My House and Kids

Wow, lots going on here since I posted last... whenever that was. While we haven't 'finished' any other rooms in our house, we are working on a bunch of different projects in a bunch of different rooms. It drives Matt nuts. We'll start with John's room. 

It's the smallest room, so it was designated nursery, but it had very non-boy colors. After John started sleeping in there and I would feed him at night, I just couldn't take it anymore... knowing how easy it would be to change was eating at me in the wee hours of the morning. I started priming one day and finished off my can, and then I had a half primed, half pink, half orange room that made me even more crazy. Unfortunately, life happened, and I just didn't get to painting it for a few more months. Painting this room has been quite the process.  

Before:

After:

I had a changing table in here with some bins underneath it, and it was the bane of my existence. This dresser is much better. 

I still need to hang some more pictures in here (above the chair), do crown molding, fill that terrarium on his dresser and finish sewing the teething guards on his crib sides since they were nibbled on by his sisters. 

Picture Ledges: 
I hate hanging pictures, but they are pretty much all I decorate with. Introducing some picture ledges I made with this tutorial. Since my walls are white, I wanted more of a gray finish, so I whitewashed them with a gray paint (graywashed?) and then rubbed on some stain and wiped it right off for just a little bit more depth in the color. I love it, and it's the same finish we used on John's shelf up above. 

Laundry Room:

I am beginning to really hate those wire racks. I thought about tidying up in here before taking this picture, then thought 'nah, it will make the changes look that much better'. See that box in the back corner on my dryer? Don't worry, it's not one that I STILL haven't unpacked since we moved in last June.  The big boxes are kitchen things that won't fit in my kitchen, so they live in the laundry room, kicking my laundry room stuff down on the washer dryer(cleaning supplies, re-usable bags, extra socks that always get stuck in my washer drain)

During:

New tile! My parents came into town and my dad helped Matt switch our washer dryer hookups so that we could get them closer to the wall, and so the doors didn't open into each other. Sooo nice! I painted the walls 'Sea Salt'(Sherwin Williams), which I had been seeing all over pinterest and loving. I actually ended up liking the Behr color matched paint more than the actual Sherwin Williams sample color. A little less gray. 

New light! 

Still LOTS to do in this room, like finish painting it. We are also experimenting with painting the blinds white, so far so good. We are going to put cabinets up to replace the wire rack, add a hanging bar, plus a little mini counter with a set of floor cabinets right next to the washer. We scored some Ikea cabinet boxes for ten bucks a piece when they switched kitchen systems, but unfortunately, the box was mislabeled and they are 'natural' instead of white, like I thought, so those will need to be painted before putting them in. 

Family room:

Beautifully decorated, is it not? There wasn't anything wrong with the tile around our fireplace, but I just love marble. So one night I made Matt help me rip this stuff out, and when his parents just happened to be in town the next week, Matt's dad helped us put up new tile and build a beautiful mantle (surround? I have no idea what it's called besides 'awesome')

Taking out the sheetrock to put up cement board since we made some holes in the wall removing the old tile:

We even kind of liked the look of just the cement board. They had adhered the tiles right to the edge of the fireplace before, we're thinking they did that to hide the fact that the fireplace hadn't been installed flush with the wall, or just to make the 12x12 tiles fit better. Who knows. All we knew is that after we realized the fireplace wasn't sitting flush with the wall (and wasn't budging to move it into place) we sat there in silent frustration for a little while trying to figure out what was next. We didn't want one side of our fireplace sticking out farther than the other, and since we were doing subway tiles we couldn't just stick them halfway on the fireplace like they had done before. Luckily, after some extensive investigation, we found the screws that were holding the fireplace in line, and we could just barely access it. Matt and I exchanged many high fives. 

Now we were prepped and ready for Bob and April(in-laws of the #betterthanyours variety) to help us make it beautiful. Naturally, Natalie wanted in on the action.

And here is the halfway completed mantle(still missing a piece of trim)

It is now sitting in our living room, all painted and ready to nail into place. Matt said I had to wait to show anyone until it was all the way finished. Sorry. I think he wanted to motivate us to actually finish it. The nerve. Spoiler alert: it looks AMAZING.

Last but not least, my mom-in-law painted the master bedroom(you guys sick of my house yet, cause I'm not):

I like the gray much better, Behr's Silver Drop, for inquiring minds. Still lots to do in here, but for now I'm just enjoying some change. 

And finally put these back up. I made them from this tutorial  back in 2012, with wood from a tree that used to be in my Grandparents backyard. Sadly, they have been in storage most of our four moves since then, but I'm glad to have them back up now!

Wow. That was a long post. Good job for making it through. Johnny is happy you stopped by.