Monday, March 4, 2013

The New Shock Abode

Well hello everyone! Long time no blog. What is our excuse this time you ask? Oh just moving half way across the country and unpacking hundreds of boxes, that's all.

We found a great house to rent in North Austin in the Brushy Creek area. It is very family friendly, with tons of parks and outdoorsy things to do. We live on a little cul-de-sac that is affectionally known as "The Cove." We officially moved in on the 9th of January. Here is a tour of the house with some before and after pics.

Let's start in the master bedroom...not so empty, but not so filled.


And now it has a real bed! We are going to ditch the awesome modern red bedding and go for something different. We are eventually going to paint the room grey too. It's a little weird having grey carpet and tan walls. We have a big empty corner that may house a cute loveseat or maybe even an exercise machine. Who knows!


Moving on to the family room which is attached to the kitchen...


Nice and empty before, but now we have a new blue couch and rug. We also resurrected the Shock baby corral! We had to go buy some of those foam tiles to line the floor, so Wyatt does not crack his tiny skull on the tile floor. We also plan on getting a TV that is bigger instead of the tiny one that we currently have. Baby steps...


We were borrowing the landlord's kitchen table, partly because he didn't have room for it, but mainly because we sold our old one in DC. However, it was a counter-height table. Combine that with a not-so-graceful 3 year old, and you get a dangerous situation. When I was getting a quote for health insurance, Fletch fell off the chair, right as the sales rep asked me when I needed it to be effective. I told him, "How about 5 minutes ago?"Luckily Fletch was okay, but after that we knew that table had to go. So we found a new kitchen table off of good ol' Craigslist for a steal. Now everyone can eat safely at the table again!


I have to admit I was a little frightened of the lack of cabinet and counter space, but it seems to work regardless. I don't even have to store things on top of my cabinets! We have a lot of shelf space in our laundry room for the random things that do not fit in the kitchen. And once Wyatt is done with bottles, I will have even more counter space. Woo!


Let's move on to the living room and dining room. Here they are in their empty toy-less glory (ok, maybe just a couple of toys):


Now I say dining room, because technically that is what I would like it to be one day. For now it is Fletch's demolition area.


We also need to fill up some of that shelf space! I plan on filling it with family pictures. I just need to start hunting for frames. The bottom two shelves will still hold all the boys toys, but I plan on getting more of those colorful bins to make it look a little less chaotic.

For the living room, we got some new red leather couches and a rug I absolutely adore:



We still need a lot more rugs! Our feet are still not used to the hardwood and tile floors. I am also going to make a custom valance for that solitary window in the living room. I signed up for a class on Craftsy! I will probably make some for the three skinny windows in our bedroom too. I also have to paint a picture of Wyatt to go along with our giant Fletch painting. I think we will hang all my family artwork in this room. So the drawing of Daddy and my custom pin-up Atom got for me will all go on the wall eventually.

Here is my work-in-progress entry wall. I want to get a family name sign to put in the blank space on top as well as repaint that tree. I don't really like the bar being on this wall either. We have a lower console table in the family room holding our tiny TV, but I think I will put that here instead. Where to put the bar is the question! 


Alright, now let's head upstairs. As we go up, you can see my cross collection, otherwise known as the stairway to heaven.


First let's check out the empty 3rd room/guest room/craft room:


This is the biggest room upstairs, so it has the most jobs. Right now it's not in tip-top, picture worthy shape.


We are gonna keep the futon in bed-mode. Right now Atom and Fletch are building a LEGO set, so the card table is out and covered. I am in the process of projects which is why the futon is covered. 

We took our old CD racks and turned them into storage shelfs for all my sewing notions and some of my craft stuff. (There is still tons in the closet).


I like having my fabric out so I can remember what I have, although technically not all my fabric is out.

So let's see the boys rooms!

Here is Wyatt's room empty:


And now it is a nursery :) I have to make some more art work for Wyatt. I was still in art school when Fletch was in my tummy, so he got a lot of artwork for his room. I'm also holding off on picking any kind of theme for Wyatt's room, because we may get some awesome bunk beds and have the boys room together. Once we know for sure, I'll start working on that.



Fletch's room is next. He has the room attached to the 3rd room through the jack and jill bathroom.


And here it is all filled up! We finally got him a little dresser (another Craigslist steal) so we can start teaching him to pull out his own clothes and get dressed. He still has his firetruck bed. We just need to get a hammock for all his stuffed animals that are currently living on the floor in the corner.


We set up our bookshelves in the upstairs hallway to hold all the board games and Atom's LEGO sets. We also moved all of the children's books out there too, otherwise they just turn into a huge mess in Fletch's room and eventually they will both be reading at night.


So that concludes our tour. We are settling in, but things are not finished by any means. We still need things here and there. There is art and pictures to be hung on the walls. We also are going to do a little painting. I have been doing a lot of DIY projects and have many more in the works. I will probably be blogging about those on my blog though. 

Luckily we have a great landlord who has given us liberty to improve some things. For example, I can't stand kitchen cabinets without hardware to grab on to. In this kitchen, they are absolutely necessary on some of the cabinets to avoid pinching fingers. So we added some knobs, and it is amazing how just that little thing improved our kitchen. Since we will be here a few years, we don't mind paying for a few things to make us happy.

Thanks to my new backyard, I have the opportunity to garden. Now that spring is upon us, that is where you will find me for the next few weeks. I have to get with the experts, (and by that I mean the internet) to make sure I do not kill my rose bushes or fruit trees. 

Now that most of the major stuff is done around here, we have been venturing out. We went to the Kite Festival at Zilker park yesterday. The weekend before, we headed to Austin's ren-fest, Sherwood Forrest. I'll be back soon to share those experiences!