Back In The Game

Life used to happen fast. So I thought. And then I worked a job and went to college and life got faster. I got married and it steadied. But then we moved and life got fast again. Pregnancy made the months seem slow. And then sweet Annie was born and the days were long. So, so long with a newborn. And yet at night in bed I'd look back and wonder where the time was to do things like laundry and showering. You know the story. Your kids shoes are on backwards and you forgot to brush your own teeth. But it's true. Everyone jokes about it because it happens to everyone. A couple years passed and life seemed to become what I made of it. Annie rocked to a certain rhythm and I - God willing - could plan my days and get things done. But then we went from a small remodel to a giant house remodel. And Quig came. Quig came screaming, guys. Kicking and screaming. This kid's got lungs.

So now life is back to where I wonder at night whether we can stretch the laundry one more day and have enough clean underwear for everyone in the morning. Jesus' mercies are new every day. But dirty clothes are not.

I wake up lately and expect to get so much accomplished each day. I wait for perfect opportunities to slip in a project. But they never come. Bums me out. When will the windows ever get painted? When will we ever fix the wall? And the last thing I've had time to squeeze in is blogging. Sadly, though. Because I'd love to look back at all we've done with this house and remember the small, somewhat precious things. Like when the marble countertops were an 1/8 inch too close in the kitchen and our stove didn't fit.

Or like the time last month our elderly neighbor stopped by with her dog who ran around the house and peed three times in three rooms. Then peed on our Christmas tree. You know - just for good measure. (Dear Rufus, you are officially uninvited from our house ever again.)

Then a call came in last week. To my dad - who is our general contractor. Someone drove by, saw his remodeling sign, called his office and said they were interested in buying our house.

Before and After: Hallway - Phase 1

I definitely get made fun of often for the hankering I get to swap rooms whenever the wind blows. Not just move a chair to the other side of the room kind of flip flopping. I'm talking let's turn the dining room into the living room - like I did here - and the bedroom into the family room.

Well now I know why.

I haven't done as well as I would have liked keeping track of the house progress through pictures and blogging. But let's see if I can explain this room progression nonetheless...

The house has three upstairs bedrooms and one downstairs. The downstairs bedroom has a full bath and was part of an addition back in the 40s - meant to become the master bedroom. It's directly off the dining room and has a door that brings it into the den. Here's what that first floor master in all its floral glory looked like when we bought the house.

Below you can see the full bathroom on the right. But pay attention to what's happening on the left side of the picture. Big armoir. Small hallway. And a closet.

Well, folks, let's all take a cue from C.S. Lewis and hop into the armoire. You'll find yourself, not in Narnia, but in the den. That's right. The previous owner's armoire hid some western saloon-esque shuttered doors which take you here...(you can see the shuttered doors directly beneath the chandelier)

But, no dice for us. Because we don't have a giant armoire. And no dice, once more, because those shuttered doors are on some crazy, high powered spring hinges which snap shut the minute you let go. Annie about got crushed every dang time she walked between the rooms. So we 86ed them, which left us with a nice little hallway. We also 86ed the flush mount light because we're gangster like that and of course we've yet to replace it because we're gangster like that, too. Word to the wise. Don't trash something unless you have a replacement ready to go. Roger that on all future endeavors. Except, it's too late for us. I threw half the house away that first week and promptly regretted it.

Anyway, back to the master bedroom, we dove into getting the hardwoods ready in here. That's when we noticed all the water damage by the windows and came to grips with needing to replace a good portion of the floorboards in here.  (Pardon all the iPhone pictures coming your way.)

After the installer finished rebuilding the subfloor and lacing in new wood (I wrote about that process here), the electricians came in and added canned lights, the drywallers removed the popcorn and skim-coated the ceilings, and my mom and I knocked out the painting.

This next picture is sort of the focus of this post, because below you can see the master bedroom "hallway" I'm sitting in as I type. This is where the armoire used to sit and where the shuttered doors used to swing. Phase 27 of this house remodel will be walling off the doorway between this room and the den, adding double doors and making this hallway/closet into one giant master closet. But we still have 26 less expensive phases before that happens.

Oh, and the den. That's a whole other post. But here's a shot of this newly painted "master" bedroom from the newly painted, but yet to be carpeted den. Dang, I forgot to ask if anyone wanted some mildewy, red carpet before I chucked it into the dumpster. Bummer.

And let me introduce you to our refinished hardwood floors. Ebony. Ebony. Ebony. That's my jam.

Anyway, we knew we wouldn't use this as the master bedroom for quite some time. We have some youngins who don't allow us to sleep which necessitates some close proximity during the night. So, when we moved in, this room became the catch all, nightmare mess of a playroom/office/craftroom/make-me-crazy room.

And then one day, I decided to clean up and for a few weeks we rolled with this setup:

Worked for the interim, but a little awkward.

OK, but now backing up a bit, we drove out to Nebraska Furniture Mart on a thrilling Saturday night back in August and found and bought this sectional, which we custom-ordered in a different fabric. Chief-hypocrite, that's me. I used to scoff at people who bought their furniture out there. Thought it was all La-Z-Boys and microfiber.

And a lot of it is, don't get me wrong. Here's John and Annie patiently waiting for me on a straight-up hideous rug...

Well, when six weeks later the sectional arrived, we put it in the den. (this room...)

Then last week my dad came over and said that the sectional basically swallowed the den. Way too big. And that we ought to move it into that original "master bedroom." So he must be who I get my room swapping ways from.

(By the way, if you think I should be embarrassed at how messy this next photo is, just now, I am indeed rightfully embarrassed. But I didn't ever take any decent pictures before we hauled everything back out.)

Anyway, I agreed with my dad. And the sectional now lives in this master bedroom which is serving as our family room. And the den has become the playroom.

And the hallway between the two became my office. Whew, that was a long windy road to finally get to my point.

It's nowhere near finished. All the walls are plaster and I'm too scared to hang anything lest we flip rooms again here soon. So ignore the random pictures leaning everywhere you look.

For anyone super observant this little desk is the same desk that I made out of old wood and Ikea bookshelves for John's studio way back in New Orleans three years ago. Got the idea here.

Then it later landed in our Branson townhouse...

...and condo living room in Kansas City. It's a desk whore. It's been around.

So now it's taking up residency in my little hallway.

Along with this gold $2 chair from Revivals that I lurve.

Along with this lamp from JCPenny's that was originally $195 and was clearanced for $78 but that somehow the manager gave me for $7.50. Boo-yea. I think he just wanted me and my two screaming children to leave his department.

And the desk holds this laundry basket, because all you folks with kids know that no matter how hard you try, at least three times a week a kid ends up naked in your living room and you need somewhere to toss their clothes without trudging upstairs. Or a kid vomits all over themselves and you really, really need somewhere to throw the clothes.

And for anyone who cares - can't imagine who that would be (!) - as far as organization goes, we keep all our receipts in that gold pottery on the left and all of our bills, etc in a wire basket to the right of my computer. John calls it our inbox. I call it our this-is-the-last-thing-I-want to deal-with stack of annoying paperwork that I begrudgingly sort every couple of weeks.

One last thing! Right across from this little hallway was a really bad closet that backed up to the master bath. Right now, it's still a really bad closet. But come the first week of December...hello first floor laundry!!!! 

It's a slightly odd place to put laundry, I admit. But the bids to put it upstairs next to the bedrooms was akin to a semester's tuition in college and this was about 95 times more affordable down here being that it backed up to a bathroom and was over a basement. 

So what does that mean, kids? Mama ain't doing no mo' laundry til the first week of December. Start watching where you puke because we can't afford to continue going through four outfits a day. 

Anyway, there you go. This house overwhelms me and sometimes you just got to take it one small hallway at a time.

Let's Bake A Turkey!

So, ever since my past post, a few things have changed. Namely, our family went from three to four! Our quiet little boy arrived October 4th and we named him Colic. Oh wait, sorry. I'm a little sleep deprived and my mind isn't too sharp this morning. Rather, our colic riddled child who knows only how to nurse and cry arrived last month and we named him Quigley! Yes, that's right. That's what happens when mom and dad can't think of a name and the nurse tells us we absolutely must sign the birth certificate in the next five minutes before we're discharged. You go with the name you came up with when you were five years old before you even knew how babies were made. So, no, I don't have a thing for Tom Selleck. And no, it's not some obscure family name that we were guilted into using. Yes, you heard. We chose to name our son Quig. I know. I'm thinking what you're thinking. It's weird and I can't believe we did it. My mom said she'll pool together with the rest of our family and hire an attorney to have the name legally changed. Oh, grandmas. They're the best. 

Ok, but for real. Quigley is a good strong name. And you just watch. It's going to rise to the top of the most popular baby names by 2030. Errr, maybe not. But either way, our kid is going to rock it.  

And yes, I wasn't kidding. Quig has a bad case of colic. My mom said if we absolutely refuse to use the money to change his name that we can instead put it toward a miracle doctor in Wichita who makes colic disappear after a week of daily visits. Ha. We're not that desperate. But if we already lived in Wichita...I'm just saying. It wouldn't be a bad idea. It's raining right now, but I only know that by seeing the drops on our windows. I most certainly cannot hear the rain over the sound of my son's bellowing cries. I feel like God has poured an abundance of grace down on our house these past two weeks to get through this phase of his life. Otherwise, we'd be doomed. I'm not sure how people survive colic without that grace. 

(As far as this picture is concerned...if you can't be an angelic looking baby, you might as well be the cutest grumpy-old-man looking baby you can be. That's what I always say.)

Aside from the cries, we love, love, love this child. And so does Annie. She is a rockstar sister. I'm pretty sure she'll be a way better mother someday than I ever was. But I'll do a little catch-up family post later this week. Got to actually take pictures of Quig first. Poor second child. Has like two pictures for every twenty of Annie at this age. :/

So as we settle into this new life, our kitchen cabinets settle into theirs.

Feel free to clap. Or at least I did as they were hauled into our house last week. Annie did a happy dance and then found a new hideout. 

Sadly, though, their arrival only marked the beginning of the next phase. Then there were countertop templates to be made, things to be fitted, crown to be hung, trim to be installed and of course paint. But wait, then there's appliance installation and electrical work and cabinet hardware and floors to be refinished! 

But whateves. No one can take away the joy of the cabinets' arrival. Noal Yungeberg, our trusty cabinet-maker/carpenter extraordinaire custom built our kitchen for us in his spare time over the last 8 weekends. And these things are crazy well-made. 

You'd think, though, I'd have had plenty of time to make the all important decisions about countertops and paint colors during the 8 week build.

But, no. No, because the power that two kids weighing a combined total of less than 35 pounds have wields an astonishing amount of control over your schedule as an adult. It's phenomenal really. Say goodbye to all your freedoms. Who cares whether the government taps your phone calls. They couldn't hear what you were saying anyway over the cries of your newborn and the tantrums of your toddler!

But I did finally settle on some countertops. They were installed last week and then promptly covered up before I could snap a picture.

And at the eleventh I chose a paint color and then about two days after the painter started, I of course, changed my mind. But because our painter - Hugo Morales - is the bomb, it was no big deal. And when I say he's the bomb, I mean - he's the BOMB. Unbelievably detail-oriented. Has spent a full week just prepping. Super nice. And his whole team has a crazy work ethic. Anyone who can take this door and make it look new again has super powers.

Plus, they totally transformed our garage into the perfect place for Dexter to slaughter his next victim. I truly felt like I was walking on set when I saw the paint tent Hugo set up. Plastic walls, floors, ceiling. Tables set up for the latest victim cabinets to be slayed sprayed.

So that's where we are now. And that's why we stayed at my parent's last night. The oil paint fumes were overwhelming. But I welcome them. Because, folks, that means we will have an operable kitchen soon enough. And we even booked a trip out of town for the week the floors are refinished which puts our completion date on Thanksgiving morning. Fitting, given how thankful indeed we'll be to have a kitchen! An oven to bake a turkey...one can only be so lucky.

Oh wait, there is the part where I didn't ever choose a backsplash. So, the FULLY completed kitchen - window treatments, backsplash and all - will be further down the road. That date is unknown. Completely unknown. I'm thinking 2015.

In the meantime I'll leave you with before pictures and then the pictures John shot of the newly installed cabinets and sent to me while the kids and I were at the farm last week.

And progress...

Even I Was Surprised...

I imagine a few - if not many - of the tears that our seller cried upon returning to grab the rest of her belongings out of the garage can be attributed to what she saw lying along the side of the driveway. Curtains, drapes, blinds, wallpaper, carpet. Basically everything but the studs we threw away. And that included the circus themed bathroom below. In my defense, I offered to let her take any and all of her window treatments with her which isn't the norm when you sell a house. But I knew I wouldn't keep it and hated to see it end up in a dumpster. But in the dumpster it did go. And down her cheeks the tears did flow. Oops. 

Anyway, other than ripping down the curtains and mirror I left the rest of this bathroom untouched since possession day last month. I've been trying the to pull the trigger on wallpaper for at least one room in the house (If I had a limitless budget and no filter I'd wallpaper every single wall in the house. Major. Obsesssion.) But not having a single store in KC where I can go see things in person makes me a little trigger shy. I've ordered a few samples and bombed out. The stuff I know I'd love is out of our price range. Plus you either have to factor in the cost of labor to have it hung well, or factor in the probably poor quality of my first ever wallpaper hanging. I feel like I need a warm-up/test run before splurging and ruining it.

I know. My confidence runneth over. But in the last few days alone, I poorly hung a light fixture in our entry (which worked for a few days!!) only to have it blow the circuit (still not sure what I did wrong) and need to call an electrician. Then this morning, while trying to attach a diaper sprayer to our toilet I somehow loosened the wrong nut and had the entire 3 gallons of water in the back of the toilet come rushing out. Any wonder that my home improvement confidence is a little lacking?

Lest you still wonder, I also spilled a gallon of paint in Annie's closet on the six-day-old refinished hardwoods. And last night I knocked a big chunk of plaster out of our living room wall as I hung an expensive Restoration Hardware gold curtain rod. Definitely just paid to have that living room wall filled in, skim-coated, sanded etc. so the new hole is very, very unwelcome. And the curtain rod most certainly got scratched at some point during the whole ordeal. Why wouldn't it? Why in the world would I spend that much money only to have the damn thing go unscathed??

Shall I go on? Let's see, I need only mentally scan through each room in the house and I can easily pull out a DIY fail per room. For instance, I left a wet, but mostly clean paint roller on the vanity in the upstairs bath thinking I would replace the vanity, but have now decided to keep it and must thus live with the lovely paint stain. Basically, I'm retarded and my overzealous impatience are causing some major problems at home. I need to slow down and learn to leave some things to the professionals. Yikes. I hate that I have to write that sentence. I want so much to do it all myself. But there's no one better than a man at a his trade. And sometimes it's worth the extra money to have it done well. 

So if I ever get around to wallpaper, here are some inspiration shots that make my heart flutter...

sources found on my pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/kylie_scovell/pins/

Now, back to our bathroom. Ugh. I know some people like yellow. I'm just not one of them. And I know that in some homes yellow works to their charm. In fact, I know it's a perfect fit for some designs. And I know some shades are way better than others. But this home has not a single shade of yellow that works. And let me tell you friend, it has lots of shades of yellow. But I was prepared to live with it while I trudged on in my journey to find, buy and install wallpaper upstairs. 

Sometimes, though, John surprises me. He's coming around, kids. The one time couldn't-care-less-about-design husband is slowly getting roped into the whole home aesthetic thing. Mama's very impressed. And last week he persuaded me to just go ahead and paint the bathroom with some leftover paint for the interim. Given that I usually force a paint brush in his hand with a promise to make out with him later, the fact that he would actually propose and encourage painting was a little baffling. So I acquiesced despite my longing for wallpaper. 

And even I was surprised at what a little leftover paint could do...

I ought to slap a big ol' PROGRESS sign over these pictures because even since I took them on Friday a lot has changed. But for the sake of cranking out a post while I have some Internet at my parents' house, I'll just roll with what I've got. 

This bathroom - up until this morning's plumbing fail - has been one of those flawless afternoon redo's. Painting was quick. I didn't run out of paint. I didn't spill paint. I didn't accidentally paint the ceiling. Pat myself on the back.

(By the way, I've left nearly all the painting to John while I've stayed out of the house. But I've done a few of the small rooms given that they take so little time - less than an hour,- that they've had major ventilation going and that they were done using the more expensive, no-VOC, no-fume latex paint. Oil based is what's risky to a pregnant woman. They say there is no evidence of acrylic being harmful. But I've minimized my exposure nonetheless, amped up the air circulation and used the no-VOC paint just in case for the few times I've done the painting. So there you go for a quick little side note. I promise...I've been careful. Oh, and I look super sexy while I do it. Hello face mask.)

Back to the easiness of this upgrade. The electrical in the bathroom went up without a hitch. It was one of those days when you think you may have actually gotten the hang of this whole house flipping thing. And then the next days happens and you can't go five minutes without screwing something up.

But in addition to not being a frustrating experience, I'm also super stoked about this bathroom because it wasn't a bank breaker. Not even close. Like I said the paint was left over. We obviously already had all the painting supplies...brush, rollers, pan, etc. We re-used the original medicine cabinet. I found the sconce for above it on Ebay for half-price. The towel holder came from Urban Outfitters for a mere $14. The waffle shower curtain, rod and rings came from our condo.

Even though we planned to replace this sink vanity with a similar, but more modern one, we basically lost steam after installing the two downstairs and are learning to appreciate the datedness of this one. It works and it's white and that's good enough.

Now that more unpacking has occurred, the toothbrushes have moved to a different cup and a different spot. And an outlet cover was located at long last.

Our trip to Ikea in Denver left us with a few odds and ends that I guessed we'd want adding two bathrooms to the mix.

Slight rewind, here's what the bathroom was looking like post-paint. No light fixture on the window wall. Because the electrical box was hung so close to the soffit that I was having a hard time finding one that would not only fit, but work with the George Kovacs one from Ebay. Plus I couldn't decided if I really wanted another mirror to hang there. Mainly because that meant buying another mirror.

But to my sheer joy, unpacking later that afternoon I came across a fixture I bought from the Habitat Restore last year for $4 which I had then promptly forgot all about. Holla! Not only was it totally in line with where I wanted to take the bathroom, but the fixture itself was from the same era as the one I took down. So, all the hardware matched, and I did nothing more than attach the wires before we were golden. Literally. And figuratively. No installing a new mounting plate. No searching for screws that didn't make it home from the Restore. Just solid success. And icing on the cake...the wires from the wall were neither white, nor black. So I hadn't a clue which was hot and which was neutral. I guessed. And would you believe that the Lord above was on my side and I guessed right. In yo face. Modern day electrical miracle.

The other miracle you see below is the precious baby in that picture frame taken back at our townhouse rental in Branson. Couldn't love her more. Even on days like today when she's a total brat. :) Gotta love the terrible twos. And really I suppose that I should be thankful that she wants to fix her own lunch so I don't have to do it anymore. But somehow her insisting on making her own peanut butter and jelly sandwich is the absolute OPPOSITE of helpful to mommy. I must learn to welcome stickiness into my home and heart in order to make it through this stage of life. Purple jelly shall become my new best friend. It shall. It shall. It shall.

Anyway, as for the jewelry box labelled garbage in the shot above, before I begin sounding too green (and too cheap) I found it in a pile in our old condo's basement that was gathered together to be taken to the dumpster. I think someone was moving out and didn't want it. I forgot to take a close up of it. But it's leather with an embedded sort of Moroccan design thing happening. So no true dumpster diving went down. I'm not that eco-friendly.

And the clothing hamper that you can barely see is one of those unlikely scores that you never knew you'd like so much. I probably bought it ten years ago when I was heavy into Shabby Chic and it made the cut for it's major shabbiness. It was labelled "potato basket?" at a flea market and I bought it for less than $10. For a while I had it lined and used it for fabric scraps, but for the last 7+ years it's been our dirty clothes basket. It's perfect in that it can breathe and in that it, oddly, doesn't rub off any sort of rust on our clothes. Plus it has handles. And for whatever reason, it probably makes my list for top ten favorite things I own. I can't explain it. I just love it.

What you can also barely see and what I also forgot to take a picture of is our new Q-tip holder. My husband is nothing if not a Q-tip lover. Weird obsession. He must clean his ears daily. Is that normal? Maybe I'm the weird one. Anyway, it was basically his only request. Make the Q-tips accessible. And what better way to make them accessible than to dump two boxes into an old sangria carafe that my mom was going to pitch because it leaked. You can see it hiding beneath the Ikea mirror in the picture above.

And I can't end without giving a major shout out to the major storage going on in this bathroom. Although we have two full baths in the house, this is the only one upstairs and the only we'll be using on a daily basis as a family. Oh, I just can't say enough about all the storage. A closet AND a two-door, deep cabinet AND a medicine cabinet. Plus an odd little cubby where our extra toilet paper will be living. Anyway, I'm pumped about finally having a spot for towels and sheets. Instead of being tucked inside this old chest. It's glorious. So glorious. And oh happy day that I also found a shelf deep enough for a big, random drawer my mom brought home from an antique store years ago. It now holds our hair dryer, curling iron, etc. I can't tell you how many times I almost threw that odd drawer away. But thanks be to God, it now has a purpose.

And that is that. Except I'm going to take a few more pictures and do a follow up later this week. You're probably wondering what more can I say about these 25 square feet? And what more could you possibly care to read about? Well for one, I can tell you about the amazing music-playing shower head my dad won at a golf tournament and gave to us. And I can tell you about my plans for the window and the vanity top.

But for now, I'm just forever grateful to John for persuading me to paint the bathroom after all. Wallpaper is still in it's future. But now the future can wait a little and maybe in the meantime I can deliver a baby. For reals. When is this kid coming out of my body??