What We Have Been Up To

Boxes and chaos are slowly starting to creep into the corners of every room in the house.  Our move date is quickly coming upon us.  Brett is finishing his last couple days of work at his current job, and then it will be time to get down to serious business and pack up the rest of the house, spend the night at my parent's to celebrate some festivities (my brother is leaving to Texas to serve a mission for our church), and then head to our new home.

The other night, I drew out a birds-eye-view of our farmhouse, solely based off of memory (we were inside for only a few minutes) and three crappy pictures I snapped on my phone.  Then I showed Brett some pinterest boards (his favorite, ha!) of paint ideas and what not.  Then I showed him where I thought certain furniture and paint colors should go, labeled on my sketch.  It got me excited.  Hopefully my memory was somewhat accurate!

I have been picking up a few things for our new home (keeping the tags on and the receipt, just in case).  It seems counterintuitive to be buying more "stuff" right before moving, since usually decluttering and getting rid of things is typical for pre-moving (and we have been doing that too).  But since we will be so far from stores, I am making an exception and getting some things I think will look nice.  I am being conservative though, not going too crazy and buying up too much at once.  I know I can order things online, but I'm weird and like to touch and look and pick up things I want to buy, especially things like throw pillows.  But I'm sure I'll do online shopping as well.

Here is a secret for buying cute decorative pillows for a good price--check the outdoor furniture and pillows as well!  Often times they are less even at full price, and usually have better markdowns when they are on clearance!  My mom told me about this, and I just found a really cute oblong navy pillow in the patio section of Target, for $7.48.  Can't beat that price!

Other things we have been up to...

Vivienne likes the mirror, and since all of them are propped up against walls in anticipation of our move, it really works out.

Squeezing in some visits to the Sweet Tooth Fairy Bakery before we move too far away from it.

I am throwing out all our nasty tupperware that is stained and breaking, and replacing it with some Pyrex glass storage.  So excited!  Target has them on sale for $26 right now!

Renewed my Costco Membership.

Finishing up a women's doubles tennis league with one of my best friends, McKenzie.  Having a blast, but pretty rusty!  Haven't played since before I was pregnant with Landon...

Jumped on the "Saltwater Sandal" bandwagon, and I am so glad I did.  Now I know why everyone else is obsessed with them.  I plan on buying the kids gender neutral colors and letting them become the most awesome hand-me-downs for each other.

Vivienne got another round of vaccinations.  Not our most favorite part of being a baby.  But she still is cute, so it all works out.

Our Future Farmhouse

So, since last posting we were able to take a peek in our future farmhouse.  It was a leap of faith planning on moving somewhere that I had never been.  But Brett and I are somewhere on the spectrum of being "visionary" and "DIY-ers" and knew we could probably fix up whatever we would need to.

However, we were so pleasantly surprised when we walked in!  Sure there are little things that aren't perfect about it, but overall, it is adorable and will be such a great fit for our family!  Here are a few things that I am excited about, now that I have been to our future farmhouse:

Kitchen
- Built-in hutch, for my platters and pretty dishes...similar to the one our current house has!  I was sad to leave the one here, and told Brett I wanted to find an old used hutch and refinish it, because I loved having stuff on display...turns out, I won't need to do that!
- Butcher block countertops.  If you read my post on our current kitchen, you already know that I had dreamed of possibly having butcher block counters replaced in there someday.
- Beadboard kitchen cabinets, add some sweet charm and character to the kitchen.
- A cute little window sill above the kitchen sink and a cute little nook above the stove.
- A natural gas stove.  I mean, who would've thought we would have natural gas out in the boonies...turns out, we do!
- A pantry.  It is small, but we've never had one before, so it's exciting for us.

Living Areas
- A large stone natural gas fireplace...swoon.
- A large fully enclosed Arizona Room with hard wood floors and giant windows.

Bedrooms
- Each one has a bathroom connected to it
- We will have a walk-in closet!  It's small, but still a huge upgrade from any closet we've ever had.

Property
- Huge enclosed backyard, lined with giant mature trees, for plenty of shade (and tree swings, don't worry--Brett is aware this will be another project he will have, along with farmhouse picnic tables).
- A hot tub in the back yard, which will provide for great date-nights-in (or girls nights, if any of my friends come and visit me!).
- Apple trees with apples growing and ripening up for the fall.  I will make apple crisp, homemade applesauce, and dehydrated apple chips with them.

I'm excited to get to decorate such a charming little house to call ours for the next while.  Stay tuned!