Congrats, Ryan!!

The greatest thing happened last night...

First a little background - there are two Linvatec reps that cover Nashville territory, Ryan and Brent. About two months ago Brent's previous boss talked him in to coming back, so Ryan's been helping cover both territories until they hire someone else. There has been some talk about other options, but nothing was decided until last night when Ryan's boss, Doug, suddenly came in town (which rarely happens). And he promoted Ryan to cover BOTH territories! WOW!! He told Ryan it is his gut feeling to let him take over and that it took so long because they had to try and convince corporate. Keep in mind that Ryan has only been in this field and with this company for 9 months! And he's 25! That just shows that Ryan's bosses have so much faith in him (and for good reason). He'll now be managing over 60 hospitals in Middle Tennessee. Doug let him know that they were taking a risk and sticking their necks out for him so he has a lot to prove before the end of the year. If all goes well they'll hire one, maybe two, associates under him since the territory is so large. I know Ryan is going to knock it out of the park. He is so passionate about his career and I've never seen him so driven. This is an amazing oppurtunity that has been handed to him and I can't wait to see him run with it.

Ryan- Congratulations, baby! You have accomplished so much and I could not be more proud and happy for you. I love you so much!

Oh What a Day

This weekend was one of our first weekends in town in a while so we made the most of it! We have a lengthy to-do list for the house and we were determined to check a lot of them off. But first we kicked off the weekend by having a date night at Rumba Friday night and had a great time. We love visiting restaurants unique to Nashville, trying new foods and soaking up all our city has to offer. We used to explore different restaurants a lot more than we have been lately, so we're definitely going to make a point to start again. Plus it's a good little escape from all the house work.

Saturday morning we woke up early and planned to get a lot done before Megan and Joe's 2:30 wedding. Unfortunately, we left for the wedding fairly disappointed with our progress. One of the main things we wanted to do was paint the front living room. After two trips to the paint store and bringing home oh-so-wrong colors BOTH times that didn't happen. So basically all we accomplished was a couple loads of laundry and taping up the living room ready for the right paint color. Third times a charm, right!

Sunday morning (By the way the wedding was great! More on that later.) we got to the paint store right when they opened at 10am and this time asked for their most popular green. Haha. Obviously our random color choices weren't working out, so we decided to take the safe route and it turned out even better... they couldn't add the right mix to change our second paint color to Clary Green, so we made our own custom color. Ryan named it "Gray Custom Green". Sweet!

As soon as we got home we hit the ground running and this is what we did...

Prepared the boring beige sitting room for some color...

BEFORE

BEFORE

Color choice #1:
We actually like the color, but we didn't intend to paint the room the same color as the curtains in the den. Whoops.

Can you tell we really like this color!?

So it was back to the paint store for Round 2:
Yeah, not what we were expecting. I promise the color did not look neon on the color swatch.

So we made the most of what we had and created our own custom color!

Gray Custom Green -- it's even on the label :)
Thanks Sherwin Williams!

Now we're ready to paint!

Looking good!

Ignore the top - the crown molding is going up in here later this week.

Finally a green that we love!

While I finished up painting Ryan went outside to tackle the landscaping

A little overgrown (note the red shutters too)

Still smiling even in the heat...
this weekend was the hottest weekend of the year so far

Go baby go!

Such a good job keeping it straight - I was very impressed!

Our house - BEFORE the hedge trimmer

AFTER! Great job, Ryan!

Meanwhile, I got to work putting the second coat of white on the kitchen's wood paneling. The chair rail is going up later this week too.

AFTER

Now it's shutter time -- they're going dark

Ryan's garage set up - gotta jam out while painting!

BEFORE (with holes filled)

We chose a color from the Nashville Colors list at Sherwin Williams. This one is called Belle Meade Green. It looks almost black.

Ryan was really excited about using this spray gun, but the paint had to be watered down too much for it to work well. Back to the old fashioned way...

With a paint brush!

I can't wait to see how they look on the house! They still need another coat...

My next project to tackle was the front door...

BEFORE - red

Sanded down

Taped up

AFTER! It looks so much better! Still waiting on it's second coat too...

So that was our Sunday! We got so much accomplished and it felt so good! I already can't wait until next weekend because we'll be in town again (two weekends in a row - unheard of!). I've already got our to-do list ready! Ryan and I enjoy doing things ourselves. After all this house is an investment for us so anything we can do that we don't have to pay someone for we're going to do! It is so rewarding to see our progress!

And on a side note... this is what we saw on the way back from Lowes just a couple houses down from ours. We occasionally see deer in our yard and we have no idea where they come from, but we like it. One time Ryan saw 3 together in our yard!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

The Fun Part

Decorating!! I have always dreamed of decorating a room from start to finish and I have been ecstatic to do so in our new house. Since college Ryan and I have bought a couple nice pieces of furniture, but the rest (which we are thankful for) have been hand-me-downs. Now with the new house we want to make it completely our own... and we started with the living room/den. This room is where we end our nights, where we plant ourselves in front of the TV, eat dinner (raise top coffee table), cuddle with Sadie, entertain friends and family, and just plain relaxing in after a days work. It is, in my opinion, one of the most important rooms in the house.

And now, it's almost complete...

The Focal Wall:

First, I knew that I wanted symmetry on the focal (fireplace) wall. There were existing bookshelves on the left side and none on the right. Of course the cable outlet just so happened to be on the right side. Typical. And I absolutely hate cable boxes being in sight. Can we say eye sore!? So we had two choices - 1. have my handy dandy hubby build a duplicate bookshelf on the right side, or 2. buy two matching pieces of furniture to put on each side. Of course I immediately started dreaming pretty dressers and accent chests that could flank each side of our freshly painted white fireplace. But would they fit? That was the hard part. I have recently been gushing over mirrored pieces of furniture, so once that was decided I just hoped I could find a good fit. And then it happened. I could not believe my eyes when I saw a the PERFECT piece with the PERFECT dimensions. Fate?

This piece was meant to be ours-- Two please!

The Rug:

I looked high and low (online and in stores) for the perfect 8x10 rug for our space. Three rugs even made the cut and came back to the house with me, but then they went right back where they came from. But then, I saw it. The perfect rug. The perfect pattern. The perfect colors. And I pretty much based the rest of the room around this one rug that wasn't even mine. Yet. A rug that was still hanging in the store in it's 5x8 glory because we had a decision to make. If we order the 8x10 there is no going back. No returns. Could we take that risk? I already thought I liked 3 but didn't like them once I got home. Well, the kind man at the store let me take the 5x8 rug home to make sure. I have to admit, when I first laid it out on the floor it wasn't what I was expecting because it has an ombre coloring to it, which I didn't notice in the store. But now, I love it again. It's still perfect and I want it. (Ryan are you reading this!?). But we're waiting for our new couch to get here (fingers crossed for Aug. 7) before we make our final decision. But here is it...

Up close - you can see the blues and greens in it

The 5x8 in the house

Just another pic of our hardwoods

The windows:

Although I was first tempted to take the safe route and get a neutral colored curtain - since you can't go wrong with that - I'm so glad I went with my gut and got a color - blue. A perfect blue to coordinate with the rug, that is. :) I knew right away that I wanted a simple, solid curtain panel with grommets on top. I wanted to hang the curtain rods as high as possible and have the panels barely brush the floor. Well, I forgot about the crown molding, so they more than brush the floor, but I'll have them hemmed eventually. Other than that I think they turned out beautiful! They really bring in some color that the room was lacking prior. I also knew I wanted bamboo shades, but I dind't want to completely block out the light, especially since the curtains were triple layered. So these dark brown ones worked out great because not only do they accentuate the color of hardwoods but they give privacy while letting in the perfect amount of light. Oh and I almost forgot to mention the fabric roman shade over the small windows on each side of the fireplace... aren't they cute!?

The Couch:

Ryan has forever wanted a sectional. Forever. He has always talked about it, and I'm just glad I could hold him off until we bought a house. Otherwise... what is the chaise didn't go the right direction or it wouldn't fit in the new space? Anyway, the time has come. We went all around town until we found this beauty. And we fell in love with it. Both of us. The greyish hues, the tufted fabric, the straight lines, the exposed wooden legs, the perfect amount of seating while still having a chaise... it was perfect. But then we went and looked some more because it was more than we originally wanted to spend. But when it's the one, it's the one. So we bought it. We justified because we are going to have this couch for a long time and it's what we are going to enjoy sitting on every single night. Worth the splurge? I think so. Now if it would just get here already! We ordered it the last weekend in May and it was supposed to be here at the end of June, then middle of July, then Aug. 2, and now Aug. 7. Come on August!

The Accessories:

I made all of my accessory purchases at Homegoods. I love Homegoods. I purchased the lamps and the blue box from there, as well as the four pieces of art hung on the wall. The other things I already had around. This part is a work in process, but I'm not one to over accessorize a room. I like a little simpliciy, so I might even just leave it how it is and keep adding fresh flowers whenever possible.

Please ignore the unpaint window sill in the background :)

And the best accessory of them all!

And now, what do all these components look like together?...

Let's not forget the before...

NOW!

All that's missing is the new couch and new rug to pull it all together and this room is COMPLETE! It's going to feel so good to have one room checked off the list. Hope you like it as much as we do!

And because I know you miss our smiling faces...


Hope everyone has a great weekend!