Little chair makeover

I got this little guy out of

My grandmas basement...

My Grandma had a large family room that was decorated in

Safari print, decor, etc.

Caden loved the tiger print

(As tigers are his fave animal)

But that print didn't quite fit in with the

Rest of the decor I have planned for

The boys playroom.

So, I got a turquoise tribal print fabric

That I thought would look good with the red chevron

Print I used for the playroom table.

The fabric was from a Joanne's store that

Was moving to a new location,

So everything was super cheap.

Fabric was 50% off, plus an extra 30% off!

I unscrewed the legs, wrapped the fabric 

Around the cushion and used a staple gun.....

Easy as that!

BEFORE

AFTER!

I think it will look cute in a little reading

Corner of the playroom.

Cost breakdown:

Fabric from Joanne's $1.75

Chair/stool $0

Total cost $1.75

Welcome Home!

The house that we

are under contract to buy

is sooo"us"!

Everytime we went to see 

other home showings I

had a very hard time seeing

our family

or decor fitting into

the style of the homes....

Most of the homes we were shown 

were built in the 1990's...

and the ones in our price range were TINY!

 Forget not knowing exactly where to put our

Christmas treee....there was no room 

for a Christmas tree to be put up in most

of the houses we toured.

So we are very excited to show

the newest member of our family

(If inspection etc go as planned)!

Year built: 1885

Bedrooms: 5

bathrooms: 2 full, 3/4, 1/2 baths

square feet: 3900

exterior: all brick (painted)

home style: 2 story

Location: Utah

We got this home for such a good deal....

in fact we got it for 33% off

the original asking price!!

It needs some restoration

to bring it to its full glory,

but we love doing that kind of work.

Our closing date is set for the

29th of August.

Fingers crossed everything goes well!

PS-We are having a huge moving sale this Friday in Westminster, CO.

(message me if you want the address)

Under Contract with a Change of Plans...

On July 1st, I decided to

randomly look at the real estate for sale 

in PROVO, UTAH...

Not sure why I did,

but I find different real estate markets 

interesting

(especially the difference in prices)...

I fell in love with one specific property

that was in our price range, but needed

a decent amount of work done on it.

It was built in 1885, and it was gorgeous!!!

I quickly texted Shaun the address

and told him we should buy it

(Jokingly, but wishful at the same time).

We both agreed we could fix it up and rent it

to BYU students,

while we stayed in Colorado.

But that would mean we could not buy

a home in CO, and we would have to rent.

We set up an appointment for my sister 

to go see the property with the listing agent,

but decided that fixing it up while staying in Colorado

did not make sense at this time.

So we cancelled the showing.

They received another offer on the Provo home,

but it fell thru because it is an estate sale

and the offer has to be approved by 

7 surviving grown siblings and the husband....

and that took too long for the potential buyers who also had an offer

on another home, which got approved first.

Weeks passed

and house hunting in Colorado seemed to become

even "slimmer pickings",

and higher prices....

which was forcing us into

a market for a home that was not

anything like what we thought we would have for a

2nd home.

usually your 2nd home is a little better than the first

(and our first was going to be hard to beat).

Something kept leading us back to choosing Provo

over Colorado.....weird, I know!
(I swore I would never live in Utah)

When we went to the Andrew McMahon concert last week

in Fort Collins, we had a few minutes to spare

before the show so we drove around the downtown area,

and fell even more in love with all the old homes.

Andrew McMahon Concert

We looked at the prices and found that a 1500 square foot house with

2 bedrooms and 1 bath was out of our price range

(and nothing near as cool as our old home....)

The next day we decided to actually pursue

that Utah home...and luckily my parents

were in Provo for my lil sisters softball camp at BYU

(lucky timing, I know)

so they went and saw the home with the 

listing agent.

They said the home was in great shape,

especially for its age of 129 years!

The foundation looked amazing with no cracking or settling

the neighborhood looked nice

the elementary school was directly across the street

The church building was 3 houses down

And Shaun would be able to pursue his Masters Degree at BYU!

Cost of living in Utah is also much cheaper than Denver

We did a lot of studying and pondering etc

and made an offer....

not to use as a rental, but to use as our primary residence.

That offer had to be approved by 8 people,

so it took a week to hear back from them....

we heard back today.

They counter offered much lower than we

expected, and we gladly accepted!

WE ARE UNDER CONTRACT AND MOVING TO UTAH!!

(If inspections etc go well...fingers crossed)

details of the home are coming soon

Andrew McMahon at the aggie theater in Fort Collins July 13th, 2014...the show that reminded us that we belong in an old home

Kid Table makeover

 Sooo about 2 years ago

I was at a garage sale (and a couple more since than...)

and a family had a bunch of

broken/damaged

kids items that were easily fixable.

I picked up this this table that

was in the "FREE"

pile and took it home...

and let it sit in the garage ever since...

(It sat there so long that Shaun thought it was garbage 

and we almost had 

a horrible end to this story)

In our last house we didnt have

a "Playroom" per say...

the kiddos toys were in

the corner of the family room, which was very convenient

since they were both very little,

and did not need a ton of room to run and jump etc.

This next house we buy will

hopefully have an area for toys!

Anyway, back to the table....

this table has become the main design 

inspiration for a future playroom.

This is the plan:

Color scheme-Red, Turquoise, Gray

Main Furniture pieces- teepee , metal kids table w 2 chairs...

it will be industrial design, meets vintage, meets  eclectic

I found the red chevron fabric at a Joanns store 

that was moving to a different location, and 

had everything on close-out prices.

BEFORE: torn plastic, horribly ugly colors and print...I think I had a shirt that looked like this in the '80s

AFTER: new fabric, new plastic covering, new paint!

Cost break Down:
Fabric-Joann fabric closeout sale chevron print(50% off + 30% off) = $ 3.50/yard

Plastic covering (50% off + 30% off) = $1.75/yard

Spray Paint- Rustoleum metal color $4 at walmart

TOTAL COST = $9.25

First offer...denied!

After looking for homes in Fort Collins,

and not finding anything in

our price range that had a decent amount

of square footage....

we decided to look in the city

just south of Fort Collins.

That city is called Loveland!

What a perfect name for a place to live...

we looked at quite a few homes,

and found one with a lot of square footage (2840)

a lot of bedrooms (5)

and a lot of bathrooms (4)

We could definitely grow into this home

for a while.

I wasn't a huge fan of what the home looked like,

because I have never really imagined

our family in anything but 

a super old (pre 1940) house.

But I also knew it was a good deal

for the way the market is in Colorado

right now.

We also found out that it was valued

at quite a bit more than what they were asking.

So although I wasn't sure where I was going

to put the Christmas tree at Christmas time...

(That is one of my tests that a home has to pass before deciding to make an offer)

We made an offer that day.

A FULL price offer.

A few days later they told us they had multiple offers,

and wanted everyone to come forward with their 

"highest and best offer"

We did not offer more, as the house needed a little updating

(there were gold fixtures EVERYWHERE)

A couple days later we found out they didnt accept any offers.

Not sure what they were hoping for, 

but a full price offer is usually pretty sweet for the seller.

And they eventually took it off the market......so weird!

 This is the house...half of it is behind the tree!

The house was in a cul de sac, which is nice

because you usually don't get too much traffic.

Well, on the bright side at least I don't have to worry about

not having a place for our Christmas tree....

Location, location, location

With the fairly new legalization

Of recreational marijuana 

Usage in colorado...

Colorado has turned into quite the place for

Out-of-staters to buy homes.

The housing market in colorado has been insane, and 

With inventory on the low side, prices are 

Higher than they were at the housing peak

In 2005 before the housing crisis 

And before the recession began.

That priced us out of any decent homes

In the immediate denver metro area.

We started to wonder if selling our home was a good idea.

Sure we made money,

But now we were no longer able to buy in the denver burbs.

Shaun interviewed with a key bank back in fall of 2013,

And he ended up declining the position because it was

Not the right timing.

They got back in contact with him a few weeks ago

And offered him a position in Fort Collins.

We decided he should take it for many reasons....

*great schools

*cheaper housing

*travel time to and from work would be less than an hour each way!

(15 mins to be more like it)

*there will be a Mormon temple there in 2016

*family community

So we have been house hunting for the past few weeks...

But have not found "the one"

The search continues....

But at least we now know where we are going!