Slowly Coming Along

Although we did get the living room rearranged before I left and added a couple of framed posters to the wall that I didn't photograph yet hanging up, I've been visiting my family up north since May. I won't be back in Texas until July 10. Here are the posters, one in frame and the other one wasn't yet so here's an image from the seller I got it from:

While I've been away from home, Target ran a sale on a king size comforter that fits our nautical theme, and also offered a $15 gift card for a $75 purchase of select items, which included the comforter. The king size comforter we have now has pretty much lived in the guest room and matches the bedding I have on that bed.

We never did get a set of cotton sheets for our new king size mattress (just a clearance set of jersey that now have a hole in them thanks to our newest feline addition Simon and a holiday set of plaid flannel). So I also got a set of cotton sheets. Combined with the RedCard free shipping and 5% off, we ended up saving about $17, plus got a free $15 gift card out of it that we'll probably use in the store when we look at new curtains that are better at light blocking. The ones we have now are definitely not very "room darkening," unlike what the packaging claimed.

I plan on hitting up thrift stores and Goodwill when I get back to Texas, but in the meantime, I did find something for the bedroom on Etsy that I fell in love with. After doing some price comparison searching on eBay and Amazon, it seemed like a really good deal. Some of the other maritime style oil lamps that actually look decent were over $100. This one was $30. I may take to it with some metallic spray paint, though, to give it a different finish, depending on how it actually looks in person.

We plan on hanging it on the wall after I potentially rearrange the room, barring husband approval. I think I want our bed against a different wall because our heads are directly below the window the cats love to jump up in, and then back down on the bed. Our resident fatty Teddy Roosevelt has actually landed partially on my head before.

Since the oil lamp is supposed to be functional (according to the Etsy listing: "this item is functional and/or decorative"), we could use it when the power goes out.

I also picked up some inexpensive navy blue broadcloth that had good reviews with gift card money on Amazon to test out for making a handmade bedskirt on the frame my dad helped my husband build for the king size mattress. Right now, it's looking rather unfinished. If the fabric works well, I'll get the rest of the amount I need.

Our wedding anniversary is in a couple months, and my mom gave us the gift of a matching bookshelf to the one we have in the living room. The bookshelf we have set up right now holds my husband's military photos and awards. (This is an old picture. The stuff on the top and in boxes is already put away.)

The matching bookshelf will showcase my accomplishments (even though they're mostly from high school -- I didn't even attend my college graduation due to unforeseen circumstances). I just need to find a shadow box for a couple things that the resident feline fiends would try to destroy, like my tassels from graduation.

Rearranging The Layout -- The Living Room

Before:

After:

The Perfect Area Rug

I found the perfect area rug for our living room! I'm saving up Walmart gift cards for it now.

I also found some other accents that I really like, but that's my first goal, since it's perfect.

I've added to my list painting the living room, because I'm still not digging the peanut butter color that's on the walls right now. We both agree we'd like to do it in a bright red. We'll have to wait to do that until we get a decent sized ladder, though. I'm guessing that some of the walls are a good 12-14' high. I'm terrified of falling and cracking my head open so I may just let my husband do the painting up that high.

So Much Left To Do

We finished moving in November and said goodbye to apartment life. We've gotten some things accomplished, but it still doesn't feel particularly home-y here yet. It seems like we've had an endless stream of things come up that put a damper on the ability to make this house more of a home -- my husband's car needed expensive repairs after someone pretty much ran him off the road and into a huge pothole; one of my kitties passed away, and there were vet bills; a couple of recent deaths in the family that meant we've had to set money aside for a trip back home over 1,000 miles away.

I've been earning gift card money for Amazon.com on Swagbucks and Zoombucks, but it's sadly slow. I could also redeem for Walmart or Target, although I'm honestly not impressed with Walmart. I ordered some curtains there online, and they're supposed to be opaque, but not so much. The color also doesn't quite match what I thought it would be. I'd really like to get a nicer set.

We have very little wall decor so we have blank walls as of right now. It looks pretty impersonal.

I'd also like to replace the mirrors in the master bedroom vanity area. They don't really fit in with any ideas I have for decor. 

And I'm not a huge fan of the light fixtures over the vanity. At the very least, they need to be cleaned up from the paint that's covering their bases.

We're redoing the living room in the near future. As of right now, you have to crane your neck to watch television because the cable connection is against the wall directly opposite a large window. My husband is redoing the wiring so we can put it against a different wall.

You can see the couch relative to the entertainment center here.

Here's another view.  Definitely problematic for watching television. We've moving the cable connection to the wall the couch is against now and moving the couch across from the television.

Still not sure what to do with the other half of the room.

We're probably going to put my hubby's military awards and photos (the photo of us in there is only there temporarily -- I need to find a place for it) against the wall where the television is at now. Maybe with some more bookcases? As you can see, we still have boxes of books that we don't have enough shelf space for.

I really need to come up with an order of what I'd like to get done. The gift card money is slow coming, but it does help.

Office Painted!

We just finished painting the office last night and left it to dry to make sure it didn't need any touching up. We had to buy a second gallon of paint, which was annoying, but at least it's done now.

Here are the before pics.

Bedroom Theme + Progress on the Office

I decided the central theme of our master bedroom is the ocean and natural sea life that doesn't look gross like preserved parrot fish or pufferfish. The ones on eBay have those ridiculous stick on eyes, and some of them have little beach hats on, which makes them even more disturbing. It'd probably give me nightmares to have them staring at me while I slept.

So far, it's been shells and starfish that I've been able to find that look nice. I'm particularly fond of my giant starfish that the cats like to smell and lick. It's now out of their reach.

I plan to do 2 canvases that are 16x20 and fit well in the area surrounding the window and then a larger canvas, maybe 24x36, for the wall we're not putting our media center against. I still have to find some shells I like that are flatter for that. If that fails, I'm not quite sure what we'll put there. My hunt for art at Goodwill and Salvation Army could be going better. I found some art of boats, but I'm not very interested in those.

There are quite a few area Goodwills and other thrift shops so I'm hopeful we will find something in the near future – at least to cover the hole in the guest bathroom, if nothing else. The recessed hole size is pretty uncommon and surrounded by 2x4s so we can't expand it. The cheapest medicine cabinet that would fit into the hole costs well over $100 and wasn't even all that attractive. It didn't look much different from the $15 one at Lowe's. No matter how I think about it, I can't quite justify that cost for a bathroom we aren't even going to be using that often. The only way I'd consider it is if we got a roommate, since I'd want a medicine cabinet in the bathroom I use.

We've moved on to the office in terms of preparing the walls. My husband finished sanding, which was much messier than I expected.

Now that we've got the dust mostly cleaned up (the carpet repair and cleaning service will get the rest) and painters tape ready, I've started to paint. I hope we have enough paint, since it looks like I'm going to have to do at least 2 coats to fully cover it. It took over a gallon to do 2 coats in the master bedroom, but it is larger so I'm hopeful we can knock this out with just 1. I'd hate to get some more paint and then have the color not quite match the rest of the walls.

The kitties tried to "help" in the office. Little Kitty is especially "helpful," and Teddy is a creeper who stares.

Master Bedroom

We finished the master bedroom, except for the vanity area, which we are saving until we finish up the office. It was a major relief.

Here are some before and after pics.

Before:

After: