Nursery Progress! curtains, crib, and some accessories

So I'm well-aware that it's been a hot minute since I did any sort of nursery updates for you all, but stuff has definitely been happening in there. ...Or I should say, in here, as I'm writing this post from the super comfy glider with a big pup by my feet and a pb&j sandwich by my side. Don't judge. All I've wanted lately is all pb&j all. the. time.

Before we get started with the update, I feel like I need to pass along some advice about nurseries that has really made this whole process feel more fun and less like a daunting project that we needed to get done by a certain time.

You ready?
Start early. That is all.

I realize some of you may be in situations where you know you'll be moving before baby comes in which you have no choice but to wait. But seriously, getting this whole room started as early as we did really has been nice. Don't listen to people who are judging you for getting things going during your first trimester. Some call it jumping the gun, I call it being prepared. Plus, decorating is just good clean fun as far as I'm concerned, so why not?

Going on 27 weeks of pregnancy now, I've realized just how fast that second trimester truly does fly by. I cannot believe I can actually say that I'm in my THIRD trimester now... so crazy!

My point is that during this last trimester, there is really already enough going on and things to prepare for (and I've heard all that second trimester energy and general "good feelings" tend to drop off again during this time), that I would be a nervous wreck thinking I had to put a nursery together start to finish on top of all that. I'm happy that we're left with mainly the fun stuff to get done that will really put the finishing touches on the whole space.

I could go on and on, so let's get to the updates!

First of all, a change that made the biggest impact (since the lighting update, and paint, of course), was the addition of the curtains.

These are the same "favorite" curtains I've used for years and years (I had them all throughout our last home).  I think they really make any room look a little more layered and put-together.

These particular ones are the velvet blackout curtains in off white from halfpricedrapes.com.

We went ahead and hung these all the way to the ceiling since in this little nook, the window is very very short. It makes the little space feel a bit taller.

Here's a better look at that whole area...

There's a little built-in desk around the corner to the right where that little chair is. Totally cut that out of the photo for a reason. It's become kind of a catch-all baby junk area.  And the scary mannequin form lady will not be staying in here. haha

But like I mentioned in the last nursery post, this area will eventually be a little play nook for her. Especially when we eventually move out the glider, she'll have a ton of room for lots of play things.

The world ottoman was a good find at RH Baby & Child (same with the little animals beneath the window), and the little polar bear is from Pottery Barn Kids.

Here is the other window with the same curtains... These need some "phloofing" and some hemming. Not my main priority now (I'm just happy they're up), but we'll get there.

We've had the little mirrored chest for about five years now. It lived in the upstairs hallway at our last house and even in the guest bedroom there for a while. I thought it fit perfectly with everything in the nursery.  Oh, and the little rocking unicorn? Melts my heart every single time I see it.

The other big change?? The crib is set up!

Waylon is pretty excited about it. This is his new favorite spot to hang out.  I really like this area because we can sort of center it in the middle of that wall on the right and have it floating out in the floor a bit so that we can completely walk comfortably around it on all sides. I like cribs that float out a little bit in rooms. All we've officially added so far is the dust ruffle (which I had custom made), and the mattress, but the bedding is kind of just hanging out for now. I'm waiting until much closer to her arrival to get the sheets all washed and ready (don't want clean sheets on the bed collecting dust for months).

I'll get some better shots of the entire crib when everything is all "done" (this isn't a full room reveal, you know) but here is another little shot that shows how it's made a little better...

You can basically set it up 3 different ways- The 4-post look like we chose to do, a canopy look (where you add little cross bars between the posts), or no posts at all.  It also turns into a toddler bed when she's ready for that down the road.
I knew I really wanted an iron crib for the nursery. They're just so classic. I didn't realize how hard they were to find! This one is by Bratt decor... and also kind of super expensive. So months back when I first started looking at cribs online and found this beauty (it's called the Parisian crib), imagine how excited I got when I saw it on Gilt (it's a site similar to Hautelook), for almost 50% off! So I jumped on that pony. My family probably thought I was insane when I told them I had already bought the crib not even halfway through my first trimester. So glad I did!

You may also notice that I added a sweet little mobile in the photo above. It's from RH Baby & Child and the little animals match the larger little animals under the window in the play nook area.

If you're wondering what the big wall o' built-ins is looking like... well, it's not especially pretty.  I haven't really started styling any of the shelves other than adding some books here and there.  I've still got a lot to organize in the cabinets beneath the changing area there and I can't wait to start filling up the toy chests there eventually too.  But it's not quite update-worthy just yet.  I'll also share the closet with you all eventually as it comes together! Lot's and lots of clothes to wash and organize.

As always, thank you all for being so excited to share this journey with us and for being so wonderful and supportive! I know I skipped the 26 week pregnancy vlog this week, but that just means next week we'll have even more to talk about. ;)

I hope you guys are having a wonderful week and I'll talk to you soon!!

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Family Room Changes... Our Sexual Sectional.

I couldn't help it. That's what we call it.

Since basically all of my recent home posts on here have been nursery-related, I thought we'd take a break today and talk about a completely different space.  Probably the space we used the absolute most (now, anyway) in the entire house...  Our family room.

When we bought the house, this room was one of my favorite spaces.  Still is. We started with our furniture from our last house. Some pieces looked a bit small in here...

After this photo (taken a little over a year ago), we swapped out some chairs, lamps, added some sheer curtains, etc.  It was for sure pretty, but not the coziest. The furniture didn't exactly say, "You come here to me.. NO, no... You come here to me." 

But to save us some time and chit chat and just get to the good stuff, this is where we are now...

This is seriously my favorite room now. The biggest change, the big, soft Belgian linen sectional came about because of practicality. I find that all of the big changes that come about in our house are never usually because we're just ready for a change, but rather because of function.  When you live somewhere (or with certain furniture) for a while, you figure out what works and what doesn't.  You figure out that instead of relaxing on the couch during the day when you need a comfy place to sit (and perhaps write a blog post), you're sitting for hours at the hard kitchen table a couple feet away. Probably a sign that you need to make a change.

When we would relax in here on Saturdays to watch football, we would fight over the chair facing the tv (or try to smush ourselves into it). I love that we have so much space now to cuddle up and lounge and really enjoy our family room.  

I've always said I was a fan of leather furniture... still am. We have it all throughout our basement. There are a couple reasons why we didn't go with it in a larger sectional though.  It's durable and easily wiped clean, but it's not the most comfortable to me. Skin sticks to it in the summer time and because it doesn't breathe, you can easily get hot and sweaty. I wanted something cozy and soft that would breathe.

We lived with our leather couch and chair for years and while it was pretty and we liked it, it just wasn't working in this space. Life's too short, ya know? To me, I feel like a family room should be a cozy space with lots of soft seating and most of all, comfortable. So I started the search for a comfy, well-made, slipcovered sectional and happened upon the perfect one at a local furniture store. We're so in love with this room now!

The shape of the sectional "sections" off the room much better and makes the large, lofty space much cozier. I chose one with a chaise (and I'm SO glad I did) mainly because Brad really wanted one, but it also saves your coffee table from dirty feet.  Plus, I love that Brad and I can easily cuddle up together on it when we watch tv. We couldn't do that before. It's the little things...

Speaking of the coffee table, since there was SO much linen fabric going on in this room with the sectional and tufted chairs (which we already had for a while now, and ended up working perfectly with the new sectional), I decided we needed something a little smaller, lighter, and more airy. This little oval glass table from Pier 1 takes up a lot less visual (and actual) space than the large tufted one we used to have in here. The room needed a mix of different materials so the glass and metal really helped to balance everything out.  I still want to add some of my pretty books to the lower level of it.  It's really sturdy and well-made too, which is a big deal for a coffee table, which is a piece of furniture we actually use a lot.

Can't you just hear it saying, "You come here to me..."?? 

The lamps are just some that I've had for years and years with some mix and match shades. Not sure I'm in love with them, but that's something I'll probably change in the future if I find something I like better. Or, I may do what I always do and swap around some that we have in other places of the house. I always say, shop what you've got!

I mentioned that the slipcovered furniture (rather than upholstered) was really important to me. I love that if something gets spilled or stained, I can just throw the one piece's slipcover into the wash.  I also love that the color visually appears to be lighter piece of furniture in the room, but the actual color is a linen-stone-gray.  So it won't show every little thing or appear dingy like white or light cream furniture can. Anyway, I just love it and we couldn't be happier with it!

A few more changes...

First off, the hand made, one of a kind bench behind the sofa...

It couldn't be more perfect for this area! I considered a sofa table, which would mean moving the antique library table from in front of the windows behind the sofa, because to add another similar piece would be overkill.  We moved it behind the couch and it just wasn't right. I really wanted to keep the open feeling behind the couch and not obstruct the whole view into the room with the knick-knacks on the table or with lamps.  It would be silly to have a table there and have it be bare, you know? So I had the bench idea... All of the ones we already had were majorly too small.  I remembered seeing this one at the furniture store where I purchased the couch from and went back for it.  It's super long and narrow. Perfect for behind the couch.  Plus, I love that it's well-made and one-of-a-kind.

And finally, the curtains...

If you remember, I had previously added some sheer white panels to this space because I didn't want to obstruct any of the view and keep the light and airy feeling in the room. Well, that was great, but over time, I realized that what the room actually needed was some balance.  So I had been on the look out for the perfect ones for a while that were not only the right color, but also the right fabric.
Oh, and while these were definitely more expensive than the $20 sheers I had up before (which because of that, I didn't mind replacing), they were a great price for the quality and something I can definitely justify because of how much they add to the room.

They're textured Dupioni Silk in a beautiful taupe-silver shade. The room has so much warm cream and ivory shades going on that the cooler taupe-silver balances everything out and the material adds a ton of texture. I got them from Overstock and these are in a 120" length. 

I love the view now from the kitchen...

 I just love how everything is coming together. I feel like we started off on a great foot in this house when we moved in about a year and a half ago because we already had so much furniture from the last house, but I really believe that you have to make your house your home. The way I see it, houses are expensive. Too expensive to not be happy and totally comfortable in certain spaces.   Of course, there's lots of cosmetic things we'd love to change and completely overhaul (we've got big plans in the future for areas like bathrooms and kitchens and the backyard), but you have to take your time and see how spaces are really used and what you really need. Those spaces are functional for now, so we're definitely not in a hurry.  For spaces like a family room that you use a lot, really think out your furniture before you buy something and realize that what works in one home, may not work in another. Also, most importantly, don't just go for something solely on looks. Of course you should love it (I love the look of our room so much better now), but most importantly, consider the comfort and function of the pieces you buy.
I could go on and on, but basically, we're obsessed with this sectional and this room in general now. Definitely much more family friendly. :)

I should be back next week with another nursery update! I hope you all have a wonderful week!!

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Some nursery progress... lighting and nook plans

Ok, so last we left the nursery, it had gone from this...

To this...

...with the help of my sweet nursery-painting husband, and Sherwin Williams paint in Marshmallow.

You may notice the (de-boobed) boob light in the photo above. Not really anything I was super excited about. Also, the fan in the little nook area.  A lil' backstory... When the room had the bunk before, the previous owners must have swapped the fan (which was originally meant to be in the middle, large part of the room) with the little boob light because of the bunk bed. The last thing you need is a kid getting a fan blade to the head while climbing up to bed. So that made sense for that situation.
Problem was, the room is wired for the fan to be in the middle of the room. There are two switches on the wall that control that particular fixture box (one for the fan, one for the fan light), and then a third, single switch on the wall to control a singular fixture in the little nook.
While it worked with the fan, you couldn't control the fan and light separately and because the boob light was wired to a fan box (with two controls), one switch on the wall was useless.

So we figured it would make the most sense to put the fan back where it belonged so we could control it correctly from the entrance of the room and pick out something a little fun for the nook.

Here's the "little something fun" we picked out for the nook...

Well, I should say I picked it out. Brad isn't too choosy in the chandelier-picking-out department. I've been eyeing this beauty at Pottery Barn for years and years. My version is from Overstock, almost exactly the same, and best of all, a fraction of the price. But there are some differences...

It looks great once it's up, the glass accents are solid and heavy, and it's the perfect size for the room. It's not too large, and we can still easily walk beneath it. One of the reasons I didn't purchase this before for any spaces at our last or current home is because it's an odd size. To me, it's too small for over a dining table or a large room, but it's perfect for a smaller bedroom, or in our case, what will become our gal's little play nook.  It looks a bit young and whimsical too, which I love. 

The problem with this fixture is that you have to definitely work for that cost savings. Brad (or my dad who is a retired electrician) always wires our fixtures within reach, which is never a big deal. Brad can get a fixture put up in no time (he had the fan hung and wired in less than 10 minutes). But this fixture was totally unassembled. Each arm and socket was completely separate, which meant the fixture itself had to be wired correctly before even wiring to the box in the ceiling. One. Million. Wires. It was ridiculously hard to get all of the correctly joined wires shoved into the small space at the bottom without loosening any of them.  It was a hassle. If you were going to hire an electrician to hang yours anyway (which you totally should always do if you aren't familiar with wiring fixtures), then they should do this step for you. But I guess in the long run, the trouble was worth the savings. There was seriously a moment where we were going to put the whole thing back in the box and splurge for the Pottery Barn (assembled) version because it initially freaked us out a bit.

The fan is working out so much better in the main part of the room as well. We decided to use the one that was already there because it seems to be working perfectly and isn't hideous.  I'm really glad we were able to keep a ceiling fan in there and also have some fun with a chandelier. I'm a big believer in ceiling fans in bedrooms. Seriously couldn't survive without one.

About the little medallions around the fixtures on the ceiling... They're awesome. Seriously wish I would have put these on all the fixtures we swapped out when we moved in.  They're really cheap and you can get them at any "big box" home supply store. Seriously it makes such a big difference!

I keep referring to the little area as a "nook". Our plans for this space is to eventually have it house a lot of her play things. Just to keep things a little separate from the main part of the room. Plus, there's a little fun finished play area in one of the little wall spaces. I would have LOVED that as a kid!  Granted, I more than realize that when she becomes more playful and mobile, the whole room will likely look like a toy explosion, but it is nice to have a little designated area to put them all in.

I absolutely cannot wait to show you all the drapery and crib! So much progress has happened in there lately.  

My goal is to be pretty much done with the nursery sometime in December. I know it feels like we have forever to go, but I always knew I wanted to enjoy this whole nursery-decorating process and not be stressing at the last minute. Since this is a home we want to stay in for a very long time, I wanted to go ahead and really create her her own special place here that she can grow into.  I figured that since parts of October, November, and pretty much all of December will be pretty busy for us, it would be best to get the major stuff out of the way now.  Since she's due in January (and I'm thinking I'll definitely not be into doing anything too major around that time), I'm glad it's coming along at a great pace so far!

We also made a pretty big change in the family room! So much to share in the next few weeks. We'll talk about all that soon... ;)

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Nursery Update 1... PAINT and Tips

Finally, a nursery update! So y'all have probably noticed that there hasn't been a whole lot of regular home-bloggin' going on around here, but it's mainly because where our home is concerned, the main focus has been on getting the nursery all ready for our baby girl.

Last we spoke about this space, we had removed the bunk bed that was built in (and taking up a lot of space).

Seriously it's deceiving how much space this was taking up. So we removed it and it really opened up the room.

We were left with lots of unevenness in the sheetrock where the bed connected to the walls, some huge anchoring bolts sticking out of the wall that literally broke off as Brad removed pieces of the bed, and lots of paint to touch up.

So Brad sawed off the bolts with a Dremel tool and patched and sanded the walls.  Only thing left to do was choose a paint color.

 We thought about using the existing paint color (I was pretty sure I knew what it was), but the more I looked at it, the more I wasn't too thrilled with how yellow-beige it looked against all the stark white trim, especially since I'd be bringing in some pink tones to the room. I just thought it wouldn't look quite right.  The issue with choosing a color was that it would have to be something that we could continue along the ceiling as well like the old color did. If we had just painted to the ceiling, the existing color on the ceiling would have really looked beige and out of place.  The room has a pitched ceiling in certain places too, so I didn't want to just slap up some white paint on the ceiling and then do a stripe of color just on the walls above the bead board. I felt like it would be pretty choppy-looking.

So I knew we'd have to choose a shade that was a bit light and bright so it wouldn't look too enclosing continued all over the ceiling as well. Because of all the stark white trim in there on the bead board, it made it easier to pull off a lighter and brighter color without looking too plain because all the tones show up against the stark white.
Sounds a bit confusing, but stick with me...

So I chose a shade technically in the "white" color family, but with a lot of pink tones.  The color is Marshmallow by Sherwin Williams.

This was taken when the paint was still a bit wet, so you can see a bit of it drying still on the ceiling.

I remembered this shade because I had considered it for our foyer but ultimately ruled it out because it read very pink compared to other whites with different tones. So I knew it would be pretty perfect for our gal's room. We really love how it came out.

This was Brad's first painting adventure solo. He did such an amazing job (and was so happy when it was all done).

Funny because if you painted this shade in a regular room with no stark white trim (like the large area of bead board on the wall) it wouldn't read as pink. I've seen photos of this color used throughout entire homes! It's just crazy how different whites can be.  Anyone that has seen the nursery in person has commented on what a pretty soft pink it is.

While I'm no painting expert (and while Brad did amazing considering it was his first go-round doing a whole room by himself), we do have some tips to share (if you've followed for a while, you know I've painted almost every room in our homes). These were the main ones I passed on to Brad when he began painting the nursery:

• Don't waste money on plastic paint tray liners! Buy a metal paint tray once, and cover it with heavy duty aluminum foil before pouring paint in. Easy clean-up, and you can re-use the (clean) metal paint tray indefinitely.
• Skip painter's tape if you have a steady hand and go around all the trim, doorways, corners, ceiling, etc. with an angled brush first, then use a roller to fill-in.  This is just the basic way to paint and it works. Saves time, tape, and your sanity.  If you've ever taped-off an entire room, you know what I mean.
• When you use the roller, roll suuuuper sloooooow. Seriously ridiculously slow. Even if you don't think you're dripping anything, you'll leave tiny micro-splatters (totally a legit thing) all over the room and yourself.
• Drop cloths and broken-down cardboard boxes are your friend. You can lay out all your paint supplies on the flattened cardboard box and move it all around the room wherever you need it. And drop cloths... just use them to cover nice things you don't want to remove.

So the moral of this story is that we're really happy with the paint, and to also never overlook colors in the white family for rooms. They can be pretty perfect when you don't want the focus of a room to be the walls, but still want to complement the tones in the decor you're going to add. One in the perfect tone can change the whole feel of the room without being so "in your face".

So as I've mentioned in many of my pregnancy vlogs, the nursery has come a lot farther than this! While it's still kind of a mess (no super pretty after photos in this one, sorry!), there's a lot more progress to share like lighting, window treatments, the crib (!), etc. So I'll definitely keep you updated on our progress in the coming weeks!

As always, thank you all for being so happy for us and so supportive as we share this special time with you all. It's obviously a huge part of our life right now and we couldn't be happier to be experiencing all of it and being able to share it!

Nursery update and some changes in the basement

Hi, it's a home post. Did you miss me??

I know... It's been a ridiculously long time since I did a home post on here! Granted, the last one was kind of a doozie. If I were thinking straight, I probably could've stretched that out in to at least three posts, but oh well.

Anyway, as you guys know, I've been a bit preoccupied lately with all things baby on the brain.  I just haven't really done many new things to the house! Of course, we've cleaned out the nursery (LOVE being able to call it that now, by the way) and a few things have been added (gifts, random purchases, etc), but nothing is in place yet. Think of it as more of a "baby stuff storage" room as of right now. Of course we've got some big plans!
What's holding me back from really starting to begin to put things in place are the walls. You may remember in the whole post about us tearing out the built-in bunk bed in there, the walls were a bit sketchy afterwards. Think broken off bolts and uneven areas that need to be heavily spackled. Oh and the whole thing (ceiling included) needs a fresh coat of paint.

You guys know I love to paint. I've almost painted every room in this whole house (and our last one). I've gotten really good at it and can do it fairly quickly.  It's therapeutic to me. But being pregnant, it hasn't really been something I've been comfortable doing, just because of the fumes. It's just something unnecessary that I don't have to do now. I know there are "safe" formulas out there, but Brad is really insisting that he do it. So he's promised me that sometime in August he's going to get it all done.  I'm excited about starting to actually get things going in there! Of course, I'll share all the updates with you all here and on my pregnancy vlogs on my YouTube channel as it all comes together.

So I've really missed doing these home posts. When I started thinking about what the heck I could even post on, I realized that we've actually made a pretty big change in the basement. Is it super pretty or creative change? Not really. But it's probably one of the most functional changes we've made here.

Remember the big empty room in the basement (that stayed empty for a year)?

Well, almost empty. ;)

It's a massive room. With no windows. So it was kind of difficult to figure out what to do with it. We already have a media room down there, a living room-ish area, and a bar/table area. So we were originally thinking maybe a game room? We thought of getting a pool table. Because that's what typically ends up in a basement. But the basement is really Brad's domain. His games are more of the XBox/Playstation variety. Again, media room...he's got that already covered. Plus, there's still room in another room down there for a game table of some kind if we ever wanted it. So we just couldn't make a decision on anything because we didn't want to make a mistake in the biggest room down there and possibly turn it into a huge waste of space that we never used.  We really wanted it to be functional.

Since we moved in, Brad had been using our big unfinished storage room (in the photo above, the little door on the right wall next to that white air return leads right into it) as his makeshift "gym". I never went in there because, well, bugs.  Seriously where do all those tiny hair-like spiders come from in basements? Where do they come from????

So we had sort of a "well duh" moment and decided to make it into a full-on home gym about 4 or 5 months ago. It's something useful, good for us, and it'll actually save us money in gym memberships over time. Brad seriously uses it every single day. I'm not on such a strict schedule, and I don't use his big crazy weights, but I love my elliptical (and my lil row of tiny weights on the bottom of the rack).

It's nowhere near being finished, but it's functional for now!

This is definitely more of the "starting point" for this room. We need to get some mirrors on the walls professionally installed and figure out a different flooring solution because the current situation isn't cutting it. We knew we needed some sort of flooring for the equipment to protect the floors.  So we majorly cheaped out with these puzzle piece gym mats that I would definitely never recommend to anyone... haha. For several reasons. First off, it looks really uneven. Second, each pack you buy are totally different colors and never fit together properly. They're also not as heavy-duty as we'd like (they're starting to dent and tear in places). So while these work for now, we're definitely going to get something better down the line. The little blue thing is my yoga mat.

Here's a shot of the whole room...

That photo is totally deceiving and makes the room look really small. Check out how much space we have below for even more equipment! It's a really long room.

Pay no attention to the chair and mirror. That has become a little storage corner. I think I'm going to move the chair to another room down there. I really like it, but I've never found the perfect spot for it.  The mirror needs to finally go up somewhere too.

I want to get a little shelf for our shoes that we leave down there to go in the spot where the chair is maybe? We don't keep towels in there because there is a full bathroom around the corner that really comes in handy close by.

So like I said, the room is far from finished and not especially attractive at the moment. Brad has a list of things he wants for the room, but here are some of the things we eventually want to address...

• new, more sturdy weight bench
• some sort of leg machine and some other kind of machine...haha (I'm not as down with the gym equipment lingo as Brad is)
• partially mirror the walls
• replace the gym flooring mats with something more solid and heavy-duty
• maybe add some french doors to the opening to the room (beside the elliptical) to add some separation from the living/rec area

So basically, nothing super creative home-wise has been going on around here lately.  But we feel like we really added a ton of function!  

Right now, while that room is definitely a work in progress (like many spaces around here), I've got some plans for our bedroom, lots more to do in the basement, my office, and some furniture switch-a-roos. Plus, lots of long-term plans for the kitchen. There's still so much to do around here and share! Oh and the nursery! Can't forget that! ;) I'll keep you posted!

Foyer changes... Adding privacy, texture, and a new (old) rug

Lots of changes have happened in our foyer over the last few months. Well, namely to the front door.
This is how it all looked originally (well, in the midst of having the gold/brown faux-finished walls painted bright white).

I knew I wanted the foyer area to be bright and open and for the walls to be very white, which isn't something I did throughout the rest of the house. I wanted it to be bright and airy. The key to going white without looking blah is to add some contrast. The floors, stair treads, and chandelier were already pretty dark, but shortly after the new paint was completed, I painted the french doors black, which to this day is one of my favorite projects I've done here.  It really helped the foyer look more balanced and pulled together.

But as you can see from the photo above, the wall with the front door was a sea of bright white. White blinds, white door, white trim and walls. It was kind of blah.  So shortly after painting the french doors, I painted the inside of the front door a deep glossy black, which I loved. Problem was, it looked a bit "stark" against all the white, especially the blinds on the sidelights. I had never been a fan of those anyway, so one day I just decided to remove them. It really made the entire door look so much better.

Here's where things got a bit crazy...haha.  I started experimenting a bit and painted the sidelights the same black as the door which I really liked.  Now this was something I didn't really hesitate much with because eventually, we'd like to replace the entire front door- sidelights, transom, and all, with thick, dark, warm-toned wood double doors.  We've seen other homes around us do that and it's gorgeous. But I still like my black door, so for now, we're good. But I didn't feel so bad about playing around with painting it because I know it's not going to be here forever.

Problem was... we had zero privacy at night with the sidelights. We're off the road a bit, but I still get creeped out by bare windows.  So we played around with some little sidelight curtains (which we hated), window film (which was a pain...and which we hated), and left it bare for a long while. After scouring Pinterest, I was inspired to hang some pretty sheer curtains around that area and I love how it turned out!

I skipped painting the transom (window along the top of the door) for now, because I wanted it to still flow with the matching transom above the french doors right next to it. Didn't want one black and one white, ya know? Definitely would have painted the whole thing black if the other white transom wasn't so closeby (and I still might). So I'm just not sure.

Now I will say, some of the inspiration photos of "front door drapery" on Pinterest were... well, not good. Some were awesome. So I was afraid this could go either way. But what I found to be the distinguishing factor between the two is how high you hang the rod. All the photos I saw of rods basically "laying" along the top of the door looked no bueno to me. So I raised it a bit. Also, I didn't really like the look of a typical Target-type cafe curtain rod along the top. Because the door isn't really a window, obviously. So I wanted to make it a bit different.
So I had a custom-sized, clear lucite curtain rod made from Etsy.

Lucite/acrylic rods sag so much in the middle from their own weight, so I added another bracket in the center (you can't really tell, but I got these in a "brushed brass" finish so it's actually not too terrible looking). Love the look of lucite and brass. However, I'm considering painting the area of the bracket that touches the wall and the area that reaches out to the rod the same color as the wall so it's not so "in your face". I like the little part that goes around the rod itself though. Another project for another day...
As for the brackets themselves, I got them for a few dollars on ebay.

The curtains are from Curtainworks. Super affordable. They are the "Soho Voile Pinch-Pleat Curtain Panels". I put two on each side for more fullness.

After I took this photo, I realized the left side covered one of our motion detectors for our security system down here so to avoid any middle of the day or night false alarms from moving curtains, I moved them inward a few inches on that one side. Something to think about if you are considering this near a front door where motion detectors usually live.

You may have also noticed the (huge) curtain hold backs...

I found these on Overstock and kind of love them. At first, they freaked me out because of the size, but I think the size and the dark color really adds more balance and more contrast to the whole wall. Since these curtains are pretty "fixed" at the top and don't slide easily, I thought pushing them back during the day against a hold back would be easier than sliding the curtains back and forth all the time. It's really so much easier and I love the look so much better.

When the sidelight windows were bare for so long, we got used to the windows being totally open during the day which we love (Waylon does too).

Puppy nose prints all over those bottom windows... all. the. time.

So for us, this is a good solution that gives us both the open-ness during the day and the privacy at night. Plus, we found that when they're just hanging without hold backs, they get sucked out of the door when it opens. At night, we just pull them out from behind the hold backs, and they fall in front of the sidelights just right. Plus, I just love the texture they added to the room. It made it feel cozier, but still open due to the sheerness. Loving them.

Oh... and a few more quick changes...

I swapped the big black rug in the foyer with this pretty jute/seagrass-looking one we've had FOREVER.

Seriously this was probably the first "big" rug I ever purchased. I got it years ago at Target when we moved into our first house (ours is the 5x7 version). It lived under our kitchen table and took a beating. It was also right next to the back door at that house (think Waylon running inside with muddy paws all over it constantly).  It always cleaned really well and has gotten better and softer with age.  It lived in our basement for a while after moving here and I even purchased a similar, larger version with a black border to go under our dining room table. It's not as soft as this one, though. This rug is very similar to the Pottery Barn version, and is a fraction of the cost.

Anyway, I switched out the black rug that was here before...

...mainly because of the constant vacuuming with Waylon. Oh, if Golden Retriever hair was a valuable commodity...
Basically he sheds like a monster and there were many embarrassing moments when I would open the door to an unexpected neighbor, friend, etc. and say "Come on in! and don't look at the dog hair-covered rug".  Being greeted with more dog hair than is on the actual dog is never good. This thing just magnified it far more than I thought it would. I try to vacuum the rugs at least once every 3 days and sweep up the hair on the hardwoods with a dust mop every day or every other day. But it still gets totally out of control. Also, something to think about if you're wanting a Golden Retriever...haha. They're totally worth it though.

So that rug is in the basement now. It totally should have been all along because it's perfect down there! I'll do a basement update post soon because SO much has changed down there and the big empty room is no longer empty... ;)

Oh, and we're loving the "new" one in the foyer so much. It looks better overall and puppy's hair blends right in. ;)

Frankie the fig lives where the chair used to be, right in the curve of the stairs.

I've moved this poor guy around more times than I can count at this point, but I figured this would be the best place for lots of sunlight and TONS of room to grow. I mean he'll probably move again next week, so don't hold me to this.

He had really began to block the doorway to my office/living room more than we could stand, so now it's nice to be able to open both doors and have it feel so much more open.

Here's a good before-and-after for ya...

Wait, wait... Let's do a major before....

Oh and I may or may not have started pulling up the carpeting on the stairs! Didn't find great things under there...haha. There are beautiful curved stair treads (that match the edges) beneath it, but the side against the white trim along the left on both parts (even the little landing curve) aren't flush against the wall. The carpeting is covering a HUGE gap. So I'm not sure what we need to do. I may have to call in a pro to trim it out correctly, then I can *hopefully* do the rest myself. We shall see... I'll keep you posted!

Have a great rest of the week!

It's not always sunny...

...in our foyer anymore.

Ok, cheesy blog post lead-in aside (couldn't help myself), our foyer underwent a big change several months back that I never shared.

Before we get into all of that, on the other, non-literal hand, I also wanted to share with you all that where our home is concerned, it's really not always sunny. I know you guys see a lot of pretty transformations and you've probably heard my many omgweresolucky stories about the great things our new house had going on when we moved in like new and refinished flooring, fresh paint (which I mostly re-painted anyway), new plumbing fixtures, doorknobs, freshly finished basement, etc, but there definitely have been some troubles as well.  Because of that, I thought it would be fun to share a few of the bad things that we've encountered in this first (little over) year of living here.

So sit back, and get ready for a lot of first world problems.

Back to the window... it was one of those things that we didn't actually do, and I wasn't sure how I'd create an actual useful (and interesting) post about... wait for it... replacing a window.   But I feel like it's made such a difference and may help you guys out if any of you have a similar foyer set-up as we do with a gigantor window (we get all the direct afternoon sun) that basically cooks your walls, flooring, carpeting, photos, etc. Not to mention makes the house incredibly hot.

Since our hardwood flooring (and stair railings) in the foyer had recently been refinished and restained and the carpeting on the stairs was new, we couldn't really tell how badly the sun had faded the "before" version out over the years. Just in the months we had lived here before replacing it, we noticed a few photos fading. Also, the stair railing would be so hot in the afternoon you couldn't even touch it. It was intense. We literally felt like bugs burning under a microscope in there.
But we also knew it had a slightly rotted lower corner. Before we moved in, after inspection, we had the previous owners agree to fix all the wood rot around windows, doors, etc that was found. The only thing they didn't fix was this window (they're pricey), so we kind of always knew it would be an issue eventually.
Fast forward one rainy night I was heading down the stairs and when I turned the corner in the foyer in front of the door, I felt a splash on my shoulder.

Not generally a good feeling when you're indoors.

The water was seeping through the rot and dripping into a big puddle in the window trim.  So we knew it needed to be fixed. Since my brother-in-law is awesome and works for a company that installs custom windows and the such, he suggested we replace it with a "low-E" window. That way, it would filter out some of the light and keep it cooler and protect our stuff inside from fading.

Here's a couple photos of the window coming out... It was weird having a hole that large (for a few moments at least) in the front of our house.

Check the gorg rot situation...

So after some repairs to the casing...

The new window went in and we love it!

 While when you look at it, it doesn't appear tinted, you can see the camera captured it a bit differently than the windows surrounding the door. It really looks almost identical to the old.

So besides not worrying about the rain coming in, it is really nice knowing that it's much more efficient (the foyer stays nice and cool even on super hot days), and we don't have to worry about our hardwood flooring and stairs getting bleached by the sun.  So weird because it still lets in just as much actual light but the UV rays are filtered. Pretty awesome.

Maybe if you guys have a similar big window situation in your foyer that may need to be replaced soon, you can consider getting one like this. So glad we did.

Now just to prove that it's not always sunshine and roses around here... Let's move on to a few more issues we've had.  I don't have any photos and I'm not going to turn each mishap into a saga (I'll try not to at least), so I'll just list them...

1. That one time water inexplicably started pooling up around the baseboards in the basement. Turns out when the basement was finished, someone drove finishing nails into a main drainage pipe for all the sinks down there (not gross water, but still annoying).  Thank goodness for plumbers that can figure that stuff out.

2.  That other time (or 20 times over like 3 months) our basement started filling up with what can only be described as sewage poo death odor.  Fun times. Apparently some of the plumbing wasn't vented/set up properly down there. It's a long gross story, but it's fixed now, thank goodness.  Oh, and also, in my next life, I should go into plumbing because they've made a small fortune off us here (we've also had some minor plumbing issues in our kitchen and laundry room that were fixed when we first moved in).

3. When we moved in (right before one of the rainiest Springs last year) and realized that our gutters had possibly never been cleaned in 15 years. Not kidding. We're talking the craziest waterfalls pouring down the sides of the house (and all the windows) which caused so much water to pool up around the base of the house. We had SUCH a damp basement that first Summer. After installing a dehumidifier, having the gutters cleaned (and having them repaired as the weight from the water and debris inside of them had caused them to literally pull away from the house), we've had a waterfall-free and much dryer basement situation so far this Spring/Summer.

4. Oh and speaking of those gutters... we started noticing tons of erosion around the base of the house where all of the water pouring over the gutters for years had caused the dirt to wear down really far. One night during one of those first bad rainstorm flooding situations, we had water pour in around our main sewage "out" drain in an unfinished part of the basement. At first I was freaking out because I was thinking it was coming from the actual sewage pipe, but we noticed it was fresh water. So Brad goes out in the pouring rain and sees water literally flowing down into one of those eroded areas against the base of the house right above the area where the pipe went out through the wall.  Basically the water was flowing down into the ground around the basement walls and seeping in wherever it could (around the pipe that went through a cement wall into the house). So we had to have a landscaping company deliver massive truckloads of fill dirt and pack it all around the base of the house and fill in all of those gaping holes. Pretty crazy what dirty/broken gutters can cause.  During one of the many plumber visits, one of the plumbers also sealed around the pipe better. We've since had no moisture come in, but I think that's mostly because of the fill dirt and the fact that water isn't pouring down like a waterfall off the gutters anymore in that area.

5. That time when we moved in in March (it was a coooold March last year, the first night we were here it was like 25 degrees), and our furnace wouldn't work. It had worked fine and passed inspection before we moved in, but of course, it decided to mess up our first (freezing) night here. Basically it was missing a small part that kept it running (that I couldn't even describe to you) and they replaced it.  Oh and speaking of furnaces, the "finished" basement was not as finished as we thought. The new furnace for the basement area was in place and looked ready to go, but the gas wasn't hooked up and it wasn't vented properly (at all).  Imagine me walking downstairs to find 20 holes cut out of various areas of the finished walls and pretty trey ceilings down there so they could find a gas leak they discovered. It was fixed, and they worked super hard to get it all set up. But still that was kind of stressful.
Oh yeah and speaking of even more furnaces, the first winter after that, which was the first winter our tenants spent at our other house, the furnace went out over there. Awesome times.

6. When we discovered a month after moving in that 457 wasps had set up house in our guest bedroom (and were ending up all over the rest of the house) after building nests in the windows in there that had been repaired due to a little rot on the sils before we moved in and they weren't closing properly.  Brad ended up going full-combat on the wasps and fixing the window so it's been wasp-less since. And can I just take a moment to acknowledge that if it weren't for Brad, I'd be living here in a wasp-infestation rocking back and forth in a corner somewhere. I'm generally pretty tough and don't mind getting my hands dirty, but when it comes to stinging insects, I literally run and hide.

I feel like there's been a ton more little things here and there but those are what really stands out when I think about it! Overall, we've had such a wonderful experience in this house and owning two homes, we (more than) realize all of the issues that can go wrong, but it's totally worth it. Most of those issues were caused by the house just not being kept up (gutters), or repairable things like the annoying plumbing issues or unpredictable hvac problems. But we feel totally lucky that those have been the "big" problems and that nothing super major has happened. I'm just so happy that we have such a beautiful home and that it's finally getting some TLC. And also, even happier that a wonderful family is calling our previous house, home. ♥

I hope you all have a wonderful week!