Our house - master bedroom

Before pictures were actually taken in this room. Because I was so darn anxious to get into this house I didn't take the time to take pictures of each room before moving in. However we held off on doing anything in this space while we figured out what we wanted. In the meantime it drove us crazy with our temporary bedding and painted walls that didn't match. Or rather clashed. In July I bit the bullet and bought some bedding then we got to painting the room.

Here are some before pictures:

The walls were a mint green. And the white squares above were the original flat paint. We had to sand down the edges of the squares so they wouldn't show up after we painted the wall. We wet back to a queen bed when we moved in here. We needed a new king size mattress however we were going to get rid of Chase's queen bed. It made the most sense to just use the queen bed and save ourselves some money.

 

 

After:

 

I found this bed on Craigslist for $200 and the bedding is from Pottery Barn.  The lamps I found on clearance at TJMaxx for $15 each. Can't beat that price.

 

We have 2 master closets. We definitely don't have enough clothes to fill both so we use the large closet which is off the master bathroom. The other closet is used for storage. We have many pictures waiting to be hung and it desperately needs to be reorganized.

 

Projects:

-paint trim and doors in the entire house white!

-  hang curtains

- hand artwork/pictures

- paint bathroom

- paint dresser and nightstands

- build a better more useful closet system

 

This house is lovely just the way it is. It has and will be fun to put our touch on it to make it feel more us and more like our home. With all of these list of projects we want to do we really aren't in a hurry and we will take our time. Taking our time will let us get a feel for exactly what we want. But I can't help but daydream up ideas for what I want.

 

Our house - the loft and laundry room

Continuing up the stairs this is what you see.

Our Ikea desk that Derek got from his parents our first Christmas married fits perfectly in this space. Literally less than 2" to spare! It so weird even the configuration of the L is perfect for this off space.

I thought for sure we'd be getting rid of this but decided to take the chance and see if it fit. So glad I did. This table gets more action than anything else upstairs.

I think the loft looks nice without having bought anything new for the space.

The diamonds much like the green walls in the office is getting to me. I'd love to repaint up here  sooner rather than later. (After the green walls though.)

Down the hall is a linen closet not shown, Chase's room is the door to the right. Before you reach Chase's room is a laundry room. And you see the kids bathroom.

We bought white magnetic boards from Ikea so they can put up whatever they feel like. Its constantly changing. Above each of their boards are the charactures they had done at Disneyland. 

The not so exciting laundry room. I can't complain, I love having a window in here and cabinets instead of just a shelf. But I have big plans for in here.

 

Upcoming projects for the loft:

-paint

-paint the dresser and bookself

-curtains?

-fun rug?

 

Laundry room projects:

-paint walls

-paint cabinets and add larger crown molding to the cabinets

-add a countertop over the washer/dryer

-recover ironing board

-wall behind door do come sort of wall treatment, possibly board and batten with many hooks. It would be a great place to hang swim suits and towels during the long summer months

-add some artwork

Our house - kitchen, dining & family room

 

 The kitchen is a nice size. Not too big but not too small. I love the 42" upper cabinets.

 The white cabinet to the right of the screen Derek and I bought at Target with gift cards from our wedding. Its held up great and I still like the style. It tends to be our dumping ground for school stuff, mail, toys that need to be taken upstairs. Maybe if I add pretty décor on top it then that won't happen.

 The granite isn't one we would have picked ourselves but I'm not going to complain about having granite countertops. The door you see in this picture goes to the garage.

The dresser our TV sits on is one of my favorites pieces in the house! When we were buying this house we knew we wanted a larger TV and we'd put the small one upstairs in the loft. We found a crazy good deal on this 60" TV at Costco. Who knew that with such a huge TV we'd have a terrible time finding a TV stand wide enough. After countless shopping trips and weeks scouring Craigslist I found this on Craigslist for $300. Far less than what I was expecting to pay. Apparently it came from a McMansion in Paradise Valley.

The owners before us had a great sectional. I sat on it and fell in love. I flipped a couple cushions over to find out the brand. Yep, I'm crazy!  Then went shopping to find one. Sticker shock set in when it was nearly $3,000. So more shopping and I found this for $1700! It took months before I could lay down without falling asleep every time. Now its just some of the time.

The curtains were here when we moved in.

Now looking at this photo I realized talking on the phone and taking pictures at the same time isn't a good idea.

You can see on the tv wall there are diamonds painted. Its the same color just some in eggshell finish while the others are semi-gloss. We haven't painted anything downstairs yet.

A look back at the entryway.

 

Projects we'd like to do but in no hurry:

- stairs - strip the rails and stain them, paint balusters white (currently they are cream) 

- remove carpet from stairs and install wood treads to be stained and risers painted white.

-dining room table needs to be painted

-mount tv on wall

-maybe sconces installed on both sides of the tv

-new window treatment for the arcadia door

 

Our house - entry & half bath

This is what you see straight from the front door.

The door to the left is a coat closet and ahead is the half bath.

Again it was painted this way when we moved in. It's nice for now. The chandelier is in a funny place. That area is underneath the stairs and we use it for Lola's dog bed. Lola is strange she has to be locked in a small room to sleep. If we forget to lock her up she comes upstairs to get us. Which is a big deal because she rarely goes upstairs.

 

To do:

This is far down on our list of what room gets done first.

-replace counter top

(I have a major pet peeve with countertops extending over  the toilet)

-get smaller mirror or frame out the existing one

-paint ?

 

Our house - office

This week I'm going to post pictures of our house.

I've only really blogged about the girls room and that was shortly after moving in in March. We haven't done many projects to this house yet. I do have a long list though. This house is very different from our New Mexico house in both layout and décor. When we moved in our furniture really fit in well here.  

The front room is to the left after coming in the front door. Its mostly the office. The walls were this color when we moved in and the curtains were here too. We replaced the existing light fixture with this fan. The family room had this same style fan when we moved in and liked it so much we bought one for this room.

 

 We definitely need to hang some pictures up on the walls but I'm not sure what I want exactly.

That window is at the front of the house.

To do projects:

paint walls (the green is really getting to me!  How do I get any work done in here?)

replace curtains

paint desk 

hang pictures and/or artwork

Down the road we'd love to replace the love seat and chair with something that fits the size of the room better.

Reading

 This is pretty common at our house. We always have books we've borrowed from the library. Maeley is our book worm. She spends 1-1.5 hours each night quietly reading chapter books.  In her spare time I often find her reading to Chase and Zoe. It amazes me how much she reads. I honestly think she's read more books than I ever have.

I can honestly say that the shelf and light that we have hung by each of the kids beds are used more frequently than any toy. Well I guess that's true for the girls but Chase on the other hand while he uses his every night Lego's still see more action.

Busy

My lack of blogging isn't because our lives are boring and slow rather the opposite. 3 days after the kids started school we decided to begin an entire home makeover at my parents rental house. The renters moved out and it was evident that selling the property as-is wasn't going to get them what they wanted. So instead decided to renovate it before listing it for sale.

We painted walls (in the entire home including the garage), doors, trim, closets, and cabinets. We replaced most of the lighting, door knobs, appliances, kitchen countertops, the garage door, carpeting and tile. Together as a family, my dad, Laurel, Zack, Jacob, Derek and myself did the makeover. The only things we didn't do ourselves was the garage door, flooring and installing granite countertops in the kitchen. Everything else was done by us in 17 days! I still can't believe we did it. At the end we were completely exhausted.

Here's the link to the listing. This house Derek and I lived in for 2 years, it was when Maeley and Chase were born.

We didn't even get before pictures how sad is that.
 

kids say the darndest things

The other day I was commenting to Maeley how great I think it is that she loves to read. 

Chase said, "Maeley you're going to turn into a book."

Maeley replies, "No, I'm going to turn into an author!"

I just loved that response! It definitely put a smile on my face.

First day of school

Monday was the first day of school for Maeley and Chase. This summer went by fast and the kids were wonderful. That last week was rough though. Maeley and Chase were definitely feeling many emotions as the summer was coming to an end. Maeley was overjoyed to be going back to school but annoyed by Chase and Zoe. Chase on the other had was getting very anxious and nervous therefore a bit mean. However many prayers were said and blessings given and by Monday morning Chase told me he wasn't nervous anymore.

Maeley

2nd grade

teacher: Ms. M Johnson

 

 

Chase

1st grade

teacher: Mrs. Paceley

Zoe: home with Mom for one more year!

Maeley tried to take a picture of Zoe and I but this was the best one.

Maeley in her seat at school. She loves school!

Chase in his seat ready for me to leave. The kid with blond hair in the back is his new best friend Chase. He is also in our ward.

Zoe practicing writing her letters that afternoon.

 

I can't believe we are already back in the school routine. I'm going to really enjoy this year I have with Zoe. I'm guessing sending 3 kids to school next year is going to be rough.