Right after the wedding, in this post, I mentioned that I wasn't sure I had the words to describe the incredible wedding weekend. I have tried several times to come up with the words but there was just so much emotion packed into such a relatively short period of time I am not sure it will ever be possible to truly sum up the weekend.
We are incredibly lucky and our photographers work very quickly and already have our pictures posted. While I was trying to come up with the words to describe the weekend, I kept telling myself once I get the pictures the words will come. After spending hours going through our pictures multiple times I have to be honest the pictures were a little bit of a let down. Let me explain what I mean. I am not saying that I don't love love love our pictures or that our photographers were a let down because I do absolutely love the pictures and our photographers were absolutely wonderful! What I am saying and I had heard other brides warn against is that as great as pictures are they will never truly describe the amazing moments, emotions and memories of a wedding. Those are the things that will just have to live in the minds and hearts of those that shared the day. So all of this is to say that I will probably never have the exact words to share exactly how I felt that weekend. However, the great thing is that I don't have to have the right words because every time I take a minute to stop and think about the wedding or something reminds me of something that someone said or did over the course of the weekend, my heart truly is filled with absolute joy and at the end of the day that is all that matters.
Don't fret though because I do still plan on doing lots and lots of wedding recap posts full of pictures (cause there are some absolutely amazing ones- both from our photographers and from our amazing friends) and the best words I can find to describe the weekend. If you just can't wait that long you can check out the pictures online here. I must warn you though that there are a LOT of pictures and it takes a long time to get through them all so if you would prefer to wait for the cliff notes version via blog posts I promise to get started on those soon!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
24 hours later....
Within the first 24 hours of being homeowners we ripped up carpeting in 75% of the house and I think changed the entire aesthetic of the house. It really was like a completely different house when we were finished.
As if that wasn't enough for the first 24 hours we also decided it was the best weekend for us to move. So at 6:30 Saturday morning Nick woke me up and we started the exciting process of moving all of our belongings into the front yard so they could be loaded onto the moving truck. We decided to hire movers for this move and let me tell you it was the best decision we have ever made. It was by far the smoothest, fastest move ever! Our entire house was packed up, moved across town, and unloaded by 11:30 Saturday morning (and the movers didn't actually show up until 8). So literally within 24 hours of becoming homeowners we were moved into our new house. I didn't get any pictures of the actual moving process but here is what our house looked like approximately 24 hours after the pictures of tearing up carpet:
I apologize for the terrible lighting. None of the rooms in the house have overhead lights except the kitchen so we are sort of living in the dark and moving around some really ugly lamps that were left in the house by the previous owner. That is on the list of things that we will need to update quickly.
Since Saturday things have drastically changed. Almost every room is now unpacked and almost livable so I will post some updated pictures soon.
As if that wasn't enough for the first 24 hours we also decided it was the best weekend for us to move. So at 6:30 Saturday morning Nick woke me up and we started the exciting process of moving all of our belongings into the front yard so they could be loaded onto the moving truck. We decided to hire movers for this move and let me tell you it was the best decision we have ever made. It was by far the smoothest, fastest move ever! Our entire house was packed up, moved across town, and unloaded by 11:30 Saturday morning (and the movers didn't actually show up until 8). So literally within 24 hours of becoming homeowners we were moved into our new house. I didn't get any pictures of the actual moving process but here is what our house looked like approximately 24 hours after the pictures of tearing up carpet:
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| Garage |
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| Dining Room |
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| Guest Bedroom |
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| Office |
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| Master Bedroom |
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| Master Bath |
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| Kitchen |
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| Kitchen from other side |
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| Living Room |
Since Saturday things have drastically changed. Almost every room is now unpacked and almost livable so I will post some updated pictures soon.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Day 1 and Already Remodeling
Once we found this house and we were pretty confident it would be ours; Nick and I started throwing around ideas. Ideas like "we could paint this room this color" or "We should add another bedroom in the basement" or "this bathroom has got to be redone." Most of the ideas we started throwing around were pretty long term in the grand scheme of things, meaning we were not going to finish the unfinished basement or redo the bathroom before we moved in. We even decided to wait on painting any rooms until we were settled and could really make an informed decision about what colors we wanted to paint.
There was one thing, however, that we wanted to accomplish before we started moving any of our stuff. When we first looked at the house we discovered that in the living room and 3 bedrooms there was hardwood floor under the carpet. Neither of us are big fans of carpet and would prefer the whole house was hard wood so this was definitely a bonus for us. We decided it would be easiest to just tear out the carpet before we moved in. So when we decided that the best weekend to move would be right after we closed, we knew we would have a long night of carpet removal ahead of us. Luckily we had some reinforcements in town to help us out. Our amazing friend Brandon just happened to be in town for a wedding on Saturday and we took advantage of that to get him to help with our carpet removal. He was a huge help and made the process go by so much faster.
Before I show you the pictures of the transformation check out my original house post for a refresher on what the house looked like when we did our first walk through here. Here are some pictures of the boys hard at work removing the carpet:
I promise I did help but someone had to stop and take pictures. The actual carpet removal went really fast and we were shocked by what we found. We thought for sure the floors under the carpet would be in bad shape and need sanded and refinished almost immediately. Boy were we wrong! Aside from the staple and nail holes from the carpet installation they were in amazing shape. The longest most tedious process was definitely the staple removal and getting the tack strips up which pretty much took the rest of the night.
Don't get me wrong the boys did take a very important break. They went on what they described as the manliest shopping trip to Home Depot, Best Buy and KFC. (We later decided the only thing that would have made it manlier was if they had made a stop at Dick's Sporting Goods but there was no time for that).
What were they doing at Best Buy in the middle of a flooring project you ask. Well buying this:
Not just that though. That came with our brand new very large TV. Best Buy was running a sale that we just couldn't pass up. Seeing as how our previous TV came from my Grandmother's house and I am pretty sure was older than I was it was time for a new TV. This necessitated a break because Best Buy only had 1 TV left so we had to make sure we didn't miss out. Unfortunately the TV didn't fit in the car so it had to wait until Saturday to be brought home so you will have to wait for those pictures.
Once we were fed and ready to go again we got down to business and pulled up all the nails and staples and this was the result:
There was one thing, however, that we wanted to accomplish before we started moving any of our stuff. When we first looked at the house we discovered that in the living room and 3 bedrooms there was hardwood floor under the carpet. Neither of us are big fans of carpet and would prefer the whole house was hard wood so this was definitely a bonus for us. We decided it would be easiest to just tear out the carpet before we moved in. So when we decided that the best weekend to move would be right after we closed, we knew we would have a long night of carpet removal ahead of us. Luckily we had some reinforcements in town to help us out. Our amazing friend Brandon just happened to be in town for a wedding on Saturday and we took advantage of that to get him to help with our carpet removal. He was a huge help and made the process go by so much faster.
Before I show you the pictures of the transformation check out my original house post for a refresher on what the house looked like when we did our first walk through here. Here are some pictures of the boys hard at work removing the carpet:
I promise I did help but someone had to stop and take pictures. The actual carpet removal went really fast and we were shocked by what we found. We thought for sure the floors under the carpet would be in bad shape and need sanded and refinished almost immediately. Boy were we wrong! Aside from the staple and nail holes from the carpet installation they were in amazing shape. The longest most tedious process was definitely the staple removal and getting the tack strips up which pretty much took the rest of the night.
Don't get me wrong the boys did take a very important break. They went on what they described as the manliest shopping trip to Home Depot, Best Buy and KFC. (We later decided the only thing that would have made it manlier was if they had made a stop at Dick's Sporting Goods but there was no time for that).
What were they doing at Best Buy in the middle of a flooring project you ask. Well buying this:
Once we were fed and ready to go again we got down to business and pulled up all the nails and staples and this was the result:
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| Living Room |
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| Living room from other direction |
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| Bedroom |
I am still in shock as to how beautiful the floors were under the carpet. We could not have gotten luckier. The entry way in the 2nd picture is obviously not hardwood. It is a very ugly vinyl tile that runs from the doorway into the dining room and down the hall to the bedrooms. This will eventually have to be replaced but again that is a project for another day.
Stay tuned for some exciting moving pictures later this week.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Officially Homeowners!
After about an hour at the title company signing LOTs of papers and listening to some very wonderful people explain lots of things that made zero sense to me; Nick and I are officially homeowners.
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| Nick on the way to closing because he was making fun of me for making sure I had my camera |
Closing couldn't have gone any smoother (well in all honestly we did show up with a cashier's check for $70 less than it was supposed to be but that was totally our fault for not reading correctly. Everyone was very nice about it and we got that taken care of quickly).
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| Our new house key! |
After closing I immediately started taking boxes over to the new house. Then when Nick got home from work the fun began, but more on that in another post. We want to give you all some exciting things to read this week so I will space out the posts!
On another note if anyone who reads this blog also lives in St. Louis and ever needs a real estate agent we would highly highly highly recommend ours. He was nothing but amazing for the 11 months (yes I said 11 months) it took us to find our perfect house.
Check back later this week for details on the moving fun.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Check and Check!
After crossing one big thing off the list almost 2 weeks ago this morning we are taking another giant step into adulthood. At approximately 10 am we become homeowners, mortgage and all! It is strange how old I feel when I tell people I am married or refer to my husband (still haven't gotten used to that) but checking the big homeowner box on the life list might just push me full on into the adult category. I promise to do my best at keeping up on the blog as we dive into being homeowners and settling into our new house. And don't worry I promise to do some full on wedding recaps soon as well. Just wanted to do a quick check-in to let you know that I haven't forgotten about you and keep you posted on the new development!
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
We're Married!
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