Some Affirmation!

I am an avid Apartment Therapy reader,  i check in a few times a week to make sure there aren't any major home trends i have missed, or compelling stories about bathroom remodels, i also love their hard-hitting pieces on furniture refinishing.  So i was DELIGHTED when they covered the 5 current trends in kitchen design that are likely to still look decent years from now.  Of the five, our design hits about 4, 2 solidly and 2 maybe half way.

1) Glass front cabinets

via

An exciting development!!!!

I got this email today, we'll see how it pans out....

our current condo house

As of this morning, our condo is officially on the market!

Picking Tile

In addition to lights, we have picked all our tile choices for the house, too.  They are, for the most part, simple and safe choices.  and we are both happy with that.  here is a little tour of all the different tiles we considered.

Upstairs Bath: This one only had a little back and forth.  Once we had moved on from our brief hope of finding the perfect mid-modern piece to serve as a vanity

 and accepted the reality of using a stock vanity

Welcome to my House Video

Hi Folks

It has been a challenging journey so far. Some ups, but a lot of downs. We can see things getting better, and in the spirit of fun, we made this silly video about the house so far.

Light Choices

Thank you all so much for you feedback and suggestions on stair and entry way lighting! it was really helpful to have some thoughts on our ideas and get new ideas and suggestions too!

Jon and i spent all this weekend working on finding finishes for everything.  We looked at tile and carpet and toilets and sinks and lights and i don't even know what else.  Most importantly we settled on a lighting plan.

We decided that for light fixtures we should go the more cost conscious route, as those are really easy to change out ourselves should we ever decide to upgrade or want something different.  We want to spend more of our finishes budget now on things that are harder to change later, like tile.

That said, we have ALMOST every fixture picked out.  We are still deciding on a handful but for now, here are the lights for our house!


Master bedroom and closet - this is about 75% confident. we like the multi-light style for the closet and a small simple fixture for the bedroom.

there is some bad news...

this is the state of our roof.

Stairway Lights

Ok, so here are some lighting thoughts i'm thinking.  Each of these are for the stairway and entry/foyer where we need; one wall fixture (sconce), one shorter ceiling fixture, flush mount or otherwise, (ceiling) and one more dynamic fixture (pendant). Each image shows the fixtures, in order left to right of ceiling - pendant - sconce. Also, these all have pretty wildly varying costs, and we ARE trying to be cost conscious, so bear that in mind. Votes? also, you can mix and match! AND keep in mind this is a 1890's farmhouse and we want to keep some of that charm :)

#1

light overload

sigh, has anyone ever looked at a wall sconce and not hated it? honest question here, have any of you even seen a wall sconce and thought, "that's nice?" well i haven't and i feel like i've seen about a billion in the last few days.

We are picking out lighting for the house, we have to know what kind of fixtures we want for updating the electrical.  There is one tricky spot at the top of the stairs where we have to do a sconce on the wall to light the stairway, instead of an overhead fixture. I'm having major analysis paralysis on this one.  I want to find something that doesn't stick out from the wall too much, it's a tight stairway anyway.  but it also has to look good and provide decent light.  Oh, and i also don't want to pay more than $50 or so for a fixture i'm going to bang into weekly until it finally falls off the wall and breaks in 18 months.

you'd think i was looking for a unicorn.

unfortunately, i don't ever seem to be indifferent to light fixtures in general. i either love something or i hate it and for sconces i 99% hate them all.  i wish i could just deal with something bland, just go with whatever, builder basic piece of shit is de rigueur and never notice it again but that's not my personality.

Here are some options i am maybe thinking about possibly considering, but really i don't like any of them for this space.

Objectively i like this one a lot - so much that it's going in the bathroom :) but i'm not entirely sure it is narrow enough for the stairway AND i don't know that i think a black fixture is a good idea.

This one seems pretty cute too, but it's a little utilitarian for the hall.  this would be amazing in a studio or workroom, big pantry or whatever.  i think we need something 20 - 40% decorative and 60- 80% functional, this guy is at best 15% decorative and at least 90% functional.

Jon suggested this one, which is probably the direction we need to go in, in terms of size and shape, but i just can't get excited about it.

Maybe i'm asking too much that EVERYTHING that goes into our home be a deliberate choice that we are both happy with and that fulfills our vision for a happy, comfortable and good looking home.  Perhaps because this is one of our first decorating decisions it's getting more attention than it deserves.  I know if it's all like this i won't have energy to mull over decisions like paint and blinds and throw pillows (who am i kidding, i could debate the merits of a given throw pillow for days without breaks for food or water).

In short, any suggestions on a great sconce?

Almost Done With Demo

so the demo just about all done - which means we are ready to move on to framing! so exciting to know we are now BUILDING things at the house and not just tearing down.  HOWEVER i will say that seeing the house in it's demolished state was very encouraging.  I really feel i could live there.  When we first looked at the place, and were deciding what scope of work our budget could afford, Jon would often say, "we can live there now" referencing the fact that a person had been living in the home for some time in the state it was in.  well, i never really felt that way.  on the contrary, i feel like i could more easily live in a the house as it is now with these ripped up walls, complete lack of plumbing fixtures and mounds of debris.  All this to say, it's starting to feel like home.

 Opening up the den:

Expanding the master bedroom:

 Opening up the entryway and foyer:

Final decision - vanity

so, i mentioned the epic search.  i visited dozens thrift stores, scoured craigslist, krrb and other sites for hours.  I wanted to share with you some options we found, to give you an idea of the search.  of all my searching these are the best specimens i could find... each with their own flaws.

 a little small - too many drawers - it's hard to modify a piece that is built of drawers, when cabinets would be easier for the pipes and plumbing - we'd have almost no storage left.

i like the look a lot but in addition to too many drawers, it has a laminate top - not a good look, i want wood.

Some Real Demo

Here are some fun pictures to check out that show the beginning of the REAL demo in the house.  These pictures show the den and kitchen area.  It's looking so good! There has since been even more progress, so i'll post more pictures SOON.  but for now, check out all the fun holes and debris!

 a fun smorgasbord of wood pieces used to create and insulate this wall ... not so sure that's up to code :), but also, look at that fun wallpaper under the paneling!

 that there is the HUGE tub from the downstairs bath.  so glad it's been removed!

no, we are not planning on having an open concept kitchen and bathroom, but we had to tear down that wall to fix the plumbing and do the electrical.

this wall is coming out and staying out, this is where we are opening the kitchen up to the den.