Day Ninety-Seven

Today was gorgeous, so I decided to do some gardening. Unfortunately, our front gardens get shade for a good portion of the day, so we don't have a lot of options. It may or may not be enough sunlight for pansies, but they were on sale at Lowes for $0.48/pack, so I figured if they die, it's no big deal.

Day Seventy-Nine

This isn't really progress, but it is an update. We had had our computers in the back bedroom, but we were tired of being holed up in there and not getting any use out of the living room. Josh and I both got new computers (he had previously had a laptop, but he got a desktop) so we got new desks as well and moved the whole operation into the living room. We also got a new coffee table because the one we had just wasn't working out. We moved the couches around and got a slipcover for the larger couch to try to make it match a little better.







I ordered the slipcover online. I stupidly decided to buy throw pillows before the cover came (and immediately cut the tags off. *facepalm*). The cover ended up being a pretty different color than what I had expected, so the pillows really don't go with it at all. But it's whatever. I used my Christmas money to buy the slipcover, pillows, and all the stuff for the bathroom. Maybe some day when I have some money to spend again, I'll get different pillows. For now, though, they work just fine. =)

Day Sixty-Eight

Progress has slowed quite a bit, obviously. We don't have much time to do a lot these days. It was really good that we moved in over Christmas break (and that we work at a job where we get Christmas break) because I'm sure if we hadn't, the house would still be gross. We had never gotten around to painting the kitchen when we painted the rest of the house. I'm not sure why, but we didn't. We're having a housewarming party tomorrow, and the walls were pretty gross, so we decided we needed to do something with it. Unfortunately, I forgot to take before pictures. The only one I have is from right after we moved in, before we had gotten our new fridge or done anything to the kitchen. We (obviously) were not using it at this point.



I really wanted to go yellow, but it wouldn't work with the cabinets. The cabinets are so gross, and I hope to paint them at some point. But that's going to be a huge project. Next month is spring break so...maybe. We were debating whether we should go blue or green. We didn't really want to go blue because the bathroom is blue. But both times that I've tried to paint a room light green in the past, it has come out much brighter than expected, and I did not want a lime green kitchen.





We ended up with this. Wasabi. I know you can barely see it in the pictures, and that is exactly what I wanted. Unfortunately, in artificial light, it's a little darker than I wanted. Actually, I don't like the way it looks at all in artificial light. But in natural light, it is absolutely perfect.

Day Thirty-Six

The bathroom is finished, and I'm really happy with how it turned out.







I bought the black bath mats first, and I had wanted my shower curtain and all the little accessories to be black and white. However, when I saw this shower curtain, it was love at first sight. So I went from there. Target had the trash can, toothbrush holder, and soap dispenser on clearance, and they matched the shower curtain, so it was perfect. I got those round mirrors for Christmas, and I love them.

Day Twenty

The living room/dining room are officially done! Yay!






And in case you forgot what it looked like before...

Day Nineteen

I really had intended to update this every day until the project was completely done, but if I had been updating it every day this week, my posts would be like, "I unpacked a box today. That is all." Hahaha.

Moving in pretty much killed the whole project. Before, we were working so hard to make the place livable, and now that we live here, the motivation to finish the painting and cleaning is gone. The only painting we have left to do is some of the trim and some of the doors. And the only major cleaning we have to do is the master bathroom. But I've been perfectly content using the other bathroom. Even after I scrub the entire master bath with bleach, I'm still not going to feel good about going in there barefoot. And speaking of bathrooms, I don't know if something is wrong with our water heater or what, but we get a whopping five minutes of hot water for our showers. I did get a new showerhead that should almost double that time, but we haven't installed it yet.

Aside from killing our motivation to do actual work on the house, the house has been a disaster, organization-wise. Our boxes weren't exactly organized since the packing was all very last minute. So you get one room unpacked and straightened up. You move on to another box. You find a shoe that belongs in the bedroom you just finished straightening. So you throw the shoe in the bedroom (yes, I know I should put it away, rather than throwing it, but I don't) and go back to the box you were unpacking. Oh look, a shirt that belongs in that other bedroom too. Toss it in there. And before you know it, the bedroom needs to be straightened up again. It's an endless cycle, which kills my motivation for unpacking. The only room that is completely unpacked (I think) and straightened up is our bedroom. Hopefully I'll get everything else finished this afternoon/evening before church.

Day Sixteen

Tonight, I decided I was going to cook something in the oven. I turned it on to preheat, and within about ten seconds, I turned it off and fled the kitchen. Burnt cat pee. There was cat pee in the oven, and I had just cooked it. Needless to say, I opted for a different menu that didn't require the oven. But it was awhile before the odor left and I could go back into the kitchen. I googled "How to clean cat pee out of an oven," and the only answer I got was, "Get a new oven." Grrreeeeaatt. I have a little more confidence in my cleaning skills than that, thank you.