Are you sick of hearing about the fireplace yet?

After three months in our new home, we finally moved our beam to our driveway, where it then sat for a few weeks. But-- but!-- once our motivation set in, things moved quickly. Though our style mostly trends more streamlined, the laws of 1850s barn beams dictate that you appreciate them in (most of) their imperfect, dilapidated glory. So after a power wash and just enough sanding to remove flaking outer layers, we mixed a dark and a natural stain and gave the beam just two coats so that the details in the wood shine. 

Then we waited for a willing soul to stop by and lend some brute strength to the task of bringing this baby into the house. Nate's an engineer, so he ran equations and thought and re-thought the hanging process until he was satisfied that nothing could pull this mantel from the wall.

It was, however, too heavy for even these two strong men to lift from floor to the spot where it would be adhered to the wall, so we devised a levy system out of stools and step ladders. 

 Success at last!

And when you go to all this effort to customize your fireplace, you take an awkward family photo in front of it to commemorate all of the f-bombs and harried child redirection that went into the job.

Adding the remaining pieces to frame out the rest of the surround was comparatively nothing.

Our pretty marble tile arrived. I love that we got such varied marbling in our tiles. Though there's lots of white and gray, there's also a little tan and even purplish tones, and it takes on a sparkling appearance in the evening that is so so pretty. More on the pain-in-the-ass process of herringbone tile manipulation to come.

To be completely clear, these first two pieces of drywall are actually pieces #3 and 4, because it took Nate and I two mega fail moments where we almost had a piece of drywall placed and then it tumbled over backwards and epically smashed on the floor for us to figure out that we needed a different methodology.

See that extension pole on a broom to the left of the fireplace in the photo below? That along with some strategically pre-placed nails for balance was our saving grace, because Nate could take breaks to rest the drywall at intervals on his way up to the ceiling while I pressed the tops of the sheets against the frame with the flat broom to keep them steady while they got screwed in. 

We are so lucky that aside from a few ankle cuts from where the drywall bounced off Nate on its way down the second time, and a few spots of adhesive on our rug, we otherwise escaped unscathed. This is a "do not try this at home" lesson for all. There's a reason why people use professionals for projects such as this one.

After the drywall went up, so did the trim. We intentionally sized our fireplace to minimize drywall cuts, and then the trim ended up covering most of the seams. Score! We tiled before we drywalled the lower section so that we had a better idea of how we needed to trim it out. Again, more on that later.

And though we've managed to get her primed, the autumn and then winter holidays showed up, and I decided that I wanted to decorate my unfinished mantel more than I wanted to finish painting it. So there it remains until after the new year, where it may continue to haunt us for another few months before one of us sucks it up and gets it done.

Nevertheless, we've come a long way.

Five Friday Facts

1. Starting when I was in high school through my mid-twenties, Friday was this major thing. The idea of having no plans gave me anxiety, and when it came to going out-- the more friends the better! Fridays were an evening for fun clothes, a little too much makeup, and a beer in the shower. Now that I'm a parent of three, Friday nights are equally amazing because on Saturday we don't have to wake up to catch the bus at 6:58am, we often get to hang out around the house instead of rushing-rushing-rushing to the next thing, and I can make a night special by calling it a movie night and serving frozen pizza to my little people.

2. Cheese pizza for grown ups: order/ bake/ cook a plain pie for the not-so-foodies in your life. Then saute some spinach (a LOT shrinks down a LOT so I basically put a salad's worth in a pan with a few teaspoons of water and a lid) and top your pizza with the spinach, a drizzle of balsamic glaze/ balsamic vinegar reduction, and a sprinkle of coarse sea salt. Gourmet for pennies! You're welcome.

3. Fall is wonderful and everything, but it's not the only season worth living for: I hate pumpkin pie and pumpkin spice lattes (though I loooove pumpkin beer), I hate my amped up allergies to something that's yet to be defined, I love sweater weather but hate the days where I have to basically plan out three outfits per kid because it starts off at 48 degrees but ends at 75 and rains somewhere in the middle, and I really am not a fan of cider mills because cider and donuts = sugar = bees and I am NOT a fan of them.

4. In less than a week my third baby will be 4 months old and I could already see myself wanting another despite the fact that we've 90 percent decided that he'll be our last. But the time is passing by so very quickly and I can already tell that he's going to be a toddler before I know it. He's already scooting (scary) and sleeping through the night (scary because I know it could change on a dime) and he's just the sweetest little dude on the planet. I'll have five more just like him, please.

5. Instagram is driving me nuts. Though I love the photo-centric format and I really love the fact that I can have my feed automatically printed every 60 pictures (Chatbooks are the only reason why my kids are going to have their early days documented because traditional baby books have been a major fail around here!), it seems like every day people's feeds are getting more contrived and more magazine-like to sell the lifestyle they want everyone to think they are leading. It also, at least for me, breeds discontent. I want the beautiful white rooms and whimsically perfect cookies and adorable children who are always coiffed and styled perfectly. It's hard to remind myself that Instagram, like Facebook, leads people to compare their own rounded knowledge of themselves with the external image that others are portraying. So I'm thinking about seeing myself out. Or changing my social media habits. Or something.

So here's a pumpkin beer toast to the short-lived neverending days of parenting young children and maintaining some semblence of sanity and a career in a world where women are losing themselves in their filtered online lives. Here's to the 9 hour workday I have tomorrow that allows my husband and me to reduce childcare costs and pay for extracurricular activities and the unspoken costs of moving into a new build home, and reduces both our family time but also our stress levels. And here's to the blessed freedom of a Friday night without plans or expectations.

Cheers!
Erin

PS- On the home decor front, we've started planning out our mudroom and study built-ins. I am so so so anxious to get started! Plans coming soon.

Outdoor Living at E-Haus

One of the hardest parts of moving into a new or new build house these days is the sheer quantity of inspirational pictures available to dissatisfy even the most excited home owner. Taking a step back, though, it's good to have to wait, and earn, and dream. 

I wanted a fireplace to be immediately set in our house, to the point where I very nearly pulled the trigger on having one of the house contractors build out a generic mantel for us just so that we could have one done. At another point, someone suggested that we use the same stone from our exterior to build a 2-story stone fireplace and I thought-- yes! that makes sense!-- even though something else in me kept me questioning if it was the right plan. Luckily, my doubt and Nate's steadfast insistence that he build out the fireplace surround kept us from making a hasty choice, and a few months later I came across a picture that I immediately loved. Now, after a few months of tweaking, our fireplace surround is 80 percent complete and we couldn't be happier with our choices. 

All that to say (100 degree summer that would have killed a new lawn aside so yay for waiting until fall for that!), there is a benefit to the time and budget-dictated delay in creating our outdoors spaces. While we'll be spreading topsoil (so. so. so. much topsoil) and grass seed shortly, we're planning our first outdoors construction projects for next spring/ summer so that we can save towards them over the winter. 

Our property is skewed such that our front yard is really where we have both the best view and the space for outdoors living-- so how to we make this work best?! 

Do we put a patio directly in front of the house?

Do we wrap it around to the side and create an outdoors room or screened-in porch? 

Where do we plant our garden-- at the edge of our property? 

Where will we contruct the workshop?

Which project comes first-- the patio or the deck?

And what do we plant in the beds around the house?

(And this, by the way, is the view)

Pretty darn spectacular. So what do we do?!

Outdoor Living at E-Haus

One of the hardest parts of moving into a new or new build house these days is the sheer quantity of inspirational pictures available to dissatisfy even the most excited home owner. Taking a step back, though, it's good to have to wait, and earn, and dream. 

I wanted a fireplace to be immediately set in our house, to the point where I very nearly pulled the trigger on having one of the house contractors build out a generic mantel for us just so that we could have one done. At another point, someone suggested that we use the same stone from our exterior to build a 2-story stone fireplace and I thought-- yes! that makes sense!-- even though something else in me kept me questioning if it was the right plan. Luckily, my doubt and Nate's steadfast insistence that he build out the fireplace surround kept us from making a hasty choice, and a few months later I came across a picture that I immediately loved. Now, after a few months of tweaking, our fireplace surround is 80 percent complete and we couldn't be happier with our choices. 

All that to say (100 degree summer that would have killed a new lawn aside so yay for waiting until fall for that!), there is a benefit to the time and budget-dictated delay in creating our outdoors spaces. While we'll be spreading topsoil (so. so. so. much topsoil) and grass seed shortly, we're planning our first outdoors construction projects for next spring/ summer so that we can save towards them over the winter. 

Our property is skewed such that our front yard is really where we have both the best view and the space for outdoors living-- so how to we make this work best?! 

Do we put a patio directly in front of the house?

Do we wrap it around to the side and create an outdoors room or screened-in porch? 

Where do we plant our garden-- at the edge of our property? 

Where will we contruct the workshop?

Which project comes first-- the patio or the deck?

And what do we plant in the beds around the house?

(And this, by the way, is the view)

Pretty darn spectacular. So what do we do?!

Fireplace construction, continued.

Our supervisor and the current dictator of all our house projects. He's a tough boss but at least he is cute and lets us sleep a little bit at night.

I'm not scared of heights, but the way this ladder balances on its rubber-covered feet slightly stressed me out. We ended up going with a telescoping ladder  that will let us use it as a normal step ladder in addition to getting up high when we need to access the roof or apparently, the windows in our great room. We also found it when it was on sale for less than $130, which was a huge bonus and the reason why we went with 22' instead of 16' or 18'.

You know that your husband is an engineer when he devises strings with washers to ensure that the fireplace surround will be exactly centered and exactly level. He also claims that our kids could climb this frame without damaging themselves or the wall, but we don't plan on testing that theory.

This picture makes me a little seasick, but it's what happens when your husband insists that a lower mantel makes more sense and you are too visual of a person to be able to respond without seeing what it would look like. Ultimately I won this battle and we went with the rule of thirds. The mantel will be at 6 feet (the right side) and exactly a third of the way up the wall.

Now that we're actually making progress on framing the surround and finishing our mantel (more to come on that soon!), we needed to decide on a tile to use around the firebox and I headed to the store. Our initial plan was to utilize a subway-style marble tile but as it turns out, there were lots of viable options. 

(L- I love this pattern and the contrast of black and white that would complement our tuxedo kitchen. I was less sure of how the super graphic pattern would play with all of the other elements of our 18 foot tall fireplace surround. R- Herringbone is classic and I thought this oversized version was fun. But I questioned the beige undertones and monotony of color throughout.)

 

(L- I really think that this basketweave pattern would play well with the rectangles on the upper part of the wall, and the wood-look tile combined with marble is gorgeous. But I wondered if it might be too trendy in the end. R- Our original plan. I don't think subway tile can go wrong!)

(L- We love gray, perhaps a little too much, and the strong variation throughout this marble might give that contrast without going to an extreme like with the black & white tile above. R- Another herringbone option, this time with smaller tiles and both gray and beige undertones throughout. I was a little concerned that the small scale tile would look too tiny on our huge wall.)

Next step will be to lock our multi-hundred pound mantel into place this weekend after it's done curing. We ended up finishing it with a danish oil in a mix of medium and dark walnut to get close to the color of our dark hardwood floors.

A Day in the Life: E3 is 3 Weeks Old!

 7:15AM- Nate's alarm has been going off every 5 minutes since 7 and maybe it's that noise or maybe it's his internal clock, but Elias starts to fuss in his rock 'n play. I debate getting up with him but exhaustion wins and I pull him into bed to nurse him half-asleep instead. He nurses a bit but promptly passes out.

7:30AM- I realize that Nate is STILL laying in bed and wake him up. He has to get both himself and the 3 year old ready to go and I feel a little guilty but not bad enough to get out of bed and help him. Besides, I'm "nursing" the baby (who has since fallen back asleep next to me).

7:45AM- Everett is crying about having to go to school-- he recently switched classrooms and he's a child of routine so this transition has been hard-- and in the process wakes up Norah, who probably would have happily slept until 8:30am if not interrupted. She comes into our room and urges me to get up with her.

8:00AM- Everett and Nate are out the door and I've ceded any dreams of sleeping a bit more, so Elias and I make our way downstairs to figure out something for breakfast. I convince Norah that she wants cereal and force myself to start with a hard-boiled egg before I give in to my sweet tooth and dig into the Rice Krispies treats that a friend dropped off with dinner last night... hey, it's cereal, right?!

8:30AM- I need coffee, especially after Nate calls to ask if Everett had any special events at preschool today since a classmate got dropped off with a bathing suit and towel. I decide that I don't feel like making it myself and that in comparison to grinding up some coffee beans and pressing "brew," I'd rather schlep two kids out to the van in our jammies and make the 3 minute drive down the street to buy some for $2.09. This whole thing would be a total #momfail except for the fact that my five year old has the soundtrack to Wicked memorized and it's really fun to belt out the songs with her for the two tracks that we have time to play.

9:15AM- I juggle baby and my laptop and somehow manage to send out two (possibly coherent) e-mails for work. I'm still on leave but will go back in for one day in a few weeks before I actually go back in September. Major win!

9:30AM- Oh my god-- my angel baby is fussy and is spitting up to boot. My brain tries to freak out except for that the spit up isn't that excessive, he isn't normally fussy, and he's been awake for awhile and nursing is not helping. So I ride it out without any major stress and ultimately decide that he's overtired.

10:10AM- I've decided that in honor of his 3 week birthday, we are going to begin some semblence of a schedule, so I swaddle Elias and put him down for his first official nap. He quickly falls asleep and while I initially planned to use this time to fold some laundry and do a few "productive" tasks, I instead begin this post and let the five year old watch another episode of Doc McStuffins. I want to remember these times for when I'm a few decades out from babies and am tempted to tell new moms to "enjoy every moment."

11:00AM- I promised myself to start writing more, so I decide to take a few minutes to do so now. My computer only has 10% battery life so somehow it feels less stressful now.

11:40AM- Elias has been napping for an hour and a half now, so I'm sure that my time is limited. Since I've done such an excellent job avoiding productivity so far I decide to take the rest of the time to do things like wipe the spit up off the floor at the base of the stairs, load the dishwasher, and generally tidy up the house. I also lay out some lunch for Norah because although she isn't hungry yet, I'm sure that she'll decide she's starving right when her baby brother is up and nursing.

12:14AM- Baby is up and screaming to eat. He proceeds to eat for the next 40 minutes or so with barely a pause. Norah does eat, too, and she also completes a few pages in one of her writing workbooks. She's getting better and better at her lowercase letters, which is amazing to see.

1:00PM- We need to get out of the house! It's unfortunately gone from slightly overcast to sunny, and the temperature is holding steady around 90 degrees so it's too warm for a newborn even though we'd love to go on a walk. We need some kind of privacy curtain on our powder room stat and so we head to the fabric store to check out some options.

2:45PM- The baby barely made it through store #1 intact, so I bribe Norah with the prospect of a few minutes to watch a movie in the car so that I can nurse him in peace. He eats briefly and then passes out, so we head to store #2 to pick up a few birthday gifts for upcoming parties after only 15 minutes or so. Norah is a great gift giver so we have fun looking through every single book and toy option to find the "right" ones.

3:30PM- We're back in the car and Elias is back to eating. This is the challenge with taking newborns out, but with only one other kid in tow, we're managing okay today.

4:15PM- We're home and back to nursing yet again for the third brief session in two hours. I love tiny baby burp faces.

5:00PM- The baby refuses to be put down but dinner needs to be made, so I decide to make it work. We thankfully had dinner brought to us last night and there are leftovers, so all I have to do is put together a quesadilla and shove the pan of pasta in the oven to reheat. It's all ready to go just as Everett and Nate walk in the door.

5:45PM- Everett refuses to eat dinner until we literally put a noodle in his mouth and he remembers that he actually is hungry, and once he starts eating, it's a major mess. Norah, on the other hand, eats her dinner like a champ and is good company to boot. The baby is still fussy, but I manage to eat in between back pats and paci reinsertions.

6:20PM- We are using a beam from an 1800s barn as our mantel and now that it's at our house, Nate has been gunning to start working on it. So he heads outside with the big kids after dinner and they watch in half-awe/ half-terror as he power washes it. I take the opportunity to head upstairs with the baby.

6:30PM- Fracking laundry. Luckily Elias is a pretty big fan of lounging in the Boppy pillow, so he does that while I fold way too many piles and half-listen to a podcast. Consciously I really enjoy use of all four of my limbs for once!

7:15PM- Bath time for all kids! Norah & Everett are huge fans of our master shower so we throw them in there (along with daddy!) and I set up the baby tub on the counter. He really enjoys his bath until I wash his hair, so I wait until the absolute last second to get his head wet and then sing as loudly as I can until he's rinsed off and I scoop him up in his hugely plush towel.

7:40PM- Nate completely forgot that he had promised the kids an episode of "Shawn the Sheep" until Everett made sure he remembered, so we all hang out in our bed for 10 minutes of a show before I relax and nurse the baby while Nate puts the other kids to bed.

8:30PM- It's a thankfully early night but we're all washed up and in our beds. We celebrate with an episode of Orange is the New Black.

10:00PM- Lights out! And that's a wrap on a day in our life with a three week old!

Finally, a fireplace!

Okay. Almost a fireplace.

Most people come home from the hospital with a new baby and immediately fall into a kind of new baby twilight zone, where time no longer exists in the way that it previously did, sleep shifts roles from necessity to luxury, and the definition of a successful day includes hinges on everyone surviving it mostly intact. 

When we came home from the hospital with our daughter 5.5 years ago, my husband immediately ripped out our [floral bordered, old, linoleum] kitchen floor and began tiling. Our first son's arrival home coincided with a major basement flood, and so it was only natural that our newest addition inspired yet another home project. 

We intended to finalize a fireplace plan when the house was being built, but nothing felt right. We considered a traditional fireplace and immediately dismissed it, but a huge heavy stone wall didn't feel like the right thing either. It wasn't until June that inspiration finally hit, and we've gone from a big blank wall to a painter's tape outline of the bottom part to a fully designed plan that we're excited to put into action shortly.

The big blank wall as is, and also-- three cheers for no longer being pregnant! Baby Elias finally arrived early in the morning on June 20th after a thankfully quick and smooth labor.

A drawing in progress:

Getting closer:

And set! This is obviously a little oversimplified, but all of the proportions are right and so we're bringing our mantel home this weekend and will begin construction on the larger wall shortly. First order of business will be to see how sleek an 1800s barn beam can really get... I have my doubts!

We're also using this opportunity to finish our backsplash. While we originally had a very different idea in mind, we've decided to keep our low quartz backsplash for the time being and just tile behind our range up to the hood. We almost pulled the trigger on marble tiles, but as with every traditional finish we considered in this house, we ultimately have chosen a simpler but also very cool white glass tile that will set off but not compete with our pure white quartz counters.

Our sample:

Tile is on order and ready for installation:

Here we go! In the meantime, we're getting started on some outdoors projects. Those, unlike these fun interior plans, will go on forever. Good thing we have no plans to leave this place!