Our Floor Plan

Last Oct. we moved into a new home that we custom built.

We hired a builder, Highland Homes.

We presented a floor plan that we had found online, to the builder's architect.
Then, Chris and I worked with the architect for several months
and lots of drafts to tweak the floor plan to our liking.

2nd Floor

 1st Floor

There were lots of decisions.
Basement or no basement? Formal Dining Room?
Master Bedroom on the main or upstairs?

In the end, it's impossible to do everything.
Otherwise you end up with too big of a house, or a house stretched out too long,
or going way over budget.

My mom told me it's good to make a list of the top 5-10 things that you must have.
Then work from there.

Here was my 10 Top List:
1. Family Room/Kitchen hidden from entry
2. A Guest Bedroom/Bath on Main floor w/bathroom entrance to backyard
(For kids coming in and out during the summer to use the restroom)
3. 4 kids bedrooms
4. Family room and kitchen in one large rectangle shape
(Not the L shape that you find in most homes and floor plans.)
5. Lots of storage spaces
6. A bonus room/toy/family movie room
7. 2 kids bathrooms, 1 boy and 1 girl upstairs near their bedrooms.
8. Separate Mud room and laundry room (laundry room needed a window.)
9. 2 story entry
10. Kitchen with an island, and space for our family computer and command center.

I made a blog for our home building experience, to document selections and photos.
But, when you're moving, selling a home, building a home, and taking care of 5 kids in the summer. Who has time to blog?
So the blog, is a little lacking but it does have some things on there, if you're interested.

Change

Our family is moving, soon.
It's been a HUGE decision in the works for a couple of years.
We had the opportunity to build a home for our family.
The decision has been very difficult. Being a grown-up is hard, I think.
I'm just grateful for prayer.

We are staying in Idaho.
We are moving just a few miles down the road from where we used to live.
It does mean new schools, new neighbors, new stores, and a new ward.
Lots of change.

I had high expectations of blogging more about the experience,
but alas, time always escapes.

As the move is feeling very real now, I'm feeling a new peace and excitement.
Something that will be good for our family. I can just feel it.

New Red Window Coverings

Last summer I redid my kitchen window coverings.



I measured the window length, and bought particle(?) board at Home Depot.
Each board was longer than the window length.
I had one of the workers at Home Depot cut 2 boards
the right length to fit both my windows.

I bought red, bold, patterned fabric at JoAnn's.
I was nervous to use this fabric.
It is bold, I had another fabric I was deciding between.
Lindy convinced me to go with the bold!
Lindy was right. I have loved them.

1. I hot glued the fabric onto the front of both boards.
(A staple gun would work just as well.)
I didn't cover the back of the board with fabric.

2. Using a pencil I marked where two holes needed to be,
to screw on the metal hangers on the back of the board.
I also cut a small square out of the fabric for the holes.

3. Then, I drilled two small holes and screwed in the metal hangers.
For each board I put a metal hanger on each side.

Ta Da!

P.S. I love red!

Can you tell?

I always need hints of red in my home decor.

The Red Door

My front door had a wood stain to it.

Over several years, though, the wood stain started chipping away.

Our door was not made of real wood and so,

I tried a gel wood stain for a simple repair.

But within a few months to a year, the door looked just as bad,

and more of the original stain had chipped away.

Not to mention my DIY gel staining let some strange streaks.

Not very sightly for our front door the first impression to our home.

After reading this post,

I got the courage to paint our front door.

I sanded, taped, and primed the front door.

Sand

Tape

Prime

Paint

  I have loved it.

The Craft Room - Done!

Do you remember my before and after post of my undone, unfinished craft room?

Guess what?  I actually finished the room.

I have AFTER photos.

Are you ready?

The room's not perfect.

I would probably do things a little different.

But it's done, it functions, and I like it.

The kid zone:

The Sewing Space

The Storage Space

The Gift Wrap Station

Where the stuff came from to put the room together:

Room Paint Color: Tempered Sage, Valspar

Green Wall Chalk Boards: Pottery Barn

Homemade Curtains and Fabric from JoAnn's (Thread Holder from JoAnn's too)

White BookShelf: Target

Wall Shelves: Lowe's

Desk: Office Depot or Staples?

Storage Baskets: Michael's and Fred Meyer

Word Frames and Wreath: Hobby Lobby

Bird and Birdhouse Picture: Fred Meyer

Gift Wrap Station: Old furniture from D.I. primed and painted white.

I screwed on the curtain rods to the upper shelf unit.

That's what I used to hold the rolls of gift wrap and ribbons.

See close up photo above.

Children's Table and chairs: Target

Mini Chalkboard signs: CostPlus

Sewing Machine: Costco

The truth about the room, now that it's done and I use it:

We still do almost all of our crafting at our kitchen table.

This room serves more as our storage place for craft supplies,

the room is not far from our kitchen.

The computer and family papers are not in this room.
I love that about the room.

It rarely looks like the above photos.

It's a project room, a place to store ongoing projects.

It's great to have a room for just that.

Here's what it looks like most of the time:

 Piles of Laundry, Legos on the floor, etc.

Undone kitchen curtain project, more legos. 

This is why doors are good things.

We just shut the door,

when we need to ignore something for a while.

Some Housekeeping Tips I read about this Summer

I stumbled upon this book over the summer at our local library.

It has great tips for making my home a better place to live in and visit.

I don't entirely recommend the book, though, the author used too many swear words for my taste.

That's the 101 things I hated about the book.

Instead, I'll share some of my favorite tips, so you can be spared the foul language.

1. Clean up your Front Door & Porch. Make sure the 1st impression and entry to your home is clean and tidy.
2. Use nice smells throughout your home. It's important.
3. Use music more in your home. It creates a nice feeling and mood.
4. Tidy up the Guest Bath on your main floor. Have Soap and Clean towels, have new toilet paper rolls very visible, kleenex, etc.
5. Use side tables more in your gathering rooms for company & your family to place things.
6. Even if you don't use your fireplace, have some kind of wood (real or fake) near it. It looks warm, cozy, and inviting. A good decor tip!
7. Have comfortable chairs - Make that a priority over looks.  In your gathering rooms and at your kitchen table. Your family, and guests will listen to you better if they are comfortable in their chairs. 'The mind can only absorb what the seat can endure'
8. Make eating/dining more enjoyable, and comfortable. Stop Dining & Dashing
9. Decorate your home w/ your memories, Show that you live. Display your passions, dreams, and hobbies. This makes a home much more interesting to look at, visit, and live in.
10. Have a library (Even though you have ebooks) Display your magazines and books more throughout your home. Decorate with what you read more often.
11. Where books are you need more light.
12. Take the tv/computer/ipad etc. out of the master bedroom. Show your spouse you matter more to them than all the technology and media. We all need a comfortable environment to sleep and relax in - the technology takes away from that relaxed mood.

Cute as a Button

Last Fall/Christmas we went through a dishwasher leak disaster in our home.

Our hardwood needed to be replaced in our kitchen.

Our carpet in our family room, which is connected to our kitchen, also needed to be replaced.

All of our furniture from the family room was removed for the new hardwood.

After the flooring was redone,

and the Family room was completely empty

this left me with the potential to redefine how we use our family room.

Then, decide what decor and furniture could best fit our family needs.

1st step - Some additional seating.

I purchased these chairs on sale at Pier 1 Imports.

I wanted neutral, comfortable chairs.

But, the room still needed a little color pop!

Then, I got the idea to fabric paint the buttons on the chairs.

(Idea inspiration here.)

I love how it turned out.

I just used this fabric paint from our local sew/craft store, and a small paint brush.

I did 2 coats to help get the right color I wanted. I waited a couple hours in between each coat.

I put painters tape around each button to make sure I just painted the buttons only.

It was an easy project. Lindy, my 10 yr old, helped paint the buttons too.
I love the results.  It feels good when a home decor project goes right! Yeah for that!

Maybe, just maybe, I'll show you some other changes I've made to our Family Room.
No promises, though.

Before & After Photos of my Sewing - Craft Room!

We have a lot of rooms in our home.

One room on our main floor was being used as my computer, office, sew, craft, play, school room.
If you're more curious, here is another post with photos of this room.
This quickly turned into a cluttered, unorganized crazy mess, where I hated to be.
It was supposed to be my favorite room of the house.

We started to make it better by moving the computer office stuff out last summer.
This has worked great.
Now, it's ONLY to be a sewing, craft, creative room. A sanctuary for me.

Before:

After:

I tricked you, didn't I?

Yep, that's how it works around my house.

I never get to the AFTER photos.

You thought you would see a

fun, newly, decorated Sewing-Craft room.

Nope.

Maybe you'll see it 5 years from now, if you're still reading this blog.

But, it's still a BIG maybe.

If you want to feel inspired with great after photos,
you can enjoy this blog I just discovered.

I love Nate and Peter, I hate Peter and Nate

I love getting home organization and decor tips from Nate and Peter.

When they are on tv, I get excited to pick up a tip or two.

They inspire me.

I've even written a Nate and Peter post.

This is Nate.

This is Peter.

They both have books, websites, and are often on tv.

They work with people/families/housewives if they have a cluttered room or area.

They will garbage, junk, educate and teach the how-to's of taking care of your spaces.

Then they will also organize and decorate the space.

It's beautiful every time. 

Tear jerking.

I love it.

I hate it.

I love it, because I agree with everything they say.

"Throw it out. Toss this.

You don't need this.

Make your bed.

Love your home.

Bring nature in.

Declutter."

I hate it, because I always feel terrible after listening to them.

I will never win the opportunity for them to organize my home.

I will not be on tv with them for the room redo giveaway!

Even if I'm so lucky, on my own, to organize 1 space and dejunk.

I still have 25 million other spaces to organize all around my life and home.

I will never in a million years get to it all.

It's discouraging and it makes me sad.

But then, I thought about Nate and Peter.

They don't have kids of their own or a new baby to take care of round the clock.

(Peter did grow up with lots of siblings, I'll give him that credit.)

They are busy with their jobs and employment, and are not stay-at-home moms.

Our lives are different.

When I realized that, I decided not to hate their talents.

I will be happy with what I do have, and not hate their advice.

I have:

kids & clutter, they go together,

you can't have one without the other

(This is my new poem!)

I will also do better at making my bed, Peter.

I will try to love my home more, Nate.

The Baby's Room

Do you remember I did a post (the before pictures) about fixing & decorating my home?
I was serious, and have begun very S L OW L Y to make things more pleasing to the eye in our home.

First room - The baby's room
We moved Sadie in with Lindy and I began my work.

I painted the walls, got new curtains,
put up something on each wall that has meaning to me, got a shelf for the books (love this, love this!!), and Chris moved in a yellow dresser to use as a changing table (not pictured).

This is an enlarged photo of my mom holding me, when I was a baby.

This quilt was hand sewn by my grandma.

Cute photos of each of my kids as babies.

Do you see the shelf for the books? Totally great from pottery barn kids (I splurged here.)