Sofa goodness

After raving about how much we were looking forward to getting our new couch...I can't believe I haven't it showed it to you yet!

I've been enjoying sitting on it so much that I haven't wanted to uncurl myself from its enveloping comfort to take any pictures.

I think the fact that we had basically been living for a month without anywhere comfortable to sit down on adds to our appreciation of it. We enjoyed watching Netflix in super uncomfortable kitchen chairs, then on a half blown up air mattress. We upgraded to a scratchy rug and now finally...

...a huge, comfortable, soft, perfectly-sized couch!!

Obviously, this room still has a long ways to go (that ginormous wall needs a little sprucing up), but here's a little update on where we've come from.

Living room when we first moved in:

Now filled with all our belongings in the entire world:

Last Friday, this baby showed up:

We love it! It's a little lighter than our original plan, but for $200 cheaper, we're okay with that. It's also actually smaller than I was picturing, which I'm so glad about! It's big (perfect size actually), but I was picturing it just looking ridiculously huge and way too big for our room. Instead, I think any smaller would look too small for the room and this is just the perfect size to have lots of space to stretch out, but also plenty of walking space through the rest of the room.

Also upgraded in this room was our old entertainment center. For the life of me, I can't find a decent before picture of it. Apparently, TVs don't make for good backgrounds of photos. I actually did find one though:

The first day in our first apartment in Bourbonnais. Oh, the memories.

Before picture or not...Kody sanded down the entire thing and then stained it a darker ebony color.

It took him most of an entire day to complete the project, but it looks pretty nice inside now! We also took off the glass door on the right side, which definitely upgrades its coolness factor.

And now if you'll excuse me, I have a date on my couch with some Chinese food and Prison Break...and a hubby who is back from being out of town! Now I can finally get some sleep at night.

Oh, in case you're wondering, this is the view I've been enjoying all week long:

Ahhh, doesn't it look so nice.

Pillow Inspiration

A little background information - I have not a bone in my body that is inclined toward colors, design, makeup, style, creativity, decorating, dressing myself well, hair styling or anything else remotely related to looking and being cool.

Phew. Now that I've got that off my chest, let me say that because of my lack of style, this "decorating a home" thing is a little overwhelming. And if you wonder where I get it from...just ask my mom.

Thankfully, Kody has a little more of the "artsy-crafty, matchy-matchy" thing in his body than I do. Even so, we knew we needed a plan for furnishing our new home. When we originally "decorated" our first apartment while registering for our wedding, we had no clue what we were doing. Blue bedroom, red kitchen, crazy bathroom. Honestly, that's not completely true - we had a red and brown theme going throughout the whole thing. But with the new house, we were ready for a bit of a change and more cohesiveness.

Enter our pillow inspiration:

Thanks to YHL and their napkin inspired decorating plan, we went in search of something...anything that would give us a color scheme to go off of. We knew it had to involve blue (because our entire bedroom is basically blue) and red (because most of our kitchen and many other accessories/decorations lean towards red). We also knew we wanted it bright and fun and something to match our white trim/gray walls/dark couch base.

The minute we walked into Crate and Barrel, we saw this pillow and fell in love. It combines both the red, blue and gray...but also with pops of orange and yellow. It looks modern and fun, but not too immature or college-y.

But the pillow is just the first step. Actually putting this "design plan" into practice is another beast in itself. We've had a difficult time finding bright, happy accessories without them looking too much like they belong in a dorm room (and without mauling each other over whether the green flowered or blue striped pillow will look better). Thankfully though, accessories can be added over time...and no, we weren't really close to mauling each other at Target the other night! Although it may come to that point. Juuust...kidding.

So when we're searching for a living room rug, we keep going back to this pillow. And when we're browsing artwork, we keep going back to this pillow. And when Katie likes to embarrass Kody...she brings the pillow into the store with her. You know, gotta have it there to go back to.

Backyard-ing It

One of the things we were looking forward to most about owning a home was having a back yard. Mostly for Noodles, but I have many fond memories sitting on my parents' back deck enjoying the beautiful evening after eating dinner outside. It's nice to have another semi-private place to relax, enjoy company and hang out.

We've been doing a little patio/backyard sprucing up and here's what we've got so far:

Just last weekend we bought a clearance patio set, which unfortunately hasn't gotten as much use this week as I was hoping. I was looking forward to eating lunch outside with Noodles during my lunch breaks, but this insane heat has been making it difficult for me to look work-presentable after about 5 minutes out there.

It's just so nice to have somewhere to sit outside now. I have visions of lazy dinners on the patio, watching Noodles play and then enjoying a book while Kody studies :) What do you think, babe? Think you can study outside?

A second thing I was super excited about what the garden that the previous owners left us! It wasn't exactly in the greatest condition - weeds and leftover onions everywhere, but I had a fun time cleaning it out and getting it ready to plant.

Before:

(Hello Noodles!?)

After:

The garden is planted! From left, we've got cucumbers, carrots, green onions and two types of lettuce. I got these "crops" planted earlier in July, so hopefully come fall we'll see a few veggies of our labor.

Here we've got a little, itty, bitty cucumber plant! We had a bigger one a few days ago, but I came out yesterday and it was gone. *Tear*

And here are a few green onion sprouts!

There are a few other green "things" sprouting up as well, but Kody enjoys telling me that they're just weeds. :-)

I planted these herbs back in St. Charles and they're still alive and sort of active here in C-U! We've got basil on the left and I have no idea what the other two are (oregano and....??)!

And then this happened...

*Tears.* Two pots survived and I keep moving them around the kitchen. Haven't yet found a good home for them. Probably doesn't matter though, since they've been so traumatized from moving and falling!

Here we've got a dying raspberry plant that we had in St. Charles ( and which was sorely neglected during our in-and-out moving weeks) and three asparagus ferns, waiting to be potted.

We took an old flower pot that used to hold our Wii controllers and put it to a better use - asparagus looking beautiful on our new patio table!

I don't have much experience putting my green thumb to work, but my one previous plant responsibility is now very dead and the raspberry plant and herbs that I've had for a few months aren't looking too healthy!

So here's to turning my slightly brown thumb into a bright green thumb.

Curb Appeal

While I may think our pretty little house looks relatively cute from the curb, when you get up close, it is definitely in need a little love.

Yikes, check out those weeds! Thankfully, this picture was taken on Day 1 and Marla did a number on them right after we moved in. Here's a little up close and personal with the front porch. You can't tell in this picture, but we have a cute red door, along with a strange, painted blue cement porch.

We're not sure why it's painted blue. We're a little scared to see what the concrete looks like underneath. But we definitely don't like that our sidewalk is two colors. A future planned project is to try to strip the paint, so the porch is back to the neutral cement color that makes the rest of the sidewalk and driveway. But the blue porch is not the topic of the day...rather, it's how we're attempting to make our blue porch slightly more inviting.

Beautification Attempt #1: Potted flowers!

Not that this is a genius idea, but it's my first pot of flowers! The previous owners left this flower pot for us, and even though I don't necessarily think it's the most beautiful thing, it was free and readily available! Our friends Austin and Amber came to visit a few weekends ago and while Austin helped Kody with some crazy wiring thing, Amber helped me plant our garden and these flowers!

Only problem is I can no longer remember what the name of this flower is and Amber is asleep while I'm writing this :) Any guesses!?

Add a nice entry mat and a red door and we're already looking better!

I do believe Noodles' tail knocked off about half the flowers and a bunch of leaves right before I took this picture. At least he hasn't tried to eat it yet!

But now comes the really fun part! We went shopping last weekend for a rug, patio set and coffee table, but instead came home with three chairs - two for the porch and one for the house.

We found these white beauties in the clearance section of a furniture store priced at $38 each.

Out-of-the-question too expensive, but I loved them and kept being drawn back to them. I loved the clean lines and modern look, but we knew we'd have to paint them since our house is white. They'd blend in and make the house look perpetually dirtier than it already is.

Beautification Attempt #2: Awesome chairs

Since they're obviously on our front porch now, you know that we ended up buying them (yay!). We tried to see if we could talk the salesperson down, but he said they weren't allowed to negotiate. Before we walked away though, he checked with his manager just to make sure they weren't two for $38, rather than $38 each.

Well, lucky for us - they were $38 for the pair (Originally priced at $100! Not sure if that's for the pair or each though, haha).

Don't they look so purty! I feel like it's hard for me to find home things that I truly love...but for some reason I love these! On our way home, we picked up some Rust-Oleum Regal Red spray paint and I had my first spray painting experience.

It was easier and harder than I thought. First, my right pointer finger still has a small blister from pushing the nozzle down. Pathetic if you knew what my hands looked like back during gymnastics days. Second, I got spray paint everywhere - feet, hands, knees, driveway, wood in the garage and on our deep freezer! Thankfully, no where that was too important or that a little vinegar, baking soda and scrubbing couldn't help. Third, the chairs looked awesome so quickly and so much easier than using a brush!

Here are the beauties before putting the chair cushions back on:

And finally finished:

I love how they match the red door and flowers. They stand out from the street, but aren't too outrageous. I'm not completely sold on the yellow-green chair cushions, but I think they look better in real life than in this picture.

I'm looking forward to finding a small table to put between them with a plant to complete the look. They definitely make the house more inviting when you drive up and gives it a more homey, lived-in feel for us.

Now if only we could so something about that blue cement...

Kody's man cave

I'm beginning to think Kody got the better end of this house deal - coming away with a garage, a future shed (well, I guess he has to build that himself) and a study basically all to himself!

Not that we're exactly splitting the house in half, or that either of us compromised when buying buying this house. And I'm well aware that I got a better-than-I-could-have-hoped-for kitchen, but still...Kody is having waay too much fun buying man-things and building man-stuff in his man-caves.

That said, I most definitely appreciate his man-spaces because it means his toolbox no longer lives in our closet and our bikes no longer take up half our bedroom.

One of Kody's first projects was to build a work bench at the back of the garage. He and his dad worked on it and it turned out amazing!

I didn't get any in-progress pictures because I was at work while this project took place, but here's what it looked like after a day's worth of work:

Doesn't that just look amazing and isn't it so super cool that I have a husband who can build something like that?!

Here's what the garage looked like on the day we moved in:

Thankfully, it wasn't left in shambles. Although they did leave about 12 empty cans of paint for us to dispose. When Kody started working on the garage, he immediately cleaned out the entire thing and took apart the bench on the left and table in the back. He used this wood, along with some we bought, to build the work area.

We then proceeded to fill it up with all our crap (sorry for using the c-word, Mom).

Shall we all count the number of new tools Kody has gotten since buying a house? :) Lawn mower, edger, shop vac, drill, air pump, power washer, saw and I'm sure a few more. He has used all of them already and I'm sure over the next few years they'll all get lots of abuse.

After finishing the frame, Kody added doors to the bench and stained it using the floor stain we used in our house.

For some reason I haven't taken any "finished product" pictures of his work bench, but here are a few with the bench in the background. Kody sanded and stained our entertainment center, so I caught a few of those pictures.

Isn't he so talented!? Doesn't that just look amazing! And isn't it so cool to think he built that, from scratch, with his own hands?! I could never do something like that! It's been so fun to see Kody "in his element" while working on this house. I always knew he enjoyed working with his hands and building things, but in the five years we've been together, I've never really gotten to see it in action. It's been so neat to see him slaving away on this house, in hopes of making it more and more into the home we want it to be.

Thanks love for all your hard work and for being such an amazingly talented and skillful man!

yummm, compost

While marriage brought out a lot in me that I never knew I was interested in (ie: cooking, baking, meal planning, couponing, blogging), this whole house thing is almost a bigger beast. For example, it has meant that I have to get outside, do yard work and maybe even enjoy it.

Enter compost.

I had read about composting on, you guessed it, Young House Love. Since we were living in an apartment though, I hadn't really given it much thought, but it was always at the back of my mind. Now that we have a yard, plants and even a garden (more on that to come!), we've channeled our inner green and begun our own composting adventure!

I followed directions here and it was super super simple. We grabbed a Rubbermaid storage container that we had in our attic from moving and drilled eight small holes in the bottom of the container and the lid for ventilation. (Side note: I somewhat totally understand why guys love tools so much. Kody let me use his new drill to make the holes and it was so fun! Definitely will be finding more things to drill soon.)

We filled the tub about 1/4 full of dried leaves from our yard. Then we paused, ran to the store to buy dirt (yes, we bought dirt), and filled it to the halfway mark.

The fun part was emptying out the gross plastic bag filled with food remains that I'd been storing under our sink. Yum!

Dump in all of your food scraps and paper products. Did you know you can compost paper towels and napkins?! Along with almost anything in the kitchen - watermelon rinds, seeds, laundry lint (which thankfully isn't in the kitchen), egg shells, dog hair (which unfortunately always finds its way to the kitchen) and a myriad of other things. There are tons of lists online of things you can compost, like this one.

Make sure to have your pup check out your tub for quality control. We then put the lid on, gave it a good shake or two to mix everything up and sprayed it down with a little bit of water. They said to make it moist, but not too wet or else your compost will start smelling.

We then stuck it in a shaded corner of our backyard, which will hopefully someday soon be hidden by the shed Kody is building (more on that to come too!). By keeping it out of the sun, it keeps the compost from drying out. Obviously in this picture, it's not in the sun. Sorry for the nighttime pics. I think it was only like 7 p.m. though!

It takes about 2-3 months before the compost can be used - which means hopefully come fall, we'll have some nutrient rich compost growing in our backyard. Compost can be used as mulch to cover flower beds, as potting soil and sprinkled over your grass as a lawn conditioner - all of which I imagine we'll use it for.

We put a small container under our sink where we've been adding our food scraps. Every couple of days, I'll take that out, add it to our compost and give the container another good shake.

If you've ever considered trying this, but haven't yet, I'd definitely recommend it. It was so cheap and simple, why not!? We used an already owned tub, bought $1.37 worth of potting soil and a $1.50 container for under our sink. Although, maybe ask us again in a few months when we find out if this adventure really works or if we just end up with a stinky, soggy, gross mess.

And while I'm super excited about this I still have a few questions I haven't researched yet. Like what to do come winter - does the compost freeze? Can I continually add food, etc. to the compost because when it comes time to use it, won't there still be parts that aren't broken down yet? I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Composting adventure...to be continued.

Views around the new dig

Here's a few unrelated-to-working pictures from the last few weeks around the new place:

This is where Kody and Noodles go to rest after a long day of hard work - the only comfy place in the whole house.

Again, while the rug and futon were unavailable, Noodles went in search of the other comfy place in the house - his chair. The entire house has hard wood floors, except the kitchen and bathroom, which are vinyl. This has been driving Noodles crazy, since he liked to lay on something extra soft, even when we had carpet.

Noodles and Bandit (in the back left corner), best friends...or enemies, quarantined together in the kitchen while we worked on painting the trim. The best part was that at one point we opened the doors on the left that lead to the living room and they still stood whining at this gate, not realizing they were welcome to go free!

Noodles spooning with Kody.

Again - looking for ANY comfortable spot to lay down on, even if it's up in the air on our laps.

My sleeping arrangements the first three nights in the house - on the kitchen floor (because the other floors were still drying) next to Noodles on a deflated air mattress. Somehow in the mess and craziness of everything, the air pump got left in my car, which Kody took back up to St. Charles before leaving for New Mexico. Let's just say I was VERY glad to actually sleep on a bed after those three nights.

The first thing I did after we closed on the house - made sure there was hand soap beside all the sinks! When you're working hard, with lots of dust and dirt, frequently washing your hands is a must. :)

And finally, Noodles enjoying his new backyard and the collection of sticks the previous owners left us.