A Small Gallery Wall

A funny thing happened when I thought we would be moving to a farmhouse... I stopped doing projects around the house.  It wasn't intentional but every time I thought of something I might like to do I put it off thinking I didn't want to "waste" money or time.  Even though I love and enjoy my house I started to focus on the things I didn't like about it instead of the things that I love.  I think I was subconsciously separating from the house!  Has this happened to you?  As soon as the farmhouse fell through I had a rush of ideas and projects that I immediately wanted to get done (so there might be a profusion of house stuff in the coming months)!

One of the things that I've actually gotten accomplished has been to start a bit of a gallery wall behind the sofa.  The painting that I've had behind the sofa is one that my friend Leslie painted.  I love it and it's been perfect behind the sofa but I had a few things that I wanted to group together and the sofa made sense; I'll be finding a new place for the hydrangea painting.

I really like the way it turned out, though I'm not sure that it's "done."  I'm totally open to adding more if something presents itself!  Also, I had the "read instead" print framed with museum glass and it makes such a huge difference that I took the Pottery Barn frame that I used for the cross-stitched family portrait and had museum glass put in it too.  I love it and think it's worth every penny not to always have a glare.  We also added the Airstream painting and our family portrait.

Cleaning

For the past couple of years, we have had the luxury of having a lady come and clean the house every other week and I have loved it.  Really, really loved it.  However, I have lately started feeling that our children should be learning to clean and take care of their own home.  Not only do I want them to know how to actually clean bathrooms and bedrooms but I want them to be invested in taking care of their things.  I want them to know the rewards of working hard to keep something nice and feel the pride that comes with getting work done.  If I'm honest, our children don't have to work very hard around our house.  Yes, they certainly have chores every day but we don't live on a farm where there are endless chores that must be done and cleaning our home is one area where I feel they should and can help.  I really want to emphasize that this is just what I feel is good for our family.  This break just feels right for us now- we certainly may eventually go back to having a cleaner at some point (every cleaning day I wonder if it's been long enough for them to have learned a lesson!  ha!).

Once we made the decision to have the children help clean, I knew that I wanted to be more careful about the products they are using.  The Honest Company had a sale that I took advantage of and bought some products to try out.  It makes me feel better knowing that the children aren't breathing in toxic fumes as they clean!

P.S.  I'd love to know how everyone handles chores at their house.  We cannot seem to get a smooth and reliable system going!

A Frog Spigot

Sometimes it's the little things that make us the happiest right?  I've been toting this little frog spigot around for the past 10 years and somewhere along the line it became, in my mind, the one item that once installed would mean we were "done."  Which of course is a total fallacy because there is always work to be done around our old house.  It just seemed such a silly, fantastical thing to make time to do that it became a talisman of where we were in our house journey!

Bryce, after much pushing and prodding from yours truly, spent a couple of hours putting in this little frog spigot and he makes me happy.  Now that he's installed we will probably move next week!  I am, of course, just joking.  Sort of.

A Desk for Harris

When we originally put Harris' room together, I had intended for the workbench that Al built for him to also do double duty as a desk.  However, it hasn't worked out that way since Harris truly uses it as a workbench! Grace's desk has been used every single day since it's been built for everything from crafts, to homework, to journal writing or for dreaming.  Therefore, I was anxious to provide a space for Harris to do the same.

In keeping with the the feel of his room I decided that a sawhorse desk would be ideal.  Bryce made the base of the desk with basic supplies from Home Depot (under $50!).  The top is plywood and needed to be covered.  I originally had oil cloth in mind but quickly discovered that it's impossible to find natural-looking oil cloth; it's all bright white or colored.  We ended up using a natural waxed cotton and it's perfect.  I just love the way it looks!

The shelves on either side of his desk are Elfa shelves from the Container Store.  A funny story: I started putting his shelves together one day while he was at school and as I was doing so I said to Bryce, "I bet he starts rearranging these shelves as soon as he gets home."  True to form, he wasn't home for more than 10 minutes before I found he and Grace rearranging away!

Have I mentioned how much I love this crazy kid?!

Our Master Bathroom

Are you ready for picture overload?  Words cannot express how very much we are enjoying the bathroom.  It is such a peaceful, pretty place that we all find ourselves hanging out in it!  The heated floors help out with that too.  

The tub is one of my favorite things.  It is definitely the main focus in the room, and I've already enjoyed a number of sublime baths.  

With the exception of the tub, everything is lined up on either side of the bathroom.  We each have a vanity on opposite walls.  Bryce's vanity is kitchen cabinet height and mine is regular bathroom vanity height.  The countertops are  marble and our vanities are the same except that mine has the bow added on.  Oh, how I love the bow!

As you walk into the bathroom there is a small "dressing room" type area.  We continued the carpet from our bedroom into this area to give it a little bit of distinction from the rest of the bathroom.  The makeup vanity that Bryce gave me fits perfectly here!  Across from the vanity is a small closet.  I added beveled mirrors to the doors, which I love and is hugely convenient.  

Each of our vanities has a small shelf built in next to it.  I keep playing around with the objects on the shelves.

I found the strawberry cage chandelier on ebay.  I'm completely smitten with the scones above our vanities because I love that their shades look like regular pleated shades even though they are ceramic.  Isn't that clever?  We also have a schoolhouse light above the toilet.

Thanks for being patient with this many pictures of our bathroom.  I just couldn't seem to pare them down. The bathroom has also become the favorite hangout spot for Lily and Coco!

Farm Table + Chairs + Mason Jar Chandelier

I didn't intend for this to be "screened in porch week" on the blog but it has turned out that way.  Maybe because it didn't get out of the 20's yesterday and it's nice to dream of spending lazy, warm days on the porch.  I promise this will be it until the spring!

Even though the porch is not overly large, I have been determined to fit a sitting area around the fire and a table to eat our meals on.  In my mind both of these things were musts!  I knew that I wanted a long farm table but it was difficult to find a table that wasn't too large.  Most tables I found were very, very wide and we simply don't have room for that large of a table.  I was thrilled when I found this table at a local antique shop!  The legs of the table are reproductions but the wood top is from an old building/factory.  One of our rules for the new space is that we don't want to have to baby anything and this top fits the bill perfectly.  It's already got some "character" to it!

We purchased Tolix chairs to go around the table.  These chairs are so pretty and I love what clean lines they have!  These chairs have a lot going for them and that was a big factor in our choosing them.  We can pull the chairs indoors to use around our dining room table when we need more seating, they take up very little space and they easily stack.

I love our light fixture over the table.  It definitely adds some warmth and interest to the room!  And really, mason jars can serve just about any purpose!

Getting Closer...

The bathroom is getting closer and closer to being done (the porch looks exactly like it did three months ago)!  I can hardly wait to soak in the tub!

Bathroom Tile

Our new bathroom is getting tiled this week!  It's finally starting to feel like it might all come together!  I thought I would share the tile that we picked out for the bathroom.  As you can see, we went with very subtle, neutral colors.

Our floor tile is 12x12 and we are laying it on the diagonal.  For our shower we are using two different sizes of white subway tile.

At the tile store I fell in love with this little tile.  It has everything I wanted in it- Carrara marble, white marble and some taupe colored stone or marble!  I had visions of this on the shower floor but, unfortunately, it was way out of our budget (that seems to happen to me a lot!).  A happy compromise was to buy one sheet of it and use it as an accent in the shower!

For the floor of the shower we are going with a flat stone.  Bryce has always loved this look and I think it fits right in with our other picks!

Siding (and a blog vacation!)

Remember our siding dilemma?  Today we took the plunge and by 9:00 the front of our house was without the vinyl siding.  It is very exciting but also very nerve wracking- I've been a bundle of nerves all day.  Was it the right decision?  Has our house officially become a money pit?  Will the old siding be worth saving?  Will we regret this?  What color am I going to paint it?

We really had no intention of taking the siding off but in the end we just couldn't put it back on.  Some of the siding looks great, some looks not as great and some is inexplicably missing but all in all our contractors thought it was good news what they found.  We've still got a long way to go, but at least we've gotten a good start!

Our next week or two is very busy and I'm not sure how much I will be posting- if at all.  I hope you all have a good week (or two!).

Construction Update

Our smallish addition is moving right along!  I thought I'd share some pictures of the progress being made.

Our whole house got a new roof.  I think it looks pretty sharp!

Also?  Bryce's parents are visiting this week and Al has started a construction project of his own by the children's garden.  Any guesses what it might be?