Gallery Wall Project

We had a quiet weekend for the first time since we got in the house.  It was nice and relaxing.  We went out to dinner, got some shopping done, and got some little house projects done.  Our biggest accomplishment was hanging a gallery wall above our bed.

When we first moved in, we laid all of the pictures and wall decor we brought with us from our apartment on the ground and decided where we wanted to put different things.  We have quite a few canvases from our wedding and our engagement pictures.  We really didn't want to put pictures of just the two of us all over the house, so we decided to do a gallery wall with the pictures and other decor on the big wall above our bed.  It was our first time doing a gallery wall and we must have laid everything out about 15 different ways before we decided how to hang everything.  Once we got to actually hanging everything it wasn't so bad or at least it didn't look so bad.  My husband did all of the hanging :).  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Hard at work on our wall 

Our completed wall

We also bought some ledges this weekend to put up some of our decor that doesn't easily hang on the wall.  We're going to use most of them in the morning room, but we also got a small one for our guest room to display our tile from Mexico and album from Hawaii.  After finishing up the gallery wall we were on such a roll that we got the ledge up in the guest room.

Souvenirs from our Mexico and Hawaii trips

We also put up some decor in the powder rooms and a bunch of stuff in the office.  I forgot to take pictures so I'll update later on those.

Living Room

In preparation for our housewarming party last weekend, we finished up our living room.  We still want to get some decor for the walls, but we have all of the big items.  Since our main floor is all open we wanted to make sure the living room flowed with the kitchen design.  To do that, we decided to carry through the gray with pops of red from our bar stools in the kitchen into the living room decor.  We kept our existing sofa from Value City Furniture and our existing coffee table and end tables from Big Lots.  (We'll probably replace the coffee table and end tables, but these work for now.)  We picked up the red cabinet for under the TV, the red chairs, and the red pillows from Target, and we bought the curtains from Homegoods. Here's a few pictures of our completed living room.

We're planning to pick up a decorative mirror similar to this one for between the windows.

To complete the look, we're seriously considering getting a large Maryland Flag pallet style wall hanging for over the couch similar to the one below.  It might be a little much for some people but we both went to UMD and want to incorporate Maryland into our decor.

Housewarming Recap

We had our housewarming party on Saturday and it went really well!  For the past couple months, we have been busy buying furniture and trying to get as much as possible put together before the party and it really paid off.  Ultimately we know this is just the first of many parties in our new house, so we didn't worry about having everything perfect.  Some rooms still don't have anything on the walls and that is ok.  We'll get there eventually.

We really appreciated that so many people took time out of their weekend to show up to see our new house.   It was nice to see everyone and a lot of fun to show off the house.

I haven't taken any pictures of our newest projects, but you can see our new red chairs for the living room and red pillows in these pictures of the dogs from the party.

my parents' dog came for the weekend and she really liked sitting on our new chairs to see out of the window

our Daisy loved having so many visitors

I'll update later with better pictures of our living room set up.

Basement

We ordered our furniture over Memorial Day weekend and finally received our basement furniture last night.  Part of our sectional was on back order which caused the delay.  We put everything together and we're loving the space.  We'll eventually get a couple accent chairs to put opposite the sectional to make it a good area for conversation.  We're also planning to get a dry bar installed on the opposite wall (not pictured) and we're going to put a big TV (70" or larger) on the bar counter top.  Since it's just the two of us we really want to make this a fun space to have our friends over and to just relax and watch movies.  Anyway onto the pictures :)

Here's a before picture:

Our beautiful floors

Less than 24 hours later we have a usable basement!

Have I mentioned Daisy is loving "her" new sectional?  As soon as we put the sectional in place she hopped up and didn't want to leave it the rest of the night.  

We are working on assembling chairs in our living room to complete that space plus getting ready for our housewarming.  We can't wait to have people over to see the house!

Ready for Guests

We are getting our first visitor tonight, so we worked hard to get the guest bedroom all set up last night.  We used existing furniture and bedding in this room, and we're really happy with how it turned out.

We have been out of town almost every weekend since we moved into the house, but we have been working really hard to get everything set up during the week.  We are having our housewarming on Saturday, and although everything is not done at this point, the house is definitely in good shape to have people over.

After working so hard to get to this point with the house, I have finally come to the conclusion, with the help of my husband :), that it will take us months, maybe even a year, to get to the point of really feeling like the house is set up.  I am okay with that because we don't want to rush into buying stuff just to get it done.  We would rather take our time and search stores like Homegoods until we find the perfect accent furniture and decor for each space.  In the meantime, I'll keep updating the blog as we go.  

We're expecting to receive our rec room furniture tonight, so I'll be sure to post tomorrow if we actually get it.

30 day and we (finally) got our bedroom furniture

We had a super busy weekend at our house.

On Friday, we had our 30 day follow up.  We didn't have any major issues with the house.  Our biggest issue was the toilets not refilling every time you flush, but other than that there were a couple squeaky floor boards and touch ups.  RH went above and beyond with our fixes.  They fixed everything, including marks from our move-in and a step that our puppy decided to chew shortly after we moved in.  Now that we had our 30 day, I can say for sure that we are really happy with everyone that we worked with at Greenbelt Station.

On Saturday our bedroom furniture was finally delivered.  We ordered the furniture over Memorial Day, but our nightstands were lost in transit to the warehouse, which caused a delay in delivery.  Even though it seemed like we waited forever, we are really happy with our new furniture and feel like it was well worth the wait.

Our beautiful new bed and nightstands

Our new dresser

On Sunday we hung curtains on our main level.  We had picked these up at Homegoods a few weeks ago, but we had other things we wanted to do around the house before we had time for curtains.  We are really happy with the curtains we picked up and it's amazing how much of a difference curtains make.  They were relatively easy to hang and make the space look so much more finished.  We also found some red pillows for our couch and ordered red accent chairs.  Once we have the chairs, our living room will be complete (except for wall decorations)!

Red pillows!

Living room curtains

Morning room curtains

Blinds and a Grill

We were away the past couple weekends but we managed to hang some blinds and get our new grill put together.

Blinds
We went with basic white 2" faux wood blinds from Home Depot and we are installing them ourselves.  Installation is really easy so we're glad we decided to do it ourselves although we haven't been home much so we only got the blinds up in our master bedroom so far.  We're only putting blinds on the bedroom level and will just have curtains on the main level and basement.  We'll eventually hang curtains in the bedrooms too to dress up the windows but it will probably take us a while to find curtains that we like.

Blinds in our master bedroom

Grill

Our townhome has a small deck out back that we mainly want to use for grilling.  We picked up a small 2 burner Weber grill on our last trip to Home Depot and assembled it last week.  Unfortunately we were either not home or it was raining so we didn't get to use it.  We finally had good weather and a free night on Monday so we grilled and it was delicious.  We also picked up some new pillows for our chairs on the deck, so our outdoor space is complete.  It feels good to get one more space how we want it.

Our first time using the new grill

Living Room Rug

We went out of town this weekend so we didn't get any work done around the house.  We did get our new living room rug on Friday before we left, so we set that up when we got home last night.  The rug is absolutely perfect for the space and it is so soft and comfy.  We love it!  I'm still looking for a couple fun, red toss pillows for the couch and a couple red chairs to complete the space and tie the look into the bar stools at the end of the kitchen.

Prepping for our 30 day

Our PM came out bright and early before work yesterday to walk through our townhome to discuss any issues we have for our 30 day.  We honestly haven't had any issues other than super minor things like scratches and marks on the walls.  Our PM is great and is even going to fix the marks from moving in.  He is working with my schedule and bringing all the contractors out to fix everything on my next flexible work day too.  I really appreciate his helpfulness and flexibility.

We have been really happy with this whole building process from our SR to our PM to our LO.  We love our house and we feel like we really lucked out with our community.  The Greenbelt Station community has a really great team, and I would definitely recommend them.

I'll keep updating as we finish things in the house.  We're hoping to get some furniture delivered soon and maybe get some stuff on the walls.

Kitchen is complete

We spent the end of last week and the weekend assembling our furniture.  Now our kitchen is completely decorated!  We love the way our stools turned out.  We bought them from Target but they look way more high end.  These are probably our favorite purchase so far.  Here's a few pictures of our completed kitchen.

Our beautiful island with all of our counter stools

A view of the kitchen all set up

Our barstools at the end of the kitchen

We also put together a little cabinet that coordinates with the stools to store all of our TV equipment.  We still need to put a few openings in the back so we can run the wires for the TV equipment inside.  This was another Target find although I wouldn't recommend it since it's virtually impossible to get the glass doors to line up.

This will all get centered once we get the TV equipment inside

Yesterday we hung the ceiling fan in our master bedroom.  We like how it turned out but there's no furniture in the room yet so it probably won't get much use until our furniture arrives.  The bulbs were also really dim so we're going to be looking for replacements already.  This fan was our last light fixture to hang and it is such a relief to be done.

We had a really busy weekend but we still found time for lots of walks with our puppy, Daisy.  She loves walking around the neighborhood and finding new spots to explore.  Here's a picture from one of our walks.

Let there be light

When we came home from work last night our package containing our living room light was at our door.  We had been eyeing this light for months so we were anxious to get it hung up.  Anyway after dinner, we did a little research on what height we should hang it at, cut the cords, and hung it up.  Our prewire cap was stuck on the ceiling so it took off some of the paint but we'll have RH fix that at our 30 day.  Other than that we still have to play with the arms on the light some to get the shape we want, but we're really happy with how it turned out.  

Living room with our new light

Checking out our new light from the kitchen

I also called the fan company about the fan in the master bedroom that didn't fit together properly and they're sending me what I need to fix it via 2-day shipping.  If we can get it all together this time, then we should be done hanging fixtures by the weekend.  

A Little More Progress

We got a little more work done on the house this week and a lot more shopping. :)

Earlier in the week my husband mounted our TV in the living room.  We got a full motion mount so we can watch TV from the living room or the kitchen.  So far we like it but we don't have table for underneath the TV yet.

Watching TV from the kitchen

During the week, I sealed the grout on our backsplash and sealed the granite in the kitchen.  We also sealed the grout and granite in the master bathroom.  It took way longer than expected, so we didn't get to the grout in our hall bath yet.

After the kitchen was all sealed, I finished putting everything away and setting up.  It's an amazing kitchen and we're really happy with it.  Now we just need to get our stools!

On Saturday we took a break from housework and met up with some friends for lunch.  Although we are loving our house, it was great to get out and get our minds off of our never-ending to-do list.  When we were out we happened to stop in Homegoods with my friend and found the perfect area rug for our morning room.  It was less than $300 so we were sold on it!  It ended up looking great too!

Saturday night we tried to set up the ceiling fan in our master bedroom but the fan we bought doesn't have the bracket and canopy screws lined up correctly.  We couldn't finish the install because of that and I'll be calling their customer service line tonight to see if there's anything we can do.  If not we'll have to take the fan down, return it, and pick a new one.

On a happier note Sunday we got the fan up in our office.  We also rearranged the furniture so it's pretty much all together just finding places to put all of our little stuff.

The office all set up
(excuse the mess)

We also did a ton of shopping this weekend.  We bought curtain rods.  Although we didn't find curtains we liked, the rods were on sale so we picked them up.  Then we ordered our bedding set for the master, our kitchen counter and bar stools, a cabinet for the TV stuff in the living room, and a mattress for the master.  Here's a sneak peak at some of our purchases.  Can't wait for everything to arrive.

Our counter and bar stools

Our bedding for the master

Cabinet to store our TV equipment in the living room

Beginning to turn our house into a home

My husband and I have been working to set up the house.  We still have a lot to do, but I wanted to share some progress pictures.

My husband hung our light fixture in the morning room and the ceiling fan in the guest bedroom.  We're living in the guest bedroom until our new furniture arrives so that fan was our top priority.

Morning room light

All lit up!

Fan in guest bedroom

While he worked on the light fixtures I worked on unpacking the kitchen.  So far we have our hutch all set up but there's still stuff all over the other counters.

Hutch (aka coffee and wine station)

Our washer and dryer were delivered Sunday too, so we're finished with the laundry room.

Love having a laundry room!

My parents came by Sunday to drop off some furniture and helped us around the house then gave us a plant to make our front door look more homey.

Our front door set up

Daisy at her front door

We also put our current bathroom set in the hall bathroom since it had a beautiful shower curtain and that's the only bathroom that needed a shower curtain.  We also set up both of our powder rooms.  The only bathroom we have to finish now is the master.

Main floor powder room

Rec room powder room

Hall bathroom

I'll do my best to keep updating as we put everything together.