Half Bath

I am thrilled to report that our half bathroom is almost completely done. When we bought the house, the room had awful off white floral wallpaper, brown vinyl flooring (that never looked clean no matter how often I cleaned it), an octagon shaped mirror glued to the wall and a pedestal sink that had seen better days. The baseboards were also extremely chipped. I don't have any before pictures (sorry!) but I am in love with this room now. I LOVE it!!

• Walls: wallpaper removed (I steamed it off and discovered I actually enjoy removing wallpaper, yes, I'm weird), primed and painted a pale grey ("silver mist" from Lowes)
• Windows: mini-blinds gone, we are planning to get some plantation shutters at some point
• Furniture: new vanity, mirror, faucets, toilet paper holder, hand towel holder, light fixture, toilet handle and wide baseboards
• Floor: 12x12 off white tile

Master Bath

When we bought this house we knew the master bathroom needed some major updating. First of all-it had floral wallpaper (I'll never understand the infatuation with wallpaper in the 80s and 90s) and carpet. Yes, you read that correctly-carpet in the bathroom. Gross! I thought we were planning to remove the wallpaper, rip out the carpet and update some fixtures, however my hubby had bigger ideas. So when I came home from a business trip last year (about a month after we had moved into the house) I found the room completely gutted. Toilet? Gone. Sinks and vanities? Ripped out. Floor? beautiful subfloor awaited me. Shower? Unit ripped out. Functioning bathroom? Most definitely NOT.

The new plan:

*Floor: white octagon tiles

*Shower: white subway tiles to the ceiling, new fixtures

*Tub: white subway tile around the perimeter of the tub, new fixtures

*Sinks: the bathroom originally had a his/her split sink design, we want to recess the pipes where the "his" sink was and put a storage unit there for linens; add double sinks to the other wall

*Paint the walls and add wainscoting

* Purchase new double vanity, frame mirrors

The hubby went to work removing the wallpaper and found multiple layers. It took him a few months to get it all down. Next up, he cut the hole in the wall between the shower and tub to add some natural light to the shower area. In October (yes....this project started last February) I hired contractors to install new subfloor, tile the floor, shower and tile the side of the tub. Once that was complete, the hubby installed the wainscoting. I purchased new fixtures and realized they should have been replaced BEFORE the shower was tiled. In the contractors defense, they did ask me about the fixtures before they tiled, but I was so frustrated that the room was still a construction zone after 9 months that I told them to tile and I'd deal with the fixtures later (I also had limited sleep as my baby was 2 weeks old when the contractors were here). Anyway-after pricing several plumbers and discovering their labor rates range from $600 to $1k per hour (no joke!) the hubby decided to replace them himself. The tile people came back out to cut a hole for the tub and those fixtures are done (great job babe!). He'll do the shower fixtures (he cut a hole in the dry wall in the toilet area) next weekend and we'll finally be able to shower without toys falling on us.

So, still to do:

*install shower fixtures

*need shower door cut and glass for decorative window between shower/tub

*need to purchase double vanity, mirrors

*touch up some more paint

We're finally making progress...at least now, after 1.5 years we do have a functioning toilet and tub.

Before:

I never got pictures of the demo (sorry!) but this where we are at now:

This is the vanity we are planning on purchasing:

Robot Room

Our little man's room is almost done.

• Walls: blue/gray
• Windows: energy efficient curtains in navy
• Furniture: crib from IKEA (I love this crib-it converts to a toddler bed, is rated "A" for safety and cost less than a $100. I am always shocked when people tell me they spend over $600 on a crib); dresser is from a local furniture store and matches the guest room set
• Fun: vintage robot posters from Land of Nod and a homemade name sign on painted canvass; we also have fun wall stickers to put up (http://www.landofnod.com/kids-wall-decals-and-stick-ons/kids-room-decor/8-bit-arcade-stick-ons/f4857)

Before:

After:

Princess Room

How fun is this room? It's a room fit for our little princess. My initial vision was a pink and red room, it has since evolved to a lot of other colors but it is fun and bright!

• Walls: pale pink (the color is definitely brighter than I intended but it looks good)
• Windows: bright curtains from IKEA; we have to loop them at the top because she tried to climb up them when they were down; I plan to get plantation shutters or energy efficient blackout panels at some point
• Furniture: Pottery Barn kids
• Bedding: homemade quilts from the grandmas; pillows from mommy's childhood bed
• Fun: daddy couldn't resist a princess tent and tunnel for our little girl! Plus she has a lot of stuffed animals, dolls and books in her room

Before:

After:

The Green Room

I'm in love with our guest room. The walls are a gorgeous mint green so we've dubbed it 'the green room.' When I came home with this color and started painting J.D. was skeptical. In fact, he told one friend I was painting the room fluorescent green....although I prefer to call it doublemint fresh. I knew it would fabulous once we had the bedding and curtains up. Now that the room is pretty much done, J.D. agrees it looks good.

Still to do? Paint the doors white and hang something on the walls

Guest Room - Before

Guest Room - After

Note that there are no mini-blinds. I am not a fan of mini-blinds, they are so hard to clean and really don't do that great of a job blocking out the sun. So here we have a double curtain rod with white shears and dark green energy efficient curtains. I love them! And how gorgeous is the bedding? I love white bedding, but with a giant black dog...it doesn't work for us. Looks perfect in this room though!

Great House Blog Christine...

When I told a girlfriend last year that I had 3 blogs, she laughed and said there was no way I could keep them all up. I laughed and said "Not a problem." Well...since this is my second post in almost a YEAR, maybe she was right!

I'm pretty good about updating the other blogs (kids and books) but this one has been tough because I was planning on posting pictures when rooms are completely done. What I've learned is that no room is ever really completely done. I'm one of those people that wants to do it all: be the best mommy ever to my dimpled munchkins, be a fabulous wife, cook decent dinners, keep in touch with family and friends and keep a clean, organized house. Notice I didn't mention "decorate" the house...because that has not been on my priority list. However, now that Luke is sleeping through the night and I feel like a normal person again, I'm decorating a little more and our humble abode feels more "homey" every day.

So, in the interest of family and friends who live far away and want to see the house, I'm going to start posting pictures, even though the rooms aren't 100% done. Enjoy!

*this picture of the house is from last year, we've have the trees and bushes trimmed so you can actually see the house. Next up, the random 'Christmas tree' bushes next to the driveway will be removed. I want to put in crate myrtles...but since J.D. does all the gardening, we'll see!