Look What I Found...

Remember my living room, all painted mauve and sponge painted white on top? I suspected wood paneling underneath one of the walls.

And I was right.

Naturally, it needed to be uncovered...

Art Studio

And finally, after living here nearly a year, and after taking off pretty much a year and a half from anything art related, we have our art studio. The first day it was operational, the kids and I literally spent the entire day together in it. It is what makes me happiest, I'll be honest.

The space we had for this was a large unfinished area of the house. We needed to divide it into two rooms though, with my husband needing a larger portion of the room for his home office. Of the large unfinished space,  7' x 14'  could be for the studio. We also needed my art room to double as space for the laundry room, food storage, sewing room, and future kitchen when we redo our kitchen. Sound daunting? Our mantra throughout the planning process was "think like New Yorkers!!" And in the end, I was able to consolidate what was in our previous home 2 much larger rooms, into this small space.

Entering the art studio. Sewing table pushed against door to furnace room since we rarely need to get in there.

The kids work area. Cabinets in this room are all from Ikea, as are most of the other storage solutions. These cupboards contain the kids art supplies as well as mine.

Laundry at the end of the room. We had to get new stackables because we really needed to squeeze every inch of workspace out of this room that we could.

Most of these cupboards contain our food storage.

The computer is only temporarily in here. Like I said, we need every inch of workspace possible. Also, we put in a mini-fridge for when we will be using this room as our kitchen. Right now it contains "special drinks" for my husband. (Anyone else hooked on Bundaberg Ginger Beer and San Pellegrino Aranciata and Limonata?)

This is the larger space that is my husbands office, which is separated from my art studio by a pocket door.

Bathroom Renovation Update

A big sigh of relief. Phase Two of the renovation is nearly complete. An office, an art room, but first up, a bathroom. I am a before and after junkie. ANY before and after - a haircut, a weight loss, a good cleaning, and especially, a renovation. Good or bad. I love to see what people do. So, lest we forget, bathroom BEFORE:

And after. We demo'd the whole bathroom and started fresh, mostly out of necessity. Carpet needed to go, and a heat vent in the floor had gotten rusty. We knew we wanted to make the whole back area a big, open shower, and I'm really happy with the result.

We really didn't know where to start on a bathroom. We had seen plenty we liked, but nothing we absolutely loved. Finally we came across some tile that we loved (American Olean, for the mosaic and the blue on the wall) and went from there. I had also seen some frameless shower doors and thought they looked so cool, we went with it. Also, we really loved the Duravit sink.

I love cutouts in showers (mostly because I dislike hang-y, caddy things because they look like an afterthought).

FiFi

I feel like life has been "not normal" for the past year. The kids know it too. M regularly prays for "things to get back to normal" and L asks when we'll be unpacking the "project stuff." Ahh, poor kids, life really has been turned upside down. But some of the "not normal" is good. Actually, most of it is great, but new little sis is the best part of the change so far.

Called "FiFi" by G. (**note, her name is not actually fi fi.) Called just "New Baby" by L.

Part of our "not normal" is that we have been living in our living room for 3 weeks and will be in there for 2 more. So if you are thinking of moving into an older home that needs work, and then remodeling while you live in it, as we have done, this is how you should be prepared to live:

And even though our house is a constant parade of electricians, patchers, plumbers, painters, window repairman, carpenters....I don't have many pictures to show yet. However, the stairwell lighting has been changed. Yay! Even more yay for extremely good online deals that make the lighting you want affordable. We got these George Nelson lamps, only for a fraction of the price online because we found them (slightly) used. (left is before, right is after)

new room

We tried to have M share a room with G. Then L. Neither were necessarily bad, we just got thinking that we do have the space, so why not give her some space of her own. So she is on her own, and is in absolute heaven now that she is able to spread out all her Barbies without anyone bugging her. Happy about a desk that allows her to leave out her art projects without a little sister coloring on them.

I'll be honest, M would love a totally pink room full of Disney princess stuff. But, we worked with her and came to a compromise.



The quilt is one of my favorite parts of the room. Bryan's grandma made the top about 30 years ago, and never finished it. (How many of you can say you have unfinished quilt tops in your sewing stash? I can say I have 3! Lets hope it doesn't take someone else, 30 years later, to finish it.) Many of the fabrics are leftovers from clothes she made Bryan's mom. It is special to me, and even M loves the sentimental value.

And another of my favorite finds, the little orange doll on the upper left. I bought it from littleAshop on Etsy. I am not sure if I can resist the urge to buy more, they are SO darling and so reasonably priced. So far M sleeps with it and sneaks it to school. A sign that she loves it.

Jane Jenni plates.

Bryan found the bed frame and this dresser for $75, and spent a few weeks refinishing them. I am in love with them, and little jealous that M has the nicest furniture in the house.

Her own desk space, bulletin board to show off the latest school projects. Bryan also found this desk on KSL, for really cheap. By the way, finding and restoring old furniture is his current obsession. He brought home 5 pieces last night!

Nursery Complete

Bryan sort of had to save-the-day with the nursery when some of my design ideas just totally looked terrible. He ended up deciding on the rocker, and refinishing an old dresser. I'm happy with everything except the yellow bedding in the crib isn't working. Luckily babies don't use pillows or big comforters for several months, so I have some time to work with the color scheme. Anyhow, I'm really happy with it. My favorites: the rocker, dresser, and the russian doll plates. Good job Bryan!

Orange Grove Room

Bryan is the best. He finished Babymans room this week, and I think it looks great. I love it.

New bathroom by daddy

Bryan has been so busy. I can't believe his dedication to transforming our house. His most recent project was finishing our bathroom - new paint and new fixtures and cabinents from IKEA. My favorite finds were the wall mounted cotton ball and Q-tip containers.

Daddy's been busy 2

How cool is Bryan? He's refinished 2 dressers for me in a week.

Daddy's been busy!

Bryan has been working on a lot of house projects for me while his freelance work has slowed a little. Mostly our bedroom. We basically have lived here for seven years and done nothing at all with our bedroom. So...we painted, bought new lamps, picked up some thrift store side tables and painted them, painted a 50 year old dresser, bought a comforter and pillows, and hung some artwork. Still need a few things, but I'm happy so far!

4 months later!

Whoever knows what to put above cupboards? I don't! Ok, most of you probably have nicely decorated above-cupboard areas, but I haven't for 6 years. If you know me you know that I am beyond slow in 1.Decideing on any house decor, and 2.Once I've decided, acting on it.

When Bryan and I had our art show in November, I saw this idea in the gallery of just hanging balls from your ceiling. And that's when I decided that is what we would do with our above the cupboard area. And now is when I acted on it.


I have another annoying personality trait. When I spend all day cooking a big fancy gourmet meal, I sit down to it and don't really want it anymore. Or it doesn't sound good or taste good. Or all I think about are the flaws. I'm kind of that way with decorateing. After Bryan hung the balls we sat on the couch for an hour trying to tell each other how much we liked them. But there was no enthusiasm. What is wrong with us??

New Bedding

Bryan and I are painfully slow at making decisions regarding the house. Nearly any decision from rugs to bedding can take 1 to 2 years. or more. We've been unable to agree on even throw pillows for the couches......it's going on 2 years on that one. Anyhow, about a year ago we saw some bedding that we liked from InHabit Living. We finally made the purchase and we love it. They have lots of other cool bedding - we had a very hard time deciding.