Category / House

I’m so excited to be posting about this latest project!

Since the day we moved in, I’ve had my eyes peeled for a buffet/dresser/cabinet/fill-in-the-blank to put in our entry. It’s a fairly deep and wide space, and my previous entry pieces (a small console table or the red hutch which set up camp in our last house’s guest room) just weren’t cutting it – they were too small for the space and looked rinky-dink.

I knew I wanted substantial size with ample storage space. While doing some local looking this summer for Page’s office (another post soon to come), I stumbled across a vintage resale shop just outside of town, The Porch Junkies.

It was so fun to check out the shop and browse the array of vintage pieces. Things were in a wide variety of conditions from pristine to screaming for some DIY love. We settled on a piece that was structurally pretty sound, but needed some surface help, a vintage Broyhill credenza.

The owners were kind enough to deliver it for us on their way home that evening, and we popped Crew on top (his pre-crawling phase, don’t worry!) for scale. 🙂

The plan to stain versus paint was an evolving one, and took place in the garage over the coming weeks whenever I could get a free naptime, or an evening after Crew went to bed. I started with CitriStrip, which worked wonderfully and with little elbow grease…

When some (presumably water?) damage showed through after the stripping, we opted to paint versus stain. So on went a couple coats of wood primer.

I had my heart set on a color from the get-go, but had to do a little convincing for Page. The first couple coats were in-your-face HOT pink, against the bright white primer coats, but gradually, the color deepened into the dark berry I was after. (Below is post-first and post-third coat, for comparison!)

I was bursting at the seams to get this moved inside in time for Halloween. There is still some metallic accent paint to be added, but for now, who cares – I was getting out the decor within minutes of the guys moving it inside last night! I did add some shelf liner to all of the drawers, to tie in with our navy entry rug, and bring a little bit of modern (and cover up a few stained drawer insides!).

And a few quick naptime photos of the (90% complete) final product, in its new home in time for trick-or-treaters tonight!

Happy halloween!!!

Love, Page, Liz, and Albert Einstein 😉

The move-in pace has definitely been slow for us, but something about this home already feels more long-term. With our last house, we thought “3-5 years”…I see us in this one for longer, so it seems fitting we take our time to settle in here for the long haul.

I think everyone has their “thing” that keeps them grounded and like they (somewhat) have it together. For me, it’s homemaking. Nesting. Whatever you want to call it. In the craziness of new home and new baby, home is sanctuary to me. I was lucky to soak up twelve weeks of leave with our little man the first three months of the year, but rather than nap, I found it more stabilizing to unpack boxes, arrange a bookshelf, or simply just know where the dinner plates were for the first time in weeks. It’s hard to relax on the couch with a new babe when everywhere you look it’s chaotic! After heading back to work, the changing seasons inspired me to dive into the decorating thing and finally make some decisions about color and how to use certain spaces.

Last I posted about the house it was the day before move-in, and a lot has happened! There’s more to do in our long-term plan, but if I wait until it’s “done” (which it never will be), these posts would never be written.

From hanging curtains and blinds, to adding art, purchasing furniture, framing photos, furnishing a patio space to grill and chill, and dancing to music from the speakers Page installed around the house (case in point, above!), we are slowly but definitely making this house a home. It’s now August (seriously?!), and with some progress under our belts, I’m drafting several posts to show progress in different areas of the home, starting with the kitchen!

Now that we’ve lived with it all for several months, I am happy to say we are still thrilled with the materials and appliances we selected during the build. We were initially drawn to this builder because of their calling card oversized island kitchen layouts — ours continues to be the hub of the house and I’m so glad we have it! We added some barstools so it can multifunction as a spot to sit and snack or drink — perfect for when one of us is prepping a meal.

Building is tricky in that you are constantly being swayed by this and that — and it’s all running an upgrade tab in the background. 🙂 We were budgeted for a perfectly nice sink and faucet, but opted to step up to a stainless farmhouse sink and industrial kitchen-style faucet. Worth every penny, when I consider how many times every single day I’m in this very spot!

Panning down, I added a jade green runner between the kitchen wall and island. I still have a few yellow elements from our last kitchen, but they seem brand new when juxtaposed against a new and cooler hue.

(Um sidebar…can we talk about how much I love central vac? Ah. maz. ing. I have a feeling I haven’t even yet fully appreciated this little suction dustpan dandy until Crew is in full-on cheerios and puffs mode!)

Hardware was a place we went for the bargain — these are various lengths of the LANSA line from IKEA. The longest lengths were perfect for our 30″ drawer cabinets we opted for on the undercounter portion of the cabinetry. Another decision we’d pay for again and again — no more stooping and scooping through bottomless cabinet drawers – everything is visible and easy to access.

So there it is, the kitchen as it stands today. Hoping to be back soon with more updated pics from around the house!

It’s been a while since our last house update around move-in time in early February. Since then, we’re (a bit) more rested, (a bit) more in a routine with our new little guy, and (a bit) more moved in!

A lot has happened in almost five months, and I’m working to photograph and blog it all. While the building is STILL being finished past the one-year mark (yes, really!), I’m choosing to focus on what IS done, starting with the exterior progress, which looked like this when I last posted pics…

Once the cold temps let up, they poured the rest of our front sidewalks.

Then they poured and stamped our back patio with a woodgrain stamp we found and requested, which turned out very cool. We wanted something different from all the decks we back up to in the neighborhood, and this delivers.

It feels like we’ve gained an extra outdoor “room” for the warmer months, and we’re having fun pulling this space together as they finish building the final elements of it.

I love the partially covered portion where we plan to frame in the space with some outdoor curtains, and Page is scheming a stone wall to help secure our grill – which has already blown down the hill once in a storm. The wall will be low enough to allow for some extra seating around the perimeter, and we’ll add a fire pit and some adirondaks on the uncovered portion (more on the patio progress and future plans in a separate post!).

A few weeks after our patio pour, our irrigation system went in.

Weeks of rain set us back, but the house got painted – a dramatic difference! – and we are loving the color, which reads slate grey in some lighting, and navy blue in others. Things like our copper accent roof and fixtures finally “popped” visibly against the cool dramatic color.

Unfortunately, due to miscommunication between the builder and contractors, the cedar posts on the front porch were painted with deck paint, instead of stained. Those are waiting to be taken out, rebuilt, and they — along with the post and stairs on the back patio, some corbels and truss pieces yet to be added — will all be stained a dark cedar color.

Once painted, we finally got our sod which made the house feel night-and-day different from the outside, and much more like a home. We’ve been grateful for the rain (for once!) to help us save a little on our water bill as it takes root!

Aside from the cedar pieces being completed, the last step is landscaping. Most of the trees on our lot when we purchased it, will be replaced, due to damage during construction. We are also planning an arrangement of perennials along the front walk, which will be rocked in, along with another rocked section along the back of the house. We have more landscaing we would like to do, but we will save our pennies for a bit until we’re ready for phase 2. 🙂

Hopefully we’ll be back soon with some patio and landscaping posts — and sooner than later, some updated INSIDE pics!

I’m so excited to finally share some pics of Crew’s nursery. This room has posed a couple challenges, but it has been so much fun to pull together. I think every mama-to-be pins away, dreaming about how to decorate her baby’s room. I didn’t want to be OVERLY theme-ish in here, but put together some inspiration and a color palette that works with all things water/adventure (and a nod to his name!).  Since I didn’t have a room to work in until he was over a month old, I decorated in my head until I could get in here and bring it all to life!

Decorating without the actual space to reference meant there were a couple of surprises. Like it hadn’t clicked for me that when considering wall space and furniture arrangement, I forgot that his double closet doors weren’t the folding kind — they were full size, swing-open doors. I love that style so much more, but man, it eats up some space along the south wall!

So instead of a traditional bookcase, we opted for the popular picture-ledges turned bookshelves option, gifted by Crew’s Gigi, on this wall the closet door opens to. These book ledges make me so happy — so much color for him to look at and wonderful to see the many titles gifted to us by friends and family…and without taking up floor space!

I used the months of pregnancy to collect things for an arrangement to go over his changing table/dresser. The “adventure” word I purchased before Crew was even on his way when we deemed it our word for the year in 2014 — it seemed more than appropriate it hang on his wall, as he is our greatest one yet. The coordinates on the plaque are those of the hospital in which he was born, the frame holds a first family picture, and the paddle was a must as a nod to his name. The paddle originally said “beach” and was a different color — I added the royal navy paint to it and the exterior of the white frame to tie it all together a bit more.

And finally, the crib. Which has been sitting flat-packed in a box for a few months in the apartment, until we could move in and put this together. Crew was about six weeks when we got to finally, FINALLY do this parent right of passage. It was like delayed nesting and as silly as it sounds, I teared up when we finished putting it together. I’d been waiting so long to feel what his room would feel like, and standing in the space, finally seeing the focal point of it put together, was an awesome moment. It was kind of like bringing him home all over again, but to a much more zen, nested, space!

The mobile that started it all. Page fell in love with this on a post-dinner date at PB Kids one night last summer, before we even knew we were having a boy. #meanttobe

True story – I agonized over which crib sheet to use for pictures. I’ve gone a bit crazy with them, since it’s the only bedding you can use with a babe. We cycle through so many cute ones – this striped one, a super soft navy chenille, an aqua with navy flecks, and the list goes on. We couldn’t quite fit the last book ledge on the other wall, but it’s perfect in this corner, to hold a couple of favorite maternity pictures in which we first revealed his name, and also holds our monitor camera.

My bestie spotted this pillow while I was still in the inspiration board phase. Perfection. The cable throw was a gift and the perfect shade of aqua.

In the months from when we ordered our glider last fall and when it arrived at the house in February, I had lost perspective on just how large it is! We chose it for many reasons, one of them being its oversized comfiness, but until it was in the room (and we had to allow even more perimeter space for swivel/rock room), I hadn’t realized just how much floor space it would eat. But this sucker has been my second bed during the sleepless nights these last months, so we found a furniture arrangement to accommodate it!

Next to the glider is a little nightlight on the most perfect table, from Crew’s Mimi. I love the size, the textures and colors. The legs just scream little boy “adventure” room to me! 🙂

I’m already dreaming of what we’ll do when he’s ready for a “big boy” room and has opinions of his own, and later on, creating a cool teenager space. Until then, this sweet smiley boy of ours finally has a finished space to call his own.

WE MADE IT.

…and those three little words have so much more behind them than I can adequately express.

From the craziness of selling our first home faster than expected…to moving into one of the only immediately available apartments in town and finding out a week later we were expecting… to an anticipated five-month build taking all of nine months…to packing and moving with a newborn in the middle of winter…to the many headaches I won’t go into with ensuring all the final items of this build came together as we were told they would…have I exhausted you yet?? 🙂

What weighs out in the end is how grateful we are to be home and ready to make this place our own. While the process of building is NOT without stress or frustrations, we are thrilled with the end product, and ultimately can’t complain about the stress of moving with a newborn, since it is all stress we signed up for, and a mere symptom of our blessings – a healthy baby in our lives and the opportunity to build and move into our new home.

With that, I give you what I’m calling the “90% complete tour” pre-move in, before some last minute items arrived (our shower door, a cabinet door and handle, and all exterior finishes were completed due to the season – paint, landscaping, etc)…

Welcome to our home! (Picture the timber all stained a cedar color, the shake painted a dark navy-grey, and a front walk poured out front, among some green sod) 🙂

The front entry.

The kitchen.

The dining area (the french doors will eventually open to our patio, to be poured in the spring).

The great room. (Page installed speakers throughout the house as he did in our last home…a huge task!)

The flex room, which will double as a sitting room and studio space for ClickSmith.

The powder room (which has since received its cabinet door – and I’m excited to show the cool piece of hardware we put on it!). We also LOVE the herringbone pattern and tile material in here. Fun and unique from the rest of the flooring throughout the house.

The laundry room. Love these built-ins which house the washer/dryer below.

The mudroom/garage entrance. SO grateful for a transitional drop zone that we did not have in our previous home.

The master bedroom, one of my favorite spaces in the house, complete with Page’s built-in wardrobes!

The master bath…

The laundry pass-through that connects from our master closet to the laundry (and also to a chute from the upstairs loft)…

The stairway up to the loft space…

We would like to make this spot (eventually) a kid media/homework area.

Crew’s room…

Page’s office…

The guest room….

And the upstairs full bath.

That’s all for now — more soon!!

Between the holidays and counting down to baby D-Day, it’s been a quick month with lots to catch up on, but we’ve made it to 2015…and our closing date is in sight, just over a month away! When we last left off, drywall was in.

We started off 2015 quite literally ready to make this move, signing all our rate-lock loan documents first thing on January 1. Come onnnnn, closing date!

Outside, our siding has arrived. It won’t be painted until spring  (this color), and sod/landscaping won’t go in until then either, but we are more than happy to get even “half-finished” on the outside. They’ve also added our gutters since the above shot was taken (on a drive-by visit over lunch!).

Inside, trim and doors were delivered and the amazing trim carpenters have been working their magic. It’s so fun to start to see elements that will be visible when our home is finished, as opposed to all the steps that happen BEHIND the walls!

It’s awesome to see it all start to come together from the baseboards to the window and doorway trim as our (yet to be painted) doors are hung, as well…

In other fun news, I’m doing a happy dance for our cabinets starting to go in, here in the kitchen…

…and in the bathrooms…

I’m so happy with the color and am loving the soft-close feature…perfect for little fingers! I’ve been measuring them all like a crazy lady so I can plan my organizers to get everything just where I want it. OCD, much?

Page has been working alongside the crews, starting on our wardrobe wall in the master bedroom…

This wall will deserve a post all its own, but above you can see a sneak peek of the two Pax wardrobe frames (which will be filled with drawers/dividers/pull out trays and closed off with these doors)…

…and here, the shelving unit he is building, to put between the two wardrobes. This will hold our TV and components, and create additional shelving for decor and storage. When everything is installed, the whole thing will be painted and trimmed to match the room. I can’t WAIT to wake up to these every morning!

A LOT is happening — and more to come soon! With five weeks until closing, this last month-plus of progress is a welcome distraction as we wait for the tiniest new tenant of this home to make his arrival!