The Big Reveal, Part 1

The last few months since the Big Move have been busy.

It wasn't just the move, it wasn't just residency starting.

We also had a home to remodel.

Hubster and I have lived in apartments ever since we got married. I had lived in an apartment with three roommates a year prior to that. Hubster had lived in apartment for many years before that. We had spent all of our time together and our time as a family of three and then a family of four with people above us, and people below us, and people on the right and on the left.

We watched our friends buy homes and nearly made ourselves sick with envy.

But we were willing to wait until it made sense. We had thought about buying a few years ago, but then the housing market turned south, and we were grateful that we hadn't. Otherwise, we would have found ourselves in the situation we saw some of my classmates: homes for sale and unable to see before the move for residency had to be made. We moved to Iowa without the stress of selling a home.

We had spent years imagining what our home would be like. What we wanted the rooms to feel like, the mood we wanted to create. And we were sure that after years of living as a family of four in a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom 650 square foot apartment, we would appreciate our home more than anyone else ever had.

We've been working on the house since day one.

And I am finally ready to start sharing some of the work.

Well, kind of ready. We still have an lack of furniture and there are still many boxes that have not been touched. (And I would like to apologize for the slight blurriness of the photos. My camera's auto focus has gone haywire. I know what I want for Christmas.)

I wanted to have a week of reveals, but doing call every third night prevents that. So, I will have a series of reveals, done as quickly as my schedule and lack of sleep allow.

Today: the living room.


The BEFORE:




When we bought our couch three years ago, we bought a nice neutral tan sofa. I knew that this procluded me from ever painting the living room tan. Which is a good thing. Hubster and I decided that we wanted a gray-blue slate color in the living room to complement the dark wood and green and turquoise accents we love.

The AFTER:




The color is a little bluer that we anticipated, but we love it. (Also, after painting for weeks, there was no way we were repainting any room.) It is such a relaxing color.

The trim used to be brown. We painted it all a lovely antique white.

We hung the photos up last week.



Now it finally feels like we live here.