Soo every other Friday night we get to host a bunch of fun people our age over at our home to play games and hang out – what our church calls a lifegroup. Our last one was a blast, and Drew and I are looking forward to next Friday. However having 15-20 people over every other week has made me obviously clean a bit more.

I’d like to say we’re just keeping things neat and tidy so that we don’t have to do a huge clean each week, but so far we aren’t there yet. And because I have my house super picked up and everything put away every other week now, I’ll be trying to take more update photos of how our house is coming along.

So last Saturday morning since everything was clean still, I went around with the camera real quick and snapped these – enjoy! PS this totally makes me see all the spots I missed cleaning… oh well, too late now. Like check out the dust on the window in the kitchen. Woops!

As you can see, a lot is a work in progress. This summer we’ll do our big kitchen reno (think white cabinets, gray countertop, wood floor, penny tile backsplash). The living room needs things put in those frame and then the family room needs some good design thought into it. It has basically just received all of our leftovers for furniture and decor – hopefully some day I will get to that space to improve it. Just looking at it now in these photos I cringe and debated including them.

But a house is all about making it a home, so I included them…

It’s a mix of cra-cra at our casa at right now, and is literally driving me nuts.

Exhibit numero uno: Re-grouting our main shower. The original grout was very cracked (and missing in some places) and was begging for some TLC. So while that is underway, I’m trying to embrace it the best I can, but having to shower in our spare bathroom… means I zombie walk down two flights of stares upon waking up. This morning I totally tripped over some old trim while making my way to the shower –  I was this close to lodging a nail in my foot.

Exhibit numero dos: Our family room, aka Drew’s chill space, is torn up because we are adding board and batten to the lower portion of the walls. And when I say “we” I mean my dad, but I did help paint the majority of those boards, I have the calluses on my hands to prove it. So even Drew’s precious Xbox is unplugged and has a barney blanket over it (gotta protect those precious electronics)! That also means I have to share my chill space (the living room) with him. Please make fun of me for this, but I even have him rotate around our couch, in fear of massive saggy butt marks in the fabric and on the cushions. Hey, I’m protective of my space, especially because everything in that room is brand spankin’ new.

And here are the photos to prove it, though not sure why anyone wants to look at the mess we call home… so if you don’t want to see them, just scroll down 🙂

In addition to projects that we’re in-between on, is some decorating things that I need to finish up. For instance, I had Drew hang a few things like this mailbox, photo frame, and to make & mount a mason jar to the wall for flowers. So literally the frame is hung without a photo in it yet. And I have yet to make this mason jar contraption.

Also, these awesome bookshelves I got for Christmas from my parents are now assembled in our living room, however I realized I have to now accessorize them with things that match throughout the room. I did some digging and didn’t come up with much from existing decor. My goal is to hit up goodwill looking for things I can spraypaint to match the color scheme and tie in the yellows and whites. But we all know you can’t spraypaint outside in Wisconsin in the winter, so that will probably have to wait 🙁

And what about this trim painting that I started doing, say in October? Yea I have zero motivation for that now, but if you take a look back at my 2013 goals, it’s on there. So I’ve got to tackle that at some point! (And I realize I need to update our “before & in-progress” photos).

The goal is to have a lot of our projects wrapped up by February 1st (minus the major projects we haven’t started, like the kitchen) because we’ll be hosting a life group every other week. So I’m using that as motivation, I’m totally using that as a way to keep the house clean too. This shall be fun….

It’s beginning to look at lot like Christmas! Well kinda. Due to the fact that we’re tearing up each room on a regular basis to finish projects, Christmas hasn’t really hit us yet. I’ve literally decorated and re-fluffed the trees three separate times because we had to move them and then half the ornaments fall off. I seriously thought about not even bothering to decorate this year with all the chaos, but I’m glad we’re finally getting into the Christmas spirit.

A few weekends ago, I convinced Drew (aka Scrooge when it comes to Christmas decor) to hang Christmas lights outside. The conditions were, 1. I had to help, 2. Get free lights and clips from my parents, and 3. It had to be nice outside – a lot to ask for in December. But thanks to my parents and the random 55 degree day, his wishes came true and we hung them up on the front of our house. It makes me soo excited driving up to our house and seeing it all lite up – so pretty!

The weekend before, I took it upon myself to get the trees up (yes, three of them), add a little decor on the mantle, and a wreath on our door. PS have you seen Target’s Christmas home decor section – I basically wanted it all, but I had self-control and only got the two sweater Christmas tree cones… and a ceramic reindeer….and a snowball/jingle bell wreath… and 4 sweater stars to hang on our fireplace, sparkly pillows (I plan to use those year-round)…. oh and a “W” ornament to add to the tree. PS only available in stores.To finish out our two Christmas themed weekends, we made our traditional cookies spelling out “Merry Christmas 2012” – along with those hershey-kiss-pretzel-m&m things. See our Christmas baking day for 2010 and 2011. Yum! We tried out icing the cookies this year versus frosting them – we thought it would look nicer, however we should have practiced all year. Never the less, they taste the same! PS listening to Michael Buble’s Christmas album will really get you into the Christmas spirit. I always forget his voice. is. soo. good.

Christmas wouldn’t be complete without a cat-reindeer and a baby-niece-elf too. Merry Christmas! What Christmas traditions do you and your family have?

It’s been a whole week plus two days since we’ve made this house our home. There are still so many boxes to unpack, but we’re slowly getting more and more settled in. We tried to do a little unpacking each night this week, but after a long day at work and making dinner, the last thing you want to do is unpack.

Saturday we made some more progress, however we encountered a small set back too. Our progress includes getting our bedroom almost complete, we hung the headboard, our shelves above the bed, and a mirror above my dresser (Thanks Drew!!).

But, we still have some work to do (here’s the areas below that need some TLC). We still have to hang up a few framed photos, and eventually redo the two nightstands, but it’s all live able right now. Oh, I want to get a tall-lean-against-the-wall-mirror for next to our closet and our shared, small closet needs some serious organization. PS – Our White Pintuck Duvet isn’t on our bed for these photos, my mom took it home to sew because it was a bit big.

And the setback… I’ll share another day this week. This time we’re focusing on the positive 🙂

SOURCE LIST
Curtains – World Market
Chandelier – World Market (my dad had to re-wire it for a ceiling light versus how it was made to just plug into the wall.
Shelves & Frames – Ikea
Sunburst Mirror – Target
Decorative Pillow – Target
Dressers – Goodwill that my Dad refinished
Nightstands – from a friend/sweet little ol lady who passed away (I’ll share that story soon)
Owl Ring Holder – gift from my friend Morgan