Fixing up the old house to sell has been completely consuming lately, but as you can tell by this shot of the lovely new kitchen, it is all coming together. Here is a picture of the kitchen before, just to refresh your memory.
And here is the new kitchen, complete with brand new cabinets and granite.
More coming soon, I promise.
One thing after another has been thwarting me in the blogging department lately. First, of course, the move. Then it took 2 weeks to get internet at the new place. Plus, before the move one of my laptops stopped charging, and this week, my tiny backup travel ipad-ish thing ALSO stopped charging. Arg. I am currently on hubby’s computer, and just today I broke down and ordered a new laptop, so hopefully when it arrives, my computerish problems will be done, at least for awhile.
I wanted to check in briefly this afternoon to share two things with you. First up is this awesome youtube video showing how to make blinds into roman shades. I am totally doing this in my bedroom using room-darkening fabric. Should be both cute AND awesome for day-sleeping which I do a couple days a week.
Second, I wanted to tell you about Stephanie’s Etsy shop where she creates all sorts of inspirational art. Awhile back, she wrote to tell me that she used the title of my post Love, Unrationed as the name for her Etsy shop–I was so touched.
If while browing her site, you happen to find a bit of encouragement that you’d like somewhere in your own home, she’s offering a coupon code for you all! How neat is that? To receive 40% off, just type GO40OFF into the coupon field when you place an order on her Etsy site. Happy looking!
What with moving in 17 days— 17, people!– and Christmas in 24, I’ve been wishing I could find some bonus hours in the day somehow. Well, this morning I was granted my wish. After working night shift all weekend (and sleeping the subsequent days), this morning I woke up at 4 AM completely unable to go back to sleep. So I’m just going with it. There might be a nap this afternoon. But for now I am mapping out all sorts of things that I’d like to accomplish today.
On the agenda:
Meanwhile despite all the busyness, I keep finding myself wandering over to Pinterest thinking of various projects I am hoping to do in the new house. One fun idea is a minimalist sideboard in the dining area that (with bar stools) could double as a school desk for the girls, or be used to serve food when we are having a big crowd over. Here are two versions of it that I really like.
Shabby Chic
Clean Lines
Credit: CherishedBliss.com
And then just for fun, here’s an easy peasy table decor idea for Christmas. The only problem would be keeping the kids out of the treats, I think! How are you doing this week? How are you preparing for Christmas?
The crazy thing about having the same carpet for 22 years is that when you get new carpet, it looks decidedly odd for awhile. But I suspect that those of you who have NOT spent years and years looking at my living room will more immediately see the great improvement that it is.
For comparison purposes, this first picture is one from a few years back, with different furniture. But it shows the green carpet and the yellow paint that we just replaced.
Then here’s the new paint, different furniture, but still the same old carpet.
And here’s the whole room all done, complete with the new paint and (hooray!) the new carpet!
It’s a much more neutral look than my yellow paint and green carpet, but I think it will be more pleasing to the average buyer, and (now that my eyes are getting used to it) it looks lovely and clean and serene to me as well.
As you can see, I couldn’t resist adding new throw pillows for just a little pop of color though! I love the orange for fall, and am thinking some cranberry red pillows would be a nice color for the Christmas season.
Did you spot my new floral chairs in the corner of the photo above? They were a $120 Craigslist find– truthfully a little crowded in the current space, but the living room in our new house is huge, and will fit the new furniture nicely.
What do you think of the chair rail painted white? A terrible thing to do to solid oak, according to my woodworker hubby, but I like the contrast it makes to the grey.
This cartoon so aptly describes my current frame of mind that I just had to share it with you. I am bopping madly from task to task to task, seemingly adding things to the list as fast as I am checking them off. Here are a few highlights from the week
| Listen here or pick up the e-book for 99 cents!That’s all I have time for today– I am off to do battle with the garage today! Hope your week is going well!
Cartoon credit to Hyperbole and a Half. (Language warning)
We got the house!!! Closing December 18th. So exciting! And what a crazy time of year to be moving…
This morning I’m off to look at cabinet choices for our current house. Our goal is to put it on the market January 1st. What a lot we have to do!
Well, after several weeks of looking for just the right place, we’ve put in an offer on a house. It’s much closer to John’s work, and on a much smaller property, but has a big common area to run the dog and have picnics and host our annual 4th of July bash. My favorite part is a mega-huge living room– perfect for having our mob over for Sunday dinner.
It’s a foreclosure property, and we’re crossing our fingers that the bank will accept our offer. We think we may hear something today, so I’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile our painting efforts have moved upstairs, and we have a someone coming in today to measure our kitchen for new cabinets.
Something about using a house hard for 22 years leaves the cabinets less than stellar, and prevailing wisdom these days is that kitchens sell houses. So here’s what I’d love to hear from you today: in your ideal kitchen, what color would the cabinets and counters be? Here are some ideas that appeal to me at the moment.
But I thought it would be fun to take a poll and see what you all think makes a pretty kitchen. Here’s a photo of the current kitchen so you can get an idea of the space I’m working with.
It actually doesn’t look bad on the surface–we’ve thought of leaving the cabinets and just adding granite. But the insides of the cabinets are very worn– lots of chips and broken bits as well as water damage under the sink. All that wear would be a real turnoff to a buyer, especially at the price point at which we hope to sell.
So tell me: lighter or deeper cabinets? What tones of granite would you have in your dream kitchen? By all means share pinterest links and photos if you have ideas.
I was trying to figure out today why after only one night of work I am so exhausted. Then I realized that probably it is not just the night of work. It is the fact that for the past five days anytime that I haven’t been scurrying around running a million errands, I’ve been painting.
I’ve painted halls and doors, the kitchen, the living room, the dining room, the entry way, and the staircase to the upstairs. For at least two days while working on the living room, I was having anxiety attacks about the grey paint not being right. But honestly, I just kept thinking, I don’t care if I hate it. Get it done.
However, once we started getting the white trim painted, it all started coming together in a hopeful way. The grey popped in a really nice way against the white, and it really grew on me. I found a fun art print to put on the living room wall that does a nice job tying in the grey with the tans on the couches. I have some new throw pillows coming. And– oh, the glory!– after 22 years with the same green carpet, we have new carpet being installed in two weeks.
I am resisting the urge to show you photos right now in the middle because I want to show you true ‘after’ photos instead. But it’s coming together! Hooray! And maybe someday I will find time to sit down and actually write again. Are you enjoying your fall? Do you have any fall projects in the works?
By the way, for anyone who noticed that some of my recipes weren’t working lately, that problem should now be resolved. So print away! But do remember you can also get a whole book full of my favorite affordable and family-friendly recipes right here: Family Feasts for $75 a Week.
Hello!! Yes, I’m still here. Just buzzing around doing all sorts of interesting things. At least once a week I’ve been enjoying that sweet new grandbaby and playing with her older siblings so mama can nap. We’ve been homeschooling and keeping up with all the normal stuff around here, including 2 night shifts a week at the hospital.
As an addition to our homeschool learning about refugees, the girls and I have been volunteering with a local ministry that helps new refugees settle into our community. We have very much been enjoying getting to know a family that just arrived in Boise from Malaysia, and have had fun learning bits of each others’ languages.
Along with all that, John and I have been noodling around the idea of selling our place here and moving to a place in town. And after 22 years of beating down the weeds and doing the upkeep on our three acres, we are realizing we may be getting a little weary of having so, so much land to tame.
The chickens and the cow and the huge garden and greenhouse have been lots of fun. But we’re wondering if maybe we’d like to shift some of our time in other directions during the coming years. This house is just about paid off and the difference in property cost between here and a place in town would be a great jump on the start of our (someday) ocean dream. And a smaller yard is sounding more and more appealing.
So we’ve been dipping our toes in the local real estate waters. We’ve begun looking at houses to see what we might be able to get in town that would leave us some equity to put toward our beach house dream. Lots of house-hunting has netted some possible options. But nothing so far feels decidedly ‘ours’. I’ve fallen in love with a house or two. So far we haven’t been able to find out that would give John some good shop space. Maybe we’ve lived here too long to get that ‘home’ feeling about anyplace but here. But maybe there’s something out there. We’ll keep looking.
We’ve also been looking at our own house with resale value in mind, just in case we do find a good place in town. We bit the bullet and replaced the elderly furnace. I did some major decluttering in the garage, with the plan of eventually texturing all the walls and shooting a fresh coat of paint on everything out there.
I’m cleaning out closets and giving away all sorts of things that we don’t need. The linen closet with half its contents removed looks incredibly more spacious and well organized. I need to paint the shelves and put the door back on, and then next on the list is a similar makeover of the master closet.
I’ve repainted all the doors and much of the trim on the main level of the house. The trim is just a plain white, and for the walls I chose a Benjamin Moore paint in a nice soft neutral tone called ‘Useful Grey.’ Funny name, eh? To the right is the color in someone else’s home.
And here’s a picture of our hallway showing the contrast between grey and white. So clean and crisp. (It proved crazy-hard to get the paint to show up as the right color on my camera, though– thus the photo above.)
This photo also shows our new door knobs. I bought new doorknobs and hinges for the whole house, to replace the brassy ones we’ve had since the 90’s. The grand total of that project was $280, and they really update the doors, I think.
We have new living room carpet coming soon. Our current carpet is a very worn teal green that just screams 1990’s. 🙂 I got bids from a bunch of places but settled on RC Willey since their cost was the absolute best, and their work has been recommended.
As is typical for me, I want to do ALL.THE.THINGS. at once. (Except, apparently, blogging–oops!) It could be that after more house hunting we will just decide to stay put here– who knows? Or maybe just the right house will show up during the next few months and we will make the leap to a new place. But in any case these new fix-ups on our house are really fun and fresh, and (except for the boring furnace) not even all that spendy. I keep forgetting to take pictures of my projects, but I will share more soon, because there’s lots happening.
Until then, thanks for sticking with me and checking in even when life gets busy and I don’t post often. I appreciate your visits here!
Can you believe it– a 3rd post in one week?? I think this part time work is agreeing with my blog! The other day I was on Pinterest and got fixated on bar stools, and in the process I found so many fun style that I thought it’d be fun to share my finds here. Some of them are a little on the spendy end of life, but there are several budget options including one that (believe it or not) you can make yourself.
This first one is probably completely impractical– I don’t even know where you’d find truck springs that big–but I love, love, love the beefy look and the style!
These next two are from Pottery Barn and at $200-$300 each they are a lot more than I’d like to spend. I also don’t like to imagine the havoc a toddler could make on these seats with a peanut butter sandwich. Yikes. But oh, so pretty.
Here’s that DIY stool project— I think it is super fun, and if you buy the parts at ZORO.com, the total cost per stool is somewhere around $60. I love the fun steampunk look, though I would probably stain the wood top a darker color, and use a metal floor flange for the feet instead of the knob end. You could even bolt them to the floor that way if you wanted to.
This next stool is from World Market and gets tons of rave reviews on the website– always a good sign. I like the nice broad base– looks sturdy enough even for energetic children.
It looks like it would be fairly adjustable height-wise too. At $119 each, these stools are mid-range cost-wise, but after spending 10 minutes reading the reviews, I felt ready to buy anyway. People love these things.
The stools below are from Overstock.com. They’re $89.99 for a pair. Look at all the colors they come in! I love the idea of popping some bright green ones into an otherwise neutral kitchen.
These barstools are available on amazon. At $63 a pair they’re super affordable and also highly reviewed. (Amazon reviews are sooo helpful!) I like the textured seats and the fact that many reviewers mentioned that they were comfortable and stable for little children.
And finally, if you have some old bar stools that you’d like to repurpose, be sure to check out these tutorials for remaking barstools into night stands or side tables. What neat ideas, eh?
