Oh Hai!

Murray Farms Corn Maze

Well then. It seems like I have fallen off the face of the earth hasn't it? Well I haven't. Life has just completely got in the way and sitting at the slowest computer on the planet doesn't sound like something I am interested in doing these days.

Things have just been a whirlwind these days. The first month of living in our home we were commuting and hour and a half and two hours respectively. Once we started our new jobs things settled down, but our new schedules are a little hectic with both of us working Saturdays, and split days off seem to be having us running a little harried. We try to spend lots of time with Emma on the days we have with her. We have taken her to the Pumpkin patch, she's experienced her first snowfall and are just settling into our home with all the holiday decor up. We are loving life in our new home and just trying to find the balance finding time for everything. It's hard, but we are making it work.

The house is coming together. If you follow me on Instagram (lil_birdie_emma0701) then you will get a weekly, sometimes daily update of what life looks like around these parts. I am going to try and get a weekly post up over here. That way your all not missing out on things over here, but still can get a taste into our lives. Lil miss is transitioning into a one nap lady, and it tends to be pretty short so getting in a post while she sleeps will be hard. Lol.

Were slowly decorating and fixing little issues around the house, It's a good thing I work in a home improvement store.....and get a discount. My goodness there's lots of things you need when you own a home! We bought an island and a credenza for our kitchen, some shelving and a new rug. We still need to figure out how to make the office/guest room function as an office/guest room before my step mom makes the trip in March. I have ideas so I hope they work out and I hope to do a post when its finished.

New credenza and shelving for the dining room

Were hosting Christmas eve with my parents this year so I am off to research new and easy recipes to make for that. The hubby requested turkey.....so I guess I will me making my first ever Turkey. Wish me luck! Well I think that's all I can think of for this ramble post. Here's a couple of photos!

My beauty watching the bubbles!

His happy place.

Our first snowfall!

The Kitchen Island

Two posts in two days! Ya'll I'm feeling a little crazy over here! Hehe. Yesterday I posted the home improvement list and I wanted to take the time to share a couple of little things that we have already done to improve on our living space! We bought a mobile island and the handy hubby put it together! I'm kinda really excited to finally have an island. Having a functional work space in your kitchen is crucial to cooking effectively. If you have ever lived in apartments, you know that they are never effective use of space. In our last apartment the kitchen was coupled with the laundry room, so our hamper was constantly in the way of either the fridge or the the pantry. It was so frustrating. Having an open concept kitchen is nice, but we needed something to be able to make it function better and also more storage space.

Initially I wanted this island (this post is not sponsored by Wayfair) because of the closed cabinet storage and the knife rack in the island. But when I went to order it, the price went up about $60. Boo, of course the price is back down now. So I went perusing and I found the one we actually purchased. It has open storage in the middle so we can't put anything breakable in there because of small fingers, but I thought that it looked very similar to our existing cabinets and the hardware, even though its similar, can be changed out to match. I also like the look of the "butcher block" counter top. I'm considering tying that color wood with these shelves from Ikea on the dining room wall.

Please excuse the mess! Where still moving. Baxton Studio Meryland Modern Kitchen Cart from Wayfair.

Another thing we took on was replacing the lighting in the kitchen. The can lights are new, but I just couldn't understand why when they were on why it felt so HOT in there. Last weekend the hubby pulled a bulb out to see and low and behold Halogen bulbs. No wonder. Halogen bulbs are more cost effective than incandescent but they are twice as hot! UGH! Off to the home improvement store we went to buy some LED bulbs for our cans. Of course they only had one in a Par 30 size so we went with compact fluorescent instead. Then I had the discussion with the hubby about color temperatures. All the existing bulbs in the house are a soft warm light....similar to an incandescent bulb. I hate that pink glow that it casts so I asked him which kind of light he preferred. Soft warm, or a daylight. The smart man chose daylight, I knew I married him for his brains, and off we went with new 5000K CFL bulbs. I don't have a great comparison shot but here's a photo when we bought the house:

See the pink cast that is all over the cabinets and floor? Warm (2700K) bulbs. And I mean warm in both the literal and visual sense. When we installed the new bulbs, it was instantly cooler and just felt better.

Problem is now, that PINK paint! That's next on the to do list! What little home improvements can you all suggest for a big impact?

The Inevitable House List

With an older home comes an inevitable list of improvements that need to be done. I know I went over things that needed to be done in our last post, but the hubby keeps adding things to do, so I figured I would put together a list that we could add to and I could reference back and link up if I actually do a DIY or room tour post! So here's what were thinking, and remember that this is a dream list also:

Front Exterior/Entry:

• Replace Front Door
• Replace Door Handle & add deadbolt
• Replace Exterior lighting
• Add a flagpole
• Update planters and walkway 

Dining Room:

• Re-paint walls
• Replace light bulbs in ceiling fan and entry light
• New sideboard
• New rug
• Update blinds
• Provide storage for entry

Kitchen:

• Re-paint walls
• Update backspash
• Add shelf over window
• New window curtains/valance 
• Remove French doors and move into the play room, frame out opening
• Update glides on cabinet drawers
• Hook up waterline to refrigerator
• Build mobile island 
• Remove existing phone jack and patch
• Update lighting/bulbs (existing are halogen and its ridiculously hot)

Playroom:

• Re-paint walls
• Update slider/add French doors
• Update window
• Update lighting and add additional lighting
• Provide new storage cabinets
• Update sprinkler system pad

Living Room:

• Re-paint walls
• Add down lights
• Check wood burning stove for functionality
• Add Built-in storage
• Add wainscot or picture rail
• Add blinds to slider
• Possibly convert slider to French doors

Emma's/Guest Bath:

• Re-Paint walls
• Update exhaust fan
• Re-paint cabinet
• Replace medicine cabinet
• Install new toilet paper holder
• Update glides on cabinet drawers

Office/Guest Bedroom:

• Re-paint walls
• New desk layout
• New Twin bed with storage

Emma's Room:

• Re-paint walls
• Finish decorating
• Add another hanging rail and more closet organization

Master Bedroom:

• Re-Paint walls
• Re-organize closet storage
• Add additional down lights
• Possibly convert slider to French doors

Master Bath:

• Re-paint walls
• Re-do closet storage
• Update glides on cabinet drawers
• Replace medicine cabinet
• Replace pocket door, new hardware
• Install towel rod and toilet paper holder
• Install shelving in toilet room
• Replace window

Backyard (The big dream):

• Re-do planters
• Level ground
• Seed for grass
• Re-paint decking
• Create pergola's over all exterior doors
• Add overhead hanging bulb lights
• Built in BBQ
• Swingset
• Dog house
• Sand and refinish existing benches

This is the dream list. By no means do we think that all this will happen, but I forsee the DIY stuff coming along nicely. But first, finish unpacking!