First week

I'm sorry folks this post is going to be rather short and sweet.. We are so busy with the new house we haven't set up the computer yet and doing these posts from the iPad isn't very easy! Especially when the good pics are on our camera!!

In the past week we've managed to knock down a wall, paint kitchen cabinets, paint and set up Madison's room, paint and move mine and Chris' bed in and almost finish the livingroom!!

We are unloading the POD on Wednesday I can't wait to see our furniture and some or my belongings!!!

Going to try to have computer set up Thursday so I can get back to the good posts!!

Hope your weekend was a good one.. Ours was very colorful! 

Cream to color!

Today was a slower day for Chris and I at the house as Chris had his medical for work and I had to work, but that didn't stop any work from being done!

We had the help of Packy's friend Duke and his son, and of course Packy was there too! 

I went up early this morning to get a head start on the cabinet frames .. I am so happy with house they turned out! I can't wait to finish the doors and put it all together this weekend!

Oh and the back splash.. Chris is excited to see it with that!

 Both Madison's Purple Princess Big girl room and mine and Chris master bedroom were painted as well! I am SO happy with how these colors turned out! They will both look amazing once we get the furniture and new bedding in them!!

 Tonight I am taking it easy and spending the afternoon and night with the little Princess herself! 

We have a crazy few days coming up with Verizon coming tomorrow to install tv, phone and internet, our POD is being delivered, and an oil delivery. Along with all that we will be finishing the wall, painting the main living areas and MOVING IN!!!!

We are hoping that Tuesday will be the first night we are all in the house! It will be busy but we are so excited to LIVE in our house! My main priority is getting Madison's room set up so she is comfortable and getting some toys for her so she can play while we unpack tons of boxes!

Happy Thursday!

Wow!!!

Where did Tuesday do? Such a whirl wind 24+ hours ...

I feel like we waited forever for January 21st to come so we could close on our new home and start our lives in Yorktown and now it feels like it went by to fast!!

We woke up not knowing if our closing would happen because of the massive snowstorm (10inches in some parts of the county) BUT everyone was in agreement get it done and get it done fast! Only took us about an hour to get all the papers signed and to walk away with our keys!!!!

We immediately went to work on the house .. We took down the wall to the studs, found some awesome wall paper on the second layer of drywall.

Took all the cabinet doors off and got them deglossed and the first coat to the inside done (woo!).

We sanded Madison's closet floor down (washer and dryer used to be there.. Nasty soapy mess!). And we taped off Madison's room to start painting and then we enjoyed our first lovely dinner in the house ... PIZZA! Because of the snow storm everything in Yorktown was shut down even Burger King was closed. So we found the ONLY pizza place in town that was open and lucky us we got there just in time as they were getting ready to close!

After our yummy dinner we finished up a few things and went to bed (Thanks Tim and Amy for the air mattress)

Today we woke up and got back to work but not before we had our first cups of coffee in our keurig!! It was in the baby's room but still!

While I was at work today Chris, his father and brother got to work and finished taking the wall down and adding recessed lighting to the livingroom! 

The house feels totally different without the wall! There is still some work to be done such as sheet rocking it, adding a saddle to the floor and of course paint! Tonight we were so lucky to have Kate (Chris cousin) come up for a few hours to help me degloss the cabinet frames. Such a small task but it really needed to get done! Thanks Kate :)

Tomorrow is another big day, wall being worked on and Madison's "big girl purple princess room" is being painted!!!

It's pretty surreal owning a home again, but also owning a home we can do things too!! Owning a townhouse was great but we couldn't change the layout or do any big changes so being able to do these things is so exciting and new that we couldn't wait!!!

Can't wait to share some finished projects :)

Closing Day..

It is here, It's finally here!!!

We are currently in the process of closing.. Check back later for an update on the close and stay tuned for all the awesome pictures of our first projects..

Removing the wall between living room and kitchen and starting the kitchen cabinets!

Bathroom, Washroom, Restroom .. Whatever you call it.

This has been a debate between Chris and I for years now.. what is that room with the toilet, sink and tub called? 

Growing up in Canada I have always referred to it as the washroom, Chris calls it the bathroom. It doesn't matter what is it called.. we are have 2 of them!!!!

This is a BIG step up from our old house where we only had 1 and it was on the top floor... so if you were in the basement you had 2 big stair cases to run up to get to the wash/bath/restroom. Not anymore!

Since our new house is ranch we have a bathroom on the main floor and ~hold the applause~ a FULL bathroom in the basement! 

The main bathroom has a lovely jetted tub (yay!) which I am super excited about but I am NOT looking forward to the massive cleaning I will be doing on the tub and the jets before I use it!

The one downstairs has a large stand up shower .. which Chris is excited for because there will not be kids toys, or tons of hair products crowding up the shower!

- Main Bathroom (0% complete) -

• Purchase a fun colored shower curtain
• Change out the gold faucets and accessories and put in silver
• Remove the pedestal sink and add a vanity with some storage
• Paint - havent decided on a color scheme yet
• Add some fun storage above the toilet 

Painting the bathroom is not a top priority in the house as it is in perfect condition. It doesn't NEED anything so we are waiting until we figure out what we really want to do!

As for the downstairs guest and man cave bathroom we aren't doing anything to it at the moment. It also is in great condition. Our plan is to eventually tile the shower and make it very comfortable and relaxing for our guests and of course Chris.

Time for a small freak out moment.. CAN YOU BELIEVE THE CLOSING IS TOMORROW!!!

We are off to the final walk through now!

We can't wait!

Weekend!

It is our last weekend before we move into the new house and we plan on spending it getting ready for the busy week ahead.. we've got a Home Depot trip planned (first of many I am sure), a little packing at Mike's house and spending time as a family and enjoying this weekend!!

Originally on the plan was a visit to the Children's Museum of Manhattan but when Madison had a sudden high fever on Thursday which prompted a visit to our awesome pediatricians we discovered she has come down with a virus so no school and no museum!

So instead we are staying around here and prepping :)

I will be snuggled up with HGTV magazine & DIY magazine tonight thinking of all the awesome things we are going to be doing!

Hope your enjoying your weekend!

Check back monday!

Oh baby, baby, baby...

We are down to the 2 month mark so it is time to start figuring out the nursery and it also helps that we now know when we will be able to start working on it!

The baby is getting the smallest of the 3 rooms ... It is not a super small room it just happens to be the smallest in the house.

- Nursery (0% complete) -

• Paint the room .. still deciding on exact colors but we are going for gray with stripes on the wall that the crib will be on!
• Add recessed lighting
• Make curtains for the single window
• Have the baby to bring home to the nursery (thats a big one)
• Once the baby is born add pops of hot pink or navy blue depending on the gender of baby Murray #2

I have some DIY projects I want to complete for the nursery, including the curtains, some fun fabric pom poms if the baby is a girl similar to these ones on etsy

some fun nautical prints if it is a boy.. similar to these ones on etsy

And I have a ton of other ideas, that I will share eventually when I complete them :)

We have 2 countdowns going on at the moment.. 3 days until closing and 58 days until baby Murray #2 is due! 

"Purple, purple.. I need purple"

That was Madison's exact quote when asked "what color would you like your big girl room?". Since then she has thrown in "I love purple" and "I need my purple paint", so I think it is safe to say she is excited for her PURPLE ROOM!!!

I don't have a picture of Madison's room yet BUT it is a similar layout to our master bedroom with 2 windows, it is a little smaller and it only has 1 closet!

I will post a picture on Monday after our walk through!

- Madison's Room (0% complete)-

• Sand and refinish floor in closet
• Close off old pipes that are in the closet from the washer and dryer
• Paint room Lavender Haze (the color Madison picked!)
• Put in big girl bed and get Madison used to her big girl bed
• Fix the track in one of her dresser drawers
• Make black out curtains for her windows
• Finish closet with an Ikea shelf and a few other fun things

When we got Madison's crib and dresser we got the convertible one.. so she could grow with it. It would go from a crib, to a toddler bed (current use) and then to a day bed and then finally a full/twin. We never planned on getting a new furniture set for Madison and we had said if we have another we will get another similar set, but then we got an offer we couldn't refuse.. a gorgeous pre-loved bed, night stand and dresser from a family friend and its white :). Perfect for a big girl room! 

I knew for awhile I wanted to do her room in purple and blue, I wanted to stay away from all pink as I feel forcing pink onto a little girl sometimes will back fire! I actually gave Madison 3 purple paint chips to pick from and she kept picking the lavender haze color (click link in the list), I was so happy she liked the purple!  Her new bedding is from Pottery Barn Kids.. I got it on sale before Christmas. I originally had a different set picked out but was worried it would be like purple threw up all over her room so I went with the Kristin Bedding so it has the blue that I wanted!

I can't wait to see how it all comes together!!

We have been telling Madison what is happening when we move that she will get a big girl bed and the baby will get the crib! Madison has been reminding us more and more that it will be the baby's bed soon at the new house! 

I am so glad she is already welling to share her things with her little brother or sister!

Get cookin'

Less then a week away from calling this house our home! It is getting hard to contain our excitement! We are doing our final walk through the property on Monday and will be closing Tuesday at noon!!!

Madison keeps asking for her big girl room and big girl bed.. and most importantly her purple paint!

More on that tomorrow.

- Kitchen (0% complete) -

• Paint trim and door white to match this rest of the house
• Paint the cabinets .. we are going to be using a rustoleum cabinet transformations kit and will be painting them a charcoal color to match the gray paint
• Put up the glass tile back splash up that we got a few weeks 
• Change out the light
• Take out laminate flooring and replace with hardwood
• Matching stainless steel appliances 

I think you will see the most change in the kitchen! This is the part of the update that I am most excited about and it will probably cover a few posts! I can't wait to get started on the cabinets!

The door you see leads down to the garage, basement and to the back yard!

Check back for tomorrow's post about Madison's big girl room!

Tuesday ... Can you get here a little faster?

Well it wouldn't be a normal week for us in this house buying process if we didn't hit a snag, closing has been moved to next Tuesday the 21st. So not a huge change in the big scheme of things but it was going to be nice to have a long weekend to start getting all the stuff done!

Silly banks overbooking things!

It is hard to stay calm and not get upset over this as it is something we have no control over but at same time it is just annoying because we have had so many set backs in this process. We should have closed in December but when the title search was completed there was no title/survey so we had to wait 3 weeks for that! And of course this all feel during the 2 weeks between Christmas and New Years so that didn't help the situation!

You know that popular saying "Keep Calm. Carry On", well that has become our motto the past few months with all of this!

So here is hoping that we only have a week left to wait!

Cross your fingers, cross your toes, cross your eyes.. everything you can for us!

As for today's list of things...

- Master Bedroom (0% complete) -

• Paint the wall where our bed is going the color we have chosen is Olympic - Brigade
• Order the new bedding I have wanted for a few months now.. (will do post of that later)
• Move all our stuff in!
• Make curtains or Roman shades for the windows
• Add lights .. this house has NO ceiling lights in the bedrooms or living room!
• Purchase a fun colored rug!

We have been sharing a room with Madison since mid November so both Chris and I are looking forward to having our privacy back. We love our little munchkin but the fight over getting her to sleep in her bed vs our bed is starting to get a little old! 

Also closet space... For a little lady she takes up alot of room!

Happy Tuesday!

Tomorrow I will tackle the kitchen list!

Friday, Friday Gotta get down on Friday...

I have been singing the Rebecca Black song Friday since.. well Friday when we got the news about the closing. I have been singing it in secret but it is stuck in my head on repeat like a bad catchy song.. oh wait thats what it was!

Time for another list..

(our lists are inspired by my favorite blog Young House Love)

- Living Room (0% complete) -

• Knock down the wall on the left in the top picture to open it up to the kitchen, same as the wall on the right in the bottom photo
• Paint .. the color we have chosen is Valspar Filtered Shade, this will also be the color of our kitchen and our hallway
• Put in nice bay windows
• Buy new couch
• Find a fun colorful rug to add a pop of color
• Hang tv, install electric fireplace, hang a few photos
• SIT AND RELAX AND ENJOY!

The wall will be coming down within 24hrs of closing so we can get it finished and start painting! The whole wall is NOT coming down.. only part, as you can see there is a vent in the wall! That is something we can't move at the moment so we will be leaving that little part of the wall so there will still be some separation between the living room, kitchen and the rest of the house.

The wall in the middle of the bottom photo is staying for now as well as it keeps the living room apart from the hallway and bedrooms.

We have so many dreams for this home our main one is 10 years from now we either plan on adding a second story and moving the bedrooms upstairs and expanding the kitchen, living room, entrance way and adding a dining area or do we just push the kitchen back farther and have a bigger eat in kitchen. 

We have some time to decided :)

So for the time being we will be making small changes!

Come on friday!

Today I figured I would share a picture of the front of our soon to be new house ... along with a list of things we are going to be doing to this part of the house.

- Front Yard (0% complete) -

• Paint front door a fun color - aqua, yellow or red
• Paint the 2 lights on the sides of the door black to match the shutters
• Paint the railing on the stairs black to match
• Change out the front windows and put in a nice bay window
• Extend the landing to the left to make a little more room when entering
• Plant a few bright colored flowers along the walk way
• Power wash the exterior
• Add a flag pole to the yard (Chris has always wanted one)

These are all things we would LOVE to do and most of them will be completed in the spring once it gets a little warmer and the weather is more predictable ... no freak storms needed when I'm painting!

Happy Sunday!

It's closing week!

It's finally ALMOST time...

Closing has been tentatively set.. Friday January 17th 2014. The day we have been waiting for since first seeing the house.. August 14th 2013 (yes 5 full months of waiting), and we are now less then a week away! Cross your finger's it goes through on Friday.

So I guess welcome to our house blog! You probably saw the name of the blog.. Half A Mile Up.. and Yes, it means exactly what it says, our house is half a mile up the street! 

Creative huh? I thought so!

On this blog we will be documenting all the changes that happen in our cozy Yorktown house, as well as some awesome DIY projects Chris and I are both looking forward to completing!

I LOVE DIY and Home blogs so I figured why not start my own to share my ideas, or show other people that you CAN make your own things for your home and you don't need to be super crafty or creative! If you can read and look at pictures you can do anything!

I will start off this blog by giving you the back story on our new house .. We found out we were expecting another little bundle of joy on July 1st 2013 (Happy Canada Day!), and we had discussed the desire to move to a bigger home. We were living in a 2 bedroom town house that Chris purchase when he got hired by the FDNY in 2007. For the first 3 years of our marriage it was perfect. It was easy to keep up with, didn't need any work and we had awesome neighbors! There was no yard to worry about mowing, no driveway to worry about shoveling in the freezing cold winter but there were downsides to it as well. Not having a yard was one.. we have a 4 year old lab and with a toddler we needed somewhere for them all to play and get their energy out. We also realized when my parents and 1 brother were visiting that once this baby was born there would be NO room to have people over to visit and be comfortable!

So the search began!

We decided to wait and see if we found something before putting our house on the market, we knew it would only be a matter of time before we found what we wanted. We didn't realize it would be one of the first homes we looked at! With that said an offer went in and our house went on the market!

However we were NOT expecting to accept an offer on our house 36hrs after it went on the market, but when someone comes in with an offer at full asking price you don't say no.

We thought we were good with the house we wanted and then our hearts were broken.. someone offered all cash and the sellers took that offer. So our hunt began again, but in our hearts we both knew that little ranch we fell in love with was the house for our family. Every house we saw we compared to the ranch and nothing made us say YES!

I kept having some crazy dreams about the deal falling through at the last minute and we got the house but really what were the chances of that happening!

WELL..... It happened!!! The day before they were supposed to close the deal fell through and the sellers came back to us! So our September ended on a great note!  Now it was just a matter of closing on our house so we can get the ball rolling on the new place.  We ended up closing on our sale November 15th and moved into Chris' brother Mike's house until we closed on the new property.

We all figured it would take a month MAYBE a month a half.. we are now pushing 2 months. It has been a little tough to get used to living in the same room as Madison, every noise she makes we wake up and same goes for her.. if we cough she wakes up, if a phone alarm goes off.. you guessed it .. she wakes up! But we are so lucky to have had a place to stay!

The final step in this whole process took the longest.. we needed a new survey on the house for the title. 3 weeks it took.. the longest 3 weeks of this entire process! Our 3 week window started right before Christmas so having time off from work, Madison home from school and spending the holidays without our usual holiday stuff made it seem so much longer!

But yesterday evening our lawyer called us and said it was done and on Monday we will have firm details about the closing!

I won't lie, I am a little scared about this whole thing, I have moved tons of times so it is not the actual move itself I am worried about it is the getting everyone used to the new arrangements BEFORE we throw another baby into the mix. So we have 2 months to get Madison used to the new house, unpack and prep for a baby! I know its possible and we have our amazing family and friends that have offered to help with all of this to make it a little easier on us!

Stay tuned.. I will post a few pictures of the house in the upcoming days so you can see the before pictures :)