My Obsession with Galley Walls Continues..

If you have ever been in our home or follow me on Pinterest, you know that I have a not-so-secret obsession with gallery walls -- I LOVE them! What better way to give your walls a little character, showcase your family's personality, and display beloved pictures and signs than with a beautifully decorated wall?

When we first bought our home, I knew exactly where I wanted to put our living room gallery wall and began planning it out in my head before we even moved. Want to take a take a peek?

"The Sandmeiers" Kansas Print / Pick Your Plum

"God Bless America" Print / LaLuna Designs

I absolutely love this wall and could stare at it all day -- this wall represents our family, beliefs, and loves. I am constantly on the hunt for little signs and trinkets that represent our family and cannot wait to continue adding to our gallery wall in the future. 

What do you like to add to your gallery walls? 

Splashing the Back

When we first bought our home, I was concerned about the kitchen.. it was small, the appliances were black (which I would have never chosen -- they always look dirty no matter how much you clean!), and it was pretty dang small. However, I figured that since it is our first home and that we only planned to be there for a few years, we could definitely manage.

Today I am happy to report that I have a beautiful NEW kitchen thanks to my husband!

Okay, it's not a completely new kitchen, but it feels like it because of the new backsplash Brandon applied over the weekend. Check out the before, during, and after pictures to see what a HUGE difference it made to our kitchen!

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

My shoddy photography skills don't do our "new" kitchen justice, but you get the idea of how it looks now and what a HUGE impact it made! I absolutely love our kitchen and how much more personality it has now because of our tiled backsplash! I'm so glad I have a handy husband who likes to do projects around the house :)

House Hunters Hindsight

Our episode of House Hunters premiered on Thursday -- what a weird experience to actually see yourself on one of your favorite shows (and to hear the narrator with the cool voice talking about you)! We had such a fun time watching the show at my parent's with family friends and really enjoyed hearing from you during and after the show!

My Costco snack haul

I found a Family Feud app that shows clips of the show.. he was wanting my phone so he could watch.. 

My honorary aunt didn't want her picture taken.. 

As I mentioned last week, Brandon and I hadn't seen the episode before it aired, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Overall, Brandon and I were both really happy with the way the episode turned out, but I do have a few takeaways:

~I have never in my life used the term "digging", so I'm not sure why I felt the need to say it so much on the show ("I'm definitely not digging this," "I'm digging this paint color," etc.).

~Yes; we are Catholic.

~Carpet for Jackson seriously wasn't as vital as it sounded on the show.

~One person on Twitter commented that we had the biggest couch they had ever seen in their life.. that's because it is the largest couch ever made (it's no longer ours, by the way -- we sold it months ago)! 

~

She followed it up with some spiel about not posting things about people on TV because they made read it, tweet you back, and make you feel like a horrible person.. #truth. My takeaway from this tweet is that I also need to be kinder on social media.. in the past, I have tweeted about celebrity fashion choices, people on reality shows, etc., and now know how it feels. 

~My friends are hilarious:

~Jackson wasn't sure what to think of the show -- at first he was really excited because he heard Brandon's and my voices (he was standing there smiling at the TV) -- but before long, he was fighting me for my phone so he could watch more Family Feud clips. 

~I don't remember Jax ever being so tiny!!! 

~We absolutely love our home -- a few of the rooms are still a work in progress, but I'm hoping to have them finished soon! When I do, I will most definitely be sharing pictures :) 

Thank you to everyone who watched (including Courtney) -- we really appreciate everyone's support and kind words! It was such a fun and unique experience and we feel truly blessed to have been able to participate. Thank you also to my girl Ruthie for helping us get in contact with the show -- she helped us fast track the entire process, and for that we are very grateful! 

I leave you with a few screenshots that were taken by friends:

Our "House Hunters" Story

The day I thought would never arrive is actually here..

..our episode of House Hunters is finally airing on HGTV!

We filmed our episode back in October and were told it would probably air sometime in April.. so when June rolled around and we still hadn't heard anything from the network or production company, we'd figured they had just decided to scrap it. Obviously, that wasn't the case as it is finally set to air tonight at 10/9c. That being said, I figured now was a great time to actually sit down and document our House Hunters experience (though I wish I had done it sooner -- hopefully I can remember everything)!

As many of you know, we moved to Denver last January after Brandon accepted an amazing job offer with one of the world's largest telecommunication companies -- since we only had a matter of weeks to move from Kansas to Colorado (and because we had a newborn baby), we basically rented the first apartment we toured and paid ridiculous prices for it. It wasn't long after moving into our overpriced two-bed, two-bath third floor apartment that we began to get the home buying itch. After doing our homework, we discovered that we could get a great rate/loan with Brandon's veteran status, and actually pay considerably less for a mortgage payment vs. rent. That was all we needed to hear.

Shortly after applying for a mortgage, we were put in contact with our realtor Kyle Sheldon (who is the best, by the way -- we highly, highly recommend him!) and began scouring north Denver for a small, affordable house. Easier said than done.

As you will see on the show, we FINALLY found the perfect house for our little family (in the perfect price range!) and had our offer accepted by the seller the same day we made it. We really couldn't have asked for a smoother buying process and really feel that this was the house was meant for us. I don't want to give away too many show secrets but I figured I'd give a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at our experience with the show:

~ As many of you know, my college major was broadcast journalism, so I found the production process to be extremely fascinating -- it's amazing what they can do with such a small crew (one cameraman, audio person, director, and production assistant)!

~One of the harder parts of filming was having to leave Jax for hours at a time (as I was still nursing him constantly in October) -- my mom watched him for us the entire time and was such a lifesaver! Thanks, Grammy :)

~The crew took us out to eat every single day and I'm pretty sure we each gained 5 lbs. from all of the delicious food!

~We haven't seen the episode yet, but I have a feeling I know what it's about based on the description my mom sent:

During filming, our director had us talk about several different scenarios over and over (our monster sectional, my need for an office, Jax needing carpet to walk on, etc.) so that the writer would have a variety of story lines to choose from.. I guess they decided to go with the sectional story line? Funny story/spoiler alert: We'd already bought new furniture before even filming because we knew we couldn't take that thing with us! 

~I'm not sure how Brandon and I are going to sound in the episode but I wanted to assure everyone that we really aren't that high strung/picky in real life! The director of each episode really wants you to elaborate on every possible problem you see, so we just went with it.

~If you read my blog on a regular basis, you know that I'm extremely sarcastic and that I have no real control out of the things that come out of my mouth (or something like that).. I had a few of the moments while filming and I'm interested to see if they make it to air.

~My mom, dad, brother, and his roommate all stopped by for our (completely unstaged) house warming party -- you can see the Wernsman clan at the end of the episode.

~The housing market in Denver is CRAZY and we seriously lucked out finding/buying our house when we did -- the estimated value of it now is nearly $30K more than when we purchased it 9 months ago.

~You can read more about our House Hunters experience/how we decorated our home (which is a work in progress) here.

The infamous sectional (this is the picture we used for our Craigslist ad -- luckily, it sold and we were immediately able to pay off our new furniture!)

Day one of shooting with our awesome realtor, Kyle, and crew!

After you watch the episode, this picture will make more sense. 

Last day of filming (spoiler alert: this is the house we chose!)

My family (after shooting the final "party" scene)! 

Which house did we chose? Find out tonight at 10/9c! 

OUR HOUSE HUNTERS EPISODE IS FINALLY GOING TO AIR!

In case you missed it..

We finally know when our episode of House Hunters is going to air! 

It's funny because I literally made a comment to Brandon last week about how I'd come to terms with the fact that they'd never show our episode (we filmed in October), so I'm really excited! Now we just need to figure out how to watch it, as we do not have cable.. I wonder if we could go to a bar and make them change the channel from whatever game is on to HGTV? Bar patrons like that kind of thing.. right? 

I'm hoping to be able to sit down and finally write about our HH experience next week and share pictures and stories, so stay tuned!

Veteran Wall

**Before I even begin, I need to address/apologize for the terrible quality of these photos -- this wall is located in an awkward hallway next to our front door with zero natural light (that and I'm not a photographer to begin with).

With today being Memorial Day, I wanted to take a moment to thank all our service men, women, and their families for the sacrifices they make on a daily basis. I love this country and cherish our freedoms -- freedoms that we wouldn't have without our service members hard work, sacrifice, and dedication. If you see a veteran today (or a family of a fallen vet), please buy them a coffee, give them a hug, or simply say "thank you."

As many of you know, Brandon is an army veteran (in fact, we first met when he was on his two week leave from Afghanistan -- more about that here) and I've always wanted to do something in our home to honor him and the rest of our veteran family members. I had been wanting to do some sort of a tribute wall for awhile now but never had the space for it until we bought our home. Once we moved in, I knew right where it would go..

To give you a little visual, when you walk through the front door, there are the living room and stairs directly in front of you, and then a little hallway to the left -- when we got settled in and began to decorate, I knew that that was our veterans wall.

Here's my favorite wall in our entire house:

(Top L to R: My Great Grandpa Edward; Grandpa Paul; Brandon)
(Bottom L to R: Brandon's Grandpa Donald and my Grandpa Julius)

I just love the way this wall turned out -- it's so simple, yet adds so much to our home! I'm so proud of our family and can't wait to teach Jackson more about them (he LOVES this wall! He's always wanting me to pick him up so he can point to each picture while I tell him who everyone is).

Our Love Nest

Remember that time Brandon and I bought our first home (7 months ago)?

You forgot because I never talk about it, didn't you?

I've been waiting and waiting for our episode of House Hunters to air to show off our home but it still hasn't aired.. and we have no clue when it will *side note: I check HGTV's website daily to see the upcoming episodes -- no sign of ours just yet!* Anyway, I decided enough is enough and wanted to start sharing a few of the rooms in our home.

Today I will be showing off Brandon's and my bedroom decor (the room where the magic happens *wink* sorry if you're reading this, 16-year-old Jackson!). Enjoy!

 

Would you believe that this little nugget threw the biggest tantrum of his (almost) 17 month life because I wouldn't let him play with our $600 camera? Though he probably would have done a better job at taking pictures with my wonky lighting set up.. #toddlers

Bedding//Gordmans

Mr.& Mrs. Bunting//2 Berry Creative

Soda Pop Art//Lolly Jane Blog

Always Kiss Me Goodnight Decal//Hobby Lobby

Live Laugh Love Frames//Alco (now closed)

Quick Catchup

You guys..

..soooooo much has happened since my post a week and a half ago! AGH!

Unfortunately, I don't have time to catch you all up on it right now but here is a brief recap (lengthier posts coming soon):

We finished shooting House Hunters--what an amazing experience! Brandon and I talked before bed one night about just how blessed we are to have had so many amazing opportunities in our life together. I can't thank God enough for this life--it's one I truly, truly enjoy!

Moving day actually went surprisingly smooth.. it was a long day but was nothing like our move to Colorado.

This little stud muffin turned 10-months-old on Wednesday and we celebrated by getting his booster flu shot and going to VI for pancakes and free chocolate silk pie!

In other news:

• If you live in the Denver area and are in need of a comfortable sectional, hit me up. 
• My parent's are amazing and stayed with Jackson the entire time we filmed--thank you Grammy & Papa!! 
• Brandon's family is coming to visit this weekend and we couldn't be more excited! It's going to be fun watching Jax run (err, crawl) around with his cousins!
• We now have the inter webs again so I can blog and get caught up on work. 
• If you are looking for a home along the front range, you would be silly not to contact Kyle Sheldon from Sotheby's International. We had no idea what to expect going into this home search and he walked us through each step and took great care of us. Brandon and I both highly recommend him. We also got to spend some time with him while filming HH and discovered that not only is he a good realtor, he's a cool guy! If you call him, tell him we sent you! 

I have a ton of marketing work to get caught up on so I'm going to be quiet on here again this week (with the exception of Jax's 10-month update which I will hopefully have posted on Wednesday)--but don't worry! I'll be back next week with lots of good stuff!

Taking a Breather..

Wow.. what a week!!

We got our dates for House Hunters (next week.. EEK!), close on our house this Thursday, and have a teething baby who demands basically all of our time (not that I'm complaining.. I love my baby cuddles)--we are BUSY! That being said, I'm going to be taking a little break from the blog this week.. but don't worry!! I'll be back next week with recipes, updates, AND an amazing giveaway with my friend Nicole!

Until then, here are a few pictures from homecoming weekend in my hometown:

Have a great week!