{quite a difference with a little light and paint}

ok yes, we've moved in, so obviously there have been some big changes that i have been keeping all to myself. for example: we have light! ta da!

very happy with both of our stairwell choices. b is especially proud that he found the smaller light at home depot for the whopping price of $5.98. {talk about budget friendly}. i found the larger capiz pendant at target online -yes, target has an incredible lighting selection available online!- my lighting choice was not quite $5.98, we'll just say that.

also did you even notice the painted beadboard ceilings?! big difference.

lights in the downstairs bathroom, or at least vanity lights. there will be a baby chandelier hanging eventually {by eventually, i mean when i find it at an antique/thrift store} and if you are particularly observant, you'll notice we have a new sink faucet.

and we have lights & a new sink faucet in the upstairs hall bath as well. please pardon the mess, we are trying to live here.

freshly painted ceilings & a ceiling fan to boot. there will be a chandelier at the other end of this room to go over the dining room table, but i haven't found that one yet either. i guess i should say i have found quite a few that i love, but a four digit price tag just doesn't quite fit into our budget. so table lamps will be our dining ambiance for a little while...

i'm particularly pleased with our entry way ceiling. it's our first foray into color so far. apologies for the poor quality of this photo, but you can get the basic idea.

and here is the den. what you can't see in this photo is our flatscreen television that b has already mounted on the wall the sofa is facing. he was literally hanging the tv as i was still unloading boxes from the uhaul. though i will say that i am starting to appreciate it now as it is about the only thing that feels completed since we have moved in. we are still waiting for some of the drywall to be repaired {over the windows especially} so we haven't really been able to unpack much of anything {and it's killing me}. also the sofa looks really really dark and heavy in this picture for some reason. in person it is a softer caramel color and once we do unpack the boxes, the sofa will once again be home to cheery pillows.

and here is a peek into the master bedroom progress. the ceiling is almost finished but what you can't see is how the beadboard on the right side has pulled away from the ceiling in some places. so that still needs to be repaired. and also we'll need to deal with the floors. i think we're going to go with carpet {hoping for carpet like this} at least until we have tackled the other project priorities.

view back to the door. it actually looks like we've started to put down carpet in here, but it's a lie, the carpet pad on the floor is actually from a rug we had in our old apartment. it rained on the day we were moving it in b's truck so thus the need for it to spread out to dry. also in this photo you can see a good view of what i call the seasonal items closet {upon mentioning this to rickythecontractor, rtc turned to b to inquire whether b had any "seasonal items" to put in said closet} anyway, the idea was to have the door blend into the wall {it will ultimately be painted the same color as the wall} & then it will hopefully fade into the background so we can put a piece of furniture in front of it since we have limited wall space.

so all in all, things are moving along. i know i owe you some photos of the kitchen especially. will try to get to those this weekend. all appliances are in except the microwave, but hopefully after this weekend's worth of work, we will have a fully functional, moved-in kitchen.