Crown

BEFORE: You can see the empty space above the cabinets and the raw edge at the end of the kitchen.  This was before Matt installed the crown. 

This was a two-step process because the standard crown size was too short.  Matt installed a flat piece of crown first to make up for the difference.

Here is the man himself installing the crown

And here is the very last piece right before installation

 Crown molding has been on the list FOREVER!  But it was super intimidating to tackle.  However, when it was done Matt was so relieved AND he said he would do it again now that he's got a handle on it!  Which means I will be getting the crown molding back up in our hallway soon!

Happy.

For our Anniversary Matt painted our front door bright yellow.  Does it get any better then that?

So bright and cheery!

one project lead to another...

Why does one seemingly small project always lead to two or three more projects?

In an effort to make space to inhabit our guest room we needed to find a home for a 2 foot tall stack of frames...from every room in our prior condo.  They were literally from our entry, kitchen, family room, dining room, hallway, master bedroom, nursery, and both bathrooms.  Because they were mostly black I decided they would look great all together, and this gallery wall in our master bedroom was born. 

As a note: I didn't want to spend a ton of time measuring and laying things out (insert laziness) - so we decided to wing it.  We started in the top right and went across (not down).  Thankfully I had a lot of variety of sizes to work with and a few items that could squeeze into odd shaped spaces.  But it was probably luck that it worked out so well!  And the very best part is that I don't have all that stuff cluttering up my guest room anymore! 

Before.

It was time to tackle the guest room before the baby came.   The best advice I got after we closed on our house was, "Don't procrastinate the packing."  Good advice I didn't take.  So when it came time to move 8 months later I had nothing packed and we decided to move in on short notice.  So we moved all of our furniture with the help of family and friends...and we took a duffle bag.  All of the cupboards and drawers were still full of our stuff...which I painfully removed one little civic load at a time (in laundry baskets).  Lets just say it took a while.  And that by the end of it I was willing to part with just about everything!  No one should have that much stuff!

So, most of the items mentioned above found a home in our 3rd bedroom.  For months we dug through the chaos to find stuff we needed - and I rearranged this mess at least five times in order to get to stuff in the back.  Finally, we decided to tackle the mess!
 

Behind the closed door.

 First, Matt installed shelves in the closet which I promptly put to good use, and then we painted the bed I found at a garage sale for $20, did I mention its Ethan Allen? Awesome!  I would love a double or a queen in this room, but it is only big enough for a twin!  That being said I bought the bed before we bought the house as a "big girl" bed for L and it is ended up being perfect for the space.

BEFORE                                                                       AFTER

 The room isn't finished yet (even the painting isn't done, ugh).  But it's a huge step forward!

The bed all made up.

Add curtains, rug, and yellow chair

 

Love the mid century lines of this chair!

Fireplace Facelift

 It all started with stockings.  For Christmas this year I made new stockings for the family because we were short a couple...and if you have new stockings you need somewhere to hang them.  Neither of the fireplaces in our house had a mantel.  So I
 showed Matt the picture below from here.  That was the jumping off point. 

                             

Here is the starting point.  We always disliked the way the fireplace was so one dimensional.  It was actually flat to the wall.

We actually use this wood burning fireplace all winter - not exactly pleasing to the eye but a must keep for sure.

 Matt drew up some plans in AutoCAD and invited his good buddy Jeff to come experience the process firsthand i.e. help with the manual labor.

Here is an in process photo

After getting this far in the process we realized that a white fireplace would blend in with the beadboard and it needed to pop against the white.  So a change of plans - it was no longer a white fireplace with a stained mantel.  We debated what color would work in the space and finally landed on SW porpoise.  

Here is the finished fireplace - for around $150.

Once the fireplace was finished though - we had one glaring problem the beam color.  The beams and the fireplace colors clashed.  Not to mention that the beams were making the room feel dark, heavy, and a little too cabin-in-the-woods.  So, one project led to another and we needed to paint the beams asap.

This turned out to be a huge undertaking!  So much priming and painting!  Almost every night for 3 weeks Matt was priming, painting, rolling, and cutting in.  And the furniture was in complete disarray for most of that!  But he persevered and the finished product is stunning!

Here is Matt up on a ladder priming the beams.

After one coat of primer.

The finished product.  We love the warmth of the wood against the white beams.  It has totally transformed the feel of this room!

So much better!  I'm in love!

The Perfect Christmas Present

It was finally time to tackle the mudroom - because I couldn't handle the mess anymore.  We determined a wall of open shelving was the solution for us.  We lucked into some free pallet wood from a neighbors new sod and we were set.  Matt decided that the shelving unit should be free standing and not built in so we could remove it should we ever decide we needed something different.  Due to the massive size it had to be built in the mudroom because it would be impossible to move more than a few feet.  And so the building began.

This is seriously how our laundry room looked from August until December.  Pile of rugs and all.  Seriously I couldn't have moved those?  The three baskets of shoes - aka gigantic pile of shoes is missing from this shot.

And check out the lack of door molding....

Here it is post white-washing

Then came the pallets, which are nailed to the back

This was the heavy part - moving it!

Here is the mostly finished product.

Here is an up close shot of the pallets.  I love the variation in color!

I can finally move around in my mudroom!  This was the best Christmas present ever!

Lest you think.

Lest you think that we moved into a completely finished house - and the projects ceased we better update the progress.  First let me just say we determined our move in date based on our breaking point. In fact, we had to take a full month off when we moved in...after we got at least one of the showers functional...showering is a must!

First thing - pantry shelves.  I hate digging through boxes.  So Matt went to work on the pantry.  And its seriously one of my favorite things about this house!

Cabinets before:  Dated glass inserts

New metal grate insert - in process

Not bad for a $10 yard sale find

More "must-do" projects completed include: venting our bathroom fan, re-roofing the back of our house, insulating the kitchen attic, cleaning out the garage (but not to park in-it), installing a new garage door motor, and wood floor transitions.