Back in Business + A House Update!

It's back to business around here and it feels so good. We spend all of July and most of August in transition mode as we waited to close on and move into our house. Thanks to a dear family friend, we had a comfy place to stay and call home for a few weeks- and the next door neighbors were the best! (thanks for all the fun dinners, Mom & Dad!) We couldn't have asked for anything more but by the time our closing date rolled around, we were more than ready to move into our house! And we moved in just in time to celebrate our second wedding anniversary last Tuesday. I still cannot believe that it has been two beautiful years filled with so much love!

Our kitchen has been unpacked since almost the moment we moved into our house and we are finally back to our "normal routine".  Meal planning, anyone!? (one of my favorite weekly activities) I'm looking forward to trying new recipes, enjoying old favorites, and hosting family and friends for dinner parties in our new home!

Now, for a quick house update- it's finally starting to feel like HOME. The boxes have been unpacked, closets have been organized, furniture has been placed and there is still room to spare! Thankfully, all of our Christmas decorations also have ample storage and are safe and sound in their place. 

We are in love with our house! It is the perfect home for us and our neighborhood is just wonderful- everyone has been so friendly and welcoming. We are also in a fantastic location that allows us to take advantage of some of the most wonderful parts of The Queen City. 
I really believe that we ended up in the perfect place. 

While our house was pretty much move-in ready, there are a few things we have on our "home makeover" list that will really put our touch on it. Since those things also cost money, we have been focusing on quicker fixes for now to make it feel like ours. In just a few weeks time, most of the house has been painted which makes such a HUGE difference. I'm now a firm believer in the power of paint! When we moved in, our house was filled with nice pastel shades that looked better in an Easter basket than on our walls! Mark and I painted our bedroom before we moved in and this weekend we had a painter here who did our foyer, kitchen, dining room and main living spaces. I have been obsessing over paint since before we bought our house and I really don't know what I would have done without blogs and Pinterest! It's so nice to have resources for this. For my walls, I really wanted warm, neutral colors that are light and breezy, but also calming. I also knew that I wanted everything to flow nicely with not too much variation in color from one room to the next. All of our paints came from Benjamin Moore and I'm in LOVE with the colors. The guys at our local Benjamin Moore paint store were a huge help as well as friends who recommended specific colors (thanks, Kelli! Vapor Trails is my favorite!) 

We painted our family room, kitchen & foyer in Vapor Trails. Our dining room is painted Revere Pewter and with the white molding detail in this room, the color looks amazing! Our formal living room which really won't even be a formal living room when we get done with it, is also painted this color. We painted Mark's office Spanish Olive- I think it's a handsome and manly greenish grey. I knew for months that our room would be painted dreamy Gray Wisp- also known as Restoration Hardware Blue. I love this color in our room with our dark chocolate furniture and white bedding. We still have a few rooms to tackle on our own! Chelsea Gray is going in our hall bathroom. With the creamy white vanity I think this will be a fun place to incorporate this rich color. 

Above is the kitchen looking into the Dining Room. I still can't believe what a difference a fresh coat of paint makes! It feels like a new house. My friend Amanda said it's like watching the house you bought transform into the house that you love- it's SO TRUE. 

It's going to be one project at a time around here, but the beauty of it is that we are in no rush and we can really take our time to do what we want! Next on the list is creating a gallery wall for a hallway and finding a comfortable wicker sectional so that we can enjoy our screened in porch. In between recipes and tasty bites, I hope to have more projects and pictures to post soon. I'm so looking forward to making our space home sweet home!