Sneak peek

Here are a few more pics of the house.  I think I'll do a room or two at a time...a slow reveal, if you will.  

This is the living room. It was one of the things that drew us in right away...the  windows, the coffered ceiling, the detailed fireplace and the big sliding glass window.  It opens up to the kitchen and the dining room as well.  It still needs some work to cozy it up (maybe roman shades or shutters or curtains even?!?) but we are getting there slowly but surely!

I also need to find a new rug for the space since the one that's there is actually for the dining room (or at least it was in our old house), but we need it more in this space so the kids can sit and play and be comfy.  Trouble is, I'm so darn indecisive that I can't settle on the right one.  With most purchases, I can buy it and bring it back if it doesn't work in the space but rugs are a little more difficult to transport, especially since there are a few that I want that are online only.  And then it's the game of "should I wait and see if it goes on sale or just pull the trigger now?".  Does anyone else do that?  I feel like the item always goes on sale the day after I purchased it online.  Ugh!  So that's where we are at in the living room.  Thinking of switching up the pillows too but they work for now.  

More to come soon.  Maybe the kitchen??  :) here's a little peek of the island so you can get a feel for the layout and proximity to the living room.. 

And here's a few shots of the munchkins because I can't resist!  

Starting Over

Just when we finished all of the big projects in our first house (there were still a lot of little ones left on the agenda) and were settling into our post-renovation-bliss phase, we decided to leave.  To this day (almost 8 months since we moved), hubby still complains jokes about it to our friends.  He would say, "we worked so hard to make everything perfect and are now letting someone else reap the benefits".  He's not completely wrong, we did spent a lot of time and money on it, but at the end of the day it was a good investment and we walked away with all of those skills and the memories of having earned them.  Plus, things are different in the new house.  First of all, it is new.  To us and to the world.  There are no problems to fix (ahem..yet).  We can actually choose to have a free weekend to sit and enjoy the kids or do a project for fun, rather than work on something in the house.  And even though that is something that we both grew to love, that itch to renovate, we can do that over time here.  Much to my husbands chagrin, I already have a to-do list for the new house:

• Add a built-in hutch/storage/shelving unit in the dining room to complement the kitchen cabinets
• Add built-in bookshelves to the office
• Add built-in storage/lockers/cubbies to the mudroom area (currently being used as a playroom, so this will be a project for down the road)
• Finish the basement (more on that in another post, since its a big project)
• Add wainscoting to the kids bathroom upstairs 
• Add overhead lights in the kids' rooms 
• Get a new dining room table??
• Add hooks/storage to the garage
• Window treatments all around the house
• Plant in the back/maybe veggie garden if I'm feeling ambitious
• Turn guest room upstairs into fun hangout space for kids with some trundle beds or day beds for sleepovers
• Install gallery of frames on stairway wall
• Install a patio when basement is finished
• Add storage and functionality to laundry room/maybe paint as well

That's all I have so far, but its certainly enough to keep us busy for a while!!

And all of these projects will make more sense once I show you more pictures of the house, or even a house tour if I can figure out how to do that.  The kids have been sick this week so to say that they are needy at the moment is a severe understatement.  Reagan is sitting in my lap while I'm typing with one hand.  Hopefully next week will be better!!

New house, new beginnings..

We moved into our new house in December.  Just one town over, 7 miles away, but it feels like the other side of the world.  New neighbors, new town, new way of life really.  It's like starting over, but in a good way!!  And this was all totally on a whim, by the way.  We weren't even thinking about moving or selling the house that we put so much love and time and money into, we just stumbled onto a listing that we couldn't ignore.  I am not exaggerating when i say that as soon as we walked in we knew it was home.  I guess I shouldn't speak for my husband in that moment but as the saying goes, "happy wife, happy life!"  So we put our house on the market two days later and it was sold two days after that.  My head it still spinning.  We are settled in now but I have days where I wonder if we did the right thing.  We left some pretty wonderful neighbors, a newly renovated house, and the community that we loved for 4 years (although it felt like much longer), but then I remember all of the projects we still had left to do, and I start to forget all that.  I love me a good project, as you probably figured by now, but the things we had left to do included a new roof, boiler, insulation, just to name a few.  Nothing blog-worthy that's for sure!  

So instead of all that, we did the most unexpected thing of all; we bought new construction.  

I know.  I know.  What sort of projects could we possibly have here when it's brand new?  Trust me, though, we haven't been bored.  It's a blank slate.  There are a million decorating possibilities, two new kids rooms to have fun with and a whole basement to refinish (not sure if I even showed you final shots of the old one).  So although we won't be gutting and renovating this one like we did the last, we have a lot of work to do.  It was sad leaving such a special place (I will always love and miss our first home) but the extra space is really nice and I'm looking forward to all the amazing projects we can come up with here!!!

Looking forward to sharing this journey with you!!

A hop, a skip and a whole year

I can't believe its been a whole year since I've written.  Actually longer.  The demands of two kids was much more than I imagined and something had to give.  Unfortunately, it was this.  I can't tell you how much I have missed it though.

But I have still been decorating, renovating and even MOVING to a new house so we need a serious catch up session.....or several.  Hopefully this is like one of those friendships that stop and start right where they left off, like no time has passed.  I have a few wonderful friends like that.  We may only see each other 2 times a year, but you'd never know it.  Our conversations flow like we were just talking yesterday.  If this is anything like one of those friendships, I think we can rekindle this.  Fingers crossed.

I have some photo uploading and editing to do (7 months later and I still haven't taken a photo of the exterior of the house...oops), but I will share it all in the coming days. 

Can't wait to stretch out my legs after such a long hibernation.

And then there were four....

Hello world, I'm Reagan Grace....

Meet our newest addition; i.e., the reason I have been so sparse in my postings (and not for lack of projects going on around the house...which is sort of insane with a new baby around)!!  Reagan was born on April 17th at 2:56, weighing in at 6 lbs, 1 oz and 19 inches long.  Such a little peanut.  So far everything has been better the second time around.  I wouldn't say "easier" but at least more predictable, and as for the labor, it was less than half the time.  Phew!  And nursing has even been a little better.  Again, I wouldn't say easier, just marginally less awful.  But that is a whole other post. Bottom line is that she is amazing.  Pace loves her.....so far....and we are settling into a new routine around these parts.  I am finally finding time to sit down a think coherent thoughts, sort of, so posts will be coming fast a furious soon.  I hope. 

In addition to our new addition, we have created a nursery for her, finished the basement renovation, laid a new patio in the backyard, completely overhauled our upstairs bathroom, and lots of little projects here and there to contribute to these bigger ones.  Can't wait to share and get back on the horse.

For now, here are some more shots of the peanut...

In like a lion, out like a lamb....

I apologize for such a long hiatus, but it's been a busy few months!  First of all, we finished the basement....FINALLY....and then we renovated our upstairs bathroom (with some contractor help this time), and lastly, we updated another room in our house in anticipation of a new arrival in April.  :)  Yea, I snuck that one in there.  Sneaky, huh?  Yea, that sort of explains the struggle to find time to post.  I find that I am sleeping during Pace's naps and running around chasing him when he's awake, so there isn't a lot of time for independent thought....or project completion, really.  The last few weekends have been very productive though, so I hope to post a lot more from now on.  Well, at least until April 15th (give or take).  :) 

I haven't taken any recent photos of the basement, but i'll do that first thing tomorrow (when the light is good), and post them tomorrow or friday.  As far as the bathroom goes, I don't want to give away too much, so I'll show you a before photo to get a feel for what we were working with/living with for the last three years.  I suppose it could have been worse, but I was thrilled to see it go. 

Ick!!  I'm not sure which part was worse, the dirty, cracked, broken electric blue tile, or the flourescent vanity lights that took 3 minutes to turn on.  Hmm...tough choice!  So excited to show you the progress though.  More to come!  :)

And the other project we've been working on is a nursery for baby #2.  There is still a lot left to do, but we are moving along pretty well lately.  I think the nesting part of the program has commenced...I've been a little crazy lately!  To say the least. 

Can't wait to share all of those photos and more info on our new arrival. 

Small change

It's been a busy few months, but whenever I have a free minute (or 10) I try to complete some little project on my to-do list. Today I decided to tackle a quick frame fix. We were given this framed photo as a gift (in a Yankee swap actually). It's a friend of ours photography.

He's super talented and we love the photo but we didn't love the frame...especially not in the new basement bathroom. I am normally a fan of bronze but not in a gray/chrome/espresso filled space. So I decided to change it instead of replacing it. And I had just the thing to do it, a black sharpie. I know, profound right? But it worked....and it was free. Here's the before and after.

Certainly not my best transformation but it took about 10 minutes and it was free so I rank that pretty high on my list!

I have a lot more to share in the new year (including some projects that I've been holding out on and some news to share), but until then, wishing you all the best during this holiday season! Happy new year!