The Big Move

So the day has come and passed. We have officially moved in to our new house.  I can’t even put into words how exhausted excited Adam and I are.  However, it wasn't all smooth sailing; we had some bumps along the way.

Here we go...

The bad stuff

1.       My brother came in from Tennessee to help me move, instead, he had his appendix removed ( below )

2.       We only hired movers for the “ big stuff”  big mistake.

3.       Our box spring didn’t fit up the stairs, so our movers left it downstairs for us to figure out

4.       We don’t own an SUV which resulted in many, many, many trips back and forth.

5.       I have no cable or Internet until January 3^rd

The good stuff

1.       We are all moved in

2.       We passed on  the keys to our new tenant yesterday

3.       We got so many gift cards for Christmas that an entire bed set was bought, free of charge!

4.       I am getting some great antiques from my parents in January ( think: 1800's Chifferobe and then antique looking knobs from anthro. can you say awesome wardrobe for about 20 bucks?)

5.       I no longer have to walk up 20+ stairs to get to my house

6.       Milo has a ton of space to run around and is an awesome co-captain on long drives

7.       Granite counter tops

8.       New appliances (coming soon!)

9.       Lots of new spaces to decorate

10.   I have a washer and dryer that doesn’t require quarters (can I get a hallelujah?)

11.   Did I mention I don’t have to walk up 20+ stairs to get to my house anymore?

12.   That there are so many good things about moving into this house that I’m just going to end the list here for the sake of your time and mine.

Stuff I learned

1.       Never listen to a lady that works for Lenox when you are registering for your wedding gifts.

2.       I could host a wine tasting for 30+ people using real wine glasses (thank you, Lenox lady)

3.       I could also provide coffee for those 30+ people after they’ve finished their wine.

4.       Don’t give in and buy a new box spring when the movers say it will not fit. Take it apart and haul it up stairs yourself. (Nice job, Adam and Mr. Curley!)

5.       Just because your house is bigger, doesn’t mean everything will fit. Just look at our basement ( it’s full of boxes )

Okay, so I’ve learned about a million other things, but for now, I’ll leave you with that.

Stuff I was reminded of

1.       My husband is amazing. See new leather Pandora bracelet, with a house charm.

2.       My family is amazing

3.       I’m super blessed to have all of this

One last thing, I went to the casino last night for my grandpa’s birthday and it looks like I’ve just added some unexpected funds into the decorating budget. Yippee! Merry Christmas, to me!

ahhhh

IT'S MOVING DAY!!!!!!!!!!










That is all.

Great News

Well, a miracle happened last week. Our paperwork was done early, and we can close early!! We are closing...TOMORROW!!! We can't believe it. We now have zero time to get everything packed and ready to go. We did get a bug chunk of the packing done last night. Its amazing what you can do in just a few short hours of straight packing dedication, and no distractions. We were on a mission. There may have been a solid hour where Adam and I didn't speak, we each just took a room and went at it! Tomorrow, I will try to take as many before photos as I can. I will update you tomorrow!

Little Evening Treat

    As I promised, here is what I've been working on. This is a concept for my new living room. Most of the furniture we already own. The only new items would be the side table,coffee table and a couple little accents (bowl and pig!). Now, here is where I need you. Which table selection do you like best?  Also, what do you think about the rug? I'm in love!

The Pia table from Crate and Barrel (thank goodness for xmas gift cards!!)

 Or

Marble tables from CB2 (we can also use our gift cards here!)

Okay friends, tell me whacha think!

It's been ages since we spoke...

I can’t believe it’s been 10 days since I last posted. I feel terrible. I’ve had intentions on posting every single day. It’s really just been nuts.  Too many Christmas parties to count and we couldn’t even go to half of them.  So here’s an update.

 I was actually able to GO INSIDE MY HOUSE on Tuesday last week. It was as lovely as I remember.  My Relator, June Newman, an awesome Comey Realtor if you need one in Cincinnati, was nice enough to open the house up so I could take some measurements. Adam and I are lucky enough to be getting all new appliances ( except our range is staying!) once we move in and I needed to know what size to be looking at.  I also took some additional photos of the granite counter tops, (see below)  I’m struggling to figure out what color/stain I’m going to put on our cabinets. I just can’t figure it out. It’s tough with the super dark floors. I don’t want my kitchen to be dungeonesque but, I just LOVE dark wood.  If you have any suggestions, please please please share!

Granite Color

Current Kitchen color scheme..Ignore the ugly mirrors above the cabinets, they're leaving ASAP

So after talking with Adam I decided that I probably should start shopping (instead of just dreaming of all the wonderful things I want to put in our house).  So here’s what I bought; drum roll please….a vase and a candle holder and a side table. Yep, you heard right. That is all I bought. It’s a lot harder than I planned to pick all of this stuff out.  The side table is a floor sample from Crate and Barrel hello, $35.  The vase was on clearance at Crate and Barrel for $12, and the tea light holder I actually got from Home Goods for $9.99. Not too shabby. 

You can stack 'em!

So this isn't the exact one I bought, but it's close!

I bet you want to touch it

Hopefully I'll be able to post some things I've been working on very soon!!

Quick Friday update

   Last night Adam received his acceptance letter from Xavier. Starting January 9, 2012 he will be working on his MBA. I am so very proud of him! However, I must admit, I feel a bit guilty for what I'm about to share. As soon as I read the letter, visions of my home projects started to get blurry. Images of me digging DEEP into my (already) empty pockets, and only finding lint started to haunt me. yikes.

     



"you know what they say, Lint is a shells  best friend."- Marcel

   On a positive note, he doesn’t have any loans from undergrad since he was a little smarty and got a full academic scholarship. THANK YOU, CARL LINDNER! So here we go...add this to our tab. 

if you don't know who Marcel is, You Tube Marcel The Shell with Shoes on...you will laugh until you cry.

 

Have a great Friday!

Christmas Craziness…

Some people call us crazy, I just call us excited. Yes, we are moving the few days between Christmas and New Year’s and we are totally fine with it. I know we can handle it.  This just means we get to start our New Year FRESH with a new house, new (or slightly used, and re purposed) furniture and hopefully one day soon, a new PUPPY. For those of you who know me, you will not be surprised in the least that getting another dog is a high priority to me. Adam has always promised me that “as soon as we get a house, we can get another dog.” The time has come for Adam to make good of his word (WAHOOO!!) Expect a furry Curley to join Home Sweet Hoge in early 2012!

   Enough about my future pup, and milo’s future furry friend, and on to the big move!  As I am sure many of you can relate to this, we have a ton of Christmas parties to attend this year. Every weekend in the month of December, we’ve got something going on. I’m not usually one to complain about an excuse to (over)indulge in Christmas Cookies and Alcohol, but this year will be tough. We really have a limited amount of time to get our condo packed and ready to go. My brother and Sister (in-law..but sure doesn’t feel like it!) will be coming to Cincinnati on the 16^th to celebrate Christmas with our Grandma, and then they will be helping me pack up our condo. I’m sure that is EXACTLY what they wanted to do on their Christmas vacation but hey, they offeredJ. Once we get the condo packed, we are headed to Virginia to see my family! I haven’t spent a Christmas with them in years, so this is a very exciting year for us. We will be gone the 21^st-26^th just to come straight home and start moving! So not only do we have a few short days to get into our new house because we have a tenant moving into our condo, on January 1^st,  Adam is in a wedding on December 31^st  at Miami’s Oxford campus. It’s going to get hairy those few days. I think I’ll be on my own a bit.  Any takers on some additional help?  

Hopefully this weekend I will get a couple projects completed. I’ll try to get some photos up on what I’m working on, I’d love to get some feedback! Have a great Wednesday!

I almost forgot to mention, we have a few new trees being planted in our back yard this week. Thank you, city of Cincinnati! I'll some post pictures when they're planted.

One thing after another..

Its official, I’m never moving ever again. Or, at least not until the pain and suffering from this process is just a distant memory. I honestly don’t think that the bank could ask for any more information. I’m surprised I haven’t had to send in fingerprints or get a GPS tracking system on me to keep the banks happy. Every day they need more information, and more signatures. When will the madness stop?? Thanksgiving really couldn’t have come at better time. Unfortunately, I am not one who loses weight from stress; I tend to turn to food for comfort. Thank goodness it’s Honey crisp apple season, otherwise I would have downed at least two “Halloween sized” candy bags by now.  The apples are good enough to keep my mind off candy, which is a tough job. However, I am not going to pretend for one second that I’m going to take an easy on the turkey and mashed potatoes, I need them ( yes, I said need).

As all of you are well aware, this Friday is BLACK FRIDAY. In my attempt to furnish this house on a tiny budget, I’m going to brave the madness.  I have a few stores in mind (probably not the traditional Black Friday stores like Best Buy—I’m not in the market for a 65” TV..yet.)  I’ll let you know if I find anything good.

 Happy Thanksgiving!!

Weekend accomplishments...

This weekend was pretty successful, if I do say so myself. Saturday morning I went to Joann Fabric looking for material  that I will use to make my new pillows. I've decided to make my own pillows for many reasons, but mostly just because decorative pillows are SO expensive.  So my thoughts were, "why not just cover the pillows I already have?" Some of the covers on my current pillows slip/zip off, which gives me an easy white surface to cover. For those that don’t just slip off, I will more than likely have to layer the fabric to completely cover their current bright green design. I went into Joann without a clear idea of what exactly I wanted our new living room to say.  Thank goodness for good friends, who gave me their opinions on some patterns. After at least an hour of wandering,  trying to deciding on fabric, and then changing my mind a few more times, I finally decided it’s going to say “sophistication, with a bit of fun.” I've been told that sounds "just like me" – Thanks, Jessie :). Here is as far as I got, I bought enough fabric to make two, yes only two, pillows. I, of course fell in love with one of the more expensive fabrics, so even on sale (40% off!!) I have to do a little at a time. I’m going with a brown, gray, cream and mustard yellow color scheme. It’s a huge change from the lime green, gray, silver, and red-ish color that we currently have, but it’s a welcomed change. See below for a sneak peak of the fabric.

It was also time for me to pick up the vintage hutch I found at an antique mall by my house. I had NO IDEA how heavy it was. When Adam and I got there to pick it up, we were in for a rude awakening. Carrying an incredibly heavy hutch up 4 flights of stairs, just the two of us, was not an easy task.  I really wish I had gotten video of it, because pictures wouldn’t have done it justice

Here is a toned down version of what it sounded like…

 “Oh my god, it’s falling”

“No, it’s not I’ve got”

 “Yes, it is.  I’m going to drop it”

            “We’re almost there, just hold on”

There is good news and bad news about this finally being in our possession. The good news is, I don’t have to keep worrying about how we are going to pick it up (since neither of us have an SUV, we had to borrow the in-laws).  The bad news is it’s now going to sit in our condo for the next 6 weeks, just to be carried back down the 4 flights of stairs to find its new home on Hoge.

Our next step is figuring out paint colors, the seller LOVES purple, we aren’t big fans. As soon as we make some decisions I’ll post some pictures.

Wheelin' and Dealin'

So, the majority of my time right now is now focused on finding the best deal I can, on furniture to fill my house. If I can tell you one thing about myself, it’s that I have champagne taste on a beer budget. I’m not talking a delectable craft beer, I’m talking Natural Life (or Nati Light, as the people here in Cincinnati, so endearingly call it). Therefore this is work, seriously hard work.  I've challenged myself to think outside the box, to find things that maybe aren't beautiful in their current state, but have potential to be something fantastic.  Thank goodness for sites like Pinterest and Etsy. What would we do without these fabulously crafty people in the world?  So until December 28^th, when we can actually move into our house, I’m looking forward to finding my next treasure. Whether that be in a thrift store, an antique store, on craigslist or wherever else this adventure may take me.

Sneak Peek...

Here it is...project #1 a $60 steal from an anitque mall

Here goes nothin'

Home Sweet Hoge

Well, after multiple round abouts of negotiations, the house is ours! It only took a few weeks to get the word, but the day has finally come. Not only are Adam and I becoming home owners for the first time together, we are also becoming landlords to a condo that Adam bought right after college.  We aren't sure what lies ahead, but we sure are excited to get started. I can say with 100% certainty that I am a bit more excited about decorating a 101 year old house, than Adam. So, here's the catch, our pockets are empty. We bought the house, pretty much wiped out our savings and so now, it is time to get creative. Let the DIY projects begin.