Our first house! Plus some updates

Trevor and I moved into our first house at the very end of January. Here's the story on how we found our house. For about a year, we lived together in an apartment. While we loved our apartment, we wanted SPACE and also to be somewhere that we weren't smack dab on a street (aka, had a front yard with trees) and also we wanted to have a place that we could invest our money into instead of paying a landlord every month and not getting anything in return.

We had been searching for a house for about 6 months before we found ours. It seemed like every house was just a disappointment... like it would look good on the internet but when we would actually see it, it would be right beside a power plant. Or in a bad part of town, etc. Discouraged, we pretty much gave up on our search.

One warm November day, we wanted to enjoy the sunshine so we decided to take a drive down our favorite valley. It is so beautiful out there that we just enjoy taking drives to pass the time. As we were driving, I remember looking around at the open fields and beautiful houses and saying, "Why aren't there any houses for sale back here?!?! This would be perfect!" And I kid you not, less than 30 seconds after I said that, we passed a "For Sale By Owner" sign.

Trevor goes, "Hey, that house we just passed was for sale!"
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah. Should we turn around?"
"Yeah!"

So we did, and it just so happened that the lady selling the house was there outside, talking to someone. We slowly pulled up like creepers and rolled down the window.

Trevor goes, "We just saw your for sale sign by the road and were wondering if we could check it out".

And the lady gave us a tour. It was her dad's house and he had recently passed away. We instantly LOVED it. Sure, it was small (2 bedrooms, 1 bath), but it had a HUGE yard, had an attached garage plus a second 2-car detached garage, and it was surrounded by trees that secluded you from the neighbors. Not to mention that is was located only 15 minutes from work and was in our very favorite valley in the area. We were SOLD.

After setting up a date to bring our parents up and show them, we put in an offer and it was accepted! The rest was history.

We love our little house, but it does need some updates. From a design standpoint, I absolutely love the Joanna Gaines "Fixer Upper" Farmhouse style and want to incorporate the white trim, gray walls, and country feel into the house. Luckily, the kitchen and the bathroom (which are the two most important areas) were both recently renovated and need little to no work at all.

The first couple months, I've been focusing on painting the walls and the trim. It's pretty amazing how paint can truly transform a room.

I recently redid our entryway. I first painted the trim white. I wanted a different color for the door, so I picked out a sample color of dark gray at Lowes and tried it. I love it. Then I painted the walls light gray, and installed a new light fixture (I wired that light fixture myself! I'm so proud - ha).

Someday we will be able to afford to sand and retstain our hardwood floors. The entire house is hardwood.

The before and afters are attests to how paint can really transform a room.

Right now i'm in the process of staining our bathroom cabinet from a light wood to dark. I have new light bulbs and hardware to put on when it's done too. I think it should really make a difference. Home owning is so much fun!

Here is a little sneak peak at my dining area:

Love. I'm having so much fun with this entire process.