Powder Room Progress! Sort of!

After a little bit of "life lesson learning", and some help from a friend, the new light fixture is up and on! I wish I could put into words how frustrating it was to hang this damn thing. First, there's no junction box (thanks builder!), then I can't get a junction box in (thanks pipe), and I can't get it in the other way (thanks freakishly strong staple in a stupid location!), and then I couldn't get it to hang straight (WTF manufacturer?!). So I had kinda of MacGyver'd the thing up there and asked a friend, who's an electrician, to come over and make sure the house isn't going to burn to the ground. Success! It wiggles a little when you touch it, so we will not be touching it. Ever. Thank you 10-year light bulbs!

Pretty, no? And I got it on sale, huzzah! And now to the really hard part: paint color. If you've read about previous paint endeavors, you know it takes me quite a bit of samples to decide. But I only have three this time... because I'm agonizing about what to do after I paint. So paint first...

Gravity / Bay Waves / Polar Star / (Just ignore that last guy)

So here's the agonizing parts to deal with: One, what do I do with the ceiling? The previous owners had painted the entire room red, including the ceiling. So do I paint it white like the rest of the house, or paint the whole room one color? I'm leaning towards painting it all one color since the ceiling is so low over the toilet (this is under the stairs). 

Two, what to do after I've painted? Here's some ideas I'm kicking around:

Contact paper polka dots
(via Apartment Therapy)

Sharpie triangles
(via Design*Sponge)

Washi tape to add a pattern
(via Everything Emily)

This is wallpaper, but drawing a similar pattern with Sharpie
(via NamaRococo.com)

Sooo, you can see my dilemma. What color, then what to do, then what color to do that in?! Thoughts?

Tiny update

We've actually done lots to the house since moving in, but the place is never clean enough to take pictures. And since I'm a little frustrated with a light fixture issue we're having, I thought I would post one tiny cute update to our bedroom. And one to Whit's bedroom...

Before...

After...

Ooh, so pretty... I just want to gaze in these knobs forever...

Also ripped out and re-installed the cord covers to the TV, Kinect, et al. I still kinda hate it, but we really have no other options other than spending a fortune to truly hide the wires, and I'm done sinking money into this!

And Whit got a curtain. Well, he ended up getting two and thermal backings to them, but I like the look of just one without the backing. So here's the in between picture:

Told you they were tiny! But hey, it's baby steps around here with what I can get done during Whit's naps.

How we played: rice bin

Plastic bin + rice + anything = fun. Lots of quiet fun.

And sometimes messy fun. Before Mamacita learned better. Now when we play with this I put down an old shower curtain I use as a drop cloth now. But seriously, Whit was enamored with this for 20-30 mins. Which is seriously one in the win column. 

Little man played so long with it he was pretty exhausted and ready for nap time. Not asking for it, mind you, just ready.

You can put whatever you want in the bin, we used a couple of measuring spoons and metal measuring cups (they made a great sound when he poured rice on the back of them) and a funnel-like piece from one of his travel-food-carrier-thingies. And best part is, you put the top back on and pack it away when you're finished. But definitely pack it away, the next day Whit saw the bin out and started begging to play with it instead of eating breakfast. Another lesson learned!

Speaking of lessons, have you ever noticed that Sun-Maid raisins have kernels of wisdom on the inside flap?
Yeah me either, but I'm rather enjoying them...

Super Bowl weekend

...and the Super Bowl was the least interesting part of the whole weekend. Friday started out with a date night: dinner at a new restaurant called Gray's on Main. It's in an old pharmacy in downtown Franklin and looks so. damn. cool!

I had a really great cocktail considering they mostly serve real drinks and I mostly drink girly drinks. And we had some pretty amazing food. My favorite being the shrimp and grits with collards. Oh and the FRIED MOONPIE with DIPPING CHOCOLATE I had for desert. Holy shizzz!

We ran into a former castmate there working the bar and looking amazing. And then went to Pull-Tight to watch some more former castmates in The 39 Steps and had a great time. I want to read the play to know what they were working with, because wow, there's so much going on! It really was like a workout for those guys. If you ever get a chance to see it, do. Four actors play around 30(?) characters and it was sooooo funny!

Saturday Ben went off to play nerdy card games with his friends, so Whit and I ran a few errands for Sunday and played outside as long as we could stand it. It warmed up to upper 50s, but the wind was blowing so hard it was tough to withstand. But still nothing compared to the single digits it had just been earlier in the week. 

I'm seriously tormented by his hair. I love it, but I hate he's brushing it out of his eyes. It needs cutting, but I just can't bear it!

Sunday consisted of Ben and I scrubbing the house to prepare for friends and family coming over for the game. Me cooking a ton of food (and I have no idea why, we didn't eat most of it!). And Whit playing his heart out during the actual game. I think everyone had a decent time, despite it being the most boring Super Bowl ever. Anyhoo, now off to sleep and back to the grind tomorrow morning! 

New house pics... excuse the mess!

Seriously, excuse the mess. I took these a day or two after we moved in and unfortunately we didn't get a chance to take before pictures before we moved in. 

Living Room

Kitchen

Powder Room

I'm shaking my head at whoever painted the fan.

 Laundry Room (!)

Master Bedroom

Closet

Master Bathroom

 Guest Bedroom

Upstairs Bath

Bonus Room

Whit's Room

The Front

The Garage

The Backyard

All in all, I like it, it just needs some work to make it ours. And I'm not sure how much work I'm willing to put into it if it's not even close to our forever home. We haven't been in it a month and we've already done some big changes. So more pics soon!

Packing and a sick toddler

Equal some interesting and trying times. Add to that Ben will be out of town on business next week (the week before we close) is beginning to make me a nervous wreck. Thank God, again, Whit is such an easy kid.

Last weekend when Whit came home from visiting folks in Memphis he had a cold. (I'm pretty sure he didn't catch mine, I was so careful!) So the weekend pretty much went like this: carrying Whit around all day, constantly giving him liquids, and trying to convince him sleep was a good idea. Every night he had to fall asleep on someone to go to bed and when we put him in his crib he'd usually wake up and we'd do it all over again. Then he'd wake at 4am for round two of the same. But liquids, vapo-rub, vaporizer, propped up crib mattress, and cuddles won in the end and he was only out of commission for the weekend. By Tuesday he was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed again.

This week we've I've been packing and cleaning which is almost completely futile with a toddler. Especially when his favorite activity is putting things in and out of boxes. Although it will be fun finding random toys when we unpack. I smile every time I find a block in the washing machine.

This weekend is the second week of The Dining Room and since Whit hasn't been sleeping much he got to entertain the cast last night at dinner. (The kid's bedtime has moved to midnight the past two nights. Why?!)

Whit with Mr. Tom (our stage manager)

And trying on Seth's (cast) hipster glasses. 

I think someone else might become a performer. His facial expressions slay me lately. He's started giving me these disapproving looks that are too funny. Okay, now, on to more packing...

Okaaay...

So I haven't blogged in a very long time. Kinda went back and forth if I was even going to keep it up anymore. Honestly, I don't have time between Whit, work and now I'm in a play that opened last weekend. Oh... and HOUSE HUNTING! Yeah that's right. Were we looking to move? Maybe, but not for another couple of years. Did we have our house on the market? Um, nope!

About a month ago a realtor we know in the area emailed Ben asking if we were thinking of selling (we had talked to him before about selling when we thought we were moving out of state) and that he had some people interested in our area, but couldn't afford the $500,000 places available right now. So Ben threw out a number he thought was high and without batting an eye the buyers said "Sure, can we see the place?". A week later I was taking a nap, Ben wakes me and says, "Hey, the Saints are on. And I sold the house." Whaaaa?!

So the past month has been spent looking for a house to move into, inspections, appraisals, mortgage meetings, yadda yadda yadda. We no joke picked out a house in one day, which makes me a little nervous. But since we didn't have a lot of time and this will still not be our forever home, I'll be okay, eventually. I'm really heartbroken about moving out of Franklin and into Spring Hill. I LOVE our neighborhood. It's old, it's pretty, and we're a mile walk from everything. Our new house is in a subdivision. Wah wah wah.

Today I'm off work trying to pack/clean/purge/tackle the garage. Dreaming what I want to change in the new place already and bemoaning how hard it is for me when it's a newer house. Our current home is a 1950's ranch so when in a pickle I just ask if it would go with the character of the house. The new place is less than 10 years old, I have no idea what goes with that! All I know is most of the carpet will be going before we move in and a few of the rooms MUST be painted. Can't wait to show pics of this place soon. Hopefully we close the 28th and move in by Halloween.