We took possession of our new home 34 days ago and it’s been a whirlwind of activity ever since.

On the day we moved in, our new bed was delivered. That and some camping chairs were pretty much the extent of our furnishings, but I had my plants which made the house feel homey and alive.

All of our belongings we brought from Illinois were in storage, which gave us time to clean, unpack the things we brought over from the RV and purchase the additional furnishings we would need for the house.

Our first full week in the house included driving Lili back and forth to art and nature camp.  We hired some movers to get our belongings from the storage unit and deliver them to the house, so we spent 1 1/2 weeks with camping chairs as our main furniture, our bed and air mattresses for the girls.   It was and will continue to be a great memory of our first days in the new house.

While waiting on our belongings, we were able to get a new outdoor dining set and upstairs living area furniture delivered.  Hubby also got an early Father’s Day gift – a new grill that he has had his eye on for quite some time.

Then we had our first overnight guests!

The day before our belongings were being delivered from the storage unit, hubby’s sister and her daughter arrived from Illinois.  Fortunately, we were able to get our upstairs furniture delivered as the new furniture included a sleeper sofa and an oversized sleeper chair.  We were very excited to have them as our first overnight guests, even though things were in a state of disarray.

Our belongings arrived!!!  The garage, dining room, master bedroom and upstairs hall were full of boxes.  For a matter-of-fact, there were so many boxes in the dining room, they began to spill into the hallway.  I wish I would have taken photos of our house full of boxes, but I began to unpack instead.  I had 4 1/2 days to get the house in some semblance of order because our dining room furniture was being delivered and we were having friends and family over the following weekend for our first cook-out.

I was very appreciative of the help received from our house guests.  They carried boxes and containers upstairs for me, kept the girls entertained and helped put things away.  By Thursday evening, the dining room was cleared out and ready for our furniture delivery the next day.  Upstairs needed a considerably amount of work, but by the time our guests arrived for the weekend cook-out, we had made considerable progress and our house was much more comfortable to live in.

Our guests have now returned home.  We had our first annual 4th of July weekend BBQ and pool party, I’ve spent every day unpacking and finding places to put away our belongings.  Hubby and I have a project list that continues to grow, but  we are feeling more settled with every passing day.  We love many things about our new home and the things that are less that thrilling for us, can pretty easily be changed.

One project that I’m hoping to tackle very, very soon is painting. As far as house projects go, it’s a fairly easy and inexpensive project to tackle.  Since I’m not sold on the colors chosen by the previous owners and I want to put my own style on the walls, paint is a great way to make this house truly ours.  However, choosing the right paint color isn’t always easy.  I am drawn to an earthy neutral pallet and was having a difficult time finding a paint color that would not only brighten up the walls, but would also look nice with the granite countertop in the kitchen.  Since we have a more open concept floor plan, the granite is definitely a focal point.

While Lili was at camp, Naomi and I spent a fair amount of time looking thru paint colors and buying samples to bring home and try out on the walls.

I painted samples on the walls under the counter.

I painted some samples next to the door.

After seven samples, I determined which I liked best and painted a larger portion of the wall under the counter.

Winner!!!

It will brighten up the kitchen considerably and looks very nice against the granite.

While we certainly have a lot on our to-do list, these 34 days have been pretty good.  With each passing day, we like our house a little bit more and look forward to turning into our Texas dream home.