House Tour: Entryway!

I am so excited that you came to visit!

Come on inside!

Once you step inside, you will be enveloped in a calming green.

Olympic's Dancing Light.

I adore it.

I LOVE green and somehow this color acts as a neutral.

We have used it along the hallway upstairs and down.
Also, along the back wall of the house to connect the living room and kitchen(open floor plan).

I am not excited about the entryway.

I want something beautiful to pull you in.

I am planning to frame photos of the kiddos to put there....

But I stuck this here a long time ago, and just never thought about it again.

I doubt you can read it, but this print was purchased

10 years ago during Beach Week after HS graduation.

The bench was spontaneous clearance find...

I had no clue when I bought it, where it would go, but I couldn't leave it in Lowe's.
(Did you know Lowe's sold accessories like this?  Neither did I, but only in large stores!)

The pillows were a clearance find way before I ever even chose the paint color.

I originally purchased them for the Master Bedroom, but they didn't match.

After painting the green, I realized they fit perfectly! 

Family photos and a montage of Meredith around 8 months greet you in the hallway...

And please freshen up before you come in!

This was one of the rooms we did not paint. 

I can't quote the color name for you.

I despise it.  I think it is too dark for such a small room.

But, alas, it is not a priority for me at the moment...

What WAS a priority was covering up HUGE holes the previous owners left behind.

Since we didn't have the paint, we couldn't spackle them

(and they didn't have the decency to do so either!)

We measured and searched for a shelf that would mask the damage!

Target is where we found the white shelf.  

I know it looks awful high, but in leiu of painting, this was the best solution for us.

And I love this little basket! 

I (usually) store extra TP in there with the wipes.

And yes!  We do have extra TP.  

I am reminded of a little ditty I read a while ago...

Stop by tomorrow to continue our tour!

"How I Met My House!"

I missed a party that was called "How I Met My House!" 
I like the idea of sharing the story of such...

So rewind 2 years - to Feburary 2008.  I was 34 weeks pregnant with my daughter and my husband was in Army limbo land as to what path we were to explore next....law school?  deployment? 

We had been waiting for a LONG time and finally word came that my husband was going to deploy to Iraq come May.  He would have to defer law school. 

We made the decision to move our family across country to be closer to the law school before he left for the deployment.  I didn't want to move alone (or with 2 littles alone, rather)....

In one weeks time, we set up movers, packed up our home, and traveled across the country to Virginia.  We stayed with family while we made preparations to find a place to call our own. 

My husband wanted to purchase again (We purchased our home in OK). 

And based on the specifics of what we wanted, a realtor took us on a whirlwind tour of 20 homes in one day. 

After an exhausting day, we ranked the houses based upon our notes and placed our first bid. 
I still think about this house, but it was on the high end of our price range.
We couldn't go higher than we offered, and the bid was rejected.

The second house we bid on was not vacant.  And although the seller had noted they would leave quickly, they were not willing to leave by the end of the month.  Strike 2.

The third house we placed a bid on was not one of our favorites, but it seemed like the next best option. 
Our bid was countered and we accepted.

With time NOT on our side:
we opted to ignore the fact that this house had NO storage, but was 2X the size of our home in OK.
we opted for a two week closing...

we opted to sign a decorators contract, where we could move our things in before closing.  

We signed our contract on Wednesday and on Friday the movers were arriving with our things. 

Everything was a whirlwind!  But everything lined up perfectly so everything would fall into place. 

I am forever grateful for that, because I had bigger things to worry about ---

like find an OB who would accept a 36 week pregnant woman....

like getting an address so insurance would process the proper paper work.

like popping out this baby BEFORE the due date so my husband could meet her before he deployed....

like setting up a home before my life spun out of control! 

So this is the place we now call our own! 

And in order to not neglect my blog....

in the coming days I will be giving you a insider's tour of the rest of the house! 

Look forward to seeing you then!

Domestically Devon!

Domestic is defined  in many derivations of the same basic meaning:

"a devotion to the home life or home affairs" Source

"of or relating to the family or household" Source

"fond of homelife and household affairs" Source

Growing up, my "dream" was to create a home, a family, and a loving life together.

Many would say that domestic is a word used to describe me.

So, I have turned my name into a verb and will be showing you all things that make OUR home....

I want to use this blog as a forum to share my thoughts and creativity....

I want to share craft projects that my children do for crafttime.

I want to share my craft projects that I do for myself....

I want to share tutorials for how I do things. 

I want to show you how we get organized. 

I want to share my favorite recipes. 

I want you to join me, and I hope you always have a take-away.