big boy . baby girl . nursery

Well it only took me a few months to complete it (and it's actually still not completely done to my liking!) but I think I am done with Charlie and Emmy's  bedroom.  I knew that I wanted to keep with the vintage airplane theme for Charlie but didn't know exactly how I wanted to incorporate a feminine touch as well.  This is what I came up with:

I like that it's masculine and feminine.  I had made the 'take flight' bunting before Emmy was born and I wanted that to remain the theme.  I had contemplated doing pink airplanes but then I found a gorgeous hot air balloon picture on etsy.  The balloon became my inspiration.  And I would still LOVE to purchase the picture but I can't justify a $45 8x10!  I wanted neutral grays and browns and yellows and pinks to be the color scheme.

Last year, we sanded and then painted the floor gray.  And I absolutely love it in this room!  I changed the wall color as well.  The ceiling has been gray for almost 7 years and I think it's the only piece of the house that has not been repainted since! 

Jordan built the toddler bed out of 2x4s (and Charlie and I adore it!).  The quilt on Charlie's bed was a baby gift made by Charlie's great-grandma and the knit chevron-like blanket underneath was made by Charlie's great-great grandma!  At a flea market last year, Jordan came across 5 original blueprints for an airplane in a $10 bin.  He told the old man he would take them and the guy said, 'oh, I can't sell those to you for $10.  They weren't supposed to be in that bin.' So Jordan asks how much for them.  The guy says, '$15'.... for all five!!  We were thrilled, perhaps you are not :)  Jordan framed his favorite.  The propeller and the rusted star were also selected from flea markets over the years.  The airplane was a World Market purchase. 

this boy is always sneaking into my photoshoots!

yes...that is dust!

I made the bedskirt (and it hides tubs of baby clothes underneath).  The crib was a baby gift for Natalie from my parents and I imagine that Emmy will be the last of our children to use it.  I had to repaint the top trim to somewhat cover the chew marks!  It seemed fitting for Emmy Ellamae to have an elephant stuffed animal and I also cut out and framed the little elephant in the picture frame.  Emmy's quilt was also made by great-grandma Jones.  I made the little pink pillow from my most favorite fabric.  I made some hanging hot air balloons but never could figure out where to hang them.  Still to come... I'd like to make or buy a rag-rug with some grays, pinks, and yellows.

our changing table :)

'Ee' is for 'Emmy'

I removed the closet doors and it made the small room seem much bigger. I turned some extra fabric from Jordan's mom that I had been dying to use into a curtain.  And we took out the old-good-for-nothing-ranch-style closet system and put in the much-better-use-of-space wire system!  And I organized it over and over until I got it just right.  I had seen on pinterest to use egg cartons for organizing baby socks and it has been very helpful.

egg cartons... who knew, right?!

Prior to Emmy joining this bedroom, we had a dresser in here for Charlie and our piano.  But we were able to put those elsewhere (temporarily our bedroom!) and I've been able to do without a changing table (why not just use the crib?!)  So I'm happy with the space we've opened up in this bedroom.  It's only temporary, we won't make Charlie share a room with a girl for too long, but for now it's just perfect for my big boy and baby girl.

the . foyer

Ok...we totally do not have a foyer.  It is just the typical front entry that you would find in any other 1950's ranch.  This is what it currently looks like but (as with every other room in the house) it is subject to change.

Here is the before when we moved in.

Here's an embarassing in-between!

So as you'll see in my previous post, we tore up the tile and vinyl flooring and laid down the wood flooring which we then sanded and painted.  A few years previous to this, Jordan knocked out a wall and framed a doorway that now connects the front entry to the laundry room.  And I put up the board and batton.  It was a first for me in the carpentry department but pretty simple.  The hardest and most time consuming part was actually deciding on the space between the boards.  And something that we have to work around with our house is the radiant heat.  You probably noticed the box on the wall...we have yet to figure out a camouflage.  I would love a great light fixture as well but our ceilings are just not tall enough.  Oh well!  I am grateful for the change in this room.

laundry . room

Another post on what our home currently looks like.  I'm still taking it just one post at a time and this time I'm concentrating on the laundry room.  Our laundry room has changed pretty drastically in the 6.5 years we've owned our home.

This is what it looks like now.

This is what it looked like when we moved in... white marble flooring, a horrible layout, and old appliances.

Luckily we haven't had to live with the 'before' image of the laundry room for long.  A few years ago, we changed the layout when we were forced to get a new washer and dryer.  In January of this year, Jordan and his dad, uncle, and friends took out the flooring down to the sub floor.  That included tearing up vinyl and tile.  The kitchen and front entryway floors were also torn up at this same time.  It took a couple months for the dust to settle!  This was on a Saturday.  The next day, we picked up the new wood flooring we had ordered and began to lay it on Monday.  Jordan's work was slow so he had the week off which was what prompted us to finally get started on this daunting remodel.  So we laid the new wood floor over Monday and Wednesday throughout the three rooms (Jordan had to work on Tuesday).  On Thursday, we moved all of the furniture into the girls' bedroom and tore off all of the shoe molding.  We were preparing for sanding the floors throughout the whole house which is what we did on Friday.  All the while, our kids would play with their toys or watch movies as we worked.  The day we sanded everything, they hung out downstairs.  They had been sleeping down there the whole week and thought it was pretty cool that they could pretty much do anything they wanted down there while we worked.  They were actually pretty responsible!  On Friday morning, we picked up the sanders.  Then we actually had to move this huge industrial serger for my sub-contracting business downstairs.  We finally got started sanding around 10 am and didn't quit until dinnertime.  It was another night of take-out which is pretty rare for us!  Then right away on Saturday morning, we began painting the floors.  We painted until early afternoon.  The last area to get painted was the landing by the basement stairs.  There was no place to go except down.  The paint took a couple hours to dry to the point of being able to walk on so we stayed in the basement and all of us napped - even the dog.  And then we started the second coat which went much faster.  We were done by the end of the night.  What a week...we were exhausted but so glad to have it all done.  And it completely changed the look of the house!

And here are some of the finishing touches.

half . bath

I'm starting this home makeover segment with the smallest and most completed room project in the house.  The half-bathroom. 

Nothing about our half bathroom was done to our liking.  But we knew it would be a job to make it over so we were patiently waiting for the right time to attack it.  Six years later, the time was right!  Jordan tore out the three levels of flooring (the ugly vinyl tile, the white and gray tile underneath the vinyl, and the original wood flooring beneath the tile) until he finally reached the sub-floor.  Next came the beadboard... the worst part of the demo.  Our walls are plaster and there is chicken-wire in the walls as well (to hold the plaster together).  Removing walls around here is never fun or easy!  After cleaning up the mess, we finally had a blank canvas to work with.  Now we had to decide what we wanted to do with it.  Our style around our house is something of a modern farmhouse with industrial decor.  What that means to us is clean lines with old, natural materials.  We have very similar likes and dislikes and with Jordan's talents as a carpenter, it was easy for us to come up with a solution for the space.  This is what we came up with:

We painted the horizontal boards and put them in place.  I absolutely love the look of plank walls!  We got a new toilet, sink, faucet, and light fixture.  Jordan built the sink base with some reclaimed lumber.  We laid the wood flooring, sanded, and painted it white.  Jordan turned the awkward, wasted space (unseen in the picture but to the left of the sink) into a closet.  I painted the room in a white cream and the ceiling in my most favorite shade of gray.  We're going to attack the mirror with some acid to distress it some and we still have to decide what to place above the toilet.  Actually, we're pretty sure that some of Jordan's antique gears are going to be placed in that spot, we just haven't gotten to it yet.



This sink is one of my most favorite items in the house!  I just love it's shape and size and I think it works so perfectly in this space.

I searched high and low for a before picture of the bathroom but cannot find one. That is so unlike me. I think I snap a shot of a room everytime I paint and especially before we demolish a room. But not this room, I guess. So this is the best before picture I could find and it was during the big kitchen remodel so you can see the construction happening all around it.

 See that small doorway. That's the bathroom. The toilet and vanity were already pulled out of there at this point. The walls had some cheap and ugly beadboard that had been up since we purchased the house and it was very cheaply done. There was a small, useless cubby where I stored the broom, mop, and vacuum behind a curtain.  The vanity wasn't anything special, either.

We love our new bath room!  And I must brag about my husband here!  He's just amazing and can make anything happen.  We really enjoy working with each other and getting our kids in on the 'fun' too.  I love it that Jordan can turn our conjured ideas into something that can be seen and...painted!

home . makeover

We bought our home seven years ago and we haven't stopped reconstructing it since!  We have replaced all of the trim, half of the doors, taken out two walls, finished off most of our basement, have added paneling, pulled out and replaced the flooring, new countertops, all new light fixtures, new sinks, added built-ins, painted (I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that each room has been painted over at least twice) and so much more.  And still, the to-do list goes on.....

We have done everything ourselves and we love to do it.  We love to get creative and with many projects we start in this 1950's ranch, we run into issues with the house we have to troubleshoot our way through.  But the end result is always so worth it!  It's our hobby, something we love to do together.  Jordan and I have similar taste that has evolved over the years and we like to turn our ideas into reality.  We do frequent check-ups on each other to make sure that the house projects are 'just hobbies'.  It's important to us that we are content with our house.  And we are.  But we really enjoy change, too. 

When we bought the house, we didn't foresee living here for too long.  I'm not sure that we ever put a limit on how long we'd stay. We just figured something better would come along and we'd probably raise our family elsewhere.  But we love this area and now our house is so custumized to our liking.  We've made a decision that we'll probably be here for awhile.  We're going to add another bedroom eventually to accomodate our growing family and, who knows, maybe we'll put the kids through all of their school years while we're here. 

The house has changed more in this year than in any other, I would say.  I've been wanting to post about all of these changes but just haven't even known where to begin!  Also, I just don't feel like a room is ever complete over here because I've got all of these plans and intentions inside my head.  But I don't think that'll ever stop.  So here goes... I'm just going to take it one room at a time!  Stay tuned....