SETTLING AND UPROOTING

Remember how I said we were settling on our new house in July? Well, scratch that. We just confirmed that we're settling on May 22 -- just 3 days before my due date. (If we've learned nothing else from our adventures in this house, it's that, in true gluttons-for-punishment fashion, we tend to bite off way more than we can chew.)

Our house will officially be on the market tomorrow! The realtor and photographer came yesterday, and we've been in a tizzy lately trying to get camera ready. I did what I could to purge, declutter, stage, and deep clean a little bit every day over the course of the past few weeks. Whenever I overdo it, I pay for it with a sleepless night of hip pain, so it's been a long process just to accomplish little things, but thankfully this final push has coincided nicely with my nesting urges. Ez was still finishing up installing the master bathtub when the realtor pulled in the driveway, but we made it! The effort has been worth it though, and the house is finally looking the way I've been envisioning it all along.

Though we still have some tiny details here and there, we can officially call this house DONE. Can you believe it? I'll try to post lots more photos over the next few days, because the vibe in here is just so good.

Lately I've been trying to find last minute "staging" items like lamps and mirrors that will both cozy up our rooms for showings and that we know we'll use in the new house as well. Last weekend I did manage to score this beat-up old mirror at an antique store for $18 for our entry.

I'd been all over town -- Target, HomeGoods, Pier 1, etc. -- and hated everything I saw. (How can things that cost as much as $250 still look so cheap? And when did I become such a lamp snob?) As a last-ditch effort, I popped into the local antique barn and tried to home in on any mirrors I saw, ignoring all the other cool stuff I would normally look at. (So hard!) I found this at the end of the first row, 10 minutes after walking in the door. Mission accomplished, even if it reflects a slightly hazy and distorted reality -- which is really why I like it anyway.

As predicted, the dining room remains one of my favorite spots in the house. Though a little controversial at the time, I maintain that the planked walls were a good idea. (It helps that Joanna Gaines sings the praises of shiplap on every episode of Fixer Upper!)

It's weird to finally be at the settling in and decorating phase of this project, knowing that we'll be packing it all up in settling in somewhere else in a matter of weeks. It's simultaneously feeling more and more yet less and less like home.

BEFORE AND AFTER: DINING ROOM

I'm home sick from work today thanks to a sore throat, headache and complete lack of voice. While letting my Lemon Echinachea tea steep for the recommended 10-15 minutes, I took the opportunity to snap a few photos of the finished dining room as it looked for our very first "dinner party" -- Easter lunch with my brother's family over the weekend.

I still need to paint the baseboards, hang some art and futz with details, but for now I'm calling it done. We all deserve that, I think.

And because you've all been waiting patiently for so many years, here are the "before" pictures so you can compare a real before with a real after and in real time: five and a half real years later. This is the stuff blogs are made of!

The logs were hidden behind those built-in shelves. There was also an addition built on the side of the house that we had to rip off because its floor joists were made from parts of metal shelving (which is, ah, not compliant with our local building code).

Here it was during the demo phase, during which we exposed the logs, rerouted the floor plan and removed not one but two unnecessary staircases to the right of the chimney (one was creepily hidden behind a wall):

And this is how it looked just four months ago, back in December.

And again, here we are today.

Much better!

And once again, I just want to thank everyone who has been reading for a long time. You have truly kept us going throughout this long process and enduring mess.

For those who are interested in sources:

• Dining table: handmade by Ez
• Chairs: Overstock
• Rug: Etsy
• Sideboard: World Market
• Tree Ring Print: Etsy
• Lights: Salvaged

DINING ROOM THINGS

Hiya. Just a quick check-in over here... I was in NYC for work most of last week, and I'm still getting my footing being home. (Long story short: Johnnie is tired of my traveling.) While I was away, our new dining room rug arrived. After a week or so of scouring ebay and a dozen other places, I bought it on Etsy from a Turkish shop called decorpillow. It wasn't much more expensive than a mass-produced option, and it's a much, much nicer handwoven wool. During my hunt I told my mom I was looking for something a little grown up, but a little playful too. I think we landed on it. We love it, and I'm so glad we opted for something a little colorful to break up all the wood.

This is a more accurate representation of the colors in broad daylight:

Our dining chairs have also slowly but surely made their way in. I ordered eight chairs from Overstock, and four of them arrived in the wrong color. We got the four replacement chairs on our doorstep this week, and I still have to find time to load the four wrong ones in the truck and drive them 15 minutes out of my way to the closest UPS store. That's what I get for buying the knockoffs, I guess. On the plus side, they are surprisingly very comfortable, and they fit perfectly at the table Ez made. We've already eaten our first meal in here, and I'm excited for so many more.

Lately we've also been settling more into the master bathroom and working a little on the office -- making small and practical improvements as we have time. I'm thrilled to be at this stage, and I'm looking forward to sharing the updates with you. And maybe soon, a dinner party!

DINING ROOM PLANNING

We haven't eaten a proper meal at a real dining table (in our own home, that is) in years. Though I'm proud of our efforts to actually cook healthy meals and eat together most nights, DVR will be a tough side dish to rid from our diets. Both Ez and I agree our brains are sufficiently rotted by now though, and it's time for a change. With the floors finished and the dining table built, there's no time like the present.

Also, the dining room is basically the center of the house, and it's kind of a bummer to walk through it every day when it's so overwhelmingly brown and empty. It's better now than when it was our workshop, granted, but I fear it needs a lot of help before anyone will want to eat in there.

This week our dining chairs arrive -- a good place to start, I thought. I bought the Tolix knockoffs from Overstock. I know some people are appalled at the idea of ever buying a knockoff, but my math skills are so limited I can't wrap my mind around how much it would cost to buy eight chairs at $250 apiece. I looked at all sorts of options -- wood, metal, tufted, slipcovered -- and these seemed to be the best combination of durable, affordable and attractive. (I'm putting some faith in the many online reviews that say they are also comfortable. Here's hoping.)

Anyway, here's our sad, poorly color-corrected but still very brown dining room as of this week:

And here are some things that are on my mind as I think about turning it into a real room:

Tabouret chairs from Overstock

Tree Ring Print by LintonArt on etsy.

Nomad Sideboard from World Market. It's 25% off right now, FYI...

Vintage Turkish Kilim rug from misterpillow on etsy. Too steep for me, but I can admire, no?

The sideboard may have to wait for now -- lots of transactions happening at the moment -- but this is the direction I'm headed. My next purchase will probably be a rug, since the thought of chair legs sliding on my new pine floors makes me a little panicky. Since our table and the floor are basically the same color, I'm looking for some bolder color on the floor to break up the brown a little. We'll see what I can find that fits the budget.

Who wants to come over for dinner?

NEW VIEWS

This is what we're looking at lately... Even with all the baseboards still to paint, shoe molding to install, and details to attend to, I have to admit the mood around here is considerably lifted. We're walking around barefoot, picking out furniture and enjoying our newfound spaces. Since these rooms are still in blank-slate territory, I wanted to post a few photos to show you where we're starting from. In a way, these are kind of our new "before" pictures. That cozy little corner above is where our desk will go -- and hopefully soon, too. Setting that up is one of our next priorities so we can have a designated spot for bills and paperwork, which have a way of getting out of hand quickly.

I love this ceiling.

Here's the straight-on angle of the office corner. (As you can see, we also still need balusters for the handrail... In due time.)

And here's a closer view of the headboard Ez made. I'm not going to post a full shot of the master bedroom quite yet, because it needs some work. I haven't found a new coverlet yet, so we're temporarily using the one from our old bed. Not only is it too small, but it also has these thick gray and white stripes that clash terribly with the similarly stripey exposed log wall... Not a good look. I don't want to scare you. Nonetheless, our new bed remains the most comfortable surface on this planet, so no complaints here.

And here's a little peek into my closet. I've been researching tons of closet organization systems, and I've pretty much decided on the PAX from IKEA. (Does anyone have one? Thoughts?) It's really the only thing I can find that seems sturdy enough and will fit the incredibly restrictive space I have to work with. Also I'm not looking to spend thousands of dollars, so...

The photo below will give you a better idea of the steep pitch of the ceiling, which is a real challenge in this design-your-own-closet adventure. I really wanted a Stolmen system, but unfortunately there are about a dozen reasons why it won't work. However, it seems I can fit one of the shorter, standard-width PAX units in the taller corner without bumping into the ceiling at all. I'd pack it with drawers and shelves and then run a clothing bar from the outer left side of the unit to the short back wall for my hangup clothes. We went to IKEA on Saturday and had a thoroughly dissatisfying experience (sold out of everything we wanted), so hopefully they'll pull through for me on this one. Please, IKEA. I'm counting on you.

And finally, just for good measure, here's what things look like when you first walk in the front door. It's a little sparse, I realize, but we're working on it. The dining chairs I ordered are on their way, and we're spending our evenings comparing thoughts about dining room rug options. (Meanwhile, I keep expecting those baseboards to paint themselves.)

It's a teensy bit stressful for me to make so many decisions at once, but it's really fun too. Especially when Ez and I manage to agree on something once in awhile! Anyway, that's our blank slate for you. Looking forward to cozy-ing it up a bit over the next few weeks and months.

A RARE VIEW

This is not an angle I've shown much (or ever?) on the blog, so, like, feast your eyes on these high quality iPhone pics. This doorway leads from the dining room into the kitchen. To the right of these photos are the stairs leading down into the living room.

I love how you can see the brick fireplace and the old door from this angle. That old door! It's possibly my favorite thing now. At times I've worried the kitchen would turn out to be too weird or too "cold," but I think it's coming together.

We started sanding the floors last night in preparation for stain and finish. (I'm so thankful Johnnie sleeps right through the sound of power tools...) It goes pretty quickly with the giant floor sander we rented, but it's not my favorite job. I keep worrying the sander will leave swirls or visible marks in the wood, which is kind of hard to tell until you actually put the stain on. Thankfully you can always sand those marks by hand, but with like six rooms of flooring to stain, I'd prefer to have as little hand sanding to do as possible!

APPRAISAL RECAP

Yesterday = epic. I worked on my proposal from 10pm until 4:45am. Then I put the computer down and got to business readying the house for the appraisal. Who needs sleep? (I do, actually. Desperately. Send help!) I do recall painting some trim and a few other small tasks, but I can't remember much else besides the seemingly infinite trips I took literally sprinting in and out of the house carrying tools, boxes of nails and armfuls of lumber.

Because we had to tear down the garage, we don't have a good place to store our tools and building materials right now. Considering we are just completing a major renovation and there are still some details to attend to, our loan officer said it was in our best interest to make sure there wasn't a trace of any of those things in the house so it would appear to be more "finished." If we brought an appraiser into an active construction zone, he might declare the house unfinished and therefore render us ineligible to refinance. So we rented a POD, which is functioning as a workshop and storage shed for now (we're hoping to build a new garage sometime in the next year or two) and have moved operations outside. Anyway, time was ticking and I had to hustle. Ez was busy finishing up a few projects (like installing T-molding around the slate entry pad), so it fell to me to organize like things into boxes as quickly as possible, haul them down the front steps and into the POD, and sprint back to do it again. I did this for three straight hours and I'm confident I logged a good 5 miles in my work boots yesterday -- after not sleeping the night before.

The appraiser was expected at 10am, and Ez wrapped up his projects with 15 minutes to spare. He helped me vacuum, move the table back into the dining room (from the kitchen) and reconfigure the kitchen. The witching hour came, and the appraiser didn't show up. We kept cleaning. At 11 we got a call that he'd be there at 12. We took showers and kept tidying up, although steadily losing steam. By the time he arrived, we were sitting in the suddenly spacious kitchen sipping coffee, just waiting.

View from the front door. Welcome! I still have a little trim painting to do on the ceiling,
and apparently the door needs a good scrubbing. 

After such a whirlwind morning, the appraisal itself was pretty anticlimactic. Our appraiser, Daniel, was very quiet and reserved, basically a closed book. He took pictures of each room and the yard, measured the square footage, opened closets and looked in the basement. He also asked a lot of questions -- e.g. when various rooms were completed (particularly the kitchen and bathrooms), how much the renovations cost, what kind of heating/utilities we had, etc. -- but gave very little back by way of comments. Thankfully, he didn't say anything about it being "unfinished," but we noticed that he did not use the kitchen stairs. (Though the railings are very sturdy on their own, we think he may have worried that we haven't installed the balusters yet.) On the plus side, he did say he sees a lot of exposed duct work in the DC area and he thought the kitchen floor drain was neat, so that felt positive. The whole thing took maybe 30 minutes, and afterward we really didn't know how to process it. The rooms looked so empty and foreign we kind of stood around for a minute, wondering where we were and what just happened.

Coat closet and powder room doors in the entry.

At this point, we're just waiting the 2-3 days we were told it would take to get the numbers back and hoping for the best. Since this was a foreclosure and our home improvement loan was pretty conservative, we thankfully don't have to hit some completely unrealistic number. However, we are a little worried considering the floors aren't finished, the balusters aren't installed, we don't have a bathtub in the master bath yet, etc. While I wish Daniel could have given us even the slightest indication about the outcome yesterday, he did a very good job at being a neutral party which, after all, is his actual job.

After he left, Ez and I hopped in the car and went to our favorite Mexican place for lunch. (I hadn't eaten since dinner the night before.) Then we went grocery shopping. I finally collapsed for a two-hour nap at 3pm while Ez picked up his laptop to catch up with work.

And now we wait.

In the meantime, I am feeling pretty proud of how hard we've worked to get through this phase, and I am thankful for my parents, who have gone above and beyond the past couple months to help us out -- my dad helping Ez with carpentry, and my mom watching Johnnie so I could paint. Group hug!

A BIG BIRTHDAY AND A PRESENT TO MATCH

Saturday was, whether I liked it or not, my 30th birthday. I thought it wouldn't be a huge deal to me -- it's just one day older than the day before, after all -- but it did feel more significant than any other birthday I've had so far. Months ago I thought I wanted a more elaborate celebration, but as the date approached I felt more and more inclined to keep it simple. Which, as I have learned over and over, is more my style anyway. The day involved sleeping in (thanks for the best birthday gift ever, Johnnie!), pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes (I have the best husband), a pedicure and dinner with a table full of people I love. It was the perfect day.

And speaking of tables, Ez had this big guy waiting for me when I woke up! He'd been working on it in secret for a couple weeks. I was ready to hunt down and confront either his boss or his mistress for keeping him out of the house so much lately, but when I saw this table I felt it really was two presents in one: a beautiful and thoughtful gift made by husband, and also the end of a busy couple weeks of late nights for him.

These pictures don't do it justice. It's a little hard to photograph right now thanks to all the tools and such piled all around the room, but its presence gives me the warmest, fuzziest feelings. He used the Ana White plans I posted recently, with a few modifications. I keep walking past it and petting it. Though I should be focusing on the next phases of the renovation itself, I spent an hour before bed last night drinking birthday champagne and scouring the internet for dining chairs... Like I said -- perfect day!

ON THE BRAIN...

A little brain dump for your Tuesday...

We've gotten into a terrible habit of eating dinner in front of the TV. We eat in the kitchen too, but there's still too much disarray in there for it to be a nice experience. I have been dreaming of a dining room for ages, so that we can have a place to eat and let Johnnie spread out with her crayons and other important business. We could conceivably go bigger, but I think we'll want to stick to a smaller table -- around 6' long -- if we don't want the space and particularly the walkway to the kitchen and living room to feel too cramped. This table design from Ana White (built by Shanty 2 Chic) costs around $100 in materials and could easily be modified to shorten it a smidge. Though an extension table with leaves would be nice for holidays, it's hard to turn away from this much cheaper option that also suits our house's style. We'll see where we end up.

Ez made some progress over the weekend on the coat closet (left) and powder room (right). He decided to focus on these little areas because he wanted to use up the rest of the planking and drywall we had lying around and getting in the way. Plus, having these walls done means we can do a ton of priming and painting in one massive effort. Right now we're in that middle stage where we're wondering if things are actually looking worse than ever and if we'll ever be able to make it all work, but this is the point where you just have to keep moving forward and see it through.

The powder room or half bath is teeeeeny tiny. It's literally just big enough for a toilet, a sink and a person. As such it's hard to photograph, but here's a shot of the wall where the sink will go.

Our plan at the moment is a slate floor (we have some leftover), staining the wall behind the sink, grabbing an old wall-mount sink from Second Chance and using this old metal mirror:

Meanwhile, I can't get this song out of my head. It's available for free download here as a teaser for Gungor's newest album. Ez and I went to see them live at Ram's Head in Baltimore last year, and the show was unbelievable. I can't wait to listen to the new album start to finish.

And finally, last but not least, let me show you the secret to potty training. These little guys, in addition to loads of patience and all the high fives and cheering you can muster, are getting us over the potty training hump. Pretzels and grapes were child's play compared to these magical incentives.

Whenever she uses the potty, Johnnie shouts in the cutest voice imaginable, "Yay, I did it! Now I get a gummie!" Then she takes great pains to choose the exact one she wants. We still have some work to do, but she's doing much better at staying dry, asking to use the potty on her own (a huge step forward) and being generally interested. I'm trying not to pressure her too much and to go at her pace, and it's encouraging to see progress. 

So that's what's going on this week... Here's hoping for another surge of productivity in the next couple days. Encouragement and inspiration appreciated. 

DINING ROOM FLOORING

The weekend brought both good news and bad news. As the sad part of the story goes, Johnnie and I were supposed to be in Florida over the weekend on a five-day, girls-only vacation with my mom. On Thursday, the night before our flight was to take off, mom called and said she had a fever of 103 and the trip had to be postponed. It was a triple bummer because a) my mama had the flu, b) our trip got canceled AND c) Ez's surprise weekend project -- installing the dining room flooring while we were gone -- was no longer going to be very surprising since we'd be home to watch it happening.

But the good news: hello, dining room floor! When you last saw our dining room (above), it was ceilingless, dirty and had its own flooring piled up in the middle of the room. Not cute. It was an improvement from its original state, but still so far away from being usable. Now we're another step closer.

Johnnie was happy to supervise Ez and his childhood buddy Chris while they worked and to test out the first couple boards for us. (Please pardon, as usual, the low quality iPhone photos.) Honestly, being the lazy renovation blogger that I am, I don't know what kind of underlayment/moisture barrier they used. It is obviously very red and has little pieces of Styrofoam in it for cushioning. It's probably not very earth-friendly and I'm sorry about that. If anyone is curious about what it is exactly, I can look it up.

For the flooring, we're using tongue-and-groove pine (yes pine) that was milled by an Amish guy my dad knows. We have used pre-finished hardwood flooring in other (newer) parts of the house, and it looks too shiny and new to go with the more rustic feel of this room. We actually wanted something that will show some wear over time. These were also the widest plank boards we've installed yet, and they went down amazingly fast. (Pneumatic flooring nailer for the win!) It would've taken us days to lay this much flooring using the short, two-inch-wide maple boards we used upstairs. 

So now we have a giant wood box for a dining room. Wood, wood and more wood. The plan is to stain and seal the floor and paint the wood planked walls and ceiling to tone down the wood a bit. I mean, I want it to be understood that it's wood, but maybe have it be not so overtly woody on every surface. This isn't Texas Roadhouse. Also the ceilings really are as low as they look. That's the reality of old houses, so there wasn't much that could be done. (Except try not to jump up and down with joy too vigorously when the floors were installed, so I didn't hit my head.)

After my emotional outpouring last week, I don't have a lot of words left to say about this except it is SO NICE to see such a big project (as in, surface area) get checked off the list. It feels big. It still needs to be stained and sealed, but at the same time it still feels like it deserves a big check mark to honor the forward progress, don't you think?

THEN & NOW: DINING ROOM

Then (2008):

- Lath and plaster removed to reveal original log walls underneath; logs repaired
- Window replaced
- Ceiling joists strengthened
- Poorly constructed/unsafe addition removed (the part you can see through the window)
- Floor plan rerouted

And now:

Okay, so it looks worse now... but hopefully not for long.

Slate Dining Room Floor.

Back in December I mentioned that I liked the idea of installing slate tile all throughout the entryway and the dining room (instead of trying to transition slate in the entryway to hardwood in the dining room without it looking awkward or breaking up the flow). Well, S forgot about this idea for awhile, then brought it up again the other day -- "What do you think about putting slate all through the entryway and dining room?"

Yes! I love when things come full circle.

The photo above is what caught his attention. Slate flooring can look stark, but we like the idea because these rooms are in the original log section of the house--so it will already be heavy on the wood. Adding a wooden dining table/chairs and hardwood floors could be just too much wood. Slate really seems like it could work, offsetting the rustic log walls in just the right way.

Here are some other images that I think confirm our choice, and I plan to add more when I stumble across them:

Thinking about the other (currently unused) side of the house gets me so excited. It's really going to have the nicest rooms. The other side has the original brick chimneys and fireplaces, log walls, etc. -- all the reasons why we bought this house. I can't wait until we actually get to enjoy them.

Image sources:
1. Designer Shawn Henderson via desiretoinspire
2. Feldman Architecture Inc. via houzz
3. Les Duves hotel in Belgium via remodelista
4. Kaweah Falls designed by Frank Lloyd Wright student Frank Robert
5. Salvinia Lodge in Poland via remodelista

Slate Entry.

I am in love with this simple entry I saw in designer Miles Redd's portfolio. I've been thinking for awhile that I need to paint a door black, but I haven't decided which one yet. And the black hardware is such a nice detail. (The only thing I'm lamenting here is the lack of a rug -- not very practical.)

What really caught my eye though is the slate tile. S and I are pretty set on having slate in our front entry area, and this is my favorite tile that I've seen so far. Does anyone know where I can find tile like this? I'm guessing it's quite expensive since they're so large, but I'd at least like to price it out.

We have already bought wood flooring for the dining room, which is adjacent to the entry area. (Check out the basic floor plan here.) All of a sudden I'm thinking we should consider running the tile through the dining room as well, instead of transitioning to the wood. That is, if the floor joists can hold that much weight -- and if we could afford it.

The walls are exposed log, so I think the tile would look nice in there. I'm just worried about how the two different types of flooring will meet up between the two rooms, since there's no actual "doorway" there to create a threshold. 

What do you think? Would slate seem too "cold" for a dining room? Even if that dining room had warm log walls and a rich wood table?

PS - I, too, am amazed that I managed to squeeze in an extra post before the holiday. Merry Christmas from my parents' house in Pennsylvania!

Mismatched Chairs

It's not my general practice to simply repost things I've just seen on other blogs the day before (what's the point?) but today I make an exception since kitchens are on the brain:

According to Remodelista, this image is from the new IKEA catalog -- which I haven't received yet but am now eagerly anticipating since this picture caught my eye. I have no idea what they're selling here; some shelving definitely, a pot rack and maybe some dishes. (If those hanging pendant lights are a new offering, I may be making a little jaunt into Baltimore soon to check them out.)

Remodelista's post focused on the beautiful unhemmed linen table cloth, which I love. The chairs are what jumped out at me, as lately I've been trying to convince S that old mismatched wooden chairs are the way to go for our (future) dining room. This is the perfect example of what I have in mind. I think it looks sophisticated in a way, but totally unpretentious in another since single, mismatched wooden chairs would be easier to find (and way more affordable) than a full matching set.


S doesn't seem to be quite convinced yet, but says he's fine with mismatched chairs painted the same color, like this:


I think that's a pretty sweet look too, if you pick the right color. Especially if you have kids. But I'm hoping the IKEA photo will win him over.

Okay enough about chairs. How are you? I'm so scattered and frighteningly busy lately that I feel out of the loop with everyone. Please drop me a line to let me know how you are!

N.B. I apologize for neglecting to post the source of this photo. It was originally from Living Etc.