Holy moly! I have been a homeowner for a week and half and it has been a whirlwind to say the least. The boyfriend and I definitely worked hard last week, buying furniture, scrubbing baseboards, painting, moving boxes, painting, and oh, did I mention painting?

And I feel like I barely made a dent. I still am living out of boxes from the spare bedroom but finally broke down and got the bathroom together...after sporting a perma-ponytail for a week it was time for some decent grooming to resume.

This may have been my uniform for the week...

Last week was physically exhausting, Chris and I literally collapsed into bed every night around 2am and somehow managed to wake up before 8 or 9 the next morning to wait for deliveries or get started on a project. I really have to hand to Chris who NEVER wakes up early for putting up with me last week. That man was a trooper but it made me so happy to see him working right along side me.

Organized chaos is how I would best describe last week, every day was met with new challenges and successes. We successfully painted the living room, dining room, hallway, and bedroom in ONE day. I don't yet have a lot of the after pictures because things are in such disarray around here but they will be up soon. In between painting, I also painted my kitchen counter tops.

Before...a lovely shade of mauve. BLEGH!

After! Ta-Da!

Close up of the paint.

Giani Granite Paint was used to transform my counter tops. I was surprised at how great the results turned out, even Chris's guy friends commented on how great it looked. It is holding up well so far and it was such an inexpensive upgrade that looks great.  Now to get rid of that drippy faucet and change out the cabinet handles and knobs to something satin nickel and we will be set.

Did you notice that big hole up to the right of my counter top? Yea, that's where my fridge should be and finally I got one in there on Sunday.
In an act of desperation and not wanting to pay an arm and a leg for a new fridge I turned to Craigslist. You never to know what to trust out there but our friends recently bought a fridge from a place off Highway 94 for super cheap and I thought I should give it a try after I saw this French door fridge.

The place was literally someone's garage beneath a strip mall but it was legit...I got this baby, which retails for $1300 for $660! Plus they delivered. I really wanted a stainless French door but price and size ended up being a factor and ultimately I had to settle for this white LG slim series model. It is working great so far except for a burnt out LED light which is being repaired tomorrow.


Have I mentioned that warranties are a wonderful thing? So far we have utilized not one, not two, but FOUR different warranties for different items in the last week. The fridge light mentioned above, we broke a chair to our new dining set while putting it together so that is being replaced at no charge however we have to wait 4 weeks (sad face), our new TV came without screws to attach the base to TV so Vizio is sending those out too (another week wait on that one), and our water heater started leaking gas on Saturday so that home warranty we made the seller's include with the purchase was definitely the right move. It seemed like everything started going wrong towards the end of last week with things breaking but I just had to remember to breathe. My tire even went flat on Monday! What can I say, when it rains it pours.

But I freaking love my new house!

How I wish I could be witty right now and crank out a "night before closing" poem, but frankly, it's late, I'm tired, and my brain can only make lists at this point.

The day is almost here, less than 12 hours and counting until I have my own home. It's crazy to think a month and a week has passed by since I first saw the house. But, the time has come and Chris and I are as ready as possible.

We did the final walk through on Saturday and had a few surprises:

Surprise #1: Look ma, no refrigerator! Seriously, I checked and rechecked the paperwork and could have sworn that the fridge was staying, but apparently I was wrong.

Surprise #2: Lovely orange-y carpet stains from the owner's furniture. Should come out, no biggie.

Surprise #3: A horrendous paint job in the living room that had been hidden by furniture. So now instead of painting two bedrooms and a bathroom were pretty much painting the whole main level. Hooray!

Chris and I made a MAJOR to-do list, outlined by day...hopefully we are not being over-zealous with the amount we can accomplish.

We did buy some basement furniture, a new sofa and loveseat from Weekend's Only for a reasonable $860. We are crossing our fingers that they won't be too big...it turns out we have quite a narrow basement, only 11 feet wide, dashing our sectional hopes. But we're totally happy with what we picked out this weekend and can't wait to lounge. I promise to post pictures soon. In the meantime, feast your eyes on some pics I took during the walk through this weekend, back with more!

Living room/Dining room

Kitchen

Basement Bedroom

Media Built Ins

Basement Wet Bar

Laundry Room

Gym

Basement Bathroom

Master Bedroom

Main Level Bathroom

2nd Bedroom

It is a done deal...my loan for the house was approved on Friday, we close on the 21st at 10am. All of my worrying for nothing! I don't think it has quite hit me that I will be a homeowner in one week. Overwhelmed doesn't even begin to describe how I feel at the moment, thank goodness my realtor had the foresight to schedule closing for the first day of my spring break. I will have a whole 7 days to set up shop before adding work into the mix. Hopefully we will be able to get a lot accomplished, the to-do list is ever growing and so far tasks include:

• Cleaning every square inch of the house before moving a stitch of furniture into the place.
• Painting two bedrooms and a bathroom
• Painting the kitchen countertops (a project I will give more deets about later, but it's gonna be good!)
• Setting up most utilities (which hopefully will get done this week, TV and internet are already scheduled)
• Painting 2 dressers and 2 nightstands for the bedroom.
• Shopping for the basics - food and toiletry items.
• Begin furniture shopping - starting with the living room
• Move furniture and personal items from both Chris and I's current residence.

I feel tired after just writing that list. Our goal is to be staying at the house by the weekend so I can at least be comfortable with getting into a new routine for work.

I went furniture window shopping this weekend and found some pieces but made the big realization that I am having a hard time deciding on what I actually like. I know I like dark woods almost to the point of black but I keep being attracted to dark brown furniture which I think will turn my living room into dark dungeon even with a lot of natural light from the two windows.

I also did some paint shopping and fortunately I know what I like a little more when it comes to paint. The bathroom in the new house is a shocking royal blue...like you walk in and turn into Joey Lawrence, "WOAH!" I plan on toning it down and making it a much more calm shade of aqua blue with brown, tan, and white accents. The bedrooms I am still deciding but they will go from dark chocolate brown and white to something more neutral, a light grey or green is what I'm thinking. The living room, dining room, kitchen, and basement are all a tan color which I am keeping for now.

Pictures will definitely be up soon once we close or buy some furniture. This week of school better fly by because I am ready for vacation!

Sorry, I just had to make a Charlie Sheen reference tonight...that man in 7 different shades of crazy and I find it highly amusing. Anyone else following his Twitter? Pure gold.

Tonight was a night of elation in the soon to be merged Burkemper/Chaney household...we made our first purchase for the casa, a brand spankin' new Vizio 55" television! Nothing too crazy, minor bells and whistles, but really, really, BIG. This baby is going to look great in our basement built in cabinets. I mean you buy a house with a over a 60" space built in to the wall, you can't fill it will a puny 37". That would just look silly.

And the best freakin' part...the insane deal we got on it. I have to thank the boy toy for his covert, clearance stalking ways at Tar-Jay. While he was at work tonight he heard about a tv that had just been returned that came from online. A little secret about Tar-Jay is that whenever something is purchased online that they don't carry in store, they dramatically reduce the price when they put it back out on the sales floor. So the normally $1100 tv was marked down to $769! Holy savings Batman! And then...yes, there is an and then....and then because Chris gets his employee discount there was another $76 worth of savings, making this beauty only $693 before taxes, all in all a savings of almost 40%! BOOYAH! It was completely worth the 40 minute drive from the Chuck in my mom's minivan.

 So yes, the first actual purchase for the casa is one we can not sit in, eat off of, or sleep in...but damn, I love a good deal!

Closing is only two weeks away and I am getting antsy in my pantsy. This weekend I am definitely heading out and doing some reconnaissance...paint colors are my target, hopefully I can find some options so I can hit the ground running once we get the keys.