Things We've Purchased

Sorry for the absence, readers (reader?)! Turns out it is a lot easier to blog about your house before you move in than it is once you're actually here. We've made lots of progress and have lots to show you!

We've been dropping some money into the house purchasing some new things.

Like this fancy new fridge! It's much more appropriately sized for our kitchen. And, coincidentally, we just happened to pick paint color for the kitchen that matched the sides of it exactly!

If anyone ever wants to take an adventure, go to the Sears Outlet in Lawrenceville. It's the scratch-and-dent center for Sears. While we ultimately didn't purchase our fridge there, there were many many options. Don't let the fact that it's located in a nearly abandoned industrial park and that it has a sign which faces not the road but the Allegheny River scare you off.

If you'll remember, our old fridge was big-ass. Conveniently, my parents have a big-ass kitchen and their 12 year old fridge had nearly kicked the bucket. So they got the old one and we got this one! Two birds, meet one stone. :)

Another recent purchase is this rug from Pottery Barn. It was on clearance!

It's technically an indoor/outdoor rug (it's some sort of plastic) but you really can't tell! And it's perfect for life with a dog. Especially since she deposited candy-corn colored puke on it this afternoon! (she found my stash!)

Another item we've purchased- the Expedit workstation from Ikea.

We already had the bookcase and as such just bought the desk part. You'll see it in our new office soon. :)

Continuing on the IKEA theme, we also picked out these curtains. Continuing on the "Jeni is cheap" theme, they were $14.99. A. Pair. They're cotton and have a lovely linen texture to them. They really look way more expensive than that price!

One of my favorite purchases are our new house numbers. These ones are from Design Within Reach and are $48 PER NUMBER. Never gonna happen.

However, I found these at Home Depot for $5.99 per number! Practically the same. Both sets are 'floating' and give a really cool effect, but my set has a much cooler price. Look for them in an upcoming post!



That's the round-up of our latest purchases. What do you want to hear about next?

Okay... one last post about the... let's call them... "quirks" of our new pad. Then we'll be onto the makeovers! :)

While I like the sentiment of "Home Sweet Home", and it does match the heart cut-outs on our shutters, I think this will be replaced. With some nice modern, streamlined house numbers. :)


This gem of construction is the little 'jail cell' opening between our laundry room and basement. We're not sure why it is there. Decorative, I guess.


This is part of the water damage/repair from our basement. Which deserves its own post. Maybe I'll have Byron rant at you about that.


And here's our TINY dishwasher. We're going to have to run it every day, at least. It is really as small as it looks!

Our dead tree stump in the backyard. Would be perfect if we had a cat that needed a scratching post!


God Bless America, these people really loved their faded wooden decorative items!

Exhibit C: The crooked wooded mailbox, with a convenient large HOLE for entrance of rain and snow!

That's it for the 'quirks'! Up next... painting!

Sooo.... the previous owners loved decorative lightswitch covers. This we have established.

Their other true love? Ceiling fans. Lots and lots of ceiling fans. Want to see a selection?

Kitchen-
This one brushed the back of my head when I was removing cabinet doors for painting. (pics of that coming soon!)


Dining Room-
Yes, I said dining room. I guess maybe to cool your food off while it sits on the table?

Guest room-
Strikingly similar to dining room, no? At least they're consistent!


Master bedroom-
Who doesn't want to look up and see that in the morning? (not to mention it seems like it's a little out of balance and may fly off the mechanism at any moment!)


Office-
Please note the angel fan pull.


Need a close-up? Here you go!

Happy Halloween! (if that won't scare you... don't know what will!)

Only a few more posts featuring snarky commentary, I promise. Soon we'll get to the makeovers!

The next blog post is going to be about some of the... let's call them... "not-so-chic" aspects of the house. No offense intended if you love these design decisions, but we'll be changing them out...

Up first? The variety of lightswitch covers throughout the house. This first one was, we presume, located in the previous owners' daughter's room. We hope. I tried to convince Byron to keep it, to no avail...


Next, the main bathroom. Who knew you could get a white wicker lightswitch cover?? coordinates perfectly with the fruit basket wallpaper. (Maybe that was the idea?)

This gem of electrical engineering was created to fit a very specific spot. This is the switch for the basement lights, and is located halfway down the stairs.


And finally, in the master bedroom. Nothing against Americana (some do it very well), but this is the only indication of anything of this style in the house...


Up next... the ceiling fans!

Inside the house... the nickle tour...

After that extensive outdoor tour... here are some shots from inside. I'm still getting the hang of the photo thing...

If you couldn't tell from the other photos, the house is a ranch over a garage, with 3 bedrooms, a bath, living room and dining room on the main floor.

The upstairs bathroom. Please note the fruit basket border. The shower window was just replaced; the balance was broken and the window wouldn't stay open. That sucker was $300!

The dining room. Pretty self-explanatory... View from the living room, kitchen is thru the door to the right.


The big-ass refrigerator. This fridge is so big it didn't fit under the cabinets. Those cabinets above it were taken down and just sat upon the top of the fridge. Behind the cabinets the previous owners were kind enough to leave us some Frosted Mini Wheats and Protein Powder. Door to side porch is on the right.


The kitchen, with the big-ass exhaust fan. That thing is like a jet engine! It opens up a little flap on the back wall of the house.




The living room wall, which may soon have a 'pass-thru' into the kitchen to open the room up some.

The master bedroom. Please note the square left on the rug from the previous owners' bed.


The (tiny) office. Will contain desk, bookcase, chair and not much else!


Closet in the guestroom. Looks pretty much like the other rooms! Will eventually be called the guestroom/library/reading room.






Up next... the lowlights! The best collection of ceiling fans and light switch covers you've ever seen!

Welcome to our new house! This first post will give you the general overview and highlights of the house! (We'll cover the lowlights in another post!) Hopefully through this blog we'll keep a record of our improvements and design choices so ya'll can stay posted! I posted these way out of order... so bear with me!

The backyard...


Front of the house and side porch/mudroom:


Back of the house... and back of my head!:


Back of the sideporch:


And finally... front of the house!:


It's not the biggest mansion on the block, but we like it!