Let's catch up

I think it's about time we caught up.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the Ray family moved! From the city! To the country! Kind of. We left the hustle and bustle of Denver and bought a house in a quaint little rural subdivision, sandwiched in the middle of suburbia. All the houses in the neighborhood are spread out on large properties and are zoned for animals, so if we get a wild hair one day, we are allowed to have 2 "animal units." That is the equivalency of two horses, or one horse and one cow, or ten lamas, or one-hundred chickens, or five alpaca, fifty chickens, one large pig and two-and-a-half goats. The options are endless on the livestock front, really.

We casually started the house hunt back in April after realizing that we were bursting at the seams of our two-bedroom bungalow. We bought that house in 2012 as an investment property and planned to turn it into a rental once we grew out of it. Well, the time came quicker than we expected (spoiler alert: you acquire a whole bunch of shit once you have a kid) and we were ready for a bigger space.

We expected to end up in a suburban neighborhood (because that's what you do when you have a family, right?) so we started our search there. We looked up north where we would be closer to family and in a good school district, but the thought of living right on top of your neighbors in a house that looked like all the rest was fairly unappealing to us so we put the search on hold for a bit.

One morning we got a text from Keane's mom saying there was a For Sale By Owner sign that just went up in her neighborhood (which happens to also be up north and in a great school district). It was a cute 4 bed, 2 bath farm house on an acre of land with a horse barn and giant 2-story playhouse in the back! I assumed there was no way we could afford it because I knew what homes were selling for in that area, but I called on it anyway. I was pleasantly surprised by the price and set up a time to go over and take a look. As the seller took us around the property, Keane and I sent silent messages back and forth via hand squeezes. We tried to play it cool as he showed us the brand new kitchen they just remodeled, the original hardwood floors in perfect condition, the crazy amount of storage space (did I mention we have a ton of shit?!), the apple tree and raspberry bushes, the horse stables, and the fenced-in lot that would be heaven for our baby and dogs. We casually asked if we could take a minute alone to discuss. Once the seller was out of earshot, we both agreed, through various tones of excited squealing, that we had to have this home. We could picture ourselves having more children there, growing into the space and maybe eventually adding on in the future if we needed. That's one of the benefits of having a bit of land and no HOA– there aren't limits to what we can do. And if there's one thing I know about my hubby, it's that he hates restrictions. Since the house was listed FSBO and we were able to get a discounted price by not using a realtor, we had to do all the contracts and negotiating on our own, which was hugely intimidating. Like a couple of rookies perusing a weekend garage sale, we walked back over to the sellers and said, "Uh, so we'd like to buy your house. How do we do this?"

Luckily, the sellers were a dream to work with and it wasn't a big deal not using any agents. We developed a really good relationship with them from the beginning. We learned that we were the first people to look at the house just 12 hours after the sign went up and that they really wanted to sell it to a young family. Fate? I think yes.

With the contract underway, the next step was finding renters for our Denver house. Thankfully, it's located in a really great area so it was unbelievably easy to rent. I posted an ad on Craigslist and within 24 hours I had over 30 people asking to see it before the open house. We chose a few that we thought would be good fits, hosted private showings, and rented it for well over our monthly payment– without even having to do the open house. The whole process went so smoothly and we LOVE our tenants. It's great to know that someone is taking good care of our house and loves it as much as we do.

We've been in the house now for about 6 weeks and are still getting settled. Projects like pulling weeds, hanging curtains and updating brass fixtures take about three times as long with a toddler running around, but it is slowly starting to feel like ours. Life is very different here. In Denver, Liv and I walked everywhere: to get groceries, to meet friends at the park, to get a mid-afternoon coffee. Keane biked to work and we rarely used our cars. His commute now is about 35 minutes and I often feel like a soccer mom (sans minivan) shuffling around town from stop to stop.

But we have space to roam and time feels slower here which is what we've yearned for since moving back from Wyoming. For the first time in my life, I don't have cable and we have no intention of getting it. It is shocking to even say this, but I have no idea what is happening in the lives of my Real Housewives! We even lived without internet for a couple weeks when we first moved in. My priorities are different here. Liv and I sit on the deck and listen to the roosters crow in the morning instead of watching the Today Show. We pick raspberries and check on the baby birds in the barn. We inspect worms and dragonflies and get really dirty. Life is different here. Life is good here.

The dogs are in hog heaven with all the space. We lose Daphne on an hourly basis admits the chest-high weeds in the back and Cash has already killed his first rabbit. I found a 6-foot long bullsnake right by Liv's foot and almost had a heart attack. Keane caught it and released it into the field behind our house. That guy. So humane, it's gross.

Our house in the middle of our street- Part 2

Not unlike the rest of the house, our bedroom was in need of some scrubbing and a fresh coat of paint when we moved in. We took down the curtains, updated the ceiling fan and painted the walls the same warm neutral we used in the kitchen. 

Although Liv's cosleeper isn't a permanent fixture in the room, it's super convenient to have her so close to us at night even if it makes the already small room even tighter. 

The large mirror helps bounce light around while giving the illusion of more space. 

We don't use the door that connects our bedroom with Liv's nursery because we need the space for furniture. It's not ideal to have our bed shoved against the wall in the corner but that was the only configuration that would work. I'd eventually like to get a headboard for our bed. I've got my eye on some pretty fabric ones with nailhead trim. 

Our dressers are sweet vintage pieces that Keane's dad and uncle had in their rooms when they were kids. It's a shame our children won't be inheriting any gems like that from us since quality, affordable furniture doesn't exist anymore. 

The bathroom is one of my favorite rooms with its mix of old and new. The clawfoot tub is original to the house while the granite slab and stone sink bring some modernness to the space. This is the only room in the house that we didn't paint. A pretty floral shower curtain and some new art was all it took to make it our own. 

The exterior got some touch ups to the siding and a contrasting paint color on the pillars and trim (the painting that put me into labor). We also did some major pruning to those out of control bushes (see that rose bush taking over half of the porch?). 

We trimmed the trees in the backyard which freed up a huge portion of our lot. 

Keane built a new railing, and sanded and repainted the deck. He also replaced all the sod that the dogs had destroyed, added a shade structure and strung cafe lights. He's very handy to have around, that hubby of mine. 

I have come to love so much about old homes; the character, the history, the charm. I even adore their imperfections which make them unlike any other house on the block. 

Thanks for taking our house tour! I'm very proud of our first home and the work we've done to it. Many hours of hard work were spent making it ours.  

See part one here.

Our house, in the middle of our street- Part 1

I was taking photos of each room in our home the other day to keep for insurance purposes, and as I uploaded them to my computer, I came across pictures of our house when we first bought it. The transformation has been pretty dramatic since moving in 8 months ago and nearly every room has gotten a face lift. 

The pumpkin orange walls were the first to go. I love how cozy and relaxed our living room feels now that we have a more muted tone on the walls. We changed out the curtains and rods, making them higher and wider so the windows would appear larger. We still have hopes of adding crown molding and fake wainscoting like this below the chair rail some day.

We haven't done much with the kitchen other than update the light fixture and faucet, and paint the yellow walls. 

We painted all the walls except for the one with the cabinets since we are still toying with the idea of a complete kitchen reno in the future. We have plenty of space to add more usable cabinets and countertops, including an island and a breakfast bar. After we outgrow this house we plan to keep it as a rental property so I'm not sure if investing in a brand new kitchen will get us any more money in rent. We'll see what we decide on that. 

I showed these before and after pictures of Liv's nursery back in April but here they are again. This is my favorite room transformation of all. We got rid of the smelly carpet, tore down the dark and dingy curtains and started from scratch with new paint, curtains, rug and art.  

Alright, enough for now. I'll save photos of the rest of the house for another time. If anyone is still  reading this, bless you.  

Nursery Tour

Alas, baby girl's room is finally done! Phew. This space has truly been a labor of love. After moving into our house in October of last year, we used our spare bedroom as somewhat of a dumping ground for things we didn't have space for in the rest of the house. We wanted to wait to find out the gender of our babe before putting a whole lot of thought into turning it into a nursery. 

Before doing anything else, Keane ripped out the disgusting carpet and we replaced it with a large neutral rug. Luckily we had original hardwood floors under the carpet that were in really good condition.  

After finding out we were expecting a girl in November, we picked out the soft lavender paint color and got down to business. We scrubbed, spackled, sanded, and painted every wall, door and baseboard. Then I decided on fabric for her curtains.

I was very adamant about choosing something that didn't look too baby-ish. I'm not a huge fan of pink but I still wanted them to be soft and feminine. Both sets of curtains cost me about $100 to make since the upholstery fabric wasn't cheap but I LOVE how they turned out. 

I found that floating shelf at a thrift store when we were living in Wyoming. It was an ugly oak color and was missing all the hooks. I sanded and painted it, and added pretty knobs from Anthropologie. Our crib and dresser set is from Target and the photos above Raybie's crib are from our two maternity photo shoots. 

This glider is from Costco and is one of our favorite purchases for the room. Keane and I are both tall and my torso is freakishly long, so we needed to find something with a high back that we could rest our heads against. I found the side table at Home Goods and I repainted an old lamp the same avocado color I used on the shelf and added a new shade. 

The flower print is from Ikea and the hook is from Hobby Lobby. I made the headbands :) 

I replaced the knobs on the dresser with some from Hobby Lobby. 

Aaaaand then there's the closet. Oh sweet husband of mine. He is so handy and totally overhauled this teeny tiny space. Up until a month ago, he had been using this closet for his own clothes since I promptly monopolized every other storage space in the house when we moved in. I wish I would have taken a before picture but this space was so inefficient. It had one bar and three shelves which were too high to even use. Hubby got all the material from Home Depot and made this small space much more usable for babe's tiny clothes. And see that 6 inch space at the bottom right? That's Keane's closet. Bless him.

Just for kicks, here are some before and after pictures of the room.

I can't wait to bring this girl home already! We're ready when you are, sweet one.