July Highlights

Oh boy! Where does the time go? Every year the 4th of July kind of marks the halfway point of summer. I always remember the summer flew by after the 4th and we'd be back to school shopping before I knew it. (Does anyone else miss back to school shopping? I sure do.) No back to school shopping for me, but July was sure a busy month.

• We celebrated the 4th in Virginia with our extended family. G's sister lives nearby and was able to come meet us and his parents flew in too. It was so nice to see everyone. Living apart from family makes the times we're all together that much more special. And we were celebrating my brother's upcoming enlistment in the Navy. How appropriate to celebrate during the 4th!

• We had a fabulous fireworks show put on by none other than the fabulous men in our family. TN sure knows what fireworks to sell for a great show!

• We indulged in some non-Paleo treats for the 4th weekend, but tried not to get too far off course. I just had to eat a piece of homemade fresh Georgia peach pie though. You can't say no to your grandpa's baking!

• We decided to list our house at the end of June and made a mad dash to get the house ready for showings in the beginning of July. And holy smokes we received multiple, over asking offers, and closed all within the month of July. Very fortunate. It all happened so fast we didn't even have time for a SOLD sign.

• We started packing up the house in July after accepting an offer. But luckily the sweet new owner gave us 2 additional weeks to move out after closing. Whew! Can you tell we were more than a little over the packing by the end of the month? "Kitchen Shit" seriously? How will I ever find anything once we move into a new house.

• Hudson was a champ during all the packing. But he was definitely a little bored with our packing routine. Left very little time to hit the dog park.

• During all of the crazy we celebrated my dad's 60th birthday. Woohoo! I keep telling him 60 is the new 40. Seriously, how can my dad be 60? We indulged in a little coconut cake, Paleo-what??? We made him a gift basket with candy, videos, and mementos from 1954. We also were blessed to collect stories and memories people have of my dad throughout the years and put them all in a jar for him to read. He's definitely making a difference in this world and was able to see it clearly written out. So sweet.

I know August will be crazy busy with actually moving out of the house. Saying goodbye will be a little bittersweet. Fingers crossed we find a new house to call home soon!

Weekend Happenings: SOLD

In a crazy and somewhat unexpected turn of events, we accepted a contract on our house last Friday. The back story. A few months back, we priced out a complete gut/renovation/addition to our house. Both neighbors had recently gone through a similar process and had renovated, so we expected the same. WRONG. Prices have sky rocketed over the past year or so and it just didn't seem feasible for us to renovate at this time.

So then there was the big dilemma. We could...

1) Wait out the high prices and re-price the renovation in a year or so and cross our fingers we could afford it then.

2) Continue living in the house for a few more years, knowing that we'd have to sell once we start a family.

3) Or go ahead and sell.

We hemmed and hawed for a few weeks. Almost tore down a wall separating the kitchen and dining room to make it feel more open. (We were already pricing out a face lift for the kitchen before we started thinking about selling). And then the realtor that actually helped us buy the house a few years ago, reached out to me needing a brochure for one of his listings. So I mentioned that we were contemplating selling and after discussing our options with him we decided to sell. So we kicked our butts in high gear to get the house ready. Painted a few walls. Accomplished some things we had been putting off for 2.5 years (if you're a home owner you understand this) and got the house in tip top shape.

We put the house quietly on the market and picked up a few showings. Put a sign in the yard with a coming soon sign and got a lot more showings. Officially listed the house in the MLS on Wednesday, requested offers be sent in on Friday, received multiple offers and subsequently negotiated/accepted an offer Friday evening. So the whole process of thinking about selling, getting in contact with our realtor and actually accepting an offer was about a month-long process. We are scheduled to close next week at the end of the month. And will move a few weeks later.

We feel so blessed to have made such a great investment for our first house and are excited to find our next home. Although moving day will likely see some tears. We originally planned on living in this home for many more years. Sometimes you just have to have faith and move forward. Finding a new home may prove to be a little a lot more challenging. The market for selling is fantastic, buying...ehhh not so much. Fingers crossed.

Weekend Happenings: 4th of July Fun

A couple of weekends ago we packed up and headed to Virginia for a long holiday weekend. My brother is joining the Navy and heads off to boot camp in a few months, so we thought the 4th of July would be the perfect weekend to gather as a family and celebrate his commitment to serving our country.

We come from a family with a long line of military service, and couldn't be more proud that he is going to carry on the tradition. Here are a few pics from the weekend.

Family, holidays, long weekends and fun by the water was just what the doctor ordered.

Our favorite squid.

My mom's side of the family.

My dad's side of the family.

My in-laws.

The fireworks we may or may not of smuggled in from Tennessee.

The awesome fireworks crew. They all left with all 10 fingers and toes.

Weekend Happenings: Kitchen Decisions & "Shopping"

The chalkboard wall still needed to be primed at this point.

This weekend Gilbert and I had planned to start demo'ing the wall that separates our kitchen and dining room. We were going to tear down the sheetrock on the dining room side to at least expose what ever is lurking behind the wall. Now we already knew that this was a load bearing wall and after many hours of discussions and phone calls to a local lumber yard, had decided that we would need to purchase a couple of engineered beams to support the load instead of just using regular ol' lumber. So with that settled we thought we were ready to at least start some part of this daunting project.

Well Saturday came and went. We just weren't quite ready to take the plunge and make the mess. The logistics of emptying cabinets, unscrewing said cabinets, taping off the dining room so dust wouldn't fly all over our new chalkboard wall, dealing with electrical wires that needed to be re-located, etc just seemed like too much to tackle at the time. So we stood up, brushed ourselves off, and the hubs went out for his weekly yard duty.

I, on the other hand, had to get over my disappointment of not starting this particular task and turned my focus to something else. The chalkboard wall in the dining room. I decided to go "shopping" around the house looking for items to style the buffet. I did have to briefly call the hubs back in from the yard to hang some shelves from Ikea that we've had sitting in our basement for literally almost a year. And I love how it turned out!

Items left to add: an orchid to replace the cloth flowers, maybe a new lamp and a wood serving board - I've got my eye on this one made by A Sunny Afternoon Co.

The second quick and easy task for the weekend was replacing the light fixture in the kitchen. We were so blessed that the previous owner had really great taste when it came to light fixtures, and was willing to leave the fixtures when she sold the house to us. We have re-arranged the fixtures around in the house and had a few sitting in our basement just begging to be put up. While I loved the current fixture, it just didn't put out much light so we once again decided to "shop" in our basement and put up another fixture that we had just sitting down there. There is so much more light now!

I love that we turned a disappointing (at least for me - the one who just wants to take a sledge hammer to everything....maybe not so much to my neat freak, but oh so loving husband that really just didn't want the mess) weekend into a successful, light stress, easy DIY weekend that made such a dramatic difference in both of these rooms. Now to challenge my inner artist and put the chalkboard wall to good use.

Design Crush: Dining Room Inspiration

Gilbert and I are currently trying to re-invent our house and update the look to meet our current tastes. I've put together a mood board for the dining room and I'm so excited. I can't wait to start purchasing some more of these pieces and bringing the whole look together.

We've already painted the chalkboard wall (I still need to prime the wall with chalk and get to drawing). Then we need to hang up some shelves that we've had for a year or so and never put up.  The other 3 walls in the room are white and we are about to tackle (as in this weekend!) opening up the wall that divides the kitchen and dining room to create a small breakfast bar area and make the two rooms feel more cohesive.

We purchased the Dumont Buffet from West Elm a few weekends ago when they were having the Buy More, Save More sale. Score. And just picked it up on Father's Day. We're loving it already.

I'm still on the hunt for 2 dining chairs that will go with our farm table. We've already got 3 armless leather chairs and a bench. We need 2 chairs to anchor the ends of the table. I like the look of something with a classic shape and maybe a pattern? This one pictured from World Market has been discontinued. Suggestions?

Items pictured from Left to Right: Chalkboard Wall - Magnolia Homes Episode Two, Cluster Glass Pendant - West Elm, EAT Wood Sign - Slippin Southern Etsy Shop,  Jute Rug - Pottery Barn, Dumont Buffet - West Elm, Orchid - available at any local flower shop, Thermalogic Trellis Panels - Wayfair, Suzani Hayden Dining Chair - World Market

Weekend Happenings: Baseball Getaway

We headed South this weekend for a little baseball action and visit with my in-laws to celebrate Father's Day. The only snafu in the trip was actually getting down to Atlanta. It took us 7 hours...7 hours people. We could have almost driven to the beach in 7 hours! There was a tractor trailer accident that had the interstate literally stopped on Friday evening. We even turned our own truck off at one point and were just sitting. Oh well we made it safe and sound. And that's what matters.

Luckily it was a night game and was perfect weather once the sun went down.

Saturday started off with a little home shopping at one of my favorite stores, Ikea. When are we getting one in Nashville? Soon, please?!?!?!? We picked up some fun serving-ware to go in our new buffet that we recently ordered for the dining room (pictures of that to come soon).

The hubs and I.

And then we made our way to Turner Field for a little Braves-Angels action. The game was pretty slow for the first 7 innings so we decided to leave after the 7th inning stretch and beat the traffic. Bad Braves fans! Well we beat the traffic and missed the best part of the game. The Braves were down 4-0 when we left and ended up tying the game at 5-5 in the bottom of the 9th. We got home and finished watching the game on TV. It went to 13 innings. And was the longest game either team had played all season. Braves ended up losing 11-6, but what a game. Lesson learned. Stick around.

Overall we had a great little weekend getaway. It's always so fun to travel on the weekends, but puts you behind for the week. We were scrambling for breakfast this morning. Must hit the grocery store tonight. Oh well. Definitely worth it.

P.S. We made it home in time for dinner with my dad and family. Bonus Father's Day treat.

Throwback Thursday: Our First Glance

This house was pretty much love at first sight for us. We saw so much potential and had the vision. Fast forward 2.5 years and we sort of lost that vision. We were too consumed with the idea of ripping down all the walls and starting over with just the shell. Well now that we've settled into the idea of freshening her up as is, I thought I'd share a couple of the original pictures from when we first saw the house.

We loved the 10' ceilings. All the light that poured in. The 1900's charm. And the overall feel of the home.

Not pictured: the master bedroom and bathroom, hallway bathroom, the backyard and the finished basement as it was when we first moved in. We spent a good two weeks after buying it sanding and painting all the walls and trim. We loved the all white look, but felt like it needed some more color so we painted the walls tan with a few accent walls. Well now after really defining our style we are slowly going back to white. It's all a process and labor of love.