Showing posts with label house. Show all posts
Showing posts with label house. Show all posts

1.04.2016

our house: willa's room

Well, now that Willa is a year old and we've got another babe on the way,
and we are working on yet another room re-do,
I suppose I should do a post about her nursery. Oops.

Willa's room was originally designated as Bo's nursery when we first moved in.
Our decision was based on two key factors:
(1) This floor was the newest (read: least squeaky) and (2) the door closed the most softly.
Had we known that Bo would become the world's heaviest sleeper, we wouldn't have cared as much.
But I digress. Here are pictures from Bo's time in the nursery. 

I absolutely love this cabinet on the wall:
I was not as huge a fan of the wallpaper border or the 3-curtain closet:
This wallpaper did NOT come off as easily as the hockey border in Bo's big boy room,
so I was very glad it was just a border and not the whole wall.
After that, we had Mark Miller of Brush & Hammer paint.
Since we weren't finding out the gender of the baby, I wanted a nice neutral,
and it doesn't get more neutral than beige. Here's an in-progress picture.
After Mark painted, we had our dear friend John come and help install closet doors.
Which we thought would be fairly routine. Because... it's closet doors.
However, this project turned out to be much more involved than anticipated.
Let's just say that it quickly became apparent as to why the former owners 
chose to put up curtains rather than install closet doors.
The boys ended up removing the molding, adding slabs of wood 
(don't be jealous of my construction lingo knowledge),
and to make a long story short - expending a lot of energy and emotion on this project.
(Meanwhile, Sarah & I went on fun shopping adventures.)
Anyway - eventual success!
In hindsight - should have tackled the closet doors before we had Mark paint, but oh well!
My 8-month pregnant self had fun touching up the molding and painting the closet doors.
A few weeks before Willa was born, the room looked like this:
Ready & waiting for accent colors!

After our sweet girl arrived, I slowly but surely got to work making it a girly nursery.
Crib: Target (formerly Bo's)
Changing table: IKEA (formerly Bo's)
Rug: IKEA
Curtains: homemade, fabric from JoAnn's
Bookshelf: Target
So, I absolutely love that the bookshelf above was "styled" by Doug! 
We were "digging out" the house after Christmas, and I came upstairs and he had
organized all the little horses and put Raggedy Ann & Andy on the shelves!
(Sidenote: Raggedy Ann & Andy made by my step-mother-in-law!)
My grandma cross-stitched the sampler with Willa's birth info in the photo above.
My cousin Victoria made the tiny "wreath" in the photo below. 
The painting was the first one I did a few winters ago.
Opposite side of the room - originally the white bookshelf was against the wall where that desk is.
Like I said, we're already moving some things around in preparation for Baby P #3!

Rocker: hand-me-down from a family friend in Michigan!
Desk: mine growing up!
This painting is one of my favorite pieces of art that we own, along with the watercolors done by my grandpa.
One of my former students and small group girls, Lindsey, painted this portrait of an Ethiopian girl, 
based off a photo I took on a trip to Ethiopia (you can see the photo here).

So there you have it! Willa's girly little room.
My favorite thing about Willa's room is all the personalized touches from beloved family and friends.
Naturally, Willa's favorite thing about the room is getting into the creams & wipes on her changing table. 

8.21.2014

bo's big boy room

Our decision to transition Bo to a "big boy room" was based on two factors:
(1) We found out we were expecting another child and 
(2) Bo found out he could climb out of his crib.

We decided to keep the nursery in the same room and move Bo to a new room.
The room we selected was our um... "workout room" -
or more realistically, the storage room for my elliptical and our catch-all room.
We were very pleasantly surprised to discover that the hockey wallpaper border peeled right off.
No need for vinegar water and a paint scraper! 

Because our house is so old, the floors angle toward the center of the house.
We decided to have them leveled, but figured it'd be easier to paint the walls first.
We LOVED the work that Mark Miller of Brush and Hammer did on our kitchen,
so we decided to hire him to paint Bo's room (and the nursery too).
For the floors, we hired my cousin, Mike, who I'm convinced can do pretty much anything.
(I mean - just check out his handmade wooden goods here!)
Mike worked by himself and spent a whopping total of 5 days transforming the wonky, slanted floor:
into this glorious marvel:
Oh, did I mention he put in a new closet door and installed overhead lighting in 3 rooms as well?
After all the hard work was done, I got to do the fun part - decorating!
I found this great dresser at "The Barn" on Ridge Road:
I borrowed my dad's electric sander, and between Doug, his brother Nic, and me,
we sanded it down and left it with a nice, rustic look.

So finally I give you, Bo's Big Boy Room!
(And, because I like to pretend I'm part of Apartment Therapy, I'm listing some sources!)
Flooring: Lumber Liquidators
Rug: in the house when we bought it
Curtains: I made with gingham fabric from fabric.com 
Dresser: The Barn on Ridge Road
Lamp: Pottery Barn Kids
Bed: Craigslist SCORE.
Bedside... Ottoman?: Meijer, for Bo's first nursery
Bedding: Target
Elephant Pillow fabric: fabric.com
Denim Pillow slipcover: Ikea
Chest: roadside find from my mother-in-law. 
I had covered the cushion with elephant fabric for Bo's first nursery,
then upgraded it by covering it with an old coffee bag I found on Etsy!
Addis Ababa skyline print: Etsy
Ethiopian bread basket: Etsy

We didn't really have a "theme" in mind for Bo's room.
We decided to go with gray walls again and keep the blue & orange accents  -
let's be honest, because they're Tigers' colors.
Our other ideas were to incorporate some Ethiopian items and give the room a "rustic" feel.

 Now, as with most house projects, you're never really DONE.
Things I'd still like to do:
- Paint or stain closet door
- Steal old school desk from my parents for the empty corner
- Put up industrial shelving above Bo's bed
- Get a different bedside table

All that being said, we love Bo's room, and most importantly - HE loves it!
He was so excited when he first saw his "big boy bed" that he was jumping on it like a madman.
Whenever someone comes to visit, he's always excited to show them HIS room.

A huge thank you to Mark Miller and Mike McGrath for their help!
& thank you, Nic, for letting me put you to work while you were visiting!

3.31.2014

our house: upstairs

Well, 7 months later, I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of the upstairs of our house.
I posted pictures of the downstairs & attic back in August.

I always feel like I need a disclaimer whenever I post poor-quality pictures.
I've been pretty lazy about photography and haven't spent much time trying to get good indoor pics.
Consider yourselves warned.

So, heading upstairs:
Bo's room is to the right at the top of the stairs: 
Please notice his "fort" that he's been sleeping in the past few nights...
Behind the curtains is his closet (we're hoping to put doors on there someday).
Upstairs hallway:
Current "catch-all" room, and Bo's future "big boy room". 
I actually just ordered fabric for curtains yesterday! 
I'm thinking we'll strip the hockey wallpaper border, 
and paint the walls either light gray or light brown and paint the trim white.
View of the room from the opposite corner. 
This room actually isn't carpeted - it has a custom cut rug.
I think that will also go and we'll just get a big area rug.
This is the guest room - aka, the most consistently neat room of the house.
This room has a huge master closet, which I've made my little craft room for the time being.

Then we have the upstairs bathroom. This is the other room (besides the kitchen) that we've redone.
We did this back in November. Bo looks so tiny.

Before:
 Getting started peeling wallpaper:
 And I had to include this picture because it's the first time I've ever done spackling!
Granted... my dad did the lion's share, but I patched a few nail holes!

AFTER:

And finally, our bedroom.
 & closet:
Not pictured: the other side of our bedroom with wonky dressers
& overflowing box of donations for Goodwill...
and definitely not pictured: our bathroom. My humility only goes so far.

I'm wanting to do a "Young House Love" style post,
where I list everything I'd like to change about the house.
But the truth is, it's totally livable, and we're not in a rush to update.
We ARE in the process of re-doing the one room for Bo, and then we'll see what happens next!

9.25.2013

recently i'm... [32?]

Slacking:
Oh dear. I meant to do individual posts about my brother's wedding, Bo's birthday,
his birthday party, our new kitchen colors, etc... but I'm just a slacker!
Blogging isn't much of a priority in my life these days. 
I realized that I've had a blog for 10 years now.
TEN YEARS, people. Granted, not this particular blog. My first "blog" was a Livejournal...
and my moniker was "Packt_Sardine" ... 
because I was eighteen years old and a Radiohead reference was like, the coolest thing, 
and finding obscure music was clearly the most important thing in life.
Oy.
Anyway, then I started a blog for my experience at Oxford, 
and then I started this ole blog to update western NY fam & friends on our life in Michigan,
and now I'm supposed to be doing the same for fam & friends in Michigan.
Public self-absorption for a decade. Woo-hoo!

ANYWAY.
THAT was a tangent.

Celebrating:
LOTS of big celebrations this season!

[1]
Robert & Bailey's wedding was beautiful. BEAUTIFUL.
Such a sweet couple, and the wedding reflected them in the most perfect way.
All of these pictures are stolen from various people on Facebook - thanks, friends & fam!
My brother branded the bottom of his cowboy boots, which showed when they kneeled at the altar!
I mean... just perfect, right?!

[2] 
Bo's 2nd birthday!
I started a birthday post to him and never finished it. Horrible!
The day of his birthday was beautiful & I tried to do a photoshoot with him,
but he wasn't really feeling it.
Much to my delight, Bo showed no hesitation with his birthday cake this year.
Then we had a tractor birthday party for him over the weekend.
Even though it was rainy and cold, we had a great time!

Enjoying:
Our new kitchen colors! (Here you go, Sara!)

Before:
After!

Reading:
The Meaning of Marriage, by Tim Keller. Awesome, awesome.

Loving:
Autumn in western New York.