Dining room: before and after

I had a feeling I was going to have a hard time keeping up with this thing! Sitting at the computer is a rare thing these days, but I apologize for not being a more consistent blogger. I am finally ready to post a couple of before and after photos! The dining room is the most finished room in the house right now. It is not completely finished, but it is about as done as it's going to get for now. :)

When we bought the house, the walls were a dark red color. It really darkened the whole house. But what you can see from the photos is the character just waiting to be highlighted: the large, lead glass windows and the hardwood floors, which where actually in great shape!

We painted the walls with a soft grey, which ended up being my favorite wall color in the whole house! I was a little stressed about the amount of paint it would require to cover the red walls, but a coat of Valspar High-Hiding Primer and a coat of paint where all it took! I definitely recommend the high-hiding primer if you need to cover dark walls!

Here are the after photos. The room is a little more spars that I typically decorate, but I really just wanted this room to be clean and simple. I have a tendency to be a little cluttery when I accessorize - a habit I am really trying to break. I also wanted to avoid feeling like I have to have something on every wall. I wanted this room, and the whole house to be a good balance of modern and vintage.

I'm not sure why I feel butterflies about posting these photos! This house feels like such an extension of myself that I almost feel like I'm posting pictures of me in my swimsuit or something! haha

I realized after I took the photos that I forgot to turn the light on and forgot to pull the blinds up so you could see the pretty windows better. I really don't like blinds, but I suppose they are a necessary evil. Eventually I would love to get plantation shutters for the bottom of the windows so you could easily see the pretty old panes at the top of the windows.

The buffet was a side-of-the-road find that I refurbished. Not bad for free, huh? The table was an estate sale find, but I'm really wanting to find an old, rustic, farm house table and use the chairs on the ends and one side and put a bench on the other. I ordered the chairs from walmart.com. They are surprisingly good quality for Walmart! I really wanted shell chairs, but those can be pretty pricey so I opted for these for now. I'm actually really happy with them!

Although the room was intended to be light and clean, I do think it needs more wall art, but I haven't found the right thing yet. Also trying to be more selective about my accessories instead of just putting something up to fill the space. :)

Well there you have it! Hopefully I will be able to post more photos soon. The entry room is almost done minus the piano I am in the process of painting (a much bigger project than I anticipated!). Let me know what you think!

Too. Many. Projects.

It's midnight and I'm up with Lennox. Luckily, the Blogger app on my iPhone is up with me. :)

I've been wanting to write a new post for a while, but to be perfectly honest, I don't know what to post! Nothing is finished! Everything is still taking forever to complete. And as soon as I think I've unpacked the last box, I turn a corner and there is another!! Agh!!

Moving is a challenge no matter what, but add an 8 month old baby in the mix and things get just a little more challenging. Not only because my time is preoccupied with taking care of a baby, but the amount of extra "stuff" this tiny person has added to our home is astonishing!

My current dilemma is trying to figure out where in the world to store everything. Like CDs...where do I put those ugly things? They need to be accessible for Luke because he needs them for his site, theblueindian.com, but they really are not a part of my design aesthetic right now. Still working on that one. :)

The house has come a long way, but it still has a ways to go. I think I need to take one room at a time and start knocking out these projects. As soon as I can get that last box unpacked...

I'll end this post with something unrelated: amidst all this going on, Lennox is growing like crazy and doing something new everyday. Here is a photo of her after she pulled up for the first time the other day. I guess someone is accomplishing things around here. :)

A Bump in the Road

Buying a house from Fannie Mae can take a long time. It seemed to Luke and me that we would never be able to close! As soon as we would determine a date, it would get pushed back because of this or that. During the several weeks of waiting, I spent a lot of time daydreaming and planning about the house. I packed as much as possible ahead of time, I made lists and lists of things to do and when to do them, I even went ahead of time and bought the 17 gallons of paint we originally needed (we ended up needing WAY more!). I really tried to use that extra time to help me be as prepared for this project as possible. But some things you are never prepared for...

Early Friday morning, the "big move day," our new home that we have been working tirelessly on for a week was invaded by thieves. Two men broke into the crawl space and sliced all the electrical wires and all the plumbing with intentions to steal the copper. The damage was devastating. I can't describe the feeling I had when I found out the news. I will never forget that. I was on the phone with my dad, and when he told me what he had found I looked at my precious sleeping daughter and my heart fell to my feet. The thought of someone like that being around the home I was about to bring my little girl to just made me sick. I wonder if those men had even the tiniest thought about how their actions would effect the homeowners. It's hard to imagine that they didn't think about it at least for a second. I wonder if they knew the heartache it caused, would feel any remorse at all?

At the time when I learned the news, the movers had already loaded our stuff into the truck. There was no turning back. The new house was without electricity and water, but our stuff was headed there regardless. They loaded in our things. I tried to keep a focused mind on the task at hand, and Luke and both our parents worked to figure out what happened and how to fix it. After all was said and done, nothing could be done until Monday. All I heard was, "you can't live in your new house until next week." Ah! After all this waiting, we finally get things done and are ready to move in and then this happens! I can't describe the frustration. I also can't remember a time seeing my husband any more furious.


However, I know in my heart that the Lord holds all things in His hands. Despite what happened, I know that He is still in control.

We have spent the past few days today. My dad and a family friend, Shane Lamontagne, were able to fix the water and get some of the electricity working (like the air conditioner for the downstairs). And yesterday an electrician was able to get the rest of the house back in working order. The police said that this is happening a lot to vacant homes right now. He said that copper thieves typically do not bother occupied homes, and that it is happening all over town. Thankfully, insurance will help cover the damages. This incident was definitely rain on my parade, but there is much worse happening in the world, and I am thankful for friends and family and all their help over the past few days.

There are just some things you can never be prepared for. Yesterday was a great example.

Paint day!

It may only be a little bit after 9pm, but I'm about 2 minutes away from seeing the back of my eyelids.

Mission "Paint the Whole House in One Day" began bright and early this morning around 7:30am. We were so fortunate to have a slew of wonderful friends who came to join us. We couldn't have done it with out them! Unfortunately, I did not think to get very many pictures. But regardless, lots of thanks go out to Christian, Rudy, Cory, Mark, Melanie, Susan, Cameron, Andy, Andrew, and Tripp for all their hard work! What sweet friends we have!

 

Now I realize the photos don't show the house off too well. I'm still waiting to post before/after pics. Although our goal was to paint the whole house, we still have a good bit of touch-up to do. Tomorrow's jobs will include painting trim and cabinets!

Okay, well I think it's time to call it a night. Lennox is asleep and that means I should be too! 

Thanks for reading!

Kitchen Inspiration

Well today was our first of many work days at the new house! Today was mostly prep work, wiping things down, priming kitchen cabinets, stripping peeling paint, and priming trim work. Of course, since this is an older home, we have treated all chipping paint as if it is lead-based. My sweet parents, Mark and Melanie spent the entire day with hepa masks on in a sealed off room taking care of the lead paint issue. My sweet mother-in-law, Kathy spent her day entertaining Miss Lennox so I could start prepping the kitchen. Then, Luke and our good friends Cameron and Susan spent their evening priming the cabinets and getting the walls ready for paint. So thankful for them all!!!

Oh the kitchen...

Okay, now I'm not sure how you can possibly have brown dripping residue on the inside of all your cabinets. Where does that come from??? Maybe I don't want to know. I scrubbed those puppies over and over and they never really came clean. Boy am I glad they will soon have a fresh coat of crisp teal and white paint! I will rest easier knowing that my pretty dishes are not sitting on surfaces that strangers have filled with who knows what!

There aren't many pictures to share yet, so since we are talking about the kitchen I'll share some of my kitchen inspiration!

We have had to do a lot of waiting around during the process of purchasing this home, which has been very frustrating. The upside to the waiting is that I have had lots of time to daydream and picture my new home in it's more lustrous state. We are definitely working this kitchen redo on a budget. I'm going to be relying on a lot of paint and innovation to add luster to this room!

We are keeping the existing white cabinets and painting the upper cabinets a fresh coat of white and the lower cabinets a teal shade. We are also keeping the existing black counter tops and black tile floors (I can work with that). We are hoping to eventually add a custom vent hood and subway tiles, but that may not be in the room's immediate future - we will see!

I cannot wait to get this room going! My friend, Natalie and I plan to attempt painting our own chevron rugs, and I liked the damask fabric as a possible curtain fabric for the 3 big windows in the room. The mercury glass knobs shown are from Anthropologie, but I found almost identical ones at Hobby Lobby for 1/4 of the price!

Tomorrow is our big paint day. Maybe I will have some photos of the house to share after tomorrow!

An Event to Document

Luke and I will be married three years in September. And for 3 years we have been house hunting. We have looked at dozens of houses over those three years. Some beautifully renovated, and others could be considered a "handy-man special" at best. We encountered lots of houses that I liked, but none that I loved. None of them felt quite right until about two months ago. Luke and I stumbled upon a foreclosure with a price that seemed too good to be true. Actually I have to give Luke all the credit here. He found the house and convinced me it was worth looking into. When I walked into the house for the first time I immediately felt an overwhelming sense of "home." I could truly see us living there! Now, as with most foreclosures, there was some work that needed to be done- mostly cosmetic. I've never been one to shy away from a little DIY, and instead of seeing a lot of "problems" to correct, I saw that finally I was going to get the opportunity Luke and I had so often talked about to take a house and put our "stamp" on it. We could take the beautiful bones of this house and build on them to make something really special- at least to us!

So that was it. We were in love! After lots of negotiating and lots and lots of waiting we have finally come to today- a day I often felt would never arrive- CLOSING DAY! We have officially bought our first home! What a milestone! Hooray!!

Okay, this brings me to the reason for this blog. I mentioned that the house needs a little work, so I decided to start this blog for the sake of documenting our progress. I thought that there may be a few friends and family who would like to keep up with how things are going, and I also want a way to look back and see how the house has changed and evolved over time. I want this to be a place were I can share how I have added "luster" back into this old home (hence the name of the blog). I have a lot planned for the house, and I can't wait to share how it unfolds!

For starters I will share a photo of our new home.

It's a simple home built in 1926. It is 3 bedrooms, 2 baths with a bonus room. It is approximately 2200 square feet. Every room in the house is painted a different color with the most hideous colors being the "mustard yellow" kitchen and the "school bus yellow" spare bedroom. A lot of the changes will simply be painting and decorating, although I do have a few projects up my sleeve. ;)

We will be working tirelessly for the next few weeks to get things ready to move in. I cannot wait to share our first project!

Stay tuned and thanks for reading!