Shorewood

I feel like I should start at the beginning.  When I got married and moved in with my husband into this house.  We named it Shorewood.

This was our first house.  He bought it before we even started dating and rented out a few of the rooms to some of his guy friends.  It was a bachelor pad, for sure. 

This is what I saw the first time I walked in to the living room:

One of my husband's friends playing video games on one of the TWO couches lined up with their backs against the beautiful stone fireplace, facing the TWO televisions on two Walmart rugs with pillows stuffed under the couch cushions due to the sagging of the couches.  The ficus tree was a gift from one of the roommates' mother.  There were two pictures on the wall hanging up very high, dirty blinds on metal windows, and these two coffee tables that my husband made and didn't finish.

I definitely had my work cut out for me.  I tried a couple of different things.  Here is the final layout:

This worked pretty well for us. 
Curtains- Target, kind of a faux silk. 
Red plate- Home Goods
Chair/ottoman- a set from Sam's Club
Coffee table- Home Goods
TV stand- Target
Windows- Window World
Dining table- Sam's Club
Rug- as part of a set from Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

The windows were probably one of the most expensive items, but they made a world of difference!  Window World worked with us and let us do one room at a time, as we could afford them.  The sound and air insulation made a huge difference and they were much more attractive than the metal. 

The paint color is "Sandstone Cliff" by Behr sold at Home Depot.

Don't you mean "Domestic"?

Don't you mean "Domestic"?

No.  I've never felt like I was a domestic woman.  Cooking, laundry, and cleaning just didn't come easy for me.  And it wasn't a big deal because I worked full time as a nurse and we could eat out and hire a maid if we had really wanted to.  We traveled, spent money on things we didn't need, and we had lots of fun, but I didn't cook or clean, or do laundry very often.  We even started a small business because we had lots of extra time on our hands.

Then one day...we had a baby, about 6 months ago.  Both my husband and I had stay-at-home moms when we were little, so we wanted that for our baby too.  Here's the thing though:  I spent 5 years of my life earning 2 degrees and took the N-CLEX just to work as an R.N. for 3.5 years?  We are still paying back loans for school and I'd like to keep my skills up.  So, I decided to go back to work at least one 12 hr. shift per week, sometimes 2 shifts/week.  My mom or my mother-in-law keep the baby while I'm at work, and he loves it, so everyone is happy.

Here comes the domesticated part:

Suddenly, I find that I am a stay-at-home mom (mostly) but I'm not domestic!  I know, right?  So these posts will be mostly about how I am learning to cook, clean, do laundry, sew, raise a child, decorate our house (did I mention we moved into a new home the day before we found out I was pregnant?), and be a nurse 12-24 hrs. per week.  Hopefully one day this wild animal will be so domesticated that she appears to be naturally domestic.