Home tour: Living Room

Wow, this has been a long time coming!!! I took this photo this afternoon from the same vantage point as this photo from the Zillow listing.



This room has actually undergone way less renovations than every other room in the house. Mostly what has been tricky about it for me is the furniture placement--it's a very long room with a picture window at one end, a fireplace 1/3 of the way along one wall, the wall opposite the fireplace is open to other rooms, and the end opposite the picture window has French doors leading to the sunroom. It's too big to arrange furniture in a single conversational grouping, but not quite big enough to function entirely as two separate rooms. Here's another couple of listing photos that shows how the previous owners broke it up...



And here is the very first photo I ever took in this house--we moved in on October 27th and I took this shot of Neil after we got home from trick-or-treating on Halloween.



The first month that we lived here, I didn't do anything renovation-wise other than painting all of the trim white around the big picture window. Mostly I was just busy ordering furniture. ;-) I knew I wanted two big chesterfields, and then Isaac and I had one very fun afternoon at West Elm buying pillows and rugs and throws. So my initial layout had one chesterfield in front of the window, and the other facing it about six feet away. In this photo, you can see the unpainted trim + the old curtain rods (really wish I had a good picture of those, as they had enormous finials that led Neil to nickname them "the staff of the Mushroom King"). The curtains were in the living room in our previous house, and I replaced them pretty quickly as well. (The first three months that we lived here I spent SO MUCH MONEY on furniture/decor...we were still rocking the same couches we'd purchased before our wedding, so we were loooong overdue to replace basically everything.)



Here's that same view this afternoon, minus the cute little Abigail.



So mostly this room looked the same for the first year or so that we lived here. I kept moving things around because I could not get the right furniture arrangement...it was fine for Christmas because we all wanted to hang out by the tree, but the rest of the time it felt like the couches were shutting off the fireplace part of the room.



Cute little Matty...oh man I miss his fluffy hair!




































And one more because I have been so terrible about blogging and I don't think I ever posted this...so here is Christmas 2017.



We did a ton of other projects over the next few months (repainted the entire basement, built cabinets in the laundry room + redid closets downstairs, redid the upstairs hall bathroom and the downstairs bathroom just off the laundry room, and repainted the dining room). Then we went on vacation and when we came back I literally took a hammer to the built-ins on August 5 (2018) on either side of the fireplace one night because I just hated them SO much and did not want to look at them for one more second. Neil was very very skeptical and so I just stood there doing it by myself while he was like "I think you're going to regret this" but I KNEW they had to go. (When it got to the lift-the-heavy-cabinet-out part he started helping.)



There was a ton of wiring back there so the drywall looked terrible & the carpet was missing underneath the built-ins, but I still thought it was an enormous improvement!



A week later Neil hung new drywall & taped and mudded everything...



And then I started on the next part of my vision which involved whacking out all the straight-line mortar that was left (straight line because of the built-ins going right up to the fireplace whereas I wanted a more organic look). This made an ENORMOUS mess and was very very time-consuming.



Here's the straight line version...I just did not love it.




So after I chipped out all the mortar I had a lot of giant cracks and holes, so I used refractory mortar to patch everything up. This also made a giant mess and took forever.



Then I waited for Doubting Neil to go out of town and started painting. Fortunately he is not unused to finding all kinds of DIY surprises when he gets home. I was super happy with how this turned out--basically I mixed latex and acrylic paints with water until I was happy with the consistency and color, painted it on, wiped it off, etc. I used probably 3-4 different shades and then would go back over the lighter shades with darker splotches and vice versa--my goal was to not have it look like painted stone but to look like it was the actual stone's original color. And somewhere in there I painted the walls to match the original shade (except then I spattered them with gray paint from the fireplace, so oh well...I'm planning to repaint the living room this fall anyway).


And here is what it looks like today.



We left the fireplace mantel-less for three months or so...I really loved the clean-lined minimal look of no mantel, but then as soon as we started getting out Christmas decorations I was like no way must have a mantel. In this time gap we also completely redid our kitchen (I was painting cabinets for a month straight!), Neil had a million work trips to very interesting places, and everyone did fall sports and it was CRAZY TOWN.

So eventually Neil built this one out of pine (I wanted it to look like it was just one giant barnwood beam). It was actually a super complicated process that involved a lot of engineering and jigsaw skills so that it would look like a single piece whereas in actuality it couldn't be solid because of the weight, plus it needed to be cut just right to accomodate every individual stone so that the mantel would fit snugly with no gaps. We hung it on December 2...just in time for stockings!

I can't remember what color I stained this, but I do remember how delightfully fun it was to whack it with a chain and a bag of screws while I was distressing it to make it look more like barn wood.





And ta-da! Christmas 2018. As I said at the beginning of this post, this was BY FAR the most minimal changes we've done to any room, so it seemed like a good one to start the ball rolling...

A few more pics from today (still working on the furniture layout, but this seems to work best so far). The main issue I have with this room is that it has very little natural light and only has 4 can lights in the ceiling, so it always feels super dark to me unless I walk around turning on all the lights. So naturally we gravitate to spending more time in the family room...so my goal is to figure out the lighting issue and make this a room where we spend more time as a family.

Someone gave us a free piano five or six years ago and I still haven't replaced it...yikes! My plan is a baby grand because I think it would be gorgeous in front of that window, but there are so many other things to spend money on...so my stop-gap solution was refinishing the piano face earlier this summer. I'm happy with how it turned out (and one of these days I reallllly need to replace the mismatched bench).

So I've basically tried to create a conversation zone around the fireplace but then also left it open at the side to try to continue the flow over to the other half of the room. I don't love this particular layout, but my kids do spend a lot of time curled up in the armchairs reading, so it's working for them! And of course the piano is going pretty much nonstop until bedtime. 

This little zone here almost invariably has a kid curled up with a book...these two bookcases are dedicated to picture books (and my half-finished paintings).

And a sun room sneak peek to take us out!

Loving the laundry room

 


I've managed to do about a million house/craft/whatever projects this year and have blogged about, oh, very few of them. I'm under no illusions that I will ever be--or want to be--a DIY or home or organizational or style blogger, but the changes I've made in my laundry room lately are small enough and yet have such a big impact on my sanity that what the heck, it's going on my blog (even months after the fact).

So when we originally bought our house it had this dismal little room between the garage and main hallway that had washer/dryer hookups, some really horrible broken wire shelving (have I ever mentioned that we bought a foreclosure? We did) and the walls were primed but unpainted. Sadly this room did not take top priority and after we bought this really sketchy washer/dryer from some friends (we repaired both machines sooo many times and it took about 2.5 hours to dry a load of laundry) we took down the ugly shelves, put up some cabinets and hooks for coats, and left the room alone for a few years.

Before Isaac was born Neil and I spent a weekend moving around the washer and dryer and painting the room. We painted it the same shade that we had used for most of the other main living areas in the house but it looked really horribly yellow in that little room.



Earlier this winter our washer finally gave up the ghost. I was SO thrilled! Seriously, I was practically skipping with joy. The dryer was so barely functional that we just replaced them both at the same time and I spent waaay too much time in there gloating over the glories of laundry that would magically be done in less than two hours.

At the beginning of the summer I painted the trim & baseboards (mostly...you can tell that I still haven't painted behind the machines yet!) and Neil built a nice wide shelf to fit over the washer & dryer. I picked up some lovely little baskets at Target and labeled them with everyone's name for their laundry and man oh man, those have been LIFE-CHANGING. No more teetering piles! I printed out a few quotes that I found especially inspirational and put them up on the walls, and Neil replaced the ceiling fixture so the room is now nice and bright instead of so dim that you can't tell if that's a stain on your shirt or not.

And a couple of weeks ago when everyone was back to school I spent naptime painting the walls the same shade of gray that is in our master bathroom and kitchen. I love love love it (it looks weirdly green in this next photo, but it's not).



Last but not least, a couple of things that really make this room delightful for me--the new rug which is a) much more in keeping with my style than the brown garage-style mat that was there before b) actually fits the space (the old one was too small) and c) does a fabulous job of scraping off shoes! nice and bristly while still being soft to bare feet when you're folding laundry--and the "lonesome sock" box that I made by cutting down a cardboard shipping box and then Mod Podging scrapbook paper all over it. I also painted everyone's coat/backpack hook a color of their choosing which has completely eliminated all of the arguing about so-and-so using more than their fair share of hooks (painted it about six months ago and it's worked like a charm!)

I love these kinds of projects. Fairly small cosmetic and functional changes (although the washer and dryer were neither small nor cosmetic!) that have a huge impact on my willingness to do a chore that takes up a ton of my time. :-) Now I actually look forward to folding laundry because it's such a happy place for me AND I know that all of my folded piles won't get knocked down before the kids get around to putting them away!

Goodness in the world

Lately my heart has been overflowing with gratitude for my life and all of the good things and people in it. Everywhere I look I am able to see the beauty in my world and I am so grateful for that, because there have been so many dark days this past year! And as I'm coming back into the light I am just overwhelmed by all of the good that there is surrounding me. I've caught myself multiple times in the last few days getting all choked up over something completely commonplace--yesterday it was seeing Juliet help Isaac to combine his agave nectar-peanut butter mix so he could more easily make himself a sandwich.

And my heart is especially full this week because we're coming up on the birthdays of my oldest and youngest children. It's bittersweet for me. I am so thrilled by all of the progress that they both have made in the recent past--Abigail is becoming my right hand, my friend, and just the sweetest little darling I could ever ask for. She is maturing into this responsible, humorous, and compassionate young lady and I am so awed every day by how much she is changing and growing.

And Nathan--my dear little boy--is finally starting to drink of his own iniative. Such a small thing in the grand scheme of things, but so huge in our lives! A comment Isaac made today testifies to how remarkable and exciting this is for us--he walked through the kitchen and stopped transfixed and said, "MOM! LOOK! Natie is picking up his cup in his own two hands and he is drinking, Mommy, he is drinking!! All by himself!"

And indeed he was. It seems to be getting easier to persuade him to drink and we are so grateful!!!

Another thing I am really enjoying these days is seeing the similarities between my husband and my children. We inherited an enormous set of K'nex building toys and the five of them (the four oldest kids and Neil) have built some really impressive stuff. Isaac and Abigail in particular are very into K'nex and have built some cool motorized dinosaur models (which actually walk across the floor) and various vehicles. The Ferris wheel & rolling ball machine (both of which are powered by a small motor and do work) are our favorites so far. Right now they are working on a roller coaster.

 Some days I look around my messy house with its skiff of toys and books and laundry and I wish so much that we were done with school and moving on to our "someday house" (which of course will be perfectly clean and always organized!). But really, I love my little house so dearly. I am almost done with all of the painting and I feel like it finally reflects my taste now rather than my taste eight years ago. I am particularly fond of the new armchairs flanking the fireplace--we had the papasan chairs since the year we were married and they lost their appeal about eight years ago when I realized that they spent all of their time taken apart and lying around the living room while the kids played with them. I hated always getting after the kids to leave the papasans alone or to pick them up and I cannot even tell you how amazingly happy I was to give them away to a new home! I practically skipped on my way back inside after helping to load them up. And I've been searching for the perfect armchair for about two years and I am so in love with these gray linen tufted beauties and their nailhead trim. Have I set my heart a bit too much on material things? Quite possibly when it comes to how much I love those chairs.

 And the white cabinets and gray walls were worth every single second of the time it took to convert them from the red walls and builder-basic oak cabinets. The afternoon sunshine fills the kitchen when I'm making dinner and just makes it the happiest, sunshiniest most beautiful place to be. It's so nice to passionately love a room where I spend so much of my time.

 I overheard the girls on March 31st discussing what pranks we might play on them the next day for April Fool's. I have never really done much to celebrate April Fool's day but I wanted to make it fun for them since they were so excited about it--so I got online to get a few ideas and then spent an hour or so setting up about ten pranks. My personal favorites were the Jell-O in juice cups (Luke's reaction was priceless), the socks that were sewed shut at the ankles, and the pillow barrage that toppled down from their bedroom doors in the morning. They were also pretty entertained by the paper mustaches that I added to our family pictures; Juliet was less entranced by the (washable marker) mustache adorning her own face. Isaac, as you can see below, left his on all day.

 And last but not least, a few things that have made me think, "Oh, what a wonderful world!":

1) Selling our cantilevered umbrella (thanks, Craigslist) for just about the cost of the chicken coop materials.
2) A quick evening run to the library by myself and coming home with SO many books on topics that fascinate me & I'd been wanting to do a little more research...literally so many books that I had to borrow a library cart to get them all to the checkout desk (I couldn't physically carry them all even in my bags!).
3) Plants! I am so much happier with live greenery and flowers in my home. A few weeks ago I bought myself some flowers at the grocery store. Just as they were starting to look tired my visiting teacher stopped by with a beautiful bunch of purple tulips. When the tulips began dropping their petals, Neil surprised me with a gorgeous potted lily. And a few days later, my dear friend Jen brought me some potted cuttings from her aloe vera--all the way from Arizona!!--on a morning when I had literally been thinking that very day about tracking down an aloe vera plant for my kitchen.
4) Listening to Abigail pray last night at family prayer. So incredibly heartfelt, specific towards the needs of our family and extended family, and really taking the time to ponder and think as she was speaking.
5) Yesterday the boys and I mixed up some homemade playdough. Normally it's banned from our house (I hate the mess!) but this recipe seems way less prone to crumbly stickiness than does the storebought kind. It has been the source of much joy over the last 48 hours.
6) I quietly supervised yesterday while Abigail and Isaac made a batch of homemade instant oatmeal. They did a great job and happily ate the fruits of their labor this morning before I was out of bed (another win!).
7) I'm finally feeling enough like "myself" to start doing things again that I eliminated because of stress but have missed nonetheless: composting, cloth-diapering, and cheese-making. None of which are vital to my life but all of which add something intangible that makes me feel more content with the status quo (okay, the cheese is pretty dang good).
8) I expected the marathon recovery to be really awful. I was definitely stiff for a couple of days, but I ran 2 miles yesterday and it helped so much with the soreness that I ran 4 miles today. Now I just need a new goal to work towards!
9) My little lettuces are up! I love seeing those little green shoots every morning and evening as I walk quietly out to visit the chickens. It's rapidly becoming one of my favorite parts of the day.
10) I am so blessed in my marriage. Did Neil want chickens? Not particularly, but he knew how much I did & how long I'd been reading up on them and thinking about them and so he supported our endeavor and threw himself into it whole-heartedly (he did nix a couple of other suggestions about our urban homestead--and wisely so!). He is definitely the voice of reason in our relationship (I am all to prone to passionately commit myself to something new without fully considering the ramifications) but he is so supportive and logically helps me find a way to achieve my goals.

And last but not least, I hung the salt-dough Easter ornaments that we made last year. I love looking out and seeing these bright little flashes of color twirling against the sky.

Home tour: Abigail & Luke's room

 I mentioned last week that Isaac's bedding is out of place in the lavender room; well, here's the room it's supposed to match.  Some day.

We've found that Abigail & Luke make good roommates because of their different schedules; Lukey is usually asleep when Abigail goes to bed, and Abigail will read happily by her window as the light fades into dusk.  The bookcase-as-headboard is perfect for my packrat child and her innumerable (oh, I do not use that word lightly!) treasures.


I was planning to take more (with better lighting) shots of this room, but I ended up with this and it's my favorite.  Et voila!

Home tour: Isaac & Juliet's room

If you've been reading for a few years, you may remember the post I did a few years ago when Juliet and Abigail shared this room.  Sadly, those two were not a good match, and I ended up selling that headboard & bed (sniff--I totally loved the way it looked!) and switching in bunkbeds instead.  And once Luke was born, we put the middle two together because it worked best with everyone's respective sleep schedule.      (So that's why Isaac's bold-patterned quilt is in a lavender room.)  I'm hoping that in another couple of years my ladies are sharing a dainty feminine room together complete with this chandelier.  But for now, Isaac and Jules are a great match.

 Also, Isaac insisted on staying in the pictures.  To be honest, he was kind of emphatic about it.



As always, this room is full of things that I have an emotional attachment to--the dollhouse Neil made the girls for Christmas several years ago (I sewed the couch covers, shower curtain, pillowslips, and bedspreads; he made the couches and I made the dining table--the rest of the dollhouse furniture we purchased at Target), the quilts and monogrammed pillows that I've made for each of the older three children, and a dresser that was the very first piece I ever refinished (currently living in the walk-in closet, which also holds outgrown clothes, labeled and sorted by size, in those super-attractive diaper boxes).

One of the things I always REALLY want to know is how other people handle toy storage.  So this is mine
--an IKEA Expedit unit. I love it!  The top is not perfectly styled, but I love the space and those cheery polka-dot bins (from the Target Itso line). (note:  someone was asking last week about the Bluebird of Happiness, which was given to me by my beloved Merrie Miss teacher Nan Stimpson, who also taught me to cross-stitch and helped me make that sampler on top of the shelving unit.)  I love how this holds EVERYTHING and I think it looks pretty attractive while doing it.  I should note that the games in the top row are the ones that were in the library photos a few weeks back; I switched all the games so that the "kid ones" are back in the library, since they were getting ignored in their bedroom (now Isaac is happily playing one million games of Marble Run/Let's Go Fishing/Hungry Hippos/etc. again).

We also have dress-ups in a large plastic bin on the other side of the bunkbed (which you can see in the photo second from the top).  I've toyed with more elaborate systems (I love the idea of hooks around a stand mirror or a mini coat stand or something, but ultimately the more simple, the more likely it will get put away!)