We relegated to the basement......

We're living in the basement from now until Thursday after work. This will be more time than I have ever spent down here in the three years we've lived here :) It's all for a good reason though! On Saturday Blair and a friend from church installed hardwood floors in our family room (goodbye, icky, dirty carpet) and now the refinishing/staining/sealing begins. There was a Groupon this fall for hardwood floor refinishing, so we jumped on it. Our kitchen and entryway floors needed to be done for maintenance and we decided that installing hardwoods in the family room at the same time so that all the floors could be stained the same color would be a good idea.

Since there is no way in the main floor or upstairs without being on hardwood, we have to walk around our house to the basement sliders to get in. This will be interesting in heels with a carseat since it's uphill to our driveway! Oh, and it's also wintertime! We are going to eat out two nights and do another meal in the crockpot for dinners. Luckily, we are at work all day and the kids are in daycare as I'm not sure what I would do with two kids in the basement all day for 4 days!!

Our main floor looks incredibly bare except the playroom which is jam packed with EVERYTHING. It's amazing. I cannot wait to see it all put together next weekend. I just ordered a new rug from Overstock and am hoping it arrives at the end of this week. This truly is our "year of the house" as we have this floor project almost completed, another floor project coming up (new tile in the laundry/mud room/1/2 bath), and saving for/making decisions about our 2014 kitchen redo. Yea for getting stuff done!!

Spencer's big boy room

It's FINALLY done!! All the little details have come together, and we are finished with Spencer's nautical big boy room. He's been sleeping in their for over a month now with no difficulty, but it's taken us awhile to pull together the last little details.

This is the main wall.  We painted it navy as we wanted the sail to really stand out against the wall.  The sail is a full sized sail (that we actually had to cut down because it was too big!).  The beds are antiques that we found at a great antique store up in Petoskey.  We didn't want to pay the price they were asking, so we walked away.  Two weeks later they went on sale, my mom offered an even lower price, and they took the offer.  We were beyond thrilled and know they'll stay in our family forever!!

The nightstand was one we had around the house that was hideously ugly.  We sanded it down and painted it the same color as the white walls.  It's a touch smaller than I would ideally want, but it was free, it holds tons of books, and the lamp and the sleep sheep fit on it perfectly.

This is the wall that is in the front of the house.  I made the seersucker curtains out of the table runners we made for our wedding.  We had 28 of them sitting in our basement collecting dust, so I took 8 of them, made larger panels, made a pocket for the rod, and love the way they look in the room.  They aren't blackout shades, obviously, but Spencer has never slept with blackout shades, so I didn't think it would be a big deal.  Normally I would have hung them to opposite sides (as is typical with curtains), but the built-in bookshelf didn't allow for that, so we had to go to the left on both.  I am totally okay with it!

The sailboat oil painting hanging between the windows.

We hung the painting with a cleat and line.  B's idea, and it was the perfect thing to do.  It just ties in the nautical-ness throughout the room.

We used the same line (it's red, blue and white) for the curtains and used the same cleats for the tie backs.

The wall across from the beds.  We hired someone to build the built-in.  There was a weird cut out space in the wall that was begging for something, and we decided that a built-in was the way to go.  Both of us think it was sooooo worth the money.  There is so much storage which we aren't in need of now, but I'm sure we will be in the future as toys start to overwhelm us, and as the boys share a room in the future (they don't have to share as we have plenty of bedrooms, but I love the idea of them sharing for a few years).

SYT's dresser.  We repurposed an old dresser- stripped it and painted it the same blue as the accent wall.  I painted the knobs to look like nautical flags, and I ordered really reasonable wood letters from Etsy to hang the monogram over top of the dresser.

The bed linens are from Company Kids.  Solid yellow fitted sheets for the box springs and the mattresses and solid yellow duvet covers with yellow gingham flat sheets and pillowcases.  I love the color and the softness of the linens, but gosh do they wrinkle so badly.  Even when I pull them out of the dryer when they're just barely dry.  I suppose Spencer isn't going to care though!

A shot from another corner.  The artwork on the wall is 5x7 canvases that I picked up at Joann's and painted with blue, red, and yellow craft paint.  If you "read" it in nautical terms, it spells out Spencer's name.

S-P-E

N-C-E

star-R-star.

The stars were added for balance as his name doesn't divide evenly.  I love, love, love it!!  The wood you see in the corner is his closet.  You can also see his toddler bed rails on the bed.  Not necessarily the most flattering decor but definitely a necessity as he is all over the bed when he sleeps!!

B and I are so proud of this room.  We really put a lot of thought into making it toddler enough for now, but we also know that it will transition well over the next 10 years.  We're also happy that it's DONE!!!  Yea!!

Summertime rooms that make me happy

These rooms all just scream summertime to me.  I can't imagine B letting me be this bold in our current house, but if I ever am lucky enough to own a cottage, you better believe it is going to scream pink, green, and yellow with florals, checks and stripes all over the place. 

Bright, bright, bright, but still warm and clean and oh so preppy.

(source unknown)

No way on earth would I ever do this to a kitchen, but, on the other hand, wouldn't you want to be friends with someone who does?  So grown up girlie, so fun, so interesting!

(source unknown)

Clean lines, love the beadboard, love the limier (is that a word?) green.

(via Sunset)

This would be a lovely room for a Southerner.  The ceiling is my favorite.  Oh and all the windows that let in all the light.  The flowers are a perfect compliment for this room.

(via BHG)

Those walls are a delicious shade of pale pink, I love the pillows, and I adore cabinets that have the inside of them painted a different color.  That round coffee table would be perfect for little peanuts to run around without fear of being hurt too!!

(via BHG)

So, could you paint your kitchen the same color as your toenails?  Do you adore yellow rooms?  Would you put beadboard on your ceiling?  Do you dream of screened in porches with great flowers?

Our project is done (well, almost!!)!

We've been working for awhile on our laundry room and 1st floor guest bathroom.  The bathroom was hideous and since the laundry room was right across the hall and only needed a little bit of work, we decided to tackle it as well. 

In this picture of the laundry room the floral wallpaper has been almost completely stripped off, but you can see it in the upper corner and it gives you a good look at the color of the cabinets.

Here's the wallpaper in its full glory.  It covered all four of the walls.  It was in fine condition, and we didn't hate the cabinets, but it certainly wouldn't have been what we would have picked out had it been our choice.

The laundry room now.....

Above you can see the just barely pink walls and the window that looks onto our front yard.  Below is the doorframe where we will be marking the heights of Spence at each year! 

Presenting the (previously) ugliest bathroom in America....ours!!!  Yellow walls with burgandy and forest green splatter paint, burgany countertop, gray sink and toilet, ugly mirror, gold fixtures.  UGGG..... 

And here it is now!!

Really, really pale pink walls, new mirror, new light fixture, quartz countertop with a white sink and white toilet, all new polished chrome fixtures..........ahhhhhhhh

We also painted the cabinets a really deep, dark gray and the trim an ivory.

(I'm not sure why it looks like we have a plaid grid on our wall.  There are not really lines there.  AND the back of the door we kind of forgot, so we're working on that one!!)

The gorgeous countertop!  I love, love, love it!

We are planning on redoing the floors in both these room and the entryway.  We're going to do a large gray tile with gray grout.  We also need new light fixtures (which have been ordered but are backordered til JULY!) for the laundry room and two in the hallway.  I would like to get a some kind of artwork or decor for the laundry room but I haven't found anything I'm interested in yet, so I'm just going to keep my eye out for awhile.  I also need to get new doorhandles for all the doors- ours are currently shiny gold and they don't match the *new* look.

I do have to say how proud I am of B- he installed the toilet, the sink/countertop, and the light fixture all by himself!  He's becoming quite handy since we've become homeowners.  Thank goodness for youtube videos and google.  We'd be lost without them!  I'm really happy with the changes we've made and I'm excited to finish the rest!!

Help with lighting

B and I are in need of new 3 new light fixtures for our breezeway and our laundry room.  Currently ours are completely awful hobnail glass with the bulb exposed.  I don't have a picture, but trust me, they're just bad.

We definitely are looking for a silver base, a semi-flushmount, and I don't really want the bulb to be exposed.  A few of the ones I am thinking about are below.  Do you have an opinion on any of them?  I really can't decide at this point, so I'd love some guidance!!

Classic Schoolhouse Design from CSN

Sussex from CSN

Surrey from CSN

Covington Manor from Bellacor

Has anyone ordered lighting online?  Anyone have suggestions for me?  We're definitely getting places in our redesign- I just wish I had a week off to GET IT DONE!!!  Oh well, it'll be a sweet sigh of relief once it's finished!

Flowers from the garden

We knew that we had roses on the trellis when we looked at the house last fall.  We had no idea we also were inheriting a peony bush.  Between these two beauties our house now smells like a flower shop and I am loving it!!  We're so lucky that these were just here- I'm not sure I could have grown either of these from bitty plants, but we are certainly enjoying them now!!

I'd love to plant another peony bush or two near the one that is already in our front yard.  I'm going to have to research this as I have no idea how to start one.  Has anyone else planted peonies in their yard?  Are the bushes expensive?  Are they pretty successful plants?

The newly painted dining room!!

So, here's the navy!!!  I love this picture because you can see how the navy really makes the wood in the room pop.  The room use to be red, and while it was a fine color, it definitely blended in with the wood, whereas, this color really makes the wood the standout point in the room. 

To the right is the foyer and the steps that lead upstairs.  You can also see the window treatments and more of the wood here. 

When we were in Seville, we bought four blue and white decorative plates and brought them home with us.  They're about 12-16" in diameter and all hand painted.  We love them!  We're going to hang them on the wall in here.  We have to buy dining room furniture (there is currently a table and chairs in there that we have inherited from my mother, but it's just not formal enough for us.), so I think we will hang the plates over the buffet we plan to buy.  The plates aren't exactly the same color as the walls, but it's definitely close enough for us!

Here you can see the gold chandelier, a good chunk of the navy walls against the trim and the ceiling, and our little bar cart in the corner.  Our original plans were to spray paint the chandelier because in the old room (red) the gold looked quite garish.  However, we have found that it looks good with the navy, so it's going to stay. 

Things we still have to do:  find table/chairs/buffet (B is PICKY about his tables, so this could take awhile), hang plates on the wall, and find one or two other pieces of artwork for the room.  One of our friends came over to see the house this weekend, and she just loved the color.  It's so nice to hear that b/c it took two coats of primer, a lot of sanding (don't ask) and three coats of paint to get it to look good.  Definitely a lot of work, but in the end, soooooo worth it. 

Our family room

Our family room comes right off our kitchen.  They're definitely the two rooms that will always remain the heart of the home (and truly what sold us on the home in the first place).  We have a few more things we still need to do in here, but since we did buy new furniture, I thought I'd show you the current set up.

These are the comfy oversized chairs with matching ottoman.  The are in the bay window that overlooks the deck and the back yard. 

This is one of the two walls that goes into the kitchen.  The map is a nautical chart of Little Traverse Bay that we had framed (one of our favorite pieces).  Once puddin arrives, the pack and play will more than likely end up in that corner.  You can also see the pocket doors that divide the kitchen from the family room. 

Our couch (with the prime spot being taken up by Junie!) and a bit of the fireplace wall.  The mantle is not finished yet, so no good pictures to show.  We have a coffee table that I cut off, but it sits nicely in the area in front of the couch. 

Things we have yet to do in here:  varnish the armoire that goes on the other wall that attaches the kitchen to the family room, paint the fireplace screen from the current gold to black, figure out what we are going to do on the top of the mantle besides the few silver candlesticks that are already there, hang the oar (from the rowing club at Yale- B's Grandfather's) on the soffett above the bay window (where the red chairs are), and decide which artwork to hang behind the couch.  Most of that is just easy cosmetics, so we're sure it can be completed before the beginning of March (our deadline on our spreadsheet).

Our new chandelier

There was a wine store down the street from our apt in Chicago called Lush.  Lush had two of these amazing wine glass chandeliers above their bar/tasting area in the store.  I always commented on how cool they were, and B surprised me at our rehearsal dinner with one to be placed into our first home. 

After we moved in, this was the first project after the boxes were unpacked.  We knew we had the perfect spot the minute we looked at the house, and so all we had to do was figure out how to play safely with electricity :)  We'd never done a project like that before, so both of us were a little nervous.  We googled it, prayed a bit(seriously I thought he might get eletrocuted), and got to work.  We were able to do it without killing ourselves, and now it is such a cool statement piece in our kitchen.  The table it sits above will eventually be a wine cork table top, and it is going to be sooooo cool. 

The picture above is from the kitchen island looking into the family room.  The pic below is with the light on looking up towards the ceiling. 

Primed!

Who Hoo!  The dining room is completely primed with this primer.  It has made our rooms a not so pretty grey color; however, it has completely covered the red that was previously in the room.  We have already bought the navy paint and will hopefully be getting it on the walls this weekend!!!  Edging isn't the most fun, but I've gotten better at it as I've gone along.  Thank goodness for wet soapy rags to clean up my small mistakes!! 

Other updates:

1.  My mom comes this weekend to visit.  I can't wait to show her the house and be able to spend some time with her.  She's super excited to go to babies r us and help us start our registry.

2.  Our new knobs for the kitchen cabinets arrived yesterday.  They make the kitchen look SO much better.  I'm thrilled with them.

3.  I swear I will take some pictures this weekend and update the blog with them next week.  There is a lot, lot, lot to do, so I've been hesistating on the pictures, but if I show you how "old" (read: dated) some of the things are, then you all will be REALLY impressed once we do even the bare minimum to make things cuter!

4.  Did I tell you that our oven blew up last week?  Yup, we had J and B over for Sunday night dinner and 10 minutes after we put in the pork roast, the bottom oven coil started sparking, turned a bright blue and then went black and completely cold.  (I was so afraid our brand new house was going to start on FIRE!)hgntmhn  ;/l   Now, we knew we would have to replace the oven eventually (it's originally to the house- ie 23 years old!!!), but we were hoping that we could do that in the fall.  Our darling realtor bought us a home warranty, so we called and the oven is covered!!!  We had a repair guy come out today and he is not sure if he can find a replacement coil (I really doubt it since it's so old), and if they can't find a replacement, we'll get an allowance for a new oven!!!  Ours is built into the wall and there is space for a double oven or a warming drawer with very little configuring cabinets, so I'm praying that the coil cannot be found and we'll get the allowance to get a head start on an amazing oven!!! 

That's it from here!  Happy Thursday to all of you out there :)