Blind Ambition

I can see you! I'm sure that's what our neighbors were thinking when we started moving in! Well probably not, but that's what it felt like. So first things first, blinds! I have my eye on some pretty stellar window treatments, but for now, blinds will have to do. I guess it is phase one of our window treatment plan.

So...off we go to Home Depot (our new home away from home) to blind hunt. After a lengthy debate in the store between white (faux wood) blinds and dark (real woods) blinds, we decided to take one of each home and do a trial run! Even though I knew this would mean yet another trip to the Depot I figured we would be back anyway.

So off we went with our mismatched set of blinds and a few other items we picked up for some future projects. Back at the ranch, we took turns holding up the different sets of blinds and spouting off our pros and cons of both the white and the dark wood.

After much ado....we finally landed on the dark for the living room and dining room! I thought it brought some warmth to the grey walls, and would look great with the neutrally/Restoration Hardware look we are going for, and I thought the white might look a little too beachy keen. Since these are a touch more expensive than the faux white blinds, we decided to save a few pennies and put the white ones in the bathroom and bedrooms.

When I say we, I really mean Matt, because he did all the installing.

I can't wait to get all moved in, close the blinds and take a killer weekend nap! They may look a little dark right now, but I think when we get a neutral rug change out some of the furniture they will really look great!



While we are on the window treatment subject, we also got this roman shade for a little privacy on the kitchen door.

We have a couple more things to figure out the blinds , but we are well on our way to privacy! In other news.... it has been raining in Nashville for days and I'm DYING to sit on my patio. Come one sunshine!!

Around the House

It's virtual tour time! I will be holding up my hot pink umbrella so that you don't get lost (you know like tour groups at Disney World) and will have any necessary touristy things (like a disposable camera) in my fanny pack. So...let's go!



I know it can be hard to grasp the flow of a house from pictures so I made this handy-dandy floor plan (of only the first floor for now) here. I even included some furniture just to help orient us as we begin our journey. Who knows if this is where the furniture will actually end up...but those tiny couches and beds just make me smile. Don't know what it is about digital furniture, but it seems happy. And yes, I obviously included our cars.

Ladies and gentlemen....the house.

Well there she is in all her glory! Of course the second floor is missing, so it's not quite ALL her glory. I guess just like 75 or 80% glory. Now for the real photos.

When you walk in the front door, one day you will hopefully be greeted by a precious Boston Terrier. For now, you are welcomed by our living room. Don't mind the visitors in the firts picture (I was too excited to wait for them to finish installing an outlet and got snap happy).

Before I can curl up in front of the fireplace and read a book with my hot tea we have to get it scoped out. Hopefully we will be up and burning by next fall. To the right (if you are still standing at the door) is the dining room and kitchen. One of the things that attracted us most to the house was the openness of the downstairs. We think it will work really well for the way we think we will probably live. I love to "cook", but I hate to miss out on any fun...thus the openness makes me one very happy girl!

If you walk towards the back of the house you will see a staircase (I have pondered some ideas about the stairs here, but still don't know what the plan is). To the left of the stairs is the guest bath and what will be our guest bedroom. Matt is currently squatting in the guest bedroom so we can work on the ole master and move up there together post nuptials. To the right will be our office/music room (which is pretty much identical in size and shape to the guest bedroom).



If you head upstairs you will find a laundry room, bathroom and master bedroom. They are petite and cozy and I can't wait to start making them feel like home.



Then we come to my favorite room. The outside. So I guess it's really not a room...but there is a great patio I can't wait to paint and have a million cookouts! Watch out summer! And no that is not the wrought iron furniture I just painted.... just some left overs from the seller that I am about to attack with a can of black spray paint!

Well there you have it! I will lave loads more pictures as I start to tackle my mile long list of projects! I hope you enjoyed the tour! And I have to go to Home Depot again. Adios bloggers!

Moving and Grooving

Well we did it. We bought our first house. WHEW!! It was fun, exciting and terrifying all at the same time. I don't think I slept a wink the night before. I was like a kid on Christmas....except I was buying my own really expensive present. Now, a few days out I am able to reflect a little on how blessed we are! I mean, when I was a youngster I could never have imagined this cool of a future for me.

With that said...here is how it all went down! I guess the day all began at our 9:00 a.m. closing. Not nearly as scary as I thought it might be, but you certainly have to sign about 2 million pieces of paper. And that is not an exaggeration. Okay, slight exaggeration.



Matt brought his Grandad Woody's pen to sign with and before we knew it...homeowners!! Personally, I envisioned ceremoniously (maybe there was music playing in background and a cake) being handed a large, shiny, key-to-the-city key. Alas, they just hand you the normal sized key, there are some congratulatory handshakes and hugs and you are on your way!

So then we headed to our new crib/casa/humble abode, stopping to take a few classic new homeowner shots. I say, if there is any time to take cheesy photos this is the time! Embrace it.

And that lady back behind us, wearing the red brick, posing beautifully is our new house. I guess that means we are official Nashvillians. Cool by me! Oh and did I mention that the week before it had been 80 and sunny, but the weather caught a cold and it was in the 40s all weekend sniffling rain at us. This really put a damper on the cookout I wanted to have Saturday after a long day of moving. Hmph!

Matt's mom and sister and my parents came up this weekend to help Matt get settled and help us figure out a few "we have to do these right now" projects. My mom and dad brought us a dining room table and chairs! The one from my condo will only sit four people, at the most and that would just not do with all the dinner parties I have planned! Even better, this table was my grandparents (dad's parents). It needs a little love, but more about this little DIYer later!

So after about 13 trips to Home Depot (look at my cute dad)...

Lots of Chicken salad (look at Matt's cute mom)...

Delicious wedding cake tasting (my cute mom)...

And one mean dance party...

We are enjoying a temporarily decorated house! That is...until moving day happens again and we move my stuff in...and the fun starts all over! I can't wait to get my hands on all the fun projects I've been dreaming up. DIYlicious! More to come on that later...and also a room by room walk-through of mi casa (there are a few little tastes in the pics above)!

As for now back to Home Depot....ahhh the joys of home ownership!

Also...if you were wondering...the wedding cake was delish and we finally made a decision! I call that good multi-tasking!

Signed. Sealed. Delivered!

We own our very first home! Pictures and a run down of the weekend coming soon...I'm thinking tomorrow! Thank you to all our wonderful friends and family that helped get Matt all settled! Tons of fun projects to come. Stay tuned...

Master Bedroom Mashup

When Matt and I first started looking at houses it slowly started to sink in that we would be compromising on our styles. Don't get me wrong, we have pretty similar likes and dislikes, but we are not always on the exact same page. I mean, I knew marriage was about compromise...toilet seat won't always get put down, my towels won't always get hung up on their hooks...ya-da, ya-da, ya-da.... but it is just hitting me that I might not always get to decorate exactly how I want. Who knew!

This presented a whole new exciting challenge to me! After trying to convince Matt that my style was his style, which was clearly never going to work, we started discovering this little island called compromise. It's a pretty great place!

So after a few years with my Anthropologie-esk green and yellow, girly beyond-all-get-out bedroom I happily say goodbye! And Matt will bid a fond farewell to his dark grey-ish, brown-ish, green-ish total man cave and together we will embrace a new neutral mascu-minine (obviously that's masculine and feminine put together) master bedroom.

This brings us to the headboard situation. In my mind I imagined something romantic with lots of dimension. Something like this delight from Jonathan Adler:





Or even toning it down a bit I just know I would wake up happy every morning in this lovely bed from Restoration Hardware:

Alas, on the other side of the design world, Matt would go with something equally as awesome, but totally different, like this:

Or this guy (which I actually quite like myself):

So what do we do? We visit Compromise Island and land on an upholstered headboard (yay for me) with clean, sleek lines (yay for Matt)!

NOW we are thinking, maybe we should go totally crazy and DIY this little project ourselves! I have done a little research and it looks like we could make one for around $200 assuming there are no mess-ups!

We also stumbled on this guy we really liked from World Market when we were looking for some sort of contraption to hold our dvd player, wii, etc (more on that later):

What to do....what to do! DIY or BUY? That is the question!

Day Dreaming and Design Scheming

In two days we close on our house. TWO DAYS! Our families are coming in town to help Matt move in (I won't move until after the wedding)... and we can't wait! My mind is swimming with window treatments, rugs and paint colors. Sigh.

Every time I start to get carried away about the million things I want to fill my new casa, I am quickly reminded that 1. we are on a budget and 2. these are WANTS not NEEDS. Ugh!

So how do I take these wants and turn them in to affordable must do's? Get creative!! Last night I spent hours and hours (ok only one hour) washing and spray painting my old wrought iron patio furniture in hopes of breathing some new life in to it! I have to say it made a huge difference! It looks much crisper and cleaner and there is not a hint of the rusty, old furniture that once resided on my patio. Those four cans of $.99 spray paint were like the fountain of youth for my table and chairs.

Of course I still have dreams of Matt and me grilling out burgers with friends on this guy from Pottery Barn...

Or enjoying my morning hot tea and grapefruit on this West Elm gem...

For now my newly renovated wrought iron furniture will have to do. Perhaps I will spruce it up with some new cushions! I am hoping we can move the patio furniture over this weekend, and even though we may not have dishes or a couch we can still throw some shrimp on the barby and enjoy a first night with the new digs! We will call it minimalist living. Sounds very green of us!

As for my other day dreams...stairs. Right now the stairs in our home-to-be are carpeted. Not ideal, but it is new capret so putting down hardwood falls in to that want not need catagory. In the meantime, I am pondering just going crazy and ripping it up and painting the floor. Something funky like this...

Or more traditional like this...

 Oh well back to my daydreams.... TWO DAYS! Just TWO DAYS!

Good Afternoon Blogging World!

In just a few short days my fiance and I will close on our very first house! I haven't slept in days because of my night-before-Christmas-like nerves! In attempt to keep from bouncing of the walls, or redecorating rooms I haven't even been able to decorate yet, I decided to start a blog. It just seemed like the cultural next step.

1. Get engaged
2. Buy a house
3. Start a blog about being engaged and buying a house

I wanted to keep family and friends in-the-know about the life and times of the soon-to-be Woods. This blogging thing can be tricky though....I can't decide if I am supposed to write to the blogoshpere OR write directly to my peeps.

In deep hopes to become one of those blogger for my business types, I write to you, the blogoshpere. Hello! Nice to meet you! We would like to be friends!

Hope you like us too.