and then we bought a house...: Our House on the Hill

Three weeks ago, my husband and I finally signed the dotted line, and became homeowners. After years of renting, we felt like it was time to take the jump and investment and cross the line from renters to owners. We couldn't be more excited. The house buying process was stressful and scary, and even at the end we thought we might lose the house - but we're moved in and almost settled into our 1st home.

I've always been a crafty person. I love to decorate, move things around, and I cannot stand things staying the same for years after years. I can remember as a child moving my furniture around just to "change things up." Having almost 2,600 square feet of house to decorate and make my own feels like a dream!

So for my first project, I decided to start small (and inexpensive). The house was and is very much a blank slate, with all the walls (minus the basement bathroom) already white, I have lots of room to -design! The smallest thing I could possibly do was to paint my front door. I decided this would be my way to say, "Hey- you have a new neighbor, we bought this house!" Even before we closed on the house I was brainstorming colors, researching pins and ideas on pinterest, and finally after a day of paint-chip hunting with the husband landed on the same color- "Deep Space" a blue by Valspar. We must have picked up thirty different colors, our hand reached for this blue at the same time and we knew it was the one! (I know-super corny!) We loved the name, because our inspiration for the door was the Tardis- from Dr. Who, which is a deep blue colored British police call box. The Tardis is much bigger on the inside than it appears on the outside, and we felt the same way about our home. Check out the transformation below.

Total Cost $12 (We take good care of our painting supplies so that we can reuse them for many projects)
Paint- Valspar Ultra Deep Space

At our last home I had a staircase of pictures that I was absolutely in love with. I knew that I wanted to hang them again in my new home, but had seen a really neat trick on pinterest on how to hang your pictures on the wall with the perfect spacing. So I thought I'd give it a try. There was a lot of prep work involved, but it saved me a lot of time hammering and guessing and extra holes in my wall! What I liked most about this technique was that for frames that had multiple nails needed you could mark off and level them appropriately as well as make sure the frame would be the distance you wanted it to be from the others.

Total Cost- We already had all the frames and photos, painters tapes, and nails/hooks, but if we didn't I'm guesstimating you could do this for under $5. I used paper grocery bags to trace the frames and map out the holes for the nails. Next time, I would get a lighter weight material as the paper bag was a little snug taking off after nailed into the wall. Maybe butcher paper would work better. (But the paper bags we free)

This hallway is definitely a work in progress!

This week, due to Hurricane Sandy, I had two days off from work so I was inspired to find another project I could do. At the top of our upstairs we have a strange little space where the dormer window is. It is awkwardly tiny and I was really having a hard time figuring out what to do with it. With a little debating, I determined it was the perfect size for a small office...and so it became "the office nook"

I still haven't found the perfect chair in our budget for the space. The desk was from my father-in-law, the two bookshelves we Hurricane Sandy-craigslist purchases of the day, the curtains, rod, and tie-backs are from Target. I'm absolutely excited about this space now!

My most recent project was from yesterday and today. It is not quite finished yet but it's painted!! Fixtures to go up tomorrow. We might even get new flooring! My parent's have a piece left over from my grandfather's kitchen updates that might fit in here! Then it will be stunning! This color is Valspar's Summerhouse Blue.