SUYL- Dining Rooms

If you're new here, my name is Heather and I'm 24 years old! (But I'll be 25 in 16 days!!!) I just bought my first HOME in April! I am looooving being a homeowner! When I saw that Kelly from Kelly's Korner was doing a home tour this summer, I decided to wait and show off my new HOUSE on my blog during the home tour!

If you missed the earlier weeks of my house, you should check them out!...
Three weeks ago was the den!
Two weeks ago was the kitchen!
Last week was the guest bedroom & master bedroom!
I finally finished my living room, so I did a post on that last week as well!

This week is the dining room! Sadly, I'm not too excited about showing this one off. This is the one room I have yet to decorate!! My twin sister is getting married in August, so my dining room table has become invitation central!.... Here is a shot looking in from the kitchen.
                                              
           (Purple invitations galore. Coming to a house near you... maybe. If I actually know you...)

I love the space of the dining room, but have no idea what I want to do with it. I love the chandelier! I love the yellow walls. I love the curtains.  But it needs to be DECORATED! I'm thinking of recovering the fabric on the chairs once I decide how I want to decorate it. Here are some more pictures...

 BIG OPEN WALL. AHHHHHH.

SO, here's where I need YOUR help! I'm going to be looking at all of your dining rooms to get inspiration for this room!! If any of you have any ideas on what I could do with this space, I'd love to hear it in a comment!! This room needs YOUR help so badly!!! I want this room to be done by the end of summer, so any and all suggestions are more than welcome!!!

SUYL Home Tour- Kitchen!

I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner today for her Show Us Your Life Home Tour!!

If you're new here, I just purchased my FIRST home in April! I've had so much fun decorating it! I decided to wait and show my house off during SUYL, so  I'm revealing a room a week according to Kelly's tour! It's so fun!

So today is my KITCHEN! I love my kitchen. It was one of the key factors in me picking this home. If you know me, you know I LOVE hosting people! So this kitchen is perfect for that! It has an open area to the den, so it's really easy to have people in the den but still cook! This is the bar area that is in the den but looks into the kitchen...

I LOVE the refrigerator. We ended up talking the sellers into leaving it, and I was so thankful! I love the stainless steal! I love all the counter space and the open cabinets too! 

Love the counter space and cabinets!

My dear friend Sarah is the person who unpacked my kitchen, and she took these two plates and put them together and I think it turned out so cute! It's pretty much the only "decoration" I have right now in my kitchen. I haven't really decided how to decorate it! Right now I'm just loving having a big kitchen! HA!

 This is the sink and dishwasher. That is a pantry to the far right. I love how it opens to the den!

 And this is the view into the den! You can look at last week's post to see more on my den!

To the left of the above picture, you will see two very special picture frames! One is a picture of Holly and I with our pawpaw. That man meant so much to me and I miss him so much! I wanted to put his picture in a place that I'd see it daily. The other picture is a picture of me with my best friends from college! Those girls mean so much to me and I miss them more than they can imagine! I love seeing their smiling faces. And that little plant was left for me by the former owners! It's kind of fun to have a piece of them in the house.

I love love this kitchen! I hope you enjoyed seeing it as much as I enjoyed sharing it. I can't wait to see everyone else's. I need some good inspiration on how to make this room more my own! If you have ANY suggestions, please leave them in a comment! I think next room is show us your bedrooms... be sure to come back and check it out! I can't wait to share my guest room and master room... they are my two favorite rooms of the house!!

The joys of home ownership...

I love being a homeowner so much! I love having my own little house to call my own, and I love decorating it to express my personality. I love love love it!

However, I very quickly realized that not everything is fun and cheery when it comes to home ownership!

On the day that I moved in, my dad was sitting in a rocking chair on my back patio and said, "Heather, that tree is DEAD."

What tree was it? This one.

It's huge. HUGE HUGE HUGE. And it hangs over my fence, my house, and a powerline. GEEZ! I told my dad I'd deal with it over the summer.

Fast forward two weeks. Holly is in the backyard with the dogs, and part of the tree just falls off. And it was so close to hitting my precious house! So right then and there, I knew-- this tree needed to go now.

So I started calling around for estimates. The first guy told me $2,000-- and that didn't even count removing the stump-- and I almost crapped my pants. What?! Thankfully a neighbor/co-worker knew someone cheaper-- he came out and said $950-- and included the stump! So now, my big tree is no more... instead I have this beautiful spot in my backyard....

Praying that the grass seed and rain lately will cause this to be covered up quickly! :)

SUYL- Living Rooms

If you're a regular follower of my blog, I am linking in today with "Show Us Your Life" at Kelly's Korner! This summer she is focusing on different rooms in your house! I am so excited to finally share pictures of my house on my blog! (Please excuse the poor quality of pictures, I couldn't find my camera and had to take them on my iphone!)

If you are new here, here's a little summary about me: My name's Heather! I'm 24 years old and I'm a teacher in the DFW area! I recently just bought my first home (a month ago!) and I've been loving every second of decorating it!

Today, Kelly is showcasing living rooms! I guess that means living rooms and dens... I'm not really sure though! I'm going to do both.

We will start with my den! I love love love my den! It is in the back of the house. It has a sun window and big windows and a door to my back yard that I love! I think they are so pretty!

                           

Those red curtains came with the house, and the walls were already painted yellow! I knew I wanted new couches, but I had no idea what I wanted. I spent several weeks shopping around. I randomly went to Rooms to Go one Sunday, and spotted my couches! They are very colorful and LOUD, but so very much me! I love them and think they fit the room perfectly! (If you notice the ugly couch cushions by the TV stand- those are from my old couches! I'm trying not to let my dogs sit on the new couches-- so those are their "beds".. ha!)

I love love love my fireplace. I love the white brick! Behind that mirror is the most hideous shelf though. Which is why I bought a mirror to cover it up. :) So many of my friends and family live other places besides Dallas, so I like that I have pictures of them on my mantle.

I love that my den opens up to my kitchen. I won't go into detail with the kitchen yet, since that is later in the summer! But I just love how open it is. I would love to get one or two more chairs for the bar area. I just don't know where to get more chairs from because I ordered the table from some random furniture place! HomeGoods in Dallas actually had two identical chairs about a month ago, but I didn't buy them. That is a purchase I regret not making!

I also loooooove that built in bookshelf! I love everything about it! I have tons of books to display, so I love that I can do that in my den!

I am still looking for the perfect runner to go in the big open area behind the loveseat. It's hard to find the right pattern considering I can't really get anything that will clash with those loud couches! If anyone knows of any cute runners somewhere, let me know!!

I also have that big bare wall left to decorate. I can't decide what to put there. I don't know if I want some kind of table or if I want to find something to hang on the wall. Again, if any of you are good home interior designers you just go ahead and leave your suggestions in a comment! HA!  ((EDIT: I PAINTED A BUFFET! HERE IS A NEW PICTURE WITH THE NEW RED BUFFET!)) I LOVE IT!
                           
My living room is in the front of my house and I have done nothing to it. This is what I call my "summer project"!! All three pieces of furniture in this room are really special to me, though! However, I want to do an update to all of them at some point.

The chair and ottoman belonged to my mom. It was originally in our den but was moved into her bedroom. She would sit in that chair and do her daily bible studies, so when I think of that chair I just think of how Godly my mom was. It's a really special chair to me! However, I hate the color plaid. It's got to be recovered- ASAP!

The china cabinet belonged to my grandmother, who passed away in March. I love it, but want to update it as well. I want to stain it a darker color and get new hardware for it. I think it would really  make it pretty!

The piano has been in my family for a long time. I think it belonged to my grandmother's aunt, and then a cousin, and then me. Or something like that! It has been in storage ever since my mom died. My dad recently drove it out to Dallas for me! It is way out of tune, but hopefully I will get it tuned this summer. (Does anyone know of any piano tuners in Dallas?! HA!) Also, I want to give it a major face lift. I'm talking like... major. As in... I want to paint it. I'm not talking staining it, or even painting it say... white. I want to paint it red. Or turquoise. Or something crazy fun! I know it will be bold, but I think I'd really like it! Hm...

Well, there you have it! My first post with inside pictures of my house! I absolutely can't wait to do more this summer! I am LOVING being a homeowner!! Be sure to come back each Friday during the summer as I show more pictures of my NEW house!!

Home Sweet Home

I"m moved in, only three boxes left to unpack! Lots of things left to buy! I promise to do a post soon with pictures so you can see how CUTE my HOUSE is!! :) :) :) Life is so great right now!!!