Category Archives: House

Sewing Machine Help

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All of you in the sewing world, I need your help! I have 2 sewing machines that were (so graciously) given to me. One is my Mother-in-laws (a Singer Stylist 543) and the other was my Grandmother’s (a Pfaff). Both models are older, between 10 and 25+ years old.

What I’m struggling with is should I use one of the older models or should I purchase a new one? Is there any huge difference in the way they operate now vs these older models? In it’s day the Pfaff was one heck of a machine and it even has a serger, but it’s still at least 25 years old. I know the newer machines have electronic components and I’m guessing they probably do a lot more for you and are simpler to use. Being new to sewing, I’m all about easier and simpler. But I’m wondering if those differences are really that significant or would it just make more sense to stick with what I’ve got.

I’m not trying to spend a ton of money and I don’t need some crazy fancy machine since I’m new to this. I just want to make drapes, pillows, table runners, mend some clothes, etc. I know I want a machine that isn’t super wimpy though since it will need to sew through many different types of fabrics. Super easy to use is a huge plus since I’m new at this. And so is available at Walmart since I have a gift card that I can use.

What machine do you have? What do you like/dislike about it? Have you used a new model or an older one? Differences? And what on Earth do you think I should do??

I would love your feedback on this one!

Where I’ve Been…

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So I promise I didn’t disappear or stop working on my house or stop shopping for great deals. I’ve been doing all of that I just haven’t had time to get it in writing. This week is Triple Coupons at Harris Teeter and I got some crazy awesome deals, TONS of free stuff! How did you do?

This weekend I ended up not having to work on Saturday after all and we used the time to do some very much needed work on our house.

I hit up the yard sales and scored big time! I got a twin size bed that will be perfect for Maddie. It’s painted the color I already wanted and it’s lower to the ground, which works great for a 3 year old. Forgot to take a picture but it’s wooden and painted Pottery Barn White, super cute. Needless to say, I’m psyched!

I also scored these beautiful blue dishes (I’m thinking wall display?):

A tiered serving rack:

A gorgeous white vase (that I intend to fill with a trailing houseplant at some point):

And two American Girl Bitty Babies (cannot believe it!) for $10! My girls were crazy excited!

We worked on odds and ends in the house pretty much all weekend and we finally accomplished a few things. Time has been something we’ve had very little of lately so we’re quite happy about getting a few things done!

A little redecorating in our bedroom with things we already had. Not perfect but better than the mess that used to be there for sure.

My Mother-in-law gave us this beautiful print and I got the sweet old suitcase from Goodwill Outlet on a shopping trip with Sarah a few weeks ago.

The mirrors were also from my Mother-in-law and have been residing in my Brother-in-laws basement. They were once windows in a barn and she cleaned them up and put mirrors in place of the glass. I am crazy in love with them and am planning to put them on the wall once we get new nightstands. I’d really like to find some pine tables or possibly something I could paint with chalk paint? I really want something with sassy little legs like Sarah’s changing table.

Here is a close up of one, isn’t it awesome?? Totally doesn’t go with the nightstand but just ignore that.

I found this tray at a yard sale last weekend. I put it up in the kitchen but I’m not sure this will be it’s permanent home. I loooooove it wherever it ends up in my house. And yes, I plan to paint the white clips so they don’t stand out so much.

I moved these white mirrors into our bathroom (there are 3) and I was thinking about distressing them and trying them on one of the walls above the tub. Thoughts?

We are finally moving all of our coat rack and mudroomish stuff into the office so you won’t see it right when you come in our front door. Andy put up this frame above the current rack and we’re planning on this being the place for guests to hang coats/purses/etc.

I think it looks SO much cleaner and you know how I like clean ;-) It’s hard having the main entry to your home be directly into a room that you actually use. I think this will really help it look nicer and less cluttered with little daily effort on my part. Here is a view from the dining room, much better right?

And speaking of the office/mudroom, we started putting things up on the wall and I’m super excited! This room has been so blah and just full of crap for like the entire time we’ve lived here. I spend a ton of time in here and I can’t even tell you how nice it is to have it look pretty now. Eeeee!

This painting needs to be lowered but I really love it in this space. Another beauty from my Mother-in-law. I also took down the cheapo blinds and it makes a huge difference. We don’t really have neighbors anyways. I plan to make some kind of valance or roman shade for this window at some point.

I ended up moving my burlap bulletin board and using a shelf that I had stored away from college. I think the “D” needs to be moved up a little bit but I’m liking it so far. And I like that my kids (or mostly myself) won’t be knocking it over anymore.

And this is where our new mudroom space will be. The mirror is another barn window from my Mother-in-law’s and the smaller pieces are from a long ago Salvation Army trip with Sarah. I got the keys paper at Michaels for $0.25. We bought bronze hooks to put up on the wall on either side of the mirror. There will be 3 on each side, high and low (so the girls can reach their own). Ignore the tools sitting on the console table. The tray will stay to catch our unsorted/unread mail.

Hopefully we can finish this up today. That way we can move everything in here and be done with it!

What are you up to this week?

 

Chalk Paint

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I NEED to get my hands on some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. Don’t you agree? I have the painting bug and I keep reading post after post about how crazy freaking awesome this stuff is and how easy it is to work with. I NEED it.

And I even have the perfect, actually two perfect pieces for it. Ok, I lied, I have like 5 pieces that are just screaming cover me in chalk paint, please!

I have a dresser for our bedroom that I don’t have a picture of but it would be awesome in French Linen or Paris Grey. I’m leaning toward Paris Grey since we have cool blues and grays in the room already. Love!

Or our kitchen island (maybe the Provence/Old White combination or maybe just White?):

Or our breakfast table in white (not sure between Old and Pure, ideas?):

This one really needs help in the paint department. It has smudges of some leftover white paint from a previous owner and it doesn’t really go with the other wood in the room. I was thinking Paris Gray or French Linen? I love the little legs at the bottom and I’m definitely going to replace the hardware. Ignore the green paint on the wall, it might be going (sad, tear). 

And finally, my favorite blue hutch. I love this piece and I love that it’s blue. But it totally doesn’t go with our walls (I know, paint the walls) and it’s really helping me to lean in a different direction. I love the idea of bringing blue and green together in this space but not in the blue piece of furniture up against a green wall kind of way. I’m thinking about covering the back of the hutch in burlap and painting the non-blue portions Old White. The only thing I don’t love about the hutch is the light wood and I think this will solve my problem. Or I could paint all of the blue in French Linen or Paris Gray. I don’t know if I would be sad about losing the blue though. What do you think? Can you tell I love Annie Sloan’s grays? I promise I won’t paint every piece in gray…

Minor problem in procuring this paint, no one near me carries it. Gah! I kind of want to look at the paint in person (maybe on a chart or on an actual piece) before I jump into spending a pretty penny on a little can of it. And is one little can enough for one piece of furniture, like a dresser?  Have any of you ordered this paint and had any luck with it? What about waxes?

I guess for now I’m going to live vicariously through other people’s experiences with the beauty that is Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. Can you tell I’ve been spending some time Googling finished products in these colors? Gorgeous!

Primitive and Proper painted this hutch Paris Gray, beautiful!

Shabby Coast Cottage painted these floors (using the same pattern as in our kitchen!) in Old White and Paris Gray. This is stunning but I wonder how that would hold up with kids and indoor riding toys…

Centsational Girl painted an accent table Old White and I’m loving this look. I think it would work well for our breakfast table.

Shades of Amber painted this dresser in French Linen, oo-la-la! I need this!

Are you crushing on this paint as much as I am? Maybe we should start a bloggy lottery pool so we can all win and buy some :-)

 

Front Door Sneak Peak & Progress

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I am SO in love with our front door now that it’s all pretty and green. We Andy (I helped a little) removed the storm door and although it left some repair work to add to my list it really improved the look so much.
Here is a shot of before we removed the storm door:

And here is the AFTER removing the storm door! (Try to ignore the massive amounts of pollen covering our porch)
Now I realize that we have some serious patching and hole-filling to do as well as some painting the trim. But I think it really makes such a huge difference. We are on our way to actually having curb appeal! I can’t wait to get the rest of the yard up to par with my fancy green door :-)
I’ve also made a ton of progress this week working on my to-do list. Except for the part when I keep adding things to it…

 

Here is my list so far:
Landscape plan for front yard (yay! one thing done!)
Purchase plants/supplies from Lowes (for our house AND the kennel)
Put down crabgrass preventer (my Father-in-Law says we shouldn’t do this, do any of you do it? Thoughts?)
Weed flower beds (thanks to my AWESOME nephews, Jacob & Christian, for helping me with this one!)
Put down Preen (or alternative)
Install plants (for our house AND the kennel)
Purchase mulch
Install mulch

 

Order/replace filler for window baskets

 

Replace top rails on front porch
Paint/seal top rails on front porch
Touch up paint & stain on stairs

 

Paint front door green (woohoo!)
Remove ugly storm door (eeeeee!)
Purchase and replace hardware on front door (no more brass!)
Fill holes in door trim
Paint door trim white and touch up below
Paint pots with house number for front porch (been meaning to do this for 2 years…)

 

Purchase hardware for dining room curtains
Purchase document print fabric similar to this
Make dining room curtains
Install hardware and curtains
Purchase hardware for living room curtains
Install living room curtains and hardware

 

Drywall backsplash in kitchen (thanks to my AWESOME brother, Martin, for taking care of this one for me!)
Paint and stencil backsplash in kitchen
Install shelves over sink
Install pendant light over sink (on it’s way, but probably not going to be delivered this week)

 

Host play group on Monday afternoon
Take girls to dentist on Tuesday morning (definitely was NOT super fun, pretty sure they think I’m a crazy Mom…)
Do laundry and put away all of their clothes in drawers (not just in baskets thrown in closet to be then thrown on the floor…)
Play date with cousins on Wednesday afternoon (This was so fun and I even got to have a real conversation with my sister-in-law that lasted more than 2 minutes. I’m pretty sure that hasn’t happened in a few years thanks to our 6 kids!)
Workout Wednesday night (nothing like trying on a swimsuit to motivate you to work harder!)
Grocery shop
Hit up Sam’s Club
Target run
Host an Easter cookout Sunday afternoon

 

So far we’re doing pretty well. I can’t really complain but I think Andy may have grounds to since I might have made him install the window hardware this afternoon while watching The Masters…

And I’m having trouble with the spacing in this post. I put in my spacing the way I wanted it and it didn’t show up. So I put in <br> after each line and now it looks like this? I’m confused. Does anyone else use WordPress and have these problems? I was really not expecting to have to edit html in order to have correct spacing.

 

Happy Friday!

Green Front Door & Landscape "Plan"

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My inspiration for our (going to be, hopefully today!) new green front door. I snapped this picture last summer while out shopping yard sales with my girls. They colors on their home are almost identical to ours (except for their beautiful brick walk way and porch, I am SO jealous) so I knew this would work for us. And did I mention I LOVE green? I love green. A lot. I mean really, who doesn’t love green? Green is awesome.
This is my landscape “plan” or actually just a sad little drawing of most of the things I’d eventually like to accomplish with our front yard and driveway. Right now we pretty much have a gravel parking lot for a front yard, not so pretty. If you’re wondering where our house is, it’s at the bottom. This is a view from the front porch looking out.
And here is a view of the front of the house from the driveway. I am clearly NOT an artist so ignore my mad drawing skills and focus on the plan. Notice I don’t even have any bushes or plantings along the front of the house? That would be because I have NO idea what to pick. I know what I want high and low plantings with room for some annuals but not requiring them in case they aren’t in our budget for each season. 
You should know that I am not expecting to get all of this done this year. The work on the driveway requires equipment and money that we don’t have right now. So we’re going to start with the things that cost less but will make a big improvement and that we have or have access to the tools required to complete the job. First on the list will be painting the front door, filling the baskets on the front porch railings and replacing and painting the bannisters going up the stairs. They have rotted and they look terrible. I’m also going to look for a new knob handle set for the front door. I’m thinking aged bronze to go with the window hardware I’ll be installing later this week.
Today I’m going to the paint store and the big blue home improvement store and we’ll see what I come up with. That front door will hopefully be getting a coat of green during nap! And hopefully it will be dry by the time all of the 3 year olds come over for play group. 
Happy Monday!

Big Change and Spring Break To-Do’s

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>I hope you’re having a great weekend and are enjoying the last little bit of it like I am!

This next week is spring break for us and that means the hubby works constantly while I’m at home with the kids who don’t have school or any activities… This could really go either way but I’m hoping it will go the way of good and happy kids and happy and productive Mama. I’m hoping to take advantage of the time we have at home. Since I didn’t win the lottery this weekend, I’ll be doing the work myself (bummer!).  I have lots of projects planned and high hopes for getting this house in order. 
Here is my list:
Landscape plan for front yard (yay! one thing done!)
Purchase plants/supplies from Lowes (for our house AND the kennel)
Put down crabgrass preventer
Weed flower beds
Put down Preen (or alternative)
Install plants (for our house AND the kennel)
Purchase mulch
Install mulch
Order/replace filler for window baskets 
Replace top rails on front porch
Paint/seal top rails on front porch
Paint front door green (woohoo!)
Remove ugly storm door
Purchase and replace hardware on front door (no more brass!)
Paint pots with house number for front porch (been meaning to do this for 2 years…)
Purchase hardware for dining room curtains
Purchase document print fabric similar to this
Make dining room curtains
Install hardware and curtains 
Drywall backsplash in kitchen (if we can’t find someone willing to do it, so far it’s looking like me)
Paint and stencil backsplash in kitchen
Install shelves over sink
Install pendant light over sink
Host play group on Monday afternoon
Take girls to dentist on Tuesday morning (super fun right?)
Do laundry and put away all of their clothes in drawers (not just in baskets thrown in closet to be then thrown on the floor…)
Play date with cousins on Wednesday afternoon (yay!)
Workout Wednesday night
Hosting Easter cookout Sunday afternoon
And somewhere in there I guess I’ll need to be cooking/preparing for that cookout? We’ll see what actually ends up getting done this week. 
And while I’m busy doing all of that, Blogelina will be busy transferring my blog over to WordPress and setting up my official new fancy site. As far as I know it’s all supposed to be seamless and you won’t have to make any changes or re-sign up for email delivery or anything. Things may look a little weird in the meantime but hopefully only for a few days. Once it’s all set up hopefully I’ll have some of these things crossed off of my list and some fun pictures to show you.
Happy Spring break!

My Weekend

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So I was supposed to be cooking all weekend, remember?  That didn’t happen. I got distracted when I saw this tutorial on making your own Ballard inspired trellis wallpaper. I may or may not have spent all of Saturday afternoon/early evening practicing in our kitchen.

We went to Lowes on Saturday with the kids and like usual came home with nothing but fed children who needed to nap. Kind of frustrating but then again we do have a 1 year old and a 3 year old. What were we thinking? The positive that came out of this fruitless trip was that we did decide where to focus our efforts for the next little while. I would be lying if I said we weren’t bad about starting little projects all over the house and never really accomplishing much. So we decided that we are going to finish the kitchen to our liking and spend as little money as possible doing so.
Here’s the plan:
This pretty little light fixture is on it’s way and will live above our sink where we currently have a plain old can light. I think it will look WAY better and really, who doesn’t love Ballard Designs?
Ballard Designs
Currently we have funky tan laminate countertops and they’re going to have to stay because replacing them is going to be expensive. We also have a ginormous laminate backsplash (like 6″, ugh) and I’m still working on how we’re going to remove it without creating massive damage to the wall behind it. It may also have to stay until we can afford to replace the countertops for real and I’m going to have to be ok with that. I think I can be if we have a pretty wall and shelves like these to look at instead. I think we’ll only have room for two over the sink but I think I’ll love it!
Beneath My Heart
And this is what got me so distracted all Saturday afternoon. I think I may be in love.
Jones Design Company
I followed this tutorial based on the Ballard Designs drapes that I was already in love with. First I used this stencil and traced it on the wall with a pencil.
A better look at it up close. It’s not perfect and it drove Andy CRAZY. I figured it would be fine, I was just practicing anyways. Notice the unfinished drywall patch below (that we’ve been living with for like ever…)? That has to be fixed before we do anything anyways and then we’ll have to paint so really, if I screw it up no big deal.
I didn’t take a picture of my first try or at least I can’t find it if I did. I’m not an artist and it really didn’t look that great. It wasn’t very even. So I went back and re-read the tutorial and realized that she just used a brush that was the size of line she wanted and just pushed down so it was the same width throughout. I’m not even going to try to explain what I did the first time. Looking back I’m wondering what exactly was I thinking? Her method is clearly spelled out (if I had taken the time to read it) and it works nicely and was way faster. So I followed the directions the second time and came up with this. Again, just practice, don’t freak out.
Here it is with the light on. The light that will be beautiful when the new one comes in.
And closer up, light still on. You can see it isn’t perfect and you can also see the pencil marks in some places. Hers clearly looks better than mine does and her pencil marks seem far less visible than mine. I tried erasing them and it just smudged into the paint and looked worse. I’m thinking next time I’ll just make sure to paint over them really well and then I won’t have to worry about it. There are definitely a few spots that look a little funky but all in all I really like the design. What do you think? Feel free to tell me I’m a crappy painter and to stop. I’d rather know it now than after I paint an entire wall of this :-)
Our kitchen island is going to get 4 new feet to raise it up to the proper height. It came with those ugly black and metal feet that looked as if they should be on a rolling metal shelf. Not really the look we were going for in the kitchen so we never put them on after putting it together. It’s also going to get a coat of paint but we’re not sure yet if we’re going to go blue to match the hutch in the dining room or if we’ll go white to go with the kitchen. I’m definitely leaving the butcher block top unpainted. I love the way it looks but I it will probably need to be refinished after a few years of abuse use. Maybe I can get some of the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and paint the island and the kitchen table the same? I’m thinking Pure White and a little distressing? I’m trying to talk myself into spending that much money on a quart of paint…
And you already know my plans for our breakfast nook. I think it will all go together quite nicely if we can just get it all done.
Jennifer Rizzo
And if that wasn’t enough for one weekend, today I started on this project. This is my Grandmother’s old dresser and we are repurposing it for Maddie’s room. I sanded it today and filled nail holes. The plan is to paint it Pottery Barn White to match her other furniture. I’m also going to get some pretty glass knobs to finish it off.
Now I’m just waiting for the wood filler to dry so I can either retouch again or start priming. This will be my first experience with painting furniture. I have all of the supplies and I am planning to follow Centsational Girl’s instructions. Any tips?
How was your weekend?

My Favorite Things

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I’ve been an internet addict this week, big time. So I thought I’d make you a list of my favorite things. Maybe we’ll make it a weekly event? We’ll see if I can be that organized ;-)
I think this was probably featured in someone else’s favorites week but I’m including it because I think it’s awesome. You can download FREE fonts, including Pottery Barn (so cool!) here. If only I were cool enough to figure out how to use them in this post. Maybe next week.
This breakfast nook by Jennifer Rizzo (featured on The Lettered Cottage) was amazing inspiration for our breakfast table, especially since we have that same table! I can’t wait to refinish it and pair it with a bench. I’m working on finding a mirror that works for our space. LOVE THIS!
And I guess if I’m going to be refinishing my kitchen table I should be reading Centsational Girl’s Painting a Kitchen Table. Good tips on how to get it done right.
I have plenty of leftovers in the fridge and I have some round dinner rolls in the freezer that I think would be perfect for this Customizable Bread Bowl Breakfast. I love the idea of having everyone pick whatever they want to put in. I think the girls will love making this! Thanks, Kim @ NewlyWoodwards, for the great idea!
And who doesn’t love Chocolate Muffins? I’m thinking these will be a huge hit in our house!
I love Weelicious (can we just note how cute that name is?). She has great recipes for kids (and adults) and she always tries to make them healthier using things like whole wheat flour, agave nectar instead of sugar and all sorts of other alternatives that I probably wouldn’t come up with on my own. I haven’t loved every recipe or substitution (sometimes you have to just use the real stuff!) but I have found quite a few favorites for our house. Check her out!
We made Pink Milk this week, yum! We added spinach on Caroline’s advice and it was great! It turned our pink milk a little less pink and a little more brown but the kids didn’t really care as they guzzled it down. We even made it again the next day and Maddie said, “Don’t forget we have to add the lettuce Mommy!” She was clearly fine with it.
I’m also thinking of trying the Carrot Ginger Sauce since Maddie is so into the ginger dressing at Sakura. She loves it on salad so I’m hoping they both love it on pasta?
What are you up to this week? Apparently I’m going to be doing a lot of cooking….

Office/Mudroom/Craftroom Rearranging

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Yesterday was super productive day in our house and I’m just now getting around to blogging about it. I rearranged my office (again) and made Andy put up a few random pieces of artwork around the house (that may or may not have been sitting around for years…). I pillaged my in-laws house for old pictures and furniture and decorating ideas (thanks!!). I went to the fabric store and will be blaming Mrs. 5C for my new expensive addiction.
I also made this last night:
My inspiration came from this tutorial over at House of Hepworths. You should totally check it out! I used a cheapo bulletin board, almost identical to hers and just covered it with (I believe) jute since our store was out of burlap. I love how rustic is feels and smells. It was super cheap and I love how it fits into our space. I had plans to hang it on the wall above this table but I set it up there last night when I was done and I actually really like it leaned up against the wall. I think (know) I need to replace the basket but I was just throwing things up there to try out during my reorganizing. I’m going to look for a metal basket or maybe a small tray to hold our mail/whatever other crap we bring home.
Here’s how the entire table looks. I was thinking about getting some kind of mudroom-ish furniture to hide our shoes and have somewhere to throw my diaper bag but I think this will work nicely for now. And the best part is that all of the shoes are in those baskets and you would never know it. Or maybe the best part was that I already had this piece of furniture and didn’t have to pay for a new one? You know I love free!
I think I’ll get some of those little chalk board signs to put our names or just first initials on each basket. And I may even spray paint the baskets a darker color b/c they are a teeny bit too red for me. Has anyone had luck doing that? I’m worried the paint will just crackle off?
I’m also going to get coat racks to put up so we can use the existing one at the bottom of the stairs for guests since we’re lacking a proper coat closet. This is where I’m a little stuck. I was thinking I could put a mirror above in the middle and then maybe a coat rack on the wall on either side? Or I could do a coat tree on one side? I don’t want to over clutter the wall but I also want it to look pretty and balanced. Any suggestions? I would love some help on this one!

As promised…

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Pictures of the house! I only have interior photos since every time I plan to go outside and take pictures it keeps raining. I’ll work on that next, but fair warning, it’s not pretty! We still haven’t landscaped the yard any further than putting down grass seed so there isn’t a large mud pit. It’s on the list!

This is the new living/family room. Mostly finished but a few bare walls that really need some love.
The stone fire place is actually not real stone, but a far lighter (an less expensive) material fabricated to look like real stone. The only options for a mantel were a piece of wood matched to either the floor or the shelves on either side or a big piece of stone similar to what is on the raised hearth. Since we didn’t like either option (not even remotely), Mrs. 5C helped me find what she knew I would love, no mantel at all! It’s hard to see in this picture but all we did is make a step above the fire place and just had the “rock” put on as evenly there as possible so it would be straight and relatively flat. We basically have a non-mantle. If that makes any sense? You can’t really put anything on it but we didn’t want that always. You know he had to have his big ole TV mounted…
Yet another bare wall needing love. I’m dying to make (or convince Andy to make) this for this space. I think it would be perfect and when you make it yourself you can pick whatever color works for your space. I was thinking a gray/brown tone? Not 100% on that though.
Look, a non-bare wall! I have one… Andy says those are my grandma chairs but I love them! They’re actually really comfortable too.
This is the one thing I splurged on. I know I could have made one but really, I had a baby like right before this and I so did not have time. I could not be happier with it. LOVE IT.
View into our bedroom from the hallway. My dad (who did all of our fancy wiring/lighting) insisted that we have the same ceiling in our bedroom that we had in the living room. Me, being the cheap one, said we didn’t need it but when it came back cheaper than the normal flat ceiling, who was I to argue? I think we got super lucky because I hear that’s not usually the case. But I’ll take it!
(Notice the Cozy Coupe peeking out from behind the door…)
And more empty walls…
I have envisioned a faux fireplace between these 2 windows. My plan is to buy a mantle and paint it white to match our existing trim. I was thinking that I’d either get some brick wall paper (maybe this or this) and put that on the back or maybe just paint it? I haven’t really full developed this idea. I’d really also like to put a big blown up version of one of our wedding pictures above it. Did I also mention I have no window treatments? Good thing we have no neighbors!
We had some dead space behind what was originally going to be an HVAC chase so Andy decided to make me some built ins. I personally think every room should have built ins. I wonder if he knows what he’s started?
Our master bath (sorry, should have turned off the vanity lights). I absolutely love this space but I despise the mirror. Somehow “we” got our measurements wrong and it just looks funky. It was also supposed to be antique silver, not gold. It’s way too much for the space and it needs to be replaced. It’s on the list too…
Another view into the bath. Don’t you love our mismatched rugs? I was supposed to buy new ones months ago, ha. There are more empty walls in here too. And did you notice we have no pulls on the drawers and cabinets? I was supposed to get those too… But boy do I love having a TV in the bathroom! When I get up before the kids do I get to watch big girl shows like the news while I get ready. It’s fabulous!
Speaking of the kids… I thought this was MY bathtub?
Our shower was inspired by this one. I wish I could take better pictures of it but it’s hard with the angle of the door. I love taking a shower in here every day. Our entire family fits in there with room to spare and they love it! It’s usually full of toys too…
The glass tile is from Home Depot, as is the white subway tile. We found it all on a super black Friday sale last year. I stressed for months over what I wanted and looked and looked for glass tile that I liked and found nothing. And randomly we find it in the aisle at Home Depot, it was meant to be! The floor tile is a non-skid version from Lowes. It ended up matching really well and so far it’s holding up nicely. I don’t think it was marketed as non-skid but it certainly is and it was really inexpensive. If you search for non-skid shower tile online you will be amazed at the prices. I was psyched to find this!
This is a view into the dining room (former living room) from our bedroom as well as some more bare walls…
Here is an area where I am having some issues. This is our dining room and it’s very open to our kitchen (to the right) as well as our entry (to the left). You walk directly in here from the front door and it’s difficult to create a space that works with an entry like that. Everyone is always in our kitchen (as I’m sure they are at your house too) and what I am trying to accomplish here is a “keeping room” of sorts. I need a space where people can be in the kitchen without actually being in the kitchen. I also need some barstools but that’s another story (working on those). So I followed Nate’s advice and “shopped my house” to create a new space. I took this couch out of the play room and moved the little table from next to the front door. Since I took this picture I’ve added pillows and a throw to tie in the wall colors (pretend you see them), also shopped from my house. Can it work? We’re living with it for a few weeks to see how it feels and how it works for us. So far it’s actually be a really used seat, especially with little kids running laps around the house. I just don’t want to have it feel awkward when you walk into our house.
This is the view from the dining room into the new living room. It was also where we entered the new side of the house during construction (can you imagine the dust?), it was crazy! And more bare walls. I’m hoping to get a big buffet/hutch for the wall to the right and then some kind of art or mirror to go over the little dresser to the left. There’s also a big window to the right on the front of the house that I forgot to take a picture of, it needs window treatments badly! On the list too…
And our kitchen with the lovely non-painted drywall patch. I guess it’s better than hole we were living with for months. That used to be a window before we added on but it’s now the back of a closet in our bedroom. Envision an open shelving unit above the sink, staggered height with the cabinets all the way to the ceiling. That’s the plan anyhow. We just need to figure out what to do with the light above the sink. We’re also planning on ripping off the huge ugly formica backsplash and putting up either white subway tile or white bead board. I have a hate relationship with that backsplash and I’ve been wanting to kick it out since we moved in. We’ve toyed around with the idea of replacing our countertops and having a counter height bar but I think we’ll shelve that for now. It’s hard not to want it all right now!
Our kitchen island is one of those put together 300 pieces yourself islands from Home Depot. It’s done the job but it needs a little updating. It came with those ugly black rolling feet which we immediately threw out so the plan is for Andy to build some kid of furniture looking feet to raise it up a bit to counter height. I was thinking of paint it green like these cabinets and cleaning up and sealing the butcher block top. We were going to invest in a new island with actual cabinets but I think this will do in the meantime and will allow us to save for something better.
And then we have the table in the kitchen where the kids eat. This is a crappy old table that has been passed down through many of our family members and has really seen better days. It’s on the list of things to refinish. It might just get replaced with something better and end up in my office as a craft table.
So there you have it, all of our new spaces and some of our old. It’s still a very big work in progress and it’s still keeping us very busy. We have a lot left to do but we are taking our time and trying to spend our money wisely. I’m so not a fan of wasting money on something I don’t love. We’ll get there eventually!