A little better, eh?

I'm really just in this for the before-and-after pictures, you know :)

(Look out, couch (and random displaced faux flowers), I'm coming for you next!)

Since March (and, more accurately, in the last few weeks), we have:

- Removed kitchen wallpaper
- Removed stairwell/hallway wallpaper
- Replaced all outlets & switches in the house
- Hung, finished, and painted new drywall ceiling in the den
- Painted all of the trim in the house
- Painted 6 rooms (kitchen, living, dining, den, 2 bedrooms) and the stairwell/hallway
- Ripped out 6 rooms worth of carpeting
- Removed the built in desk in the den
- Removed window coverings

And, of course, had the new carpeting and hardwood floors installed (upstairs and downstairs, respectively).

I'm excited (ok, honestly, giddy!) about the progress to date.  But don't worry, we've left plenty of projects (besides just unpacking!):

I'll try to keep you updated with more pictures, but be forewarned about the sappiness that might come next week when we finally get to be ... HOME!  For good!

Making a Home without Neglecting your Family {part 1}

A few days ago, a dear friend (fellow homemaker, and mother to three cute little boys ages 4 and under) sent me a message saying "Blog request: How does one create an orderly home for one's family without neglecting said family?"  I thought this was an excellent topic on the heels of my posts about creating a simple and intentional home environment.  Although blogging probably shouldn't be at the top of my list right now (we've got 5 rooms to strip of carpet, 6 to paint, and one drywall ceiling to finish before the carpet installers come next Monday), I'm allowing myself the opportunity to take a little mental break and spend a little time writing and share some of my thoughts on this topic.

(For those of you still holding out for the long-awaited painting post, I'm still working on it, I promise!  And, just think of how much more wisdom I'll have to offer after this week ;))

So, how DO you make a home for your family without neglecting said family?

I think the first - and very important - point to make is that making (or creating, as my friend put it)  home is much different than maintaining a home.  When you're in a state of disarray or a season of craziness, it's hard to imagine that you will ever reach a point of normalcy or stability, or that cleaning the playroom will ever be less than a two-hour archaeological dig.  It IS unrealistic in a messy and cluttered and overwhelming house (or construction site!) to think that you can do all of the necessary housework and simultaneously provide for all of the needs of the numerous tiny residents.  But don't throw in the towel yet.  Making a home can be a shorter, more intense period and a time of development of priorities, family routines, etc that can make way for an environment that is far more easily maintained.  I genuinely think it's possible to reach a state where at least the basic homemaking tasks can be completed without overwhelming yourself or neglecting any children.

For us, right now, that means that Justin and I are employing several mother's helpers and have strategically scheduled visits from both grandmas so that the girls are in good hands while we focus on the house.  I have also allowed a lot of other things to slide (the extent of home cooking I've done in the last 10 days was one omelet) so that we can focus right now on getting the house ready to move in.  It is essential for us that I play a period of Bob Vila so that I can be Betty Crocker this fall and beyond.

Of course, home"making" might not mean physically hanging ceilings for everyone ;)  I think it's totally reasonable, however, to spend some dedicated time doing some serious purging and organizing, or even just to spend some time making a list of what you want your home and family life to look like and writing some goals of how to reach that ideal.  A temporary neglecting of basic chores (or outsourcing of childcare) can be vital to reaching a place where you can maintain both house and family.

Once all possessions have a place and some basic routines are established, the actual cleaning is much easier - and possible with little kids.  If all you have to do to clean the sink is clean it (aka, spray it down and wipe) and not move 6 bath toys, a melted make-up sample, and the missing sippy cup off of the bathroom counter, that can be reasonably accomplished while you're waiting for the toddler to finish up on the potty.  Vacuuming is a quick job if there aren't toys in the way.  You can keep up with emptying the dishwasher every morning if putting things in cupboards doesn't start 4 different avalanches.

There will still be messes and spills and deviations from the daily plan (we're talking toddlers, after all), and with a bunch of littles underfoot it is still unlikely that you can ever reach a pristine or perfectly run household.  However, I've heard time and time again from friends and bloggers that the season of all littles (meaning, only having kids in preschool or younger) is very difficult but that there is a light at the end of the tunnel once one or two kids are able to reliably pick up their toys and help out with some basic chores, or at the very least wipe their own bottoms and put on their own shoes.  In that sense, too, I think that you can consider the season of young motherhood as a period of homemaking that is setting the foundation for the home and family life you want to have.  Cliche as it is, the days now are long, but the years are short.  Hard work now in creating routines and expectations will mean a lot for how your household will run when everyone is in elementary school or junior and high school.

I'm going to do the reasonable thing and pause here so that I can get some sleep, but I jotted down a list of 8 tips for maintaining a home without neglecting your family and I'll pop back in with that (and the painting post!) when I can.  Until then, I'd love to hear your thoughts - leave me some comments :)

Decisions, decisions

You're probably expecting more in the way of progress pictures by now, but the reality is that there has not been a whole lot of photograph-able progress at the house since the great wallpaper success.

For one thing, I'm seeing just how much slower things are going to take now that we have "helpers" - and not necessarily because they are underfoot while we're trying to do things (although that can also be tricky) but because they need a lot better in terms of sleep schedules and nutrition than what we were able to survive on during our first renovations.  I also haven't fit in the 30-minute round trip drives over to the house as much as I expected when I'm barely hanging on in upkeep with our current house sitting house (4,000 square feet, 5 bathrooms, and a large shedding dog, argh!) 

BUT the other thing that has been taking the time (and is largely invisible) is the enormous number of decisions we need to make.

We're currently in the midst of flooring research, which - alone - has hundreds of options.  We're probably going with hardwood downstairs, but there's also that wood-look tile that someone mentioned.  And then there's engineered wood and solid hardwood.  And a bazillion (I counted ;) ) color options.  And board widths.  And whether we're installing it or having professionals handle it.  And where we're buying it.  etc, etc, ETC!

And, of course, how it fits in to the timeline, budget, and aesthetic of all of the other details of the house.

Phew.  I don't mean to complain, because really this is a dream come true to get to decorate our little dream house.  I guess I'm just surprised at how different this feels from the last house, where I made design choices almost impulsively, or at least without the belaboring of options I find to be overwhelming this time around.

People often commented on our lack of fear in diving in to renovations in Ithaca with lots of enthusiasm and little (or no) knowledge or experience.  I always laugh and say that we weren't afraid because literally anything we did was going to be better than it was.

I wasn't afraid of messing things up, so I could jump right in.  Now that we have a house with a much nicer starting place (and a potential residence time that far exceeds that of house #1) a fear of failure (or just the wrong decision) has put a damper on my renovation enthusiasm.  BUT, I'm trying to remember to "never let the perfect be the enemy of the good" (longer post percolating on that topic) and remember that I never regretted any of my gut-reaction decisions about colors or finishes in Ithaca.

Maybe soon we'll have something to show for all of the thinking ;)

***

Congratulations to Ruth Anne who won the giveaway of Minimize the Mess by Rachel Kratz.  Ruth Anne, watch for an email from Rachel!  And to everyone else, remember that Rachel's book is available for purchase here and on Amazon.

The sweet smell of progress

If you follow the blog on Facebook, you may have noticed that when I include links to new posts, it will show the blog title and automatically chooses the first picture from the post.  From this, I have learned that I have a penchant for including totally unrelated ideas and images as introductions (case in point, last weeks' "Everything I've Ever Wanted" with the current eye-sore that is my kitchen wall, which caused one friend to ask if I might need a renovation intervention.)

Fair warning, today is one of those random intro days.

Anyway, back in high school, one of my best friends and I (hi, Kari!), probably fresh out of a psychology lecture about the strength of memories associated with smells, decided to train ourselves to remember certain quintessential high school moments.  We trekked to the mall, picked out our (new) favorite Bath & Body Works lotions, and (this sounds all sounds so ridiculous now to type it out) methodically would use the lotion whenever we were thinking about getting ready for prom.  And the thing is, it worked REALLY well.  One waft of "Moonlit Path" and I am instantly transported back to the excitement of prom (and ohmygoshcanyoubelieveRyanaskedmetogowithhim?!)

It is unfortunate that I don't have easy access to a prom photo to enhance this post.  (Shockingly, those are not on the short list of things that didn't go to storage this year).

But, scent recognition.

Fabric softener will henceforth take me immediately to the kitchen at the new house, to the girls giggling together in the pack and play (we'll choose to remember that super sweet moment rather than the less picturesque peeling-wallpaper-with-toddler-underfoot afternoons).  It turns out that good ol' Downy (or actually, the store brand) works far better than the stuff they sell at Lowes that is designed to remove wallpaper.  File that little bit of information away, and hope you'll never have to use it.  Because even the "ease" of removing it with the softener is not exactly "easy."

Which is, you can imagine, why I was jumping up and down (yes, literally) last week when this happened:

because...remember???

and the painstakingly slow process of removing the wallpaper (and sometimes the paint underneath) in the kitchen had me awfully overwhelmed thinking about this:

But.  BUT!  (Happy dance here).  The wallpaper is 99% off the stairwell & upstairs hallway.  (Wish we could say the same about the kitchen!)

Two friends offered to come over to help out, and we had reached the point where all that remained in the kitchen required a ladder, and we only have one.  I said, "well, I guess you can try on the stairwell if you really want to," which was met with the (glorious) sound of a full sheet of wallpaper coming off - cleanly, without fabric softener, without water, without a scraper, and without damaging the wall.

We got really excited and told the kids that they were allowed to start ripping, too.

I mostly jumped up and down and repeated "I am so excited!" and took blurry cell-phone pictures for this post. but did pull a sheet or two down for the pure satisfaction.

So easy a two-year old can do it:

So, so exciting.

This accomplishment was a major morale booster in thinking that we can accomplish a reasonable amount of my elaborate to-do list before we move in July.  

You know what else is a major morale booster?  JUSTIN BEING DONE WITH CLASSES!  A few more days of finals/grading, and he is mine, all mine for the summer.  After a semester of 80+ hour work-weeks and little girls asking "is Daddy going to come visit today?" this summer is going to be so, so good.  And wall-paper free.

My blank canvas

Well, friends, I've promised and promised these pictures for long enough.  Many thanks for your patience :)

I'm calling this post my blank canvas, since there are so many spots just begging to be decorated.  However, after the number of hours I've already spent peeling wallpaper, maybe "blank" isn't the best adjective.  Prep work is my least favorite, but soon enough I'll be moving on to painting :)

I've been working on things a little bit (with my two little helpers, so with obvious safety/time/logistical limitations), but renovations will ramp up significantly in May when Justin's semester is over and he's off for the summer.  (Having him 100% of the time in the summer makes up a bit for how little we see him now!)

At some point I'll have to type up the story of finding this house...God's hand is so clearly in the details, and we feel incredibly blessed to have found such a wonderful place in a dream neighborhood (there are several other young families (including 5 other little girls under age 3) on our block - and the kind of borrow-sugar-over-the-fence-while-the-kids-all-play-together kind of community I didn't think even existed anymore).  To be made more perfect, we decided to buy it on Valentine's Day and closed on St. Joseph's Day (the patron saint of homes).

And without further ado, the "before" tour.  (You would have thought I'd learned my lesson about taking good pictures from the last house, but apparently there are some angles I still need to shoot before we change things.  Possibly supervising an excited/exploring toddler while taking these might have had something to do with it :) )

The outside is growing on me, but I may have been heard to call it ugly.  Let's just say it was the charming inside that won me over, not the front!  It will be better in time with some modifications, most notably our plan for a portico instead of that silly canvas over the front door.

Entrance way/ living room - plans include removing wallpaper, removing blue carpet, adding hardwood floors, new sconce lights, removing window treatments.

Kitchen - for now, removing wall paper, painting & painting cabinets; we're considering a more significant overhaul in a few years once we've lived with the space and know what we want to do (this could include closing off doors, removing the wall between the kitchen/dining, etc...so, not things you want to rush into).  Also, new appliances at some point (and eventually converting back to a gas stove!)

Dining room (viewed from back family room, looking through into living room).  Kitchen doorway is to the right, large window to the left (apparently Anna was doing something crazy at this point since I have no better pictures?)

Adding hardwood in here, too (because who wants to feed toddlers over carpet?!), adding beadboard, a chair rail, and painting.  Down the line, we might do a built-in two-sided hutch between the kitchen and dining room, or remove the dividing wall all together.

The family room - removing the built-in desk, doing something about the hideous ceiling, removing carpet, adding hardwood floors, and PAINTING.  Sorry to you natural wood lovers out there, but this is a north-facing room where I'll be spending a huge portion of my days.  It's got great windows but needs to be brighter!!

EEEETSY BITSY powder room (off the family room) - remove wallpaper, paint, new sink fixtures, remove shelf, new light, etc.

Basement laundry - for being a basement, it's pretty nice and non-creepy.  I have plans (and Pinterest boards) for eventual upgrades, but for now it's sufficient.

Garage (off the kitchen) - the big challenge here will be making efficient use of storage space and adding a mudroom function since there isn't space for coats/shoes/etc inside the house (or at least, not inside the house in a logical flow...the coat closet is three rooms away from this entry, and I know myself well enough to say that the coats would not get put away properly if we had to do that trek every time).

Going back around to the front staircase:

Stair case.  This much wallpaper makes me want to cry.  New carpeting on the agenda.  I'm not a blue kind of person.

Guest bedroom - new carpet, new paint, new window treatments

Girls' bedroom - new carpet, new paint, new window treatments, general renovation fix up (light switches, caulking, door knobs, etc, etc)

Master bedroom (complete with 3 closets, including a cedar one!) - initially, basic paint/carpet/window treatments, eventually building a window seat

Upstairs bath.  This will be the biggest renovation this summer.  The tub doors have got to go, the vanity is too big for the space, and I've always really wanted to tile something.  Also, I'm brainstorming about that closet and whether it's going to still look like that (versus something more open).  Also, we're trying really hard to figure out a way to have a laundry chute (because naturally the first thing you want to do with a new house is cut a hole through 2 stories, right?!  Oh, maybe that's just us).

Aaand, back porch.  I have some decorating (and globe light) daydreams about this space.  The backyard will eventually have a garden, a swing set, and a shed.


As compared to our last house, which was pretty neglected when we bought it, this one has been impeccably cared for, so finding "former glory" might be a misnomer.  In this case, it's finding more of a current glory, a style and function that represents our family now as opposed to the elderly couple who lived there previously (we bought it from a widower).  But the "finding former glory" name is going to stick :)

We have very optimistic timelines about things we'll accomplish before moving in July, but realistically things will be ongoing projects.  Our last house took us about 14 months, and that was without kids (and it was smaller, although we also had to do more significant work in many cases).  The beauty of this place is that we have no plans to move - I mean, of course we might move someday (either within town or to a new area completely) - but until we feel called otherwise, this is home.  Even our beloved first house had a time stamp on it, since we knew we'd only be in Ithaca until Justin's graduation.  It's reassuring this time to know that we can take our time and do it right to make this place just how we want it.

I'd love to give you a tour in real life, so come on over...especially if you think you might enjoy peeling wallpaper ;)

Coming soon....

So I've been keeping pretty mum on our latest news around here...but I can't contain my excitement anymore!  Here's a little teaser of the announcement and updates that are coming soon....

Note, I realized that Anna's beloved baby doll could insinuate the wrong type of announcement - it's not that!  Focus on those white walls and that blue carpet and my exploding pinterest boards ;)