House Update

This house update is long overdue, here is a glimpse of what's going on as the house feels more and more like home. The first picture is our play/art room. We are getting so much use out of this space and everyone is happy with the new arrangement of the girls sharing a room.

 
Some views of the dining room and kitchen areas. Since these were taken the kitchen cabinets have gone in and we are now just awaiting the plumber to hook everything up so we can have a fully functional kitchen again.

The living room is feeling a lot less like a construction zone lately and we are getting to enjoy our new furniture. Also pictured: Clover being a ham.

Eric set me up this little corner as my work space and I couldn't ask for a more lovely spot! Perfect for my computer or doing some watercolor painting with beautiful views and good light. It makes me so happy :-)

We are busily unpacking boxes and rediscovering our belongings and we are soooo close to being done with this ordeal. We now have a working washer and dryer (yes!) and aside from the kitchen the last step will be the spiral staircase.

We are also in the middle of a bathroom remodel that needed to happen but was unrelated to the fire damage but that deserves it's own blog post. I'll try to get it up on here soon, we are very excited by how it's coming together!

House Update

Here are some pictures of the current state of the house rebuild. Siding went up at the end of last week and a little over the weekend. we are replacing the cedar with hardy plank so hopefully we won't have to replace it again.

The windows are looking beautiful, they make me so happy!

Unfortunately the inside of the house has kind of stalled out. We are having major problems with our electrical inspection, which I always feared would be our biggest obstacle in rebuilding.

In the mean time we are still fixing up the back bedrooms. Eric and his parents scraped all the popcorn ceilings and we repainted the girls rooms. Eric built a cool bunk bed mostly out of wood scraps we already had. We will put a floor bed under the lofted bed for Clover and Echo will sleep on top.

This weekend I painted the bed purple with white clouds per the kid's request :-)

Fire

If you know us at all you know that we had a house fire just before Christmas. I honestly don't even want to write about it here because I have told the story so many times now but since I started this as house blog and it has evolved into a blog about everything that means home to me I know the fire deserves an entry. It was a chimney fire that started on a Sunday night (get your fireplaces cleaned and inspected people!) and thankfully all people and pets made it out of the house just fine.

Now we begin the slow process of rebuilding, tearing down the old and putting in new. The hardest part of this for me is that our house was such a labor of love. We put so many hours into this house, working towards making it better over the years, doing so much with our own hands and the hands of friends and family. It's hard to see all that burnt away. 

I'm realizing through all of this how tied to my home I am. It is such a huge part of me, I put so much into it and it's so hard to be away from my home. I'm very fortunate that I get to spend this time at my other home however, the home I grew up in. I can't explain what a comforting feeling it was to be able to go to my parents house after the fire and they are kind enough to put us up until our house is rebuilt. 

So this will be the only mopey, emotional post about the fire. From here on it will be all about rebuilding and plans to improve the house. We have a lot of ideas and the bright side of this is that we are finally getting a huge chunk of what we want done to the house knocked out. When all this is done the house will be amazing with all new flooring, walls, windows and much more. It almost feels like we are having a house built from scratch to our specifications. For now we are keeping the end goals in mind and moving onward and upward. Here's to a speedy recovery and better luck in 2017!

New Deck

Well we have lived in our house for almost 6 years now and we are starting to fix some of our big ticket issues that have been on our list forever. We started with the foundation problems which we fixed earlier this year. The much more exciting project that just got completed is our new back deck!

These first few picture are the befores, This deck served us well but the railing was too short, it was smaller than we wanted and it was basically starting to rot and fall apart. We definitely didn't want it collapsing on us so we decided it was time to replace it!

One of the best things about this was that it was a trial run for a contractor that we were considering for rebuilding our front windows (hopefully this will be happening soon!). I'm happy to say we were really pleased with this company's work and will definitely be using them again. http://www.barefootdecks.net/ if anyone is looking for a good contractor. 

Here is an in progress shot of them tearing down the deck. They got slowed down by the rain so it took longer than expected but once they got going it was pretty quick. As they pulled the deck apart we could see just how rotten the wood was, good thing we had it replaced!

And here is the finished deck, hooray!

We went with mahogany for the decking and railing tops. It was only a little more expensive and should hold up much better than the cedar. The rest of the railing is black aluminum and treated wood.

 I love the way the did the corners of the railings.

The new deck is much bigger and wraps around the side of the house instead of having stairs down to the backyard. It feels so big! I think it is probably almost twice the size of the original deck.

Here are the stais on the side of the house.

They also put little solar lights by the stairs which I thought was cool.

Even the cats approve!

Upper Kitchen Cabinets

I finished redoing our upper kitchen cabinets just before having surgery last month. Our kitchen renovation is still slowly, slowly coming together! I was excited about this because it's the first home improvement project I have been able to participate in in a while and I did it almost completely on my own! It really made the kitchen much brighter, there's nothing like a fresh coat of paint to spruce things up. It's really hard to get good pictures in the kitchen because the light is so low in there but this will at least give you an idea.

So the only things left to do in the kitchen now are the backsplash, edging on the flooring and touching up the paint on the bottom cabinets. I'm starting to think we might actually get this done one day!

New Kitchen Floors!

Before

 I have been meaning to write this post for a while but I kept forgetting to take an after shot to show. Well I finally gave up on the kitchen being clean enough to take the picture and went ahead and took the photo today.

Replacing the kitchen floor has been on our to do list for a loooonngg time. The old linoleum floor was stained, dated and showed dirt really easily. We debated floor type for the new kitchen floor for a long time. We needed something water proof, durable, and hopefully pretty. I originally wanted tile but our house is so uneven it would have been a nightmare to install. We ended up going with vinyl plank flooring and I have to say I am very please with the results! Vinyl flooring sure has come a long way in recent years!

After

Eric's parents came down to help us with the install (thanks Don and Jody!) and Eric and his dad had to do a good deal of replacing sub flooring that was water damaged. The vinyl flooring is floating and locks together so once the sub floor was fixed it was relatively easy to put in.

We love love love the new floor, it makes the whole kitchen look more polished and it is holding up really well so far. Next on the to do list for the kitchen is replacing the base boards and quarter round and repainting the upper cabinets/replacing their hardware. Eventually we want to replace the backsplash too but with so much going on in our lives right now who knows when we will get to it.

Getting the House in Gear

After we had kids our work on the house stagnated quite a bit. It's so hard to find time and energy to do the updates we want to do when we have two little ones that need our constant attention. Well this year we are buckling down and committing to getting some stuff done around here. Some of it we will be doing ourselves and some of it we will bite the bullet and just hire someone to do.

The first step was getting a garage door opener for my side of the garage (a big thanks to my in-laws for giving me this for Christmas!). Neither of us used to park in the garage and Eric still doesn't but after I got my shiny new car I didn't want to park it in the driveway under all those trees any more. Having to get in and out of the car to open the door was a pain though, especially with two kids. Having a garage door opener installed is such a little thing but will make a huge difference in my everyday life.

Our next step will probably be to work on finishing up our kitchen renovation which has been limping along for years. We are looking at new flooring (see flooring samples in the photo above) and finishing the paint and updated hardware on the upper cabinets. After that we will think about redoing the back splash.

We also have a million other things on our list to tackle this year but I think we are making good first steps. It's exciting to have house renovations to look forward to and I can't wait to get some of things done that I have been wanting to do for years. So be on the look out for big changes in our house this year, all to be documented here on the blog.

Repurposing the Loft

A start to the new layout for the loft

In the almost four years we have lived in this house the loft space has undergone a number of reincarnations. It's served as an office, a studio, a family room/den, and a TV room in our short years here. As Echo gets older we are realizing the need to transform the space yet again and we have big plans this time!

I have always appreciated this space as a bonus room, giving us the extra space for whatever we needed it for at the time. Now that Echo is getting big enough to play with toys, do art projects and generally interact with the world around her more we want to create a "work space" that the whole family can use. I have recently been reading up on something called Project Based Home Schooling (check out the blog to learn more http://project-based-homeschooling.com/camp-creek-blog) and realizing the importance of giving the kids as well as ourselves a dedicated project space where we can experiment, make a mess and spread out whatever projects we are working on. Project based home schooling is a lot like unscholling in that it is child directed and the parents act as mentors and facilitators but it is a little more structured than what I would like to do with our kids. Nonetheless, it is a really exciting way to learn and there are lots of ideas I plan to incorporate in to our lives as the kids get older.

Reading nook

We have a lot of ideas for this space and want to make it an important part of our family life. It will need lots of storage for art supplies, books, blocks, puzzles, games, media and raw materials that can be used to create. We also want lots of floor space for work and play (which should be basically the same thing for kids, at least as far as I'm concerned).

Eric usually reads to us while we do art or work puzzles so we left a big comfy chair that he can sit in while he reads. It's positioned nicely by the window so it's a nice place to day dream as well, and it's big enough for the girls to snuggle up and look at pictures in the books we read.

The most important aspect of the work space however is giving Echo (and later Clover) her own space to work. So we started by lowering an existing table to kid height and stocking it with materials. It is still a tiny bit tall for her so we put out a chair that is her size as well as a floor cushion she can stand on.

Echo's desk

 I put out paper, glue, beads, buttons, scissors, stickers, natural materials like sea shells and acorns, colored pencils and office supplies to name a few. The idea is to provide her with exciting and stimulating materials and let her take the lead on what she wants to do with them. She has been very interested in learning how to cut and sew lately so I have been working with her a lot on that.

Supplies to inspire Echo

Speaking of sewing, I also made space for my sewing machine and computer in the loft. This lets me work on my projects right alongside Echo. If you are going to raise self directed learners one of the best things you can do is show them what life long learning looks like and be passionate about your own projects as well as theirs. Luckily I always have a million projects I want to do so this is no problem for me ;-) We moved my computer to the standing desk that Eric used to use before he moved his office to our basement and it is a great resource for looking up tutorials, playing music or watching videos.

Our next step will be to install more shelving and move the rest of our reference books up to the project space (these will range from art books to music books, computer programing books to writing books, pretty much anything you can think of). We also want to rip up the carpet and put in some kind of hard floor that is better for building blocks and doing messy art projects. I want to make this a priority over the next year so that we have it full functional by the time Echo is 3 and Clover is 1. We have started to get some use out of it already and it has been a wonderful place to hang out as a family so far!

Echo's New Room

At long last Echo's big girl room is complete! This was one of the major things we had to do to get ready for the new baby and we have been planning and talking about it for so long that we are really excited to finally get it done. We plan to put the new baby in the nursery (Echo's old room) because it is right across the hall from us and has easy night time access for me. Echo has been sleeping really well lately making it less important for her to be right next to us so moving her to the other room just made sense. I didn't want them sharing a room at this point because I'm afraid the baby will wake Echo up and don't want to mess with her sleep.  

Before

The biggest thing we had to do in this room was get rid of the nasty carpet (as seen in the before picture). Eric's parents came down last weekend to help us work on it and they knocked the whole thing out in just two days! The new floor looks amazing, it really makes me want to do the rest of the rooms that haven't been done yet but it is a huge pain so who knows when that will happen.

My contribution to the room was a mural by Echo's floor bed. I originally really wanted to do this room in a nautical theme (mostly because I wanted to paint a nautical mural) but I could see that Echo really didn't care about under sea stuff as much as I do so in the end I tried to make it something she would enjoy more. She loves to help me in the garden and loves animals so I did some sunflowers and a rabbit for her. She is so proud of this mural and loves the rabbit in particular. She often goes up to it and pats it or gives it kisses, so cute!

This room feels so much more open and it has been fun watching her get used to it. She spent her first night in her new room last night and she slept great in spite of my worries about her adjusting to a new space.

I'm so happy to have her moved in because now she will have plenty of time to think of this as her room before the baby comes and takes over her old room! We still have a few of her things to move in and Eric is building some shelves in her closet but other than that the room is done. Yay!

Home Improvements in the Works

Last week I just about had a meltdown about the state of our house. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed by how much needs to be done around here and after spending an hour trying to clean the bathrooms (with Echo trying to help me by sticking her hands in the toilet and spilling cleaner everywhere) I had just about had it. The toilet in our master bath was scratched and stained and no matter how hard I scrubbed it just didn't look clean. I was so frustrated and felt like all my hard work cleaning was basically pointless.

That night I complained to Eric and told him how down I was feeling about it, lo and behold he installed a new toilet for me that very weekend! I told him I had no idea it was so easy to get what I wanted, all I had to do was ask. He said that's all I have to do any time I want anything, awww <3  So here is the new toilet!

I know I am a grown up because I am super excited to get a new toilet. Sheesh! What has happened to me? It's also the awesome kind with two different flush options and uses waaaayyyyy less water than our old toilet. Since this photo was taken I touched up the paint around the toilet, apparently this one is skinnier than our last one.

 Above you can see our old, yucky toilet and our new toilet in it's box. Apparently it wasn't too hard to install but it was pretty gross work. Maybe we will get a new toilet for the guest bathroom sometime soon too. The coolest part is that our new toilet was free! Our water company gives you a $100 credit for upgrading to a high efficiency toilet. Guess how much our new toilet cost? $98, oh yeah!

Two flushing options, fancy!

In other home improvement news we are making headway on the preparations for Echo's new room. We bought the bamboo flooring so it can be sitting out and acclimating to the air in our house. I have also started the mural in her new room and it is looking awesome so far.

Other short terms plans for house include putting in some shelves in the master bath to keep things from getting so cluttered and also to keep thing out of Echo's reach. There are still so many things that need to be done around the house but just making this small bit of progress really makes me feel better!

Changing and Rearranging

We have been making big changes in our main living area of the house and now I am finally getting around to sharing some photos of our updates. I think it's really interesting to see how our needs have changed and how the space has developed over time. The first thing I wanted to show off are the awesome built in stairs that Eric made for under our staircase!

This is a project we have been wanting to do since we moved in. The previous space under the stairs was inaccessible and basically unusable and a waste of space.  We had some bookshelves stuck back there but we really couldn't get to them and they didn't give us as much storage as we wanted.  The new built in shelves are very wide and very deep and allow for plenty of storage for our games and extra kitchen goods.

The top section of the shelves will one day be a reading nook for Echo but for now it's a place to hide the cat food so Echo can't eat it (babies love to eat cat food, don't ask me why). 

In order to be able to access the shelves we had to do a little furniture rearrangement and this is the new setup. It is a much cozier arrangement and allows for better conversation and a better spot to sit by the fire since the furniture is closer together now. We even found a nice little nook for Echo's easel and her little rocking chair.

The area by the front window has changed too since we swapped out the round table that was in this corner with the rectangular table that used to be in the dining room. Eric is now using this corner as his work desk for when he works from home. It's great because he has a lovely view out in to the front yard and plenty of light. He also sold his IMac and works exclusively on his new Chrome Book and his Ipad so he doesn't need much room. We almost never use the loft now because we have pretty much stopped watching tv altogether and Echo hates being confined in the small space up there, preferring to have free reign of the whole house. The consequence of this is that we are using our "formal" living room a lot more now and not really spending much time in the the loft. Plans for how to revise the loft space to make it more usable are in the works though.

We got a cool new firewood holder so we can have dry wood inside and it fits nicely with the new furniture arrangement (it needs to be filled up more though!). The house is starting to feel like a greenhouse because I had to move so many plants inside to save them from the freezing weather but it makes everything feel a little fresher and greener so that's nice.

Here is a picture of the new dining room arrangement. I actually think the round table fits better in this space. Unfortunately this area wasn't very clean for this photo, oh well.

I also felt the need to change out the art on the dining room wall so I got a huge poster sized print of one of my photographs and framed it for this wall. I'm loving the updated look. The glass in the frame is a little too reflective though and messes with the photograph, I'm working on a solution to this. I'm moving the art that used to be on this wall up in to the loft where I'm making a gallery wall.

Here is an aerial view of the new downstairs space. Sometimes I think it really helps perk up your spirits to rearrange and redecorate a space. I think this is just what we needed and we are appreciating our house in a whole new way now.