that leaves no room for anything. I have big plans for that little pantry!

Next up... House inspiration and some before pictures!

House update

Oh, where to begin... I left off with snowy pictures of our house. Here we are almost a month of being home owners and there has been so much done and so much not done. It is actually hard to see what we actually have done because I kinda feel like it hasn't been much and then I feel like all we have done is work.

So what have we done... We cleaned and cleaned and cleaned some more and will continue to clean this weekend. Y'all, the house was empty for 6 months and I am not sure it was all that clean before they left, but dust stacks up that is for sure. We moved all of our furniture in. The living room and bedroom are the only rooms set up. We currently have boxes stacked on the walls of the other two bedrooms.

We fixed water leak after water leak and still have some to fix this coming weekend. I killed entirely too many spiders and unknown bugs. We have raked several piles of leaves and have about 400 more to rake. Cam mowed the grass it was so tall and it is so green!

Our kitchen cabinets need the shelves replaced and hung up so they remain empty. Our pantry has stuff in it, but with only two shelves its not much. That is a project for the coming days as well.

Our bedroom... we have a bed and two night stands! I put everything in our closet and it is semi organized.

I learned that I cannot function properly if everything in unorganized. So, before cleaning I had to organize those boxes of stuff in the extra rooms.

We bug bombed today so I am hoping to go home to dead bugs and no longer alive ones. Or really I would rather come home to no bugs.

Oh yeah... also we went on a trip to Arizona to watch some spring training games and we came home and picked up our puppy! You can go ahead and call us crazy! More about both of those later. For now meet Griffey Mav. :)

Snow days

Last week we started the week with ice and ended it with beautiful fluffy snow! Yep, we had another snow day! This time it was actual snow and oh so pretty. We ended up getting more than originally expected and it made for a mess of a moving weekend. We had to be out of our apartment on Saturday no matter what, but y'all we CLOSED on OUR house on Friday in a snow storm!

Yes, our God heard my prayers and gave me more than I could have imagined! I have been praying for a snow day since before Christmas and as you know we have been praying for this house to become ours. Well, I got both in the same day and it made for the prettiest first home picture!

We rented a Uhaul in the 5 inches of snow and with the help of all of our family we loaded it up and made the move to across town. Because of the moving we didn't get to really play in the beautiful fluffy snow, but I did take some awesome pictures.

Saturday the snow was covered in a sheet of ice and then it all melted and made for a muddy slushy mess. We are currently getting rain and are under another winter weather advisory and could have a 4th snow day tomorrow! I will keep my fingers crossed. I will also work on a house update! I did take some pictures of our fixer upper before we moved all of our stuff in!

We're buying a house!

   So for the past few years months Cam and I have been house hunting. We started this process sometime before Thanksgiving. If it wasn't for Cam I think we would be living in an apartment the rest of our lives... y'all I am the worst with patience and waiting and just everything that comes with house hunting. God has tested us and I think I have failed miserable, but I have learned so much. Thankfully Cam passes those tests with flying colors and is such a great leader. 

This season of life has been challenging and I hope I can keep growing and remembering the lessons I have learned throughout the process. Our God is a great God and he is always doing good, even if it's not what I wanted or planned. His plan is far greater than my own 

In hopes of finding our first home we were searching in the outskirts of town and looking for homes with some land or at least a back yard big enough for you to stand in. We actually didn't visit that many houses, two to be exact, but we looked online and in the ads for what I thought was forever... there's that patience thing again. In December we put an offer on the house and are hoping to close by the end of February. We have to be out of our apartment by the 28th, so we may be living with our parents by the end of the month. But, I am choosing to trust in God and believe that it will all happen on His timing and if he wants us to live with my parents then by golly that's what we will be doing. 

The house we put an offer on is a small 1220 sq. foot 3 bed 2 bath home built in 1940. It sits on a third of an acre and if the lake had water in it that would be across the street. So this Spring we will be praying for rain! Fill up the lakes! The house has a handful of trees, one big pecan tree right in the front. It is going to be our Fixer Upper. I kinda love it and I love that my husband is so proud and excited about it. I on the other hand I am negative nancy and need an attitude adjustment. Insert of gracious God... thankfully He and my husband extend grace because we all know I need it. 

I really am excited and have a whole list of things that I want done. Cam and I even have the same ideas for the house... for the most part! :) I am excited to be on this journey of life even if its crazy, chaotic, makes me bonkers and teaches me patience. With that being said we are set to close next week, yep I said last week that it would be this Wednesday, but that fell through. So, we are hopeful and crossing all fingers that next week will be the week! It's all in God's hands. 

Here is a sneak peak