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).

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?

A Finished Bathroom

Happy Thanksgiving!

If you're like me, you've been cleaning and shopping the past few days to gear up for the big weekend. We're helping my sister host 22 tomorrow at her house, and then making breakfast for everyone here the next morning. It will be great for them to see the house - the last time most of my extended family saw it was November 2009, when we'd only been here a few months, and let me tell you - it was not pretty.

That said, we've had a lot of details fall into place over the past week to get us ready, and we're pretty excited to show you guys. We're not quite finished here, but getting pretty darn close. 

Lighting has gone in this week, and in case you haven't caught on, I'm a sucker for details like these. I've had our fixtures in the basement for months (one of them for years) waiting for this moment, so it's a bit one. We chose schoolhouse lights to go throughout the kitchen. They create a great warm glow, and add an interesting shape to the big open ceiling. 

Over the sink we opted for a barn-style pendant. We like the simple, rustic look and the glow it casts on the white fireclay of the sink and chrome of the faucet. The brown of the kitchen lights also brings in the brown of the cabinets. 

We're suckers for Edison styled bulbs, so we couldn't resist one in the pendant.This one is called "squirrel cage" which I can't help but love.

And finally, we have undercounter lighting to make our backsplash glow. Here's the effect from in the room:

And here are the lights themselves. We opted for LED fixtures, which cost a bit more but are super efficient and have very long-lasting bulbs. 

Here's the room all lit up from the back door.  It's a huge change from the old room, which had one fluorescent fixture in the middle of the room that didn't even work. I spent much of the past two years cooking beneath the bulb in our range. Needless to say this is a tremendous improvement, both in look and in function.

Oh, and did I mention our half bath was installed? YAY! We dusted off the wall-mount sink and rustic little faucet on Monday when we very enthusiastically welcomed the plumber. He got everything in in a day, and the electrician got this pendant light (this is the one I've had for years) all wired in today.

I'm obsessed with this little room. I just love the quaintness and charm of it, not to mention that I no longer have to go upstairs when nature calls. What an idea!

And here's john, all tucked in his little corner. Doesn't he look right at home? 

Don't miss the fleur-de-lis towel hook. I just couldn't resist.   

But wait, there's more! Our upstairs bathroom is now fully functional. Well, almost. It's lacking a rather minor detail - a door. That's right, it's wide open! Not that we really mind, but we might have to hang a sheet for when my brother and sister-in-law stay with us this weekend.

There are some new additions though - notice our his and hers medicine cabinets, all lit up from above. We had some height challenges in getting these right - they started too low (my 5'6 fault) and then landed too high (C's 6'5 fault) and then we got them right in the middle. We're already filling them and enjoying their usefulness.

Notice the fabric reflected in the cabinet on the right (which is mine, in case you were wondering)? That's a butterfly tablecloth. Don't worry, it's definitely not a permanent bathroom addition. I ordered a custom plantation shade to cover the window, but it will be another month or so before it arrives, so we're making do in the meantime. So . . . . no bathroom door or window covering. It's basically a nudist bathroom for now. Fixes to come soon, we (and our neighbors) hope.

And a bit more his and hers - cute little towel hooks. 

Here's the lighting up close. The vanity lights were inexpensive finds from Signature Hardware, and the overhead schoolhouse light is World Imports from Amazon (same as the kitchen fixtures, except silver instead of bronze). 

So that's where we are for now. The contractor is nearing the end of his time with us - basically the door and some paint/trim finishing to go. I bet he's really going to miss us!

Now I have to go brine a turkey. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Super Silver Sage

All day I've had my fingers crossed that I'd come home to a painted bathroom and it worked! This is my favorite color yet. I'm normally not a gray person (I tend to gravitate toward warm colors, in case you haven't noticed) but this gray has converted me! I love the softness of it, particularly next to the white trim, white tile and brown window. Mwah!

Don't mind the ugly wood on the sides of this shot - that's trim that will be installed around that door we're waiting on. The wall color is Restoration Hardware Silver Sage, and I've decided that if our current kitchen color doesn't adequately grow on us, this may be in the kitchen walls' future as well.

I can't wait to get our medicine cabinets and vanity lights up to complete the look. And a plantation shutter over the window for a little privacy, of course. We're down to the details, and it's very exciting.

And that's not all! Our office walls was repainted yellow (Sherwin Williams Brittlebush), finishing off the office-to-half-bath look. Here's the view with the door open, which it will probably most often be when the bathroom is not in use.

And when it's occupied you'll see this view. The yellow is more true in this photo - it's a bit washed out in the previous one. I just adore this cute pocket door, all newly stained and with nice new hardware to dress it up. Hard to believe it's almost 90 years old. 

And here's the view into the office from the dining room. I was always a bit concerned that this new wall could crowd the room, but I really like it and think we still have plenty of space to enjoy. Getting my chevron rug back in there will be a really nice finishing touch, now that painting is complete. 

So, in terms of my painting to-do list, he made some serious progress today. Here's where we stand:

- paint/stain all trim and doors
- paint ceilings off white
- paint kitchen walls
- paint half bathroom walls
- paint full bathroom walls
- repaint 3rd bedroom wall (where they tore out plaster to install the full bathroom pocket door)
- repaint office wall (new wall that made the office smaller and allowed for the half bathroom)
- repaint upstairs hallway outside full bathroom (again, pocket door surrounds)
- install full bathroom pocket door and stain (the wrong door came originally, so we're waiting on the correct one to arrive)


 It seems everything left to do depends on that silly door finally arriving, so I'll cross my fingers that our favorite demolition crew guys show up with it ready to install on Monday. It worked last time!

Beginning of the End

Chris and I spent the weekend making our home feel like a home again, which is quite a task after two months of living out of boxes and take-out containers. It was wonderful to begin getting things in their places, though, and by Sunday evening we were even able to have friends over for dinner - yay!

Our first breakfast in the kitchen was a momentous occasion - we have really missed our big breakfasts. So on Sunday morning I went and got some morning staples and we enjoyed yummy egg sandwiches. Isn't he a handsome chef? 

When it's just the two of us eating, we find ourselves dining on the island right in the kitchen, which is wonderful. We're still kind of in awe of the fact that we're not hurrying out of the kitchen as fast as possible like we used to, now that it's actually an enjoyable place to hang out. 

See the nice white ceiling? The painter came yesterday and made some mean progress for the first day, mostly around painting and staining trim work. 

We decided pretty early on that we wanted to play with white and brown around windows and doors, so for our new windows, the window itself is stained dark brown next to painted white trim. It makes a nice dramatic pop and adds a lot of dimension. The muntins are still drying on this one, so once everything's finished it will be a six over one. 

Here's the view from the back door - again notice the painted ceiling and the stained door trim on the left. But before we zoom in over there check out the end of the island. 

Chris and I are both big detail people, and I couldn't resist buying a bottle opener for him to hide somewhere. Isn't it cute? The first time he used it he sprayed beer all over his face, so I think he needs to work on his technique, but it's still fun tucked in under the end of the butcher block. 

Now, back to trim. The baseboards and door trim in the kitchen look great stained dark. I love how the walls are totally boxed in with nice, pretty, heavy woodwork. I'm hoping to see color on the walls very soon.

The trim around these two doors totally impresses me. The open door way leads to our living room, and the closed one is a basement door. The way they turn the corner will all these little detail pieces of oak is beautiful, and of course it all looks great with a fresh coat of stain. 

And the view of the back door. Again, we're playing with light and dark here so we have the dark cabinets and dark door trim, and white door in the middle. They're going to put on a fresh coat so that it holds its own next to all the new stuff, and the recessed light overhead will keep everything out of shadows, so it will be nice and bright. 

 
Now let's move upstairs. The window up there is so charming, I just keep staring at it. I love the dark little box in the white room, and the muntins definitely turn up the charm. I'm going to order some plantation shutters to give us some privacy, and add to the brown accent. 

And here's a bigger view of the room. We hung the shower curtain this weekend so we're really using the bathroom now, which is wonderful. I also picked up the standing toilet paper holder this weekend, which is a fun, quirky, vintage look in there. And very functional given the placement of the toilet without any close walls. 

More painting/staining is on the agenda for today, and I really have my fingers crossed for some color. I'll update soon.