Phase One: Before and Afters

One of the things that drew us to our new house is its not-so-badness.  We know it will feel pretty comfortable until we are able afford to take on the heftier projects, and in the meantime it has some nice, neutral features and the potential to be lovelier with some quicker fixes. For example it came with...

...white cabinets that are in great shape, including some uppers with glass doors and a wine rack...

...big windows with a view of a grassy hill and trees...

...an island with storage, electricity, and space for my little chefs-in-training...

...all open to a family room with a fireplace.

And here's how those spaces look today!



In addition to painting (Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter color matched by Valspar again), Mike replaced the brass knobs, handles, and hinges in the kitchen and hallways.  

New appliances freshened things up quite a bit.  I love the oil-rubbed bronze doorknobs that we added throughout the house, but I'm considering switching again to nickel drawer and cabinet pulls for down the road when we update floors and counter tops in the kitchen, but that's a ways away.  Right now I think the dark ones add some necessary warmth and contrast.

The family room lamp and kitchen pendant are from Ikea.  The drum shade you might recall from the old place.

As much as I look forward to updates to our fireplace facade and so on, I'm finding myself much more patient about improvements with this second house than I was with the first.  We'll get there!

This is my favorite view right now, the one I see when crashing on the couch after a long month of settling in!

A Warm House

Yesterday the four of us ended the day in heap on the couch watching Elf with a fire going, relishing the knowledge that phase one of fixing up this place is over, we've broken the ice on entertaining here, and now it's time to enjoy the holidays.  The open house style party we had yesterday totally worked its housewarming magic.

I do regret not taking many pictures of our party, especially since the food and guests all came together nicely.  Picture bagels on cake plates, donut-and-fruit kabobs, and kids and adults filling this house with friendly faces and happy noise.


To keep our youngest guests occupied I put my mom to work the other day making gingerbread cookies in the shape of houses for the kids to decorate.  I found this recipe for her, and the cookies were quite good--soft like the blogger promised.  (Mom would want me to advise using a silicone mat and rolling the dough on the thick side to make cutting the cookies a smooth process.)  I put Mike to work making royal icing using this recipe just as the guests were arriving.  Despite not actually creating the cookies or icing, I believe my vision, research, and delegation skills deserve full credit for the fun and deliciousness of the end result. I know who will come through!

Sophie decorated a cookie for (with the help of) Mike's best friend Jeff.

Once the kids all finished making cookies, I intended to break out a second craft (paper cup turkeys), but that never seemed necessary.  In fact, we had some cookies left over, so I let Michael and Sophie decorate and eat a couple more after breakfast this morning.

Like yesterday, eating the decorations (mini M&M's, square pretzels, and peppermints) was at least half the fun.

Thank you to the friends who came to visit yesterday.
It really does feel more like home since you came by!

Michael's Big Boy Room

Unlike Sophie who was thrilled with her new room immediately, Michael took a little more time warming up to his.  Thankfully, he has also been sleeping pretty well, but it has taken a little more snuggling and storytelling to settle him in.  

The beds were Mike's when he was growing up, and his parents were gracious enough to let us paint them navy blue (Royal Navy by Valspar).

Speaking of paint, Michael's room looked pretty feminine when we moved in.  I'm glad I didn't give in to the pretty purple walls and delicate windows that suggested it could be a better choice for Sophie.  I knew their furniture would fit better the way we have them.

His dresser was part of a set we picked up at a garage sale years ago for $60 (the longer dresser is now our family room TV stand). The lamp is from Ikea and lived in our old basement family room for years.

The airplane and double-decker bus pillows came from Etsy. The quilt sets are from Target. I have a number of ideas for wall art for both kids' rooms including a box of industrial gears from eBay for Michael's.  I hope you'll check back in to see those details down the road.

Sophie's Big Girl Room

While Michael and Sophie's rooms still need art for the walls and window coverings, I'm pleased with how they're shaping up!   On tours of our new house Sophie literally jumps up and down with excitement to share hers, so I think I did well.  She also goes to sleep and stays asleep in it almost every night and nap time.  Hallelujah!

We painted our kitchen, family room, and both kids' rooms Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter (color matched by Lowe's/Valspar).  Perhaps we'll get more playful as time goes on, but so far it really is the perfect neutral it is often touted to be on Pinterest.  

Sophie's bed is from Ikea, cost about $100, and I love the idea of painting it another color one day. Red has been on my mind, but we'll try it out as is for a while.  We chose to go with a queen so it can function as a guest bed and would allow the kids to sleep in the same room if they ever request it.  We weren't sure how this transition would go, but so far no loneliness issues.  (Michael has two twin beds for the same reasons...another post is in the works.)

It took a lot of online shopping for me to get a vision for Soph's room. While reading this book at bedtime in the weeks leading up to our move, I told Mike I would be thrilled to find a quilt like the one in it for her.  I wanted to get away from the pastels of the kids' nursery but still create a room that clearly belonged to a little girl. 

I was thrilled to discover this quilt here and loved the bold colors that are also youthful and girly--that was a tough combo to find.  I like it even more in person.

This lamp was a $1 garage sale find, already painted the perfect robin's egg blue (that color is sneaking it's way into a number of places in this house--mildly obsessed at the moment). The shade is from Ikea.  The side table is a treasure, one crafted by Mike's grandpa.

Sophie's dresser is obviously the tall one from the kids' old room, complete with the same accessories on top, for now at least.

I can't wait to share Michael's room with you as well!  Stay tuned.

Buzz and Jessie

Way back in September I shared the plans for Michael and Sophie's Halloween costumes.  Since the forecast for tomorrow's trick-or-treating is not camera-friendly, I costumed up my buddies on this 50 degree afternoon and snapped some photos.

















These were all taken at our new house.  In most of the photos our property ends where the kids are standing.  More on that when we come up for air.  The whole packing-moving-unpacking ordeal has been kicking our butts!



Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Fruit Cups

To keep them busy and out of the way, I'll be taking the kids to a Halloween party on our moving day next weekend.  Since spending any amount of time cooking in the next week is unlikely (I also have a desperately-needed hair appointment and parent-teacher conferences in the middle of all of this), I opted to bring this make-way-ahead option.

I spent Friday evening following the directions at Crab and Fish and am pleased with the final product. These are a combination of Dole pears, peaches, and mandarin oranges in 100% juice.  I'm not sure if this always is the case, but the expiration date on the peaches in all three packages was notably easier to remove with rubbing alcohol than the dates on the other fruits.  Although this whole project turned out to be much more time-consuming and expensive than pretty much any other dish-to-pass, doodling while catching up on shows in my jammies was probably a better choice for my sanity than baking something in the midst of moving.

I linked up here:

Homecoming

Last night we went to my school's Homecoming parade.  With another busy weekend of packing and Mike's birthday ahead of us, we skipped the game to get the kids (and us) to bed at the usual time. Michael and Sophie had a blast, and I think they finally believe me that I'm a teacher who teaches really big kids.

Speaking of preparing for the move, since this process has been a long one (the sellers are using their 30 days of occupancy), and the kids don't really have a concept of what two more weeks means, we made a countdown chain a couple of nights ago.  It was a great between dinner and jammies activity.

It really speeds up the pajama and tooth-brushing routine to have tearing off a link as a reward!

When I went in to work yesterday, one of the classes had decorated a hallway with chains like this.  Their chains and ours are all for "home coming," I suppose.

Apple Picking

We should probably be packing.  However, yesterday was an orchard day.  It just was, and packing would have been an insult to mother nature.  And doughnuts.  Must not insult the doughnuts.







The kids' clothes just came home from my MoMs club's mom-to-mom sale.  You know you're buying from friends when you don't even feel the need to wash the loot first. :-)  I tried to convince Sophie to wear her new jeans instead, but she wanted to be fancy.

Their shoes are new as well.  They were delivered on Friday, and I thought for sure they looked too big when I opened the boxes.  Nope! My kids are just getting bigger faster than I realized.