Coming together (in my head)

First of all, hook 'em horns! Congrats to my Longhorns on their win Saturday against OU. It wasn't pretty, but I will take it! Keep it up, guys!

As far as the house goes, I only have mental progress to report, but there's a lot of it. And know that almost all of the mental images I've described in the past have changed quite a bit!

The week before last, I spent every evening after work at paint stores agonizing over swatches and what samples to take home. The walls are looking pretty schizophrenic around here with rashes of various colors splotched about. Last Sunday The Redhead and I finally collected some gallons of paint to have ready for whenever we can get to them. We weren't able to do any painting last week or weekend, but hopefully we can at least do some spackling and taping this week and get some accomplished after work...someday... Here are the colors we purchased (keeping in mind that once we get the rooms painted, we may adjust our ideas [again]).

Living room: Popped Corn by Behr


I actually never bought a sample of this, but I did buy samples of a white that was cooler than Popped Corn and one that was warmer. I wasn't totally happy with either of those I tried so I thought Popped Corn was a good compromise. By this time I was so tired of trying samples and looking at swatches, I went ahead and bought the gallons without sampling first. So there.

I decided on white for the living room because there are so many rooms that come off of it (study, kitchen, dining room and the stairway wall continues into the room in columns around the entryway), it really needed to be a neutral that could have accessories that tie those rooms together. I think white walls can be so crisp and fresh and make furniture and accessories pop. Plus, knowing me, I will want to change out the accessories from time to time to change the feel of the room. White walls will make that so much easier to accomplish.

I just love the color blue, but couldn't bring myself to have a totally blue living room. I mean, that would be A LOT of blue! To incorporate the color without it being overwhelming, I decided that the kitchen and study will be blue, then I can bring their blue into the living room with curtains, which will look so fresh against the white walls. Here's an example below from Cote de Texas. The room itself has a much different feel than our living room will have, but the contrast between the curtains and the walls gives you the idea.


It looks like there we may also decide on a dark couch (either a taupe or dark gray) with dark wood legs and probably have a couple of my grandmothers chair recovered, which also have dark wood on them. I think they will look great against the white backdrop!

Kitchen: Surf by Martha Stewart (her colors are at Lowe's, but I had Sherwin Williams do colormatching because I've heard that Lowe's paint is of mediocre qulity)

(I couldn't find a good online swatch I could retrieve for you, so this will have to do)

The kitchen's limited wall space will be this color blue. There is one wall that hides the fridge and that will be painted in chalkboard paint, because I thought I thought it would be a nice contrast and because it's just fun! This picture from design*sponge got my wheels turning for that:


I've also been thinking about this Martha Stewart project:


The kitchen seems like a good idea for this...if I could keep it neat. :)

Study: Sea Spray Blue by Martha Stewart

Flash player, again, shut me down from copying images, and I couldn't find a good picture of it online. However, it's basically a little lighter version of the kitchen color.

Both The Redhead and I liked the idea of a blue study. The rub lies in that it's a small room with a big, vaulted ceiling. It will be very interesting to see what the walls do to the paint color! The other challenge is making sure the blue compliments and doesn't detract from the pool collage that we want to do (The Redhead was a swimmer for most of his life and an NCAA waterpolo player). I got that idea from this picture found on beachbungalow8 a while back.



I think we will have so much fun together finding pictures for this project!

Dining Room: Mindful Gray by Sherwin Williams


Ok, ok, so I know I said I'd paint the room soft bluey/greeny then have red accents like Marie's dress. Turns out my china is way more green than I thought, which was clashing a lot with the colors I was trying (Tidewater by SW spoke to me). After much agonizing, the walls will be gray, and I'll have my chairs covered in turquoise to compliment the china.


Oh and at Round Top a few weeks ago I got the coolest light fixture for the dining room. I'll make sure to post all those fun finds next!

Upstairs hall/Stairs/Entry Columns: Repose Gray by Sherwin Williams


Master Bedroom: Dovetail by Sherwin Williams


I think the Dovetail flowing into the Repose will look really lovely. Hopefully something like this house I saw on d*s.


There you have it! A hypothetical paint tour. :) Now, if we can ever get started... I'll keep you posted. (Get it?! Posted! Ha!) Have a great week!

Progress!

We are officially under contract as of yesterday! Because the house is a foreclosure everything was moving a little more slowly through the process so we didn't expect this for another week or so. Also, we had our inspection yesterday, and that went great as well. We will need to do some maintenance things here and there, but there are no major problems (no roof, foundation or termite issues, etc.). We are so excited! The next hurdle will be the appraisal process, which I've heard can take a couple of weeks in itself. Not to mention the possible issues we could face caused by the government changing some rules. They seemed to have fixed one problem but created some others in the process. Oh well. We are excited to see God's plans for us and the lessons He will teach us in this.

It is hard to know where to get started on things around the house. Over the weekend I plan to start making a list of things I want to do/buy so I can then jot down some estimated prices. From there I want to prioritize the list and start thinking about a rough timeline for different projects and purchases. I know "the best laid plans..." and all that, but the hope is that the more organized I can get now, the easier it will be for me to deal with the tangents and unknowns that will pop up later.

I do think I want to buy (or borrow if possible) a paint fan deck. I'd like to see ALL my options for color. I had some ideas in my head, but of course after seeing our house, all my ideas have started getting cloudy. This is going to sound a little weird/lame, but I want to consult with the house and let it have some input in my choices. Right now it has all white walls and all the builder fixtures. It's probably excited that it finally gets to show off its personality, too! Ok, enough house personification for now...

I promise as soon as there is less creative chaos in my head, I will let you in on my ideas. For now here's a view of the downstairs that gives you an idea of the lay out.


From right to left: Just out of the picture to the far right is the front entry. Next to that you can barely see the doorway into the study. Then, of course, is the stairway then a coat closet. Then kitchen, which is bigger than it looks here. Lots of good cabinet space. Far left is an archway into the breakfast room/dining room. The little hallway you can see leads to a powder room and the laundry room/entry to garage.


This picture better shows the entry and study.

Well, there's your first peak of the layout. I can't wait to share more with y'all as it comes to me! I hope you're having a great week in the meantime!

MIA

Sorry I've been missing lately. After the special session, I've been laying pretty low. Too hot to do anything I guess, including blog. A million days straight of 4000 degree heat is NOT ok. Now that we have that straight...

Welp. We placed an offer on a house yesterday.

(I hope it comes with the cute redhead in the orange shirt, but I'll have to check the list of things that convey to be sure...)

Apparently there are already three other offers so our hopes aren't very high, but we figured why not. We will either get it or we won't. If not, then there are other houses in the sea or something.

Look at this oak tree.


I think it really needs a cat or a kid in it. Probably just the cat for a while at least. Those are less expensive than kids.

Anyhow, this is some of what I've been up to lately. Looking for a house to feather and all that. I will let you all know how things turn out.

I leave you with this super cute headboard from a DIY entry on Design*Sponge. I think it's creative and super cute!


Have a great day, everyone!