Pictures of our New House

Since I officially chronicled the purchase of our minivan, I thought I'd finally put some pictures of our new house up. (This is mainly for posterity and my Arlington Peeps!)

Here's the front outside. I've always liked red brick.

Here's the front entryway/staircase. (These stairs still kill me, by the way)

This is our front room, or music room or whatever. Quite frankly, we're not entirely sure what to do in here. We thought maybe a couple of reading chairs and we've put the congas in there...but the coffee table still needs to be moved to the attic.

Our family room. Lots of natural light and a cozy fireplace that we actually use quite frequently, believe it or not.

This is, er, technically our dining room. But because we don't really have a need for a formal dining room, and we DO have a need to put all the kids' toys (seeing as how the bedrooms are pretty small) we went ahead and made the switch. Hopefully we'll get some organization going in there one of these days...

Our kitchen isn't that big and doesn't have many updates, but it's pretty nice and has lots of light. Plus, I'm a sucker for red.

The master bedroom. This isn't really a good shot of it, but I really like it. High ceilings and a pretty ceiling fan.

This is our master bathroom---no moldy tile, no ominously bubbling toilets and enough room to get ready at the same time!

This is probably my favorite part of the master bathroom. I love that I can read in the bathtub...though honestly I haven't used it much.

I'm not sure why it's so comforting to me to have the toilet enclosed in a closet-like enclave. The more doors to lock, the better, I guess

No pictures of the boys' and baby's room and the office---mostly because I just don't have the energy to clean them. We still have a lot we'd like to do to the house (decorating/painting-wise, etc), but that all costs money and I so I think we'll keep it like it is for awhile.

We really waited a long time to buy another home after Chicago, and I'm really glad we did. I feel like we really got what what we needed for a price we could afford. We love the area and hope we can stay here for a good long time.

And for all your Arlington folks out there, the baby's room converts into a guest room at the drop of a hat. So when are you coming down? :)

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!

Since we just moved our things in yesterday, it looks like a cyclone (with a fondness for cardboard) attacked the place. But stay tuned for pictures—I’ll post some as soon as we get things cleaned up.

The house is beautiful and I love it. We closed last Monday (the 23rd), and it was a relatively seamless event. I remember years ago when we bought our house in Chicago. After all the signatures were signed, I remember experiencing a horrible feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. This was mostly due to both 1) our general fear being first time homebuyers and 2) the fact that as first time inexperienced homebuyers, we got fleeced pretty good.

But THIS time, Steven put in a lot of hours researching every possible detail, and we’re pretty sure we made a smart, solid investment. I walked out of the Closing feeling like I was walking on air. It was a beautiful thing.

The house is a two-story red-brick number with 4 bedrooms and 2 ½ baths. It has a good-sized backyard with lovely landscaping and even a lemon and key lime tree. It’s in a cute little neighborhood very close to the church building, and it has SIDEWALKS! Now I can take the kiddos out on their bikes without worrying they’ll be run over like Frogger. There’s also a nice little park down the street and a community swimming pool.

The only thing that’s REALLY going to take some getting used to is the STAIRS! Oh my gosh, you’d think I was a 400 lb, 85 year old woman to hear me huff and puff up those things.

My brother Adam came by a few days ago to check it out, and made the following comment: “Doesn’t it kind of feel like moving into a mansion?” he jokingly asked. I laughed. But in all seriousness—to me that’s exactly how it feels. This house is by NO MEANS mansion-esque. But I’ve never lived in a house this nice in my entire life—and so I guess that means I’ve got to figure out how to make sure it stays nice…a daunting thought but oh, so worth it.

Now to break out that snot-green paint!

Decorating Is Fun...As Long as I Have Help

Okay, so I'm cheap. And neurotic.

I'm just not willing to spend a buck on pretty much anything, much less "Chotsky" (as Shannon christened little decorative ornaments to adorn your shelves, table, etc). But between the efforts of both my sis-in-law Jessica and Shannon, my house is looking much cuter by far. Here are some before and after pics. (PS, I just wanted to state for the record, that the pictures make the rooms look WAY smaller than they are...I just have a darn crappy camera. But hey, whaddya want? It survived a fire).

BEFORE: (No chotsky)
AFTER: (chotskified) All courtesy of Walmart. Amazing how much a rug and a few throw pillows can warm up a room. Thanks again, Jess, for helping me break down and make a decision.

BEFORE:
AFTER:
Sooooo much better, right? Thank goodness Shannon was there to hold my hand through it all. I never could have picked this stuff to go together otherwise. (Just LOOK at that adorable little red lamp. It's so cute I want to pinch it's non-existent cheeks)! And it was SUCH a good deal and I can even machine wash it!!!! Oh, and that mirror, I'm going to hang it up...just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Shannon also put together this little adroable space with some "chotsky" that she found at both TJ Max and Walmart:
Isn't it cute? And can you believe we found a sign with that oh-so-LDS saying on it?

I have ONE more space that I need help with, if there are any advice-givers out there. It's the space behind our couch by the fireplace. I obviously don't have any books to put on the bookshelves, but...well, here's a few pictures:
See? The couch isn't just pushed up against the fireplace...there's a whole extra space there.
But it's the sofa table specifically that I need help with. What does one put on a sofa table that doesn't look kitchy but DOES look put-together enough so that my husband won't pile things on the surface?:

Extremely Long Post About Furniture----Come Back Later If You're in a Rush

Okay, as suggested by MANDIE, I decided to put pictures of our new stuff on the blog and open the forum for suggestions. I've got some weird spaces I'm not quite sure what to do with, and plus I'm seriously challenged when it comes to making spaces look nice.

So we begin...

This is our living room. As you can see there's enough wood in here for a small cabin in the woods.
The couch/loveseat are a dark chocolate brown leather with tan stitching. We decided on leather because it seemed a bit more spill-friendly, which is important at present. I know the coffee table and end table are little old westish, but what can I say? They were sturdy and I liked them!
The coolest thing about this set is that they recline. Here's Steven luxioriously demonstrating:
Before, we were reduced to recliners because that's what we ended up inheriting in our years of used furniture. But in the process we got addicted to the whole "reclining" idea, so there you are.

Now you might be a bit confused on this choice, and not without reason.
So lemme 'xplain. Not only does the loveseat recline, they also rock (glide, whatever). But they would only rock if you got the console (which I think is a bit odd-looking, but Steven loves and that's that. We Grundbergs have always been Function over Form people, and ya gotta love that rocking feature.) Someday, when we move into a big fancy house with two living areas, we'll put this in the media room. (Won't it be cool to have a media room?)
Now this is the opposite wall. We're planning on splurging a bit and getting a big LCD TV for the wall. We also have a matching sofa table that we thought about putting underneath, but I'm not sure. It seems like a whole lotta wall to cover.

There's also this weird space behind the couch by that dratted fireplace and idiot built-in shelves that I don't know what to do with. We're considering putting a (small)computer armoire there.
This is our dining room table and chairs that I absolutely LOVE! I figure it's sort of in the middle between breakfast and dining table, which is good because we only have one dining space. The only problem is the chairs have fabric seats. Does anyone know about any kind of protectors I can put over them?

And now, master bedroom. This room is extra funky because it's 17x11 feet long. So it's super skinny one way and extra long the other way. Makes it hard to know where to put a king-sized bed (that's right, Steven and I decided long ago that while we love romance, when it's time to sleep we need our space[especially since I'm a flailer).

If you're wondering about the gorgeous quilt on the bed, that was given to me by the amazingly talented WANONIE. I was so dismayed when I realized it was queen-sized I almost cried, but it's so gorgeous I don't care, I'm using it anyway for now. (Notice the cute sconces on either side of the headboard).
Here is a view of the 8-drawer chest that we bought (and that I assembled, people. I'm so freakin' hoss). I obviously need something on the wall, right? We also bought a 6-drawer chest, but the room is so stinkin' skinny I can't get a good picture to show you.

And now, just for kicks, I thought I'd show the gorgeous bunk-bed/room set we were given by Anna Clemens. Her family just GAVE it to us. We couldn't believe our amazing luck and were so grateful. (There's also a chest that's NOT in the picture)
And here's the boy's bathroom. I got the shower curtain at IKEA and the cute little owl soap dispenser from Target.
Okay, so what do I do now?

Moving.....Again.

We finally decided what we're going to do.

We found a nice house in League City for lease, and we decided to take it. It's not the ideal situation (seeing as how we originally planned to buy a house in November). But now we're not 100% sure we're going to stay in League City, so we thought it better to lease rather than lock ourselves into a house, and therefore lock us into Galveston County. It's a 12-month lease, and we figure we'll have a better idea of what we want to do in a year's time.

Our lease actually begins on OCT. 27th! Steven was all for me driving down Thursday morning. But we won't have anything in that house except clothes and air mattresses and hopefully a lawn chair or two. I don't really want to spend a week in a house completely bereft of any recognizable comforts. So he agreed to wait until the weekend to help me get some things together.

So make sure to to squeeze in an hour or so of play time with us before we leave! (But who knows...another hurricane might blow us back up here sooner than we think).

Here's some pictures of the new place:

Shacks & Jitters

So here is our next residence from June 7th to Oct. 7th (notice the hurricane shutters on the windows). True, it’s a shanty, but a shanty that will house the Grundbergs while we scout out League City and make sure we actually want to live there. From all accounts, it seems like a pretty nice town. There’s just the one ward for the whole town (the League City Ward), and I’m just praying that it’s a good one. I’ve been horribly spoiled by 1st ward, so I’m not expecting too much.

I’m sick with nervousness and premature nostalgia. Did you ever have to switch schools midstream in junior high or high school? And you didn't know anybody, and you just wanted to hide in your bedroom closet and eat ice cream? Well, that was me in 9th grade, and it's happening all over again.

Plus we have this idiot talent/variety show on Friday and I just know it’s going to be a fiasco. I know, I know; I’m being a Debbie Downer today.