Monday, March 28, 2016

We bought a house!! (Picture Heavy)

I can honestly say it's been a rough couple of months. The end of December until the end of January proved to be trying on so many levels, but out of line that struggle, came our new house.           
We decided it was time to plant some roots. Those are words I never thought could come out of my mouth. Plant + Roots has been the biggest fear for the Neals. We are free spirits - Hippies if you will- and the idea of staying in one place didn't sit well with us. My husband and I have been together for 9 years and we are so lucky to be growing and coming to realizations at the same time. We both decided that with a little more planning and saving, we could have the luxury of having both lives; the travelers and the homeowners!!!
My work family helped us figure out all the details and paperwork for buying a house, and we had an amazing realtor that helped us through the process, and we also realized that together, he and I could deal with anything. 
We are competed in love with our home. It's a 5 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom house on .5 acres of land. There's a screened in patio and beautiful front porch. The house is surrounded by trees and we're at the end of a cul de sac. There's also an extra room that I'm going to turn into a mud room- right now, it's a dog room because there's a doggy door! Can you believe it, a doggy door!?
The master bedroom is huge! And my absolute favorite part of the house is the spiral staircase in the bedroom that leads to the loft. Aka my book nook.
This is what the nook looked like before we bought it.
  The living room is huge and there is a gorgeous reading window that looks out onto the porch. The fireplace is surrounded by stone and we've mounted the tv there. And the carpet it AHmazing. And the doorbell has the most adorable song!
And without further chit chat...
 
 
Front porch!
Inside workroom
Fire pit
Kitchen has been painted!
 
Laundry room
Bedroom 2
Bedroom 3
Bedroom 4
Bedroom 5 man cave
Dining room
  Needless to say, we are in love. I can't wait to post up to date pics of all my little DIY projects. I've already put a lot of little things together for my humble abode, but I have plenty more ideas. Pinterest and the app Houzz have been my bread and butter for decorating tips. I'm just so glad we are blessed enough to call this beautiful house our home!!     Are you a homeowner? What's your favorite space in your home?

Thursday, March 24, 2016

This is my 100th blog. I think its fitting that I make my come back with this post. 
 
I'm sitting at work drinking a glorious green smoothie and watching my kids gruel over their unit 7 tests. This, and when the get their scores back, are the only times they actually think about studying. Any other time, it's just some magical word the teacher uses that has no meaning. Sigh. The life of a teacher. Anyway, life is good right now. We bought a house. (You can expect that post very soon. I'm just trying to get all the pictures together). I plan on doing a series about my decorating- attempts at decorating. But I wanted to check in.
 
I've been missing my blog. I always think of things I'd like to write about and then I don't. Simple as that. I've been out of commission for about 4 months. I know. Once upon a time, I had something to post every week. But life has been so hectic that all I want to do it go home and sleep. I even went to counseling about it. It's helping. But spending time with myself; taking time to just do what I want to do, that's what has helped the most. 
 
So now I'm good. I've had friends come in from out of town, parties, hangovers, and laughed until I cried (and cried until I laughed). I finally feel like I'm in a place where I can get the blog up and running again. And surpriseeeeeeee. 
 
We got a new doggy!! Her name is Gina and she fits right in with the family!!
 
 
My next post will be all about my new house. I am in love guys, really. It still doesn't feel like it's mine. I need a whole spring break and a summer to get the feel for it. Until then, I'll keep drinking my green smoothies and writing in my dori! See you guys in a few days!