Before and After :: Our upstairs bathroom

Here is the before pic:

Click here to hop over to my new interiors blog... and see the Afters!....

And while you are there, let me know you stopped by!

Home Makeover: Reality Edition. Our Front Hall.

{*update. I just noticed this is my 400th post! wow! A special thanks to my sweet friend Flamingo Mama for inspiring me to get started in blogging. and then, teaching me how!}
********************************************************************************
Tisk. tisk.
It is hard to believe what we get used to!

You see, here in our dream home, we have been busy:
We moved here.
We cleaned up big, big messes.
We tended and mended some major disasters.
We begged for help.
We had a baby.
We underwent a 2 year renovation and addition.
We had another baby.
I experienced post-partum and hormonal insanity.
Caleb had emergency surgery.
We stayed busy, BUSY, with 2 little ones boys.
Our family had the rock pulled out from under us.
I started homeschooling.

Most of the rooms in our home remain half-painted, if painted at all.

Amazingly, though. Even though I love to be surrounded by peaceful and beautiful {if not at least organized} spaces, I am okay with our home being in a crazy state of the in-between.  Our sights were, and still are, set on building a family... not building a house.

But now that my babies are 5 and 2... and now that we are getting back to basics in our home... we have - interestingly enough - turned our eyes back to our homestead.  Back to the stewardship of taking care of our home.

I have much more to share. And I cannot wait to do so... in my upcoming decorating blog {insert cheesy and giddy smile here}. Coming soon...

But, for the meantime, I just had to share these before pics of our front hall.
ya know.
To get you pumped up, and all.
Since we have finally pulled the furniture away from the walls, and the paint cans are out on the floor!

...and to show you what I have been staring at for 5 years {not too horrid. I know. but golly... you would think we could have painted the joint in 5 years.....}:

This is all about to change.

You should see what this room looks like in my head........
and. maybe someday soon:

You will.

Future School Nook

This is the home of our future school nook. 

Half- painted, yes.

Boxes of unorganized school stuff, yes.

But not for long...

The original plan was to do a school room.

But, alas, we cannot do it right now.

This cute little nook will do nicely.

Since school starts for us very soon, I plan to get this baby up and running. And fast.

Be looking for a post soon on our Owl Academy School Nook.

Before and After: $30 Headboard

While prepping our home for Agniya's arrival, I found this simple headboard at a furniture consignment shop for $30.

Before:

Solid wood, people!

I just love me some good, used furniture.

Not antique.

Just good.

and used.

and very inexpensive.

and lots of lovely potential.

In fact, slap a little black paint on this puppy, and voila: Pottery Barn.

And after two coats of black paint:

For more of Agniya's room, check out these posts:

Befores and In-Betweens and Agniya's room: After

Agniya's Room: after

Our historic home is filled with HUGE to-do lists. So, it feels wonderful to clean up an old, deteriorating space, and bring it to LIFE!

I posted a few weeks ago on the details of our Upstairs Guest Room project. In that post, you can see more Before Pics.

The two following pics are of the room just after we moved in (i.e. we have not done a thing). The wide beam pine floors were in sorry shape. And all of the wood around the windows, including the benches beneath the windows, were thoroughly rotted:

The walls needed to be painted. The windows needed to be replaced. There were no baseboards around the room. And, hidden behind the lovely 1970's plastic paneling, we have a large hole in the wall:

And, may I present our simple, but very clean and crisp and fully repaired "After":

Note the table from this post, and the comfy orange chair stolen from my art room:

More to come on this headboard:

And these curtains:

A "good used furniture" find (check out those rockin' baseboards!):

Remember the rotten bench seats? Kudos to my honey:

Floors refinished. check.

Paint. check.

Baseboards made and installed. check.

A/C installed. check.

New windows and interior storms installed. check.

Closets cleaned out and repaired. check.

Bench seats repaired. check.

Furniture purchased, painted, and assembled. check.

Curtains made and window coverings hung. check.

Room ready for our new exchange daughter. check.

Whenever I feel like we are not getting anything done around here.... I need to remember to reread this post. ha.

Befores and In-Betweens: Upstairs Guest Room

Fixing up an old home is definitely an awesome adventure. But boy....... can it go slowly when you have limited time and funds.

But motivation always helps! And we have got some motivation, because we are hosting an exchange "daughter" for the next 10 months!!!! Oh, I hope to tell you more about her, but I had better wait until I get her permission... cause I'm polite like that. :)

So, around here, we have been doing PROJECTS!!! And I hope to let you in on all of them as the days unfold. BUT, not the finished room until our precious "daughter" gets to see it first!

Until then, enjoy the BEFORES, and the IN-BETWEENS:

This is what the Upstairs Room looked like before we owned the house {2004}:
so. um. yeah.

Anyway,

This is what the room looked like just after we moved in (note the floors and the missing trim, etc.) {2005}:

IN-BETWEENS! Here are is the room after we had the floors refinished {2005-current}:

And. Our latest In-between undertaking of the window bench repair:

STAY TUNED!!! Pics of our "daughter's" new room, and hopefully, pics of our new family member!!!

Cheapola side table project

So, I had these fantastically ugly, fantastically cheap, and very unused tv trays. Can't remember why on earth I purchased them, but I remembered they were from Walmart and they were purchased during the Dorm Room years.

Here, you can see my personal specimen - in my cellar:

Well.... we are in the process of trying to update an EMPTY guest bedroom.

On the fly, and

On the cheap.

Enter Ugly TV tray.

and a little black enamel paint.

and Viola!:

Not bad for a tv tray, right?? almost pottery-barn-esque.

More projects to come, as we are busting our tushies to get our guest bedroom ready for our most special guest {are you curious??? introductions coming soon}

A Room I Love: Our Master Bedroom

I was so inspired by the Nester's post on Master Bedrooms...and her general decorating philosophy, that it jumpstarted this brand new "I can do this" decorating spirit that I have not felt for YEARS!!!

Let me explain.

I now own my dream home. We all have a dream, and mine happens to be the money pit. But nevertheless, I cannot believe we own this home. Since prepubescent years, I have dreamed of owning and restoring a stone farmhouse.... and God bless my husband for jumping aboard with a twinkle in his eye!! A dream has been realized!

BUT.........

I have been surprised, however, at how paralyzed I have become in decorating this home. I have always LOVED to decorate, improvise, organize, and "hide the uglies." But since moving into this home, I have been afraid to touch anything, for fear of falling short of the-gorgeous-house-in-my-head. With all of my lofty visions for what it "will look like someday".... I just completely stopped decorating.

My underlying, subconscious thought was "well, I cannot afford perfection, I don't have time to create perfection, and I cannot sew perfection... so I will not do a thing."

Yes. That is what I have been doing!! A whole lotta nothing for the sake of perfectionism. Hey, I am just being honest.... in case I am not the only one! So, fess up friends, and make me feel better :)

But help was on it's way.

And now, I just can't get this notion out of my head:

It Doesn't Have To Be Perfect To Be Beautiful!!!!

props, credits, and TM's to the Nester :)

I am freeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

you know. as a bird.

And without further ado, may I present to you, My Master Bedroom... with the big changes and the itty-bitty changes that make it splendid:

Voila. Our Master Bedroom:So, here is what I have done.
First, some of this is just plain-old overhauling of the room we inherited when we bought the house, which you can see here:
We had the floors refinished, stripped the wallpaper, painted the walls and trim (alas... it is only half painted, just like this room), and added our furniture and purchased blinds:We removed these unlovely, mirrored, plastic closet-doors:And during renovations, replaced them with these doors below. Yes, they are still unpainted. Wanna come over and paint them for me???:Here is another good before-shot of the old floors. Take note of the window in the back of the room. We had to cover it (waaaaahhhh!) due to a roof line change:But I was not about to give up a window without a fight. So I designed this bookshelf/window-thingy duet. I know you did not notice that one wall is painted and the other is not.......O.K. soooo, that is it for our renovations/restorations. On to the FUN part!!!! Fearless, Imperfect, Nester Inspired Decorating!

1. Fabric!
I have hopes and plans to add more. Maybe even some mistreatments?? But for now, I just played around with what I had until I came up with a luxurious feel to my bedding. I fluffed. I folded. and I dreamed about climbing in....

Don't forget to Hide The Uglies. Turn that pillowcase around, peeps:
Aaah. Yes. Much better. (and now you know how insane I am):

2. Pretty AND Practical!
I do not currently own any nightstands that fit into the narrow spots next to our bed, so for now we use our deep window wells. But that can clutter up quickly, so I use baskets to keep the stuff under control.

Here you can see my nightstand essentials: Water, Parenting books, Bible, and Gone With The Wind (reading it for the 3rd time. Truth be told.... I like to pretend I am Scarlett).

3. De-Clutter!
I like to hide anything that is not pretty. Hide. Hide. Hide. Hide the Uglies.

Here is my dresser top. The top drawer on the left is a junk drawer for the stuff of life. (Hide. Hide. Hide.). Wedding pic, Mary from my Grandma Nellie, and pretty bottles. Don't love the lamp, but it doesn't have to be perfect.....:

4. Shop The House!
May I introduce you to "The Nook?"


Here is the Phase 1 Nook. Crap shoved anywhere and everywhere because we had just moved in, and then proceeded to have babies. I am just thrilled this pic does not have dirty clothing articles on display:

Bad pic below, but here is the Phase 2 Nook. I used a painting to hide all of the JUNK that prissy girls seem to collect. Lotions, potions, hair devices, etc.:
Again, apologies for the bad pic, but here she is:
Phase 3 Nook.

I shopped the house, people.

And....Found some baskets to contain my primping delights. And that wooden thingy-dingy on the top shelf. Hope to find some fun and useless globes to stick in there.
Nester. You have freed the Nook. Now doesn't that look fabulous??:

Thanks, Nester. Thanks for the inspiration. And for smacking me out of my paralyzed decorating crisis. Click Here for more Before and After, and for more on Hiding The Uglies!