Thursday, March 27, 2008

CLOSED...


...finally. Escrow is closed, and we are in more debt than we ever have been in our entire lives! Woohoo! We had the absolute worst escrow process you could imagine, with more than one person involved saying something along the lines of: "I've been doing this for 25 years and I've never seen anything like this..." We were originally supposed to close escrow the 18th...then the 21st...then the 25th...and we finally closed on the 26th as of 5:20 p.m. Whew.

It's a little odd to actually own a piece of land...even if it isn't acres in the middle of the country...we honestly believed and had pretty much come to terms with the fact that we didn't think we would EVER be able to own. Renting stinks, but at the end of the day, I don't think anyone lays on their deathbed thinking "I wish I would have at least owned my home..." That said, it is very, very nice to think that the check we write every month is actually going towards a long term investment and that we'll be able to itemize our taxes next year! Yippee! (The things you get excited about as you grow older...)

We'll be making changes as we go along and this before/after will become a series on Henry's blog...but for now, here are some pics of the house before, and then the after of the living room and dining room (we haven't done much in the rest of the house except put our furniture in it...eventually every wall in the house will be painted some color, but that'll be a few months...at least!):

Stark, white walls. Made the house feel cold and harsh.

More white.
Oh look, more white.And more.And more.
You get the picture.

With the help of the ever so talented Lindsey, I painted the walls "Cappucino" with "Flax" accents. Yes, that's an orange wall. But the picture makes it look a lot brighter than it is in real life. It's definately orange, but a deeper, more pumpkin-y color. Behr calls it "Crispy Gingersnap".
We have A LOT more painting to do...more before/afters to follow!

14 comments:

Kristen Borland said...

WOW!! First, congratulations! Finally! And second, that's an AWESOME house! I love it! So open, so many windows, and it seems so spacious! Cool front door too! Can't wait to see it!

BeckyandTroy said...

So beautiful... love it. Congrats:-) I'm so sorry we won't be there on Sat.. we'll be in San Diego:-( b

lindsey said...

ooooh! looks so good! the wall looks a lot better in the pic from the living room. and i love the pillows - they tie it all together. good job!

joy said...

jeannett--it's beautiful! and i love the paint on the walls. yeah, we've been here for 6 years or is 7 and still have unpainted walls. after listening to what piper said this past weekend, i'm thinking they might have to stay that way. but, i was thinking, if i put a sign up somewhere that says how much we love God, then maybe i can paint? what do you think? ;) isn't owning a home great?

Brianna Heldt said...

SO BEAUTIFUL, WOW! LOVE the house, and the walls, and the furniture! It's great, and I can't wait to see it in person!

(Now did Lindsey help with the actual painting, or the color selection? Painting is SO much work, ugh.)

Jeannett said...

Joy-I know, it's so hard. Does it count that paint is cheap?

Brianna-She helped me pick colors via email discussions. Andy's brother and aunt did the painting.

Lisa Leonard said...

It's amazing home and you're doing a bang up job decorating! Can't wait to see it!! xoxo

Aron said...

oh it looks amazing!! good job :) love all the wall colors, it warms it up so much. the house looks great!!! and congrats again!

oh and yes my favorite part was itemizing :) i started doing my tax projections before we even closed escrow... but thats because i am a dorky cpa :)

Cham F. said...

Congratulations! Owning a house is great, except for all of the maintenance and repairs.

Painting is fun/taping off is not. White walls are always easy to deal with because you sometimes get to skip the priming step and go right to color!

Brianna Heldt said...

sweet that someone else did the painting, and you didn't have to! (kevin is the painter in our relationship, i do taping and brush work.)

we lived with our white walls for about a year and a half. it felt so good once we finally got some paint on them!

and you better keep the pics coming!

Carrie Haughey said...

love it! it looks so big and spacious! beautiful!! If you need help painting anything else, give me a call...

Unknown said...

Hey Jeannett,

Finally noticed you found a buffet! I have only looked at these pictures 5 or 6 times (admiring the painting of course!).
Where did you find it??

Peg

Jeannett said...

I actually found it at Beverly's...a small, craft type store for $150! It's not a "good" piece of furniture, but it was cute, fit the space perfectly, and my budget right now! Someday I'll upgrade to a PotteryBarn piece, but for the next couple of years, this works great! :)

Rachel Slagle said...

Your house is beautiful! I can't wait to see more pictures :)