The Bedrooms & Life

The Master Bedroom

Well hello there. I really can't believe I've been away for over a month. This moving business is pretty crazy stuff. Like, my life is insane and I've had a few humbling moments.

I thought I'd check back in and update you on life in between some before and after pics...beginning with our bedroom. I don't have a true before shot - imagine cream colored wall paper with blue flowers and ribbons creating vertical stripes. Then we went through the dark stage...which I liked, but find I much prefer where we are now. Too bad you can't scratch and sniff the carpet in the photo above, or not. When our realtor walked through the house, in no uncertain terms, he informed us the carpet had to go. Had to go. 

I have no idea how old it was, but two dogs can do a number on a carpet and it stunk. (And The Engineer and I frequently argued over this...)

So we ripped out 500 square feet of carpet and warped faux wood flooring (my in-laws were AMAZING in helping with this - the bulk of this was happening while mother was so sick and in the hospital - and I was with her pretty much 24/7. BIG kudos to The Engineer! He is so "the man!")

Not only did he remove the carpet, but a second layer of subfloor and lovely tar-ed down tile.

Here's The Engineer laying the new wood floors...raw, unfinished...he sanded 'em down and wiped 'em down in preparation for staining them.

And after a few trips to the Home Depot and four hours of mixing stains (with the wonderful help of my Mother-in-law) we finally matched the stain on the existing hardwoods The Engineer would be tying the newly laid floor into. It's pretty much seamless. He did an AMAZING job!!! To see it, you'd never know there hadn't always been hardwoods.

Too bad the glare is so severe on the floor. It's beautiful. Like, breathtakingly beautiful. I couldn't be prouder of my man. 

And the dog smell...GONE!!! Yay!

The Downstairs Guest Room

Unfortunately, I don't have a true "before" shot. This was taken after ripping out the purple carpet. (Yes, really, a pinky purple carpet.) Yanking that sucker out was one of the first things we did after taking possession of the house. The green you see above was my first ever attempt at picking a wall color. It was sort of neon slime green. I've learned a few things.

 This room served as a nursery for Sister and Little Man and now functions as a guest room. It's one of my favorite rooms in our house. The headboard used to be sliding closet doors - we connected them and covered them in fabric. The chandelier was a super fun project and a definite conversation starter.

The Engineer built the cornice. The bedding and drapes represent a solid week of sewing sans the kiddos.

I painted and recovered the chair...sanded and painted the bookshelf...a lot of work went into this room. 

The Nursery

Again, I don't have a great before shot. You can see the built in vanity to the left and the closet - sliding doors intact to the right. While I was pregnant with Little Bit we decided to combine closets and gut this "dressing room" making it a nursery. Our families are all out of town and we love for them to visit and wanted to insure we had plenty of space when they came - while two guest rooms is quite lavish, it's been such a blessing! 

I striped the walls, but never got anything hung. Oh well. 

We used the dressing table as a changing table and hung Little Bit's dresses on a tension rod beneath the center drawer.

Love the details throughout our home! And a close up of more of the hardwoods The Engineer laid.

Sister's Room

These shots are about as good as it gets. This room was a looooong time coming. We had grand plans of gutting the entire upstairs, laying hardwoods throughout, reconfiguring the closets, etc. And we ran out of time. Or rather, found out we'd be moving.

When I told Sister we'd be stripping the wallpaper and border she begged me to save some of the paper. And we did. It was a pretty dark room...dark carpet, dark walls...just dark, despite some great natural light.

Stripping the wallpaper revealed lovely dark green walls...my neighbor remembers playing up here when she was a teenager and says that pink you see was actually all over the walls and ceiling. Uh huh.

I still wish we could have tackled the floors, but oh my! What a difference paint and baseboards made!!!

Her room is totally light filled - when she saw it finished and all set up she grinned so big! 

Little Man's Bedroom

I have zero before pictures of Little Man's room. Imagine dark blue wall paper and a popcorn ceiling. It was dark. Dreary. A real light soaker-upper. We stripped the wall paper and painted shortly before he was born, at which time Sister moved into this room. 

It's funny the things you notice post photo taking...like the wonky top left handle on the desk. And it's amazing what a magic eraser can do to walls and trim! When our realtor did the final walk through he asked if we'd repainted? "Nope, just went through two magic erasers."

The Upstairs Guest Room

We COMPLETELY gutted this room and the upstairs bathroom. Like, down to the studs on most of the walls and all of the floor, including removing the wall between the bathroom and bedroom. Insane I tell you. But we had no idea we'd be moving when we started this project. It was to be the beginning of tackling, gutting, and re-doing all of the upstairs.

After addressing the structural problems these rooms had via what is now the library, we shimmed all the floor joists and put down new subfloor.

We put up lots of new sheetrock and reconfigured the bathroom so this bedroom would have a generous walk in closet.

And we took down the bunny rabbit border and dumped all our left over paints from eight and a half years of living here and painted the walls.

Above you see where The Engineer was framing in the bathroom and closet...we added attic access via pull down steps and we floored the attic. (And while installing those pull down stairs we um, dropped them, from ceiling height...when I was up in the attic, holding them up - only I didn't know I was supposed to be holding them up - and I think everyone in the neighborhood heard what we said to each other. Because all the windows were open.)

And here she is now...we laid hardwoods we'd salvaged years ago (like - when Sister was a baby - we put her in a johnny jump up and hung it in a doorway in the dead of winter in an unheated house that was scheduled for demolition and we worked like dogs pulling up hardwoods...)

This room is thrown together - curtains un-hemmed...the bedskirt is merely burlap tucked under the mattress...I totally "shopped the house"...it's all good.

I meant to update you on life somewhere in there...

The Engineer and I both turned 31 at the end of March. 

Little Man turned 5 at the beginning of April. 

Sister cries almost daily about moving. She is having a super hard time.

Little Bit is a total pistol. And a compulsive colorer. She will color everything on the entire page...all the same color...and she will not stop until it's completely colored. Then she turns the page and starts on the next one. She's colored two entire Dora coloring books like this. Cracks me up!

Our house has shown lots. 

I have doubted the Lord's goodness and He has remained faithful and shown He cares about even the smallest of details again and again and again. 

We made a trip to the new local and house hunted and wow was there some fun drama. Well, I'm not sure it was fun at the time. 

We've put a contract on a house!!!

I'd gotten pretty discouraged with how much weight I'd gained (like - I was six pounds heavier than I was the day I gave birth to Sister - which was the most I'd ever weighed)...so I started running. With Scout. It rocks. I'm fighting bursitis now - in my hips - but I don't care. I feel so much better and I am trimming down and I feel SO much better. 

I feel like I half-way did homeschool for the month of February - and we are just now re-establishing "normal." And it feels so good. 

We've started the Boys of Grit series and it's awesome. 

The moving company won't move food...so we are eating it all...which also means I've made my last loaf of bread while here - I'm out of yeast. I also finished off the sugar today. 

This is all so odd...to think that exactly two weeks from tomorrow, we will be unpacking, Lord willing, in our new home. I mean, that's just really weird. One more Sunday here. One more Wednesday night small group here. 

And every spare second is filled with bittersweet goodbyes. So bittersweet.

I've missed being here. This is just a crazy, insane season of life. And I am needed. A lot. Hope to see you soon!