Making Progress

Eliza and I went home for the month of September to do some work on our new house.  Scott joined us the first weekend and had planned to get his hands dirty, but Hurricane Irene had other plans (nonsense aside, he did get the gutters cleaned and lawn cleared before he left, bless him).  The house was certainly move-in ready before the work I put into it but in the words of our painter, Mr Black (read this with a strong Scottish accent), “It looks like a really old Italian couple lived here prior to you.”  The walls were all white with dark wood trim, making the whole house feel stale and dark.  The outlets, outlet covers and most of the hardware hadn’t been touched since the house was built in 1981 and had grown quite dingy.  There was no color, no personality and absolutely no charm...but tons of great potential.

I was fortunate enough to be able to get everything moved in and organized, but things are nowhere near complete and most things aren’t even in their permanent spaces.  However, it’s a great start.  And while I still have loads to do on the house, I feel so much better having spent that month working on making our new house feel more like our home.  It was a very eye opening experience for me.  Among other things, I learned:

I am not a painter.  I did a great job for being a complete novice, but it’s nowhere near perfect.  It’ll do for now (it will have to, for I am not touching a paintbrush for the next several years).  

I will never, ever use wallpaper.  For no reason other than I never wish to dump the work and pain on anyone who has to remove it.  Not fun.  (I think my mom and Alex agree.)

Updating a house is expensive.  Much more than we had anticipated (yay!).

We need a lot of furniture.  I mean, a. lot.

Trying to do minor renovations on a house is positively impossible with a 10-month-old in tow (hence the month that it took me to simply scratch the surface).

I couldn’t have done any of this without the help of my mom, brother, Lindsay and two other friends who graciously and enthusiastically offered to help me paint.  

I’m very proud of the hard work and love I put into this house.  It will always remain a work in progress, but the initial effort was a kick ass labor of love.

So, without further ado, I will share some of the progress I’ve made thus far.

(Please forgive the poor photography -- I literally ran into the house and shot these on my way out of town.)

Living Room

The color, Barely Jade, turned out beautifully (and we loved it so much that we used it in our bedroom, too) and the white fire place really makes a world of difference as it offers more light and really opens up the room.  We still have to replace the ceiling fan, buy end tables, mount the television and put some lamps out.  But it’s such a bright and beautiful space.  Thank goodness, since it’s where we’ll spend most of our time.  

Kitchen

As you can see in the before picture, the kitchen needs some work.  While we’re not ready to do a complete kitchen renovation quite yet, we did freshen it up a bit with the removal of the wallpaper and the addition of a fun color, Tidewater.  My mom is recovering the kitchen table chairs with a fun white and Tidewater-y blue polka-dotted print and I’m giving the table a fresh coat of white paint.  I think it’ll tie everything together nicely.  I also have my eye on (and have pointed Scott’s eyes towards) some beautiful French cooking themed prints that will go perfectly on our bare walls.  

Dining Room

This is the room that I had the most trouble with when it came time to pick a color.  I wanted something that would go with all seasonal decorations and also our dishes.  In the end, I decided on Lemongrass.  And while this is also the room where I am least crazy about the color, I smile every time I see its cheerful green.  As you can see, we had the frosting-like ceiling smoothed out and I took down (or rather, Alex took down) the chandelier and painted it white (it’s a cheap, cute, yet temporary fix).  The table was generously handed down to us just in the nick of time, otherwise, we’d all be eating Christmas dinner on the floor -- thanks, Carolyn!

Laundry/Mud/Utility Room

My favorite color in the whole house - Butternut Squash.  It’s so cheerful and bright -- perfect for the dreaded laundry room.  Another perfect addition to the room?  My new front loaders (something I only dreamed of while living in London with my tiny, useless dual purpose machine).  The floating cabinet in the back of the room I plan to repaint and use as storage for pool necessities (SPF, sunglasses, towels, floaties, etc.)  And did you notice the awesome hall tree?

Guest Bath

This is one of my favorite before/after shots.  I absolutely love this navy blue color, Mariner.  I didn’t think I would love anything so bold so much, but I’m crazy about it.  With the crisp white shower curtain and towels, it really looks sharp.  I still have plans to change out the hardware and lighting (and eventually replace the tropical looking tub).  

Eliza’s Bath Loo

I painted the walls the same gray as the hallway (which I don’t have pictured).  It’s softer  than in the pictures (and her towels are pink, rather than the red color they appear to be) and goes so nicely with her shabby-chic shower curtain and rug.  I especially love her ‘The Loo, London, England’ sign that I picked up at a thrift store in Richmond, VA.  Perfect for our English Miss.  

Master Bedroom

Since we have black furniture, I wanted something that softened the room a bit and I think the Barely Jade color and white trim does exactly that.  Plus, I absolutely love our engagement portrait above the bed -- it goes nicely with the gray/blue and gives the room a gorgeous pop of color.  I still need to add another bedside table and small bench, not to mention some more personality on the walls, but it’s coming together nicely.  

Security System

Along with our ADT security system, we have Clementine the Gnome to watch over things while we are back and forth.

Home Sweet Home

The yard still needs a lot of work, but we are lucky that it is relatively easy to maintain.  We have a lovely neighbor who has been taking care of our front yard while we’ve been away (and even while I was there) and an awesome brother who has been maintaining the back (along with a laundry list of other things).  I have plans to rip up some of the mess in the backyard and replace with hydrangea and peony bushes...but they are simply plans at this point, for I have no green thumb.  I am counting down the days until we open the pool.  Once we get our sun chairs, deck furniture and a swing set for Eliza, I don’t think we’ll ever leave our backyard.  

I absolutely love our new home and am so anxious to pack up and permanently move in.  I get excited thinking about it and cannot wait for the many happy years that we have ahead us.  It’s the perfect house for us, projects and all.