Decluttering with Deregulating

Last night we watched most of the vice presidential debate while doing work around the house. I didn't get to see every minute of it, but I heard most of it. My goal for the evening was to "declutter" the house, but the word I kept hearing over and over again on the tv was "deregulate." Anyway, I made it my mission to get rid of all the boxes that were lingering on the first floor of the house and make the area start to feel more liveable.

When we moved from Virgina to Austin, we knew we were going to be renting a place smaller than what would fit all our stuff. This was one of the reasons why I was always ready to buy and get in a bigger place, so that half our belongings wouldn't have to be in boxes anymore. Last night I unpacked all our wedding china and crystal, most of which I hadn't even looked at in over year. I love our china, so it was fun to unpack it and see it again after so long! We also have some other serving pieces, etc. that we got as wedding gifts that I had totally forgotten about but was so happy to see again! Unpacking these boxes was like opening presents all over again! I also have to give a lot of credit to the movers and the people who packed all of our stuff in Virginia because not a single piece of china, crystal or stemware was broken!

After I got all these boxes unpacked, the formal living/ dining room really started to look like a place you might want to live/ eat! I also put together a few tables I had ordered from Target, two matching console tables, one to be used as a sofa table and the other as a side table along the wall, and a matching coffee table. I'm really happy with how these look considering they are from Target. Also pictured above is an antique china cabinet that belonged to Andrew's great great grandmother (I can't remember exactly how many greats) that was give to us by one of his aunts. Now that we have a real house I am planning to refinish it and restain it to match the other pieces and put some glass in the door, and make it look beautiful! I think it's neat that we have this piece and I really want to make it look good and continue to use it for a long time. Right now it is housing all our crystal stemware that was haphazardly put away in there however we could make it fit. Hopefully I'll get around to refinishing it in the next few weeks and then I'll arrange its contents a little nicer.

And lastly, the family room... with NO BOXES!! Also, the latest addition is the pineapple pillows, but hopefully soon we will have the pineapple valances up! I am really loving this room and it only needs a few more touches before it is really done. I also am picking up a shelf for all our dvds/ video games today from Best Buy so I am excited to have some storage in this room. That is my one complaint about this room... there aren't any built-ins or anything, and not a lot of room for big book shelves, so there's really no storage space. I was really excited when I found this dvd holder on Best Buy's website because it doesn't take up alot of space but it will hold 144 dvds, AND it's espresso wood with silver accents, so it TOTALLY matches everything else in the room! Yeah I know, I get excited about the little things.

Once we get some stuff hanging on the walls and all the window treatments up the first floor will mostly be done (in terms of decorating). We still need to finish the baseboards. Then it's on to upstairs, which means attacking our bedroom. Our bedroom has all the furniture arranged where we want it, but there is clothes and junk EVERYWHERE. I really need to sort through and take some clothes over to Goodwill because I don't wear half of this stuff anymore! One of the guests rooms is pretty much done, it had to be since Aubrey was staying with us last weekend during the festival. The last room that will get done is the second guest room, hopefully in the next couple weeks.

Well that is pretty much all for now. Oh yeah, one more thing. We paid our FIRST mortage payment on October 1, so now this blog title is infact, true. We have officially entered the world of adulthood and will be forever indebted to Wells Fargo from now until eternity... or the next 30 years.

Thanks for reading!