whoaa, one whole year later

Austin and I were married one year ago today. Wow.

For my anniversary post, I want to write about things I've learned about marriage in this past year. So, in Tempa-bullet-points-form, here are some of those things:

- Talk it out. But while talking it out, be sure to apologize. Both of you. To each other. And then wait. It will all settle down

- Create your own reality. You're creating your own norm as a couple and reinventing yourself as an individual. Embrace it.

- A different relationship brings changes. Life has changes. Learn to adapt and be okay with changes that may happen. Friends come and go, relationships with family even wax and wane; ensure that your family unit is the most solid of them all. Make it a priority.

- Everything is the same, but it isn't. Life somehow got deeper. This isn't actually a lesson, but just a really cool fact, that I want to know in 10 years I thought about a lot at this time. When people ask me, "What's married life like?" at first, I would just respond, "It's the same." and now my response, one year out, is "It's the same... only deeper. It's really fun."

- Make big decisions together. Always. Include each other in everything.

And, just for fun, top 10 favorite things about our wedding:

1. Walking down the aisle arm-in-arm with my groom
2. Seeing all of our friends and family who had traveled so far, just to spend the weekend with us, and be part of such a special weekend
3. The spur-of-the-moment decision to hug and kiss our family members as we walked back down the aisle
4. The friends who helped out with crazy last-minute stuff
5. Hand-making the invitations, ordering the flowers
6. The timeline actually working out!
7. The cupcakes!
8. Realizing my personal passion for beauty and artistic sense, that I did not know was there beforehand
9. The wedding band singer lying on the floor during the middle part of SHOUT! (my fav wedding song ever)
10. The entire weekend

And, just for my personal "closure" that I need, 5 things that were not ideal about our wedding:

1. Wedding photos getting lost, especially those really important family ones
2. Losing Jane's family heirloom handkerchief
3. Losing friends :(
4. Not giving my bridesmaids their gifts/letters
5. My parents being mid-divorce

And we've got blue walls...

What do you think?

 

so what about these COLOR SCHEMES?

The ability to start decorating a room with a basically clean slate is a really, really cool idea. Neither hubby nor I have ever had a room without having hand-me-down furniture that must come with it. I have been playing with color schemes and am dreaming of this for our den:



We picked the light blue color for the wall, the light sand for the carpet, and course white trim.
I am thinking the darker blues will come in with the pillows and accent pieces.
I am dreaming of making window treatments out of fabric from Premier Prints. I can't decide between these two:



and

What do you think?

Prepping the house for painting

And the HVAC prep work

After work on Monday - Check out the Bathroom!

Remember that window from the bathroom to the porch, the window in the only bathroom in our house? The one that people were embarrassed to use when over at our house, b/c they were worried others could see them? The one that was filled with bricks where our TV will be, in the den/former porch area? Well, he filled it in with some BEAUTIFUL shelving!!

We encountered an unforeseen issue: the floor in the den/porch is about 1/2" higher than the floor of the house. So Jeremy put this oak floor piece down as a transition piece. He also framed the doorway leading from the dining room to the den. It looks pretty great, don't ya think?

 

Back from our weekend in Northern Virginia... The doorway is open!

There is a hallway where there used to be a window! The room is much brighter than either of us imagined it would be. It really looks great. And that back room is very sunny and DELIGHTFUL! (Austin, you were right all along.)

 

 

 

Next step: picking carpet colors!

Picking color schemes is TOUGH! Here is the board of samples for carpets that we were given.

At first, we were given "builder grade," but they were not what we were looking for.

The brand shown before is Southern Style Carpets by Southern Tile Distributors.

Which color do you think we chose?

 

... We chose "Flax Seed," which is the top right option shown above.

End of day 8... Taking down the window opening

We came home from work to find the doorway almost cleared! 

The window is still there, but the  area below is GONE and so is the framing around the window. Phew!

Starting to take down the window, cutting the AC returns (end of day 8)

!

Windows and doors are framed! (end of day 7)

Check this out too!

The windows and doors are in! (Day 6 of work)

Check em out!

End of Day 5 of work

Our bathroom window is filled with bricks!

Mid Day 7 (Day 5 of work)

At lunch time today, the guy was working on filling in the bathroom window with bricks, so as to match the new den's bricks when we paint over them. For anyone who has visited our house for a gathering, it will probably be a welcome change to be able to use the rest room without having people sitting on the other side of the tempered-glass bathroom window.