Splash of Color

We have completely finished painting the entire bottom floor of our new house! It's really starting to feel like a home, now! We had it all ready in time to host Life Group this past Sunday evening. Comfortably housing nearly twenty people, Mehaffey Manor has successfully passed it's first initiation.

Here's our living room as it is right now. The furniture may or may not be switched around, and there will definitely be window treatments and decorations on the walls, but doesn't that paint job look great!? We chose to stick with the same color that we used in our previous house, Sauteed Mushroom. Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? Also, what do you think of the new furniture? Brad and I are just in love with it. It's a micro suede fabric that is incredibly soft and greatly resembles leather. It matches wonderfully with the leather chair and ottoman that Charles and Emily donated to our house fund. Chester's not too fond of it, however; he's not allowed to get on it. (Don't want him flattening the back cushions when he perches up on the top, like he did our other one.) Yikes. We'll see how that goes.
Ever since I've ever dreamt of my own kitchen, that kitchen I envisioned has been red. Well, let me tell you, on Hill Ridge Drive, dreams come true! Look at my wonderful red kitchen!! I absolutely love it. Love, love, love it! And I think it looks great with all of our recent Craigslist purchases of black appliances. Also, our red, white, and black fat chef decor is right at home. Oh, I couldn't possibly be any happier with a kitchen, ever. Maybe it'll even inspire me to cook a little! (I said maybe and a little. Don't get crazy.)

We, again, went with gold for the dining room. But this time, we toned down the yellow-ness of it a bit to make it more of a subtle, neutral gold, so as to not compete too heavily with the bold red wall that the dining room shares with the kitchen. We already have three black valances from our old dining room that we'll put on all of the windows, which will hopefully tie the two colors together. And we're planning on putting a tall plant in the corner to hopefully soften the hard line where the different shades meet. But I really like it. Brad and I are both happy with the way that it all turned out. (And it's a very easy transition from the living room color to the dining room color, which is great.)

I adore the blue that Kris helped us pick out to match our bathroom decor. It's a warm enough color that it makes the bathroom feel cozy, but still cool enough that it doesn't make it feel too small. We've also installed a bronze light fixture above the mirror (thank you, again, Craigslist), but I haven't taken a picture since then, so you can't see it. Sorry. For now, just enjoy the pretty hue.

And if you're wondering what Chester has been up to while we've been doing all of this painting...
He lazily lounges around while we work our rear ends off. And he's just spoiled enough that we'll bring the leather ottoman (the furniture he is allowed to get on) into the room where we're working, so he can still feel included. I mean, we wouldn't want to put him out at all, now would we?

She Said "Yes!"

Jeremy proposed to Madison last night!! And, of course, she said "YES!" Yea!!

They got all dressed up for a "regular ol' date," and he took her to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner and then they went to the Opryland Hotel for a romantic stroll. When they got to the exact right location, underneath a waterfall, Jeremy fell to his knee and popped The Question. Oh, we couldn't be more excited!

All of us Mehaffey kids, along with her family from Chattanooga, were waiting to meet them in the lobby afterward. There were plenty of hugs, and tears, and pictures, and then we went back to the Spot to reenact the proposal for some memorable photos.

Yahoo! Madison is going to officially be a Mehaffey!! We couldn't be more proud of your pick in a partner, Jeremy! Congratulations, guys!

Charlie Joy's Shower

This past Sunday, a group of girls from our Life Group had the privilege of throwing Emily a baby shower to celebrate the anticipated arrival of her precious Charlie Joy! I was thrilled to be able to organize a party for my best friend (and now, neighbor) who so deserves to be spoiled, as well as my upcoming "niece."

Of course, we kept the decorations simple, elegant, and pink! Emily's girly, and Charlie is, too! (Only, she doesn't quite know it yet.)

Emily and Charlie Joy were showered with soooo many great gifts! Her nursery is already overflowing! It's a good thing she has a couple more months to get everything in order!

I wasn't even the one being showered with gifts, but I still recognized what a blessing our Tusculum church family is. The women (and men) of this congregation are so incredibly generous and loving. I'm so happy to be continually surrounded by such God-imitating people.

Emily, I can't wait to meet your little girl!! I love her already!!

Chester's Settling In

Well, Chester is definitely making himself comfortable in his new home. He has taken it upon himself to officially claim our bed as his personal throne.

He loves watching out windows, and with the big one behind our bed that is located high on the front of our house, he just can't resist the view. Apparently, he has decided that our big pillows are the perfect pedestal to his royal seat.Which works out fine for him, but it's causing our bed making habit to become nearly obsolete. I took this picture (and the last one, at a different time) on my cell phone so that I could text it to Brad. He needed witness what our little pup is doing while we're gone.
At least I know we're safe, with him patrolling the street like he does. Good, guard dog.

Playing Grown-Up

Brad and I are homeowners!! Can you believe how grown-up we're being?? I mean, really, are we old enough to be this kind of responsible?? It's so bazaar! And we love it! Love it, love it, love it! I'm actually surprised by how much we love it. We lived in a house before, so I didn't feel like this would be much different. But, oh, there is just something about that house actually being yours!!

Please, let me tell you all about it. It's still in Nashville. Is two stories, with a front porch that has spindles (one of my criteria), a back patio, and a garage (we've never had a garage!). The bottom floor consists of a living room, dining room, half bath, and kitchen, along with a few closets.

The bedrooms are located upstairs, all four of them! Our master bedroom is towards the front of the house with an attached full bathroom. We have a guest room, along with a guest bathroom, and an office (that I'm trying to go ahead and call the nursery, but Brad isn't too keen about it), and we've turned the 4th bedroom into a TV Room, which provides us with an additional room for socializing - just what we need.

Chester is gradually getting more accustomed to the new house. I'm not sure he really enjoys the double levels, since he can't "be everywhere at once" anymore. He's started to be too lazy to continually follow us up and down the stairs, or run up and down them when Brad and I are on opposite floors, so he just lays on the landing right in the middle. I guess he thinks that's a good compromise. We just think he's funny.

We closed last Thursday, and officially moved in on Saturday. Brad's parents came down for the weekend to help us out, and we also had a great group of guys from church assist in the move. We were loaded, hauled, and unloaded in less than two hours. That's some serious help! Here are a few quick pictures of where we are right now in the process of settling in, less than a week into it. You can look at more pictures in my photo album. I've been periodically updating it with our progress by adding new pictures on to the end of the album.

We found a lot of great deals on Craigslist, and purchased a new refrigerator, microwave, light fixtures for the entire bottom floor, living room tables, and even a fireplace screen and tool kit. Brad has been hard at work installing everything. It's already really starting to look like home. We're buying new living room furniture once our tax refund comes in. Thank you first-time homebuyer's credit!

With this much space, I do believe that Brad and I can be here for quite a while to come. How fun to think that this is the house that we'll start a family in!! Like, I'll be feeding my baby in his/her high chair in this very dining room! That's so surreal. I can't believe we're actually here. I'm totally on cloud nine.

But, I haven't even told you the best part, yet! This house is located right across the street from our very best friends! Holla!!! Seriously, when you look out from our front porch, you're looking directly at Charles and Emily's house. We could seriously communicate with tin can telephones. And furthermore, some more of our great friends, Kris and Emily, live right next door to them! We've created our own little triangle of friendship. I'll never not be able to bake a cake because I don't have enough eggs, again. (Yeah, right. Like that's what has kept me from baking in the past.) I'm so excited to have our little community. We're so going to raise all of our children together! Granted, theirs will be older than ours, seeing as how both Emilys are currently pregnant with their firsts. (Yea!) But that just means their kids will watch our kids!

Oh, we are so happy to be in this house. It's such an incredible blessing. It is definitely God who graced us with this home. There's no other way that it could have come to be. So many factors (too many to go into here) had to align for us to get this house, and God made sure that it happened. Sometimes, I'm just in awe of how much He loves us. We definitely don't deserve it. But that doesn't mean that we won't enjoy it!

I look forward to painting and hanging things on the walls and really making our house ours, since it really is ours, this time. Get ready for some decorating blog posts in the future! And keep checking back with the photo album as I continue to add updated pictures.

Seriously, we own a house? What?? That is crazy!!

Welcome to...

Mehaffey Manor!