I am backdating this post to the actual closing date.. but of course its 2 months later when I am actually writing this (May 30, 2012) because we have been SUPER SUPER busy getting everything livable & projects started (some even finished!)
But I promise from here on out, I will be posting things to keep everything updated! Happy browsing & even happier home ownership! In the meanwhile, any tips for new homeowners? Things you wish you knew then and know now? Thoughts of encouragement?
Anybody who knows me well enough will tell you that I have OCD when it comes to planning. I try to plan out every little detail of everything so as to avoid surprises and to always be left prepared. As a result, we still do not have a date for our close (thanks, appraiser’s report!) and I am sitting here fussing over paint colors.
Our lil dream boat house needs some color therapy for sure. See, the lil ole lady (so I’m told) did not have the world’s best taste in paint colors. It looks like she picked up some cheap markers and said “oh this one!”
Since every single room in the house needs painted (including the ceilings), I decided the quickest route to my sanity is to just pick one single neutral color to get on the walls and ceilings as soon as we get the keys, and then as we live in the space, we can make a longer-term paint decision. That’s where you come in… see, I am not much for white walls or ‘real estate beige’ – however, in this situation, one of those is the logical choice to start with. So off I went to Home Depot and picked out a ton of samples of white, off-white, and tan/beige to try to make some sort of decision. Now I am just confused. I thought I’d do a nice light off-white as a happy medium between stark white and real estate beige, but now I am afraid its just going to look dingy. I’ve been staring at these paint samples. I know I can’t make a real decision until I can see them inside the house, but I need to narrow it down to a few so (1) I feel like I made some progress and (2) I’m not in there staring at 3034 different paint samples holding up real progress.
I tried as hard as I could to get some sort of digital dynamic reference for these paint samples, but alas I failed. (IF anybody knows how to do that, please comment & let me know!) So I pose the following question:
What’s your go-to whole-house would-never-hurt-you first love neutral paint color???
Think you can help me?? Comment below!
UPDATE: Color is on the wall – See more here.
Pinterest is where I (and most of the internet) gathers ideas for their home + crafts 🙂 Follow me on Pinterest to check out an up-to-the-minute peak into my creative mind & brainstorming!
Let me start off by saying this isn’t a paid advertisement or any of that junk. I don’t know anybody who works for UHaul, yada yada. We just recently received our order from UHaul and are really happy with it. I never knew UHaul offered anything besides trucks, so I wanted to share. Besides, this is my 4th blog post, do you really think anybody is paying me to write at this point? … Now Carry on.
My husband has been obsessing (possibly too strong of a word) over “Forearm Forklifts” ever since we put an offer in on the our house. (It’s still weird to say ours at this point.. especially since we haven’t closed, so maybe we shouldn’t at this point.) I thought he was nuts because I always thought of them as an as seen on tv ripoff. (Admittedly, I am a sucker for as seen on tv so this is pretty unfair of me.)
He started doing some Googling and it turns out, not only does UHaul rent out moving trucks, but they also have an entire store of moving supplies. Who knew!? We sure didn’t.
Kevin ended up ordering two back braces (don’t judge us – better to be safe than sorry!) and a set of Forearm Forklifts (should that be capitalized? Sounds so formal like it demands to be capitalized). Things we are sure to put to good use during our big move!
If you are unfamiliar with the Forearm Forklift concept (seriously, it sounds like a wrestling move), basically they are 2 long straps (3′ wide X 9’5″ long) that (according to UHaul) “encourages proper lifting technique” and “requires 66% less work to move objects.” SCORE! You are supposed to grab a partner (one of you on each side of the object), feed them under whatever big object you are trying to move, put your arms (up to the forearm, duh) through the holes in the end of the straps, and then coordinate with your partner when you are ready to lift. Voila!
Kevin found this nifty video from Consumer Reports on YouTube…
Other than the Forearm Forklifts and the back braces, I also noticed that they sell bags for our Queen size mattresses. These are great because they keep the mattress from getting torn! We’ve used something like this for all but one move, and the one time we didn’t, our (brand new at the time!) mattresses were ripped!
I think it should be noted that the website advertises free shipping on orders over $25 in the continental USA. Kevin placed our order sometime over the weekend (I *think* Saturday) and it arrived yesterday! Super fast! I thought there was a shipping map someplace on the website, but for the life of me I cannot find it right now. Additionally, if you forget a small thing in your online order (like our mattress bag!) or you prefer not to shop online, you can also pick up these items in a UHaul store! Just check out the website to find the closest one to you!
Hope this information is useful to you! Have a great day!
…You should really take inventory of how much packing tape you have BEFORE you get started. This is the very first box I went to assemble. Really great, right?
I’d first like to welcome all (two) of you here… and thank you for the support in our new adventure. As of post #1, this blog is my own pet project, but it’s inspiration is a shared love between my husband and me. See, we just bought our first real home. I say ‘real’ because we technically are not first time homebuyers, but to us, the first one doesn’t count. (That’s a story for another day.) This time we are hoping we got it right. And we hope to share that and more with you.
This isn’t just another blog about young 20 somethings living in a city they love and reno-ing their first home together. OK so maybe it is… but I really do hope to share some insightful things with everybody and to actually contribute to the internet instead of bog it down.
I did a lot of research on where to start in blogging, but I figured the best way to start is just to hit the ground running. I think my obsession with researching everything will be very valuable since I will be doing a lot of back work for you! I cannot wait to share with you the great ideas we come up with and the how-to on execution!
Stay tuned for the goods!
Q) For now, while I still await the closing date and all of those good things that mean it’s really truly beyond-a-doubt ours, let’s pose some questions to the interwebs. All of you out there running successful blogs revolving around your family and your home (renos), how did you get started? Why did you get started? What do you wish you knew when you were writing your very first post?? Not running a family/home blog, what are your answers to these questions??
412 reasons to love 