Clean slate!

This week I finally wrapped up painting all of the rooms in our new place, yeah!  I did have lots of help last week from a few family members (a big thank you once again), but I didn't get around to finishing it all until this week.  So I was really happy today to be able to put some things back together and clean the house up a bit so we can be ready to move everything in this next week!

 One of the nights that we went over to the house to work on things after work I decided to bring one single portrait to test out above the fireplace in the den.  Clint just laughed at me as I got into the car with this one item from our apartment to "move" to the house, but it of course made me happy to be able to see the house become our home! As you can see...

Although this picture isn't the best since it's just with a phone (and of course you can see the stain on the carpet that I will soon be having cleaned), I love seeing the room with fresh paint and the potential of this and all the rooms in the house.  Plus I happened to find the fireplace guard just around the corner from the house this morning! :)  I was driving up to the house to start our Saturday projects and I spotted one of our new neighbors having a garage sale, and lo and behold...they had something we needed!  So I got to meet our new neighbors and bargain them down to $12 for the fireplace guard! 

Next is the guest/hallway bathroom.  I have to say the black and white tile motif has grown on me!  At first I wasn't thrilled with it, but after painting the walls in the bathroom a light gray, I'm a believer!  I look forward to adding some pops of color in the bathroom with towels and little accent pieces, but for now the simplicity of the black, white and light gray is making me happy! ; )  You can't tell in the picture that the walls are gray, but trust me they look nice! 

It will probably be a little while before I start to get too involved with the landscaping and gardening at the house, but I am so lucky that we already have lemon trees!  YEAH!  I love using lemons when cooking, so I was thrilled when I noticed after our offer was accepted on the house that we have a mature lemon tree!  This will also save money since Clint won't have to go out and buy me a lemon tree now because I told him when we were buying the house that I had to be able to buy some fruit trees.  Phew, money saved for once!

And, last but not least for the house updates...camellias!!  One of the cool parts about buying an older home is that there are sometimes flowers already planted.  We already seen some flowers blossom at the house (even though it's only February!) like daffodils and geraniums, but my favorite by far is the one little camellia bush in the backyard.  I love camellias because they are such full beautiful flowers but they especially make me happy because they remind me of my great-grandma Laura.  Camellia bushes lined the front walkway of grandma Laura's house and often she would have fresh-cut camellias in her house, which always added a simple elegance to her living room.  Even though grandma Laura isn't here anymore our home will definitely have some of her touch since I think I'll take that trick of her's and put fresh camellias in our living room too!

So with that, I'm really excited to be in our new place!!  It's been a stressful process, but I think it'll all be worth it!