Family Room Updates

Well, the intent of this post was to link up with a blog party a week ago, but seeing as how I can barely keep us in clean clothes and dishes these days, I'm just going to post it now by myself.  

I haven't really posted any before or afters of our house on here.  We bought our house from a family member, and that can be a sensitive situation when you start completely redoing things.  But it's been almost two years since we got the keys, and I want to begin showing some of our progress.  Pretty much none of the rooms are completely finished yet, but we've made significant progress on most of them.  

Our family room/playroom is open to the kitchen (it's one long bowling alley room).  We have a bigger TV and our nice couch in the basement den, but we spend a lot of time in here (probably because of the toys).  

Here is the before – the day we got the keys.  You walk in our back door at the kitchen and see the family room beyond.   

And here it is just a few weeks ago when it was all clean for company. 

Basically I have found everything for this room because our existing (good) couch from our old house is downstairs in the basement with the big TV.  Accumulating furniture is an adventure when you go from 900 sqft to roughly 3400 sqft.  My final vision is to ditch the green accents have it be white, beige, chocolate, wood tones, with red accents and the occasional touch of orange, aqua, and yellow.

Things we have done:

• Painted the walls (twice, first time just to get rid of the green, second time once I finally figured out what color I wanted).  They are currently Valspar’s Moose Mousse. 
•  Built the toy storage shelves from this Ana White plan, modifying slightly to fit my existing baskets.  They are painted Martha Stewart’s Glass of Milk.

• Got a hand-me-down loveseat (it was free)
•  Bought a wingback recliner at Goodwill for $11 
• Got my old play table and chairs from Mom & Dad’s basement for Sam to use 
• Painted an old frame we had and added a chalkboard to it (plywood painted with chalkboard paint)

• Removed vertical blinds and shelf and added fruitwood blinds from Home Depot 
• Sewed proper curtains from white linen-look fabric after using twin sheets as curtains 
• Painted a Goodwill end table red – it works for now 
• Since the pictures, we removed the fluorescent light and added a ceiling fan with light – it helps with air circulation immensely, and no more fluorescent humming!

What I still want/need to do:

• Move the pictures on the end wall down a few inches – yes, after I just filled holes, painted, and drilled new holes and anchors for them a month ago.  I am nothing if not intelligent.  Actually, I didn’t have a problem with their height until we installed the ceiling fan and it cut off the view of the top of the clock.  And update the pictures in the frames.  
• Get an IKEA sofa to replace the loveseat (in white slipcover) 
• Reupholster the wingback in drop cloth with red feed sack stripes similar to this Pottery Barn chair (they don't have the feedsack stripe available anymore).  I'm terrified to do it myself but have read that it would cost WAY too much to have it done for me.
• Get a rug.  I’m having trouble deciding what size – do we really need an 8x10 or could we get by with a 5x7?  The room is narrow (maybe 12w x16L "ish"), and really I just want a cushy space for playing with toys on the floor.  
• Stencil the curtains with this stencil from Royal Design Studio.  I saw some “text” and “poem” curtains on blogs but know I would never be able to keep my handwriting that neat or stable.  I’m going to wait until I get a few other things done first though so I can make sure I still want the stencil later on. 
• Paint the end table by the wingback.  It’s an old end table/magazine rack that has been at my parents’ house as long as I remember.  But it has dings and I think the beaded trim would show off better painted a robin’s egg blue and distressed.  
• Once we get the sofa, build/find end tables to go on either end.  That’ll mean moving the kiddie table, which is fine.  Everything in this room is basically in a state of flux. 
• Eventually, at some point long down the road, I would love to build a faux corner fireplace and mount a flat-screen TV on top.  I’d use the open space at the bottom for a toy basket or seasonal décor.  I am convinced it would look fantastic from both the front and back doors (you see that corner from both).  Convincing hubby will take a few years.  
• One day (in my dreams) I’d love to knock the wall behind the sofa into a half wall with a column at the far end.  It would look into the stairwell then.  I just feel like it would open up the room that much more and make it feel less narrow, aid with air circulation and all that.

That looks like a long list, but I think it’s mostly my oversharing details.  I tend to do that.  Seriously, it’s a far cry from just last summer when the only things in the room were my college TV (which has since died), a swivel rocker (in another room now), toy baskets on the floor, and the kiddie table and chairs.  While it’s not my final vision yet, it’s definitely coming along and at least looks halfway presentable now.  Not too shabby, no?

Hi?

I'm such a horrible blogger.  This summer has been so hectic, life seems non-stop these days.  And we have something new to make life even more crazy . . .

Yes, we are expecting baby #2 in March.  So far it's been very different than with Sam.  More nausea, fatigue, loss of appetite (never had that problem before!), and I am just now starting to feel slightly more energetic.  I'm currently 11 and a half weeks, so hopefully things keep going well.  And I'm really hoping that beginning in September we can really start to work on some projects.  I have a list of things I want done pre-baby, and I've tried (for once) to be realistic and not put too much on the list.  Hopefully with fall and less garden and yard maintenance (and picnics and such) we can get some of these things done.  And hopefully I can get back in my sewing area, because I have three quilts to finish before March (my Farmer's Wife quilt, Sam's big boy quilt, and the baby's quilt). 

Now if I could just stay up past 9:30, I might be able to make headway on a few things . . .

On my Mind

I slacked off a couple weeks on posting.  My bad (I used to hate when people said that).

We've been spending most every evening in the garden lately trying to keep ahead of the weeds and planting a few late tomatoes and sweet potatoes.  Sam likes all the time outside in the dirt, and he's insisted we help him catch (fire) flies once it's dark.

Any other free time has been spent trying to keep us in clothes and clean dishes . . . sewing, home projects, and internet time has taken a back seat. 

But here's what's been on my mind a lot: Wedding Flowers

{pictures from various online sources - search for baby's breath, dahlias, pomanders, sedum, and snapdragons}

See, I'm doing the flowers for my brother's wedding in six weeks - it has been a quick three-month engagement.  Our growing season has been strange this year, hot and dry, cold and wet, hot and dry.  Everyone around here is reporting issues with veggie crops and flowers.  I've been trying to source flowers (I am growing some), figure out how many of each I need, and make it work with her color scheme - coral (not the easiest to find in flowers).

I've narrowed it down - a dahlia bouquet for the bride, baby's breath bouquet for the bridesmaid, rose and carnation pomanders for the flower girls, baby's breath and herb boutonnieres, dahlia, sedum, and herb corsages.  For the aisle and reception - sedum, roses, dahlias, wildflowers and grasses, and snapdragons for half of them, baby's breath for the other half.  Accents of burlap and jute twine.  I just need to pray for some rain and keep those dahlias growing.  But I'm glad to have things figured out and sorted.  And yes, I have a spreadsheet.  With multiple tabs.

Progress & Things

I've been hard at work around here, so the time has been spent doing things instead of blogging.

A tart pan chalkboard welcome sign for the back door.

Hanging plates in the dining room.  I think they need more friends.

Weeding the garden . . . although the corn is still smothered in weeds over on the far side.

And, the progress . . .  the long wall is done in the basement bedroom.  Two more walls to go . . . I'm trying to finish the trim this week so I can paint the family room and kitchen this weekend and the board and batten next week. 

Farmer's Wife Quilt Update

With the warmer weather, quilting has taken a backseat recently.  But Wednesday night I finally got the 9th row sewn on.

And the EQ6 drawing with all the updated completed blocks. 

This is as wide as it gets - 8 blocks.  Now I need to keep going . . .

Yard Sale Finds

I headed out this morning, and it just so happened to be a great day yard saling.  There were a TON of people out and I guess not as many sales as usual, but I still grabbed a few things:

 The wire freezer baskets ($2 each) I will use in our basement bath under the sink for toiletries or towels (hoping to build an open vanity in there when we get around to working on it).  I found four pairs of shorts for Sam at $2 each, all brand names (Ralph Lauren, Children's Place, and Gymboree).  And this bench from an estate yard sale.  This is a true before, all dusty and dirty and with the nasty cushion.  I actually like the side without the arm better, but I haven't decided whether to go armless yet.  If I do, the pieces are there to fix it if I change my mind.

 I couldn't help it, it was love at first sight with that back and the idea of refinishing her with the other old chairs I have to go around our dining room table.  I did wipe her down before bringing the frame inside - that cushion is staying outside and will probably be disassembled for parts for a new seat.  It's amazing what people store in an old barn.  I called Mike and he told me no more than $30 when she had come down to $35.  I drove back at the end of my stops and she had raised the price after going through things some more but honored the $35 offer from earlier.  It'll definitely be a lot of work to get her fixed up, but once I wiped her down I was amazed how pretty the wood looked under all that dust.  And she just barely fit in the Escape; we had to do some maneuvering.

And 20 half-gallon mason jars (Ball, H over A Atlas, and Kerr) to use in my brother's wedding and then to can with.  $0.50 each because I took them all.

Now I need to clean and get some things done around here.  I've already vacuumed my entire car (I wanted to get that dirt out from the bench and ended up doing the whole thing). 

Hi There

Not much sewing going on this past week (or two).  I've been much busier gardening and working on house projects.  May always seems to be busy.  I have:

- made a tiered planter using Positively Splendid's tutorial (last month but never shared - I kind of want to add some ORB grain sack stripes later)

- planted flowers for my brother's wedding in August - I'm going to be the florist.  Wish me luck; I'm just praying all the seeds and such that I've ordered will sprout and grow properly.  I think I have every coral/orange/pinkish flower known to man.

- planted our vegetable garden.  Everything is in except a couple Roma tomatoes (sold out everywhere) and some peppers I started from seed.

- begun working again on our basement bedroom.  It started like this . . . (only before picture I have of this room, weird).

Ah, another before from the opposite side.

Spent almost a year (from last August to this May) like this . . . (well, the walls were primed and painted, but there was no trim on the walls and wood and tools stacked everywhere).

And as of this evening looks like this . . .

Still a long way to go, but at least I am working on it.

Well, it's 9:30, and my toddler is not in bed yet, so I should be going.  Priming some more boards for the bedroom is up next on the list.

Oh, and this is the best picture - my almost-86-year-old granddaddy helping Sam on the pedal tractor at a recent picnic.  He has no business doing that, but he's a farmer (they just can't sit/quit) and I know one day this will be a very special memory.