Work In Progress

details & resources - upper floor

i'm doing the opposite of saving the best for last ... i'm actually saving the least interesting - the basement - for last. only because i haven't yet gotten into marc's office to take pix, and that's only because i honestly have no idea how to turn on the lights in there, and a flash just wouldn't do the room justice. but he's home more now, so hopefully i can get in there tonight or tomorrow.

but today: the second floor.

first, though - one question i received that i forgot to address about the main level: the floors are forli verona by bella cera, hand-scraped, engineered (which, yes, sounds like an oxymoron) hickory. the finish is dark but not ebony dark. and there's no reddish-orange undertone. the floors are lovely.

now that that's settled ...

upstairs.

the main thing we changed in the layout of this house back in the planning stages was the landing upstairs. in the floor plan, the entry was supposed to be two-story, with an open staircase. marc and i feel that two-story open areas are, while lovely, a waste of what could be useable square footage. so we closed off the majority of the open space of the foyer to create a loft for the kids' computers. this is where they play minecraft, where marc researches guns and watches car videos on youtube while the kids are getting ready for bed.

the little desk hiding on the left will be set out for the neighborhood yard sale next weekend. and at some point i'm going to add an art shelf behind the computers and add photos of the kids and things they've created. that will come. we've added next to nothing to any of the walls at this point ... i'm still shuffling things around.

(by the way, every time you see a ceiling light in this house, there's a better than good chance that it's norwell's clayton light. it had a bit of an old school look to it so we used it quite a bit. and it was relatively inexpensive.)

across the hall from the loft is the laundry room.

same tile as the mudroom. the counter tops are a gray laminate with a subtle tone-on-tone grid pattern. laundry bins are from the container store. cheap light in here will probably be replaced someday, but for now ... it's a light.

while i wasn't initially in love with losing my huge laundry room with a ceiling full of lines on which to hang wet things, i do, actually, like my storage shelves. the shelf above each bin is labeled, and everyone (theoretically) puts their clothes in the right bin at the end of the day. i'm still trying to get certain people (ahemharper) to put things in the bins right side out and unballed, or to put things in the right bin (ahemmarc), or to actually put things in the bins at all (ahemhenry), but we're on the right track. and it saves me a lot of time in the long run. apparently not enough time to fold the loads that come out, as evidenced by the pile on the counter, but it's a start. i still miss my drying lines like you wouldn't believe, but i have a system up now that is ... okay. unfortunately, it is also really flimsy. within the first month of having it up, i had four fleeces and a bra drying at one point and the whole thing just jumped off the wall, ripping out drywall in the process. so marc nailed up a 1x6, painted it the same white as the wall, screwed the racks back in, added some hooks to hold my laundry bags, and since then it's been much better.

i have a feeling i will tweak this room as i go.

what i won't tweak, though, are the anthropologie knobs on the laundry sink cabinet. because they are adorable.

and because they, along with the colorful bins, work with this print that i hung above the sink:

and that's all i have to say about the laundry room.

next to the laundry is the kids' bathroom. i love this room, even though it is also still not quite finished. (you'll find "not quite finished" is a running theme around here.)

white hex tile on the floor, white subway tile in the shower. two more barn lights above the sink, which is a kohler brockway sink. ikea hemnes cabinet and wall hooks. the medicine cabinet was built by our cabinet guy, and the knobs - like the laundry room - are gorgeousness from anthro, which are, sadly, no longer available.

they were actually a serendipitous find. i had already bought towels for the kids' bathroom (lime and ocean stripes and dots) and was searching for fun knobs, but nothing quite worked. then i found these and they were perfect. the turquoise, bright green, and fuschia of the towels were perfectly matched in the knobs.

even more serendipitous, i was scouring etsy for some neat art to hang on the wall and bring the colors together, when i got a sale notice in email from serena & lily ... their zodiac prints were on special, already framed and ready to go. the colors worked well enough for my taste. but the best part is that my kiddos are a pisces and an aquarius - watery symbols that are perfect for a bathroom.

perfect, i say.

speaking of the kids, here are their rooms:

henry really cleaned up for this, didn't he?

henry's room is the only one upstairs that is a color. we had his room painted benjamin moore classic gray. looks really gray, doesn't it? sigh. oh well. i'm sure we'll paint it something else someday. there's a lot to do in this room still. he needs curtains of some sort - i'm thinking plumbing pipe screwed to the wall, and white ikea grommet curtains. he also needs an actual bed ... we're planning to get this one or something like it:

young, yet masculine, but could still be so cool as a guest bed down the road when my kid leaves home. and it will work just fine with the camo bedspread he has, and the striped sheets i'm planning to get him as soon as they go on sale.

we used ikea billy bookcases from the old house and screwed them to his wall, and a stainless steel ikea tabletop fit perfectly in the remaining space to create a little built-in desk for homework. it works for him ... he has more books than anything else, so a wall of bookshelves made total sense. continuing the ikea theme, his ceiling light is also ... ikea.

across the hall is a much different space:

there is more "not quite done yet" in this room ... things missing, a box of stuffed animals shoved in the corner because i have no idea what to do with them ... but it's a tad closer than henry's. we had an antique jenny lind bed from my parents, and i found a second on craigslist. we had them both painted black, which i think was the right call. they're gorgeous. and the white of the room and the little bits of black help keep the Crazy that is those bedspreads from being too much. we added another ikea billy bookcase (why do my kids have so many books?! that's rhetorical ... it's totally my fault.), and i strung adorable buntings made from vintage sheets that i found through this etsy shop. (looks like she may be taking some time off from her business.)

on the other side of the room ... more ikeaness.

i didn't take a photo of how they turned out - must do that at some point - but the ikea trofast units with the white drawers were stenciled with a lovely leafy/flower pattern in the same simply white as the rest of the house. the plan now is to add some narrow shelves above both drawer units to put all of the special things and keepsakes up and out of harm's way, and then use the top of the storage units for littlest pet shop houses. the pottery barn dollhouse bookshelf is strictly hodgepodge barbie storage right now, but there is a plan afoot to make it all much more calm and organized. and there is much art to hang in here. i'll get to that later, too.

gotta have a summer project, right?

what you can't see is the ceiling light - it's a fuschia ikea lamp shade hung from a $10 light kit, like the one in the mudroom. it looks like a really neat pink drum shade but cost, like, twenty bucks. and this weekend we will be putting up her curtains. she had curtain rods with bird finials from land of nod (it appears they no longer sell hardware) in her old room and loves them, but their off white/antiqued look won't work in this room. so i'm going to spray them black, then hang these curtains ...

it should be pretty cute, and will block out all of the summer evening light that pours in at the end of the day around the edges of her blinds. blocking that light will be the big win.

moving down the hall, this is the upstairs guest room:

the side table is actually a metal foot locker that marc's grandpa had in world war II. the name "skinner" is written on the top. i love that. the lamp is from target a million years ago ... it isn't  permanent, but it works. the floor lamp is vintage pottery barn. ("vintage" being circa 1998ish.) the bed is ... drum roll ... ikea. it was originally in harper's room at the old house ...

remember this?

when you pull out the trundle, it's a perfect king-sized bed. technically, it's the biggest bed in our house.

who wants to come visit?

we had the builders add shelves to the niche that was created when the loft was made, so that guests have a place to put a laptop or whatever. i kinda dig the niche.

bedding: west elm quilt and shams (no longer available), macy's sheets (which i love love love. so much so that i want to get the exact same ones for our room. would that be weird?), discontinued pottery barn accent pillows, which i got for a smokin' deal nearly two years ago and saved just for this room. yes, i did everything else in the room around those pillows. still need curtains ... need to get a chair for the desk area so we can take that one back to the basement, but i haven't decided between a slipcovered parson chair or a black crossback one. also need to figure out the art situation, but at least this room is functional, sweet, and cozy.

finally, last bedroom and bathroom upstairs ... ours.

continuing with the "work in progress" theme ... this room is ridiculously empty. we opted to stick with a queen bed instead of shelling out the cash for not only a bigger bed frame/headboard, but also a new mattress, new bedding, new everything. that seemed excessive. however, our bed kinda floats in the room. even worse, we have yet to figure out bedside tables or lamps, so the ones we have are puny and ineffective.

our dresser from the old house, which i love more than life itself and seemed so gargantuan in our former room, is perfectly sized for the new space.

we did managed to hang a bit of art in this room ...

priorities.

bed is from crate & barrel. shams are from que sera. accent pillows from macy's, years ago. duvet is pottery barn, also from years ago. sheets are from tj maxx. dresser is restoration hardware.

at some point, we'll figure out nightstands and lights (it's annoying to have to walk across the room to turn off the light at night. i miss my little bedside sconces.), and i'll put a bench of some sort at the foot of the bed to catch the duvet that we inevitably kick off most nights. and the farther out plan is to get a little bookshelf and reading chair for the corner opposite the dresser so i can have a little quiet nook. or to eat up floor space. same thing. honestly, i like a clean, white, calm bedroom, so there won't be too much of anything added just for the sake of adding.

through the bedroom is the master bath ...

it's super pretty.

let's see what we have going on in here ...

the vanity/tub is painted benjamin moore alaskan husky. white on white on white on white seemed a bit much, so the little hint of gray is nice. the vanity and tub surround are carrera marble. the floor is hex and dot ... why it is more off white than white, i have no idea. however, i went off reservation and ordered the tile from somewhere else because our supplier didn't have this particular pattern, so i was stuck. that's what i get for being picky. the shower tile is 8x10 white ceramic and a stacked accent of glass, frosted glass, and marble. it's lovely.

hardware on the vanity are the chatham pulls and the green glass knobs and hooks from restoration hardware. other hardware - towel bar, train rack, etc. - are from the mercer collection at pottery barn, and the mirror is the kensington tilt mirror, also pb. lights above the sink are norwell dahlia. shower, bath, and sink fixtures are brizo baliza in chrome. towel cabinet is restoration hardware.

the only hindsight issue i have upstairs is the master bath. we were asked if we wanted radiant heat installed under the tile. we thought that sounded a bit much - and my feet are always hot - so we declined. however, because this room is in a far corner of the house and it so wide open, it's cold in the winter. like, freezing. those tiles might have been nice. so we're going to look into how much it would be to swap out the ceiling fan/vent for one that also has a heat setting. and the window, while lovely, is static. i have learned that i would have preferred something that would open to allow for fresh air and ventilation. also? it's high on the wall. i can't see out of it. even on my tip toes.

so ... two floors down, one to go. the basement will be a much shorter visit.

details & resources - main floor

okay. i've been working on this for awhile, but the house was finally clean enough top-to-bottom to take the pix to go along with it.

we're officially at the eight month mark of living in the new house, as of today. over the course of those months, i've received more than a few emails from people who have stumbled upon pix i posted and asking where i got something, etc.

so here - and in a following post or two - i'll go through the house, one room at a time, and list where we found things, what we learned in the process, what we'd do differently, etc.

grab a drink.

so, here's the place today - with grass, vintagey-looking porch chairs, and a cutie-pie seven-year-old welcoming committee:

starting at this point, everything that is white in this house - including the exterior - is benjamin moore's simply white. i love this white, which is a weird thing to say. but it isn't stark, it isn't overly blue-cold. there's just a touch of green in it to keep it fresh and natural, but it works with everything. (oh - there is another color. the porch ceiling is wythe blue. and the front door is some gray/black color, but i can't remember which one. alrighty.)

the exterior lights are all from barn light electric, and all are in the galvanized steel finish. these are the lights by the door and in the back of the house, these are the lights above the garage, and by my office door is this light.

the chairs and glider are from grandin road and are super comfy and full of that charm i wanted. need to get some cushions and side tables to hold a lemonade or fat tire, but those will come. i'm actually thinking about finding old tablecloths and making pillow covers out of those. something kinda like this:

hopefully, some planting will take place soon, too. harper and i have been making our dream flower list. it looks something like this:

lilacs

peonies

more peonies

hydrangeas

lots of daisies

and forget-me-nots

and more peonies

roses

lily of the valley

bearded iris

bleeding hearts

hosta

cosmos

phlox

alyssum

and peonies

and that's how we started our list.

so now let's go inside ... we'll go through the mud room, because that's the door we always use.

(ignore the scattering of shoes. it is what it is.)

obviously, this room is not simply white. i wanted a little color in here because, really, a white mud room? so this room is palladian blue. and it's a perfect color. floor tile is old-school vinyl composite tile. i love how it looks, and it's pretty easy to just mop up and be done with it. there IS an acrylic sealer you need to put on it once a year or so to keep the tiles from staining. truth be told: i haven't done it yet. i know. honestly, i'm waiting for summer, so the kids can use a different door and i can put the sealer on, block off the mud room from feet and paws, and it can get the 24 hour drying time it needs. however, it's a mud room. if there are minor stains on the tile, i'm not going to fret.

if you've been following this build process since it became a possibility two years ago, you'll remember i had something different in mind for this room. the wire wall baskets and bench i'd wanted got vetoed ... marc was pretty insistent we went the built-in route. he really loved how they looked in every house we toured. so i acquiesced, but only if the built-in was minimal. we compromised, and we're both happy with it. and our cabinet/trim guys were amazing ... they surprised us by putting up brackets for the shelf that mimicked the lines of the brackets on our kitchen shelves (we'll get there). we love it.

other things in the room:

the ceiling light is an antique wire waste basket that i found at an antique store for $15. marc drilled a hole in the base, slipped a $10 light kit through it, and voila. ceiling light.

on the shelf above the coat hooks (which are super fancy home depot chrome hooks) is some art and some vintage wire locker baskets to hold our gloves and hats. and a jar that harper uses to catch bugs.

art - the katie daisy "love" print that she made to benefit haiti relief; a dazeychic "so happy" print in a cheap ikea clip frame; a piece of red and white polka dot scrapbook paper in an ikea frame.

the mudroom is also our command central for keeping track of who has what when, papers we need to remember, invitations, etc. we keep track of everything with the pottery barn wall system and use it all. the. time.

just off the mud room is the main floor bathroom and my studio/office.

the vanity cabinet is painted benjamin moore camouflage. the floor is simple 8x8 white ceramic tile. hindsight: we should have used gray grout. this is such a high traffic bathroom, and much of that traffic involves dirty feet and shoes. gray grout would have been smart.

the vanity top/sink is cultured marble. not my favorite, but it will do for now. we had to save money somewhere, so going standard in this bathroom and the one in the basement became the places where we stayed cheap. however, i clean this freaking vanity all the dang time. every little water spot and kitty paw print and soap puddle from rushing children shows up.

(the mirror is from target ... i know - this mirror is too small. but it was cheap, and it works for now. i'll replace it someday. the light is norwell nexus, chrome finish with two lights; and the faucet is kohler archer in chrome.)

now - sidenote: the intention for this house from the beginning was an industrial farmhouse. and while there are definitely farmhouse and industrial features, i could have gone way more overboard on keeping true to more 20s/30s/40s fixtures or going full-on industrial. however, where i veer more to vintage farmhouse, marc veers more to modern. so we compromised. the interior of the house is a reflection of that. there is a way more modern edge than a vintage or industrial one. hopefully, it will stay clean and timeless. industrial is getting a bit too trendy and i didn't want our house to feel too much like "oh, hello, industrial trend of 2012-2013!" though i may totally snap one day and order all new lights for areas of the house to make it feel more like "grandma's farmhouse." oh yes. i just might.

quick peek at my studio - this is still an almost 100% work in progress.

eight months in, i still need to paint the barn door with chalkboard paint. i don't think the pictures will stay where they are. i'm not in love with the desk, but i had to get something up fast to get my computer up and running. it works for now, but i'm not in love with any of it. sadly, this space has found itself waaaaaayyyy at the bottom of the list.

okay, then ... on to my favorite space: the kitchen/dining/great room.

i love this space more than words.

cabinets are all shaker style - simple and clean. all of the perimeter cabinets are painted simply white, and the island is painted camouflage. the perimeter counter top is soapstone, and i still want to marry it. the island is topped with stainless steel, which we love love love. yes, it shows fingerprints. so what. a quick wipe with a damp microfiber cloth and it's all good.

(no, i didn't see the wine cork on the floor until after i uploaded the photos. in my defense, we keep a bowl of corks by the kitchen window, and it was really windy that day. so ... that's my story. while we're at it, the rug is this one.)

we used three different types of hardware in the kitchen, all from restoration hardware. drawers have aubrey pulls in chrome, double cabinets have the utility latch in chrome, and single cabinet doors have the aubrey knob.

the kitchen lights are from pottery barn - the porter adjustable pendants in white ceramic. there are two large ones over the island, and a small one over the sink. they're gorgeous.

the island stools are from overstock. the price is unbeatable.

the faucets - kitchen sink and prep sink - are both hansgrohe talis high arc faucets in chrome. the one in the prep sink is smaller and doesn't have the pull-down sprayer. an oversight. a sprayer would have been a good thing.

the kitchen sink is a stainless elkay single-bowl undermount sink. i love it; marc's on the fence. he can't figure out how to do dishes in a single sink. i really wanted a white fireclay-type farmhouse sink, but i was too nervous about it getting chipped or staining. we looked at a stainless apron-front sink, but were told that belt buckles and zip-front sweatshirts tend to leave a scratch pattern over time. so we went with the undermount. i haven't been (totally) sorry.

appliances: we researched obsessively, not wanting to get a room full of the same brand only to find that while the stove is great, the refrigerator sucks. et cetera. so after doing months of research, we ended up with a bosch dishwasher, a samsung fridge, a kitchenaid wall oven/microwave-convection oven unit, and a wolf gas cooktop. totally schizo, i know.

verdict? the dishwasher is awesome, despite the fact that sometime between ordering a $1,500 dishwasher and getting it installed, bosch decided it needed a more "consumer-friendly" price point in their line, so it started making less expensive machines, with the cost brought down because they used some cheaper parts. so while we got the not-cheap dishwasher, we DID get a cheap dishwasher latch. and it broke within three months, and we had to have it repaired. at which point we were told about bosch's little scheme. so ... we'll watch that. the oven/microwave combo is working great so far. we've used the microwave's convection oven mode only twice, but it seemed to work just fine. the cooktop? i'm in love. i've missed gas for 15 years, so i'm a happy camper about the cooktop. i have heard nothing but mixed reviews about wall oven units, so i hope i don't regret that we didn't just get the dual fuel cooktop/oven we went back and forth about but nixed in the end because it took the bulk of our appliance budget all by itself. the fridge? i go back and forth. i adore the door ice/water dispenser - we haven't had that option ever, and we all go through the ice/water way more now that it's handy. (and now that we actually HAVE ice to use.) however, it takes up a ton of door space. i haven't yet figured out the best way to configure the space for storage. still working on that. i do wonder if we should have gone the counter-depth side-by-side route. there was less interior cubic feet of storage, but thinking back, the storage was laid out more usably. on well. it's all good.

the kitchen makes me happy.

(note: the white ikea vase? know what that's for? i turn my iphone on to the pandora app while i do dishes, and stick it in the vase. the accoustics amplify the volume and it sounds amazing. i know we have fancy schmancy ceiling speakers, but honestly - while doing dishes - i prefer this $3.99 method. oh, and the little cork bowl is from here.)

(coffee tin; tray; utensil vase)

the only real hindsight issue with the kitchen is the cabinets and hood above the cooktop.

it was all installed at standard height ... but we never took into account the fact that marc is 6'4". the hood hits him right about nose-level. it's inconvenient, and he's going to whack himself on the corner one of these days. at some point (we're going to look into having it done at our one-year walk-through, since the various trades will be out here touching up things anyway), we'll get the cabinet above the stove replaced with a single-height one, like the glass-front ones on either side, move the hood up, and add tile. get that hood above marc's head.

the dining "room" area has worked out nicely so far. we don't miss a formal dining room. however, the table snafu was disappointing, and we're left with a table way smaller than what we'd wanted and planned for. we'll work around it for now, until we can find a table that extends the amount we need a few times a year.

(table - pottery barn (discontinued), chairs - crate & barrel, pendants - shades of light)

 

the great room ... is pretty great.

you already know about the couches (restoration hardware. kensington. army duck in fog.) and the chairs/pillows. we haven't done anything to this room since then.

(fireplace surround is brick-pattern marble subway tile. lights above the fireplace are hudson valley keswick in chrome.)

in the spirit of keeping it real, this is the front room. it is also painted palladian blue. it will be lovely. someday. right now, it's where we put the things with which we have no idea what to do.

movin' right along.

next we walk through the front entry to get to harper's and my crafty room, and that will be the end of today's tour.

 

(stairway lights; rug.)

i found a cute little spoon-carved dresser on craigslist that i'm having restored then will paint and put in that empty spot above. can't wait to get that area dressed up.

(yes, mario literally follows me around all day long.)

we have three barn doors in the house. they are all on tracks from rustica hardware, in raw steel finish. (as much as we wanted to get stainless tracks, it would have been an additional $420 per track. um, no.) great company to work with, gorgeous product.

(vintage metal locker shelf found on craigslist; pendant is a hack of ikea's maskros light, ikea alex storage drawers, pottery barn rag rug (discontinued). this room is still very basic and unfinished, but it's functional.)

there you have it. the main floor. hope i've hit everything. i'll get to the other two floors later this weekend.

minor changes

back in january, when the couches arrived, the great room finally had places to sit.

less empty than empty, but too stark even for my minimalist leanings.

then, last weekend, as you may have noticed, we brought home two chairs that we'd left at the old house, and plopped them in the great room for the time being.

as they sat there, i realized they were helping to fill in the room a bit. not chairs that i'd had in mind for the space, but hey - they were chairs, and they didn't cost us a penny.

however, the cushions weren't working for me.

so i went shopping. i stopped at pier 1 to see if they had any of the same seat cushions so i could replace the stained, flattened, off-white ones. they did - if i wanted bright yellow, bright green, turquoise, or off-white again. so, turquoise came home with me.

not sold on that and thinking i may be able to gently wash the existing cushions in a diluted bleach bath, i then ran to crate & barrel ... and pottery barn ... and west elm ... and target ... looking for pillows for the back of the chair. i looked at different colors, solid colors, patterns, napkins that could be sewn into pillow covers. i contemplated the white tuxedo pleat curtains we took from the old house and wondered how they would look sewn into pillow covers. i questioned why every store only sells off-white. there is no White. why is that?! some people don't WANT off-white. but i digress.

i wasted an entire day on this project.

not totally satisfied that what i'd purchased to mix and match would result in a winner, i came home to play. for sure, i knew, the yellow covers would have to go. too mustardy, too warm, but i didn't have a back-up plan so i left them. i tried the various combos i'd brought home, and in the end, surprisingly, i went with the turquoise seat cushions (which i feared were too bright and turquoise-y) and left the yellow back pillow. why? because of these gray lovelies that i picked up at west elm.

the subtle gray works with the color of the couches, and the diamond pattern mimics the tufting, and the pattern tones down the "solidness" of the turquoise and mustard. and once it was all together, i realized that the colors actually work perfectly with what is on the mantle.

so, sold. they're staying. for now.

and the room feels much warmer and closer to "together."

still on the hunt for a rug - contemplating flor tiles ... anyone have experience with those? - and need to get some tables and lamps and figure out the window covering situation. one thing at a time, though. because through this little pillow exercise, i've learned how much of an impact adding one little thing at a time really makes.

getting sidetracked again

maybe it isn't sidetracked, per se. maybe it's just that i'm desperate to do something to this house to make it feel more finished, but i know there won't be much of that happening until the other house sells.

(excuse me, for a moment. that house has been on the market for 10 months. we've dropped the price significantly. we're currently losing $60k in equity and $30k-plus in improvements. we have been stuck at our break-even point for the last six weeks. because we've been paying a double mortgage since october, the funds are not there to bring another $10k or more to the table to get that house off of our hands. we have lots of showings, feedback is always good, there is no one smoking gun that is preventing a sale. and yet, no bites. not even a nibble. not even an insulting low-ball offer. i think the universe is trying to tell us to rent it out.)

until the days of a single mortgage return, there are no major purchases in our future. however, there may be some projects, and i'm always on the lookout for a bargain that can be repurposed or repainted and come in handy.

current project: cover up some windows so

a) there's a little bit of privacy, and

b) i'm not blinded while working at the kitchen sink or sitting at the dining room table or sitting on the south-facing sofa at any point in the day between the hours of 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

that sun is brutal. and it's always sunny in minnesota. like, every day. except today.

because i haven't been able to decide what to do with the main floor windows, i decided to start with the sliding doors in the basement. back in december i found a killer deal on some great curtain panels at west elm. we finally bought hardware last week and got them hung over the weekend, only to notice ...

 

do you see it? the left panel is fine. the panel on the right? totally crooked. and the pattern doesn't line up with the other panel. i could live with not-totally-aligned circles, especially since the curtains will be open most of the day, but i cannot live with crooked. luckily, west elm will give me my $34 dollars back (like i said, killer deal) and i'll be back to square one on these windows. other than hardware. we now have that. so now i'm considering ikea's grommet panels and maybe some paint and a stencil? or try my hand at sewing on a thick horizontal band on the bottom? no clue. but something.

then there's upstairs.

we have a double window over the kitchen sink, a sliding glass door to the right of that, and great room windows immediately to the right of the sliders. lots of window ... very little wall space.

 

i have gone back and forth over what will look right there - blinds, roman shades, bamboo shades, curtains, pattern for one window, plain for another, etc. i found a fabric with potential at calico corners, but when i got a ballpark estimate for having a roman shade and panels made, i decided that no, in fact, that fabric was not going to work.

(ahem ... $$$$$)

so then i went back to my first-love fabric, which i found at tonic living. i think it would make lovely curtains. however, when i did a mock-up, i realized that there is so little actual wall space between runs of windows that using busy fabrics may not be the way to go.

so, my conundrum.

the great room windows are flanked with not enough wall space to sustain the volume of curtains that would be needed to function as window coverings. so for that space, i think stationary decorative panels bookending bamboo shades are going to win. but what type of curtains? the fabric i love?

 

 i love that. but then what do i do with the sliders? a different fabric wouldn't look right. would it?

 

 so maybe i would be better off with plain white linen curtains covering that whole run of windows?

(and then i could bring in those chiang mai dragon fabric pillows that i covet so desirously ...)

 okay, but then, what about the kitchen?

 

 do i go with continuity and put up a bamboo shade?

 

 that seems safe and boring.

i could go with that tonic living fabric i love so much and just pretend it works with the chiang mai (like i could afford those pillows any time soon, anyway. on that note, like i would spend that much on pillows anyway. i won't even spent $7 on an adorable white milk bottle at target because it's a "want," not a "need." sigh.)

 then again, i could go light and barely-there pattern to bring in some color but not stand out like, "HEY! LOOK AT ME!! I'M A SHAAAAADDDEEEEE!!"

 

i kinda like that idea.

i guess i really don't need to worry about this right right now. but it's either obsess over window coverings or obsess over rugs for the great room.

and i don't have a friggin' clue what to do about that one.

 

 

it's twins!!

remember a year ago, when marc and i had spring break to ourselves to pack, and we ended up falling head-over-heels for some fancy schmancy couches? couches that totally derailed my plans for white, white, and more white? and then i debated and pro/conned my little brains out for months?

well, in october we decided okay ... we love the couches. even after moving and seeing the finished space we still loved them and knew they were the way we wanted to go.

we went to the store to order them and were told delivery would be right around thanksgiving. we placed the order, and were told no, actually, delivery would be just before christmas. seriously? ugh. two months without furniture. of any kind. a few days later, we received the actual invoice and it said sorry for the delay, but delivery would actually be mid-freaking-january.

i was suddenly really, really irritated with these couches.

nearly four months of living in a house without a lick of furniture on the main floor. (remember: no dining room table, no chairs, nothing in the front room, and the crafty room populated only with boxes.) then, soon after, our island stools arrived. then, a couple of weeks later, our dining room chairs arrived. and we pulled the folding table out of the garage. and it was fancy. then, two months later, the dining room table arrived sans leaves. (jury's still out on whether we're keeping it.) and finally, yesterday, after months of waiting and wondering whether we did the right thing ...

there they were.

and they are amazing.

and i'm so glad we went with the 8' size, because it's perfectly proportioned for the room, and there's still breathing room if we ever want two smaller accent chairs.

and i may have sat on one for about an hour and a half last night, reading magazines and becoming one with their amazingness.

good things do come to those who wait. and now we continue to wait ... for a rug, curtains, a table on which to set my drink ... and the other house to sell so we can get those things.

domestic goodness

sooo ... remember those couches?

we bit the bullet and ordered them.

they will be here in mid-january.

january. as in ... after thankgsiving, after christmas, after new year's, after my birthday, after next thanksgiving ...

okay, maybe not that bad. but still. we're left with a literally empty first floor for the next two and a half months, and left with nowhere to sit when our families come to visit in the new few weeks and over christmas.

i was talking to my sister last night, lamenting that we'll all have to sit on the floor on christmas morning, and i said, "heck ... might as well put the christmas tree in the middle of the great room. like macy's. or whoville." then i was all, "omgnoway ... we're totally taking a family photo of us standing in a circle around the tree, holding hands, singing, a la the whos in whoville ..."

and she was on board. and that made me feel a little better about having nothing to sit on.

on the topic of having nowhere to sit, though, marc and i started crunching numbers to see whether it would be possible to somewhat populate the front room (the "wii room" in the kids' terminology) and then move that furniture out to the great room for christmas. the wii room has been lower on the priority list, but the wait time for the other couches has changed our priorities a bit.

remember when i played with the front room and came up with this?

i still love the feel of it, but some changes had to be made.

firstly, obviously, we can't have a gray couch in this room because of the gray ones right next door. so this could be the room for my streamlined white couch, mayhaps?

love this mitchell gold sasha couch, but there isn't a place to buy mitchell gold in minnesota. (and, seriously, why isn't there?!) so i'm on the hunt for an alternative.

i'm still in love with that anthro rug, so that's got to stay in the running. i have no idea at this point what else will go in the great room with the gray couches, but i can guarantee you that every color combination i've considered is represented in this rug somewhere. i think it's a winner.

now that we've been living in this space for a month, i think the best things to have in the front room wii room are a couch for those playing wii or watching tv, and a reading chair nestled in the corner. just cuz that's where i'd want to sit: at an angle, looking out the window, being with my family but not having to watch whatever it is they're doing on the tv ...

i love this comfy looking maine cottage chair in the sun-colored lucky leaf fabric, and how sweet is the slipcovered ottoman in a bright white linen? both are likely out of the price range for "reading chair," but i love them still.

every good reading nook needs a side table for the wine glass/coffee mug and a spare book, and a good reading lamp. i kinda love this table from uttermost because it would pull in the industrial elements that we have in other parts of the house. and i like this reading lamp from ikea because ... well, because it's cheap.

getting to the pretty stuff, i've fallen in love with pillows from etsy seller woody liana. i'm having a hard time picking a favorite, but the ones i used in this set up are the hothouse flowers and betwixt pillows and the christopher farr.

so, this stuff would be on one side of the room and by the windows, but what about the actual tv/wii wall? what will all that techy crap entertainment goodness hide in go on?

this. i want this.

and i will save my pennies for as long as it takes because i love it so, so much and it must belong to me.

it's perfection, isn't it? (please don't think so and please don't run out and buy it.)

i like my little plan. what actually happens and when remains to be seen.

hopefully something will happen soon. the constant echo when i'm working in the kitchen and the kids are talking is about to drive me insane. three lovely rugs arrived today - one for the kitchen, one for the entry, one for my studio - so hopefully they will help dampen the noise. my day has been spent sweeping and dusting and mopping, and right now the floors are gleaming and lovely.

it makes me happy.

and reminds me i need to buy rug pads, because right now those rugs are like greased sleds on a frozen hill.

 

 

 

one month in.

a month ago from yesterday, we moved in.

(and chaos and frustration ensued, and has not been entirely resolved yet. but hey! that's moving. it is what it is.)

i finally have a desk set up for my computer, and my computer is finally talking to the file server, so i can finally show you pix from the final walk-through, the day before closing.

(this was before the winds picked up, and dirt was blown against the house, and the sod was laid to prevent more dirt from blowing against the house. right now, the house needs a good, long bath.)

the front door ...

the girls' artsy-craftsy room ...

walking into the kitchen/dining/great room ...

(thankfully, the counters are now done and gorgeous.)

the front room (what the kids are calling "the wii room," for soon-to-be obvious reasons.)

through the kitchen are the mudroom, bathroom, and my studio ...

(we've since added mirrors to all the bathrooms.)

(and apparently i have no "after" photos of my studio or the mudroom. guess you have to wait.)

heading upstairs to the bedrooms, the laundry room, and the kids' computer loft ...

 



the master bath finally has all of its fixtures, too, and is quite lovely if i do say so myself. i'll take a new pic of that sometime later, too.

kids' bathroom ... now has the final lights in place, too. little mini galvanized barn lights like the ones by the front door. it looks super cute.

H's room ...

h's room ...

(guest room didn't make the photo cut. later, when it's decked out.)

time to go to the basement.

game/hang out area ... the wet bar also got a stainless counter top, like the kitchen island:

tv area ...

marc's office is through the barn door ...

the basement also has another guest room and another bathroom.

and there you have it.

it's a big house ... twice the size of our last one ... and the first week i wondered what we'd gotten ourselves into. cleaning it is a full-time job, walking up and down all those stairs 5,392 times a day is exhausting, all the hardwood on the main floor kills my feet. but there's something about the space ... the way it's configured ... that feels totally homey. we were very intentional about how we wanted the rooms laid out and the space used, so the whole house feels completely like a farmhouse; like nice, cozy, intimate rooms with purpose. there are no wide open spaces or soaring ceilings. it feels much smaller than it really is. can't wait to try it out with people and see if our theory of space allocation holds up.

right now we're unpacked to the functional stage. there are several projects going on that will lead to more rooms getting more finished. harper's beds are getting painted, i'm painting our old master bedroom bed for the guest room, i have big plans for both guest rooms, the couches are ordered (grr ... that's a post for another day), and things are starting to if not come together, they are coming together as eventualities.

and that's okay for now.

thanks for being excited for us throughout this journey. it's been a blast. i'll write next time about the process and what we learned ... there are some nuggets of wisdom in there somewhere, i bet!

super, duper, crazy in love.

that's how i feel about my kitchen.

i loved it before, but the stainless steel island counter top finally arrived today, and everything just clicked perfectly into place.

it's beyond dreamy. it's perfection.

and it just completes this kitchen in every little way.

nothing is in its final resting place by any means, but at least it's functional, clean, and looking a bit more like home.

even the cat is starting to relax and is claiming some territory just for him.

also helping me to relax and settle in? i finally have a towel bar and a mirror in the master bathroom. after two weeks of running back and forth from various bathrooms, i can now start and finish all in mine.

marc made sure he had that taken care of before his week in utah/los angeles/chicago, and i'm eternally grateful.

and when he gets home tonight, he'll be greeted by a yard, which was finished up today.

having grass also goes a long way to restoring some sanity around here. all the dust and dirt flying around and preventing open windows was making me claustrophobic and agoraphobic at the same time. that small patch of dirt remaining at the back of the lot will be tilled and seeded with native grasses and wildflowers, and we'll just let it grow.

talk about relaxing!

we will all exhale tonight and breathe deeply tomorrow. marc will finally be home, his meetings tomorrow were postponed, the kids don't have school, and other than the movers' repair guy and the light store's installation guy coming to do their respective deeds, we have a day of just being home and together.

and i'm super, duper crazy in love with that, as well.

long story short:

we closed on the new house today.

there are more pix and more things to say, but for now i'm out of here. so, so tired. and so, so much packing to do before the moving truck arrives at 8 a.m. sunday.

yes, even though it's finally ours, we won't sleep there until sunday.

it's kinda like taking christmas morning reeeeeeaaaaaaallllllyyyyyy slowly.

anyway, i'll be back in a couple of days. just wanted to let you know it's finally, officially, ours.

there are things i will miss ...

and i'm sure, as we pack up our house this weekend, i will get misty-eyed about leaving this place.

but i'll spare you the nostalgia right now and let it stew for a few more days.

as perfect as the new house is and will be, there are a few things that i can already tell i will miss dearly from our now house. namely, mature trees.

because our current house was built in 1965, it's in a neighborhood of trees that have been growing for the past 50 years. and they are tall and lovely. they provide shade in the summer, color in the fall, and a beautiful place for snow to rest in the winter. our backyard looks like a park, and it never ceases to strike me how lovely the streets are as i drive through them.

by the time the new trees reach that sort of maturity, marc and i will be ... well ... we'll be staring down 90.

yikes.

i've loved these trees for the past seven years. the lilac by the garage, the trees lining the street side of the house and keeping the neighbors at bay, the pines in the back that shelter the deck, the trees in our neighbors' yards that provide us with lovely color in the summer and fall when we look out the back of the house.

i love these trees.

luckily, the new place has trees in the distance, so it won't be like we're just looking out over a flat, empty tract of land. we're surrounded by trees, just as a perimeter, and not as landscaping. at least, not yet.

we meet with the landscaper tomorrow. there are a few trees in our future.

but today? today we had our final walk-through with our building supervisor, billy, and a few dozen little post-it notes.

we walked slowly through the house, room by room, looking up each wall and running our hands across all the trim, seeking out and marking imperfections, like a plastic surgeon marking up a middle aged socialite, noting all the things that were missed, that are unseen at a first glance and at a distance but stand out upon further notice. things that need to be remedied and addressed.

between now and 9:30 a.m. friday.

when the house officially becomes ours.

and the next stage officially begins.