March truly is going out like a lion. We had a freak snow storm this past weekend, but thankfully our house had some great company to help with some progress. The Serena Lily sconces I talked about back in this post finally went up! Sorry it took so long, but I rearranged the room like I said, and then let the kids and myself live in it for awhile, until I made my final decision. I ended up going with the original layout. Although the bed area is more confined, it left for the most room for the kids to get dressed, and play. Also, these sconces aren’t hard wired, so we can always patch the screw holes and move them around down the road.
This is the view when you first walk into the room; I can’t wait to get that new dresser in here. The throw will change too when Miss Peanut moves out of here.
We have a chair to the left (mint green) that’s blocking this little alcove, that I want to hang industrial bars in to act like a closet, but until then, I don’t want the babies going back there since there is a little bit of exposed heat piping.
Always forget to get GooGone to get those Ikea stickers off.
We have a ratton toy chest in between the beds that I picked up from TJMaxx a couple of weeks ago, before we chose the shades. This poor box is taking such a beating, that I know it’s just going to be a short term solution. The kids like to try and climb on top, or lean on the top to get to the window and look at all the deer or birds outside. Since the top isn’t reinforced you can imagine what happens next. I think when we finally move Miss Peanut into her new room I’ll bring the chest with her since she needs storage, and look for something else in here.
Other updates! We took out two trees in the back that blocked over 4 acres of view! We now have unrestricted views of the back pasture and where the future orchard will be! Before the guys could cut up the huge trees, this happened:
Literally. 5 inches of snow when we had none. We also were able to clear out all the brush that sporadically lined the front of the house so we can plant hydrangeas after we bulk out the portico this summer.
When the snow started falling outside, the work started inside on our side mudroom. I can’t explain to you how exciting this is!! Once we get this finished, then comes our Master Bedroom. Let me preference this by saying, we started this journey back in June 2013, as in our entire house was boxed up, and it is now practically April 2014. Having a bedroom that is put together, where my clothes are actually in a dresser, not in a box, or a hamper, or half in a garage and half in the house; having my shoes all in one house…it just sounds like heaven. We can’t have our bedroom until we get this side mudroom which leads into our new bedroom completed. Still, it’s one step closer.
So let me reflect. This is what it looked like:
And this is what it looks like now!
What you couldn’t really grasp in the picture above was that the right wall was actually the original 1845 exterior wall of the house. It had shingles on it. At some point it was turned into this weird “enclosed porch” and then it was fully enclosed to be included into the interior of the home. SOOOO….haha. We had to completely remove the shingles, under which had years of termite damage, and rotted insulation, just nastyness. Completely cut out all of that, restructure it and then re-drywall. Surprisingly, the only snag we hit was that door jam was weight bearing since it was the original ‘front door’. We have french doors into our Master that were supposed to go here.
So what now. We need to wait until our contractor gets here to figure out what our options are with the door jam; we still need to remove the drop ceiling, and add overhead lighting. Lastly, we’ll be installing plywood wide plank flooring over this flooring. WHAT?! I know I can hear some of you. The reason is because if you can put yourself in the position of the person taking this photo, I would be about 6 feet away from the front door on a completely different floor that is about 1/4 higher. The Master Bedroom which is through the doorway to the right, is the same height as the rest of the house (1/4 higher) is also a completely different flooring. We have to completely remove the flooring in the Master, and lay a sub floor, so it will all be the same height, but both rooms will have a wide plank plywood with a dark white wash.
This room will most be for non-everyday use storage of athletic gear, extra shoes, coats, mail; while our tiled mudroom is where we have our everyday things. I do know that I’m going to need a good durable rug in here since I’ll be using a white wash floor.
Thayer & Reed 