There's No Place...

like home!

Now tap your heels together three times and follow me on a photographic journey of my new home!

I'm pretty sure you haven't tapped your heels together yet. If you thought I was joking, think again. TAP, people.

Now let us be off! Hang on to your hats, my friends. It's a bumpy ride.

BEFORE... the FAMILY ROOM was:

painted a peachy color (not peachy as in nice and pleasant in a down home southern kind of way...peachy as in, like a peach. The fruit)

And there was a gigantic hole in the wall. We can only assume it was for entertainment center purposes. I think it's also safe to assume it never got finished.

AFTER...the FAMILY ROOM is:

painted a nice, neutral tan color, complete with an accent wall in a darker shade of brown;

COMPLETE with some awesome new shelves built by my awesome, semi-new husband:

Woo-wee! Just look at those beauties.

BEFORE...the KITCHEN was:

lacking working, much less worthwhile, appliances:

and painted the same awesome peachy color.

AFTER...the KITCHEN is:

painted the sweet neutral tan color and decked out with new appliances to boot!

Of course, when I say "new," I mean, "new to us." Craig's List outfitted our whole kitchen for about $1300. That is why we use Craig's List. Thank you, Craig.

BEFORE...the HALLWAY was:

crying because of the carpet that was on it. I don't even have a picture that would do the ugliness of this carpet justice. Imagine carpet in the worst shape you've ever seen. Now go get some mud and rub it all over this carpet. Now wait a month. Now spill some questionable substances on it (hey, I won't ask!). Now get your lawn mower and mow the carpet. Now set fire to it. Repeat. Your carpet still looks better than this carpet did.

This picture was taken AFTER the carpet was removed. It looks better this way.

But now...oh, now. Now we have lovely carpet that I just love to squish my toes into.

The hallway is currently the only carpeted area in our house, but since we love this carpet so much, we are going to have an area rug made out of it for our living room! Hooray!

Also, this entryway lighting fixture:

became this entryway lighting fixture:

These hallway flushmounts:

became these hallway flushmounts:

and these kitchen track lights:

became these kitchen track lights:

All three bedrooms and the den were painted, except the one that had this awesome mural in it:

That one was destroyed.

The curly linoleum in the bathrooms was replaced with some nice new tile. We got a new water heater, since the old one was sick and dying. Several other lighting fixtures/ceiling fans were changed, but I won't make you look at all of them. Dallin swapped out a lot of the old baseboards for new ones, with the use of a new found toy- the nail gun. Toilet seats were replaced (something I could actually do!). Most surfaces in the house were steam cleaned (I could do that too). AND...

the pool is blue and there are no weeds and/or overgrown trees in the yard. You have no idea what an accomplishment these things are. The pool was greener than whatever grass was back there. Toxic, if you will.

So now, we're unpacking. Laundry is getting done (since we had the defective washer hook-ups fixed), boxes are getting unpacked, and project decorate/organize is underway. Some of the projects I've been working on for the past few days...

Cute-o storage baskets for my closet:

Setting up our kitchen table:

cleaning and lining the pantry to make it fit for human food:

and working on organizing this room:

which, as our extra room, I'm envisioning as a groovy hang out room, complete with my books and love sac, Dallin's guitar and amp, and baby's swing and toys. Let's see if we can make enough room in there...

As for all the OTHER stuff we've been up to, including (but not limited to) my being a bridesmaid in a wedding, my birthday, and a rather long and sugary OB-GYN appointment...well, you'll just have to wait. I got tired again just thinking about all the house stuff we've done (and have yet to do).

p.s. If I haven't mentioned how completely BLESSED we are to have this new home, and if you haven't assumed that I feel that way already, consider this your wake up call. I have a beautiful new home that my loving, hardworking husband and I have put a lot of time and work into together. I have an amazing family that has helped us along every step of the way (in fact, they are getting their own post later, I already decided). We were HELPED getting into this new house by a lot of people - not to mention a Father in Heaven - who really, really love us. And I'm going to have a nice, safe place to bring my beautiful baby boy home to in 12 short weeks.

Oh and also, just as a warning, these pictures are not all inclusive, and almost certainly will increase in number. Once everything is clean and put away, I'll probably have to show you more.