Housewarming Party

Quite a bit belated but last September we threw a little housewarming brunch. It was so nice to have all of our friends & family come by to support us in our new venture. Here are some photos (from almost half a year ago... sorry I've neglected this space for so long). 

we bought a house!

guys! I bought my very first house! well, "we" bought a house, but robert's not a property virgin like I am. it was pretty exciting. I can't wait to share the story of how we found this original 1950s gem. we're trying decide if we should start a separate blog to keep up with the house renovations or what. I'll keep you posted. for now, here are a few photos of our move over easter weekend. we are living with my parents right now until the hardwood floors are refinished so all our junk is packed into the garage & florida room. hopefully we'll actually get to move in next weekend! so much to do....

{closing day! we got the keys}

{the penske. a love-hate relationship}

{we filled this puppy up twice}

{thank the lord for robert's friends, brothers & my dad for helping us move!}

{and robert's nephew for doing most of the heavy lifting}

{yup. garage is packed.}

a sea of boxes

we are in the midst of moving & it's a tad bit overwhelming. you never realize how much stuff you actually have until you box it up (I'm going on 200+ boxes right now). perhaps it's a sign that I should layoff the estate sales for awhile. 

sold!

the first day of spring seems like a perfect time to announce some big changes on the horizon. we sold our much-loved 1935 bungalow. robert bought this house 14 years ago. when we got married 6 years ago & I moved in, it was a bit of a bachelor pad. action figures on the mantel, a pool table in lieu of a dining room table, plastic mini blinds. you know. guy stuff. but we slowly saved our pennies & started updating it bit by bit to make it feel more like our home. we painted, bought some new furniture (no, plywood over the pool table would not suffice as a dining room table), updated the bathroom, added a deck & landscaped the backyard, totally renovated the kitchen, & turned this house into a home that we absolutely love.

we never thought we would want to sell it, especially after all of the blood, swear & tears we put into it. but robert has always had a weakness for mid-century homes, and a really cool one pretty much fell into our laps (more on that later). we planned to buy it & renovate it for a few months while our house sat on the market. but much to our surprise, the day we listed our house, we had a record-breaking number of showings along with 3 offers by the end of the day. we are grateful in how quickly it sold, but also trying to grasp the fact that we have to be out of here & into our new house in a matter of weeks. 

things are about to get crazy. but I did want to take the time to post some photos of our "finished" first home. while we are definitely excited about all that's to come, our first house will always be so very special to us. there is so much love in this home, I hope the next owner will feel it too. 

vintage finds: arch floor lamp

and this, my friends, is why you take your graphic-designer-artist husband estate sale shopping with you. we hit up this sale late in the day on saturday (we really went because it was in a house located on our very favorite street in all of the city), so the expectations of finding something were rather low. I headed straight for the kitchen as robert made his way to the living area, and bam! this vintage arch floor lamp screamed his name. ironically, we had been looking for floor lamp just like this, but they all seemed to fall way out of our price range. but with a little negotiating, we walked out with this beauty minus $60! talk about a score. here are some before + after pics below. 

{it was just waiting to come home with us}

{pre-clean up}

{the pole was really rusted & dingy}

{with a little #0000 steel wool & some wd40, it shined up like new}

{here's the base before. we cleaned that up as well, although it could still use a good coast of paint at some point}

{perfect fit in our home}

{before + after}

snapshots from the weekend

we had a very low-key weekend, with some homemade food, local beer & a little gardening thrown in there too. and thanks to my sweet parents for coming over & cooking dinner (and dessert!) for us on sunday night. what a treat!

 {this sucker popped up in our backyard over the weekend}

  {leftover rolls = french toast}

 {local brew}

  {shredded zucchini...}

 {to make chocolate chip zucchini muffins}

 {flowers from mom}

 {delicious peanut butter banana pudding in mason jars, made by mom}

surprise nightstand

I'd been eyeing this nightstand for months & months, waiting patiently for it to go on sale (I don't buy much of anything unless it's on sale). and when it finally did, west elm didn't have any left in the store. waaaaaaa. so my sweet husband surprised me a few weekends back when I got home from a trip & this was waiting for me when I walked into the bedroom. he's pretty great.