We haven't really done anything with the house in quite some time. Work and other things have kind of taken up our time. But we do have our decorating done and the tree looks beautiful. I'll try to get a good picture of it to post...

In the mean time, here's the picture Jim and I had taken for our Christmas cards. We think Paris Studios in Muskegon did a great job. (Thank you, Paris, for permission to scan and post to my blog.) I think we look good together!

This is the first picture that we've had taken together! I think that's a pretty major thing.

Anyway, life keeps changing and we keep moving forward. Today it's our first picture together, tomorrow it might be remodeling the kitchen or the bath, or maybe even rearranging the bedroom furniture!!

It took a long time--five weeks--to get my apartment packed, cleaned and painted. But we finally finished last Saturday! Hurray!

For five weeks, four days a week, my mom and I drove to my apartment and packed boxes. We also sorted and discarded things. I can't even tell you how much stuff we threw out or put aside for a yard sale. Most of the stuff we kept for a sale is in my parents' pole barn. We just didn't have the space to put it in the storage we rented.

Next week, I will go through the inspection with the landlord to determine what damages I'll have to pay. I'm pretty certain there won't be many, as I lived there for over two years, so most damage should be considered normal wear and tear.

I wish I could say we didn't have anything else to do, but there is still a lot of work to do. Not at the apartment, but at the house. We have to do some consolidating and weed out the things we don't need here. We also have to find a spot for all the new things that have been moved.

I'm very lucky, because Jim is wonderful. I just could not imagine living with anyone as considerate and loving as he is. He's simply been amazing. Last weekend, he moved some of his clothes out of the bedroom and into his office to give me more space for my things. He also hired someone to do some yard work so he can have a storage shed put in the yard. He's decided to move his tools out of the utility room so I can have more room for my kitchen things. How many men are willing to go to that extent to make their girlfriend feel like she belongs???? My guess is not many.

For the next two weeks he's going to Detroit for work--he'll be home on the weekend--and I'll be trying to put the house in order whilst he's gone. The sooner I can find a home for everything, the sooner this will feel like a relaxing home for both of us, and that's what I want to do for him. He gives me sooooo much, so I want to do something nice for him.

Soooooo...Does anyone have any storage ideas for a house that isn't even 810 square feet? I need to make everything fit!!!

Yesterday we finished packing and moved the final items from my apartment. It's official, Jim and I are now living together in his house, which I am slowly starting to think of as my house more and more. Most of my things were moved into a storage space we rented, but the remaining items have been brought to the house, and there are boxes everywhere.

Now we're at the point where we have to figure out where to put everything. Jim's house is about 50 square feet smaller than my apartment was. That means that not only do we have to make two households fit into one, we have to make them fit into the smaller of the two! That means getting creative with the storage ideas.

We're also having to thin out a lot of items...getting rid of duplicate items, eliminating unused items, and keeping only the things we need or absolutely love.

We're not able to incorporated everything we love into our small house. Unfortunately, some items have to be stored. One of those items is my china cabinet. Some of you might remember it from my other blog. It looked so good in my apartment, but it is just too large for the small space we're living in now. However, I did finally get my lovely coffee table in the living room, along with a chair my mom gave me.

Oh! in case you're wondering. I did solve the problem of Jim's blue recliner. Amazingly, on one of my trips to Goodwill, I found two matching blue drum shades that were in perfect condition to put on his two table lamps. They just happen to match his blue recliner almost perfectly and bring in the blue color that was missing from the room. (Still not thrilled with the idea of a recliner being in the living room, but a girl has to make compromises.)

The next room I'm going to work on is the kitchen. Jim is going to be gone for a couple of weeks, coming home only on the weekend in between, and I'm going to take advantage of that time to make some much needed changes to the kitchen. Jim agreed to buy the paint for the kitchen, and I'll start with that, but I have a few other ideas I want to do too. Hopefully he'll like them when he gets home!

Well, I should get to doing a little more unpacking. The living room and kitchen are currently cluttered with boxes, and it's driving me nuts!!!

Yesterday I presented my plan to Jim for re-arranging the furniture in the bedroom. I don't think he's going for it, even though it will make the extremely small room seem larger and more roomy. The new arrangement would open up the room, because when you look in the room from the doorway, you would see an open area all the way to the wall--this gives it the illusion of space.

I think the main thing that he's objecting to is moving the tv from one side of the room to the other. It would mean repairing holes in the wall. He also brought up that he does have a cable outlet on the side of the room I want the tv moved to. Of course, I had a solution for that, which is the extra long cable I was using at my apartment. It would go behind the bed, along the far wall, behind the armoire and to the tv. Since the armoire is rather tall, the cable could be hidden behind that and then only about four inches of cable would show...easy to paint, making it invisible.

One of the things that I like about the new arrangement is it makes the bed the focal point. We bought beautiful bedding, and you don't notice it. What you notice is how cramped the room feels. The new arrangement would make more space around the bed...again, making the room feel bigger. Also, the placement of the bed would keep the bathroom light from shining in when either of us is using the loo at night.

Of course, re-arranging the furniture means painting...

We have finished the bones of the living room. The furniture needs to be arranged and exchanged with pieces from my apartment. Other furniture needs to be moved out. It's a process that for the moment is ongoing.

The kitchen, on the other hand, has not begun. I can see it in my mind, but as of yet, nothing has moved. With the living room, I just put the room together without a formal plan. I think that the kitchen needs a little more effort put into it, which means drawing a floor plan and doing a perspective drawing. It may be easier to get Jim excited about the plan if he can actually see on paper what I see in mind.

To tell you the truth, I'm looking forward to putting together a formal plan. I haven't done one in a long time. It's great to do the drawings, the floor plans and the color schemes. It really helps get the creative juices flowing (cliche alert!).

Tomorrow I start making the plans. I can hardly wait!

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Today I hung more artwork in the living room. Jim seemed a little disappointed that I did it without his help. I felt a little guilty after I sensed that he was disappointed, because I realized that this is a joint effort between both of us. So next time I think I'll wait until he's home to help.

Luckily, when he got home from work he thought it looked really good. I was a little concerned that he wouldn't like them because he thought they were too girly when they were hanging in my apartment. But they look completely different against the dark brown wall than they did against the pale sage wall in my apartment.

Oh! I have to tell you about the table in the picture. That is the first piece of furniture that Jim and I bought together. We got it at a yard sale for $40. We could not believe that the people were giving it up for the price, but they were trying to get rid of all the things in their parents house. We couldn't resist it!

This weekend we're taking the table to my dad's so he can refinish it for us. We had planned to make it a project to do together, but we've gotten caught up in all the other things that we're doing...such as moving me out of my apartment.

I can hardly wait to get to the next project in the house!!!