{ Good-bye Stinky Vinyl }

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! 

We enjoyed lots of family time which is rare these days. We got to spend time with Mark's family and my family and even had a little of our own family time too on Christmas morning. 

Here's a quick shot of us all in the morning in our pj's.

We've been jumping all over the house this week, from one project to another...sometimes in the bathroom, sometimes upstairs, and currently we are working in the kitchen. 

Recently Mark removed the bulk head that was above the old cabinets, he took down the beam that stretched across the kitchen and put it up into the rafters so that the kitchen ceiling will be all the same height.  He also installed a new window in the kitchen and ripped up the old vinyl flooring too. 

Here's a reminder shot of the kitchen before the beam and bulk head were removed

The beam was placed there because that was where the original house ended, so when the tiny kitchen edition was put on way back when they had to put in the beam for support. I didn't even know it was possible to raise up a beam but Mark is a genius and did it in a couple hours. 

He had to put up a temporary wall to hold the weight while he removed the beam and reworked it back up into the rafters. 

He tore apart the ceiling to open it up for the beam to be put into place. 

Next up was the window installation.

See the old stove vent in the photo below.

That came out and the window went in it's place. 

We put a window here because this will be directly above the kitchen sink. As you can see below now there are two windows close together but the old window is coming out and there will eventually be a door in it's place when we do the breeze-way and garage addition next year sometime. 

The temporary wall was removed and we decided it was time for that gross vinyl flooring to come out. 

Need a quick reminder of that beautiful flooring?!

Trevor was daddy's big helper for this particular project.

The wood flooring was under the vinyl just up to where the edition was so we are hoping to be able to salvage as much as that as we possibly can. It's in pretty rough shape as you can see in this close up shot but we'll see if we can do it.

Mark worked on ripping the floor up, I brought everything to the dumpster and Trevor pulled up most of the nails with the pry bar all by himself. He is such a good helper!

 

This is how it looks now, all cleaned up!

We have a little work to do before it's ready for new flooring. I have to mention too, although I don't have any photos of them, but Mark's dad has been working very hard on getting all the electrical done in this room (and everywhere else). Including all new outlets and new can lights in the ceiling. 

It is looking great and it feels so much better in there already with that old flooring out. 

I still haven't decided what to do yet in there...not sure if we want to go with a vinyl flooring or try to find a similar hardwood to match the original hardwood as best as we can. 

What do you guys think? Is is easy to match up old wood with new wood? 

{ Moving Right Along | Bathroom progress }

Bathroom is looking more and more like, well, a bathroom!! 

Let me remind you what it first looked like when we bought the house. 

To be honest, it was probably the nicest room in the house. It was remodeled in 2011 so everything was pretty new. 

However, we had a few problems with it. 

1. No bathtub. With small children and only one bathroom we really wanted a bathtub

2. As stated above, it is the ONLY bathroom in the whole house and it is TINY. We needed to expand as much as we could. 

3. That previous sink was smaller than my face. How can I wash my face let alone get ready every single day  with out a counter top.

I know these things are trivial and really not necessary needs when it comes to survival but as long as we were changing things around we figured we would try to make it the best we possibly could. 

Last time I told you we were ready to change out the window...so without further ado, here is the progression breakdown from old window to new window.

old window

 

window removed and support going in for new window

 

new window is in!

Can you see the red floor in the above photo?

That's paper that Mark put down to protect our new flooring!

Yup, it's tile. Looks like wood, fooled you! Isn't it pretty?! We are drooling over here because we love it that much. We also were 100% on the same page when picking it out which is RARE people. We usually debate over every.single.decision. So when we found this tile and both of us went hey this is cool, we were practically running to the check out before one of us could change our minds Ha!

All the drywall is hung and the tub has been placed. We are moving right along!! 

We decided to add shelves that we will tile into the shower space. 

 This is where the vanity will be.

These last two shots are with the tub officially installed as you can see the floor cover has been removed to put it into place. 

The next step is to get the tile up around the shower and finish the drywall so that the toilet and vanity can be installed. I cannot tell you how wonderful it will be when we have a working toilet here again. It is really hard for me to be there with the kids because they have to pee every 10 minutes it seems! We are loving the changes. It definitely feels much bigger already and the floor...ohh we love the floor!

Stay tuned...we will have a finished project around here...one of these days!

{ Vision for Upstairs + GIVEAWAY! }

Update:
Giveaway winner is Lyndsay 
(comment #3 was randomly drawn using this website. 
Congratulations Lyndsay!!

The drywall is ALMOST done!! I have some amazing family members who are extremely giving of their time and talents and because of that the drywall finishing is very close to being done. I am always trying to think of how I am going to decorate up there and I thought that because I had so much fun doing the idea board for the living room that I would share a little of my plan for the upstairs bedroom.

We already have a few of these Trofast storage units from IKEA that we had in our last house. On our last trip we picked up an Expedit unit as well. These are great for storing kids toys. I also picked up some of the storage bins in their blue color and a lack side table to match. 

I already picked up some curtains but I just came across these curtains at IKEA and I am thinking that I just might have to swap them out for what I already have since they seem to coordinate perfectly with the table and bins that I already purchased.

Because this room will be home to my five year old boy and 2 year old girl, I have to stick with more gender neutral color choices. So what I picked out so far has turquoise, green, and blue with a little bit of orange here and there. I am thinking if I go with those curtains I will paint the wooden beds that I picked up on craigslist a grey color and the walls will be a nice white with maybe a fun accent wall. I still need to find bedding that will go perfect with these color choices so if any of you run across something, send me the info!

I've been busy picking little things up for this room off Etsy and planning on doing a few DIY projects too. Which I will share in a post as I start to actually decorate in there. I dont want to spoil all my plans here! However, I really want to share my latest purchase that I am so excited about. They are three printable 8x10's. Awesome huh?!

These are downloaded prints that I purchased from Stephanie's Etsy shop

I think these prints will look so adorable in the room and I am so anxious to see everything all come together.

I loved working with Stephanie and her stuff is all so amazing and the convenience of having an instant download is awesome. Great for quick changes to decor or maybe even a last minute Christmas gift as well.

So in the spirit of giving I am 

Giving away one print from Rosie and Violets!!

To win please go to Stephanie's facebook page and like and share her page. Once shared comment on this blog post "Shared!". The winner will be randomly chosen on Thursday, December 19th. I will post an update to this posting to share the winner! Good Luck!! 

{random number generated here.}

{ Living Room Inspiration }

This is my living room inspiration. I kinda wish that I could just reach into the photo and grab every single detail down to the curtains and put it into my own house. Clearly thats not an option yet in this day and age so I went on a hunt to duplicate.

photo credit

I'm ITCHING to start decorating. Dreaming is how I am scratching that itch for now. The primary reason I picked this photo as my inspiration is the couch color. That's the same color as our couch. Since we are throwing money at every store under the moon right now we will be re-using a lot of what we had in our previous house to save a few dimes and adding a few things to change up my style a bit. 

I decided to make an idea board for this room...my first idea board EVER!

If you click on the links below you will see some of these items are not cheap. Like I said I'm dreaming but hey...a girl can wish right!? This was purely for the fun because seriously, making this idea board was a blast. 

Pillows - Etsy shop
Chair- hayneedle.com
Rug - overstock.com
Lamp - shades of light

Curtains (second down from top left) - Etsy shop

What do you think? I have trouble putting different patterns together and deciding if they work or not. Do these prints all work together or might I get a headache walking into that living room?

Decorating the living room is a couple months away so we shall see what I can whip up by then. Maybe you'll be staring at these exact items or maybe you'll be looking at my old couch sitting alone and nothing more because I was too tired of dreaming to do anything else! 

{ Painted trim or no? }

The house is a disaster. Literally. 

Mark TORE up the kitchen over the weekend. Walls are down. Drywall is removed. The bulk head is gone. A temporary wall was put up so that we could remove the beam in the kitchen so that Mark could re-locate it up into the rafters. Kitchen cabinets are everywhere. Drywall finishing upstairs is still happening. Dust is everywhere. It's a mess I tell you. 

So much is happening but nothing really worthy of showing off quite yet...SO, I need you all to ring in on a debate I've been having with myself over the last month or two that I just cant quite decide on. Can you figure it out by the post title? 

Do I paint the trim in the house white for a crisp clean more modern look or leave it? 

Here's the thing...the trim is actually all in really good shape. I kinda feel bad to paint it. Plus there's a whole lot of it...so that's tackling a big job. BUT on the other side, the color of the trim is NOT my thing. Honey color anything is not my thing. Also the kitchen/dining area has already been changed out to white trim and the bathroom and upstairs will be white trim so seems to me that the whole house should be the same. UGH!! What to do??

Here are a couple photos to remind you of what the trim looks like in the house. Please give me your thoughts. Really, I need other opinions. 

Thanks in advance for your thoughts! 

{ Ripping up the bathroom | Part 2 }

We hope that you all had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving! We enjoyed spending the afternoon with Mark's mom and dad, his sister Heather and his sister April and her family.  We had a fantastic feast, yummy desserts, and quality family time. After that we drove over to my cousin's house and got to see family there too, we found out another baby will be joining the family (yay!) and of course ate some more! We get to have Thanksgiving with my family tomorrow. 

SO thankful for our families!! 

We've worked on the bathroom a couple nights now.

This is how it looked the last time you saw it from this post.

 Up next we had to tear out the other wall between the kitchen and the bathroom so that we can expand the bathroom a little more in that direction. 

I'm standing in the kitchen taking this photo. Hello bathroom!

Next, he ripped up the flooring and underneath was the original wood floor BUT it was all rotted. That had to go. 

Then the sub floor had to go too. That was rotted out as well. Oh these projects just keeping getting more complicated! 

Hello basement.

Today, it looks like this. New sub floor. 

 See the angle on the floor...that's where the new wall will be. 

Before we did the floor we placed the vanity and the tub in the room to get a feel for it. 

Here's a shot of it in the front room.

The tub is a rounded corner tub. We went with this to maximize the space in this tiny bathroom. It still has the covering on it so don't be fooled. We did not buy a blue tub. It IS white. 

The toilet will go next to the vanity. It will still be pretty tight but removing that closet and then expanding into the kitchen a little definitely gives us more space than what was there to begin with. 

We also decided to relocate the window now too.

All the windows in the house need to be replaced at some point so this one's time is now and with putting the tub in that corner there are about 2 inches of window in the shower space. To avoid moisture damage/issues we decided to relocate over to the left, more in the corner of the room. That way when you're sitting on the jon you will be able to peer outside. nice huh?!

Still lots to do in here but progress is happening. 
Somedays it feels like we will never move in to this house. Somedays when I look around and see all the things that need to be done I get stressed. But then I remind myself...we have a home. we have wonderful family and friends. we are healthy. we have a safe and cozy place to stay while we are fixing up our home. I cannot let myself get overwhelmed by such things. It will happen. Slowly but surely. Someday we will be moving in. That is truth.