Heading Outside

We had ONE day of nice weather around here on Friday, and I'm officially ready for spring and summer weather to arrive, though we've now been back down into the 40s for two days. It's forever fascinating to me how people in the midwest are wearing boots and jackets in 50 degree weather in October while they are happy to freeze in sandals in the same 50 degree weather in March.

We're still waiting to see if a deck is in our 2017 future, but that has in no way deterred me from planning our outdoors living spaces. I have always loved really luxe-feeling decks, but up until now we've mostly stuck to secondhand and CHEAP. We sold our flimsy outdoors table when we moved from our old house, so this time, I'm planning from scratch.

I'm not exactly afraid of color, but I also prefer it in contrast to a lot of neutrals. So I'm following the high contrast, neutral palette of our house outdoors where if the weather is nice enough to hang out outside-- there's a lot of color already. Here are some of my favorite options:

Top: CB2 and Bottom: Target

Now back to my search to find that money tree... 

Mudroom Inspiration

Fun fact. When you go almost four months without uploading any pictures from your phone to your computer, sometimes you end up with over 3400 of them to deal with at the same time-- which is both scary and impressive to me. I'm not sure if it's better or worse that many of them exist because I tend to take 100 pictures in 30 seconds when it comes to the kids, but then don't delete the 99 of them that didn't make the cut. But I digress.

We [mostly] finished the fireplace, though it could still use one more coat of paint. We recently discovered an excellent self-leveling paint  that's designed for use on cabinets and doors, and it would  be awesome on something like our fireplace surround as well. That being said, it's done for now, and I've been taking full advantage of it. See examples A, B and C below.

We planned on executing a quick build on our mudroom area after we moved in, since we also opted to take it over from the builders when we couldn't decide exactly what we needed out of it, but instead we designed a temporary solution by way of removable hooks and a bench that only barely improved the space and lasted a full eight months before we did anything else.

Unlike the fireplace, which we thought about for a long time but then designed quickly and built much more slowly, the mudroom took much longer to conceive but ultimately was simpler to build. We wanted a decent sized bench and some open cabinet space for shoes and outdoors accessories, but also a good amount of concealed storage for things like Nate's camera and lenses, seasonal gear, etc..

White paint and open cabinets

White paint with stained wood bench

Our space was a little weird due to the strange angle of the wall at one end, so we debated closing it in or concealing it, but ultimately went for the most storage possible and discovered that these odd little cubbies hold more than you'd expect. 

Now that construction is [mostly] completed, we've moved on to a search for some attractive, functional baskets that we can keep in the open cubbies for each person in our family. I have searched high and low but a few things have become evident in my search. 

1. Stores that I typically love like Home Goods and Marshalls usually have one or two cute wire baskets, but it's rare and in this case, I have not been able to find a set of 4-6 matching baskets.

2. Baskets are freaking expensive.

Thus, I've ended up online. I kind of hate ordering something like this that I know will be a pain in the butt to return if it doesn't work, but you can't beat the price and Amazon Prime is my bae. That is, incidentally, the first time I've ever personally used the term "bae." 

1. The Lucky Clover Basket

I love the simple and imperfect wiring in this basket, and I like the dark finish as well. It also seems convenient to choose a basket that has designated openings to grab it down from the cubbies.

2. Spectrum Diversified Basket

I like the real handles on this basket, which make it feel more portable, like something that I can pull out of a cubby and into the garage or a different room.

3. Spectrum Diversified Basket with label

No handles on this basket, but I love the black finish and the playfulness in the wiring. I also think it could be super convenient to have a built-in option for labeling each person's basket, though I'm not sure we could actually fit 5 or 6 of it in our open cubbies. 

We've ordered baskets and attached the final piece of trim to the built-ins, so we're definitely into the home stretch. "After" pictures to come soon!

Amazon affiliate links used above. Thank you for the support.

E-Haus: So Close, But So Far Away!

And here we fit our first real inevitable delay of the build process.

Though the permit process has been going smoothly and our builder has been great about scheduling changes and touch ups as indicated, Mother Nature has finally put her foot down. Though this winter was the 5th warmest ever recorded in our typically snowy area, it hasn't been a dry one. The incredible amounts of rain have made for a super muddy yard, and so the top of our driveway and sidewalk in front of our house haven't been able to be installed. So we wait.

Hopefully the delay will be short and sweet, but even if it ends up being more involved, we're still incredibly lucky to have gotten through the build process with so little setbacks. Soon enough we will be embarking upon the hundreds of projects we have yet to tackle-- the best is yet to come!

In the meantime, it's been pretty exciting to see so many details come to reality as we've watched the floors and appliances get delivered over the last few weeks. We even have a giant bag of cabinet hardware ready to go as soon as we find a few minutes to install them!

I love this view of the house. From the dark hardwood floors to the richly toned light fixtures, the french doors and the giant window, I have a feeling that these two rooms are going to see a lot of action. Though billed as a "library," the first will primarily function as a playroom for awhile, and the other will serve as a cozy space for hanging out and watching tv.

This is a small but big thing, since it's one of the details that almost got overlooked in our kitchen plan. We're so excited to have a pull out trash can and compost area!

I have a feeling that I'm going to get very used to this view. Though the pendants still need corrected (the far one, if you can't tell, is just hanging out in space and will be replaced by two of the same pendant spaced out over the peninsula) and the fireplace needs a surround, these rooms make me smile hard. I especially love the high contrast counters and cabinets on the bottom.!

We have carpet upstairs! We have a love seat that's going to make for a perfect little reading nook up here, and the view isn't half-bad, either! Bets on how long the carpet will stay white?!

Laundry room! I have since seen this room with the washer and dryer installed, and though it's by no means roomy, it easily fits two front-load units side by side and we'll be installing some upper cabinets and a countertop over them shortly.

Everett loves his room! It's just about ready for his bunk beds and a modern mural.

Like I said, I can't get enough of this view. Plus I absolutely love how our giant fan has grounded this space.

A (nearly!) finished master bathroom! I have taken daily baths for YEARS, and this will be my first opportunity to do so in a roomy tub. Unfortunately the kids have informed me that they plan on joining on the regular, despite the fact that they get their own not-quite-so-roomy tub!

The master bedroom is not large, but feels airy with the addition of a  faulted ceiling. I like a cozy sleeping space, so this is perfect for us.

Norah loves her room as well! This is the only light fixture with any bling in the whole house, but Miss Nu insisted, and so we conceded the point. The double window feature and 10 foot long closet aren't too shabby, either.

Paint, trim, carpet, hardwoods, railing, balusters are DONE-- all this view needs is some decor!

The view from our entryway. Though I initially fought hard to keep the two-story foyer that was in our first round of house plans, I'm actually so happy that I conceded this point. This space is just large enough for people to come in and deposit shoes and coats in the closet or on a hook, and feels homey besides. The extra square footage on our second floor doesn't hurt, either.

I have big plans for this little powder room. Nate is so scared, but I can't wait to give this space an extra dose of personality!

We have stone! Besides the sidewalk and a whole lot of landscaping, the only thing left to do out here is to paint our front door. I'm thinking yellow. Nate is, again, scared.

E-Haus: Adventures in Lighting

Beware: there is a major photo overload in this post.

The problem with choosing our own lighting for E-Haus was that although doing so meant that we got to pick our own stuff, it did not give us an unlimited budget with which to make selections. The modest credit that we received helped somewhat, but since builder-grade = inexpensive, we knew that we would be investing a certain amount over that total. But where to invest it?

We decided that the best use of our extra funds would be spent in our great room, which is great in many ways, not least of which is its size. We needed our lighting to make a statement. I initially voted for chandelier, citing designs like this one:

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But, as much as I am drawn to these looks in theory, Nate made the good point that we are both not traditional enough and also not formal enough to make an elaborate light fixture "work." So we set out to look for fans that would not be dwarfed by our space and stumbled upon this one:

It's a little modern, a little industrial, and huge. It was also a big splurge for us, so we scoured big box options like Amazon, Home Depot, Menards & Lowe's for the other hundred lights we needed. And I even found my chandelier, which will be happily installed in our library/ playroom. 

Here's much of what we ended up purchasing:

A whole lot of modern/ rustic/ industrial in primarily dark oil-rubbed bronze and black finishes that help them to stand out against our light gray painted walls and place nicely with the dark metal balusters on our stairs and balcony. The single exception is the crystal flushmount for N's room, because she wanted a "sparkly light" and we felt obliged to deliver in some way. We delivered all of the lighting in a few different carloads over the course of a weekend, and five days later-- not only were our walls painted, but the lighting was installed as well. This made for a dramatic change that mostly just served to make us more antsy for occupancy and move-in day. 

Here are some of our lights in action:

(Ignore the dusty floors mid-installation. I'll get to them later!)

Now that we have light, we can stalk our house at any time of day! Hooray!

E-Haus: Kitchen Cabinets

Hello.

I love you.

You are everything.

I have an iPhone note from 2013 where Nate and I outlined all of our big dreams for a future home. Besides tall ceilings (check!) and an open floor plan (double check), I wrote out three details that we knew wouldn't be able to happen for years and years: a tuxedo kitchen, wall ovens, and a big gas cooktop. Nate and I love to cook and we love to entertain, but we were never able to do it easily in our 1950s ranch. 

Though there will be more updates to come in future months and years, I am in love with our starting point at E-Haus. So much so that I literally squealed when we walked in and besides drywall everywhere (which in and of itself feels like a massive upgrade!), we have a good start on our kitchen. 

The judgy part of my brain is all kinds of frustrated with our not-ceiling height cabinets, but the upcharge wasn't feasible at this point and one of the reasons that we chose painted white uppers was for the ease of customizing them. So some cabinet customization is for sure in our DIY future.

On the opposite side of the kitchen is our window and no upper cabinets at all because we're also building some white oak or walnut floating shelves to warm up our otherwise stark color palette in here (I love it, but light gray walls + black and white cabinets + white quartz + stainless hood and appliances = stark) and to also tie in the dark hardwood floors that will be all over our main level. 

In the meantime, I will be drooling all over this kitchen exactly as it is. 

See you later. 

I love you.

You are everything.

Tile Selections: Master Bathroom

The drywall went up so quickly that before we knew it, our kitchen cabinets were also (partially) installed, along with the interior doors and bathroom tile. It is incredible to me how professionals can complete tasks that literally took months for us to DIY at our old home in a matter of a few days. The longest-running task so far has actually been one of the physically smallest jobs, go figure.

Along with the whirlwind of these tasks came the first of a series of jobs for us: master bathroom tile. While we chose to go with builder options for the kids' bathroom and laundry room, we wanted to completely customize our own space and to do so, we needed the freedom to pick our own tile. One of the factors that sold us on our builder at the start was his openness toward letting us interfere with his work, and it's been so nice to make choices that we will actually want to live with for awhile instead of going with entirely builder-grade selections even though we don't have the budget for a fully custom home.

As always, I started with Pinterest, and these aspirational bathrooms:

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Luckily, there's a bit of a theme in my tastes. While I love all four images (and drooled over many, many more rooms as well), the first two feel more "precious" than the rest of our house plans. We have black and white all over our house, not least in our tuxedo kitchen, so it felt really natural to just go for it here. 

We bit the bullet, made a 3 hour trip to a tile shop that stocked the options we preferred so that we could avoid a building delay, and three days later our master bathroom went from drywalled with the start of a cabinet installation:

To this!

Although we debated back and forth for days about grout color, we settled on a light gray that provides higher contrast between the hex tiles (clearly there's a good haze/ bad light in this photo) but a more uniform look in the subway tile, and so far I am thrilled with the progress.

Next up: paint, lighting, black granite countertops, and mirror selection(s).