Dare I Say 'Finished'?

As anyone who has ever owned a home will tell you, a home is a constant work in progress. Everyone's homes are constantly evolving to reflect their changing taste and style trends. I get that. However, my inner workings tell me to protest that very statement. I am a completely goal oriented person - I do nothing without first figuring out the end game and then working through the steps from finished to start. So the idea of a project never being done makes me want to gouge my eyeballs out. I need a moment - even if it only lasts a second before the project completely unravels again. Let me also disclaim that this drives my husband insane. If you can imagine - me and my timelines and deadlines and all for what? WHY do we actually have to 'finish' this house? And who decides what 'finished' actually means? Anyway, just a rambling of sorts but my point for revisiting this old blog is to say that I think my house might be done. We have personally touched every square inch of it with our fine tooth home improvement comb. Some spaces have been made completely new down to the studs that hold them together, while others have been given a facelift with a fresh coat of paint and a good scrubbing. In the past few months we have: - Touched up every single solitary ding, divit, handprint and slobber print on each and every wall. And by the way, if you have ever wondered if you really CAN'T touch up eggshell finish paint, let me attest to it's validity. We tried that - and then ended up having to repaint 13 walls in this house...yeah, that's basically the entire thing. - Turned the creepy 'toilet' stall in the basement into a legit looking potty place. It's amazing what a chic towel bar can do to a cinder block wall;-) - Drywalled the basement ceiling and installed recessed lighting in the storage room and family room. - Cleaned every window well in the basement - YUCK - not sure that had EVER been done. - Converted the creepy under-the-basement-stairs closet into a 'clubhouse' for the kids. It was all quite the under-taking and Jeff and I have realized through this little exercise that are life status quo does not allot additional time for home improvement projects. With a 5, 3 and 1 year old - a kindergartner and a preschooler, a business to run and a store remodel to plan, there are just no extra hours in the day. It nearly killed us trying to get those few piddly projects done - the old Jeff and Sarah would have laughed at those jobs (or maybe I should say the YOUNGER Jeff and Sarah:-/). Either way, life is busy and we are looking forward to this Summer in our happy home planting our vegetable garden, playing at the park and enjoying the patio we dream of putting in the back yard;-). Please enjoy these 'finished' photos of our little house. The journey has been fulfilling and beautiful at its finest - and exhausting and defeating at its worst. But it's a part of OUR journey, which is one filled with love and happiness and that is what makes me love this home the most.

Puttsing...

I've slowly but surely been puttsing away on this house. I feel like I have quite a few things in the 'pipeline' at the moment. Things that are in process but not quite finished, things that I've ordered but haven't arrived and/or things I've scheduled but the work has not been completed yet. Let me fill you in: 1) For about 2 years now, I've been on the hunt for new wall sconces for our upstairs bath. To refresh your memory, the ones that were there were $3.99 fixtures from Home Depot that the previous owner installed. Picture chrome bulb holders with etched glass grapes. Yikes, they were pretty awful. However, I don't blame her for installing them since the space is really difficult to work with. With the slope of the ceiling and the height of the mirror, finding a squaty enough fixture was tricky. I was reaching my throw-my-hands-in-the-air point in my search when I looked up and noticed the wall sconces that have been residing in our family room. They were the finish I was looking for (black), had a shade (which I thought would fit nicely in there) and very stout indeed. I had Jeff un-wire one and try it out in the bathroom and wouldn't you know it was a perfect fit! So, he moved the other one and we called that little project done. The finish on the fixtures is oil-rubbed bronze and feels verrrrrrry traditional in the bathroom. I'm thinking down the line maybe I would paint them to give them a chic-er feel...maybe a high gloss black or maybe something completely different. For now, they work, so I'll just leave them be. 2) Next up came the task of filling the now two gaping holes in the wall of our family room where the previous fixtures lay. This was absolutely NO problem however since I've been dying to find a place for these puppies in my home. I have been in love with them forever as they've certainly circled the blogosphere a time or two. I ordered them in brass as well as a nice compliment to the dining room fixture, stairway gold gallery frames and few other accents of gold in the house. Can't WAIT to get them! 3) I am also still waiting on my pair of pink lamps I ordered for our family room. One will reside on the laptop desk to the right of the couch (where I am currently residing myself;-) and the other on the black end table to the left of the couch. But UGH! I ordered them in JANUARY. Supposedly they ship next week - I'm keeping my entire body crossed. One concern I had with the previous wall sconces was the fact that there would be a shaded sconce right above a lamp - 2 shaded sconces + 2 shaded lamps equaled a whole lotta shades on one little wall. I feel like the less fabric shaded look of the new sconces next to the shaded lamps will be a nicer combination. Here's an old pic from when I 'tried out' the lamps...see what I mean? 4) The new 'den' upstairs is about to take super shape. The chaise/sofa we ordered for up there is scheduled to be delivered around 5/5 (seen here but not in this fabric): I also ordered a rug for that room since I finally found an inspiration image for how I wanted the room to feel. Here it is: So I ordered an over-dyed rose colored rug that is slightly larger than the current rug that's in there. Here's a glamor shot of it... I'm also considering the pendant pictured in the inspiration image (which is surprisingly cheap but INTERNATIONAL and we know the kind of luck I've had with that;-) or this one that I've long been in love with. Have a preference? I still need to figure out a top for the floating wall of cabinets we did - I was originally thinking stained wood, but am kind of feeling like going glossy white with it like the inspiration image. Hmmmm... 4) I have been working on a little arrangement of frames for the bare wall in our dining room. I had the kids silhouettes updated by the same artist I originally had do them (found through Etsy). I'm waiting on those so I can update the girls and have the matte cut for Henry's. Then I have one other print that I ordered from one of my favorite print shops #SSPrintShop, and then I can finally start putting the frames up on the wall. Aside from the painting going over the fireplace (scheduled to be here before 5/11), there really isn't much left to do in this room (here's a preview of my painting...eek!). At some point, I would consider a large rug to make the room feel intimate and a little more comfortable - but I'm not in a rush considering Henry is in the peek (I hope) of his food-throwing phase;-) Have considered a mirror between the windows and would also someday like to get a table runner or placemats or cloth napkins...I own none of any which I became painfully aware of when setting my Easter table with paper towels for napkins;-) 5) My windows are about to go black. All of my common area windows will be removed from their sashes and sprayed satin-y black next weekend. I had the estimate done long ago, but was held up by this blasted Sprinter. You can believe that when I saw the forecast for this weekend, I got straight on the horn with my painter. Of course each year around this time I get a fire lit under me to wrap. up. some. tasks. It's birthday season in our house which is really and truly the one time of the year we have our families over. Our house is far too small for hosting our two large families, but we do it anyway because Jeff and I both enjoy entertaining and because Gloria asked that her party be at her "homsey home." She so loves being here and begs to go home when I take her out - so her little palace shall serve as the home of her and her brothers little 'beach party' (as chosen by the birthday girl). Even with it just family, the guest list tops 48 people, so a 'party' it will be! But this little ball of sorts is good motivation to get all these dibble dabbles of projects tied up in one big birthday bow:-)

Pictures.

Just a quick moment to check-in. Our house was photographed by our architect to use for different materials/media. I caught a glimpse of these beautiful shots and thought I would share them with you. You can see our project by going to their Facebook page LNA Architecture & Design - or their website www.lnaarch.com. Hurrah!

Alone Space.

After a lengthy discussion of how different my husband and I grew up, we decided to redo our office. You see, my husband, youngest of 4 active, adrenaline loving boys grew up in a 'loud' home and I grew up in a home where no words were spoken in a single day. In other words, quiet. I like to tell Jeff that our kids take after him, in other words, loud;-) And being a stay at home mom who is 'on-the-job' 24/7 means I often crave a little peace and quiet. After talking with Jeff in length, we decided to make our office over into a den of sorts - in other words, a quiet place. This new quiet place will encompass a few objectives. 1) It will be a place to hang out (ie: there will be a TV in there). We currently only have one tv in our home and at times, although not that often, it would be nice to have another. 2) It will house all of our files, office supplies, books, crafting supplies, etc as it currently does. 3) It will be a spot to read with the kids at night. Ever since getting the girls bunk beds, it's been tough finding the perfect spot we can all settle in for a handful of stories at night. This will be that spot. 4) It will function as a hangout room, reading nook, office area - in other words, a multi-functional room. It's a tiny room. It used to house a large Pottery Barn desk I bought nearly 10 years ago. I sold the desk on Craigslist (in a day and had about a billion inquiries on it) which has opened up the possibilities and budget a bit. To fulfill the need of seating, I have narrowed my search to a chaise/sofa/daybed of sorts. A spot to snuggle, lounge, read, sit, work, play, etc. Here are my 3 top picks: Pay no attention to the fabrics they are shown in. We are more looking at the size/style of the pieces. SO - do you have a favorite? I'll be back to share the other side of the room with you soon - off to finalize that tomorrow. Looking forward to having a quiet place we can enjoy and another functional room in the house.

A Painting.

I won't spend much time dwelling on the fact that I haven't updated my blog in ages. I'll just jump right to the news worthy of visiting this old blog friend of mine. For a LONG time now, I have been on the hunt for something to put above our dining room fireplace. I sort of knixed the idea of a mirror as I already have a mirror hanging in our entry and powder bath, both which are in earshot of the dining room. I wanted something feminine in color (since my fav color is pink), but also added a glamorous layer to the rather tone on tone esthetic of the room. I found an artist via Instagram that I was keeping a very close eye on. As soon as I saw one of her pieces I knew she would be a perfect fit. Because I was looking for a unique size and color scheme, I knew it would be likely I would need to have something commissioned. I decided to hold off and just keep an eye on her new pieces should anything catch my eye. Then one day she posted that one of her pieces had been pinned by HGTV designer Emily Henderson. I sort of freaked out and told Jeff I had better pull the trigger before she got any more popular and her prices went through the roof. And so began my commission. The process involves a brief survey requesting more information about likes/dislike/wants/wishes, etc. What room will it be in? What colors do you want to see? What do the surrounding rooms look like? Photos of the room, house, etc. I told her I wanted pink and a lot of it. I also wanted gold, bits of black and a little blue since the color has definitely managed its way into my home despite my dislike of it (I'll have you know it's growing on me!) The process is pretty lengthy, probably 6 weeks or so - but the lamps I am adding to my living room will be arriving right about the same time, so it will be fun to pull it all together. Here's a shot of the lamps: So the first step from my artist is to receive a sketch of the painting. Basically a good gist of what the painting will look like, the color palette, overall feel she is going for. I received this last night and was speechless. It's beautiful! The only problem? It's portrait orientation and I had envisioned landscape. So, she's working to revise it as we failed to communicate on that front in the beginning. Here's a close up of it: I really do love it. I feel that if I saw it in a shop, I would snatch it up instantly. The glitter is for real too - actual fine gold glitter applied to the painting. There is an extensive sealing process that goes on afterwards to make the painting last a literal lifetime, so I love the idea even more knowing it won't be making its way all over my house. Anyway, the next layer I'll be adding to my dining room right around painting time is black windows. That's right, I'm painting all of my 'common area' windows black (basically no bedrooms or basement). Here's a few inspiration images: So you'll notice the trim stays white and only the window panes themselves are black. I've already had my painters out to give me an estimate. Because I want them sprayed and not brushed, I have to wait until it's 50 degrees out. So likely looking into April before this little project gets underway. But - I'm excited at the thought of it - especially with the bits of black in the painting.

2 Years.

Believe it or not (I can't), today is the 2 year anniversary of us closing on our current home. I wish I had a photo to share of us on closing day, however, my camera was stolen shortly after capturing that photo, so no such photo to share (still salty about that one!) I don't even know how to describe the disbelief that we've lived here for two years. Those years are a complete and utter blur aside from a few lingering memories. The ones that pop immediately into my mind: - Laying my overly exhausted head in bed many a night thanking God for this house. - The lack of furniture for so long is a huge memory - there's something about sitting on the floor that makes time move more slowly;-) - Hosting Gloria's 1st birthday party here by the skin of our teeth and working around the clock, 24/7 to try and be somewhat ready for it post-remodel. But as I'm sitting here tonight, at 12:51am (ok, wait, I think it's morning)...and look around, nestled in the corner of the couch with my feet propped up on a coffee table and puzzle pieces strewn all. over. the. place. - it's hard to remember not living here. We have been so busy...a new level of busy. Busy like busy that never stops. With Jeff assuming ownership of the drug store, our excitement coupled with the sheer number of things that need to get done there means working until one of us yells uncle. Oh yes, there's also the newborn factor and the part where Henry still likes getting up three times at night. And of course the other two kids that appreciate a little entertainment during the day. Hmmm...I seem to be on some sort of a rant here. But my point is, life is insane. Somedays, it's insanely good and other days I'm insanely exhausted. But this home is home to all of it - our ups and downs, our triumphs and our failures. This house is for us an unconditional love. We bought it not for what it looked like (you know by now it needed work!), but we bought it because it had a feeling. It felt like we belonged here and that feeling hasn't gone away. I still find myself laying my head down - mind drained and drifting off to dream land, but wandering towards God and uttering 'Thank you for this house.' Thank you Lord for this safe and happy place. Thank you for the work that it required so it could become a part of us. Thank you for giving us a place to bring our baby home to. Thank you for this incredible journey.

Henry Paul Schaffer

It's hard to believe our baby boy arrived a whole month ago. Henry Paul was born on Thursday, May 31st at 3:46 in the morning. I wanted to be sure and document what's left of my memories of the experience as to not forget his entry into the world entirely. I had a doctor appointment on Wednesday, May 30th (my due date) in the morning. I was shocked that I was still pregnant on my due date as both girls were 2 days early AND I had been dilated since 36 weeks. I had been having all sorts of weird pains - but nothing that was an actual contraction (at least that I noticed as one). After the doctor did his exam, he told me he thought I would be in later that night. Jeff and I both kind of chuckled with the doctor - as if he could ACTUALLY predict that. As we were walking out the door, my doctor casually called to us, "See you at 2am!" The rest of the day I spent walking on egg shells. Jeff was at work and I was on my own with the girls...afraid to venture out of my neighborhood should my water break or contractions begin. But I was determined to stay on my feet and try and walk that baby out. I called my friend Jessica to see if she wanted to meet us at a park with her kids. Mental distraction + kids exerting energy was the perfect recipe...not to mention it passed the time and meant good company...so off to the park we went around 4. Jeff met us at the park after he was done working at 5 and we decided to grab dinner on our way home. We stopped with the kids at Broder's near our house and were enjoying our pizza when I started feeling uncomfortable. It didn't take me long at all to realize they were contractions. There was no 'tightening' feeling like early contractions feel like, these were uncomfortable contractions that had my mood changing quickly. I told Jeff I was having contractions and minutes later told him I thought we should go as I didn't feel like sitting at Broder's while laboring. So we headed home, Jeff bathed the girls and got them ready for bed while I took my time getting the house put back together and breathing through contractions. He then went out and mowed the lawn while I took a shower and threw the last few things in my bag. By this point, it was clear that tonight was going to be THE night. We didn't say anything to the girls before they went to bed. I didn't want them to wake up early excited that Grandma and Grandpa would be there or worry about anything in general. So after they fell asleep, I snuck in their rooms and gave them the biggest hugs and kisses...knowing this would be the last night I ever tucked TWO kids into bed instead of THREE. By about 9pm, the house was put together, car was loaded, lawn was cleaned up and we were ready to go when the time was right. We sat and watched TV and timed contractions (there's an app for that you know;-) until about midnight when things were picking up speed. We placed the fateful call to my parents (I had given them a head's up once the contractions had started) and they headed over to our house. Once they arrived, I called the on-call doctor at my clinic to let them know I was heading over. During the car ride to the hospital (about an 8 minute drive), I had 4 contractions - things were starting to move quickly! We headed up to the maternal assessment area where they hooked me up to the monitors to confirm I was in labor. I laughed to myself because I was 100% certain they weren't going to be sending me home telling me I wasn't in labor. I was right, I was already dilated 6cm! So they admitted us and we headed to labor and delivery. I spent some time laboring in the room and moving around before deciding to order my epidural. My water hadn't broken yet and they warned me that once it did break, things were going to progress extremely quickly...especially considering this was my third baby. At 2:15am, my doctor walked into the room and said, "You're 15 minutes late!" We all laughed (although I was NOT laughing at this point), but how crazy was his prediction! At about 3am, my epidural was administered, my doctor broke my water and by the time I was laying back down, it was time to push. I pushed for about 20 minutes and there he was - 6 pounds 15 ounces of perfection. One of my requests for the delivery was that I got to cut the cord...and I did! It was a wonderful delivery despite the fact that it went so quickly and I didn't feel God gave my epidural nearly enough time to settle in;-) But it was amazing and beautiful and a perfect first meeting of our one and only son. It was a little weird having a baby at 3:46 in the morning. Normally, we would have been on our cell phones dialing up our family and friends...but we didn't want to wake anyone, so we decided we'd wait until the sun started shining. So we called just our parents and let them know he was here, we were doing great (although exhausted) and that we'd tell them his name when they came to the hospital later that day. Around 7, the calls and texts started coming in from eager brothers and friends and we were able to share the news of his arrival. The day was filled with visitors and I even captured this video of the girls and my parents meeting Henry for the very first time. God is so incredibly good.