On the Homefront: A few changes

Well, we've been busy as usual around here & I thought I'd share some pictures of our progress. Above & below is the mantle arrangement I just did today... You know how you just get restless sometimes & need a change?

I still haven't gotten anything on the walls "permanently" in this house yet!! And the walls are still the same shade of builder's white as when we moved in... It's been driving me insane but what I want to do requires lots of time & effort and we're just so not there yet. But anyway, I had fun picking some hosta leaves for the mantle (below):

And, in the kitchen we've made a few minor changes. Here's the "before" for a quick reminder:

And here is it now:

The cabinets are now a pretty shade of gray-green that works really well with our views outside. I'm really happy with them but who knows how long they'll stay green? We also got cup pulls from Home Depot for the drawers & knobs for the cabinets (to match my far-in-the-future stainless steel appliances) which made HUGE difference (to me ;) .... Still no wax covers on my vintage chandelier...

I found this HUGE chalkboard (almost 6 feet high) at one of my favorite thrift stores for $40 and I can't tell you enough what a lifesaver it's been!!! My little guy got really into throwing his food on the wall by his high chair (ahhhhhh!!) and I was really second-guessing putting up wallpaper because it would get ruined. (ignore the messed up wall in the corner ;)

Now, it's in the perfect spot to protect the wall & now he wouldn't dare ruin his beautiful artwork by throwing food on it. Yay!! Wallpaper coming soon!!

And finally, my coconut bead chandelier from Anthropologie arrived!!! (below) I'm having some issues because of course now the chandelier makes me want to buy the right table and the perfect chairs... hahahaha

(It looked AWFUL with my little Gustavian desk I was using as a console (the aqua one?) so I moved in an Ikea shelf we have, thinking of it as a temporary fix for the iron & reclaimed X shelves I want so badly... ) But I'm actually pretty happy with it and I'm sure it'll stay for a bit... (Husband is even happier :) I desperately needed a spot for rotating accessories & pretty things so now I've got it! yay!!

So, one last look at our dining room as it is now... Soon to come- slipcovered parsons chairs and HOPEFULLY the perfect table... We really want to use this space as an extension of the living room and a library/ place to display books & cool objects and have it double as a dining room when guests come over. For now, I'm very happy :)

Hope you enjoyed!! Have a great weekend!!!

xoxo,

lauren

The Search for Home: CONTRACT SIGNED!!!

I KNOW how scary this place looks right now... and I need help!!

We finally got the contract back signed today and are scheduled to close in a month if all inspections go well. (!!!! craziness!!!) :)

If anyone has ideas for me on the front of this house, I'd LOVE them. (please! please!!) Here are some details: the siding is vertical cedar, the window screens/ storms you see in the top windows are dark brown vinyl. (I'm not very happy with that but know we won't have it in our budget to get new ones.-- is painting an option??) The cable cord you see will be going. yuck.

The windows themselves are aluminum & I actually like them.

We'll be painting (haven't decided upon colors yet so I'm up for suggestions) and I'm thinking about pulling out a dark rich gray from the stones and going white with the trim. (Now, you KNOW how much I want a white house- but do you think that would be totally weird with the stone??) My husband is planning on adding a pergola along the front right side sort of as a porch but with a patio underfoot. Basically like what you see below (similar color too! :) but extending along the whole front right side of the house:

Kind of like this (below) but in all-white:

Eventually I'd like to add some more Craftsman elements to it and it would definitely need some more rooflines but that is SOOOOOO far in the future it's not even funny. (And a tin roof!!)

Anyway, we're SO excited but I'm staying a but grounded because things have been so strange with this whole deal and I won't be able to totally relax about it until we close. I know how talented & creative you all are & I'm really in need of your ideas so please send them on!!!!
xoxo,
lauren

The Search for Home: Rejected

Well, got a phone call from my realtor today and they didn't take our counter-offer. And guess what else? Now they're not even willing to go as low as they said they would before.

wow.

I promise I'll put up a real post up soon.
xoxo,
lauren

The Search For Home: HELP WANTED

hi guys,

just wanted to let you know that the sellers have come down a bit on their price but not as low as our offer. we love the house so much but have our agents & some of our parents telling us to let it go. We're really torn right now. The number they came down to was the number we originally said we wanted it for but now we have family & ppl telling us that amount is too high. my dad, who's a dreamer/ entrepreneur like me, is thinking we should go for it...

I know most people giving us advice don't see the potential we do in this house (some of them haven't even seen the house) but I also know we're young & unseasoned.

I know it's pathetic but I feel like I'm getting dumped. sucker punched. letting this house go feels wrong in my heart & I just don't know what to do.

If we let it go at this point I will feel like we're being told to let it go, not like we let it go because it felt right.

xoxo,
lauren

The Search for Home: The Treehouse

So we've put in an offer on a house & are waiting to hear back. eeeeeeeek!! I'll wait to post a photo of the front of the house until I know if we're getting it or not. Below is an inspiration image (of Chaffee Braithwaite's home featured in Cottage Living) for the feeling I'm going for in the house: natural, textural, clean, airy, and comfortable. I really want to bring the outdoors in. It's imporatant to me that the focus of the house be the views of the outdoors.


It's a bilevel home from the 70s & is very contemporary (shocking for me, right??) But it's really a blank slate with clean lines, lots ofs space, an insane amount of windows (you feel like you're in the trees, hence "treehouse") and tall ceilings. It's situated on a culdesac and backs to trees and a creek & feels really private. I strongly dislike the outside of the house. (more on that later)



Below is the entryway which leads up to the main level or down to the lower level. I think I've got room for a small console. I'll probably do a hodgepodge of art on the main wall going up because there are so many windows in the living room, I don't have much space for art. Also, an oversized chadelier will work wonders here. New hardwood floors need to go down... (White carpeting going up the stairs will so not work for this messy family.)

Below is another view of the entryway from the living room. Need new railings but I think that will be one of the last things we get to. And who knows, they might grow on me since I'm going for the indoor-outdoor thing?

Below are photos Pam's (owner of Red Ticking) living room. Most of her pieces are antiques but she's really made them work beauitfully in her contemporary home. (This is what I hope to do with my furnishings)

Here is the living room. I love it for its 5 (one is on another wall) huge winows, cathedral ceilings, and spaciousness. It's directly off the kitchen which is a must for us.

(My photos are the gloomy ones- we've had a lot of dreary days lately.)

I think for the living/ dining room I would pretty much use the whole thing as a living room since the kitchen is large enough to be an eat-in kitchen. I'll most likely do some sort of library table or pedestal table that we'll use for books, projects, etc that can do double-duty as a dining table.

Or maybe something like this (Chaffee Braithwaite's again)

Here's Darryl Carter's Farmhouse living room (again, I know! :) But I love the room and it's breakdown of space. Eventually I'd want to do some white paneling & beams on the ceiling too.

Below is Lee Kleinhelter's living room and I love the layout of it as well.

Here is the kitchen in it. I wish they hadn't even put this "new" kitchen in because I just feel that it's all wrong for the house. Argg.. the arches in the cabinets, the maple, the color.. everything. So not this house and so not me.

I would really want to redo it right away but that's not really in the budget. I'm having thoughts of tearing down the uppers & going with a really cool tile backsplash up the wall and maybe some shelving for a temporary (as in a few years) fix:

For this house I like the look sans-shelving but I don't know where I'd put everything & I also have dishes I'd love to show off.

Below is the color scheme/ feeling I want. (my favorite kitchen again.) Clean lines, white, weathered wood. We're going to attempt concrete countertops ourselves right away until we can afford a "real" kitchen redo.

Below is the view from the kitchen into the living room. I'd want to have that little area be a little bar spot from the other side so the part of the wall needs to come down. (Looks like a great little blogging spot to me! ;)

I think I might still be able to pull in some farmhouse details if I really want to go that way. The simplicity would fit this house.

There's a huge space under the window:

I'm planning something like this:

Or more of a window seat with a table pulled up to it:

I think we'd be going with some type of indoor-outdoor fabric for the little ones:

Here's the view of the backyard from the living room on a very gloomy day:

Here's the master bedroom (below). There are 2 huge windows (pic only shows one) and it's a really nice size. There's a walk-in closet & bathroom suite and the view faces the back yard. So, do you see the pickled paneling??? Well, I was first like- eeesh it has to go---- but in the weirdest way, I'm now questioning... maybe it would stay till I got sick of it??? I love grayed wood & it is real wood... I can always paint it later... can I please have your thoughts on this? Am I just totally transfixed by the time warp of this house? crazy???

Anyway, when I walked in here the first time, I immediately thought of Atlanta Bartlett's room that I love so much. Can't you see that feeling in here???

So let's go down to the lower level:

It's the same setup as the upstairs living room with a lovely 70s stone wall (help!! I need ideas here!!!) except where the kitchen is there's a funny room. It's is fenced off and up a little step & there's a drop ceiling in there. The fance is definitely leaving & I've got to see what posts need to stay for structural reasons. I'd really like to ditch the step too. Anyone have any thoughts?? (That's my mom in the pic)

I'd like to put a sitting area & my office in there and make the ain part of the room be our lounging area/ with TV & huge comfy sofa. (Christian will have toys- hidden away in hutches, don't worry- on both levels so he can be with us wherever we are & have funs on both levels of the house.

Below are some inspiration pics (cottage living) for the lower level:

Below is the patio which really needs help.

Dave (my husband) has promised to build a pergola which I'm SO excited about:

I really love the thought of wisteria covering it:

There are 2 bedrooms on the lower level. One will be the guest bedroom & our 4-poster will go in there because it has really tall ceilings, and the other bedroom will function as storage for work & the Workbench & my husband's weight bench/ workout stuff.

Here is the bathroom on the lower level. Oh boy.

Here are some thoughts:

Here's the (huge & sunny!) laundry room:

Here's what I'd love it to look like: (this is the laundry room in the same house as my favorite kitchen)

And that's it for now. As you can see (if we get it) we'll have our work cut out for us. As I said before, when loking at comps it seems the owners are asking a bit much for it so right now we're waiting to see if they'll take our (very reasonable) offer.

xoxo,

lauren