We love being able to look back on Day One at our previous house (as clammy as the photos make us) – so we took a second to walk around our new house on Day One (in this case, the day all of our big furniture finally got moved over) and snapped these lovely photos. What do you guys think? Gorgeous, no? Our work here is done.
The living room:
The kitchen:
Other side of the kitchen:
The office:
The dining room:
The guest room:
The hall bathroom:
The spare room:
Clara’s room (here’s us frantically trying to get it ready so she had a place that felt like home – and a place to sleep).
This is her room as it looked a few hours later:
Words can’t describe how grateful I am that she’s so enamored with the place.
Here’s our bedroom on Day One, as I was screwing the headboard back into place. Quick tip: every gal needs an accidental bouffant whilst using a power drill.
As for moving, this time we tried a new approach since we had overlapping time at our last house and this one. Instead of needing to squeeze everything into one big truck and move all on one day (which we had to do last time) this time we got to take car-loads of things over every time we went there. So if we were laying flooring we took a load each day we worked on that.
It sure looked crazy, but for the small to medium stuff it seemed to work great. And it definitely cut down on bubble wrap and boxes since just driving a few miles in the car (instead of stuffing everything into a rocky moving van) was a lot lower pressure. You can just cram things into the car in a somewhat thoughtful way, without meticulously wrapping every mirror and frame. And not only was it faster to pack, but unpacking went more quickly and created less waste too. No box graveyard like last time!
We also did one evening of moving that we lovingly called Family Caravan, where John’s parents brought their larger cars over and we did a run to the new house with some bigger stuff like dining chairs and console tables. It was amazing how much we could transport in a 3-vehicle parade over to the new house.
But we still needed a big moving truck to transport large items (beds, dressers, the sectional, our dining table, two daybeds, a few big armchairs, etc). So we recruited some hired help that John’s sister had once used for a move: four guys to lug stuff with us. We didn’t task them with any box packing or furniture dis-assembly (we did that all in advance since we were paying them by the hour). And thanks to all that prep we had the big stuff over to the new house by lunch! So our budget way to use moving help would be to do 80% of it yourself and just hire the big guns for the large stuff – which is hopefully just a few hours of their time.
Not only did things go much faster, but it meant when they left we still had plenty of time and energy to start putting rooms together (we mainly focused on Clara’s so she could feel settled). Plus, John was still in hardwood floor recovery mode so he was grateful to be spared some manual labor. Oh and I knew we’d have moving luck on our side (wahoo, no ditches!) when our U-Haul had my home state of Jersey on it. Picture me doing a good luck fist pump all around the truck before we started loading. You know, as one is apt to do.
Oh and one of my favorite tips is to have small ziplock bags handy along with a sharpie. That way when you disassemble large furniture (John and I did that right before the guys showed up to help) you won’t get to the new house and say “uh, where are those screws… and what goes with what?” I just bagged them, labeled them, and shoved them into my purse. It’s a huge time saver, and a welcome stress saver after what could turn out to be a pretty long day of searching for nearly everything since your house is such a disaster area.
My second tip is to take time to soak it up. We posed for a few nerd-tastic photos throughout the process. It really helps to keep spirits up during a pretty tiring parade of carrying things, stopping to breathe, and carrying more things.
Bet you guys didn’t know I was a windowsill ninja.
So that was Day One and a few moving tips. And you’ll be relieved to know that: A) I’m no longer rocking an accidental bouffant, B) I’m also a top-of-the-car ninja, C) the sofa is put back together, the office no longer looks like a chair convention, but the house is still pretty nuts looking.
Can’t wait to share all the photos as we get this thing together…
The thing about your move that I noticed was y’all have a lot of pillows! :)
It is physically painful to know you moved without a truck. I swear I didn’t know that was possible. #dudegetonthatalready
We did use a truck! See the one with Jersey on the side? Thank goodness, otherwise Karl would have taken about 5 trips tied to the tops of cars…
xo
s
We just moved too! But ours was a spur of the moment, talked to the landlord saturday morning and packed up and moved Saturday night. Never again will we do that! Glad to see your move is way less stressful than ours was!!
Woah! That sounds like a ton of work!
xo
s
Don’t shoot me, but I really like the blue and cream in the office…my parents are antique dealers, so my dad’s house is FULL of blue trim…Williamsburg Blue…it’s identical to yours and I like it despite the fact that it is dated. I believe that’s why my dad chose it, the upstairs of our house is very museum-y. Nice that you put the big girl bed and crib both in her new room. That may make the transition easier. :)
When I saw the office with your furniture in there, I also thought “it looks really pretty with the blue trim!”…and I can say honestly, I have never thought that about blue trim :)
“Headboard screws”… Way to be ambiguous.
Something is wrong with my head :p
Ha!
xo
s
So so exciting! And is it weird that I think the green office chairs kind of go with the blue trim? Can’t wait to see more of the house put together.
So glad the transition to your new place is going well! Your new home is full of so many possibilities and I’m super excited to see what happens next. Happy unpacking!
The new house is going to be totally FAB when you get done!!!
I really think the built ins in the dining room are totally gorgeous – you just need to remove the colonial bonnet tops from them, and I think they will be perfect with your taste and decor.
How fun to have a great house with awesome bones to work with!! HOUSE ENVY!!!!! ;-)
Hi Sherry –
Was curious where you found Clara’s pretty rug for her room. I am looking for a similar type of rug for my daughter bedroom.
Have a great time unpacking – I love that stage of a move where you can find new places for all your nice things!
best
Chernee
That was from Joss and Main a while back. Hope it helps!
xo
s
We’re purchasing our first home (Yippee!) and my husband has it in his head that our Nissan Altima (looks identical to yours!) won’t be able to hold more than a suitcase and a basket full of bedding. I plan to send this to him and reiterate my point to say “See! Pack it right and the Altima can hold A LOT.”
(Congrats again, on your move! Exciting!)
Oh my gosh, it’s like a clown car. We couldn’t believe how much stuff we could get in there! Even with Clara’s car seat in place!
xo
s
Yahoo! You can really see the nice-sized scale of the rooms with your furnature in it. Already lookin’ good.
I’d really appreciate some thoughts on how do you prioritize which projects you take on first or decide what to fully set-up vs. wait on when there is so much to do? (Especially when you have such a skill and eagerness to do it!) For example, you’re drilling in your headboard but you’ll obviously be painting those walls at some point. The bed is functional sans headboard so it’s not necessarily required, on the other hand, you have every room to paint so you could have headboard not attached for months. It makes perfect sense why you would want to get your daughter’s room as complete as possible ASAP and I assume you put your plates in the kitchen cabinets but what about tasks such as setting up a mantle, hanging artwork, etc.? Is there a sense of urgency to accomplish some steps relative to others? It would be interesting to understand how you approach pace/priorities. Congrats on the move, and best wishes in the new home :)
We have painted lots of room with all of the furniture in them, we just push it to the middle of the room and drop a giant drop cloth over it! So we thought settling in the furniture until we paint (sometimes it takes us a year or two – or even more! – to paint every last room) would help us feel at home. Things like organizing the kitchen are a priority since we use it so much, and things like hanging art can wait, just like painting walls :)
xo
s
Really interesting… thanks for the reply! (I might be just too anxious to see what you’ll do! :)
Best,
Jackie
I still can’t believe that you moved…
Is it weird that I’m kinda sad and it has nothing to do with me?!
Excited for the new house though!
It’s definitely bittersweet for us too! The new house’s location is so exciting to us though (last night we went for a walk and met 4 other kids Clara’s age that she can grow up with and hang out with (I picture them riding bikes in our cul-de-sac and get all misty). Haha! And of course we love a house to show some love to, so there’s that!
xo
s
In seeing your now-blue kitchen and thinking back to when you re-painted it, you already had the new house. Your explanation at the time was ‘it would photograph better in photo shoots’. But you knew you’d be moving soon. So… did you really want to cover the grellow because you thought the house would sell easier? Or what’s the real reason?
We explained that for ya in that painting post: “The main reason for the change wasn’t that the color was hard to photograph, it was that over time we realized that the grellow didn’t let the other things in the room shine as much as they might have with a different choice. Take the white cabinets and counters for example. They looked little yellowed thanks to the wall color reflecting on them – and even the cork looked a little orangey-yellow.” If we were painting it for resale we probably would have picked some safer color like white/gray/beige, but we went with a bold-ish blue! It was just about not settling for a color that wasn’t as good with the counters and cabinets :)
xo
s
Oh moving fun… my husband reminded me the other day that when we moved (almost 6 years ago), we were in a mad rush to find a truck because my dad’s truck and trailer were out of commission. It worked and since we were moving 30 miles away, we knew we needed it. We were in a time crunch though so we saved money that way… and we definitely used cars and everything we could. My fish tank and fish were in my husband’s truck and we lost a few in the process. It’s always nice to find crunchy fish an hour or two later….
Anyway, had a question and maybe you’ve already answered it… what is with the walls in both Clara’s room and your room? Is it my imagination or did someone spray something against it to create a weird effect?
Oh yes, we sprayed the doors there (leaned them up) so there’s a white on cream affect that’ll be gone once we paint those rooms :)
xo
s
I love the tip for the screws and viploc baggies. I do that too and it can be a lifesaver :)
I had never thought of that, but it’s such a great idea! Y’all are too smart. Definitely will be doing that next time around!
You guys probably have a million ideas about colors already, but I think horizon gray (which is pretty light) would look pretty awesome in your living room to complement Karl and bounce light around. Can’t wait to see how your things get reconfigured in this new space!
So glad to hear Karl is staying. I will be having my first Ikea experience in August (!!!!) and I’m thinking of grabbing a Karl while I’m there (or something in a similar fabric). We have a little girl and 2 pups so I like the thought of a darker fabric. Our living room & kitchen are Cobblestone by Martha Stewart. Do you think the fabric would be too dark in an already grey room?
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Glidden-DUO-8-oz-MSL241-Martha-Stewart-Living-Cobblestone-Interior-Paint-Sample-GLD-MSL241/203448400
I think as long as it’s darker or lighter than the walls you’re good, and in this case the dark sivik gray fabric that we have would still be a lot darker than the paint you linked to, and if you add mirrors and lighter art and nice curtains it’ll hopefully be nice and balanced.
xo
s
Love Clara’s rug!!! Where did you get it?!
Christine
That was from jossandmain.com a while back!
xo
s
Looking good guys! Where are you blogging from at the moment with no office desk?
Looking forward to seeing how Karl is set up.
x
There’s some sofa blogging and some blogging from the little built-in desk from the kitchen. Actually right now I’m sitting on the floor, so there’s a whole lot of random going on. Haha!
xo
s
This was a tough call but my vote would be on Windowsill Ninja over Dining Room Table Mime.
Bwahahaha! Comment of the day.
xo
s
I am really enjoying these selling/moving/organizing posts! We moved from NJ to NH just about a year ago, buying the NH house in December and finally moving in May. So we did plenty of car trips in between, albeit much longer than yours!
As my husband and I are not youngsters like you guys, I thought I’d pass along a tip to anybody in the middle and plus-middle years. We enlisted a couple of high school football team bruisers to help load our Penske truck in NJ and two strong college-age dudes to help with the unloading in NH. On both ends, we used our realtors for the hook-ups. That saved us a lot of aches and pains!
Now if only somebody from New Jersey would please move to New Hampshire and bring the good Italian food with them, life would be complete! We’ve got lots of fresh air and clean lakes and beautiful nature all around. But decent proscuitto? Crusty bread? Fugheddaboutit!
So smart to use football teamers!
xo
s
Yay Petersiks! Love this post – makes me excited for things to come! Congrats on the move, hope the transition continues to go smoothly. Also if you packed all of your ceramic animals together, would LOVE to see a pic of that ensemble :)
I love the rug switcheroo!
Usually I hate it when people give you suggestions or pester you about future plans, but I’m going to break my own rule and wonder if you plan to completely gut the hall bath upstairs? And if so, have you considered adding a cute little pocket door from the guest room so they can have their own entrance for privacy?
That would be fun, although we don’t know if we have the room for it (we could probably do that if we made it a single sink, but if Clara and a possible future sibling have to share that room one day we might rather have a double sink than a door for guests to get in there since it’s just a few steps from their room to get at it from the hall. We’ll have to see where we end up!
xo
s
I think that is a nice idea to connect guest room an the bath room, but I don’t think it helps for privacy. I personally would always forget to lock both doors as a guest and then one of the kids would bust in while im showering ;-) Maybe a few dollars (or in my case Euros) and buying nice hotellike plushy bathrobes to wear for the few steps on the hallway would create more privacy for me…
Love the “windowsill ninja” photo, it made me smile, thank you for sharing.
We just moved from Boston to Tennessee last year. We packed all of our boxes, but knew we might not be able to open them for a few months (until we bought a house). So I made a detailed list of what was inside every box. It was really helpful when looking for stuff, unpacking methodically, and keeping inventory. I’d totally do it again.
Love the switcheroo of living and bedroom rugs! House looks great, already looking forward to day 2 and beyond! Thanks for making my morning Routine (I’m on west coast time) with a cup of coffee and your blog one of the most peaceful parts to my day!
I love the humor you infuse in everything you write about. I’m sure you’ve had some frustrating moments along the way, but being able to look back on your blog to remember the positives is so…well…positive! I’m looking forward to seeing the new house begin to come together. Good luck!
I am sure you guys already know this but I (finally) got around to reading my latest HGTV mag and there was some YHL collection lamp love going on! I know it’s a little weird and geeky but I get excited when I see your products pop up. You guys are amazing – the house already looks better just with your stuff in there. And I suppose those new hardwoods upstairs don’t hurt either! Good luck sorting and settling in.
Aw thanks Vanessa! It was such a surprise for us to see that too!
xo
s
So much work, but so exciting!
We do the ziplock trick too but we throw the bags in an orange pumpkin Halloween bucket. We also add in a small hammer, screwdriver, and a few other moving day necessities. It is always easy to spot the orange pumpkin if you put it down and it has a handle for easy transporting from room to room.
like!
have you turned over the keys to your old house already? can you not go back unless invited now? this thought just made me hiccup out a few sobs. i’ve never been good with goodbyes.
i do like hellos though and this is a very good one!!
Not quite yet, very very soon. Sniffle.
xo
s
lox-colored walls.
i admire your courage of address.
Haha! Lox has to be the paint name. Spicy Salmon out, Lox in.
xo
s
Holy moly! Clara’s room looks perfect already, and the rest of the house has so much potential. I’m just dying to see what you do to it all!
SO EXCITING! I can’t wait to see how you guys transform your new home. I already see some similarities between our houses, and I can’t wait to see your ideas so that I can um, borrow them. haha
P.S. I went fabric shopping in Raleigh this past weekend for a project and came across your headboard fabric. Had to snap a picture and send it to my BFF. “YHL headboard, anyone?” We’re dorks.
Haha!
xo
s
Well at least the dining room looks like its ready to entertain. As crazy as it all looks I kind of wish I could be doing the same thing. Well at least to experience the joy of a new place.
Quick question. I know you said you have an attic space for extra storage. Is the attic finished with real flooring, or is it one of those attics where you have to cautiously navigate your way across plywood and planks that are laid haphazardly across the floor/ceiling joists? Well, nm, I guess you do have that whole space above the garage even if the attic flooring isn’t finished!
It has plywood flooring, so it’s easy to walk on but not “finished” like a real room by any means (no drywall, exposed beams, etc).
xo
s
Accidental bouffant happens to all us ponytail gals! I usually refer to mine an accidental powdered wig.
Oh yes, you should see me at the beach. It’s accidental clown hair.
xo
s
I sure it’s been mentioned, but I love the flip flop of the rugs. One advantage in decorating a whole house and not just rooms is you can move stuff around like that to refresh.
Oh my gosh, the windowsill ninja picture made me die laughing! It’s so totally goofy…and like something I would do, which is probably why I loved it so much. Thanks for the laugh and the Day 1 pictures. Can’t wait to see the awesomeness sure to be coming from your home down the road!
Even having your furniture there in piles makes it really seem like a YHL home! Cannot WAAAAAIT for the DIY to begin (not that the floors didn’t count, but chaknow!)
I am so jealous. I am a former military wife (hubs left active duty in January) and am used to moving every 3-4 years. I really, really miss this stage full of so many possibilities! Unfortunately we aren’t at a point where we can move right at the moment, and I really do love our current home, but I miss the blank slate feeling. I look forward to living vicariously through you as you get settled in. Good luck!!
We are in the process of moving from one house to another (just a few miles away from each other). We plan to take boxes/carloads in the hopes of renting a smaller moving van. We’ve moved from NY to VA and VA back to NY in HUGE TRUCKS PACKED TO THE GILLS!!
Can’t wait to see what you do with this house and like you, our new house will be our forever home and we plan to update slowly. We are taking the Petersik approach and living in it for awhile before making any major changes.
What size van did you end up using for just the big stuff?
Thanks!!
I think it was a 20′ moving truck (from UHaul). Probably didn’t need one that big, but it was nice to know we wouldn’t need two trips.
xo
s
It’s so fun to see your stuff in the new house! I can’t believe how quick you put Clara’s room together!
We hired movers for the first time this March. My partner and I were combining our 2 places into one. I packed EVERYTHING for the movers to take from my place, and he had the movers take the big things from his place. He ended up doing lots of little loads back and forth, and ultimately totally stressed me out.
Yes, we paid by the hour for the movers, but they stacked 3 or 4 boxes on top of each other and were FAST. The boxes and small items took them 10 or 15 minutes on each end. That was totally worth the extra 1/2 hour of time for me.
We used that way of moving too! It seemed to work well for us too. We had a gap of time in our apartment while we had the house, so everyday we would take stuff from the apartment to the house. It cut down on all the packing and packing materials we needed. Woohoo!
what is that wooden thing in front of your fireplace? it looks like some sort of shelf typed thing? very strange. very curious.
do you think you’ll make up some mood boards for any of the rooms? i love me a good mood board. i loved how you made one for your last living room and nothing ended up how you planned besides a grey sectional. it’s fun to see your original ideas and how much they change as time goes on.
ps. totally wish i saw that bear walk in. jealous.
That’s the console table that goes behind the sofa. It’s just taken apart (we built it in 3 pieces) so it looks crazy. As for mood boards, I’d love to make those and use inspiration images for you guys (to share a peek into everything swirling around my head). Should be fun!
And yes, I’m SO JEALOUS you saw the bear. What’s a girl gotta do to see a bear burst out of a picture on her blog?
xo
s
OMG Sherry, if someone manages to take a screen shot of the bear and send it to you guys, could you please share it with us? I am so jealous not to have the bear, haha.
Haha, Will do!
xo
s
Somebody did post the screen shot, but I forget on which day’s post. Sorry!
Oh yeah! Was that the bear just walking though?! I need to see him burst out of a photo! Action shot.
xo
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Can’t wait to see all of your projects on the new house! Please tell me about the pillowcases in your stuffed-car pic?! Cute!
Those are from Pottery Barn a long time ago (before I had Clara!). Maybe they still sell them though? The pattern is called “organic woodland” or something.
xo
s
How excited is Clara to have two beds in her room?!
So excited! She loves her room. Warms my little mom heart.
xo
s
I moved from a third floor walk up to a first floor condo. I had a few days of overlap. Being on my own, I also did the drive over every day with a few boxes of little stuff and cleaned a room or two a day, focusing on having the kitchen cabinets wiped down and filled with pots, pans, and some shelf-stable food, and at least one bathroom ready to go for that first night’s shower. It’s a blessing when you have some time in between.
My prior owner was nice – he actually left behind toilet paper, some extra lightbulbs, and paper towels, all packaged, where I could easily find them. I didn’t need them, but thought it was very welcoming, and could have been a god-send if I hadn’t prepped an ‘unpack first’ box.
But, yep, had pro movers for the big stuff (beds, couches, and lots of books) – I did most of my own packing, but the guys were great….and treating them to donuts in the morning and Portillos for lunch made sure that all my stuff was carefully placed just where I wanted it!