Officially Home

Guys. We are officially home. 

This weekend was a total whirlwind! On Friday Tim left work early to meet the internet hookup guy at our new house so we wouldn't spend time without wifi. While he waited he finished cleaning up from our kitchen cabinet painting project (coming soon I promise!), and reattached all the doors and drawers. Once I was out of work I hurried back to the apartment to meet him so we could pick up our 16 foot Penske rental truck.

We took the truck back to our apartment and started loading it up! Derek arrived to help us pretty much right away and we were so thankful to have his help. Shawn arrived shortly after and we got the entire truck plus three cars full of stuff and decided just to bring everything down to the house and get it unloaded.

While we were unloading Brit, Stephen and their girls stopped by to visit! By the time we unloaded everything it was super late but Derek and Shawn hung out for awhile and had some beers and pizza before they headed home and we crashed!

Since we got most of the boxes moved and quite a bit of the furniture on Friday night, Saturday was a lot more manageable. With the help of Derek, Ally, and Fred we loaded up the truck once more and four cars! I seriously have NO idea where we accumulated so much stuff. I really thought we were pretty minimalistic but OH MY GOD there was so much stuff. I have some serious decluttering to do.

We said goodbye to our apartment which honestly was a little sad. We lived here for almost 3.5 years. Some of you might have been following along that entire time. Remember when we moved in?

We have a lot of memories here but I am so happy to be in our new home and to start a brand new chapter!

Goodbye lucky #13! We loved this little apartment and will always remember it :)

After leaving our keys behind we headed down to the house and got everything else unloaded. My brother Dan stopped by to help and Tim's sister Brit came by to see the house. We also had Fred's girlfriend Marissa join us later in the night. We had a fire with the desk that had fallen apart from my childhood and all of the cardboard boxes that had accumulated.

It was so nice to hang out with everyone and we are so thankful for all of their help.

On Sunday I did a ton of unpacking but honestly it was such an exhausting weekend I may have also laid down for a bit!

We have a million projects to do and I will be sharing everything with you guys! Just please be patient with me while I get settled :)

Packing Up Our Apartment

Hey everyone! Today I wanted to share how the packing of our apartment is going....

Despite the look of our guest bedroom in this picture, it's going well! I'm trying to stay organized and get as much done as possible before we officially close. Our closing is set for this Thursday and we gave notice at our apartment for the 30th. So we have to be out by the end of the month and have a little bit of time but I really want to get in much sooner. Once we close I will start packing even more stuff but for now at least I have a ton of decor packed away and all the items we don't use daily.

I wanted to share how I'm staying organized during this move and how I can tell you exactly what is in each box!

As you can see, I've given each box a number and labeled it with the room it will be put in at the new house. The room labels so far are: Master Bedroom, Guest Room, Living Room, Kitchen, and Office.  On moving day it will be easy for anyone carrying a box to know exactly what room it should go in. I've written it on the top and side of the box.

I've put all the boxes in the guest room and along walls so they don't get too in the way since we are still trying to live here. 

Now, the biggest thing I'm doing is keeping track what's inside each box. In Google Sheets I mark the box, the location of where the items were in our current apartment, where it should be unpacked and then the general contents. 

Here is a screenshot of my spreadsheet:

In addition to my spreadsheet I also have a Google Doc with each box and exactly every item that is inside. This way if I'm looking for something in particular I can find it quickly. I'm hoping this will help make unpacking in the new house quick and easy!

I realize this is being insanely organized but I can't help it! I just want to make this process as easy as possible and organizing is the number one way I know how to help. I will keep you all updated on the progress but hopefully next weekend we will be in the house getting it ready for move in!!!

Have a great day!

Our House Hunting Journey Part 2

Happy Monday everyone!

I'm loving Monday a little more than usual because I have today and tomorrow off! It's a nice little four day weekend to relax and spend time with my husband! The last two days have been so relaxing and nice! As I write this Tim is starting to cook breakfast and I am lounging on the couch.

Today I want to share some exciting news about our house hunting journey that I have debated sharing for awhile now.... we are under contract!!!

We are currently at the stage where the bank asks for a million documents and we are waiting for an appraisal to happen, but our closing date is less than a month off!

Right now, we are focusing on good thoughts as our loan processes. I'm trying to stay calm but I've already started packing :) I will be sharing my packing process and how I'm staying organized while I pack up our apartment. 

I think I am unmotivated to share any sort of content in the apartment because I have a TON of ideas for the new house! I will share our house to-do list at some point once we move in. The house is in great condition but there are things we want to do to personalize it and upgrade it and I can't wait to bring you all along on our newest adventure!

Our house is a three bedroom ranch and we are obsessed with it! It is all freshly painted with new doors and new floors in a few of the rooms. I can't wait to move in and hopefully within a month we will be closing and moving out of our apartment of 3+ years and into our very own home!!

I'll keep you updated throughout the process and especially on the DIY projects and decorating that will happen when we get in there.

Keep those fingers crossed for us!

Oh The Places You'll Go....Our Moving Story!

So we have been officially in our apartment for over a week now and can almost officially say that we are completely moved in. We have a mattress to pick up from Tim's dads house, a bed frame and box spring from my parents house, and then our new Pier 1 headboard to pick up- but that's all! 

There are plenty more things to buy (I don't think that list will ever shrink) but I think we are doing well over here!

Here's whats happened so far:

We took a few car loads of stuff so we could start unloading everything into the apartment. We rented a truck over the weekend but there were a few things I didn't want to just throw in the back of a truck. We also had a ton of furniture to build from Ikea and wanted to try to get that built before we moved everything in. I highly recommend building all furniture first so you don't have to wait to unload boxes. It made it easy for us to put away clothing and other items.

We spent multiple nights building furniture. Tim and I started out each building our own nightstands from Ikea. They were fairly easy to build although there were certainly enough pieces!

Over the course of this week we collectively have built two nightstands, two dressers, a coffee table, and a bookshelf. Yes, we are ambitious.

Our living room with just a few items inside. We used our living room as a processing area throughout the moving process. Once we got a box upstairs we would put it down in the living room. Later on when we were sorting it was nice to be able to open all boxes in the living room and figure out where everything was going to go. I highly recommend having a processing area! I originally wanted boxes to be dispersed among rooms but I found it easier to deal with everything in our massive living room.

Just our apartment number, lucky #13!

Friday night we had our first meal in the apartment- we headed to the local supermarket Dave's and grabbed some food from the hot bar. It was very good and I ate every bit of my mac and cheese and mashed potatoes.

Tim's sister Brit came to help us put together furniture as well. We are lucky to be living only a few roads away from her, her boyfriend and their new puppy!

On Saturday morning while Tim worked I emptied out our bedroom and got everything down into the garage or loaded into my car and my moms car. By the time Tim came home everything other then the furniture was downstairs. (Side note: I like to pretend I'm strong... I did manage to bring down the nightstand and dresser by myself!)

It was so weird to look around my bedroom that I've lived in for the last year and a half and find it empty. It's even stranger to know that I'm moving into a place that we are making our first home together! At some point we plan to buy a house but this will be our home for the next couple of years!

When Tim pulled up with the truck I was ready to get started!

I didn't take any pictures that I wanted to on moving day. I wanted to get a picture of us next to the truck, I wanted to take pictures as we moved things in...but I was extremely focused. Tim and I moved as efficiently as we could with the help of my mom who was awesome! She lifted and carried more then she should have been doing and we appreciated her help so much.

I started to style bookcases and unpack boxes...

It has been so fun to decorate an entire apartment! We have had a great time picking everything out together. The theme of my bedroom was already a beachy theme so we did stick with that. I am also pretty minimalistic when it comes to decor, I don't like having tons of things to dust! We have picked out very simple, plain items which has worked out great so far. 

Remember this is just a sneak peek into our apartment! Things are still evolving and I will be sharing everything once it's completed.

When our coffee table arrived we were excited to have a table to eat off of!

We also have been putting up curtains which has made it feel more like home!

When our couch arrived on Saturday everything instantly felt completed! Even though there is still a ton of items we still need to hang, even though some areas have just been filled with stuff and not sorted properly, putting a couch in the living room has made it feel homey!

Don't worry we've still got plenty of work for Tim to do around here ;)

Thanks for checking out our moving story! I'll be back to share more details!

Packing, Food and a Graduation Party

I cannot believe how fast this weekend flew by! I feel like it was just Friday afternoon and it's already Sunday night. I often wish I could drag the weekends out a little more, especially busy ones like this one was!

On Friday I worked cleaning an office after my regular job so it was a pretty tiring day. Luckily I had an amazing boyfriend to come home to who had waited for me to have dinner. We decided to head to The Haversham for a quick dinner and it was awesome.

I had met friends for dinner and drinks there before, but this was the first time I have ever sat down in the dining area. We both ordered the french onion soup and it was cheesy and delicious. I always feel like I could eat a few bowls of french onion for dinner and be completely content. 

I opted for the French Dip sandwich and french fries for my meal and loved it.

Then we split a brownie sundae for dessert which was fantastic. Anything that has hot fudge on it is fine by me!

Saturday morning when Tim had to work I spent my time packing up our bedroom.

We still have a ton of stuff to pack and sign our lease on Thursday so it will be a busy week for us!

I have been bringing a ton of boxes home from work but we are already out of boxes! It's amazing how much stuff we have. As you can see when Tim arrived home from work he was super helpful...

Just kidding! He knows to stay out of my way when I'm in super organizing mode :)

Saturday afternoon we headed off to Tim's sisters house since she was hosting her boyfriends graduation party.

Obviously it meant lots of puppy playtime!

We had an awesome time hanging out with his family and playing with the puppy. It was a fun night!

This morning we decided to start with breakfast at T's in Narragansett.

My breakfast was great! I had home fries, bacon, scrambled eggs, and buttermilk pancakes. 

Tim opted for an omelet with toast and buffalo home fries and only had great things to say about his food!

After breakfast we made the hour drive to IKEA! Tim had never been so it was an experience for him.

I'll be back a little later this week to share all about our shopping experience from today...it's going to be a little long and will definitely take up a full post! We ended up buying quite a few things for our new apartment and I can't wait to share everything with you guys!

Have a great start to your week!