Fantastic Furniture

After being in our house for 3 1/2 months, we finally got our furniture!! It's such a good feeling filling empty rooms!!

View of Dining Room from Kitchen

View of Dining Room from Living Room

Ash and I actually discovered dining room furniture we really liked at an Ashley Furniture store on Long Island during Thanksgiving Break. We would have bought it right then, except that each Ashley stores are independently owned, so we couldn't buy it and have it shipped from a local Ashley's. Long story short, after checking out many other stores and dining sets, we decided to buy the set we saw on LI from an Ashley's Furniture in Orchard Park.

However, the morning before we were going to seal the deal, a coworker told me that there was a closer Ashley Furniture in Olean. We went there that afternoon, looked over our set, and decided we still really wanted it.  The salesperson said that before we made our decision, we should also check out their clearance section. It was HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU*breath*UUUUUUUUUUUGE. We strolled around, and what to my wonderous eyes did appear but our......CHINA AND BUFFET SET. We looked the thing over up, down, and all around and couldn't find anything wrong with it. It was returned because the person didn't want it. Best part? It was $700 cheaper!! So needless to say, we made out fantastically. Check it out!

Here she comes!

Very happy with Ashley Furniture's movers--extremely friendly and didn't leave until I was happy with everything

View from the Living Room

View from the Kitchen

Take a seat...or two...or six

China/Buffet...3 light settings by touching the hinges

Have a seat

Close up of the table

Bedroom wise, we got our furniture from John V. Schultz in Erie, PA. The perk here was because John V. only has a store in PA and not NY, they cannot charge us sales tax! So we saved a good chunk of change! I would definitely recommend John V. Schultz (ask for Dave #1--great salesperson).

Sleigh bed

I better get all of my clothes in here before Ashley claims this whole thing for herself!!

As you can tell, the furniture certainly fills our bedroom! We love the sleigh-bed look and love how the foot board doesn't protrude, giving us extra space. Ash did a phenomenal job on the wall colors; the furniture still pops despite the dark accent wall! The coolest feature of the bedroom furniture is that the nightstands have a hidden compartment with 3 outlets, so you can hook up a lamp, alarm clock, and laptop and have all of the cords hidden away!

Now we just need our mattress, which is coming in on Saturday, and two wall sconces and we'll be done. Wow. Done. It's nice to be "done" with a room. This house is starting to feel like a home more and more each day.

First Steps of Real Progress

Well I have some great news... we finished painting our bedroom!  I am pretty sure that this took us way longer than it should have, but that's how the Keisers roll.  Ha.... get the pun?

Anyway... I chose the colors of the room, brown earthy colors.  To some, this may be boring, but for me our bedroom needs to be a place of sweet serenity with the type of jobs we have.  We love teaching, but sometimes at the end of the day, we are just fried!  The colors of the room were actually determined by our bedroom comforter set that we got as a wedding gift.  It's a dark brown comforter with touches of beige and sage green in it.  Getting that earthy feel?  I wanted to do something other than just painting the four walls all the same boring neutral color, so I got my heart set on an accent wall.  Not quite as hard, but it requires a little more time and patience for the taping, and some more money for additional color of paint.  We decided on Gobi Desert walls, Belgian Sweet accent wall, and toasted marshmallow trim.  In man terms: beige, brown, and cream. 

Painting the accent wall

This is what we had to work with:

The Before (Like that unshowered deer in the headlights look?)

 Before we could begin the painting we had to take care of a couple things:

1. Take the old sconces off, AFTER spending 20minutes finding the right switch in the circuit breaker that turned off the electric to the master bedroom. (This communication ordeal between Brendan and I was cause for a glass of wine. Note: this is an important detail, stay tuned.)

B unscrewing the sconce from the wall.

So cool! You can see the history of the room underneath: blue paint, striped vine wallpaper, plaster walls.

2. Spackling holes and imperfections.

How To's from Black and Decker Complete Photo Guide to Home Repair

Awesome spackle that goes on pink and dries white, so you know it's ready to be sanded down.

Using the techniques Brendan read about.

Wet and Pink

Dry and white

3. Priming over the dark blue paint with Kilz oil-based primer to seal the painted wallpaper from the previous owner.

Motion shot

This was after 3 glasses of wine. (foreshadowing)

Looks like we need another coat!

4. Second thoughts.  After the delicious wine's effects had worn off, I began to have second thoughts about my impulsive decision to just paint everything (and anything). The painting was fun and went by fast, but here are the bloopers:

Why didn't we completely take these off the wall!?!

I found the page explaining how to disconnect the wires from the sconce, but Brendan read it because we know I don't have the patience to. 

As if these weren't hard enough to remove from the previous coats of paint before us, I added a thick primer!  Again, what was I thinking!?!  Brendan spent an hour trying to take these off the wall, one set probably installed when the house was built 80 years ago.  B then sanded them all down, spackled, sanded again, and re-primed.

Lesson learned: drink after the work is done, or just drink and don't do the work. ; )  

5. Time to officially start painting!

Starting the trim

Walls and trim finished

Catching the action on video...

I had no idea..

I think the paint fumes are getting to me.

Why does my shadow look sexy and I look like an idiot?

Overall, I had a great time painting the bedroom.  This was Brendan's first room he ever painted, so he learned a lot.  It was great to teach him some of the ropes, while learning a lot from each other.  These words may have crossed my lips at one point though, "Dear God, My patience will get me into Heaven, right?  This is my golden ticket, right?"  

Things we learned:

• I hate doing trim, but love painting overall.  Brendan hates taping, painting, cleaning up, but loves... uh, loves... the finished product!
• Bren is awesome at researching tips and quick fixes.  He can walk me through everything and seems to know what all the experts say.
• I hate reading and researching, but I have the confidence to attack each little project with B's guidance and some common sense (usually).

We joked a lot, had some heated, frustrated moments, but every inch of that room is filled with detailed attention and love.  The room isn't perfect, but it's ours. (Best Corny Comment Award Nominee) 

Drum roll please....

Accent wall and regular wall prior to tape removal.

Finished walls after all of the tape was removed the next day.

Interior walls, door to the hallway

Closet door and hallway door

Sorry that some of the photos are dark, due to the lack of lighting in the room currently.  Furniture was delivered Friday, and Brendan will update with that post and pictures of the bedroom furniture in the newly painted room.  It looks sharp and I can't wait to start decorating it!

Total project time: 2 weeks (so far)

*Please note, any possible innuendos are unintended. (At least this time.)

Learning How To Be An Adult

 Yes, it has been quite awhile since we have posted on the blog!  These past weeks we've learned how to transfer bills and addresses, make big purchases, "finish" unpacking (because you're never really completely unpacked), and begin painting our first room.

This month greeted us with the excitement of our new dishwasher.  This has been a desire of mine since we first moved into our apartment four years ago.  We had a few issues getting the dishwasher installed, which was due to our lower than average counter.  Our kitchen countertop was installed about 1 inch closer to the floor than it should have.  In addition to that, new flooring had been installed in front of our previous dishwasher making it very difficult to remove the old one.  We had a great couple team that was able to get the old one out and was able to JUST sneak ours in.  It took a total of 2.5 hours altogether.

B sniped a pic of the dishwasher installment and me, biting my nails.

After the second time we ran the dishwasher, we had a MAJOR leak.  Brendan didn't catch the leak until the end of the cycle and we're pretty sure an entire dishwasher full of water basically leaked out all over our kitchen floor.  The water leaked through the kitchen floor down to the basement.  At first, we had thought it was a double leak from both the dishwasher and the pipes based on the dripping from the ceiling of the basement.  But after some good detective work from Team Keiser, we figured out that the dishwasher leak had sent a river across our kitchen floor until it found an opening to the basement.  Thankfully, the leak was cleaned up right away with quick and mostly calm attitudes.

The wet basement ceiling from the dishwasher leak above.

The entire tiled floor in the basement was covered with a HUGE puddle.

 We had the plumber come out and check everything and he was able to minimize the drip, but not completely eliminate it.  It has dripped a few times on occassion.

A couple drips from the dishwasher after the major leak.

Lowes also sent a (cute) technician to inspect the dishwasher.  He concluded that the plumber had fixed the bigger problem, but that it may occasionally leak at times due to the pressure of the low countertop pressing on top of it. We also had someone come and look at our counters and give us an estimate about raising the counter top to the correct height and release the pressure on the dishwasher.  In the long run, we may end up doing this.  These were a couple unexpected factors we didn't predict with the new dishwasher.  For now, we've been without a leak, but if it happens again, we most likely will raise the countertop. (ka-ching... ka-ching...  We should start ending our blog posts like 2 Broke Girls, with a savings account total.)

The laundry sorter you see below is my favorite purchase we've made for the house.  I know... I'm a freak!  But this makes doing laundry so easy.  Everyone sorts their own laundry and I just toss it in the wash when I have some free time and it's completely easy being on the first floor of the house.  Now for the back story: Brendan was COMPLETELY against this purchase of $35.  He felt it was an unnecessary purchase, as we already had two laundry baskets, and we could put the money toward other purchases for the house (as those are never-ending).  Now, me being the timid and reserved spouse that I am, kindly bowed my head and agreed submissively.  I.... don't... think... so.  I pressed the subject, asking painfully annoying questions, which led to a lively conversation.  The subject was dropped as both of our stubborn goat horns were locked.  One week later, we bought the laundry sorter.  I've done numerous loads of laundry since then and Brendan has never regretted letting me "win" this one.

Darks, Reds, Lights, Whites, and Smiles

Participating in the traditional and memorable newlywed furniture hunt!  We visited a total of 5 different furniture stores before finding our bedroom furniture.  We found the bedroom furniture you can see below at John V. Shultz in Erie, PA.  You may have heard the rumors that we spent 5 hours in the store before finalizing our purchase.  I'm here to clarify this rumor:  It was closer to 5.5 hours.
We narrowed it down to 6 bedroom sets out of about 30. We thought we were off to a good start.  We circled these 6 sets, pretty much wearing out the carpet.  We had nicknames for each set and had priced out all the pieces we wanted to compare. We checked everything from the measurements, to the storage compartments, to the fluid movement of the drawers, the coloring of the wood, the knobs on the drawers, etc.  A big decision because we would like this furniture to last a very long time.  The bedroom furniture was scheduled to arrive this Friday, but we are looking to push it back a week until we completely finish working in the bedroom.

Brendan carefully inspecting the furniture (for the 100th time).

A week later we purchased our dining room set from Ashley Furniture near Olean, NY.  We lucked out because we found a brand new china and buffet for this Leighton dining room set in their huge clearance section.  Nothing was wrong with it and the store said it was most likely returned by someone  because they didn't like the "look" of it in the house or it wouldn't fit through a doorway.  We checked it out from top to bottom, inside and out, and it looked good to us.  Even the touch lighting worked well.  Yes... touch lighting... like in the Jetsons!

Leighton Dining Room

Preview of our painting post next week.  Our goal is to finish the master bedroom by President's Day.  Here's hoping we are successful!

Priming with Kilz over the dark blue walls.