The Bishop Diaries: Our favorite room in the house

So Matt and I came to a couple of realizations throughout our move to the new house.

#1 - We have a lot of stuff. Way too much stuff. It's ridiculous.

#2 - We set up the most ridiculous unrealistic expectations for

a) the time it would take to move

b) the time it would take to get unpacked

c) the time it would take to try to fit in any home improvement projects while trying to do 1 & 2, watch a toddler and both work from home.

d) the terrible color we accidentally chose to paint our front door

To remedy #1 - We are going to have the garage sale of all garage sales this summer. I know I'll regret it the two days prior when I'm organizing and pricing, but right now, it seems like a great idea.

#2 - I don't know what we were thinking when we said "We will do ______the first weekend in the house. It's actually a bit hilarious to think back on those projects among moving, unpacking, cleaning, etc. And the door? Well, I have a thing for red doors and always have. The old house had one when Matt bought it, so that box was already checked. The day before we moved in, the sellers let us come in and do a few things, so we ceremoniously decided to paint the door red. The paint looked great going on, but when we hung it, I remember thinking "I hate it. It's orange." The next day, we had quite a few friends helping us out and I asked each one of them in the morning (all guys) "What do you think about the door color? Too orange?" Everyone told me it was just perfect. When my friend Taylor arrived in the afternoon she was like "Whats up with the orange door?" and I was like "Thank goodness someone told me the truth!" Since then, my friends that are girls have all said "um, you painted your door orange?" or my personal favorite "Interesting color to paint the door... it's like the color of Ronald McDonald's hair." As I'm typing this, the door is literally on sawhorses in the garage, being painted an amazing shade of red. Photos to come later.

Last weekend when it started to warm up we decided that we needed to take two full days to set up our porch /sunroom (although it doesn't get too much sun because of the trees behind us). We set out to get some furniture and found exactly what we wanted (score). Then Matt pressure washed the entire room to get the disgusting funk off of the floor and remove the dozens of spiders and their webs that had called this area home for the last 2+ years. Gross.

Next up? Lay rug down.

Assemble furniture (not nearly as fun as it sounds)

Get some cool accent pillows

And why not get a fireplace heater to make it feel cozy? Check.

Hang the windchimes we bought years ago when we were in Jamaica? Done. These poor chimes have been sitting in a box ever since the first time we tried to hang them out on our previous deck and on the first windy day they turned into what looked like a giant ball of twine and had no chime left what so ever.
Last but not least, Matt took down the ceiling fan from 1991 and replaced it with a simple black one.

This may be the first room we have completed renovating, but don't worry, other rooms - we will be coming for you sooner than later.

Here are the before & afters:

Before looking out from our kitchen: