blood sweat & tears: Alex's room part 1

blood, sweat & tears. all of these happened as they typically do during home remodeling. i've cut myself a handful of times on various paint lid openers, or stabbed myself with a screwdriver in the foot a time or two. and there is always sweat. working on a house is hard. and i tend to work at a feverish pace in fear that my time will be abruptly cut short due to the kids needing something, or needing to be somewhere. the good news is, this success story didn't include tears. at least not mine. my body still hasn't been able to replenish it's tear reserves since the infamous closet door debacle at the last house.

this is the story of alex's room makeover. which is funny because she doesn't even sleep in her room right now. she prefers the floor of ian's room, or our room, or this room. mostly this room because i bought a new duvet cover at IKEA and she thinks it's SO SOFT. (it's not)

it's a good thing this project of a house came with ample space and an extra bedroom so the princess could have her pick. 

ever since we moved in she's been terrified. I repeat, TERRIFIED of the 2nd door in her room that goes into the bonus room. and this is where the tears come in.  two doors is super creepy, i can see that. even AFTER i installed a new doorknob with a lock this room continues to be where she 'keeps her stuff'. which is okay for now. ask me in a few years how i feel about waking up to find her 10 year old body sleeping on my bedroom floor. now that's creepy.

so here we go.  part 1. part 2 will be years from now surely when we have the floors replaced and put decent moldings up. but don't hold your breath, i'm not. we didn't get the moldings up on our last house until there was a for sale sign in the yard. THE BEFORE.

aaaaannnndddd the after.

See the creepy door? SO creepy.

her room didn't require much. i had all her furniture at the last house. all items i pulled out of 2nd hand or antique stores. just a little paint on the ceiling, walls, and the trim which I HATE PAINTING and will be doing throughout this house.

up next: living & dining room. it's almost done. ALMOST. on hold due to cut finger...

for anyone who cares about this sort of thing. walls are SW sea salt, and trim is alabaster. 

The Office: Part I

We just passed our 1 month mark in our new house. Time sure fly's when your busy as hell. I think we've managed to eliminate all the boxes and are now left with random piles of things I have no idea why we moved them to begin with. I'm sure we'll find a home for everything one day.

I have this amazing vision of this house that is itching to get out, but time is limited with my schedule and with MAYBE an hour a day after the kids go to bed to work on anything it will be slow moving. BUT, I have progress. And here it is.

I decided to start with Sean's office. Mainly because it houses all our personal effects, paperwork, and if that's organized then our life feels so. Plus, he works from home a lot and I wanted him to have this space. With the hours he puts in, he deserves it.

So here we have before. Tan grasscloth wallpaper, gold track lighting, cords everywhere, overall blah yeah?

and now...

I still have moldings to replace and install and one day, one day a long long time from now the carpet will be replaced with wood floors. But this is improvement enough for me.

For now.

I also have a small pile of items not yet hung. These items I promised Sean he could display in 'his room'. But this late in the game, I'm just not seeing that they 'go'. I'm sure we can find a nice wall in the garage.

Paint: Benjamin Moore; dark harbor. Light Fixture: West Elm. Painting by a talented friend Tasha Bartley.*Everything else travelled with us in the move. 

A special thanks to Anna Labedz for her laborous assistance in applying many coats of primer, because that sucked.