Looking Back: 5 Years Later, Part 2

Chris and I have loved looking through the old photos of our house before we moved in, that we happened upon the other day. As we think about five years in our house, it's great to see how much we've been able to do (and think of how naive we were when we bought the house).

Earlier this week he shared some of our favorite outside before and afters. Today, I bring you the interiors!

We'll start with the main floor. Here's a view of from the living room into the dining room and office:

Closet turned water closet! 

My first floor favorite - the kitchen. 

How about another view? Can you believe we lived in that before kitchen for nearly three years???

And now upstairs. Here's our guest bedroom before and after. 

Our bedroom.

Ivy's room (good-bye turquoise walls!).

And our most dramatic upstairs shots - the bathroom (I think this one deserves two views).

New Pella Window + Wooden Plantation Shutter

One of the daunting upgrades we've taken on in our house is replacing all of our existing windows with Pella Architect Series windows - aluminum clad, double-hung wooden windows that match the style of our home very well. They are a tremendous upgrade in terms of looks, both inside and outside, and also offer a huge thermal comfort/efficiency upgrade.

They are beautiful (and therefore not cheap) so we're taking a long view on this project, with the goal of replacing two per year. With a total of 27 windows on our two main stories (not including the basement or attic) that comes up to a 13.5 year project - so we're hoping to speed it up at some point in the future.

We replaced two of the windows during or big remodel - one over the kitchen sink (see the exterior here, and the interior here) and another in the upstairs bathroom (see that one here). Those two were installed by our contractor, so we had yet to take on installation ourselves. Until . . . . that time last fall when our baby was two weeks past due and we were about to tear out our hair!

What better time to install a new window?

As I was benched for that particular season, Chris took the project on himself, using this tutorial from our hero Tom Silva of This Old House. After hours of measuring, insulating, shimming, more insulating, more shimming, checking for level, more shimming . . . . we had a new window!

Exterior shot of the newly installed window. All three replaced windows happen to be on this side of the house.

So we're three windows down, 24 to go!

It took about one evening of living with this beautiful upgrade to confirm what we already suspected - that we needed to add some privacy to it. Somehow the new window, while no larger than the old one - made that side of the house feel especially like a fishbowl to our neighbors to the north.

So, I ordered a custom plantation shutter from The Shutter Store, the same company that crafted the plantation shutter in our upstairs bathroom. We were confident in the quality of the product based on our past experience with them, and they were among the best prices we could find in browsing for a ready-to-install custom wooden plantation shutter. (Some sites offered a puzzle-like option, where we would have to assemble frame pieces and doors, and then stain it ourselves. We also checked out this tutorial to build our own - but in the end we found these products offered minimal savings for a LOT of work).

So, we decided it was worth a few extra bucks to go ahead and order the ready-to-install shutter. The major con for us in purchasing this way is the lead time. It's hard to be patient when we feel like we're on display for neighbors, as well as itching to install this beauty, and the wait became even harder when the company missed their 4-6 week anticipated lead time, delivering the shutter almost eight weeks after we had ordered it.

But, it was exactly the color, dimensions and quality we hoped for, so in the end, we are very happy.

Chris installed it in about one evening (a few hours). He had to remove the window stop he installed when replacing the window, and used The Shutter Store's instructions and supplies to fairly quickly have the shutter in place.

Hardware and touch-up stain for hanging the shutter, provided by the vendor.

Window stop removed.

Shutter frame going up. 

And privacy! (You're welcome, neighbors).

In addition to the added privacy, we love the nice, finished look this product offers, which is perfect for this particular window. It still lets in quite a bit of light when the slats are open, and is a perfect privacy screen for the tight side yard we have to the north.

We're Back!

Did you miss us? We've been shamefully absent for, oh, about two months now. But I figure we all could use a breath after the big remodel job. We spent the holidays enjoying our newly comfortable home and getting the rest of our house back in order following all the excitement of renovation. I think it's safe to say we're officially settled though, and loving every minute of it.

Over this past weekend, we finally got around to a few overdue final touches in our bathroom. I ordered a custom plantation shutter while we were under construction and it arrived, so we got it installed much to our (and our neighbor's, I'm sure) pleasure.

So, remember this view? Here's what we've been living with (and ducking around - houses in our neighborhood are built in true old style aka close together):

And here's what it looks like now:

And a close-up of the shutter:

It's great to have the room closed off from the outdoors, and we love the dark wood to balance out the dark door and accent the bright white bathroom. And the best part is we still get some nice light in the room. We chose a divided shutter so that we can keep the main part mostly closed and leave the top few slats open, which lets a surprising amount of light in.

And see the shower curtain?

I finally got around to replacing the "don't-let-it-touch-my-skin" polyester shower curtain we hung when the shower was installed. We realized after everything was finished that our tall shower would not work for a standard 72" shower curtain (it didn't even hit the top of the tub) and selection in 84" shower curtains was pathetic - they were all polyester and/or covered with palm trees. No thank you. So we got by with a cheapo polyester one while I figured out a plan.

So here's a photo of the gross shower curtain that catches all your hangnails:

And now, our new and improved, soft and pretty shower curtain:

The new curtain is made from a linen tablecloth that I got on sale ($12!) at Pottery Barn. I added button holes to the top and hemmed the bottom so that it would fit just right. It makes for  a great, clean look and feels great to the touch. What more could you need?