The Gross House

We bought a house!

While moving to Arkadelphia was a bit of a life altering adjustment, one thing I have been looking forward to is getting out of an apartment and into a house. To save Matt a commute, we looked at a few houses in town, only to find what we (mostly jokingly) refer to as a seedy underbelly of real estate COLLUSION!

I know I keep reiterating this, but Arkadelphia is tiny. So it shouldn't be surprising that there are a grand total of three (that I could find) real estate agents in the area... and two of them are a husband and wife team. Almost every house for sale was:

• Over priced.
• Not in an area we wanted to live.
• Too small.

So we widened our search radius to suburbs of Little Rock, and we found the town of Benton, a city with a Target (gasp!) and Kroger (be still my heart!) and even a Best Buy (*faints*).

When Matt came across our house, I was not impressed because the photos were crazy blurry. I mean like- someone was on a Pogo stick and trying to operate a camera. Matt remained undaunted due to the fact the price was extremely enticing and it seemed to fit our wish list.

• Older home (1947) with "character"
• Hardwood floors
• Nice backyard
• 3+ bedrooms

It definitely seems as though we were destined to have this house, as the home buying process was almost totally a breeze.

• Our house was a foreclosure, meaning a bank owned the house. Typically, buying a foreclosure takes forever because it's not as though you are buying from a seller who is antsy to move out. Our offer had to meet a bunch of criteria that some guy at a desk had to rubber stamp APPROVAL on.
• Also (and this is only from our experience of looking at foreclosures) when the previous owners vacate, they take everything but the windows panes. We looked at one where even the copper wiring had been stripped. Fortunately, our house had a working oven and stove, a most-likely out-of-commission dishwasher, and even a washer and dryer. 
• Then the inspection went well! While there are definitely things we need to fix (like the furnace) we were thrilled to learn the house wasn't built on an active volcano or Indian burial ground or no working plumbing. (Some of those things were more likely than others.)

But enough gabbing: I know why you're really here! 

Without further ado, I give you: The Gross House!

Welcome home! Excuse the mop next to the door...

The pergola is over a concrete slab. It's a little rickety, and had been covered with grape vines. We may or may not keep it up.

The entrance. LOVE the front door with the stained glass. LOVE the giant window. HATE that the fireplace is cream. Why would you paint the fireplace cream when the mantel is white?

Can we pause for a moment and admire these door knobs? 

Thanks.

Note the popcorn ceiling! We have already started scraping.

View from the front door when you walk in.

Looking into the dining room. Already bemoaning cleaning hardwood floors as they OBVIOUSLY show dirt/ceiling flecks.

Aaaaaaand thus begins the wacky wallpaper tour of the Gross House.

I do love the built-ins on either side of the windows.

Not sure if I'm keeping the chandelier- it looks a little hokey to me with those bulbs. DO note the popcorn ceiling. Gonna be scraping those down, too.

If you continue through the door in the dining room, you'll come across this lovely wallpapered hallway. The door on the left takes you to our one car garage, complete with overhead attic space. The door straight ahead takes you to the backyard.

This room actually has most favorite ceilings in the whole house!

Matt got a little ahead of himself removing the pear wallpaper. While I admire his fervor (especially since I'm sure we will both be sick of removing wallpaper in one month) this room is not on my immediate to do list.

Since it was raining, I didn't take a ton of photos outside, but here's a sneak peak of the back yard. Matt is especially excited to have a larger garden.

Our storm cellar/swimming pool. That pipe in the middle has been allowing water in for God knows how long, filling up the 8' storm cellar. Great.

We also have a pretty sizable shed/garage behind the storm cellar, but I don't have any photos at this time, mostly because we don't have a key to get into it.

Back into the house! Moving from the dining room into our kitchen.

Yes, that is a pup tent in place of a fridge. Yes, that IS more wallpaper to remove.

If you turn to the right, there's a door to our basement and a neat nook for an ironing board.

Also this. We don't know what this is. Looks like it might be a tiny trash can?

The cabinets are actually in really good shape, meaning they are probably not the originals. I'm dying to paint them white but Matt equates that with me saying, "Matt? I'm thinking I want to burn the kitchen down."

To the right of this photo is a door that leads to the laundry... hallway... room.

MORE wallpaper! We're not sure if that machine works. I do appreciate the drying line finagled in front of the window. The door to the left leads to the backyard.

So let's swing back to the living room. Remember this photo with this door? If you walk through it, you find yourself in a hallway with three bedrooms and one bathroom.

 Hang an immediate right, and you are in the front bedroom.

Matt cameo!

I like this room for two reasons: Smooth ceiling and NO wallpaper!

Just a nice, stamped maroon wall that I need to prime and paint over.

Next to the front bedroom is the one full bath in the house. Ideally, we would have loved to buy a house with two full baths, but with all the other bonuses, we compromised.

Something that softened the blow for me was the CLAW FOOT TUB!

I'm in love, with both the tub AND the wainscoting! 

Clearly it needs... restoring.

Love.

LOVE.

Okay- I'll show you the other parts of the bathroom. Like the toilet.

I wish I had a proper "Before" photo of the toilet, but imagine if you will, SOLID MOLD inside that bowl.

Yes, that is wallpaper that has been PAINTED OVER. Between that and the moldy toilet, this bathroom was LUCKY it had the claw foot tub or else it would have NOTHING to redeem it.

Oh, yeah. There is a shower. Not as exciting as the tub, but infinitely more practical. 

And this nifty thing. Not sure what we are going to use it for since it is way too small to be a laundry hamper. 

Speaking of nifty things in the house, back in the hallway is this stand thing. I had no idea what it was, until a real estate agent mentioned that back in the 1940s and 1950s, households typically only had one phone.

It's a phone nook!

It's details like this that made me fall in love with this house.

Back to the tour: the second bedroom is right next to the bathroom. We've been sleeping here as we do our projects prior to moving in, so excuse the mess.

No wallpaper! No popcorn ceiling! Hooray!

I'm thinking it will be my office, since it already has some nice built in shelves.

The final bedroom is at the end of the hallway, and while it is the smallest bedroom, it contains the largest closet AND has a half bath attached.

We've already started working on this room. I peeled all the wallpaper off and scraped the ceiling, and then sanded everything before Matt and I primed every square inch of that baby. 

That's the downstairs! Directly in front of the bathroom is a short but narrow flight of stairs.

We have tons of space upstairs, so we're talking about making it a den/TV room. The only issue is getting a big comfortable couch up those incredibly narrow stairs, and after three months of trying to watch TV on ridged antique chairs, we need a new couch.

Massive upstairs space! To save us time on moving from Arkadelphia, we've been bringing car loads of tubs over and just putting them upstairs so they aren't in the way of our renovation AND it saves us moving time later.

This could be another bedroom or an office area.

Yup- definitely replacing the carpet upstairs.

Around that corner is my one of my favorite things:

A nook! The view isn't all that impressive, but I imagine a little reading area in this spot, where I can curl up with a hot cup of tea and a good book.

There's a couple of closets like these that offer some storage for my MASSIVE holiday decor. Matt's already miffed because I'm hinting about redoing my Christmas decor. (I have a new house! I need new decorations!)

And there you have it! Not pictured is:

• The half bath.
• The basement.
• The garage.
• The shed.
• The backyard.

In later posts, I'll be looking at each room in more detail and sharing my ideas for the space. I'm so excited about the house and making it our home. Thanks for reading and for all the encouragement, I genuinely appreciate it!

Two Years Later: A Look Back at our October Wedding

I originally started this blog (or bi-annual update) when I was getting married, and while I posted a few photos, I feel like I haven't accurately portrayed my wedding day.

Fortunately for you, we are now two years into married life, meaning my posts won't have that gooey, newlywed glow.

You're welcome.

The setting: The Allandale Mansion. While the temperatures were dipping and my future mother-in-law was frantically texting me about buying space heaters, we couldn't have had a more beautiful morning. Looking back, I do wish we had scheduled the ceremony to begin at 12:30 rather than 11:30, but I was worried our guests would be hungry.

And just in case you didn't notice it in the previous photo, here's a close up of the HERONS that we said our vows in front of. Maybe I should start collecting heron figurines... is that a thing? Oh yeah, definitely a thing.

The details: I didn't really have a set "theme" for my wedding, and since I discovered Pinterest after my wedding (to my eternal sadness) I used other wedding blogs for my inspiration (RuffledBlog.com and OnceWed.com were some of my favorites).

One bit of decor I am especially proud of is the photo below. We framed photos of previous weddings in our families (including Matt's great-grandparents) and placed our mothers' weddings dresses on either side (and yes, I did try both of them on). A couple of weeks before the wedding, my mother found her mother's dress.

Ceremony & reception: I walked down the aisle to "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds, a song I've had reserved for my wedding ever since my best friend in middle school played it for me and said her brother's wife walked down the aisle to it. Props to that bride!

Since Matt felt that he could not put into words how much he loves me was too chicken to write his own vows, we ended up repeating the traditional vows, although "honor and obey" some how didn't make it into mine. (Totally slipped the preacher $5. No... not really.)

So you know how something always manages to go wrong the day of the wedding? Like, the caterer is late, or you singe your bangs off, or your flower girl rolls around in mud? Well, my "Oh no, please God, Say this isn't happening moment" came about about thirty minutes before the ceremony.

Matt and I had decided to forego unity sand for a Unity Cross. Basically, the outer part represents a man's strength, while the curly-cued inside represents the delicate woman who completes him. While explaining this to our preacher, I tried handing him the "bride" piece...

... only to watch it fall to the ground and break in two.

Fortunately, my best friend Kellie jumped into crisis handling mode and started tracking down wood glue. She had her mother stop at a Walmart and the two of them worked on that baby right up until I walked down the aisle AND it managed to make it through the ceremony.

Shout out to Kellie and Mrs. Keyes!

Thank. God.

Seriously- you all have no idea how hard my heart was pumping as he held that cross up. Can you imagine what would have happened if our UNITY cross BROKE during the ceremony? I'd have expected a crack of lightning across the sky or something.

Since we were married on a Sunday morning, we decided to have a brunch reception. In addition to the buffet, we had a custom omelette station and saved on alcohol by offering mimosas, bloody marys, wine and beer. And if you're the best man- screwdrivers. LOTS of screwdrivers. 

I'm not really a cake person, and Matt doesn't care for desserts at all (so he claims...) so instead I had some family members and close friends bake pies and other goodies while the caterer supplied a coffee cake. 

Daddy and I danced to "You'll Always be my Baby," and believe it or not, I don't believe I cried. In fact, I don't believe I cried once during my wedding. Chalk it up to not being able to take it all in.

My sister rapped her toast. RAPPED. HER. TOAST. 

Kellie caught the bouquet! 

And just in case no one warns you: bird seed HURTS and GETS EVERYWHERE. And by everywhere, I mean everywhere.

Our wedding photos were taken by Kyle Gregory of K.G. Capture. Some of my favorite shots are below.

Matt doesn't understand why he doesn't have a head in this photo- but I keep telling him it's because the flowers are the focus. And maybe his wedding ring... which he lost two weeks later.

And my end-all-be-all favorite photo of the whole day that I look at when I'm so exasperated with Matt because he put a spoon covered with Greek yogurt in the sink AGAIN instead of the dishwasher:

Stay posted for some excited news next week! I may actually have a reason to keep up with this blog a bit more!