Moving Back In

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Hellooooooo!!!! I was going to call this post “scenes from the move” but I realized I used that title back in 2011 when I moved from our Craftsman rental to our first Cville home.

This move went pretty well. We hit a few snafus (like a leaking fridge and a surprise with the induction stove) – see below for the details – but overall we are feeling very settled one week later. We don’t have any art on the walls, but every drawer is organized!

I am feeling so grateful being back here. It’s kind of mind blowing to me that we did it. And that the house looked like this not too long ago:

Gus wasn’t sure what to think. “It’s the same….but different!” he said.

It is so weird because some of the rooms ARE the same. Our living room didn’t change too much other than all the finishes and lights. Sometimes I forget where the kitchen actually ends! (I’m sure that feeling won’t last much longer.)

I’m planning to write lots of blog posts with all the details!

Stay tuned for lots of before + afters, paint colors, finishes, and more!

I arrived back to Cville on a Sunday and listened to the song “I’m Coming Home” 1,000 times on repeat, haha (seriously!)

I couldn’t wait to see it finished since I had missed the last two weeks of the reno!

Thomas built my closed until 9/10pm every night the week before. It’s beautiful!! I’ll be doing a full Home Neat Home tour of it soon. EasyClosets was great to work with!

The First Night

We had planned to sleep on the floor the night before the movers came, but then we thought if we could just move our bed up ourselves we could sleep in it! So we carried it up piece by piece and asked Thomas’s brother to help with the heaviest part. I vacuumed all of the fabric!

Unfortunately, I discovered some black marks on the headboard right in the prime top spot. I used some Amodex stain remover on them and got them right off. But the water I used to rinse it left a horrible water ring!

I then tried Folex which left an even bigger, darker water ring.

I tried more water, more folex, a home steamer, and Stanley Steamer. Stanley told me to get a new bed 🙁 There were lots of helpful tips on Instagram, but what I found to work the best was just to keep lightly watering the edges. I guess I just brought up a lot of dirt! It’s still there, but much better now. We’ll be keeping the bed!

My friend came over to tour the house and she hadn’t been on Instagram. When I asked her if she noticed anything “off” about my bed, she couldn’t find it. So thankfully it’s not too obvious!

How we showered with no blinds : 0 )

We ordered Thai takeout for our first meal. The new barstools get a 10/10!

Moving Day

The view from our bed was everything I had hoped it would be!!!!

Daily Harvest keeping us fueled!

The movers came bright and early to get all of our furniture back in place. I walked six miles inside my house every day that week!!

I organized drawers with these sets!! Highly recommend.

Also highly recommend this new lightweight step ladder. It’s pretty enough to leave out yet folds up to be tucked anywhere.

We hung the Frame TV!

Set up Mazen’s new dresser (I got it on clearance and it’s now sold out)

And unrolled the new rug. Gus and I thought it would be blue but it was gray…..but we’re keeping it!

Aside from it being more gray than blue, we love it! It’s very cushiony! Gus says it’s good.

I made a good dent moving all of my clothes up from the basement and unpacking.

The boys came home on Tuesday

They were thrilled!

Simply Put RVA

Thomas’s aunt Layton is a professional organizer and came to stay with us on Wednesday and help me tackle the initial organizing of the pantry. She is REALLY REALLY good!!!!!

Here’s the before:

The during:

She brings tons of containers with her that I was able to buy from her on the spot. What a smart technique!

The after will be revealed soon!

She also helped me with our open shelves.

And style the living room shelves!

And while I took the boys out to play, she organized Birch’s whole room!!

If you live in Richmond, Cville or nearby, Layton is your organizing pro to call. Check her out on Instagram too!

Induction Woes

While Layton was here, we started cooking our first meal on our new induction cooktop and could not get the pans hot. They were warm, but not hot. It took 30 minutes to boil water and our squash took forever to cook. We have since figured out that Caraway is not actually induction compatible. Luckily our neighbors have lent us a few of their induction pans to use until we figure out our next step (hopefully not buying all new cookware, but probably buying all new cookware.)

We had delicious tomatoes with burrata while we waited!

Once we got the correct induction pans, oatmeal cooked up nicely!

Ongoing Projects

As with any renovation / new build, there are still some projects that need finishing! You never know who will appear at a window, haha.

Thomas is also finishing our side porch!

Thomas took an entire day to pressure wash and clean all the porch areas. I machine washed the cushions in the laundry. It’s looking totally livable again!

The dormers on the back look great! They were just getting painted when I left. SO high up! Gutters are going on today.

We had to get an emergency new fridge when we realized ours was leaking in all the places. We found about a half gallon of water in the drawer on night 2 and condensation everywhere. No idea how or why this happened, but since it was almost 10 years old, we decided to get a new one rather than attempt a repair. The new fridge is the 10-years-newer version of our old one and it’s AWESOME! This is the one we got.