The humble beginnings of our new home.

It's a terrible picture, but it's just about all I have of our soon-to-be house in Raleigh. I'll definitely be taking plenty more "before" photos as soon as we have the keys.

This is taken from the open living room at the front of the house, looking into the kitchen, and into the dining room at the back of the house. We're thankful that even though the house has the charm of a home built 60 years ago, it was completely gutted and redone just a few years ago, so there's not that much to be fixed up. We'll be having the interior painted before we move in - it's a soupy beige/yellow throughout right now - and eventually painting the kitchen cabinets, too.

I've been careful not to succumb to scouring Pinterest for hours as I have to remember this whole making-a-house-a-home thing is a process. With our limited budget and time, it may take a few months (or years?) to get it to where we really love it, and that's ok.

But here are a few ideas of what we're going for...

Love the paint color and airy feel of this living room (thank you, Kelli, for reintroducing me to The Lettered Cottage!):

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I love this bathroom wall (in my dreams!):

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These simple bookshelves for Liam's tiny room:

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These chicken wire cabinets:

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This bedroom (and pretty much everything from this blog):

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Also, I adore this home tour:
Kalli's home tour 
Kitchen & dining room
Rest of Kalli's house

Do any of you have paint color suggestions? We're looking for a very light grey that leans toward blue/green more than toward beige. Any ideas?

Can you tell I'm excited?! We've been in boxes since the end of May and in transitional housing (including my parents' house and now a basement apartment) since then. Our stuff from storage will arrive just a few days after we close, and I'm sure it will feel like Christmas. Maybe even better. Two more weeks can't come soon enough!