Movin On Up-Date

So I mentioned we're moving. Did I mention how much painting needs to be done? This is what all weekends in November are likely to look like around here - tape, prime, paint, repeat, repeat, repeat.

At least this gives me an excuse to go to the hardware store regularly. Admission: I have strong feelings for my local ACE hardware store. I'm pretty indecisive sometimes, so let's just say picking paint colors was tough. I spent a couple minutes in front of the color wall like a deer in headlights - no idea where to start. Thankfully the friendly people at Ace are super-helpful and answered all my questions. Within an hour we were off with four gallons of paint and all the supplies we needed.

Let's take a tour of the 'before' shall we?

This is the front entry - the hallway pictured has one wall sponge painted and the other is full of holes and desperate for a fresh coat of paint.

The entry hall leads into the living room and dining room. Here's the living room.

Nice and dark, right? But check out this fireplace! It makes the thought of the next 5 months of cold and snow slightly more bearable.

The guest room is off of the living room. It has one Spartan-green wall and the rest are white with the need for a new coat.

This living room leads into the formal dining room, complete with wallpaper (not much we can do about that, unfortunately) and heavy floral drapes in tones of taupe and mauve (unpictured to the left).

Around the corner from the living room is the master bedroom, with all sorts of teal going on. I love the original lighting fixtures all over this place! They don't do much for lighting, I'll be honest, but they're so unique I don't even mind the fact that we need to buy a lot of lamps.

There is a sunroom off of the master bedroom - we're hoping to turn it into a closet/sitting area. I can't wait to enjoy a cup of tea there while looking out into our backyard next spring (we have a backyard - WAHOO!).

The bathroom looks like it was painted twelve coats of the darkest, most vibrant blue you've ever seen. And the top half only got one of the coats, because it's a hot mess - you can see every single brush stroke. Yikes! The only good part is the cool antique corner bathtub...that isn't pictured very well, my bad!

pictures coming soon: backyard, front foyer, outside and fun details!

Last up in the pictures, for now, is the kitchen. It's absolutely huge in comparison to our current one. There's so much storage I don't even know what to do with myself. See that glass-pane door? It leads into the butler's pantry. YEAH!

Whew, so that's all for now! I apologize about the photo-quality. I took all of these with my cell phone the day we toured the apartment. We were so anxious to paint that they're the only 'before' pictures we have!

Movin on Up

You guys! We have found a new place to move! It feels so good to know where we're going, after months of searching and ambiguity - knowing that we needed to move very soon (our landlord was selling the house and the new owners were moving in) but not knowing where to. Apartment-hunting is the pits, but it's finally done!

We are going to rent out the first floor of a gorgeous home that was built in 1880, located in the historic Heritage Hill neighborhood, just blocks from downtown Grand Rapids.

SO LONG teeny tiny apartment with the hideous blue office carpeting! It's been real. I loved your charm and character, but I'm over it. I'm ready for more space, a backyard, and luxuries like a garage, dishwasher, and garbage disposal. This is big, people. The fact that we have so much space to fill and virtually no furniture means that I can finally try my hand at redoing some furniture, something I've been wanting to attempt for a while but literally had no room for.

Let's just say I am pumped to be scouring Craigslist for something other than apartments - and I've found a couple potential pieces already! I've always loved mid-century modern furniture, so my first quest is to find a MC dresser to rehab. There's going to be a lot of trial and error with this whole decorating thing, but first things first...finding the right piece. This is my inspiration, from Reeves, blogger at The Weathered Door.

Half the battle for me is seeing the potential of a piece while it's still in its 'before' stages. I've found that looking at a good variety of before/after pictures (like these from The Weathered Door) prior to thrifting helps give me some inspiration and get that creative juju going.

See what a little love can do:

image sources: The Weathered Door

Wish me luck!

Baby Steps

Life is about changing and growing, and you can't do that without being honest - especially with yourself.

No Such Thing as the Perfect Time

Okay, so starting a blog has proven to be more difficult than I anticipated. I wanted to tell you all about the adventures I go on and the things my boyfriend and I create in the kitchen - complete with beautiful pictures, obviously. My blog was going to be full of everything that bloggers dream about. I wanted to capture the memories that make every day special, and my captions would be perfectly descriptive with just the right amount of wit and charm.

source

You see, I wanted it to be flawless. Anything less than that just wasn't acceptable to post. Thus, the updates have been few and far between. That's the thing, though: my life is far from perfect. Do I go on fun trips? Absolutely! Do we cook delicious food? You bet! But there are also days that I don't change out of pajamas, and I definitely have mess-ups in the kitchen more than I would like. My relationship is amazing and I'm so thankful to have him in my life. But we do miscommunicate, and sometimes we fight. We're human.

But a picture-perfect blog does not a picture-perfect life make. So this is an apology, and a promise - I'm sorry for letting my foolish pride get in the way of things, and I promise to keep it real from here on out. #nofilter

MTB: Crystal Mountain

Pat and I took a trip this weekend to Crystal Mountain in Northwest Michigan. Normally it's snowsports destination, but during the off-season they host a lot of other activities, like paintball, a climbing wall, the alpine slide, disc golf, and my personal favorite: mountain biking!

We didn't pick the best weekend. It was storming and drizzly almost the entire time, which meant that the chairlifts for downhill biking weren't running. Talk about a bummer! But determined not to be totally defeated, we decided if we couldn't go down the mountain, we'd go around it. Those trails were a lot of fun and I only crashed once (a personal record for a new trail). 

Just as we made our way back from around the mountain, the clouds lightened and rain stopped...we might have a chance after all! As luck turned out, we were able to take advantage of a 4-hour window of rainlessness. The next thing I knew I was handing my bike over the chairlift attendant and hopping on a seat on my way up the mountain.

After the initial realization that I might be a leetle afraid of heights these days, I was quickly overtaken by the view that was spreading out beneath me. The colors, OH THE COLORS. Michigan weather is relentless, but views like this enough to make you deal with it. 

And once we reached the top we got to zoom down and do it all over again, and again! It was my first time downhill mountain biking, but it definitely won't be my last! I can't wait to try it again when it's a little less slick and maybe with some knee pads..turns out it's not exactly the best sport for a klutz.