the plan

Click this link to see my floor plan for the family room...http://urbanbarn.icovia.com/icovia.aspx?projGuid=89719A62-BCE2-4A8D-8B5A-FA65A5F2D588

I really don't like corner fireplaces. I really wish mine was centered on the wall. But it's not and we aren't going to be moving it, so I have to design around it. We plan on mounting the TV above it. Right now the TV is on a cabinet next to the fireplace and it just doesn't look the way I want. So it will go above the fireplace. That way the fireplace will be the focal point.

The couches I have in the plan are from Pottery Barn. See here. I don't neccessarily have to have those, but that is the basic style I am going for. Something to note is that everyone keeps telling me that if I am going to get new furniture then I should get leather couches b/c I have children. I don't really love leather couches, so I am torn. I prefer soft, inviting cloth. Leather is cold, dark, and I slide off it when I sit down. But it does seem to withstand the test of children. What do you think?

Now I am trying to devise a creative storage system for the toys. Ahhhh, toys, how they seem to clutter my life so quickly!

sneak peak

Remember how I said that I have big plans for my house? Well they are staring to sort of take shape.

I found this awesome website that lets you design and decorate a room so that you can get an idea of how things will fits. The site is www.urbanbarn.com/the-make-room. It is the coolest site and I have lots of fun on it.

The front room of our home needed help. I think it was originally intended to be a formal dining room, but I didn't want to use it as such. Because of its original intended use there were two large archways; one from the entry and one coming from the informal dining room (the one we actually use). That meant that when you walked in the front door you had a lovely view through the living room of my dining room table and the kitchen. That is where we live the most and thus usually the most cluttered area. It wasn't awesome! Plus with both openings it made the front room way too accessible to the kids, who had adopted it as there unofficial playroom. I need at least one room in my house to remain tidy and that was to be the room!

So over the holiday weekend Scott was much obliging and started in on building a wall. It is already a vast improvement and I am so excited. Here is the work in progress. Now I just need to buy the paint and then I can start on the front room (the other side of the wall will have to wait; I haven't made up the plans on my cool new website yet).

the view from the kitchen/dining room side

the view from the front entry...see what I mean about seeing the kitchen through the opening. LAME!

Progress!!!

The next fun thing is my pseudo-mudroom in progress. We have a long hallway of unused space that leads to the laundry room and half bathroom. It is right as you walk in from the garage. This will be a mudroom someday with built-in lockers and such. But for now Scott has built this great six hook hookboard. Isn't it cute? And it is functional; we each get a hook (which as you can see, mine and Scott's are already being put to good use). It has been the best. The next step is a little shelf for the shoes...Then next year maybe we will get to actual built-ins. We will see!

my little stroke of genius!

In this new house we don't have a finished basement (which is kind of awesome because we can finish it the way we want as oppose to live with someone else's ideas). This means we don't have the same great storage room that we enjoyed so much in our old house. It was bigger than our old kitchen and dining rooms combined - it was one of the only things I really loved about that house. Anyhoo, we don't have it anymore and I have moved on...

We do have a comparable space in this new house for a storage room. It isn't a nice big, square room, with cute grey and white checkerboard tiles. It is the L-shaped space under the porch. It is plenty big for our needs and will stay nice and cool all year. But it is totally unfinished and if I were a kid I would be scared to go in it (I like the kids to fetch me things from there, so I really don't want them to be scared). In the interest keeping as much space as we can we have decided to not finish it with sheet rock. Instead we bought cement paint and porch paint and we cleaned it up a bit with paint. The walls are now white cement and the floor is the awesome celery green color. I really like it. But this post isn't really about my storage room, but rather the great ideas I had for something in the storage room...so I will get back on topic and post more about the storage room later...

Scott and I have in earnest been trying to build our food storage for years now. I am convinced that despite what everyone says, this is not an easy or cheap endeavor! I feel strongly that it needs to be filled with things that we use everyday. In a way this is like my little store in the basement. While we were buying this house we lived off of our food storage in an effort to keep any money we had in bank so that we could get financing (you may not be aware, but we stilled owned our previous house and needed to qualify for a mortgage for this home as well - two mortgages - YIKES. Luckily the other sold before we ever had to pay two mortgages). Anyway, the shelves that cans can roll down have always appealed to me. It seems like an easy way to rotate my constantly moving storage. Building them was never going to happen. Scott is a busy guy and likes to spend his time mountain biking or with us in his free-time. So that wasn't an option. The store-bought ones are very expensive and the ones I looked at never seemed like great quality. So that wasn't an option either. Having someone else build some for us...Well, I am sure you can guess that really wasn't an option. 

Well, while we setting everything up a lightbulb lit up in my head. We have the metal shelves that you can buy at a hardware store. Two years ago on Black Friday I bought a bunch of them at Home Depot for a great price (like $40 a unit or something like that). As we were setting them up I realized that we could install the front part of the shelf upside down and then the shelf would sit at an angle. This would be simple and perfect for letting cans just roll down. It has been awesome. 

The other thing I love is labels. I like things to be organized, belong somewhere, and look pretty. I was trying to figure out a good labeling system. I used to use masking tape, but that leaves a residue and I don't like residue. I have a label maker, but lets face it the font is ugly and the labels aren't cute at all; plus it also leaves a residue. Then I thought I could cut out vinyl. I knew it wouldn't leave a sticky residue. I made most of them and just wasn't excited about mounting them. What if I changed my mind about where I wanted something to go? I do change my mind a lot...So in the end I didn't love that idea. Then it hit me! Magnets! So I made cute labels, laminated them, and put magnet tape on the back. They are perfect. 

Take a look at my work in progress. I hope these two ideas help simplify and organize something in your life a little. I know I as sure excited about them (but that doesn't take much)!

The food aisle in the storage room - see what I mean about living off the food storage? We are now trying to rebuild it.

Tilted shelves. So simple and so much cheaper and better quality than what is available.

Magnetic label. Now I can move things around anytime I want!

The shelf with the green beans is how they normally sit. We flipped the two sides and front to make the shelf tilt.

In the beginning...there was Leola Street...and a house the Hills loved

3 October 2011

One of the minor tragedies of my life has been that we have moved into two homes (before this one) and spent many many hours of hard work transforming them into something spectacular. That isn't really the tragedy; the tragedy is that I have never documented the changes. What a shame! I don't want to repeat history in this home.

This is the first house that we have bought that I have been completely excited about. The other two I had definite reservations, but not so much with this one. I love it. It has a few little issues that I don't like. But it's basic layout is great and the little flaws are things I can work with. It is, however, in need of some serious style. Right now it is completely boring. But the potential is there...

I created this blog so that I can chronicle the changes that will occur. Hopefully in a few years I won't have to post much on here (I anticipate this lasting a few years, at least - our projects are never fast). It should be fun to see what I have started with and what I make of it. So come with me on this chronicle of transformation!