Instagram Wall

So I know a lot of us have Pinterest, right?

I do. And  I have a bajillion pins of all sorts of stuff on there. Food, funnies, DIY home projects, cute animals, dreams of things I can't ever afford.....
But back to those DIY home projects.  I've gotten several ideas and we are actually starting to do some of those projects! And I am so incredibly excited that this project is done and I am so so so in L-O-V-E with it!

The original pin I had with the site that I got this idea from is here:  Instagram Wall Inspiration Post

So, let's start out with showing you the finished project... and then I'll ramble on and on.....

I still need to get the shelving unit that I want to put below the frames, but I measured it up so that I will have a little room to add a vase/decor/etc and have it all look fabulous.

So let's talk a bit about how I went about doing this.

First, the paint!

I had originally thought that I'd paint this wall the same color that we are planning on painting the entire house (the main areas)... And that would be Silver Bullet by Behr.  So, that's what we did.

I'm not so good at the whole before/after photo thing, haha! So you get an in between photo of this one:

And once it was painted, I decided I didn't like it for the look I was going for.  These frames are WHITE. The shelf I want to put on this wall is WHITE.  So while I do love this color grey and can't wait for it to be on the rest of the house.... it wasn't right for my Instagram wall.

So, we instead went with Mission Control by Behr.  It's the color that we painted in the loft on that one long wall {for future projects that we will *hopefully* be tackling soon} and also the long wall in the foyer-- that you can actually see in the first photo I posted and in my other blog post about all of our colors throughout the house {A Pop of Color}.

There's one difference with the paint on the Instagram wall than the other 2 walls just mentioned.... We used a high gloss.  No specific reason for that except we had a quart of it for a project and I ended up not liking the way it contrasted with my other color, so it was extra.  So why not use it?!

You can see the shine of it a bit, especially if you compare it to the eggshell that's on the foyer wall in the background.

Second, the frames!

I got the frames from the same place that the blog I pinned got them.... Tiny Mighty Frames.  I scoured the internet even after finding this site, as I wanted to keep this project as budget-friendly as possible.  And, when I first stumbled upon this site and the blog that inspired all of this, the frames were quite expensive, IMO.

But internet searching didn't turn up anything cheaper or what seemed better quality, so I knew that this is who I'd be going with for my frames.  Now, when we moved in I knew I wanted to do all this, but wasn't set on doing it now.  However, one day at work I happen to be perusing my Pinterest and came across my pin for this Instagram Wall, and with a little clicking, realized that the frames were ON SALE!!! Like, more than 50% off on sale! So I had to act now! I convinced hubby into letting me get them! But, I had a problem.  LOCATION! I had no idea where I wanted this wall to go!

So, we got home that day and looked at the walls and decided that this little wall would be best.  For anyone that has a Milan, this is in between the front 2 rooms (living room and dining room)-- we didn't have ours closed off to make a study so they're 2 rooms that kinda flow together.  This wall is actually the back end of the hall closet that is in the foyer.

Measurements were taken and then I did some math.  Got a guestimate of how many frames I wanted to put up.

Something to note:  Even though these frames fit a 4x4 photo, you must actually measure it out that the frame itself is a 5x5 frame.  I didn't when I did my initial calculations and actually over-bought the number of frames I needed.

Next-The pictures!

If I can admit one thing, it's that I am trigger happy.  I take pictures of everything.  And I mean EV-er-Y-thing!  I have them saved all over the place and had a very hard time trying to decide which ones I wanted to use. 

But, for printing them:  I used Shutterfly.  More specifically, the Shutterfly app on my phone.  They advertise that you can get UNLIMITED 4x4 or 4x6 prints for FREE!  Yep, FREE!! You just pay shipping and handling.

There were a couple "catches" to this, if you will.... the first:  unlimited means 250 photos at a time.  You can't do more than that in one order.  Second- shipping was like $24 for 250 photos.

That being said.... I ordered one set of 250 followed by another like 150 photos. I was so so so indecisive about what ones I wanted to use.

And now I can say I'm thrilled with the 400+ little pictures I have.  It's one thing to thumb through them on a phone or a computer screen... but it really brings back the memories to hold a photo in your hand and just smile/laugh/cry at the memory of whatever is in the photo.

So, I took these 400-something photos, organized them by family  member/event/dog and then went through and found at least one "favorite" of each one-- and I even let Jason help with this part!

And now the fun stuff!

The Measuring!

So I tried getting super technical here. After my original "oh no!" moment that I should be measuring for 5 inches instead of 4, I got all sorts of fancy.  I wanted to make diagrams so that I could show off how awesome I could be.  That most definitely didn't happen.  Here's what did:

I measured the dimensions of our wall:  It was 39 inches across.  It's like 49-ish something inches high for as high "up" as I wanted to go.  The shelf that I want to add to the wall is like 36 inches tall. 

So I measured the wall, figured that if each frame was a 5x5 frame, that I wanted 2 inches in between each frame.  With this math, I would need 5 frames across the bottom and then I was thinking like 7 going up {I was thinking 7 inches total for each frame}.  So that would be 35 inches, with 4 inches left for the sides.  And, technically that last frame doesn't require that extra 2 inch measurement, so I put 3 inches on each side of the wall.

And from there I just measured 2 inches from the top of the first row, did the next one, and so on and so forth until I had all 7 rows of frame up.

Wanna have a good laugh at how I measured all this?

Take a look:

Yep. You're seeing that right.  I bought a yard stick from Home Depot (a steal at 98 cents).  I used it to measure up. And then, when I did the frames, I found the center point and just put a dot on my measuring stick so that I could put a nail in the same spot each time. That, and painters tape.... it worked like a charm! And you see how awesome they look!!

So the last thing I did was take some 3M tape (like the Command Hook kind) and put a little piece on the bottom of each of the frames so they'd stick to the wall.  That way I know they'll stay straight, not fall down, and it was recommended on the original blog post for the Instagram Wall.

And once this project was finished, Jason told me that he thinks we should do the adjoining two walls with photos as well! I love this thought and will be embarking on an adventure to do the other two sides so that you have Instagram Wall goodness from all angles.

Seriously, I love how this project turned out and I am SO glad we did it!!!

And just for fun before I go, a hilarious picture of our Crosley running through the yard last week.  With baseball season upon us, we are trying to give him some freedom in the house so he's not ALWAYS in the cage {he's a wall/corner/cabinet chewer-- which I think stems from being nervous from all the construction going on around us}... well, this photo was snapped when he was running crazy fast laps around the yard after our very first time leaving him out of his cage for a few hours while we went out.  He did good this particular time and was loving all the praise he was getting!

209 Days In.....

Is that even right?!!? Time is flying and I can't believe we are 209 days (about 7 months) in!!!

And on top of that-- HELLO everyone! I know, like others, I promised to keep the blog up- but let's face it:  Life happens.  I have a huge list of house projects and this is how it goes: start a project, love it and get it like, half way done, and then move on to something else.
Yep, the projects are those kind of projects.

Things like painting the interior doors black-- there are like, 18 doors in the house. That is taking quite a while.

Painting.  That most definitely hasn't started yet but we are trying to pick out colors.

Furniture.  It's a heck of a task to go from a 1300 square foot apartment to a 2600+ square foot home, and trying to fill it with furniture.

We need more furniture. Lots more furniture. Lots of empty space right now, but we are getting there.

And then just having the time to do these projects.  We do lots. We love to stay busy, and a lot of the time our house projects kinda get put on the back burner to go have fun.

But-- I thought I'd update a bit of what we DO have done..... The majority of the interior doors have been painted black. What a huge difference it makes! Such a nice pop of color from the boring ole white and off white walls.

We switched out our shower head in the master bathroom for a fancy-schmancy one that does all sorts of fun stuff (it was on my Christmas list and we got it for Christmas!).

We have our awesome entertainment set up put up from IKEA that we bought before we even finished building the house.  It needs some slight adjustments and I don't wanna do those adjustments til we paint. But, it's massive, and amazing and looks great against the wall between the 2 windows!

Furniture stuff: Another Christmas gift we received was an awesome entryway bench and hutch from Home Depot. It was a bit of a headache dealing with it, but it's AMAZING and fits in the space perfectly.  Loooooong story short: I loved the bench, showed it to the in-laws and they got it for us or Christmas.  My Father-In-Law noticed on some of the reviews that the hutch didn't fit the bench perfectly.  Shame on me for not paying closer attention to that.  And sure enough- when we got the hutch in and assembled it, it didn't fit perfectly on the bench.  I did some research and actually got in touch with the manufacturer and they shipped us an updated hutch that is perfect for the bench!!!! YAY!

Front room (on the floor plans it's technically designated the "living room"):  We got some Billy Bookcases from IKEA and filled up the entire wall with book cases.  I'll eventually try my hand at adding some molding to them to make them look "built in".. but I love all the space for all of our media goodies!

And naturally, we are having our "new home" woes-- specifically a couple of cracks in our foundation :-(
Yeah. You read that right. Cracks.  In our foundation.  We first noticed a leak in one of the unfinished parts of our basement. It dried quickly, but we had some pretty wet weather there for a while and the leak came back. We surveyed the outside of our house and found 2 cracks in the foundation (we have a pretty high elevation and have a good part of our basement exposed to the elements still-- which includes our amazing walk out basement).
So here we go with something I've become a pro at:  filling out the online service request.  The first one I filled out got NO response, so I filled a second one out about a week later.  A foundation company called me the next day.  I gave them an earful as they wanted to schedule a time during the WEEK to come out and take a look at the crack.  Luckily this worked, as well as the fact that they also have weekend hours (woohoo!). So we had someone come out on a Saturday.

The guy (well, more like a kid) that came out told us that the crack was from the pressure of the support beam running across the top of the basement, as was fairly common.  He did some nifty filler thing to help stop the leak.  We asked about the SECOND crack on the foundation. It is smaller in size than the crack that caused the leak, but he walked it to "measure" the distance and believes that crack is the same type of thing as the one he repaired.  This one is a bit more tricky as it's in a finished part of our basement.  He checked the support beam area and said that he didn't see any signs of leaks or anything, and even mentioned that Ryan Homes puts in baseboards that turn a yellow color if there's water behind them.  So, he did nothing with the crack.  I think when it gets closer to our 1 year, or when we have a few days off, I am going to get them to come out and assess that one again. I don't want to be dealing with it when it's our problem and not something that they should have fixed anyways!

So how about some photos! I have tons and will do my best to put descriptions on them, haha!!

This about the extent of the snow we got this year so far.  Just a little dusting to freak out the puppy, haha!

Fancy new shower head <3

Before painting the doors upstairs (this would be the master bedroom, hall closet and guest room)

After painting!  (this would be the master bedroom, hall closet and guest room)

More before shots 

After shots

Before  (this would be the master bedroom, hall closet and guest room)

After (this would be the master bedroom, hall closet and guest room)

Our new hutch and bench in the entryway off of the garage (mudroom)

Our new hutch and bench in the entryway off of the garage (mudroom)

This is in the front room of the house (family room)... Billy Bookcases from IKEA

Another view of our bookcases in the front room of the house

random photos:  Sitting on the couch looking towards the kitchen

random photos:  Standing in the entryway (mudroom) door looking towards the family room

random photos: Standing in the kitchen looking into the morning room

random photos: Standing in the morning room looking towards the front of the house 

random photos: another view from the couch into the kitchen/morning room {we will one day have a dining room table in there}

random photos:  Crosley <3

random photos: our IKEA entertainment stand-- we still need to put the middle piece on its legs and then adjust the height on the cabinets to the right. But this won't be done til we paint. I'm not taking these things up and down a bajillion times.

random photos: Standing in the hallway by the stairs looking towards the family room.

random photos: The "dining room" according to the floor plan. For us, it's the bunny room {yes. you read that right. We have 2 bunnies}, and random boxes yet to be put somewhere/unpacked

random photos:  Front entryway

random photos:  Messy floors and Crosley doing the dishes.

And, the foundation crack:

Wet basement floor.

Worse wet basement floor.

This is the *second* crack. This one isn't fixed. It coincides with a finished part of the basement and the foundation kid didn't do anything to this one-- just checked to make sure it wasn't leaking.

THIS one is the culprit of our leaks.

The other side of the crack. Awesome, huh?

All filled and fixed and no longer leaking.

But it's kinda hideous.

So I most definitely plan on having someone come out and address the second crack before its all said and done. It's just finding time with the great time slots that Ryan Homes and their contractors offer.

We have TONS of other projects going on/waiting to work on. We stained our deck before it got cold, but it really needs one more coat.

We have lots of stuff built in the basement for our "man cave/Reds room" but don't have it all organized yet.

The loft:  We are going to make this a "travel themed" area.  We LOVE LOVE LOVE to travel and have so many awesome trinkets and memorabilia and things from our travels to display.  Well, another Christmas gift that was on our {my} list... A giant wall mural that is a map of the world.  It will nearly cover the entire wall in the loft on one side.  We haven't put it up yet because we need to paint {since it won't cover the ENTIRE wall}.  I found it on Wayfair:  Check It Out Here.

We love our home and have so many great memories already that have been made and can't wait for more.

And, to end the post: a super adorable photo of our sweet boys from yesterday, in our 65 degree weather in February.

Our First Week Has Come and Gone.....

.... and it's been a stressful and exciting one!

I don't even know where to begin!  Y'all already know about our shenanigans on closing day with the cleaners coming in our house, our closing the garage door on the car.....

Well, the stories just keep getting better.

Gonna try to go in chronological order here, but that might not happen, lol!

MOVING DAY:

Our movers show up bright and early at 9 AM {okay, so not so early, but we were happy to get a morning time slot}.  We had both of our cars packed with stuff because this company charged by the piece instead of by the hour.  So the more boxes and such we could take over ourselves, the better!

Once they got started packing up our stuff into the truck, we loaded the dogs into my car and I headed over to the house.  I drive a little VW bug. Both dogs started out on the front passenger seat, but it wasn't long before Cody made his way to my lap.  Then, Crosley decided he wanted over too, but Cody thought that was too crowded (which it was) so he made himself comfy on the passenger seat.

Well, about 5 minutes away from our NEW HOME, Crosley decides he wants to vomit.  He's still a puppy and hasn't gotten the hang of car rides yet. We were on back roads so I was able to get him into the passenger seat while he was sick, but then both dogs immediately jumped in my lap for the remainder of the car ride to the house.  No one wanted yucky ole vomit on them.

When I pulled into the driveway, our PM was walking up to the front door and knocking.  He had mentioned he was going to stop by to make sure everything was going well and to make sure our keys worked on all the doors as they had to be re-keyed for us.  So, I park the car, attempt to get the dogs out.  Crosley jumps out right away but Cody doesn't like this new territory and wants to stay in the car.  So, I have carry him out of the car.  Our PM asked if he should come back, and I told him that he didn't need to.

In the house we go.  Our basement door hadn't been re-keyed so that needed to be done.  I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but the cleaning crew that had been in the house had told us that our half bath toilet was "running constantly" and they noticed it while they were cleaning the toilet {aka using it to relieve themselves}.  So, our PM was out to look at that too.

So in the house we go.  We are standing in the kitchen and our PM was looking at the toilet, and Cody decides to poo in the kitchen.

Way to christen the hardwood floors my sweet boy.

Right in front of the PM.  It was gross.  But, he was nervous and I hadn't really given him a chance to go outside because we had immediately come inside.

So now I have poo on the floor and vomit in the car.

I scrambled to find some TP or something to pick up the mess.  Well, of course, PM is working on the toilet downstairs.  So, I decided to just throw the poo outside over the deck.  Fertilizer for the yard, right?

The toilet was constantly running because of some dirt and grit that was under the plunger.  The plunger wasn't able to go down because of it.
So, while our PM cleaned that out, he also broke a piece inside the toilet.  So now he has to call the plumber to come out to fix a broken toilet.

Moving day also meant refrigerator delivery day! We ended up having both the movers there and the fridge being delivered at the same time and nearly completely blocked the street at one point, haha! But, our fridge was delivered, it's beautiful and I don't think I could love it any more than I do.

The movers were really efficient getting everything out of the town house and into the new house.  I'm a little bummed because they did scratch a piece of hardwood near the stairs, and they really banged up the trim outside the laundry room.  We have a call into their claims department and are waiting to hear back.

The plumber also came out and fixed the broken piece on the toilet in the half bath and all is well with that toilet now.



FIRST COUPLE DAYS IN THE HOUSE:

So, we noticed this on moving day, and we had to deal with it for a couple of days.... We didn't have hot water :-(
Yep.  No hot water.
We had luke-warm water at best, but not hot water.  Chatting with our two neighbors across the street, I learned a thing or two about hot water heaters.  I learned about the thermostats on them, and even figured out how to adjust them.

So we adjusted the thermostats on them, but still only luke-warm water.

So I text our PM the next morning and he stopped by to check it out.  He also checked the thermostats, and thought that maybe one of the heating elements was bad on the water heater.  So, he set up an appointment to get someone out to check out the hot water heater.

Water heater guy changes the elements, and we still only have luke-warm water.  Ugh.  He thinks that it has something to do with the plumbing in the house.  Like lines being mixed somewhere.  NOT what I want to hear.

So our PM comes back to check on things, and to install a cabinet front in the master bath that was scratched.  Well, the cabinet front was the wrong one so he had to get another one for us.  He also messed with the hot water heater and he felt that it was a water heater issue and not a plumbing issue, so he wanted to get the water heater guy back out to check things out again.

Fast forward to a couple hours later.  The cabinet guy was now at our house touching up some spots on our cabinets that had dings or needed sanded down.  PM says he has talked with the plumber and the plumber has given him a couple of things to try.

So here's what they did:  They adjusted the water mixing valve on the hot water heater.  The valve has something to do with our master bath being ginormous and the bath tub and yada yada, so apparently the mixing valve had been turned all the way "on" and was mixing too much cold water.  Easy peasy fix and we now have glorious hot water.

Oh! And our PM "took" a cabinet front from another house and put it on ours.  So that was taken care of, lol!!

Left on our list from our pre-settlement walk through include fixing some stone on the front porch that had fallen off (pretty much after installation, and it's just been sitting on the porch) and one of our loft windows needs replaced because it's cracked.

The sprinklers that were in our yard from Ryan Homes were taken pretty quickly to put into another yard, so we had to put our own hoses down.  We got some snazzy timers that turn the sprinklers on automatically.  I think we have 6 hoses and 6 sprinklers going to hopefully keep our yard growing.

I got all of the pieces put together on our IKEA shelving unit for the TV.  It's gorgeous.  The problem is that I am entirely too nervous to try and put the top pieces up myself as they have to be screwed into the wall.  This means wood screws, finding studs and leveling everything just right.  We are currently trying to find us someone that can come out and do it for us.  I'm just too scared to do it myself.  I do now have my very own stud finder which should be handy for hanging all the stuff we need to hang, lol!

Homeownership is an adventure.

Projects inside the house:

Unpacking.  Lots and lots of unpacking.

Building things.  Our TV stand is completely assembled, we just need to put the top shelves on the walls.  I'm not comfortable doing this as I don't want to ruin our walls or this awesome TV unit we have, so we are looking into hiring someone to do the work for us.

Blinds.  We have 18 windows in this house.  As of right now, almost all of them have blinds minus one bedroom, the loft and the morning room.  I only have one more to put up and we still need to buy the rest.  We won't be putting a set of blinds on the round window in the loft, and the bathroom window in the master bath will be getting something different than a blind.

More unpacking.  The majority of the kitchen stuff is unpacked, but that's about it.

Next up on the list:
This weekend we plan on painting the garage.  It drive me BONKERS to have unfinished walls in the garage.  They're all dry-walled and taped, just not painted.  That's not gonna work for me, haha!  So, we must paint it.

The week after we want to epoxy the garage floor.  That's why we will be painting the walls first.  Much easier to just scrape some paint off the bare floor than the pretty epoxy we will be putting down.

So a couple of photos for now.  It's a mess.  There's lots to do.  But you know what?  It's home, and we are so happy to be here.

Moving Day... The plethora of boxes after the movers were finished unpacking the truck.

Moving Day in the morning room.  Literally, boxes EVERYWHERE!  I seriously had NO clue we had this much stuff.

Moving Day kitchen view.  Such a mess, but it is OUR mess

Let's play find the puppy!

Thursday- an organized mess perhaps?

Friday view.  Slowly getting things put in their places, or just moved out of the main living area.

Saturday.  A little more progress.

And Sunday.  You can actually see the majority of the floor!!

They finally installed the shutters on the front porch!  There's a piece of stone that still needs fixed down at the bottom.

Sent this photo to hubby asking if he knew what this was.  It was my announcement to him that we FINALLY had hot water!

Blinds! I'm proud of myself for actually doing these myself.  They're really easy, but they make such a huge difference.

The TV stand.  Everything is put together, we just need to find someone to put up the top pieces for us

We bought a rug for our morning room! It's a great grey color and we loved the pattern!  The puppy was testing out new smells.

Our gorgeous fridge!  I love this thing.  Still need to organize inside of it as it's all just kind of a jumbled mess right now.

Moving wears the puppy out.

He also strategically laid on top of my IKEA directions so I couldn't put the TV stand together.  We don't think he liked the sound of the drill at first.

He also has a love of boxes.  So now he's helping us put stuff together so he can have the boxes.

One of our two bunnies!  They got new cages once we moved in, so this was miss Scarlet hanging out on the stairs while we put her new cage together.

Hose timers.  Super convenient.  Hopefully we can actually grow some grass!

And my nemesis.  The damn dryer hose.  We went to Home Depot and the little man working pointed us to these hoses.  Definitely didn't like this one.  It's not flexible, and I cut my hand on it.  We ended up going to Lowe's and getting a flexible one, and now our dryer is all hooked up.  I think the movers have the hot and cold water lines reversed though and I still need to fix that.  Please disregard the ugly vinyl flooring.  It's not growing on me yet.

Our adventures are definitely going to continue on and I'll share progress and projects as we go along.  We are so happy to be in our house and are already loving making it our home!!

And one more funny story for ya.  That would be a tennis ball in my glorious glass of wine.  We were unwinding for the evening, and Crosley comes flying across the living room with his tennis ball that we were just playing outside with, and he literally plopped it right into my glass!  Perfectly placed and didn't miss!  He didn't get his ball back, and I didn't get my wine back.

It was pretty much a good summary of how our day had gone that day.  Hot water issues, cable guy taking all day, people all in and out of our house.... it only made sense that the puppy would put his ball in my wine.