I’ve been tremendously encouraged following along with bloggers who share their homes as works in progress–not just the Pinterest-worthy finished product. Being in our new house, I’m already tempted to want everything to look exactly the way I want it, but having seen the ways other people have settled into their homes over months and years reminds me that these things take time…and it’s definitely worth the wait! I’m sure I’ll be sharing our progress in bits and pieces, but I’m also hoping to share a full tour every year, starting with the way our house looked the day we got our keys!

First things first, a picture outside our new front door :)

The living room is on the left when you enter. We are crazy about the window, the built-in, and the marble fireplace, but I am practically counting down the minutes till my in-laws help us get rid of those green walls this weekend! We’re doing every room in the house (with the exception of the guest bath and nursery) in Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace, color-matched to Sherwin Williams. The only reason we got such pricey SW paint is because we bought enough for the whole house during their 40% off anniversary sale! A tip the salesman gave us: if you buy paint without the color in it during a sale, you can return unopened tins later…or, you can come back and have the color added any time. Such a good idea!

The living room opens up to the dining nook and the kitchen. We’re replacing that light fixture this weekend too–much needed, as you can see. Sorry for the silly photo bomb :)

That door in the kitchen leads to the screened-in porch and backyard. We’ve since purchased our patio set, an outdoor pillow, and some super inexpensive white plastic Adirondack chairs, making this the most finished area of the house. We’ve been taking full advantage of it, working on the porch and eating breakfast out there on nights when we stay over!

Back inside, to the kitchen! I can’t tell you how grateful I am to have white cabinets and decent appliances. Sometime in the next few years, we’d love to get new counters and add a white subway tile backsplash, but for now, we’ll just be adding a fresh coat of paint to the walls.

This is the opposite view of the living room–I’ll be putting my desk against the left wall (since it’s the first thing people will see walking in, I am hoping this motivates me to keep it super tidy!). The hallway leads to the three bedrooms, the guest bathroom, and the laundry closet. The previous owners have those curtains up because their appliances didn’t fit in the laundry space, but our new washer and dryer will, so we’ll be putting the doors back up.

We didn’t snap any pictures of the bedrooms before getting to work on them, so here are the photos from Zillow–first is the guest room/Dave’s office. With Dave’s parents coming in tomorrow, we got this room together pretty quickly, and it already looks SO much better! The guest bathroom, right across the hall, is also pretty much finished–it was the only room that didn’t need any paint, so we just added a new shower curtain and bath mat. Done and done :)

Here’s our room, which again, already looks a billion times better with a fresh coat of bright white paint :) I can’t wait till we do our big move in July and make this room a really cozy, serene place. We painted the master bathroom walls white as well.

Finally, this picture isn’t great, but I couldn’t resist including a shot of my favorite room in the house: the nursery! It was the same taupe color as the guest room, but Dave painted it in Behr Billowing Clouds (also color-matched to Sherwin Williams paint) over the weekend, and I’m obsessed. You can see the color better in my recent Instagram. I am so anxious to add to this room and see it come to life over the next few months!!