Update tour: The Kids Room

For a lot of reasons, many of them quite valid, the Kid's room was the last bedroom to be painted. It went on for far too long, but now his room feels more finished than ours. Maybe because he actually has things on the walls. It's the same color as the playroom, Cincinnatian Hotel Abbey. The yellow duvet cover makes it read a little more aqua than it does in real life. 

His tiny closet was a bear to paint. The high ceilings required a ladder, it's too narrow for a stepladder, and I did a number on my knee while I was squeezed in there trying to paint it. But it is done. There is a small hole in the wall on the upper right. 

His much beloved Star Wars posters. 

He still has not seen Eps 1-3, but he loves Obi Wan Kenobi in his prime. He also has his own yoga mat, where he can practice his yoga. Yoga has been very important in his recent improvements at school, and we're trying to support that and also maybe burn off some of that cabin fever.

So far his Ikea star lamp is the only other Star Wars decor. He is still begging for more Clone Wars decals, all of which he used in the playroom. The dresser was a total find at our local thrift store. So glad I thrifted instead of getting something particle board. 

Also from Ikea, his beloved foxes. In the spirit of Toy Story, I got them as his 'move buddies' in late November. He has never really cared much for stuffed animals and hadn't seem to miss his collection when it went into storage in the spring (it was at Grandpa's so he could still visit them). But LaLaLoopsy (the mommy fox) and Pono (pronounced "puhNo") are his very best buddies. They have definitely helped him transition from one house to the next, from one room to the next, and seemingly most difficult, from one wall to the other. 

Aaaaaaaaand now you can see the big reason this room wasn't painted. Installing the niche in the shower ended up busting this enormous hole in the plaster. It will be fixed. Some day.

Grandpa's suggestion was to call it a map of West Virginia and think of it as a "feature". Ha ha. 

The original red room of pain:

I just remembered that there were blinds hanging in here once. Rest assured, our current blinds are Ikea circa 2013. 

Update Tour: The Playroom

Yeah, this room is a hot mess. So what. It's for playing. 

It has been clean. A few different times, in fact. However, 8 snow days from kindergarten in one month will put a crimp in your crap management plans. 

From the very beginning:

From early fall:

Insanity

The past three weeks have been a mad dash to get the house habitable as quickly as possible. Habitable might still be a stretch, but I am writing this post from my bed in the new house! 

We hired all the guys. (Our electrician is actually a woman, but you get the gist.) On the whole they have been pleasant and friendly and easy to work with, despite the logistical issues of plumbing vs. electrical vs. drywall vs. tile. I think our biggest setback has actually been scheduling around Thanksgiving. Seriously people! Quit holidaying already. (J/k)

We had a rare night out a few weeks back, and I was showing these pictures to friends who were asking how the house was going. After I asked one of them how things were going for them, and he said "Well I don't have any pictures of my water softener on my phone, so..." We are, apparently, old.

 In line water filter, or something like that. 

Our petting zoo of kitchen appliances! We have guys taping and mudding drywall as I type so hopefully these will be in the right spots soon. I made the Sears guys week when I walked in and said, "Mr. Darryl, I'm ready to buy". 

We got spray foam insulation. It is messy! It makes the Mr. very happy. 

The master bedroom. It is no longer this clean. The Mr. made the lights work and installed the ceiling fan all by himself. Still waiting for the electricians to connect the 'receptacles' aka outlets.

The kids playroom and the master as of 48 hours ago. I love love LOVE how the paint colors have been working out. Hotel Cincinnatian Abbey (valspar) for the kid and Palladian Blue for us (Ben Moore). Pantone Ecru in the landing. 

Bathroom floor!

Master floor. We used Rejuvenate to seal the floors, although the master didn't get the full dry time before drywallers were walking through it. We will see what it looks like when it's clean. 

About 3pm yesterday.  Pantone Ecru on the walls. Grandpa T did all the cutting in around the crown molding without tape. Amazing. 

About 9pm last night. Liquid level over electric heat. You might remember that we took out the heating duct to this room when we enlarged the wall opening downstairs. They will put the tile in today. 

My current view. In a blessing from the past or a show of gratitude or whatever, I discovered that someone had but screw holes exactly 40" apart which made it possible for me to hang six sets of blinds in about 40 minutes with my eyes crossed from exhaustion. Thank you, house. Thank you. 

Let the sun shine in

If you know me, then you probably know that's a 40 Year Old Virgin reference, and that Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen and Romany Malco are bare chested singing and dancing inside my head right now. (Hopefully inside your head now too). Because NOT ONLY do we have a toilet that flushes without buckets (!!!!!!!!) we also have an amazing new window!

Guys hard at work. It's hard to remember how high off the ground the window really is...

Like, standing on scaffolding high. 

There was no way I could get the picture to balance on my iphone. The window is so bright!! But you can see the Mr.'s recent plumbing progress under the window. 

So I took another picture to show much light we're getting in the dining room these days. 

Now that the center section is gone, we can see so much further into the park (over our neighbor's shed), but there's a lit path that's visible into the park, and I think it will be really lovely in the evening. 

In less exciting progress, after much vacuuming and mopping, the Kid has a place to play and actually has indoor toys on site! We're still waiting on the new electrical wiring before we can paint, but we'll be painting like gangbusters in a few weeks. Tentative plan is to reseal the hardwoods, move in, and have them refinished professionally later. Yes, it would be better to do this before we move. It would also be better to be millionaires. 

So we're not millionaires, but we do have giant dancing light up fountains on 'our grounds'. 

So here's a gratuitous fountain shot from our morning walk with the wagon. 

Next time I am going to ride and he can pull me. 

P.S. I thought that I might take a video of the Viper flushing, but then I thought, no, that's weird. People who read blogs on the internet probably know what flushing toilets look like. Rest assured we are BEYOND THRILLED about the flushing of the toilet. RIDICULOUSLY GRATEFUL to be able to use the bathroom in our home without having to go outside! (Giant bottle of hand sanitizer outside the door.)

Celebrating functional commodes with steak and sushi (and water that comes with umbrellas)

Dancing on the ceiling

You might recall that there was some worrisome water damage on the plaster ceiling in the guestroom/playroom upstairs. The Mr. and Casey have been working very hard on drywalling over it, which was deemed the safest, most hygienic and cost effective solution. I was concerned about losing any ceiling height at all, but unless you're making a determined comparison of this room with the master bedroom, you really can't tell that it's about an inch shorter than it used to be. These pictures are mid-process, I've been told that they're actually finishing it this weekend. 

In preparation for completed electrical and painted ceilings, I ordered two of these lights from Amazon, where they were $15 cheaper than the orange store. They've since gone up in price on Amazon as well, so I'm just going to pat myself on the back for striking while the iron was hot. I think I will do one in this bedroom and one in the master, and we'll see how that works. I was thinking about something a little fancier in the master, but the Mr. wasn't feeling it.

This post is equivalent to 7,088 words

Saddest face of sad. Why can't this stay? Why? 

I mean, I know why. But still. Does anyone know of a screaming deal on hex tile? 

In more positive news, this: 

This: 

This: 

And this: 

Equals this: 

We may need a bigger dumpster. 

(We've started calling the bedrooms by their carpet colors now. So from the top, that's the 'green room', the 'red room', the 'blue room' which is not the master but the future master bath, and the master closet.)

P.S. I hate you adjustable shelving. You suck.

Upstairs Bedrooms

We've been through the master suite and the upstairs bathroom, so that leaves two more bedrooms upstairs. One is smaller and faces east and one is larger and faces west over the park. Both of these rooms will require the standard wallpaper and shag carpet removal, and the west facing/larger bedroom also needs some ceiling work from some water damage. Right now, the plan is that the Kid will take the smaller bedroom and use the larger bedroom as a playroom/guest room for the Sister. But that isn't set in stone and my favorite plan is to move the playroom down into the basement and use the smaller bedroom for a room of my own. Virginia Woolf said I needed it. Who am I to argue? Then the guest room can also go in the basement, where there is a full bathroom in a serious state of disrepair (like, no sink and no toilet).

The smaller bedroom is the (in)famous red room of pain: 

This closet pokes into the footprint of the upstairs bath. 

The laundry chute is behind it, the tub to the right. 

The Butterfly Room reflects the house's bucolic setting. The Kid really wanted to keep this carpet.

Our dearly departed homeowner spared no expense on flocked wallpaper. 

These rooms are actually my personal first order of business, as wallpaper steaming is about to be my full time job. We may need to skim coat the plaster when I'm done, but as far as we can tell the hardwoods under the carpet are in good shape and should be ready to go with some mopping and sealing. 

I'm doubling up on the design for these rooms, so that we can swap the Kid and the Sister without everything  clashing. We've actually bought our very first decor for this house, as an incentive (bribe?) for the Kid, who is pretty anxious about moving after the months of stress and drama and uncertainty surrounding the house purchase. We favorited these posters on Etsy and they emailed us back a coupon code. Sweet! They arrived today and are getting flattened out for framing. The Mr. seems to have resigned himself to the presence of Episodes 1-3 on our walls. 

Poppytalk.com featured this home tour which is also a big color inspiration for me. This room is painted Benjamin Moore's Yarmouth Blue, which, again pending swatches, is my pick for both of the upstairs bedrooms. It's also the color of Kelly Rae Robert's dining room. 

Random pinterest image.