"just living" :)

We have finally reached the point of "just living" in the house.  We have no houseguests, and no major projects going on.

Well, besides the fence.  It's all enclosed so the dog can't get out but there is only one side of the shadow box up.  We may get to putting the other side up this weekend.  My husband even cut some of the arches and it looks really great.  Still a few more weeks of work with it but the main part is done.

I don't plan on painting anything else for a while.  We still need to figure out how we are going to do my office (formal living) and the man loft needs some TLC but those things are not a priority right now and won't be for a while.

 It is really hard to get an accurate picture of the coloring with my phone.  But the walls are such a beautiful blue green.  The kitchen just makes me happy every time I walk in there.  Oh and about the "divine white" paint that is the builder standard...I was concerned I would hate it on the ceilings once I painted but it actually looks much softer than a crisp white would so it really isn't even an issue.  I still have lots of it to cover, but the nice thing is since it's on the ceiling, if I decide to leave it anywhere, it doesn't look bad (like inside the windows, like we did in the morning room).

The morning room color is 2 shades darker than the kitchen.  I really really loved it until I put that rug in there and now I keep second guessing myself...but I'm not in the mood to paint it again so it's staying for now.  I do kinda wish I would have just painted it the same color as the kitchen, or went with the pewter gray that we did in the living room.  But again...no energy to re-do it considering it required a very tall ladder!

Here's a better look at it.  The windows in the morning room really throw off the camera when trying to take a picture from the other way.

The living room is Benjamin Moore "revere pewter".  It's a really pretty warm gray and I have found it changes in the light.  I want this as my base color in the house.  It just works with anything.  Also I have had a lot of comments regarding my rugs, I got them at www.rugsusa.com and I did a post about them HERE.  I ended up moving the navy one to the morning room because it was too big and didn't fit right in my living room.  I like it better there, and I love this gray one in my living room but I must say every time I turn around there is a pulled loop.  I'm not sure if it's my dog's nails that are causing it...but I'm trimming loops left and right.  We'll see how long this one lasts...but not a bad price for an 8x10 rug, I think I scored it for $177. 

I mounted the curtains at almost the ceiling, love it.  The curtains are a sheer white, I thought it would provide just a smidge of privacy at night but no, it doesn't.  Even when closed you can see right through it from the outside.  It doesn't really matter considering I have opted not to do window treatments in the morning room, and we don't really have anyone behind us anyway.  I really like how they add to the room though.

My hubs had some leftover MDF from the entertainment center and made this for behind the front door.  Another Pinterest project :)  I am excited to paint this area or do bead board or something...just not sure so I've got to think about it.  We will do this area when we do the formal living...when we have more time and money :)

A look at the fence.  Only the gate is full shadowboxed right now (middle).  The house up on the hill behind us is a Naples.  I'm kinda happy they didn't do those extra morning room windows because we walked through the house last night and you can't really even see into our yard from their house because of the way it's angled.  They are super sweet people, I just like my privacy :)

He did the arches all the way down the side.  Since the arches are community standard per the HOA, our fence stands about 5'10" at the top of the arch so it's not a true 6".  While I would have loved to keep it straight, I think it has a pretty look to it.  We have to stain it at some point too, and while that will be a fun job, the color they selected for the community really does help the fence to "disappear" and become part of the surrounding areas and less of an eyesore.  

The color is called Sherwin Williams "Belvedere Tan"

The covenants say we have to have it stained within 90 days but I have talked to people who have gone 6 months or longer before getting a letter.  We definitely want to make sure the fence has time to dry. 

Oh, we also got our first electric bill.  18 days for $66.  I am not real sure that's a great deal?  I'm guessing our house will be around $100 per month for 2100 sq ft...but then again maybe that is a good deal.  I think it will go down in the winter since we will be using gas more...but I've never used gas before so I really don't know.  I did send in my energy star certificate to qualify for a lower rate...and we have been more conscious to turn off lights and such.  I guess we also had houseguests for 2 weeks so that was more people.  I guess next month will be a more accurate depiction.