Finishing Touches

I put the finishing touches on our new spaces with two ottomans from Target. These were great finds! A blue pin-striped ottoman with storage for the playroom...

Our puppets and stuffed animals are in there.

A small pink and green striped ottoman for the school room. I just love how this coordinates with the carpet and the loveseat. It also opens for storage, but is empty right now.

Play Spaces Revisited

After our creation of a school room two weekends ago, our main living/play space underwent some dramatic changes of its own! Here is a very out-of-date post on our playroom. It changed quite a bit even before our big move this month. I'll have to do a another "tour" soon.

First, we added a train table that we found on Craigslist in the foyer (or "playroom extension"). This is were our four-sided bookcase used to be along with the cozy corner. Now it houses the water table when not in use, a small shelf of toys and the train/play table in the middle of the room. This came with two small stools so we're also using it for play dough and other messy projects.

Since our child-size table moved upstairs along with our four-sided shelf, I moved the boys' arm chairs from the music room/library and bought a small display bookcase for our current reads (non-curricular).

Not sure if it's the librarian in me or what, but I adore this!

We'd finally had enough of our Craigslist couch and ottoman (and the chair in the music room), so I sold them and found this couch on Craigslist instead! It is in much better shape: our old one was very faded and had spots and back cushions never stayed in place or well-fluffed. This one is much better and even came with a "chocolate" slip-cover to help combat kid-use.

Last but not least, after being inspired by Emma and Father John's addition of French doors to transform a dining room into Fr. John's office, we added doors to our music room/library to keep the cats out. This room has been gated and off-limits to the boys their whole lives, but the cats were getting into trouble in there. It was time for a change! This will allow my husband to practice in there as well without disturbing sleeping children or other house activities. (Though we all love to hear him play!)

Before and After: School Room

Totally embarrassing "before" picture. This was our guest/sewing/exercise room and this is what it looked like after I spent time sewing last week and the boys amused themselves with whatever they could find.

After! What a difference in 48 hours! I am in LOVE with this room now!

If you pop over to Flickr, you can read my notes. Enjoy the tour!

Such a peaceful and lovely space...just don't look at the master bedroom for a few more days until I finish weeding out what I don't need from the old room and cleaning off my sewing table!

Backyard Fence

A tour of the fence my DH built earlier this summer!

Before and After: The Playroom

This isn't a true before and after post as I didn't get the full "before" shot. It's more "during" and after. For my birthday last week, my DH decided to surprise me by taking up the carpet in the playroom and replacing it with hard flooring! As long-time blog readers know, I despise carpeting. I wasn't expecting this project to begin for several more years, so I'm thrilled to see our playroom/schoolroom come together the way I've wanted!

In the first shot, the playroom proper. It's mostly finished here except for replacing the baseboards. We decided not to strip the wallpaper and paint (neither of us feel up to that monstrous task), so the last remnant of "formal dining room" from the previous owners remains.

Looking from the playroom into the playroom extension (foyer) and through to the library/music room. Most of DS's toys are piled in there for the time being.

I anticipate that the entire project will be done this weekend, and I'll be back with more pictures our reconstructed and reconfigured room!

Oh, and we finished the fence two months ago...I'll post pictures (or a video!) of that too. Promise.

A Sneak Peak

One of our house projects this spring has been to fence in part of our yard. We have about 5.5 acres, and at least half that is "yard." Quite a large space to keep track of a very active toddler, especially on a busy road, so we decided to create a "play yard" of sorts to help manage outdoor playtime. We will be able to step right about the back kitchen door (being careful not to disturb the robin and hummingbirds)! It's actually quite a large space-- twice what we had originally planned-- and I think it's going to be a great help supervising our young children! My DH has done all of the planning and work himself!

Here's a look at our progress on Memorial Day weekend... he spent Sunday afternoon after church and on-and-off (between rain showers!) Monday working on it. Since then it's come along quite a bit and should be done this week.

(This is the front facing the road. The fence starts right at the front porch.)

(The section immediately following the one above. This has since been filled in.)

(The posts on the third side behind the swing set. See my new clothesline? DH built that early in May after the old one blew over and bent in half. I didn't take a picture of the back posts since they're mostly hidden by the maple trees.)

From there, the fence makes another turn to face the driveway (the gate will be in that section) then borders the deck before meeting the house. This is a great area because some or all of the yard is shady all day!

New (to us) Kitchen Table

While there are much more exciting things going on in the blogosphere, we've been in the midst of the little kitchen update.

Some close friends on ours have been moving out of their home into something smaller, and to help them out, we've been involved in the great Kitchen Table Swap of Aught Seven.

Their kitchen table and chairs are way to large for the new house, so here's what we did: my ever-patient DH spent yesterday morning dismantling our kitchen table and loading it, two leaves, and six chairs into his truck. (You can see our table, minus leaves, here.)

He drove one hour back to our hometown to my parents' house. There, he and my dad unloaded our table and loaded up their tables and chairs. They drove over to our friends' new house (just around the corner this time) and unloaded my parents' table there. (Following?) They then drove over to the friends' old house and dismantled their old table and loaded up it and six chairs back into DH's truck. Whew. My dad drove back to his our and DH drive an hour back here. Once he arrived, we reassembled our "new table" and promptly collapsed into our new-to-us chairs.

I should note: he collapsed because of all the physical labor. I collapsed due to feeling sick. Sidekick collapsed (or jumped) into his chair because he wanted a snack.




So everyone ended up with a "new table." I recommend this to anyone wanting to update their furniture without spending a dime! (Other than gas...)

I am completely in love with this new table, especially the fact that it's a laminate top (not oak) and doesn't need to be covered with a tablecloth all the time that will inevitably end up with drips, stains, etc. after five minutes. On the flip side, my mother is left wondering if her "new table" (our old one) is going to be too short to effectively use as a workspace. Both of us are satisfied, though, that we were able to help out friends in a tight spot and we hope they are happy with their new table!

New Curtains

Last week in my Commitment to Loveliness I mentioned choosing and buying curtains for the kitchen. Mission accomplished thanks to J.C. Penny's and a phenomenal sale!

(Note: I didn't iron until after I took these pictures. I wanted to make sure they would work before I made the effort!)

I feel so much better, especially with the curtains on the door. We felt so exposed, and now our privacy is restored!

Bedroom Complete!

Other pictures from this project can be seen here and here.

We finally moved our Sidekick back into his own room a few weeks ago. So, with no further ado, here are a few pictures of the finished project! I tried to take shots that showcase the floor and not the toys and humidifier in the corner (to the right of the window)!

Without a doubt, my favorite part about the room are the Wall Words (positioned on the wall above the bed and opposite the closet). My sister bought these for him for his birthday. If you click the photo, you should be able to read them easily.

Wood Floors Revealed!

For reference, before picture is here.

Even the closet looks better!

As a side note, anyone have any ideas for curtains? There are four windows in the master bedroom, including the double window you see above. I was thinking maybe eyelet to match the bedskirt. Thoughts?

The Piano Arrives!

Now that my sister and I have moved out, and no one plays the piano anymore, my parents generously asked my husband and I if we would like to have it. My husband has a full-size keyboard, but no piano. Finally, today, it arrived to join the organ, books, cats, and guitar in our living room!

For context, here it is placed in the room. The view is from the corner near the entryway.

For those cat-lovers among us, Zuzu is hidden in the picture below. I had no idea she was there until I was editing it! For the bibliophiles and librarians among us, there are eight bookshelves in this room (one is only 1/5 full) and the books are roughly cataloged according to the Dewey Decimal System. Old habits die hard. Or not at all, as the case may be.

Teaser

Before...

The Renovation-- Update!

The "Before" pictures are here.

Here is Sidekick's bedroom almost done! DH spent all day Saturday and all afternoon today working on the floor. The paint color looks more "pinkish" than it really is (Fortune Cookie).

What a difference!

We still need to add Quarter Round Moulding along the closet wall, and something like this for closet organization.

I'll keep posting pictures as we finish up. I'm so excited to finally put up the Wall Words he received for his birthday!

Kitchen Improvements

When we went to the State Fair on Friday, I found a few vintage advertising tins to add to the decor in our kitchen.

The smaller tins in this picture my mom and I found at JoAnn Fabric years ago, but she never used them so she gave them to me. They look nice next to the larger one from the fair, don't they?

DH and I found this print of Jean-Francois Millet's "Angelus" at a local Catholic shop that is closing. What I would like to do is frame the words for the prayer above or below the print.

It's amazing how much more homey and "put together" the kitchen looks with these few additions! Before now, we only had this hanging on the door of the coat closet. We bought this at the fair two years ago and brought it from our old house where it was hanging on the back of the front door.

The Renovation Begins!

June 10 was the big day! After hearing that my sister wanted to give the baby Wall Words for his birthday, we decided that we should paint his room first. Then, as long as we were painting it, why not rip out the carpet? If we were ripping out the carpet, why not take out the rod from the closet and replace it with a better organizational system?

Going room by room is definitely the way to go! The room should be painted this weekend, but we probably won't replace the floor until later in the summer. There's really no rush, DS doesn't sleep or spend any time in there anyway!


Here are the "Before" pictures:

Goodbye and good riddance, yucky blue carpet!

We're painting the room "Fortune Cookie," a color that's just barely off-white and not at all the color of a fortune cookie. We're considering this for the floor. Over the next few years, we'll do the same in the other three bedrooms and the hallway. So excited we've begun!