It has officially been one week since we purchased our new house. And that week has flown by…sort of. While I was in it, I didn’t think it would ever end. Looking back now, it feels like it went by fast. Isn’t that usually the case though? I would never want to do last week over again, but I’m so glad that I persevered through it.
Our new house is 30 minutes from our farmhouse and while that is much closer than when we moved to central NY originally, it adds time to our day. We’ve been intentional at only driving back and forth once each day so as not to lose that time on the road. My nerdy self came out and a clipboard that I brought back and forth with my list of things to bring and to do at each house became my best friend.
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My husband had to go out of town for 4 days this past weekend and while that was not ideal, he was replaced by my mom. She stepped right in and helped with cleaning, projects, and taking my kids home to bed so that I could work well into the night.
What did we accomplish in the past week? And what are our future plans? I’ve got the answers to those questions and some pictures to share with you. But, first, let me share a few rooms that I haven’t shown yet…
Our bedrooms.
We opted not to refinish the hardwood floors in the bedrooms quite yet. Our time frame {and my body} was not going to allow for that. It is on our future project list though.
I know, the bedrooms all look about the same. But, I promise that you’ll be able to tell the difference once I get my hands on them.
And a little peek at our dining room…prior to the floors being sanded:
I have to give a huge thank you to my mom who was willing to tackle any project…including removing wallpaper in our dining room. {It was behind a cabinet…click HERE for that post.}
Directly behind the dining room is this room. Do you remember that built-in office that was here previously? It’s been torn out and we are converting this into a half-bath and laundry room. Our home has 1 full bathroom and adding a half bath is going to be a lifesaver.
And then there is the coat closet that made our main entryway very tight. The hubby made demo a little more fun and then…
left me with this:
While we’re at it, let’s take a peek into the kitchen. My sweet momma worked so hard in here and removed all of the grime, dirt, and mouse droppings. My goal for our kitchen right now is that it be clean and functional. And then we will live with it for a while before making any decisions about renovating this room.
In my last post {click HERE} and on Instagram/Facebook, I have shared the progress of sanding our hardwood floor. It was a crazy lofty goal, but I am so happy to say that it has been accomplished. I probably spent about 60-70 hours over the course of 7 days sanding, cleaning, and applying finish to the floors. Honestly, I wanted to give up at times and my entire body {and brain} ached every single day. The house was an absolute disaster and completely coated in a few layers of saw dust. My motivation though, is picturing myself snuggled up on the couch and looking out with satisfaction over this accomplishment.
And then I decided that while I was making a mess, I might as well do the staircase…and the upstairs hallway. Yikes!
The big question has been what to do with the now unfinished floors. My goal for our new home is that it be light, bright, cozy, and warm. I chose four stains to sample from and applied them to our floor. Which do you think I ended up doing?
Above {left to right: Natural stain and Golden Pecan stain}
Below {left to right: Golden Oak stain and just Polyurethane}
I do promise to share the full reveal of our floors once they have completely cured and I can get back into the house.
And now for some fun pictures…we may have left the country for the suburbs, but we still own trees! I caught this photo from one of our bedroom windows. Funny story: I remember when we purchased our second home and I was brought to tears over the fact that we owned 3 trees. It made me feel like a real adult and I was so excited for our children to have trees to climb.
And just 2 days later…most of the leaves have now fallen and left us a beautiful yellow blanket.
Speaking of kids…what did they do all week? I had them tucked away upstairs with blankets and a few lawn chairs. They had independent school work to accomplish and then toys and books to occupy some more time. And bikes. They purchased their own bikes and any day the weather was decent, they would go for bike rides.
I’m sure we will be discovering things about our home {built in 1915} for a while, but I found 3 layers of wallpaper tucked behind a heat register. It’s fun to see how styles come and go, especially since wallpaper is quite trendy now. {Click HERE to see my fake wallpaper tutorial if you don’t want to commit to gluing wallpaper.}
It’s been a good week. Exhausting, yes. Messy, yes. Long, yes. But…we are only a few days away from our actual moving day. That means it’s time to pack up the last of everything! So, if you need me, I’ll be knee deep in boxes!
♥ Leigh
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