Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Its Pure Craziness!!

This last week has been nothing short of crazy.   My husband has been on the rampage to check some projects off the never ending, ridiculously long list of things we want to eventually accomplish to make our house really OURS!!  While I can GREATLY appreciate his hard work and determination to get things done,  working on projects around the holidays has been quite the challenge.    In short, just imagine your doing all your usual holiday rituals, holiday shopping, gift wrapping, decorating the inside and outside of your home, baking Christmas cookies, having family pictures taken for Christmas cards, creating Christmas cards, mailing Christmas cards and packages, going to parties, planning to host your own combined family gathering this weekend and preparing for the arrival of your mother in law who is coming to stay with you for a month, plus your normal  home management items; laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, cooking, homework with the kids, taking the kids everywhere (Yup its hockey season again!), Ballet, scouts add in there a new part time job I've just started :-), a kid with the stomach bug, two people with colds, and loosing three teeth to this mess....now completely rip up your house into a construction zone.....I'm sure you get the idea....CRAZINESS!

So to try and keep up with all our new projects I have a bunch of pictures.  Unfortunately its kind of a gloomy day today so I tried to take them with flash, without flash, with lights on, with lights off, standing on my head etc. to see if I could get something that somewhat represents the look of the project I'm photographing.  So hang in there with me and I'll try to explain as we go.....

 Last week my husband installed wainscoting.  This week he painted the powder room.  We were debating a couple colors and at the last minute we decided to just paint it  with a can of paint we had from our old house (our old dining room was this color).  I'm glad we tried that old paint as I LOVE ho w it turned out....very soothing.

  The living room/kitchen was a HUGE paint project that my husband made look pretty easy.  The tricky part was picking out a paint we  would love to look at alot and that matched our odd colored couches, and  the counter tops and cabinets in the kitchen.  This color seemed to work great for both....a bit of a chameleon    color though....sometimes it looks mossy, sometimes, tan, sometimes a goldish hue.....we are happy with it though.


 The morning room has been a huge debate.  Originally we were going to do an accent wall in blue, then we were just going to paint it the same color as the kitchen/living room, then on the spur of the moment I said lets try this color which turned out to be a little darker than we thought but we think it pairs very well with the kitchen and  we like that it really has a different color....broke up all that was going on in the other rooms so it feels completely on its own.



 OH yah....since we opted out of getting a fireplace and I can't remember where I hung our stockings last year, this year I put them at the  top  of the stairs near the bedrooms.  I think they give the upstairs a little festive look and I've gotten quite a few compliments from family that has visited.  If you are building now....something I may have considered is putting an electrical outlet next to the linen closet.  I would have loved to  string the garland all the way around and added   some lights to it....would have been very pretty.....but I didn't think of that when we were building.  Another  place I would have considered adding an outlet is above the  kitchen cabinets.....again would have been nice to put some garland above there and some lights, maybe you have one of those ceramic Christmas villages that would look cute above the cabinets.......anyways just an after thought.

 Ahhhhhh...my place of peace and relaxation...our master bedroom!  We painted our bedroom in our last house this color just before we moved and loved it.....It really feels like a spa when I walk in and I just melt leaving all my cares someplace near the laundry room.



  with flash this time.   Can't wait to  put in our back splash.......we have some tiles picked out now just need to  get some time to install it......I think it will be beautiful when all is said and done.
 with flash...


 again with flash
 Flash....
So here are my colors together.... for those interested in checking them out here is the list:
bathroom-benjamin moore- woodlawn blue
kitchen/living room- olympic- Earthy Cane
Morning Room-valspar-Filoli Antique Lace
Spa...I mean master bedroom-Martha Stewart Living-Tidewater

Well folks....I've still got a bunch to blog about but hopefully this will get me through the next few days.  Hope you all are enjoying your homes and enjoying the holiday season.....
I'll be blogging soon again so stay posted!!


Thursday, December 6, 2012

A little cottage style....

Where are all my blogging Ryan Homes friends?  I'm hoping you are all just busy preparing for the holidays and enjoying time in your new homes with family and friends.  I was surprised I didn't get more guesses to the mystery project photo in my last blog.  Those of you who replied though I am very happy and thankful you took a peak at our blog and made a great guess.  Well now to reveal the big mystery......

We put wainscoting in our mud area and powder room.    I have to say this area takes a beating in our house.  With a busy schedule and three little ones running everywhere I'm hopeful this wainscoting will provide a little protection on our walls, make them much easier to clean, and I LOVE the style and look they bring to our home.  I just feel so much more welcomed when I walk into the mud area after a crazy day.  I think my husband did a great job installing it and he did it fairly quickly I must say.  He did mention it was a bit of a pain because of all the corners and some of the walls aren't as square as you would hope or they appear to be and that posed a bit of a challenge.....but we both agree we love how it turned out.  Now the question is what color should we paint the top wall portions?  Well I've been busy with my paint swatches checking them out in different lights and coordinating with the other colors I have picked out so hopefully soon I'll have my decisions made and some paint to finish these areas off.  So take a look at the photos below and let me know what you think....