Meet and Greet

I'd like to introduce you to some new things that now call our casa home.

First up, our Montego Fretwork rug for the dining room.  I ordered it from Joss and Main when I saw I could score the 6'7" x 9'6" rug for about $100.  I love the color and how it feels under foot.  You'll also notice we rotated our dining room table 90 degrees.  I love how the flow of the room feels since the switch-a-roo went down.  {Please disregard the curtain sewing mess on the table, and the blinds waiting to be installed on the floor.  Our house has been in disaster mode since we began working on a bunch of projects last weekend.}

And now for the guest of honor...meet Owen.  I found this lil' guy at Home Goods for $9.99 and he is by far one of my favorite decorations in the house.  I'm not sure which room he'll end up living in, but for now, he's had a front row seat to all the mayhem while hanging out on the dining room table.

This weekend I'm hopefully going to wrap up all the furniture painting we started last weekend...and my fingers are crossed we'll get our new curtains hung and hemmed.  Perhaps I'll get a closet or two organized?  My goals may be a bit lofty considering I'm driving to my sister's in CT on Saturday to see my adorable nephew celebrate his 2nd birthday party.

Oh, and I DO NOT know how I let this fantastic news go so long without sharing...my hubby and I were blessed with a second nephew when my sister-in-law gave birth to her bundle of joy on January 2nd.  {Remember the baby shower I helped to throw back in October??}  Here is my handsome hubby holding our too-cute-for-words nephew a couple weeks ago!

And here he is hanging out in his pack n play.  {Sorry the picture is so dark and fuzzy.  It was taken on my phone in a dark room...but I think his cuteness shines through anyway!!}

So what do you think?  Is the new rug and layout working for the dining room?  Does Owen warm your heart like he does mine?

Hope you all have a great weekend! :)

Let's Catch Up...

I’m going to start off by saying I am so very sorry about being totally MIA for the past week-and-a-half-ish.  The hubby and I took a “staycation” from work the week of the 19^th through the 23^rd so that we could pack up, move, unpack and complete as many house projects as possible.  We needed to be ready for my sister, her husband, and my nephew to arrive on Christmas day.  The days were long and exhausting.  We started at 7 something each morning and went until after midnight most nights.  {If I could sleep for a week straight, I probably would.}  Between me, the hubby and my beyonddd amazing parents, we got a lot accomplished, and weirdly, had a ton of fun while doing it.

We packed up our stuff from the in-laws on the 17^th…and moved everything into the basement of our house that same morning.  We had the help of Pete’s dad {who is a master at packing a moving truck}, my parents and some great friends {thanks Justin, Matt and Maria}.  Without all of them, the day would have been much longer and more difficult.

Packing up our room at the in-laws.

Some of our stuff jammed into the basement...along with the hubby testing out his Christmas lights.

More of our stuff, and our awesome lawn chairs we used to relax on in the basement haha.

Unfortunately, we had to keep all of our stuff in the basement until our floors were completed.  They started sanding them on the 15^th and finished the last coat of sealer in the evening on the 19^th.  That meant we couldn’t get on the floors until the after dinner on the 20^th. 

Floors, before.

And again.

After the stain went down, buffing the floors.

He was clearly weirded out by me taking pictures of the process from the basement stairs haha. 

Buffed and ready to be sealed.

And again.

Fresh coat of sealer.

Couldn't wait for them to be dry!

Finished product.

In love.

While the floors were being done, and with all of our stuff in the basement, and no access to our main living space...we were restricted to what we could accomplish around the house.  Luckily, during that lull we were able to find a phenomenal garage door guy to replace the horrendous doors that were on our house.  We called him on Saturday night to see if we could get an estimate…he met us early the next morning…and put the doors on all day Monday.  He was $500 less than our contractor’s bid, and we couldn’t have asked for more from him.  {I highly recommend him in case anyone needs garage doors in North Jersey!!}

Remember these??

View of the old garage doors from the outside.

View from the inside.

So awful.

Well now our garage looks a little more like this...thank gosh!

View from the inside.

Other door.

View from the outside...new key pad too.

Other door.

Much better than the old, green doors!! And our pretty wreath!

Once dinner was over on Tuesday, we rolled out the red carpet rosin paper, and started protecting our floors.  Then it was time to clean the major dust that was covering every square inch of our house.  The next days were filled with putting together our baby 55” LED TV {me and the hubby’s sort-of Christmas present to each other…we purchased it during a killer Black Friday deal, online…no, we didn’t brave the crazy crowds out there}, 3 beds, a TV stand, dining room table, painting trim, caulking everywhere, refinishing dining room chairs, refinishing night stands, painting cabinets, installing cabinet hardware, painting the fireplace, recovering dining room chairs/bar stools, etc.

Around midnight on Christmas Eve I even managed to put up our little tree, stockings and a couple other decorations.  I know it isn’t anything to brag about, but it wasn’t too awful considering I was half asleep, and I couldn’t even find everything I needed {aka - there is no tree skirt, I rigged up a tree topper, etc.}. 

It's the best I could do for this year.

Strung ornaments up on our chandelier.

Merry Christmas!

The hubby was also hard at work during the week trying to put some lights up outside.  It was a major struggle since the electricians still haven't installed our exterior outlet and we have no bushes since we ripped everything out at the end of the summer.  But hey, we worked with what we had…and I think it looks cute!

By Christmas the house was semi-in-order…and I stress semi!  {We were even unpacking boxes as I heard my sister and her husband coming into the house.  And there are still a ton of boxes to go through in the basement.}  So we took a break from slaving away on the house to enjoy a nice holiday with my family.  

And I promise, there are many more pictures and details of the house to come.  Now that we are no longer spending every waking minute working on the house, and we have a functioning computer back, I’ll be able to catch you all up on the changes in our casa.  I can’t wait to share it all.  Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!  :)