The Big Move & Our New Home!

Well, it's done! We've officially moved and, amazingly enough, lived through it to tell the story.

Moving has got to be the most exhausting, daunting task... maybe ever.

Right when you think you've got about everything done, you have 4 more carloads full of crap to deal with.

By the end of all of it, I was ready to just burn everything and start over again with whatever we would find out we needed along the way.

These past few months have been chuck full of lots of excitement; one of the biggest being my little brother getting married! He's the last sibling in our family to get hitched, and we are SO happy for him and his beautiful new wife!

School is out, and the twins have successfully completed 2nd grade, measuring in at a whopping 4 feet 9 inches tall.

whaaaaat the heck!? 

I'm so happy it's Summer time and they can wear shorts. I was DONE trying to find pants that actually fit them correctly, and that they didn't grow out of in a matter of weeks!

Aubrielle is officially DONE with half day school after 4 years of preschool and kindergarten. This might be one of the happiest days of BOTH of our lives. LOL.

I can't tell you how READY this chick is for first grade, and all day school. This is what happens when you have an October birthday and miss the next years school cutoff registration date by a few days each year.

Currently she is obsessed with "chapter books" and has demanded that we read at LEAST two pages a night so that she can become the best reader in her new class, once it starts. ha!

Oh! and of course if you couldn't tell, we also lost our FIRST front tooth :)

Kicking your Home up a Notch!

We get asked all the time, "Your house is so beautiful are you ever going to move?" Well, that’s a hard question to answer given that we love our home, but also want to move closer to a bunch of things we feel sort of far from, here in the valley.
Usually though, we respond with, "We would love to move, if we could pick our house up and move it with us!" :)

Along with that question, we also get asked all the time about the things that we think would be most impactful to help boost the sales of other peoples homes. Every home, area and neighborhood is different; you can check out Homes.com for a great resource to see what the home values in your area are like right now; but for the most part, there are a handful of helpful tips that you can use, just to kick up the value and sellability factor of your home, that much more.

KITCHEN

cabinet refacing

For us, when we look at homes, the first thing we check out is the kitchen. If the kitchen doesn't at least have decent structure, layout and a good overall design, there is no sense at looking further... and I know we aren't alone. So think about YOUR kitchen. Does it need a facelift? Well if it does, don't get overwhelmed by this undertaking, think about the small things that can give you a great look for less.

Matching Appliances: It’s not pleasing to the eye to walk into a kitchen and see a white fridge, black dishwasher and a stainless steel range. In some instances to save a few bucks, consider seeing if you can reface your appliances. Many times you don't need to replace the entire unit, work with the manufacturer’s and see if they have a different faceplate that would match your other appliances.

Kitchen Faucet: Change out your faucet for something that would help sell your kitchen. Look into gooseneck faucets, touch faucets and more statement-type pieces. Spend a little more money here and you can create a big impact.

farmhouse sink project & here

Modern, Whimsical, Gold Christmas Decor - Our Holiday Home Tour

We're finally sharing our little 2013 Christmas decor home tour today!

This year we decided to go with LOTS of gold and neutral accents, vintage/whimsical touches here and there, and of course some modern flair thrown in too.

If you've missed our Christmas decor or projects in the past, you can see those in full detail by clicking on the icons below.

  

  

  

I have to say that this years theme, has definitely been one of my all-time favorites :)

I know that a lot of you will have questions about where things are from or how they were made, so I've included a quick reference list at the end of this post for that.

Enjoy!

Elegant and Timeless Girly Bedroom Makover

I've got a horrible habit of showing small projects and corners of spaces, but not entire rooms once they're finished, so I'm trying to get better at that :)

Well, Aubrielle's elegant, girly bedroom is totally complete, and I'm so thrilled to finally share it in it's entirety!

Rug - DownEast Home, from Pottery Barn

Aubrielle loves all things pink and princess-like, so I wanted to make sure that the colors were light, airy and happy in her space, without going full-on character princess... if that makes sense. I love decor and design that can last and grow WITH us, so finding ways to incorporate the things my kids love, but in a timeless, classy way is always the challenge for me.

Dresser - thrifted for $120 and refinished

We painted this room with bright white on the bottom, where the trim was, and Glidden's Autumn Haze on the top. This is also the same color we have the most of our home. It's a fantastic, creamy neutral :)
A while ago I picked out this dresser from my friend Sausha, who worked her magic and helped me take it from outdated, to shabby chic, with light, powder-blue paint, a little distressing and crystal knobs.

Tall Arrows - Fletcher and Fox

Blogger Summer Tour of Homes - AKA: Major Eye Candy

Summer is totally throwing off my blogging groove. Anyone else?

I swear there are at least three days in the week where I catch myself thinking it's Saturday, instead of Tuesday, Wednesday or some other day in the middle of the week. Having all my kids home, sunny weather and a BILLION projects to do, makes for little if no time for sitting in front of a computer.

That being said, I forced myself to sit down today to put together this post, because I couldn't let one more day pass by without sharing it.

If you know Gina from The Shabby Creek Cottage, then consider yourself lucky... and if you don't, you've been missing out. Gina's blog is filled to the brim with great tips and tricks for DIY'ers, decorators and craft enthusiasts of all levels. She's always got great ideas for posts, and this Summer was no different. With the help of an armful of other fabulous, talented, stylish bloggers, Gina organized one of the BEST Summer Home Tours that I've seen!

The houses of these amazing bloggers will blow you away. And while I couldn't get my act together enough to join in on the home tour fun, I definitely didn't want YOU to miss out on seeing it. So below, I've listed all the amazing bloggers who took part in this fun series, and wanted to encourage you to go check them each out. Countless hours were spent prepping for the photos they had to take, editing them, and writing up their posts, so if you have some time, head on over and give all or even just a few of them some major comment and Pinterest love!

They totally deserve it.

  

  

  

  

 

Our Home Tour - Kitchen and Living Room

For the next part of our home tour I wanted to share our main living areas, the living room and kitchen. This is the area in our home that gets the most traffic by far, and they are both very closely connected, because of our homes completely open floor plan.

If you've been following along on our home tour this month then you know that our house was previously styled in a much darker, Tuscan-type look. 

    

By simply changing (mostly) paint and adding new decor, we've transitioned into a considerably lighter, happier, airier feel. Listed below are all the ways that we accomplished this look in our main space.

Our Home Tour - Hallway and Main Bathroom

If you missed our past tour posts, you can visit them below:

   

On our last home tour post, you saw the exterior and interior entryway of our home and how it made a huge transformation, so today, I thought we'd take you a little further inside and show you our hallway and main bathroom makeovers! Since our narrow hallway was a direct extension of our entryway, we wanted to make it feel like everything flowed well and appeared as large, bright and airy as possible.