House Update - Family Room

It's been a while since I've posted a house update.  After finishing the big renovation two years ago (has it been that long?), we've slowly made changes and additions to the interior.  I thought it was time to provide another update on the family room.  Since last posting about it, we added a sectional couch, new pillows, coffee table, and a ficus tree.

I'm so excited about it!  I love this room now.  The couch is big enough for all of us to relax, the coffee table has a soft top that's great to rest my feet on, I love the bright colors we added with the pillows and mirror...  It came together just as we wanted, and it makes me happy to see it every day.  Yay!

built-in bookshelves between the family room and kitchen

A Few Pieces of Advice and Links...

photo by Eric Roth for This Old House magazine

Well, I'm not all that inspired by today's Blogtember challenge prompt:  Pass on some useful advice or information you learned and always remembered.  But here are a few things that come to mind...

1.  Everything in moderation.  My dad used to say this a lot, and it makes sense.  Anything that requires you to totally eliminate something is suspect.
2.  You don't have to floss every tooth every day, just the ones you want to keep.  Yikes.  My mom said this one to me, and it definitely had its intended effect.
3.  Make your bed every day.  Even if the rest of your house is a disaster, it's so nice to get to your room at the end of the day and see your bed all put together.  It's so inviting, and it has a calming effect on me.  I highly recommend it.
4.  If you don't wear it, get rid of it.  I've heard this one everywhere, so I can't remember where I heard it first, but I definitely stick to the rule that says if I didn't wear it last year, I shouldn't keep it for another one.
5.  The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.  This was a favorite of a partner I worked for when I was a consultant.  It can be applied in many ways, though, and I do like it.  With respect to your personal life, if you aren't happy with how things are going, you need to make a change.  Try something new.

______________________________________________________________________

by Natasha at Beautifully, Suddenly

In addition to those friendly reminders, I thought I'd pass along a few links.  After being offline for a few weeks, I've been catching up on all my favorite blogs.  Here are just a few of the beautiful things I happened across during this marathon blog reading...

This Vermont house truly is my dream house.  I love every single detail.  That kitchen, the bar tucked under the stairs, the bookcases, the old clock on the mantle, the quilt on the bed...everything.

This short film about smartphone overuse hits close to home.  I think I'm going to start 'forgetting' my phone at home more often.

I loved this post by Design Mom about their decision to send their two oldest kids to the public high school in Oakland.  The comments are interesting and thought-provoking as well.  I think my little sister, an assistant principal, would like it as well.

I have no idea what Garden & Gun is, but this little performance by Jason Isbell is beautiful.  His album is definitely one of my favorites of the year.

After yesterday's post, I read this one by Natasha at Beautifully, Suddenly.  Just another opportunity to marvel at the stunning beauty that is Sydney.   

Remember my cousin Tiffany and that fun YouTube video of her dancing?  Well, it went viral!  The band, Great Big Sea, tweeted and then posted about it on Facebook, and it has taken off from there.  Stand up for Cancer posted it to their Facebook page also.  Tiffany has been interviewed by the local TV news and newspaper, and she was interviewed by the Canadian Broadcast Service via skype and radio.  It has been very, very cool to follow along as she goes on this journey.  She has opened up her blog, and I'd recommend it to anyone, but especially those going through a health crisis.  It's inspiring.

House Update - Patio

After last year's construction, we named 2013 the "year of the outdoors".  Now that we had the inside of the house the way we wanted it, we had some work to do in the yard!  After a lot of neglect, we've spent many hours weeding and planting and generally working on making our yard a nice place to be. 

The big project included repaving the driveway, new brick sidewalks, and a new patio!  We are SO excited to have a comfortable area to sit outside.  The first few years, we didn't have anything at all, and the last few, we had a picnic table set up in the grass.  This is a huge step up.  

The patio table and umbrella just got delivered a couple days ago, and the boys and I ate dinner on it that very night...and every night since.  It is awesome.   The grass is still coming in, and we'll be spreading mulch this weekend, but we are already so happy with how it's coming along.  

House Update - Living Room

Wow.  I'm going to start off by saying that our living room is officially the most grown-up room I've ever had.  It still feels a little weird to have such a nice room.  Weird, but awesome.  

We have come a long way.  You can check out this old post to see a glimpse of what the room looked like when we moved in.  Or this old post to see what it looked like after we painted it but were still using it as a family/TV room.  

After last summer's big renovation, we were able to move the more casual couch and chair into the new family room.  That left this room completely empty, except the rug.  We've spent the last six months turning it into a really nice place to sit and have a conversation, listen to records, play board games, or play the piano.  I have always said that I hate formal living rooms - you know, the ones that nobody ever uses?  We made sure that this is a room where we will want to spend time.  

It still needs the finishing touches, of course.  It feels like it could be at home on a showroom floor, especially when entering from the dining room (the view below).  We will eventually add some art to the walls, books or other items to the coffee table, maybe a plant.  You know, the personal items that make it feel like my home and not just a pretty room.  I have to keep reminding myself that these things take time.  I don't want to buy things to put on display just because I want the room to be "done".  It will happen organically, over time.  We'll fall in love with a painting or print and put it up, we'll get coasters, and our book collection will grow.  We'll get presents from family, and we'll bring home items from our travels.  

In the meantime, I'm pretty excited to get to hang out here.  

A Few Little House Updates...

A few house updates:

1.  New pillows for our kitchen seating nook.  It is now officially my favorite spot in the house.  Perfect to sit, drink a cup of coffee, read...  Even better than my gorgeous bathtub, because I actually get to use it!

2.  I got this picture for Christmas 2011.  I originally had an idea of doing a collage wall above our bed, but it never happened, and this awesome piece has been sitting in my closet!  It's now on our dresser.  I love it.  I can just hear them saying "Ten more minutes!".  Quite appropriate.  

3.  Another new chair for the living room.  The fabric turned out much cooler than I had expected, but it's growing on me.  It sits low to the ground, and it's really comfortable.  Next up for this spot - a floor lamp.

4.  More new pillows.  These happy pillows definitely brighten up the couch, and add a touch of femininity to it.  

Little by little...

Kitchen Update

We've been slowly making little additions here and there throughout the house.  Making the house a home.  This week's fun item is our new runner for the kitchen.  Really, I love that it's a good excuse to post more pictures of my pretty kitchen here.  But the rug really does add so much to the space that it's worth showing it again.  This area, between the cooktop and the sink, is where I spend a good portion of my time.  Isn't it cute?

House Update

Just a couple updates to report on our progress towards making this house a home.  The Murphy Bed arrived, and it is installed and ready for use.  The long-term goal will be to paint it white, but I am of the opinion that while the boys are so young and destructive, we should leave it as is.  It is in their playroom, after all.  The walls and floors in this room are already taking a pretty good beating.  In the meantime, the natural color actually goes pretty well with the rest of the big toys in the room.  

Here's a view of the bed pulled down.  The boys had a lot of fun testing it out for us.  Now all we need is a visitor!  It will be a great space to have when we have guests.  

This room is coming along.  We'd like to get a small table for one side of the bed, for guests to be able to use as a nightstand, and we still need some additional organization solutions (another big basket, a bookshelf) for the toys.  But it's working.

The other update is that we now have kitchen stools!  We spent a long time searching.  Because of the wood on the island top, we wanted to steer clear of another wood finish.  We started looking at metal options, and there are some really cool ideas out there.  We didn't fall in love with any of them, though, and if you're going to spend $750 per stool then you should really be in love.  So we backtracked and decided that we should stay simple.  I have always liked these easy, backless stools, and they coordinate nicely with the black table in the seating area.  Plus they were significantly cheaper than most other options.  The boys love this space, and they've been eating lunch at the island every day since they arrived.

Little by little...  Up next:  Living room furniture!

The Playroom

I want to make every room in our house comfortable, uncluttered, and beautiful.  That's a nice goal, isn't it?  Sometimes rooms come together easily, and other times it is more of a challenge.  Actually, it's usually a challenge for me since I have no talent for decorating or design.  The playroom/guest room is definitely a challenge spot.

It's a nice room, with a huge vaulted ceiling and a really cool light.  The walls are a nice shade of gray.  The rug is a fabulous shade of yellow, I adore it, and it's perfect for a guest bedroom.  For a playroom, however, the rug is not as big or as comfortable as it needs to be.  As we moved the train table and other toys in, I also realized that we could really use a set of shelves or something to help organize the space.  We have started to notice that although the boys do play in there at times, they more often go in to get toys and then bring them out to the family room or kitchen.  I have to figure out how to make the room more conducive to playing.  I'm hoping a comfy rug and a set of shelves will do the trick.  

The walls are in good shape at least.  I got this awesome Michelle Armas print, and we recently hung an art cable so that we have somewhere to hang some of the many fabulous pieces of art that the boys create.  We also got a large laminated map, so we can point out that Turkey is, in fact, a country as well as an animal, and we can better illustrate the size of the ocean that separates us from Cousin Zach.  

The big missing piece, and the piece that enables this room as a guest room, is the Murphy Bed.  It is scheduled to be delivered next month, and then comes the simple chore of painting it.  Ugh.  Little by little...

Kitchen Update

My favorite spot!

We continue to make progress on the house.  This latest reveal focuses on the kitchen dining nook.  Honestly, I will have a hard time expressing how much I adore this little corner.  It wasn't even in the original plans, because we weren't sure we would have room for it.  I am SO happy we figured out how to fit it in.  It is now my favorite part of the new space!  

For those of you who have followed my kitchen inspiration pictures over the years (hi family!), you know that I always said I wanted a white kitchen, but not a boring or stuffy-looking one.  I wanted a cheerful one with colorful accents.  After looking at the main part of the kitchen, you might've thought, "Well where's the color?" Here it is!  We chose red cushions and put together a collage of some of our favorite works of art created by the boys.

The table was custom made with salvaged wood by a place in Vermont.  The corner is rather tight, and most of the trestle tables I looked at were simply too big.  We got a custom one made for about the same price as a new one.   Yay!

And finally, a lesson learned.  If I could do it again, I'd spend more to have them build a back for the bench.  My boys are still young, and they are very hard on the house.  The wall behind the bench is already pretty beat.  For now, my little guy sits in the chair.  In a couple years - when he has a little more self-control - I'll let him move over to the bench.  

What do you think?

Yes I did go straighten out all the pictures after taking this shot.

I wish I knew how to take better interior pictures!

Masterpieces

My New Kitchen!

After seven years of dreaming and planning, I'm proud to present my new and fabulous kitchen!  Isn't she pretty?  

It's not 100% done yet either.  As you can see, we are missing a few stools in front of the island.  We're still trying to decide.  I may post a couple we've been debating to ask for input.  It's on the back-burner at the moment.  

A few notes about some of the decisions we made along the way:

*We wrestled with the decision over whether to install a hood vent or to use a downdraft vent that comes up out of the island.  Obviously we chose the hood, and I'm very thankful we did.  It's quiet, works well, and isn't nearly as obstructive as I originally thought it would be.  Yay!

*The top of the double-oven is actually a combination microwave/convection oven.  So I not only got the microwave off the countertop, but I got the double-oven I wanted too!  Awesome.  

*I love having glass-front cabinets.  We only have a couple upper cabinets, but it's so nice being able to see where the glasses are.

*The countertop is actually granite, although it looks like soapstone.  Another great find.  It is exactly the look I wanted without the maintenance of soapstone.

Confession:

*I did already have the Pelegrino, but I put a couple bottles on the counter just to take pictures.  Although I swore I'd have a bowl of lemons on display, I didn't have the patience for that.  A bowl of tomatoes had to suffice.

Here are a couple other pictures as well as the before shots.  Be forewarned...they are ugly.  

I almost hate to post such ugliness, but it's fun to see how far we've come...

Bathroom - Before and After

Isn't it pretty?

There is something not-quite-done with every room in the house, but I just can't wait any longer.  This is our new downstairs bathroom.  It is still missing a shutter for the window, so just try to imagine it, okay?  I'll update the post once it is complete, hopefully in the next week.

I love it.  The gray color is perfect, and the wood vanity and floors warm it up.  I'm really happy with how this room came together.  

The before shot...

Family Room - Before and After

Ta-da!  Take a peek at our new family room.  We don't have a thing on the walls yet, and I can't show you the other side of the room until we fill the bookshelves next to the gas stove.  Oh, it's going to come together when we do that.  (Can't do it until they redo the floors in the front part of the house, because the dust is going to fly.  Again.  This will be the third time they've done those floors.  Really.  I can't even talk about it.  But once it's done and we can fully move in, it's going to be so nice.)

Before (as a playroom, obviously):  much smaller space, broken windows, enormous brick hearth that took up most of the room, and freezing cold.

Lights!

All lights from Rejuvenation

It is all coming together.  I'm sorry for the delay in showing pictures of the full rooms, but the last couple weeks have been very slow.  Progress is being made, but it's still mostly a disaster back there.  So for now, let me show you lights!  They just went up today, and they are all so very pretty.  The one above is giant and awesome, and I'm afraid I'll never be able to take a picture that does it justice.  I'll keep trying.  Below is a little light in the pantry.  Seems fancy for a pantry light, but it's so cool.  And the bottom fixture hangs above our kitchen seating area.  They are all perfect, and I love it when decisions that were agony to make end up being so right.  More to come...

House Update - We're Getting Close!

I think my mom was a little annoyed at last week's "sneak peek" pictures.  These show a bit more, including that gorgeous sink and faucet!  Seriously, aren't they beautiful?  As you can see, our kitchen hasn't been painted yet, but that will be done this week.  Soon, I promise, I will post some larger pictures.  The goal is to have the entire new space completed before we leave for our vacation next Wednesday.  Then when we return, we'll get to start the settling in and decorating phase. Yay!

House Update

bathroom

My mom asked me to post more pictures of the house progress, so here are a couple more sneak peeks. I don't want to share pictures of the whole rooms, because they are still incredibly messy and incomplete.  For example, the oven is sitting in the middle of the family room floor.  I like focusing on the little details that are actually starting to come together.  You can see paint on the walls!  Above is the bathroom vanity - the sink isn't in it yet, but it's in the room.  As I said, I'm focusing on the details.  We should only have a couple weeks left before we have a functioning kitchen.   The countertops were installed over the weekend, and they look great.  This week, we should see the tile backsplash completed, the paint mostly completed, the island countertop installed and cabinets finished, and the plumber is coming on Friday!  Exciting times.  

family room

House Update

I was really excited to post a house update this week, because this was going to be a big week.  The cabinets arrived last Friday, and they are so pretty!  This week, we were supposed to see the cabinets completely installed and good progress on painting.  However...

The other night, a guy came to the house to create the template for the countertops.  In order to do this, he needed to put the sink in its place.  Now let me stop here and tell you that our sink is a gorgeous porcelain farmhouse style apron sink.  It is one of the most expensive things we purchased for the renovation, and the kitchen sink and faucet will be a focal point of the room.  I loooove it.  So the guy did his thing and left.  Later that evening, I went to take a few pictures to share here, and I noticed a big chip in the front of the sink!  I almost started crying.  The only reason I didn't was because I was too angry.  And worried.  I wasn't sure how my contractor would respond - would he do the right thing, or would he fight us on it?  After pacing around the kitchen with Kevin, we then noticed that there was a big chunk taken out of the wall, and a piece of wood that was broken off.  Clearly the stone guy had dropped the sink.  I am actually thankful for this additional evidence, because it made it very clear what had happened.  I was still worried about how our contractor would respond, though, and I was also worried about the delay this would cause.

Thankfully, our GC responded exactly the way he should have.  He apologized for having the stone people come after hours, he acknowledged he should've had them come when his foreman was on site to supervise, and he immediately said, "Don't worry - we'll take care of it.  We'll get you a new sink."  Whew. 

Then there's the matter of timing.  It will be a little delay, but hopefully not too significant.  The new sink should arrive today.  These sinks can vary just a little in size, so we have to make sure that the new one works in the cabinet and that the template for the countertop still fits.  There have also been several issues with the cabinets themselves (some understandable, since our kitchen space is pretty crooked, and others not really).  Those need to be resolved as well.  And the painters didn't even show up yesterday!  So several rooms are primed, but the painters have a long way to go. 

How's that for an update?  Just when we think the finish line is in sight, it moves a little further out.  But I guess with a project this big, a few setbacks are to be expected.  The cabinets really are pretty, though. 

House Update

Since my house actually looks mostly pretty from the outside now, I thought I'd stick to personal shots this time.  The exterior is done!  That includes a fresh coat of paint on the entire house, and I must say, it looks sharp.  It is especially nice to walk on the nice and clean front porch.  The shot below is the top of the new side entrance.  It is almost complete, but it is missing the railings.  

Inside, we have doors!  We have salvaged antique wood doors throughout the house, and our current contractor was a bit intimidated by them.  They are all unique, and old, and require dipping to get all paint off, sanding, and woodworking to get them to be the right size and to match as much as possible.  In the end, they still sometimes end up just a tiny bit crooked.  They're beautiful, though, and they add so much character to the house.  They are totally worth the extra effort/cost.  

Up next:  Finishing the interior trim, and the kitchen cabinets arrive next week!

Cool doors - and also notice the little sneak peek of the lovely floors, and paint samples on the wall

House Update

Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler Decorators, photo by Simon Upton

No, the house above is not mine.  Sadly.  I do love it, though.  I just find it soothing to start these "house update" posts with a pretty picture, rather than the boring or flat-out ugly "in-process" shots of my own.

The renovation continues.  Unfortunately, it seems to have slowed down a bit, and we remain behind schedule.  Progress does continue, though.  They are almost done with the exterior trim and clapboards, and the big event this week was the flooring.  They installed the wood, although they haven't stained it yet.  (Who knew how difficult it would be to match the stain of our existing hardwood floors?)  Next week they will work on the interior trim, which means I really do have to pick out the paint colors, because that's what's up next!

Oh my goodness I can almost see the light at the end of this tunnel.

A sunny view of the little league field from the playroom/guest bedroom 

(a.k.a. "The Alvarez Suite")

This little bump-out is new, and inside is our kitchen seating area.