(some scenes from the day)

{justine}

first let’s take  a trip to the basement, aka future man land.

to the right of the stairs when you walk down is the sitting area with a built-in tv cabinet.

beyond that is some space, with a built-in mini fridge opening in the wall, which is…interesting.

followed by the pool table, that we got included in the deal, fulfilling ryan’s dream of becoming a pool shark. there’s another wall opening, perhaps for a speaker? beyond the pool table is a built-in unit with cd holders (ok…) and yet another opening (on the left) for a speaker. seriously, cool it with the openings, mkay? the doors in the middle open for access to the crawl space storage area (creepy, i will not be going in there. but at least it’s cemented.)

coming around the circle is just some more space, probably to be used for ryan’s weights, followed by a bathroom with shower. (oh look, another speaker built into the wall, just noticed that). the door in the first pic below is to the water heater, furnace, etc, and the bathroom is next to the that exercise machine contraption on the right.

the rest of the tour continues two floors up, on the second floor. there’s hardwoods upstairs, which is great (though i need to buy lots of area rugs). some day we hope to restain the floors to match the new color of the rest of the house.

the first room on the left is our master bedroom. it’s huge. i’m still not used to the size, actually having room to walk around the bed without bumping into something. the room needs paint, a rug, a headboard (planning on diying), new, larger nightstands, dressers, drapes, probably new bedding…so everything.

there is an attached master bath, which is awesome. and has double sinks, which is also awesome. but everything needs updating, from the lights to the tile to counter top and fixtures. so someday we’ll be redoing it, hopefully creating a larger shower and getting rid of the jacuzzi tub (does anyone use those anymore? grossness. at least it seems pretty clean.)

next to the shower is a teeny tiny toilet room. accessed from the master bath is the walk-in closet. it’s great that it’s a walk-in, and it’s a decent size, though it was one of the smaller ones we saw, and could use a much better closet system.

moving down the hall, the kids’/guest bath is next to the master. again, pretty standard stuff that needs updating. love the natural light in here from the skylight.

across the hall is the second bedroom, which is now henry’s room. the two-tone walls are not my thing, so those are in the process of getting painted. it has a great-sized walk-in closet. but that ceiling fan – ugh. this house was built only 12 years ago and yet it looks like it’s from the 80′s.

next to this room is the next bedroom, the future nursery. pretty similar to the first bedroom, but a slightly darker blue. again, needs paint, new fan. this closet is a standard closet size, which is why it became the nursery (babies don’t need huge closets with potential to become a hideaway spot).

down the hallway (with more great natural light thanks to a southern facing window) is a good-sized linen closet.

followed by the final bedroom, which has more of the awesome natural light and a huge walk-in closet (and the same ugly fan). for now this will be used as a guest bedroom and my workspace, with hopefully a paint job in the future.

so that’s it! it’s a lot of house, so much more space than we’re used to (with a yard! and a garage!) and i’m grateful for it. but i’m also a tad overwhelmed with the amount of decorating and painting (i will never. be. done.) and decisions that have to be made. oh, and the cleaning. i am not looking forward to cleaning four toilets. but so far i am loving being here! it’s starting to feel like home, being here with my three boys and making the space our own. i can’t wait to share our progress so far! (you know, when i have time when i’m not painting or with henry or painting or organizing or painting or planning henry’s party).

{justine}

holy cow with the putting things in and taking them out of things – it’s all the time. and i will find random things places, like a coaster in our laundry basket (or in the wash machine after i washed it), it’s quite cute. though he does it with his food too – mealtime can be interesting, such as this morning when he fished out my honeycombs cereal out of my bowl as i was eating it, put it on a (dirty) rubbermaid container we were temporarily using as a tabletop, put it back in my bowl, then put it in his mouth. quite the journey that little honeycomb took.

and the walking! oh my goodness, he is getting so good, like at least 10 feet good. he is walking all over the place, and so proud of it. his method of transportation is still crawling, but he usually starts walking and switches to crawling when he falls. lately he’s started to stand up and continue walking after falling, so me thinks he may officially be a ‘walker’ soon. my baby is growing up!

{justine}

well, we are home. in our new home. it’s not so sweet yet though. which i’m sure is pretty typical of a move. leading up to the move was non-stop chaos. this past weekend after our closing was non-stop chaos as we tried to get things done like fix ugly paint treatments (plaster on the wall, not just sponge paint? thanks a bunch), paint and build a wall. all while staying at my parents, going back and forth to our house and having most our stuff in the city. moving day today was non-stop chaos, especially when all our stuff did not fit in the frickin moving truck! so yea, there’s that. we have to go all the way back downtown tomorrow with two cars to hopefully get the rest. meanwhile i have never been so tired in my life, so i’m laying in bed (on the floor) writing this, staring at the mess around me, not knowing where my clothes are, where my bath towel is, where henry’s diapers are…instead of organizing and trying to find things that i may need soon, unless i want to be a dirty, naked mom with a diaper-less baby. seriously, this place is chaos.

i will be here trying to make sense of this place and all our stuff, for like, ever. which is made even harder when i can’t move anything into the first floor except the kitchen and laundry room since we are getting our floors redone next week, and god forbid we have to move things twice in less than two weeks.

someday i will share the rest of the house as promised, too. and plan henry’s party. and paint this entire house.

moving sucks,
justine

edit: how could I forget? a huuuuuuuuuuuuuge (huge) shout out to my parents who are the best parents ever and help moving and renovations not be so sucky by doing tons of work (building a wall, drywalling, mudding, sanding, painting), cooking us dinner (and breakfast, and lunch) and most importantly, taking care of our little man henry.

welcome to our house. eventually we will paint the shingles, probably a dark gray. and i can’t wait to paint the front door.

come inside to our foyer. with sponge paint  all the way up to the two story ceiling. this sponge paint technique is found in several places. remind why sponge paint was ever popular? we will be hiring a painter for this as i don’t do heights; the top rung of a normal-sized ladder is scary enough. i wish we could get a painter for the whole house. in the second picture below you can also see the textured ceiling that we are dealing with in the entire house. you may think it’s not bad, but it’s bad. i can’t wait until we have nice, crisp, bright ceilings. some day. also needed: a new light fixture.

on the left of the foyer is the gigantic all-one-room living room and dining room, with an opening that is just too large, so we will be extending the wall on the left side of the staircase to close it up a little (never thought we would be putting up walls instead of tearing them down).

hi living/dining room stripes. i don’t know how to paint over these. please tell me how…and come do it? and see that floor that doesn’t match the entire rest of the house? that will be gone. while it’s nice, it’s not our style, and again, it doesn’t match the entire rest of the house. on monday our floor guy is bringing new wood to replace this large room, and will be restaining the first floor and stairs (second floor will be at a later date). unfortunately it won’t get done by the time we move all our stuff in, so we’ll have to move things out and in again.

it’s a nice big room, but too open. i like open floor plans, but i need some sort of delineation. our original plan was to build a wall with a large opening, perhaps with french doors, between the living and dining room, but our new plan may be expanding the kitchen into the current dining area, adding some sort of side divider walls and have a large dining room with a small sitting area where the current living room is. there won’t be a living room, but i think that’s the trend now, right? (through the door in the dining room is the kitchen, we’ll get to that in a few).

on the right side of the foyer is the office. why isn’t that transom window painted like the rest of the woodwork? beats me, but it will be. the office will get a new paint job as well, eventually.

down the hall is a closet, and then the half bath. shield your eyes, the sponge paint job is awful. along with potentially new drywall (because how the heck will i get rid of all that texture? it’s intense) it needs a new light, mirror, vanity, faucet…i guess everything. this may sound crazy, but i think i want to paint it black. with either large photos or a gallery wall to bring in some white/brightness. it’s happening folks.

past the bathroom is the garage entrance and laundry room. i will get to experience removing wallpaper – yesss. (sarcasm). we may make the closet into a bench with hooks above it. in the future: new washer and dryer and adding a counter top above them, painting the cabinets and new light fixtures.

then we come to the family room. gas fireplace, crown molding, great light (southern exposure), nice and open to the kitchen. but that paint. my eyes. ugh.

some may like the stones of the fireplace, including ryan, but it’s not my style. and it’s soooo big. and that hearth (is that what’s it’s called?) is just begging for henry to fall and hit his head on it. i’m dreaming of a white paneled front with bookcases flanking it and the tv above. some day. the mantel will be painted white almost immediately.

to the left of the family room is the dining area with sliders to the backyard and then the kitchen. i would love to replace the slider with french doors, though i love having a screen door for a wide open breeze, so we’ll see.

the kitchen has a pantry (yay for not taking up cabinet space with food), two story ceiling and skylights, i’m so excited for all the natural light. the cabinets are nice, but not our style. the granite is pretty good for granite, though not what i would choose; and what’s up it as the stove backsplash? so awful. we have big plans for the kitchen, since it’s the heart of the home. when we hopefully expand the kitchen, the cabinets will be changing, as will the countertops and appliances. speaking of appliances, that fridge is a joke. we think they must have had a new one but changed it out for selling, so a new fridge is one of our first purchases. and those lights are hideous, so they will be changed as well, though i’ll have to wait until the remodel. i wish the remodel could happen immediately, but hopefully in the next year or so.

the backyard patio is sad and it slopes towards the house. so we will either be building a deck or putting in a paver patio. and when we see the house this weekend we will see what plants and flowers we’re dealing with, then we may have some landscaping to do. our house backs to a park, with a baseball field and a playground, which will be so convenient.

are you still with me? basically lots of paint, a flooring update, new lights and some bigger changes as well eventually. i’m excited for the changes, but very impatient, of course. especially since we will be having henry’s first birthday party less than one month after we move in!

stay tuned for part two of the upstairs and basement!

{justine}

second, LOOK WHO IS WALKING. sorry to shout, but what?!

he’s not, like, walking walking, but he is soooo close! just in the last couple weeks he started to be brave and take maybe one or two steps, and recently he’s gotten so good and going from one person to another. he just has to stop lunging at the end. the most recent development is him taking a few steps on his own from one thing to another, with no prompting from us. someone is getting brave! and we are so proud.

{justine}

{justine}

i did it! i finished my pinterest challenge project just in time. i had no time to even think about it over the weekend, and still had to figure out what pin to get inspired by sunday  night. i really wanted to do one related to henry’s first birthday party, as we’re moving soon and once we do i will have so many house-related projects i don’t know when i’ll have a free moment to think of anything else….but guys, he turns one next month, and like, i have to throw a birthday party for him (which i’ve never done). i need to get on this. but i didn’t have time to go to the store for supplies, so i decided to use supplies i had at home and revamp a few votive holders that i had recently spared from the trash when their coating started peeling. the victims before:

(i had already started taking off the film, but it had started peeling on it’s own before…the green hadn’t as much, and were a pain to remove. lots of scraping.)

and the after:

here’s how i did it.

my pinspiration was a recent pin of gold and white striped cans-turned-bud vases:

{image from pinterest; original source: two delighted – super cute blog btw!}

my supplies:

cleaner, primer, gold spraypaint, frog tape, votive, cutting mat (and a rotary cutter and ruler not pictured).

first i prepped the votives. i scraped all the colored film off (starting off with ready-to-use, plain candle holders would cut the time for this project in half at the least, making it super fast) then i used the cleaner and rinsed with water and air dried.

next, i cut strips of painters tape into varying widths for my striped designs on a cutting mat with my rotary cutter and a ruler to ensure straight lines. i applied them to the votives, carefully eyeballing the spacing, and rubbed hard on the tape to help get crisp lines. because my votives were tapered, thicker tape lines creased a little on the bottom when stuck, creating a slightly less than straight line – a straight side or thin tape lines solve that.

to prevent spray paint from getting inside (it is flammable), i sprayed them upside-down and taped the bottom (because i didn’t want gold on the bottom since it might rub off) or had a bag taped in the inside.

to help the gold paint adhere i did a quick, thin coat of primer spray paint. once dried, and henry was down for his nap, i did about three light coats of the gold spray paint. a couple minutes later i carefully pulled the tape off and let dry for a bit.

i’m glad i decided not to throw these away. now i have modern and glam votive holders.

or even small bud vases.

this one is currently prettying up the bathroom.

simple and small but a big impact. i can’t seem to get enough of gold these days (though i’m sure that won’t always be the case). the paint adhered well the the glass – though i wouldn’t put it in the dishwasher and risk it – so i think i may need to add design to some other vases i have lying around.

as always, thank you to katie and sherry and their guest hosts for another pinterest challenge. it gave me the push to do something that i wouldn’t have gotten around to. who knows how long the chipped votives would have sat around for in my new house before being thrown away. now i can’t wait to find a place for them!

did you participate in the spring pinterest challenge too? let me know what you did!

{justine}

sunday i met up with my mom’s side of the family to make droby, a family slovak recipe of potato sausage, that my grandpa used to make. we made a double batch since it’s so much work, and there was several people to split it between. it was epic – 40 pounds of potatoes (that were peeled for an hour straight between four people) + 8 pounds of bacon + pork shoulder + onions. it all had to be ground together and mixed, then stuffed into casings (plus cooking). leave it to the men on hand to turn the hand crank grinder into electric with the help of a drill – probably saved us hours and bicep muscles.

that night henry had his leftover pasta, and let’s just say while he loved (like can’t stop laughing loved) making a huge mess, and it was adorable, he won’t be having spaghetti often because no thanks on the clean-up.

(all pictures unedited, as much as it pains me, since i’m trying to squeeze in a quick pinterest challenge project due wednesday).

did you have a good one? can you believe it’s may already?

{justine}

on one hand, i hate that time is going so fast, that i don’t have the power to slow it down, for more time to savor my little baby that is growing into a not-so-little baby every day. but on the other hand, it is so exciting to see him grow every day, to see him learn every day. and i also love seeing his personality come out more and more. he’s so sweet. so funny. so weird. a little rebellious.  so henry.

this month has brought a lot of noise. banging. shaking. talking. yelling. but by far my favorite new skill is henry saying “mamama” (or “momomom”?) and “dadada”. he said momma first (because he is a momma’s boy after all) and dada followed. he doesn’t say them in reference to us yet, but it does make your heart burst when you hear it. though sometimes he says “momomom” in a tone and volume that doesn’t not sound like a good thing, then next he says “dadada” in the sweetest, softest, littlest voice and for sure, then, i know he’s saying my name as a bad word.

{justine}