Paint Chips

One exciting thing about a new house is the possibilities you can explore with paint colors. Jake and I want our house to be unified and so decided on just 5 colors for the whole house (plus white for the ceilings and moulding where needed). I'll post pictures as we paint to show you how we use those different colors throughout the house, so keep an eye out for updates. We should start painting in a week or so. But for now—here's a peak at our choices!

Thrifting for Household Treasures and Necessities

Some of you like couponing. In fact, it's almost your calling in life you're so good at it. Seeing the tally of savings on the bottom of a receipt gives you a bit of a high. Me, I HATE couponing. Can't stand it. The only time I really did it was in the 2 months my husband was looking for work. If I don't NEED to do it, I won't. Couponing just adds too much stress in my life that I don't need. So where do I save money? THRIFTING. I get that high off of finding an awesome deal on pretty much anything at a yard sale or in a thrift store. For me, it's like treasure hunting. And thrifting really is a part of my worldview—using what has already been made and instead of old things heading to landfills or new things going through production and creating a ton of pollution....REUSE, REDUCE, RECYCLE.

To help aid you in realizing how awesome thrifting is (though I suspect many of you reading this already DO know), I will be doing several posts when I've collected some awesome treasures to show you all. I'll also list the price (if I remember) and where I found it.
Collected on Saturday while yardsaling and today while thrifting:
Art Nouveau poster (by Cheret)—$12.97 (Salvation Army)
Vacuum—$25 (Miracle Hill)
Towel Hanger—$3 (Miracle Hill)
Tray—$1.50 (Yard Sale) (to hold potted plants in the dining room)
Copper Watering Can—$1 (Yard Sale) (plan is to plant succulents in it)
Trash Can—$5 (Miracle Hill)
Bamboo Utensil Holder—$4 (Miracle Hill)

Closing Day

I am so incredibly blessed. My husband is the mastermind behind everything with purchasing the house. I just told him I loved the house and wanted it. He did a lot of hard work, along with our wonderful realtor, George Clements, and our amazing mortgage lady, Bethany Zitlaw. But buying this house wouldn't have happened without our God. He made this happen and I am so thankful to Him.

So, this is the first post on this new blog. Obviously. I want to be so eloquent, but there's not much to say yet. We bought a house. A beautiful house. I should probably give the specs here—30s or 40s farmhouse with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths (plus an unfinished one, so will eventually be 3.5), dining room, living room, kitchen, upstairs reading nook landing, laundry room/pantry, back patio, 10 foot beadboard ceilings, hardwood floors, and pretty much just a ton of awesomeness, all on 1.5 acres.

Jake and I want to eventually live off the grid as much as possible. Some future (like, as we save up the money for them) projects include a tin roof and corresponding rainwater harvesting system, chickens, a large vegetable garden and orchard, solar panels, etc. Then of course is all the indoor energy saving things we'll be doing. Plus, to add to the sustainability mindset, we'll be trying to add to our furnishings as much as we can from Craigslist, yardsales, and thrift stores. We basically furnished our apartment with IKEA, and so we have the basic pieces, but we want to make this house special (nothing against IKEA, they're wonderful). So not only will I be posting home projects, I'll be posting about "new" furniture I find, reupholstering projects, painting, etc.

I am so thrilled for what God has in store for us with this house. We'll just try to be the best stewards of it that we can be.