February Goals and a January Goal Recap

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Having monthly goals was a huge help towards the progress I wanted to see! One of my New Year's Resolutions is that, at the end of every month, I'll go back and see how I did with my goals. Here's the update on month one! 

January goals

House:

o   Paint the guest bedroom/office.
Done and done! We went with the same white that we've used on literally every other thing in the house! (Lilac Muse, by Valspar)

o   Print/hang artwork in the guest bedroom/office.
I at least got started on this! There's still more I want to add.

o   Finish peeling off border in the sunroom. 
This will have to happen next month. Oops!

o   Organize/purge master bedroom closet.
I've successfully donated over 15 paper sacks FULL of clothes and shoes, so I think I'm well on my way. The ultimate goal?? This!

o   Finish painting hallway doors.
We finished with the roller, but not with the brush. So it's 80% done?

o   Find a nightstand for our bed.
I found what I want at IKEA, but I have yet to get it. So technically, I completed this goal... It looks like this will be a rollover goal for February!

           

Health:

o   Exercise at least 3 times/week.

As close as I got was charging my fit bit and borrowing some workout DVDs from a friend.

o   Make a weekly plan to eat healthier.
I only felt at a loss for what to make for dinner once the entire month. This, my friends, is a win for me!

Personal:

o   Make meal plans once/week.
I made meal plans mentally. So that's a start. Next month, I'm going to write them down.

o   She Reads Truth at least 5 times/week.
I reread Hospitality, and I read Nehemiah. Both were so good!!!

o   Finish reading one book.
I spent some extra time on this one, because once I get going, I find it difficult to stop reading, but the first book I finished was The Nesting Place, by Myquillyn Smith. [LOVED it!!!]

The second book was Bread and Wine, by Shauna Niequist. SO good! I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to learn or grow in cooking and/or hospitality. 

o   Become an expert on one thing.

This month, I chose to become an "expert" on the different types of fabric used to make clothing. I found this website especially helpful. I'm still planning on learning more about this as I work towards the goal of purging my closet and filling it purposefully.

o   Invite 2 new people/couples/groups over for dinner.
I started small with people I was already friends with, but hadn't invited over for dinner. One night, I had a dinner party of eight, and one Sunday, we hosted a couple from church for lunch.

Having monthly goals helped me so much in knowing what I wanted to accomplish and what my deadline was in doing so. My goal list was right by my bed so I could view it daily! Here's to February!!!

February Goals

House:

Finish peeling off the border in the sunroom.
Finish my clothing purge.
Finish painting the hallway doors. 
Find/buy a nightstand for our bed.
Figure out a floor plan for the home office/guest bedroom.
Buy hanging files and organize my teaching stuff/craft room.   

Health:

Exercise at least 4 times/week.
Make a weekly plan to eat healthier.
Plan out grocery shopping trips.
Sleep at least 7 hours/night.
Drink 64 oz. water every day.

Personal:

She Reads Truth at least 5 times/week.
Finish reading one book.
Become an expert on one thing.
Invite 2 new people/couples/groups over for dinner.

Here goes nothing!

what color was that??

Our front door is Autumn Fire by Valspar (Exterior).

Our living room is Filtered Shade by Valspar.

Our fireplace is Lilac Muse by Valspar.

Our bedroom is Elephant Gray by Valspar.

Our trim/molding/interior doors on the first floor is Lilac Muse by Valspar.

Our closet is Autumn Fire by Valspar.

Our bathroom is Hunter's White by Valspar.

Our guest room is Lilac Muse by Valspar.

Our guest room door is Enchanted Forest by Valspar.

Our kitchen walls are Ocean Storm by Valspar.

Our kitchen cabinets are Lilac Muse by Valspar.

Our sun room walls will be Lilac Muse by Valspar.

Our sun room ceiling will be Autumn Fire by Valspar.

Fifteen lessons I learned in 2014.

In the past year, we have found a house, put an offer on a house, closed on a house, started tearing apart a house, filled that house with wedding decorations, emptied the house of wedding decorations, painted walls, fixed more leaky pipes than we can count, and tried day after day to turn that house into a home.

If you had told me last year, on January 8 that we would have a house that we not only got a great deal on, but a house we can afford, a house we can afford to fix, and a house that really does feel like home, I would've assumed this house was in the worst part of town. But God had the perfect house for us in the perfect place for us at the perfect time for us. And in the last (almost) year of this house adventure, I've learned a few things...

1. If this is the house God wants for us, the inspector and appraiser will give the go-ahead, no matter what issues come up.

2. It's okay to have a house that isn't finished. There's a reason it's a "fixer-upper."

3. Fixing things the right way by yourself takes time, and that's okay.

4. Sometimes the budget doesn't allow for the prettiest option.

5. Temporary solutions are just fine. And they are just that, temporary.

6. Even unfinished homes can feel cozy. When people walk into our house, I don't know what they think about our flooring issues (that melted carpet padding that looks like mold), or the rooms that aren't finished (or even started). But when they come into the living room, I know they can feel comfortable in the warmth of the space and the hospitality we offer.

7. It's okay to "undo" the finished things that were waiting for us in the house, like the basement. The house just becomes more "us" every time we do.

8. Painting isn't as easy as it looks. And it is ALWAYS more time consuming that you plan.

9. When house issues come up, sometimes you have to prioritize. Not everything can be fixed every time.

10. Always look around at the store. You might be surprised to find a $400 10x12 rug that's in the $80 bin because it has a tear. Or a $20 coffee table because it's "out of season" (whatever that means).

11. The sooner you quit being a perfectionist, the easier it will be to finish a project.

12. Kids are messy. Let go of how "nice" things should look now. That will make sharing life with children so much more enjoyable. Besides, kids spill milk and vomit on couches sometimes, that's just life.

13. DIY blogs often have big budgets. DIY doesn't necessarily mean "inexpensive."

14. Sunlight can make any dull space spectacular. Just open the blinds already!

15. Don't compare your house or your stuff to others'. Comparing yourself to others only leads to arrogance or shame, but never happiness.

I'm sure 2015 will bring LOTS of lessons. Here's to hoping that I will add to the lessons learned instead of starting over at square one.

After April showers.

I had my first bridal shower over the weekend and was given quite a bit of fun stuff for the house! I am thrilled to say that all of my thank you cards are written and most of the things are unpacked just waiting to be used (and a few have already been put to use, like the dish scrubber...)! 

The lighting in our living room at night leaves much to be desired (which should change sometime!) but I wanted to show you a little bit of what things are looking like now. Pardon the low quality iPhone pictures...

Our living room has furniture once again! Isaiah finished painting last weekend and my mom and I vacuumed tons of dust out of the furniture and put it back where it goes for now. :)

We still have some paint to scrape off the window, but the after is SO much better than this before...

Our dining room finally looks like a dining room. :) The desk in the corner should have a new look one of these days, and that will hopefully be the home of our piano, a buffet (which we're still on the lookout for) and who knows what else. :)

Since we painted the outside of our front door, and the living room walls, the inside looked pretty sloppy being a nasty off-yellow. We chose Elephant Gray by Valspar. We have it chosen for another project that should be done within a month or two. :)

(See, I told you the lighting was bad!)

Before:

After:

There is SO much change since we bought the house just two months ago! I'm pretty impressed with us being two amateurs with two (beyond) full time jobs and planning a wedding, not to mention taking care of other house stuff that's not so fun. We'll share more on that later!

Different strokes.

I finished project number one (that wasn't just demolishing something)! :) Since I finished this one, the shower has also come together too, so I'll have another update there when we have a shower curtain and it's in functioning order (this weekend hopefully)! 

This 1950's house came complete with a red fireplace (which was previously gray, I believe) and I knew something had to be done about it, but I didn't wanna venture too far into the unknown, so paint is where it starts!

When we looked at the house, the fireplace looked like this. There was no shutoff valve for the gas line, no liner, just lots and lots of red. Since I've had pinterest for quite a while, I knew that painting a fireplace wasn't a big deal. One thing that pinterest doesn't really show is painting a stone fireplace (there are lots of brick ones, but not many stone ones). 

We opted for white since it's versatile and clean (but that didn't really need an explanation...). I'm excited to paint the walls even more now that I saw that they weren't really white anyway. The color we chose Lilac Muse, by Valspar. Isaiah has some painting experience, and he prefers either Valspar or Behr Premium. So we just picked one. :) Choosing a white might be even tougher than choosing a color (like, how in the world to you know that you picked the right one???). We picked one that had more gray/beige than blue or pink in it. It should go well with the wall color we've chosen (which should be up after April 12)! 

Since the red of the fireplace was pretty hefty, we got some paint+primer together. The project wasn't very big, so we got a quart of Lilac Muse at our local Lowes. The cost was $15.28 for a quart, which I'm pretty sure isn't cheap (at least in the paint world), but that is the price we were willing to pay to not look at that red fireplace anymore! The paint+primer was a great choice for this project, because, honestly, it took one complete coat. The only places that required more were the deep cracks and crevices in the stone and around the mortar. Since I was so excited to tackle this project, I just used a brush, but I think a roller might've been easier. :/ Oh well!

 

I started with the mantle just to see what the white would look like, then I painted in the cracks. But to be honest, every time I realized that there was a stone that needed paint, I got distracted from the cracks. So the entire thing was covered by the time I finished my "first step." ;)

This is the only "final" picture I have for now, even though I have finished the bottom right next to the tile. It's definitely an improvement! Right now, we have several paint samples on the wall just above the fireplace, so it wasn't accompanied by yellow walls for long!!!

Until next time...