Home Sweet Home

This post is just a little overdue (try 6+ months), but Bill and I are finally settling into our first home. I don’t even really know where to start. We began our search before our wedding in 2015 and then realized we were crazy and trying to do too much at one time.

It took us a while to ultimately decide which suburb of Milwaukee we wanted to call home. After I changed jobs last January, my commute got a lot longer, and with that in mind, we ended up in our hometown just 15 miles north of the city.

We closed on our house the same day that we found out my mom’s cancer treatment was no longer working right before Thanksgiving. To say it was a whirlwind would be an understatement. We slowly moved stuff in throughout December and officially moved in right before Christmas.

Given that we’ve now been in the home six months, I thought I’d share what we’ve done so far and what’s on the horizon. I’m breaking things down room by room below. I swear every decision has taken us around a month because we research what feels like every single possible option for every single project. Bill was extremely patient with my paint and carpet decisions. I never thought I would be going to a carpet store every weekend. We ended up needing a new washer and dryer right away (ours were filled with mold and the washer was leaking #welcometohomeownership) so while he researched those, I focused on the family room and breakfast bar.

Kitchen
Fortunately, we didn’t have to do much here. All we needed right away were stools for the breakfast bar.

I can’t wait to paint this room (the whole first floor, really). I’m still deciding on a light grey or off-white but hopefully making up my mind soon because this yellow/green isn’t my favorite. Styling the shelves and replacing the lighting are on the top of the list as well. The ‘one day’ list includes adding back splash, but it’s not a priority project right now and updating our faucet.

When we walked through the house, I loved the dark floors…and then I realized how often we need to clean them. Enter one of my favorite purchases of the year: the Makita vacuum. I pretty much use it every morning and night because I hate seeing any dust or crumbs on the floor.

Shop the Kitchen
Barstools / KitchenAid / Monogram Carving Board

Family Room
The only item we had for this room was the rug, and since we moved in during the middle of winter and loved the fireplace so much, we wanted to use this room as soon as possible. I had saved up quite a few Pottery Barn / Williams-Sonoma / West Elm gift cards that we put towards the chairs, coffee table and side tables. More photos of this space to come once we paint!

Shop the Family Room
Leather Chairs (seen below) / Couch / Rug / Coffee Table / Side Tables
Gingham Pillows / Floral Pillows

Master Bedroom
We just moved into this room (hellllllo king size bed), and it’s now officially my favorite room in the house! Our big projects upstairs were replacing the carpet in the master bedroom and hallway and updating the stair runner. We also ripped out the carpet in the three other bedrooms and finished the hardwood floors. One of the things we didn’t account for was that we would end up ripping out all of the closet built-ins so that they could properly finish the floors. They weren’t in great shape anyways so it wasn’t too big of a deal but just another project to add to the list. I still need to figure out the closet configurations so we can install those as well as new closet doors in the other bedrooms.

We painted the trim Benjamin Moore White Dove and used Dove Wing for the walls. Bill is a bit underwhelmed by the lack of color (I’m giving him navy blue for the office), but I absolutely love it. Still on the to do list: curtains, decorative pillows, artwork and new dressers for the room. The one day list includes that master bath but that’s something for the five year plan.

Shop the Master Bedroom
Bed / Duvet / Duvet Cover
Black Picture Frame: IKEA / Nightstands: Old West Elm (we bought them about four years ago) / Decorative Box & White Frame: HomeGoods / Feather Tray: Jayson Home

Living Room
I’m so excited to work with the ladies of Celeste & Pearl on our living room, and I’ll be sharing more on that as we make more progress! Our upstairs has taken so much longer than I ever anticipated (it’s totally on me for taking so long to make decisions). This room will essentially be another family room. It has more space, and I have a hunch a lot of the baby gear and toys will end up in this room. We both have pretty big extended families that we’ll hopefully be hosting quite a bit so we didn’t want something too formal. The only thing we have in this room is a a TV so it has a long way to go.

As for the rest of the house: The dining room only has a bar cart, but it’s fully stocked so at least there’s that and the guest room is set up with items from our old bedroom. The office has an old desk, and I bought this chair that we both love. We bought the furniture and mounted TV in the basement from the previous owners so that’s where we camped out for the first few months. I don’t even think I’ll get to the backyard deck this year but know it has so much potential, not to mention that I want to paint the exterior and refinish the deck. And, last but not least, the nursery has a loooong way to go.

Some of the best advice I got was not to rush and fill our home with things for the sake of filling rooms. I’d rather have items that bring us joy and make sense for our family and how we want to use the space. I can’t wait to continue to share more as we slowly make this house our home.