Thursday, August 29, 2013

Get out old... New is taking over

Somehow saying "Out with the Old, In with the New" just didn't seem to do it justice for me.

I am loving the home owning experience. With pinterest.com and a million decorating magazines everywhere I look, it is SO easy to get overwhelmed with ideas. However, I love it. All of it. I know that half the ideas will never come to life, and the majority will be shot down by the hubs... but the ones that we do act on will be awesome!

Here are three things we are working on: My Office, The Kitchen and Our Living Room. Why the rooms have official capitalized titles, I am not sure.

My Office:

I said, "Goodbye" to the white fan that was in the room when we purchased it. It reminded me of a child's fan... small, solid white, and with an enclosed lighting system... one tiny little bulb that did NOTHING as far as lighting the room is concerned. Luckily, while at Lowes looking for grill items, I ventured over to fans and the beautiful fan I ended up choosing was on sale. I shopped Lowes, several other stores, and returned a few days later to purchase the fan. I call this the Morenus way of shopping... I'm starting to get used to Tyler's "think on it" method! The base of the fan perfectly matches my black-brown "espresso" office furniture and the blades, wood grain, add the perfect adult taste... in my opinion. Did I mention that the fan actually cools down the room now and the lights actually light the room... Amazing!


 


The Kitchen:

When touring the home before purchasing it, the kitchen is one of the things that made me want it. So beautiful. The previous home owner had upgraded the kitchen already so not much at all was needed to be done. But every room deserves a little personal touch. While shopping at Pier One a week ago, I found an awesome Tea Cup drawer pull for... 18 CENTS! LITERALLY PENNIES... 18 of them! This is one tool-required house project I tackled on my own! I only changed the one cabinet that stores all of our cups. You can see that the tea cup is a bronze-brown color and the remaining cabinet knobs are silver... who cares :). Maybe i'll change the other knobs later on!



Our Living Room:

As much as I love to decorate, when we moved in I could not come up with ANYTHING different than what the previous home owner had done in regards to furniture placement in our living room. The room requires furniture to float as there is a carpeted section outlined by hardwoods (laminate). So our couch and loveseat took the same home as before. However, Tyler and I both wanted to change the TV situation. A TV mount was left in the corner of the room, and before milk was added to the fridge Tyler had one of our TVs mounted. For months we searched for a piece of corner furniture that would either host the TV or stand just below a mounted TV. We never bought anything because we never loved the idea. THEN... drum roll... I found two bookcases FOR FREE. Our neighbors were getting rid of bookcases and offered them to us... for free. I took them. 9 foot tall, solid wood, glass front doors, bottom cabinets, with lighting already in the inside. We walked the entire house with the tape measure, that evening, trying to figure out where 9 foot tall cabinets would go... but the ceilings in our home only allowed for them to go in our living room and only in one place due to the number of windows we have; AROUND THE MANTEL! So excited! Tyler and his dad mounted the TV above the mantel and fixed all the holes in the walls that the mount and other nails/screws left. During the process, Tyler tried to loosen the mantel so he could shave down the edges, eventually allowing the bookcases to sit flush with the mantel... and the mantel collapsed to the floor. SO... right now we have no mantel and we have two bookcases in our... garage (on their side... too tall to stand)... waiting to be stained. When the living room project is finished... it is going to be AMAZING! Here is the before photo, but you'll have to look back for the after!



Today's bible verse comes from an adorable Celebrating Homes plaque I purchased with our family name printed on it. "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord" Joshua 24:15.

*I have no clue how to flip this... appears flipped until posted in blog*