Master & Den before/after...finally!

We have had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! Anytime you get 3 days off from work is bound to be a good weekend. Our weekend began with a camping trip to Petit Jean, but that will be a whole other post! Yes, this girl went camping and slept in a tent for 2 nights!

When we returned to Little Rock we got to spend the rest of the weekend with my parents who came to visit. My mom and I hit the ground running,trying to finish up a few rooms in our house. I'm so thankful for my mom and dad. They have been a huge help to us with our house! I've had a lot of ideas in my head for the house but my mom is so great at putting my ideas together and making them come to life. This weekend we finally finished a few rooms and I'm so excited to share them!

Master bedroom before

Master bedroom after

I love how our master bedroom turned out! We wanted a relaxing, beautiful, clean space and I really felt like we achieved it. When we chose paint colors for our house we knew we wanted neutral, clean colors but we still wanted some color! We picked this green for our master bedroom from Sherwin Williams, it was called liveable green. I love it! We built the whole room around this color, which was a bit of a challenge. I found our bedding at the Pottery Barn outlet store. We opted not to put bedside tables in our room. For a few reasons, really...I couldn't find any that would work with our big room, but also I had these ladder shelves that I couldn't find the right spot for them anywhere else in the house! I love them because for us they are more functional than bedside tables. With the shelves, the wall mounted lighting and the many pillows I figured we could get away with not purchasing a headboard for a while. I made the framed artwork above the dresser from an old calendar with scenes from Italy. We still need blinds in the master bedroom, and the whole house for the matter but other than that, this room is complete! 

We've also been working on our downstairs den, which was a huge job! The painting took quite some time. But my amazing hubby has worked so hard on it and it turned out SO well! Here you go...

The downstairs den before

Downstairs den after

I feel like the lighting is all off in some of thee pictures, I guess that's what I get for only ever using my phone to the photos. 

Again, I'm loving how well this room turned out! Since we have 2 living rooms, we wanted this to be our main, cozy tv living room. We painted it the same as our master bedroom. We bought our white (yes, white...don't worry we bought the fabric protection!) from Hanks Furniture. My mom made our curtains from drop cloth. I love all of the special touches in this room from our wedding and my moms Pinterest creations! Again we still need blinds, a coffee table and a few other things but this room is mostly complete. 

I'm so thankful for our house. We love having a space that is ours and we can make our own. It has been a wonderful journey so far! 

A little "before & after"

I was looking at photos earlier of our house when we first moved in. It already looks so different! So I thought I really needed to share some before and after pics. Its so weird to see what it looked like before. Of course I remember it like that because thats how it looked when we were contemplating buying it, but now it feels so different, it feels like our home.

 Once the house is completely finished (at least up to my standards) I'll post a big update with all of the before and after pictures, but for now ill at least share some of the changes we've been working on!

Looking at the eat in kitchen from the dining room.

Eat in kitchen, from a little different view, but you get the idea. 

We decided to do yellow and grey for our kitchen. Most of our house is neutral/natural colors but in the kitchen I wanted a little pop of color, but still wanted it to flow with the rest of the house. The curtain fabric is from Target, and it is actually a table cloth my mom turned into curtains! She is amazing!!

Forgive the mess in my kitchen! At some point down the road we will paint the cabinets white, put in new counter tops, subway tile back splash, new appliances and hardwood floors...all this will be a ways down the road!

This is our guest room before...

And after...

We didn't have to do a lot to this room, mostly just paint, furniture and curtains. Since we got a new king size bed, we just used our queen bed in here. My parents also brought us over all my bedroom furniture from their house, so we've mixed and matched a little around the house. We still need to order blinds, for the whole house but for the most part this room is almost finished!

My mom made these awesome drop cloth curtains!

This is a little surprise...I made myself a "office" in the closet in the guest room. It's a huge walk in closer, that we really were not going to use. I was wanting a little area (but not the size of a bedroom) to organize some of my school stuff and work on grad school stuff. It's the perfect spot...still a work in progress though. There is still plenty of room in the closet to the left for guest to hang their clothes, and the bedroom has a dresser so all I have to do is close the doors when I don't want to look at my mess!

This was my latest project in the master bedroom this weekend. I can happily say that our master bedroom should be finished this weekend! I actually took a old calendar of Italy to make the 6 framed pieces. Such an easy, cheap project but it fits in that room perfectly, up against the green. So here is a sneak peak of that room, the rest you'll have to wait for my next update! 

making progress

If there is one thing I’ve learned in the last month since we became homeowners, is that we had NO idea what we were getting ourselves into! Ok, well maybe my husband knew a little more than I did, but I was so busy and focused on understanding the process to buying a house (paperwork with the bank, inspections, insurance, etc) that thinking about all the little (and big!) things we would want to do to the house, was the farthest thing from my mind. Buying, becoming owners and fixing up a house is a journey! For the most part it’s been exciting and a lot of fun, at times stressful when things don’t go as planned. We have already learned so much throughout this process; there are so many things I would do differently next time, or things I now know to look for in the next house (i.e.-buy a house with good windows and blinds!) but we love our house and we love getting to make it our home, even if it’s going to take a while. We’re practicing patience…or my husband would say…I’m practicing patience.

One of our biggest painting projects for the house was painting the downstairs den. It was a HUGE job, but my amazing hubby took his time and it looks amazing! We are still working on putting that room together, getting the shelves back together, curtains made, our new furniture arrived, etc. My goal is to just get one room finished. I think i'll feel a lot better after that happens. We have made a lot of progress with the house and a lot of the rooms are almost finished, but I would love to have just 1 room completly finished! Once we've made a little more progress, I'll post a lot of before/after pictures of the house.

Den-BEFORE (Painting)

 Den- AFTER (Painting)

My husband has been working so incredibly hard on our house! I love being able to see him do something he loves and I know the finished product, even though it may take a few years, will be well worth it! I'm excited to be able to have friends and family over for cookouts and parties, looking forward to having houseguest now that we finally have a guest room, and I love knowing that the "spare room" is going to get to be a nursery some day. Its so nice to finally feel at home and settled, after several years of not feeling that way. 

The house is taking up a lot of our life...but we still have a lot going on! Ben has been working part time for a contractor, which has been such a blessing. We are still looking for full time work for him, but in the meantime, God has blessed us so much with Ben being able to work part time and still be able to work on our house.

I have finished my 2nd semester of grad school! I'm so thankful to have a few weeks off before summer classes start. So far I've made straight A's the last 2 semesters, which I'm kinda shocked about, but so excited! When I started grad school in the fall I was a little concerned about starting that and a new job and having just moved back to the US and dealing with immigration stuff and how I would be able to handle everything, so I'm extremly proud of myself for doing as well as I did. I have 2 more GT grad classes to take this summer to complete the course work for my GT endorsement for my licensure, however I'm also taking 12 other graduate hours via the ESL Academy through Henderson State University. Yep...it's going to be a crazy summer for me! But it will be worth the pay raise next year, plus I'll have 2 new endorsements for my teaching license, which professional I feel is a good move.

We placed membership almost 2 weeks ago at Little Rock Church. The journey to find a church home in LR was long, but we are so thankful that God lead us to Little Rock Church. We have made so many good friendships there already and we really look forward to getting involved and building new relationships through the church family. I'm thankful we have found a place we can grown and to know that when we have kids they will be surrounded by such a loving and encouraging group of people. 

I can't believe the school years is winding down, although there is a little part of me that is SO excited it is! I love my job, but these last 9 months or so have had so many big things going on it will be nice to have a break from work and have one less thing to think about, for at least a few weeks. 

Alright, my lunch break is up...time to get back to work. More house updates and photos to come!