Nesting: What Our House Looks Like Now, After Over 4 Years of Living Here

See the newly painted white walls! They look so much better!

I cannot wait to hang some white curtains. Since we have a total of eight windows in the living and dining rooms and we would like the curtains to match I think we'll go with these as they're cheap and long. To dress them up, maybe some of these tie backs.

I haven't hung anything on either side of that huge mirror because I'm at a loss as to what to put there. I don't want to hang two-dimensional artwork because we have a gallery wall started in the dining room but I don't want to hang just anything there. I do thinks we may hang Matt's guitar up on one side so that it's off the ground but still accessible. One of our fur babies knocked it over and the neck cracked, hearts were broken. A cracked neck of a guitar would break any guy's heart. On the other side I've been thinking of commissioning a woven wall hanging. I'm going to meet the lovely Layne of The Room Journal next weekend and she makes some beauties, I might have to talk to her about a commission.

The couch replaced the leather couch Matt had as a bachelor and which Lady destroyed. It is gigantic. This is the only wall that it would fit on. Even though it's not super stylish it is so comfortable and I don't regret the purchase at all. We found it on Craigslist and it was basically brand new. The coffee table is such a treasure as my dad made in high school. It was in my grandmother's house for the longest time and when she passed it became mine. I love it so! My dad is mighty talented.



We were in desperate need of new book cases for too long. When we first moved in we bought some of those cheap black bookcases from Walmart and not a few months later they started tilting. It was bad. I finally purchased these industrial shelves to use instead as they're heavy duty and can hold all of our classics, best sellers, art books, farming books, records, and such. That clock, that beaut' was a wedding gift from my parents. It is so charming and chimes on the hour.

I cannot wait to replace this chair. It's Lady's chair and she has completely destroyed it. She does that to all furniture, it's ridiculous. We are searching for a wood mid century modern chair so that none of our fur babies will damage it. I'm looking for something larger, so not just an occasional chair.  If you find one let me know!

On to the dining room, our little jungle:

I painted this room a nice blue green for Matt. He loves color on the walls and I don't mind it all that much either! It's a refreshing change from all the neutral homes that are so popular right now. I would like to replace that table and chairs we bought from Target when we first moved in. When I was younger I didn't know the value of only buying things you absolutely loved, but we needed a table and this one was convenient. I would like to thrift a light farm table, maybe with a distressed white look to it. These chairs would brighten the room up so well and contrast nicely with an old farm table.

You can see our lovely heirloom china cabinet Matt's parents gave us as a wedding gift. It is filled with heirloom china and in the bottom we store games, puzzles, and movies because when you live in a tiny house you have to put things in weird places like china cabinets.

This is our landing strip. That big blank spot in the middle of our gallery wall is where the portrait I drew of Bill Murray will go once I can find a frame for it that I like. We are also trying to get rid of the victrola, if you know anyone you would like it have them contact me! I'm going to add this coat rack to the right of the gallery wall so that all of our belongings have a place to go. The desk I have had since I was teenager, I love it so. That chair my good friend purchased for me for a whopping four dollars. Such a steel.

Onto the kitchen:

I'm so glad I painted the kitchen white and that dark gray blue when I did. It's such a more cheery place. It was a grimy cream before. Speaking of grimy, those kitchen tiles, they're so bad but in a way they have grown on me… but then again I can't wait to get rid of them. I was talking with my mom about the tile on the walls and realized that we have no idea what we are going to do with the floor to ceiling tiles on the stove wall and the north wall as our walls are made of plaster. It is going to be a disaster updating this kitchen. The counters won't be too difficult though we plan to replace them with this formica top.  I'm not even going to show you the sink wall as it is so bad…

That cutting board and butter dish were lovely bridal shower gifts from my lovely lady friends.

See the tile? It goes all the way up that wall! And don't you just love the ivy wall paper covered switch plate? It makes me giggle.

I had to buy that Rifle Paper Co. recipe box after cooking my Mom's Chicken Noodle Soup from a recipe scratched on a scratch paper. It's the only recipe in the box too. Some day I'll scribble all those special recipes down, some day. The olive oil dispenser was a Christmas gift from my parents, it was made by an artisan in their tiny little town of Westcliffe, CO.

Our stove is crap. It's so old and the top is rusted in on the left and has fallen through. We'll be replacing it as soon as possible! I would love this one, but Matt gets to pick it out since he's more of the cook of the house. 

He also wants to add a peg board wall to the left of the stove for all of our utensils. I want to try to make something like what my dear friend Casey made for her back porch. It looks like this but of course ours will look more like this.

Here is our square hall way that leads to the studio, bathroom, and bedroom:

I really want to wallpaper this little hallway with this Rifle Paper Co. wallpaper. I just want to do something really unexpected in this room as it is just a passage way and sorely overlooked. I will probably even wallpaper the ceiling. There is already a nice ceiling medallion around the light bulb that just needs a fresh coat of white paint. I'll replace the bulb with one of those nice Edison bulbs. Those prints are from Elise Mahan Fine Art Etsy Shop. Matt got them for me for my birthday last year because we are super space nerds. Like we re-watch and re-watch Star Trek episodes and go see every space movie that hits the theaters. Takes me back to when I wanted to be an astronaut because we learned about Sally Ride in science class one day when I was little. So cool.

Lets peek into the bathroom as you can see that pretty pink octagon tiled floor from the hallway:

I keep going back and forth about updating this space. I like it. I like how retro it is and it's pretty nice for how old it is. The bathtub really does need replaced but if we were to replace it we would have to replace all of the tile. I've been researching how to repair tubs and I think I may be able to do it on my own. We shall see. We will definitely be replacing the light fixtures and I am thinking about these. I would like to try to add a wood trim around the mirror just to spruce it up. I painted the walls and ceiling a light gray a long long time ago, it was so nasty before. I just changed out our shower curtain too. The one before was light gray, so much a gray. Gray, Gray, Gray. Speaking of gray, are you going to see 50 Shades of Grey? I couldn't get through the sec on book so I probably won't… but kind of want to. Ha.

Here is a lonesome photo of my studio:

This room is very open. If we have a baby while we are still living in this house this room will double as a baby room. We will definitely have to do some rearranging to make space though. Back when I was pregnant, before we lost the baby, I painted this room a nice minty color and I am so glad I did. It is such a soothing color and gender neutral. I really hope that it becomes a nursery sooner rather than later.

And here is our bedroom:

This room is so light and airy but it needs painted badly. Matt wants it to be dark in there so I'm thinking about painting it a dark green like this. I don't know if I should use the color on an accent wall, behind the bed, or for the whole room… I'll be referencing Emily Henerson's blog post on the subject rather often while working on this room. We also need more private curtains to go over the sheers and two of these pretty little things.

I can't wait to start all of these projects and share them with you here on the blog. 

Nesting: We Bought Our First Home And… We Don't Have To Move!

Oh, the story of our little bungalow. It is a crazy one. Matt and I moved in to this little blue bungalow in November of 2010 six months after we met. Our first landlord tried to sell the house while we were still living in it a few years back but we had a lease agreement for another year… We attempted to find a new rental while our house was on the market and found one we really liked but absolutely did not click with the landlord. We decided to stay and see if our little bungalow would sell. Our house was eventually sold to a new landlord whom has been trying to sell us the house since he took ownership. After searching high and low for affordable houses that do not need a lot of work, have a fire place, wood floors, a gas range, etc. we quickly realized there weren't any houses that met our expectations and none were any better than what we were already living in. So we made the decision to go ahead and buy our little blue bungalow.

I know several people who think we are crazy because, "The resale value of a two bedroom isn't very good." Or, "In your neighborhood?" And then they hear what we purchased it for and they somewhat turn around, "Oh that's a good investment." I'm trying to brush everyone's opinions off but sometimes it is just so hard.

I'll start out by sharing some old photos from the blog and computer when we first moved in and had no idea we would be living here for over four years. And to be honest no real established taste. I was only 21!

Technically this is the dining room because it leads into the kitchen but we like the coziness that the back of the house provides. Not much has changed in the living room except for the layout and the couch but boy do we have plans! We did paint the swinging door separating the kitchen from this room white but will eventually remove it all together. We plan to replace the severely outdated window unit. I know, I know, why don't we just get central air. Well, we are poor and plan on renting this house out in the future so something that expensive wouldn't be worth it. I painted this room and the dining room over the past weekend. I will have to share photos when each room is "finished." We will remove the blinds and add floor to ceiling curtains in the near future.

 Excuse the mess and my split in half pup! The dining room was once used as my studio. All that junk, those are art supplies. I've recently paired down my supplies and moved my studio to the spare room, I'm not sure why it didn't start off there in the first place! Since this picture was taken I have hung a plug in pendant light above the table and we added a family heirloom china cabinet given to us as a wedding gift by Matt's parents. Over the weekend I painted the room a light blue green as Matt needs some color up in this joint! I would eventually like to replace the dining set with a farm house table and modern white chairs, but that is a ways off if ever.

 This room looks TEN TIMES BETTER even now! A while back I removed the hideous blinds and replaced them with bamboo blinds. Then I painted the lower cabinets a very dark grayish blue, but even that wasn't enough to improve this horrid eyesore. I painted the upper cabinets, the ceiling, and all of the trim a clean stark white over the summer and man oh man does it look better. Matt recently replaced the linoleum floor with a darker prettier linoleum floor, but that doesn't seem to be working for us so we will be laying tile with the help of my dad who was once carpenter. Once a carpenter, always a carpenter. He will also be helping us install new white marble formica countertops, a white subway tile backsplash, and a stainless steel sink. We will be getting a new stove too as Matt's a professional cook and insists upon it. Our refrigerator is behind that door as our house was built in 1917. For the longest time my Mom has been insisting that we remove some cabinets and move the refrigerator into the kitchen instead of the back porch but we don't want to do that so we will be removing the door to the back porch and sprucing that area up with some paint on the floor and walls. I think this will be my favorite part of updating our house.

However, we also plan to update our peto bismol pink bathroom. I've read all about saving the pink bathroom but we've lived with it long enough and it's going neutral. What are your thoughts on getting rid of our pink bathroom? Should it stay or should it go? We plan on replacing the tile floor, removing the tile from the walls, replacing the tub, and tile in the shower area. So this might be my favorite part of updating our house.

 Here is the back yard. As you can see Matt's an avid farmer. I say farmer rather than gardener because this one is his garden and he also had a farm last summer. We plan on adding some chickens, a patio area, and twinkly lights over a new outdoor dining set. The patio area may never pan out but I can hope!

This is a horrible photo of our front yard! Since we have lived here we have had flowers galore planted to the left of those stairs. Most recently we had hollyhocks which were so beautiful! To the right of where my car sits we will plant a raised bed of hostas since it is shady in that area. I'm not sure what Matt plans to plant to the left of the stairs this year but I think it'll be a perennial since we know we will be here for a while.

Well that's a severely outdated tour for you! I'll post more photos of our renovation journey later.

Back to Blogging

I have decided to come back to blogging after a year's hiatus. Over the last year I decided to stay teaching at my current school an hour away from the home we have rented for the past three and a half years. 

Matt and I married on May 25th, our four year anniversary. Though it has only been a month I find myself saying I want to marry this man, only to have to remind myself that we were just married!

I am going to start writing about the past year and sharing photos that have started gathering "cyber spider webs." I will share some personal artwork and begin covering updates on Sower's Row through the season. First to come are the wedding photos!

Bedroom

The radiator in our bedroom no longer works. With the temperatures in the twenties the last couple of days, the nights have been unbearable. Matt moved our bed into his man cave and his belongings into the bedroom. Since our house is tiny all that fits in the new bedroom is the bed, a side table (and room for another if we had one), and his clothes in the closet. The closet isn't even big enough fit my small (for a girl) collection of clothes! Anyway, it looks ridiculous, but we will have to do.

We've lived in the same house for the past 2 years and yet I haven't really nested and I am dying to even knowing we'll be moving in a year. I am very attracted to clean uncluttered spaces but in the same thought gallery walls and piles on bookshelves, of books that is, are also very appealing. I think Matt would prefer that we have nothing unnecessary...but this will not happen.

I thought I would post some photos I have found around the web for the next few days with inspiration for each room in my house, except for Matt's man cave. He would kill me if he knew I was calling it that!

In the bedroom:
I would love to paint my bed a metallic bronze,
stack books on my nightstand,
turn a ginger jar into a lamp,
have fresh flowers in a mason jar,
purchase polka dotted sheets,
make a striped and floral quilt in pale blue and white,
have a chair as a side table since we don't have two,
hang some light and airy sheers to hide the rental blinds,
and make a paper mache mount as a real one wouldn't make much sense in our household and drape a scarf around it.

Image via Oh Happy Day

Image via {Frolic!}

Photo by Jade McCully for Matchbook

Deck The Halls

I got a little excited for Christmas and started decorating a tad too early but the house looks lovely and wintery even though it's it was nearly 70 degrees today the day before Thanksgiving. Matt and I made candles and snowflakes. I made a mistletoe ornament. We thought about purchasing a real Christmas tree this year but they are extremely expensive, so we thought about getting a larger faux Christmas tree instead but they are also extremely expensive for a nice one. We ended up using the miniature lime green tinsel tree I got for the dorm room my freshman year of college and stringing up fair lights around the windows in the house.