Picking Paint Colors for Our New Home

Choosing wall colors for our new house has been both exciting and daunting. Exciting because we're finally getting to personalize our space! And colors are fun! Woohoo design! But daunting because paint is permanent . . . or at least that's how it felt when we were making our choices. Sure, sure, you could always repaint if you hate it. But with the number of hours and days we spent painting, plus the cost of the paint, it felt important to get it right the first time.

So, I went a little paint-research-crazy on pinterest in the weeks leading up to closing on our house. I had a general idea of what I wanted in most rooms, but gosh, there are lots of variations for each color. That's where pinterest came in handy. I'd search "green bedroom" or "gray kitchen" and get specific names of paint colors to try in each room. Handy dandy.

When I say I spent hours of my life deciding on paint colors, I mean hourrrrsssssss. And they were mostly fun hours. But also, at some point I was just like, "Let's please just close on this house RIGHT MEOW so we can start trying out some samples, mmmkay?"

We closed on the house (yippee!) and painting started the very next day. We wasted no time getting to painting, as we wanted to get as many rooms done as we could before moving day, two weeks later.

Within those two weeks, my mom and husband (and two guys we hired to do the 2-story walls in the main entrance) worked so hard to paint so many spaces and for that, I'm so grateful! While we haven't painted every wall yet, we're well on our way.

At this point, I'm not quite ready to show the world pictures of our messy, only-half-unpacked space, but I can show you swatches of each color and pictures of other peoples' houses that inspired the colors we chose.

(Psst -- it might help to look at pictures of each room in our home before diving in.)

Here we go.

Main Entrance / Kitchen / Office / Playroom / Sunroom 

For these rooms, which are all connected, I wanted the perfect neutral gray. We've lived in beige-walled apartments for the last 7 years and felt ready for a change, so gray it was!

My friend, Sew, gave me some good advice: If you want your space to seem larger, more open and spacious, paint it all the same color! So that's exactly what we're working on in these 5 rooms. 

Now, finding the perfect neutral gray was not easy. By the time we closed, I had narrowed it down to three grays: a beige gray, a blue-ish gray, and a light gray . . . 

But once we got samples of all three up on the wall, I wasn't convinced. Back to the drawing board. We added two more grays to the wall of samples: 

Can you see how wildly different all of these grays are?! And yet they're each classified as "gray" by the different brands. 

Once they're on the wall, they take on even different personalities:

On the wall, Gray Shimmer looked almost purple, Revere Pewter looked more beige than we wanted, Passive was blue-ish, Gray Owl seemed pretty neutral, and Moonshine was super light. 

(I should note here that we used Behr Premium Plus Ultra brand paint for all of our painting. It comes highly recommended from Consumer Reports. Thankfully, Home Depot can color-match any color from any brand to their Behr paint line. So these are color-matched versions of each color and may be slightly different than if the colors had been purchased from the brand -- Sherwin William and Benjamin Moore -- that created them.)

After seeing all five samples together, we narrowed it down to Passive (John's favorite) and Gray Owl (my favorite) and painted two much larger samples in another room:

Both seemed like the perfect light-medium shade of gray, but Passive was more cool while Gray Owl was more warm. Ultimately, we decided warm was the way too go, since we worried cool would feel a little too sterile. And so the winner was:

Source

And we've been pleased as punch with it. :) It takes on a slight blue color at random times of the day, and at night it's almost green under our warm, ceiling lights. Overall, it really freshened up the space (which was previously cream in some rooms and dark beige in others) and gave our home a more modern look. 

We've only painted the kitchen and main entrance so far, but hopefully soon, we'll paint the playroom and office and sunroom as well. 

Family Room

The family room, AKA the projector room, is connected to the kitchen, and so we considered also painting it Gray Owl, same as all the other first floor rooms. But we felt it needed its own personality. Plus, the tile floors in the family room are a dark tan color and didn't work as well with the gray. So, we started to look for colors that worked with the tiles and our existing furniture and came up with: 

Which I had originally spied here:

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Our family room is naturally suuuuper dark since it doesn't have many windows, which honestly works in our favor, since the projector looks best in low light. But, the dark dark dark orangey beige the previous owners had on the walls made the room feel so drab and cave-like. We love how Colorado Gray lightens up the room but still gives it a pop of personality when compared to the rest of the first floor. And Colorado Gray also happens to be a perfect complement to Gray Owl. Win!

Laundry Room

For our itty bitty laundry room, I wanted a light, calming, happy color. Since the space is so small, I figured a light color would make it feel more open. I also wanted calming and happy since . . . who wants to be angry and sad in their laundry room? The process of laundry-ing is maddening enough, so I wanted the wall color to naturally make it a more serene space. 

This color seemed to fit the bill:

Guys, I seriously love this color. I told John, "This color basically is my life." If you could summarize Stephanie in one color, this would be it! It's the perfect mix of blue and green. The perfect light teal, I suppose. I love love love it! 

And I also love how it's yet another perfect complement to our Gray Owl. 

Thanks to this room for the inspiration:

Source

Guest Bedroom

Our guest bedroom is brought to you by the color green. Rich, dark, cozy green.

This color was love at first sight. From the moment I laid eyes on it, I knew I had to put it somewhere in the house. Here's the original photo that inspired my obsession:

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Since it's a bit of a bold color, we didn't want to put it in a large space, or an open space. So we decided our first-floor guest bedroom would be exactly the right spot for it. And while the guest bedroom still has a long way to go, decor wise, the color is just swoon-worthy perfection. I imagine once I get some creamy drapes and gold accents and dark wooden furniture in there . . . ugh. I die.

John Paul's Room

I knew I wanted mint in John Paul's room. The trick was finding a mint that wasn't too girly or too saturated, but also wasn't too baby blue-ish either. So after much searching and hemming and hawing, we landed on this perfect shade of minty blue:

Which actually looks entirely different than that in real life. 

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When the sunlight hits it just right, it's this lovely greeny mint shade. But other times, it morphs into more of a powder blue. I can't get enough of it! I hope John Paul likes it too. :) 

Yet To Be Painted

And then there's the rest of the house, which is yet to be painted. And mostly also yet to be decided. Baby Schweitz's room, the guest bathroom, and the master bathroom are the rooms I'm really scratching my head over. We may just wait until after Baby Schweitz is born to choose his/her room color. Right now I'm leaning toward a rich teal green though. The guest bathroom needs to complement Gray Owl and Dragonfly since it joins the kitchen and the guest bedroom. I'm thinking possibly just Gray Owl again. And the master bathroom . . . no idea! Any thoughts?

We do have some ideas for the master bedroom though, mostly inspired by the color navy:

Hale Navy by Benjamin Moore - Source

Stunning by Benjamin Moore - Source

We're not sure if we'd do the whole room navy or just paint the wall behind the bed navy and the rest white. I lean toward the whole room because I like grown-up bedrooms to be bold, dark, and sleepy. But I'm open to debate. 

And the kids' bathroom is going to be Palladian Blue, just like the laundry room. In case you've forgotten how wonderful a color it is:

Source

The Whole House 

In summary, when you put it all together, our house looks a little something like this:

Feels good to be home. :)

We Bought a House!

All praise be to God! Everything fell into place, easy peasy, and now we're homeowners!

We've spent the past week painting like mad. Not a huge fan of the deep beige and light creme colors they left on basically every wall. HUGE fan of the awesome colors we're covering them with -- blues and grays and deep green and mint. AHH! Can't wait to show you. 

There'll be some serious before-and-after shots to be shown once we're all settled, but for now, it's still in mess mode. And I'd rather not put that on the internets for all to see. Plus, we haven't moved anything over from our apartment yet, so it's basically an empty house with a bunch of half painted walls. Boring. But we're having so much fun already!

Thank you for your prayers. :) They worked! 

Now back to painting. And internet furniture purchases . . . 

A Sneak Peek at Our (Probably) Future House

So far, everything has been smooth sailing with the house we're trying to purchase.

Home inspection . . . CHECK!

Termite inspection . . . CHECK!

Radon inspection . . . CHECK!

Appraisal . . . CHECK!

And all passed with flying colors. Whew! Much easier than last time around. I think we might actually be buying a house FOR REALZ. 

If everything continues to go as planned, we'll closing in a few short weeks. Holy taco!

For all the curious out there, here are some (unfortunately low-res) pics of the (hopefully) new digs . . . 

The main entrance has these great high ceilings. And you can sneak peek up to the second floor there.

The kitchen is perfectly functional and wonderfully spacious! We'll probably update it eventually since it's a little stuck in the early 2000s, but for now, it's perfect. On the back wall not pictured, there are even more cupboards, another counter-top area great for serving meals for parties or perhaps setting up as a mini kitchen office. And of course, the fridge is hanging out on that wall too. Plus a small pantry.

Then we have this MASSIVE eat-in kitchen area. It's really lonngggg so we're thinking of just making that our formal dining area as well and getting a really long, fancy, hunk of wood dining table for entertaining.

The triple doors lead to the sunroom, pictured later.

Here's the formal dining room, right off the kitchen, which you can see if you peek through that doorway. Since we have ALL THE DINING SPACE in the world between the kitchen and the sunroom, we're thinking of making this a first floor play room for babies. What would you do with a spare, not-enclosed room like this?

 The sunroom! Complete with mountain views. *hearts for eyes*

The media room is right off the eat-in kitchen area. Loving the built-ins and fireplace AND projector with screen that the sellers are totally leaving behind for us. WINNING. Tell me this, though. Why have hardwood throughout the whole kitchen area and then TILE in this room?! Ummm.
 

And the backyard! Which is actually tiny-ish. But perfect because who wants to do yard work anyway?

Behind the fence is all land owned by the Church, including an awesome walking path that leads straight to our Church's front doors. YAS!

The bedrooms are just . . . bedrooms. Which are kind of boring to look at. So I'm skipping those pics. Imagine nicely-sized rectangular rooms, each with a closet. And there you have it. There are 4 of them. Two of them have a bathroom attached (fancy), the master has a MASSIVE closet plus a jetted tub in the attached bathroom (LUXURY), and the other two bedrooms share a hallway bathroom. Good stuff.

There's also a small laundry room off the kitchen, a formal sitting room that we'll probably use as an office area (because who formally sits anymore?), and a garage.

And there you have it!

Hopefully in a few weeks, I'll be able to say this is OURS!! Expect updated pics once we're all moved in and settled. But until then, prayers are very much appreciated for continued smooth sailing. What a roller coaster.

The Big, Crazy House-Buying Saga

If you recall, a few months back, I mentioned that we found a house! And made an offer! And, after several counter-offers, it was accepted. Woohoo!

Built in 2011, 3400 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, in an up-and-coming neighborhood, and complete with all the finishes we wanted . . . we were pumped!

If all had gone according to plan, we'd be closing on that house a week from today.

But, as some of you may know, house buying can be quite the topsy turvy process.

Everything started out great. We got the house for exactly what we wanted to pay. The inspection showed barely an issue. We got a great loan rate. Life was good.

But then the appraisal happened. Oof.

Our bank's appraisal came back $18,000 below our original offer.

*insert face with eyes bugging out here*

At first, we were kinda excited to hear that. We figured that gave us some huge negotiating room with the sellers and that we'd be able to get our dream home for an even lower price.

But then more details unfolded. We were told that the appraiser the bank had chosen was a conservative guy. And that he undershot the value of the house. So we agreed to wait around for the sellers to have a private appraisal done by a private appraiser of our choosing. Seemed fair enough. We were hoping this private appraisal would be close to the bank's appraisal, but maybe a smidge higher, and we were willing to pay that little bit extra out of pocket on top of our loan, since the house really seemed worth it.

Fast forward one week and the private appraisal came back $2,000 above our original offer.

*insert face with eyes bugging out and mouth hanging wide open here*

Folks, we weren't trying to buy a $1 million home here. Not even close. A discrepancy of $20,000 in appraisals is just flippin' insane for the price range we're in. Insane.

Upon closer inspection of the second appraisal, we found he used some . . . interesting comps, including two brand new homes half the size of the home we were trying to buy. And one of them had never sold before. Meaning the price he used as a comp was a price no one was willing to pay (at least not yet) for this brand new home. What the what?!

But the sellers were sticking to it. And understandably. They wanted top dollar for their home, and their private appraisal claimed it was worth it, even with the shotty comps.

To be fair, the comps in the area were limited at best. Few homes had sold near the home we were trying to buy within the last year, and of the ones that had, very few were actually comparable (built around the same time, nearly the same size, with similar finishes). So we know that was likely the cause of the appraisal discrepancy.

We tried to renegotiate and meet in the middle, but the sellers weren't interested. Our only options were to pay $18,000 above what our bank thought the house was worth or walk away. So we walked. And were super bummed.

(This was within a week of our miscarriage too, which just made everything harder and way more emotional.)

But God redeems.

The day we found out the house was going to fall through, a Sunday, we were at Mass and noticed two new houses were being built in the neighborhood right next to the church. AKA the exact neighborhood we wanted and had tried to be in. But nothing to our liking was available when we were originally house hunting, so we basically gave up on that dream and hunted elsewhere.

Can you believe it? Two brand new houses for sale exactly where we wanted to be. And on the exact day the other house fell through.

After the dust settled from all the appraisal issues (and a rude seller's agent who was very disrespectful to our agents over the whole thing), we decided to tour the larger of the two new houses in the church neighborhood.

A brand new home, 2200 sq ft, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, beeeeeautiful finishes, and to be finished within two months.

While we loved it, we hesitated. 2200 sq ft just sounded so small for us, especially considering we'd like to be a bigger family some day. And storage space was super limited as there was no basement. And the bedrooms were tiny. (How can we stuff all the kiddos into shared bedrooms with barely any bedroom space?) And the kitchen was teeeeeny tiny, a far cry from my dream kitchen. AND the price per square foot was woahhhh expensive since you pay a premium for a brand new house. So we were basically looking at overpaying for a new house that we'd likely have to move out of within a few years since we'd (hopefully rather quickly) outgrow that space with just another kid or two. It didn't seem like a great investment. But it was exactly where we wanted to be. So we held off, but were discerning it heavily. I mean, talking about it allll the time. And praying about it. And really really really considering it.

It's funny how God works.

He must have put that hesitation on our hearts.

While we were touring the brand new house for a second time, this time with the builder -- he was giving us all the info on the unfinished details -- we bumped into a neighbor on our way to our car. He was just hanging on his porch and wanted to say hi. We got to talking and he mentioned that a house two doors down was going to go on the market soon, which was in great shape, much bigger, and would cost must less per square foot compared to the brand new house. While it seemed like a long shot, we kept it in the back of our minds and hoped and prayed it would go on the market soon so we could check it out.

"Jesus, we trust in You!" has been a mantra on repeat around here for a while now. It's so hard being in the middle of a discernment and having question marks over your future and then another question mark pops up. To wait for this other house to come on the market, and in the process risk losing the new house, or not?

Jesus, we trust in You!

Two days after the conversation with the friendly neighbor, I decided, what the hay? I called our agents, who've been soooo good to us through this whole process, and asked if there was any way we could get more info on a house that wasn't even on the market yet. I figured it was a long shot. I mean, what were they gonna do? Knock on this family's door and ask for a tour? But as it turns out, I guess that isn't weird at all. Our agents said they will frequently knock on peoples' doors if a client really likes the look of a house and ask them if they're interested in selling. Isn't that nuts? But it didn't phase our agents at all.

They knocked. The family answered. And we set up a tour of the house. All before the house ever hit the market.

Built within the last 15 years, 3000 sq ft, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a wonderful layout, huge kitchen, mountain views, withing walking distance of our church . . . pinch us, we're dreaming!

We toured the house yesterday, put an offer on it last night, and we've signed a contract as of this afternoon.

Can you believe it?!

And since the sellers never had to work with a real estate agency on their end, they're offering it to us for a really good price. At least, we hope it's a good price! It seems like it is so far. Thankfully, that's where the inspection and appraisal will come in handy.


We are thrilled to have found a house so close to our church, with everything that we were looking for, and under budget. God is good.

And so that's where this big, crazy house-buying saga stands as of today . . . in case you were curious.

(Do you feel like you're inside the most dramatic episode of House Hunters ever, 'cause I sure do!)

Please join us in prayer as we embark on this inspection/appraisal/home-buying path once again. We're so nervous after our last house-buying failure. But then again, with all this falling into place so easily over the past 48 hours, we're hoping that means it's really going to work this time.

More updates to come!

Jesus, we trust in You!

Where Have You Been, Missy??

It seems I've fallen off the face of planet earth. But actually, no I haven't! I'm still here, doing all the things. To put it lightly, things have been . . . busy. Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

--one--

Learning how to teach plus then teaching the Creighton Model has been a whirlwind. Whew! But just last month, I wrapped up my 13-month training with a big fat 4-hour final exam. It was a doozy. Also awkward, since it was proctored by the only person in town I could find to proctor -- a male librarian. I had to present the picture dictionary to him. *insert embarrassed face here* That aside, I felt pretty ok after I finished it, so I'm thinking I passed, but I should find out by the end of April. Fingers crossed, prayers said! 

I've LOVED working with clients and am looking forward to continuing that without supervision now. Wahoo! If you know of anyone interested in learning CrMS, please feel free to send them my way. :) 

--two--

Leading up to Christmas, I participated in my first saint peg doll swap. Have you seen these yet? They seem to be making their way around the Catholic bloggiesphere. You paint 20-30 of the same saint for the swap and get 20-30 different ones back (or however many people are participating). It's a great way to learn about a bunch of saints AND get your craft on at the same time. Plus, they make great toys AND Catholic learning tools for little ones. 

For my first swap (hosted by the great Hannah), I painted St. Cecilia!

And in return received . . .

Front Row

St. Therese // St. Faustina // Mary, Mother of God // St. Augustine // St. Cecilia // Our Lady Undoer of Knots

Second Row

St. Francis // St. Lucy // St. Joachim // St. Catherine of Sienna // St. Zelie // St. Martha // St. Luke

 

Third Row
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton // St. Joseph // St. Isidore the Farmer // St. Monica // St. Kateri

Fourth Row
St. Pope John Paul II // St. Clare // St. Louis Martin // St. Gianna // Esther // Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Fifth Row
St. Maria Goretti // St. Peter // St. Rose of Lima // St. Michael the Archangel // St. Maximilian Kolbe

--three--

Within a few days of me receiving my 30 new saint dolls, I was already itching to do another one! So with the help of Katie and Cecilia, we organized a special group of gals who've experienced infertility, miscarriage and/or stillbirth and are together making a set of 20 saints who are patrons of those sufferings. So, so special.

I just shipped off my St. Philomena dolls . . .

. . . and should be receiving the new set in time for Easter. Most of the saints came from this patrons-of-infertility list.

I'll be sure to post pictures once they arrive.

Though, to hold you over, I've got a pic of two saints my husband painted! He wanted in on the fun after seeing me paint over 50 saints myself. He had to tell me which saints he painted because sometimes I'm clueless. Can you guess?

--four--

I wouldn't be me if I didn't waste stupid amounts of time watching silly things on the telly. So, recent favorites have been:

Call the Midwife -- So many babies being born! And an infertility/adoption story!
Downton Abbey -- HOW IS THIS OVER?! At least the ending left me with all the good feels.
Jane the Virgin -- Funny and clever, but getting less appropriate by the episode. :-|
Fixer Upper -- We blew through the only season on Netflix. GIMME ALL THE SHIPLAP!
The Property Brothers -- Just yes.
Married at First Sight -- I know it's terrible that I watch this. But I really want all the best for these couples! And I love watching people fall in love. Sigh. Why are the outcomes so bad?

--five-- 

In early February, John surprised me with a trip to The Harry Potter Wizarding World in Orlando!! He knew it was on my bucket list and one night in January, he arranged all the details on the internets by himself and BOOM. Surprise bucket list trip for us! My MIL joined in too to help out with John Paul. It was the best trip EVA!

I have to say, Universal is sooooo accommodating to families! Every ride has a child-swap room so that parents can wait in line together and then when you get to the front of the line, one hangs in the swap room with the kiddo while the other rides, and then once that parent is done, the parents swap! Easy peasy. There's also a building with rooms for breastfeeding moms, so I totally took advantage of that. We stayed, very affordably, at one of the Universal hotels, which included shuttle service to the parks every day. And, sigh, it was just awesome.


Favorite parts: buying a wand and casting interactive spells with it around the parks, drinking 4 glasses of butterbeer *drool*, walking through Hogwarts Castle, eating lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, and discovering Diagon Alley. The coolest.

--six--

So this is a big deal . . . we're house hunting! For the first time ever, we're ready to buy a home. We've seen about 15 houses and even put an offer on one! But the sellers decided to stay in their home right after our offer came in. Bummer. The good news is . . . we're in no rush. We could stay in our apartment for another year or so just waiting for the perfect house. So there's that. But the search continues. (And gosh, it's kinda a full time job!)

--seven--

Best of all the things keep me busy . . . 

Being this guy's mom. 

Can you believe I have a 10-month-old?!

Guys, he's just the sweetest, most hilarious kid ever. He loves exploring, pulling up on everything, pulling all the things off all the shelves. He LOVES the kitchen -- the dishwasher, the cabinets, the refrigerator, the oven drawer -- what's not to love? He eats all the things. New favorites include raisins, baba ganoush, blueberries, blackberries, watermelon, and my mom's chicken parm. He even likes semi-spicy curry dishes! He doesn't like sitting still for long, and sweet cuddly moments are hard to come by. But he's just a hoot. I can't get over the sounds he makes or the cheesy smiles or the way he hides his face in my shirt if he's being shy. Guh. This kid. What a blessing!

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