Forever home?

Hello there! First of all, my dear friend Chris over at Just a Girl is hosting a bunch of bloggers to share their “must” lists – and mine was power tools (surprised??).

You can see my list here:

Go ahead and check it out. I’ll wait. ;)

Drums fingers. Checks watch.

:)

Tonight I’m talking about our home…your homes. How long do you plan on staying in yours? Are you in your forever home? Did you plan on it being your the one you would stay in?

When we decided to build years ago, we made decisions thinking we would be here for a long time…we didn't know how long, but we knew for sure it wasn’t going to be five years or less.

We were one of the first in our neighborhood and hand picked our lot because of these:

It’s not forest or anything, but they are TREES, glorious trees. We have a small backyard, and it slopes like mad, but we still loved this spot because of those trees and the land beyond.

From our understanding, there used to be a horse farm back there (the fence is still up). Now it’s overgrown and there are hundreds of trees sprouting up. It’s lovely and green and full of life.

There’s a bit of wooded area back there, and in the fall especially, I sit at a window upstairs, look out and get lost in it.

Because it’s an odd bit of land – it’s a flood plain and not very large – we were told when we built that custom homes would go in back there, if anything. We were fine with that. We didn’t have much of a choice. ;)

(We’re ready for the hummingbirds. Are they even out yet?)

But over the years, nothing has gone in. And over the years, we’ve fallen more and more in love with that land. We listen to the coyotes howling and playing at night (it’s freaky). Kids ride their four wheelers back there and the noise is awful but I’ve grown to love it. We’ve had deer in our backyard and my squeals of joy send them running. :) The bunnies are a daily event.

We love it. It’s our little dose of nature in the middle of suburbia.

But since last year we’ve been preparing to lose this view, and a whole lot more. It’s a long, boring story, but a developer wanted to come in and build luxury apartments on the land.

The problem was, they were three story apartments, lots of them (more than allowed), lining the edge of the lots, with balconies overlooking our houses and backyards.

Now. I’ve lived in apartments more years then I’ve lived in houses in my adult life. I have nothing against apartments or those that live in them. It’s just the looming quality and the closeness that we were concerned about. Not to mention the tanking of the house values. (They already suck. I mean, really.)

I’m all for development, when it’s done right. (This land isn’t zoned for apartments, only single family houses.) And not a few yards from my back door.

As a neighborhood we met with the developer and with each meeting I wanted to cry a little more. The details just made it worse.

(Anyone know what this plant is? They grow like mad back there.
Watch it be poison sumac or something.)

So we toyed with what we would do…what if they went through? What would we do? What would you do?

My first thought was to MOVE. Immediately. Put the house on the market and get out of dodge.

But dang. We love our house. I mean, adore it. We don’t want more house, we don’t want a different house, and we’re making this one into exactly what we want. Every year, the more time goes on, the more it becomes our forever home.

We would go back and forth, and usually between meetings or new info, we’d plan to stay. But on the way home from hearing the developer talk about the plans, or when a new email would come with bad news, we would talk about moving.

And that talk made me so, so sad.

Finally…we decided we weren’t leaving, no matter what. We’d see what happened and then decide our plan from there. But the plan was staying put, at least for awhile.

We (the people in the neighborhood) worked hard – did tons of research, got petitions signed, 100 of us showed up for the planning meeting and thankfully the planning commission decided the idea of apartments in that spot were just a bad idea. (For a number of reasons.)

The developer completely pulled out last month, and I think that day was one of the happiest of my life. :) I know something will go back there eventually, and I don’t expect to have our lovely view forever, but we have it for now. And in the process we fell in love with our house all over again. The thought of leaving was so depressing. It’s not perfect, but we are smitten with our house. Our small yard. The bunnies. :)

It’s made the past month even more fun – for the past few months we would walk out on our new patio and feel…trepidation? All we could think of was what we would see every time we walked out if we had new neighbors. ;)

Now we are feeling especially blessed every time we go in the backyard. I do not take that line of trees or the land or the deer for granted and I am so grateful for our home. A home we truly love. We are so lucky.

I don’t know if it will be our forever home, as in for the rest of our lives. But it will be our home for a very, very long time. I look forward to my son growing up in this house – and what a gift that is. I had been in at least six homes by the time I was ten, and I love that we are grounded. This is the longest I’ve lived anywhere, by a long shot. I think that’s why I’m so content to stay.

So you’ll be seeing the same rooms and walls for a long time…I hope that’s OK with you, cause it sure is with me. ;)

Are you in your forever home? Do you dream about what yours would look like? Did you grow up in one house or move a lot like me? My husband lived in one house for all but a few years of his childhood. I LOVE that and would be perfectly happy with the same for our kiddo.

Let’s talk basement flooring

Well hello there! Wow, be sure to check out the more than 150 dining rooms linked up on the last post! Beautiful. :)

Today I’m sharing the final frontier in the basement finishing process -- we’re hoping next month to get the flooring installed. After that there’s still plenty to do – it’s just going to be lots of smaller projects, most of which I can do. Tile, painting, trim work, etc.

We’ve been thinking long and hard about the flooring we want in the basement, and thankfully we’ve had the past two months to figure it all out.

Initially, I was on the peel and stick train and was ready to go – I loved what I put down in the laundry room:

And there are wood floor looking pieces that are installed similarly. They look SO REAL. And the price isn’t bad at all.

I was kind of hooked on a hard surface for the basement for two reasons – I do my most of my work outs down there (in front of the TV) and I thought a hard surface would work best. And second, I just thought a hard floor was the only option for basements.

Well, I picked up a few pieces of the faux wood and tried it out – and I loved it. But there were a couple issues – it did not stick to the concrete (like it did on the subfloor in the laundry room), and I was concerned that it was just going to be too hard. There would be practically no buffer between the concrete and us.

Keeping the floors concrete were never really an option for us because our concrete isn’t in great shape (aesthetically) and with the Bub still being small, I was not crazy about keeping it so hard, even with rugs down throughout.

So even though I know we could have glued down the vinyl wood planks, I decided to nix that idea. I read TONS of reviews online where folks were complaining about severe off gases from the glue used for the installation of the floors. (Some said it only lasted a week, some said it never went away and they had to completely remove the floors!)

We thought about laminate or engineered floors for about two hot seconds and quickly realized those were a no-go. The price was the biggie – it was just too expensive. And after the water issues we had upstairs with laminate, we weren’t ready to take that chance in the basement.

Sooo…we started toying with carpet. Up till about six weeks ago, I would NEVER have considered carpet for a basement. I guess it’s because back in my day (you know, the 80’s), all I remember is carpet being a no-no for lower levels. I remember the “wet” smell from many basements because of water issues in those with carpet.

But we’ve had very few issues with water in our basement. It’s built so there should never been any issues, and honestly the biggest problem we’ve had was from inside – our humidifier on the main level malfunctioning and leaking through the duct work to the basement.

The only other problem spot we’ve ever had has been under the back door. Lucky for us the guys who have been doing all the work for us used to specialize in fixing/preventing leaks in homes. So they are double checking those trouble spots for us now that the basement is finished.

And we figure, if we do have problems, carpet will be the easiest and cheapest to replace if we have to. After the water issues we had upstairs last year – I’m all good with easy and cheap. ;)

Soooo…now it’s time to decide on the one. My first stop was Home Depot and Lowes to check out samples. It was a bit overwhelming, so I took samples I liked and went to a local carpet store to get more info.

That’s where I found one I loved:

But it turns out I loved it because it was $4 a square foot. ;) Too much for what we want to spend – we are covering about 700 square feet with it.

But I knew I loved the look of it – I dig the small design that repeats throughout.

I was going to check out the hardware stores again, but then the handymen gave us the name of a carpet guy they’ve worked with a bunch of times.

And his prices are CRAZY good. Whoaza.

He brought this frieze sample that I loved because it’s supa soft:

 

But because of the whole working out thing, and because this will be on the stairs (for now – I may finish them off myself some day), I wanted something that would wear really well. We have a frieze on the stairs now and you can definitely see wear (it flattens out).

I’m sure a nice, more expensive frieze would not do that, but I really just had my heart set on a low pile option.

So I was thrilled when he pulled out this one!:

 

It’s called a cut and loop carpet and I love it.

The price is amahzing (name that show!) – the quote for carpet, padding and installation is right at $2,000. I thought that was pretty spiffy.

The options we’re looking at are the six or so in the middle here:

Well, probably not that lighter one. I value my sanity. ;) (At first I actually wanted to go with a dark carpet!)

Our carpet upstairs has held up well and I love the color – so I’m going to see what color matches it best and probably just go with that. This is a Mohawk brand carpet and it has a stain guarantee and all that good stuff. We won’t be wearing shoes down there for the most part (except to work out!) so I’m not so worried about stains.

The biggest reasons for carpet in the basement are the comfy factor for the kiddo, the warmth factor (because it can still get a tad chilly down there) and the biggest one – because the hubby wants carpet. :) It’s rare he has a strong opinion when it comes to the house (he trusts me), so when he does, I go with it.

My late father-in-law was a carpet and tile guy, and he taught us that one of the most important decisions is the padding – and we’re going with a nice eight pound padding that will make the floor extra cushy.

So there. you. go. -- the process that we went through to get to our basement flooring decision. We’re hoping to get it installed in May – I’m hoping for earlier in the month, because every time we come up from the basement we track drywall dust all over the house. It’s driving me a little bonkers. :)

What type of flooring do you have in your basement? Am I the only one who would never have though of carpet for a lower level? What color would you go for? I’m leaning toward one with a gray undertone instead of brown, that’s what we have upstairs and I’ve been happy with it. And it will go well with the paint colors…more on those soon. :)

Show Us Your Dining Rooms!

Hey hey! Hope you had a lovely weekend! These third Monday’s sneak up on me – I can’t believe it’s time for another show off partay!

This month we’re sharing dining spaces – any size, any type, you are good! If you’ve been around for awhile, you know I’m making some BIG changes to our dining room, but more on that in a bit.

First, let’s take a little walk down memory lane shall we? This first photo is preblog and it shows off the start of my red and gold phase:

The gold rectangle on the ceiling was…well. Interesting.

I changed up the drapes a couple times, and blogged about this version here:

I also covered the basic seats with a red fabric – told you I loved that gold and red!

Then a few years ago, the room got a redo – I painted the walls (and ceiling!) and recovered the chairs:

And later I ditched the top part of the hutch (it came right off!) and found this beautiful buffet underneath:

And last year I sold the (uncomfortable) chairs and found a Goodwill set:

You can see by the one spray painted chair that I only got so far with it. The room sat with one white chair for nearly a year.

But when we got our new floors last fall, you can see that the room got REALLY dark. Overwhelmingly dark. I loved the dark and dramatic walls and ceiling when we had light carpet (although I always hated carpet in the dining room), but every surface of the room a dark brown was too much.

I started considering new paint colors but then a new idea hit…the one I told you about here where I was thinking hard about not using this as a dining room at all anymore, but instead as a library of sorts.

One with comfy chairs, a wall of bookcases and it would be a room we would actually USE. (In eight years I am pretty sure we’ve only used the dining room three times? Maybe four? Nope, I think three.)

Well, I decided to go for it, and I showed you the latest on the redo a couple weeks ago here (it’s slow going):

This weekend I did the first coat on the ceiling, got the baseboards, and last week the drywall guys did touch ups in here when they worked on the basement.

It’s coming along! The painted ceiling has made SUCH a big difference in there – wow! I hope to show you the updates this week. Now that the ceiling is brightened, I’m excited to keep moving forward and get some contrast going in this room again. :)

I am IN LOVE with how this space is changing! I can’t wait to see the built ins completed…hopefully in May they’ll be done.

Now let’s see YOUR spaces! It doesn’t have to be an actual dining room – any space where you sit and eat is fair game. ;)

If you’d like to be considered for a highlight, I’d love a link back in your post – this handy dandy code should make it easy:

<div align="center"><a href="http://simplehomeinteriordesign.com/" title="Show Us Your House" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/image34.png" alt="Thrifty Decor Chick" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Here’s the schedule for the rest of the year!:

May (nursery/kids rooms), June (outdoor spaces), July (bathrooms), August (family rooms), September (basements/rec rooms), October (bedrooms, guest or master), November (foyers), December (mud/laundry rooms)

Now link it up! Happy Monday! :)

The Decrapification of 2012

OK, first of all, let me hear it for all the door ninjas out there! Double thump to the chest! (If you’re confused, go here.) I loved your responses to my last post! And thanks for all your ideas and links! :)

It’s about this time every year that I get the BUG. I usually purge throughout the year but it’s the spring that I feel the need to GET RID OF EVERYTHING.

And this year, I think the guys at Goodwill think I actually have. ;) When I drive up they’re all, “What up Sarah?!” Cause I’ve been there so much lately.

It started earlier this year when we decided to start finishing the basement. It was then that I realized we had a ridiculous amount of stuff down there. I mean really. Reedonkulous.

So back in February I started…little bits at a time. I feel like it’s all I’ve done for months –- I’ve definitely had a one track mine lately. I told myself no new projects till I was DONE. Done ridding our home of all the EXTRA. You know, decrapifying. :)

A couple of months ago we had nine plastic shelving units in our basement – ranging from four to five shelves each. Most of them were in my craft area:

And a few more were in the Bub’s toy area:

Well. With every white plastic shelf I was able to get rid of, my desire to purge got stronger – I was on. a. roll! The contents of one shelving unit went into the DIY craft table:

I still have plenty of spaces left for bins if I need them – I even ended up sorting all of the seasonal crafty stuff into bins as well. LOVE it!

A bunch more of the stuff on the shelves went into my new storage room:

And now that the bases for the dining room built ins are installed (Dad and I installed them last weekend), I filled up those babies!:

Now the nine shelves are down to…drum roll please…TWO! I broke them down into three smaller ones so the Bub can reach all of his toys:

THAT’S IT!! Even the boy joined in and purged a bunch of his stuff. (There’s still one more bin of big toys that don’t fit on the shelves.)

The basement looks almost completely finished in that pic, doesn’t it? Priming makes a big difference! I can’t get over how different this side of the room looks from just a few months ago:

  

Yeah, I know real walls (and ceilings) help a bit. :)

My goal overall was to have every bit of my stuff – tools (went up the garage awhile back), decor stuff and craft supplies to be completely out of sight. I wanted to be able to close doors and have them put away.

If I’ve said it 20 times I’ve said it…20 times. ;) Getting rid of stuff is one of the BEST feelings – and it’s FREE baby! I do think hard on each item when deciding whether to keep it or not – and even with all we’ve gotten rid of, there’s still plenty left. ;) I rarely regret giving up stuff -- I can count on one had the number of times I’ve wanted/needed something later.

SO worth it.

I made a pledge last year that I wouldn’t buy another storage bin and I haven’t. (Even for Christmas stuff, and that’s hard for me!) If I bring things in, I try to move things out. Try is the key word.

There are two awesomesauce parts of this year’s purge – first that our house is lighter. The second is that it’s OVER and I have all kinds of DIY projects I cannot WAIT to get started on!! Stay tuned.

Does spring do the same to you? Does your house lose weight every March and April? Don’t you wish losing five pounds was as easy as dropping it off to Goodwill? :)

A glass door…could you do it?

OK, I’ve had an idea runnin’ around in my head for a while now. I think about it EVERY. single. day. lately and can’t shake the thought of it.

Every time I walk by our foyer, especially during the day, I think of how awesome it would be:

(That’s an old pic from last summer, the latest full shot I could find of our foyer!)

For years now, I’ve been wanting a screen or storm door on our front door. The desire for one intensifies 100 fold this time of year, when spring has sprung and I have this overwhelming desire to have light pouring in everywhere.

Our foyer is the darkest spot in our house – we’re north facing so the front gets zero direct light. Even before the interior side of the door was painted black, it was always a dark spot.

Sooo…for years I’ve figured I can rectify that with a screen door of sorts. But I’ve found I don’t care for how they look from the outside. I don’t particularly like most storm doors I see either. I haven’t looked a whole lot, mind you, but I love our front door and don’t really want to block it.

So HOW do I get this light pouring in that I so desperately want and NEED? (OK need is a little much, I know.)

We had a chance to have sidelights put in when we built the house, but you see…I have a problem that is causing a major internal struggle when it comes to my idea.

I didn’t do sidelights because they give me the HEEBY JEEBIES. I do not like to answer the door if I don't want to. (For random strangers, not people I like. As far as they know.) The thought of someone being able to see inside my house creeps me out. And if I want to sneak up to the door to see who’s on the other side without answering, well, that’s my prerogative (they say I’m crazy, I really don’t care…).

But now, for some reason, I can’t get the idea of a front door with glass out of my stinkin’ head:

Can you even imagine all the glorious light shining in that house? I can.

I’m positively drooling at the thought of it:

(source)

I love my black interior door, but this blue door is totally fun:

People, WHAT is wrong with me? I can’t stop thinking about glass doors!!

Sarah had a door company put a glass insert in her front door and it’s gorgeous!:

(source)

Lucky for me, I have a contact for glass inserts. ;) So I could totally do this.

But the full glass door…well, as much as I love it, I just don’t know if I could. I ask you, how do you hide from people with that?!

Maybe normal people don’t hide? It’s just me?

So now I’m thinkin’. I wonder if the door company could just do a smaller insert? Something like this perhaps?:

(source)

Or this? (Check out this gorgeous house from the inside too!):

   

(source)

I think I could handle that. This shot is what I imagine ours would look like from the inside:

(source)

Although I’d probably only do six panes, not nine. Or maybe I could frost them like I did the pantry door?:

So the light would still come in, but it would offer a bit of privacy?

Cause I’m totally in the one percent here:

I’m just saying. At least I recognize my insanity.

Soooo…I MUST KNOW. Do you have sidelights? Glass in your front door? A FULL glass front door like (brave!) Sarah? If you a ninja like me, could you do it? For the sake of natural light?

Do tell! I think I may at least call my contact to see what the possibilities are and what the cost is…I think. It doesn’t hurt to call…right?

Month(s) in review!

Well hello! Sorry of the lack of posting last night – we were enjoying one of our last evenings of spring break and the time got away from me. We just plain relaxed, and it was awesome after a week of getting MUCH done around here. I love that hubby and I are both homebodies and are perfectly happy to putz around our house all week, organizing, sprucing, mowing…I love it!

Anyhoo, since I’m still in vaca mode (I’ve got one more day with my boys home!), I thought I would share a couple (very) late month in reviews. I didn’t even do February and March almost got away from me.

I know you cry when I don’t do these, so I’m just thinking of you. ;)

I kicked off the love month with a display of my loves on our once-in-a-lifetime trip we took over Thanksgiving:

Then we all partied it up and  you all shared nearly 600 (wowza!) projects at the February before and after party.

I shared some inspirational pantry spaces and then how I ridded our pantry of the wire shelves (and made it a bit prettier too):

Next I made some quick and easy Valentines for the Bub to take to school:

Then I showed you my tiny obsession of taking off doors in our house, and how I cover up the hardware holes leftover:

That’s the technical term in case you didn’t know – hardware holes. ;)

We kicked off the basement project by moving some things around, and I found some (wonderful!!) new storage space under the stairs.

Next I figured out a way to use our old island countertop and get some much needed craft storage at the same time:

We partied it up again when you all showed off more than 200 closets and storage spaces in your homes at the February Show Us Your House linky. Awesome organization inspiration!

I shared some of my flower arranging tips:

And then my new favorite room in our house. And it didn’t even have walls. ;)

I added a little something (in the form of a stripe) to our living room drapes and I LOVE how they turned out!:

The framing started in the basement and we started to see the potential for the space:

I had been keeping my eye out for a settee for a long, long time, and finally I found the one when I wasn’t even looking:

You all linked up 600 fabulous projects at the March before and after shindig here, and then I updated you on how a few of my big projects and purchases from the past year or so are holding up.

Dad and I started the process of building the built-ins for the dining room using kitchen wall cabinets here:

And I shared some of my very favorite Craigslist finds in this post:

I’ve found some beauties!

I shared a bit more about me (and I’m not as weird as I thought, according to some of you!):

Next, you shared your kitchens and it may have been my favorite house party yet! (See 230 inspiring kitchens here!)

I found a couple Goodwill chairs I just couldn’t pass up, and transformed them into a totally fun and funky after:

I shared the lighting layout for the basement in this post, and showed you some of the lights I’m considering for the space. I can’t wait to get the stage where we can actually hang them!!

At the end of the month, I created a couple different looks for the front door – the grassy wreath here, and the more au natural (and free!) look here:

And we finished up the month with the Spring Fling and hundreds of spray paint projects:

Whew! I need a nap. :)

As always, I hope that maybe a little something I do inspires you in some way!

I hope you and yours have a lovely and blessed Easter!!