French Glam Kitchen progress and planning our Vintage farmhouse dining room!

When we first looked at this house, we immediately saw potential in this kitchen, with its workable layout and beautiful windows. As it cried out to me, "Make me over!", I knew it was something we could handle and not need to spend an arm and a leg, and my wheels started turning. I pictured light and airy, but still warm and inviting with cream cabinets and a floor that resembled drift wood, and some sort of glam glass tile back splash. Here we are 2 months later, plan played out, and loving it! My advice for kitchens, and any room really. Choose style buzzwords, pick 3 colors, and stick to it. Your space will evolve, but you want to always have strong buzzwords, and 3 colors, and try not to deviate.

 

 

Dining room Before

Peek at Dining room details as it comes together, and will hopefully be done soon.

For the dining room, we chose a soft grayish blue, which came out great! I wanted the vintage farmhouse feel to permeate this lovely space.

 We are also in the process of completely remodeling our tiny powder room off the kitchen. Here is a before photo:

Below is what it currently looks like, boy included. Carson is constantly in there scrubbing his hands like a cute little germaphobe. We loooove the modern clean look of white subway tile with black grout, so we went with it, replaced the toilet and vanity and continued the rustic wood tile from the kitchen into the powder room. Big difference - much more light airy, clean, and modern. More details to come!

 Stay tuned and thank you so much for visiting our family blog! God bless!

Just had to include a photo of Clara holding her 1st shopkins box, which she's been begging me to buy for her! I may have to create a post entirely dedicated to kid's toys and my rules of thumb when it comes to organizing kid's clutter and the inevitable accumulation of kid's toys. We're in a good habit of not buying toys unless it's for birthdays, holidays, or the occasional reward for amazing behavior.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by, and have an inspiring weekend! Hope you enjoyed our kitchen and dining room progress! God Bless!

Taking life by storm, making a roller coaster out of a UHaul, toddler coffee obsessions, and a FairyGod Sister!

Since January, we've been taking life by storm, relentlessly preparing, ruthlessly editing, and planning for the next chapter of our lives. Fast forward to July - We've been in our new (old, but new to us) house for over a week, and we've been home owners of only this home (opposed to two homes) for almost a week. Owning our new home for over two months while living in our other home, although stressful, has given us the opportunity to renovate without two curious toddlers running around a danger zone. Ironically, all the clutz moments I've had are when the kids are not around. For example, the other night, I locked Jon out with a plate full of smores in his hand, and as I went to open the door and pick up a smore, the entire plate stuck to my hand and I flipped the smores through the air, only to do it again a minute later by the trash can when Jon snuck up behind me and I knocked over the plate with my elbow. Another example, the day I had my accident (falling and gashing my knee open on the edge of the tile going up the basement steps) the kids weren't even at the house, thank goodness. I digress...

At this point, there are only a couple rooms left to paint, and all our hardwood floors have been refinished and any linolium (kitchen, mudroom) replaced with wood tile, and cement (basement) with good quality carpet (the process of which was a nightmare - We purchased in stock carpet that was supposed to be installed in a short window of time, but took super long, and when it was finally delivered and about to be installed, I discovered by slyly snooping around the truck in our driveway, that they had brought the wrong carpet. So we had to go back to the store several times...Luckily, it looks amazing and we love it when all said and done!)

Our next step will be installing closet organizers in the master bedroom, which is another story. (We were abruptly awakened in the middle of the night by our bedroom closet rod crashing down to the floor a couple nights go.)
I will be snapping "after" pictures shortly, and post about the progress of our new home so far. Hope you're interested in seeing our befores and afters/progress.

Carson takes the front porch by storm! Every morning, Carson and Clara flee outside with their tractors and race them up and down the porch. Carson's annoyingness curiosity and constant urge to play with hammers, power tools, and stud finders, reminds me to pursue my passions, embrace unexpected circumstances, and always seek adventure even during life's storms.

Clara takes confiscating my cell phone by storm, and takes advantage of every opportunity to play cupcakes, cakepops, watch Elsia and Annia on youtube, take loads of selfies, and never fails to switch me to airplane mode. She also takes her shoes off no matter where we are, then possesses no recollection of where she could possibly have stashed them, which during a renovation is dangerous.

Jon takes being a boss...a great one...by storm, and multitasks wickedly, scheduling appointments, fixing things, coming up with amazing renovation plans and ideas, while managing to always...occasionally...rarely get on my nerves...He normally underestimates the time a project will take, and I always overestimate, and having grown accustomed to that fact, I know now to add a few days to the time Jon estimates for things, and I try not to let my overestimation overwhelm or persuade me not to tackle something that I think will take an extremely long time.

I take designing, organizing, and decorating by storm, while trying to be the most wonderful and entertaining mommy possible. I commit myself to being super productive during their nap times which rarely line up. I carry paint samples around the house, and tape them up all over the walls of the rooms that have yet to be painted, and try not to fall down the stairs while lugging heavy equipment around the house.

These two...Their zaniness is contagious and keeps me on my toes and their love for each other is sweet, inspiring, and beautiful! She watches over him like his fairy God sister. They've been so willing to adapt and seek adventure in their not yet familiar surroundings, which is such an awesome and admirable quality. Clara talks constantly, just like me, and our conversations range from hotdogs to princesses to ghosts to church to sprinklers in a 2 minute time frame. I love her free spirit, honesty, and independence.

Here are a couple photos of the 1st of several moving days, last week. Her resilience and creativity is entertaining in a dangerous living-life-on-the-edge sorta way. Don't you love what kids come up with? They can turn anything into a roller coaster!

Her appetite is non-existant, until Jon surprises us with a dozen donuts from Duncans!

Carson on the other hand, eats anything and everything, even the not-so-edible, which could include but certainly isn't limited to paper, stickers, scraps of food stuck to his high chair, metal, bugs, frogs, you name it. His recently become obsessed with stealing Jon's morning coffee, which is downright obnoxious, because he'll sit on your lap facing you with his hands on your coffee mug trying to pull it towards his mouth while you're sipping it while shouting "I dink...I dink caffees!!" And doesn't it stunt your growth or is that an old wives tale, and something our parents used to tell us because we were equally annoying while stealing their coffee?

"No seriously...stop watching me eat!"

Thank you so much for stopping by! God Bless and stay tuned for our soon to be posted "befores" and "Afters/progress." Have an amazing weekend!