We've Been Busy!

Recently, someone asked me if I was still blogging.  Given that my last blog post was in May, and it's now November, you might think that I've given up and abandoned the blogging world altogether.  But that's not true.

We've been really busy!  Around the time of my last post, we embarked on a multi-month project that is still not quite finished.  We decided to expand our family room.  I mean dig a big hole, build new walls, knock out an old wall, the whole shebang.  We slightly more than doubled the size of our family room and also expanded the basement underneath the addition.  All other projects got put on hold while this has been going on.

This has been a BIG project!!  And although a lot of bloggers give updates and pictures all along the way, I'm more of a wait-for-the-big-reveal kind of girl.  So, I promise that a big reveal of the new family room is coming, but I just can't bring myself to put it on the blog until it's really ready.  So stay tuned.  It will be worth the wait.  We LOVE the new room.  It's getting close to being "done," but we aren't quite ready.

For now, I'll just whet your appetite a little by showing you my fall mantle.  Here's a hint:  The Amazing Grace art coordinates perfectly with the rest of the room.

Master Bedroom and Bathroom Makeover

My now-husband and I dated for about 13.5 months before we got engaged.  In all that time, I never once saw the second floor of his house.  He told me his bedroom was ugly and that it would need work before we got married, but it wasn't until after I had an engagement ring on my finger that I saw it for myself.  "Ugly" was quite an understatement.  When I finally got to tour the upstairs, I think I just kept repeating, "Wow."  Everything in the master bedroom and bathroom was original from 1978--mashed down blue/tan/multicolored carpet, powder blue toilet and shower, blue tile floor, and a very-1970s vanity lamp hanging from a chain.  Moreover, the master suite was laid out like a hotel room:  The toilet and shower were enclosed in a separate room, but the sink was in the bedroom.  I have often wondered what they were smoking when they designed this room.  It wasn't just ugly, it was very impractical.  But don't just take my word for it.  Here are the "before" pictures to prove it:

 

 

 

 

My then-fiance had been waiting for a decade to redecorate the bedroom.  He kept thinking that someday he'd have a wife, and then it would be time to change it.  Well, "someday" finally came.  About three weeks before our wedding (yes, just three weeks!) the master bedroom and bathroom were completely gutted and major renovations began.  My husband did some of the prep work, but we hired a contractor to do the rest of the project, which included moving a wall, rearranging plumbing, converting the shower to a tub, enclosing the bathroom into a separate room, and much more.  Literally the week of our wedding, I was at Sherwin Williams picking out paint colors.  Crazy?  Yeah, a little.  But we were anxious to get it done.  Like any project, there were some delays.  The night we came home from our honeymoon, we had to move tools to the side of the room, sweep the floor, put down plastic dropcloths, and put our mattress on top (only to move it out again in the morning when the workers came back).  Let's just say, it was a little bit of a stressful first week at home.  But in the end, the renovation was totally worth it!  We absolutely love our bedroom and bathroom now!

It was awesome to have a "blank canvas" to work with--to completely design the master suite from top to bottom--the decor and the layout--exactly the way we wanted it.  It was so much fun to pick out all of the individual elements--tile, granite, cabinets, light fixtures, furniture, colors, fabrics, wall art--and see it all come together.  I am so pleased with the final result!  It is elegant and romantic, while still warm and comfortable.  Two bedroom walls are painted a deep red; the rest of the walls are "blonde" (a golden beige).  The fabrics on the bed and window treatments are gold, deep red, and brown.  In the bathroom, the walls are blonde, and I brought in the red and gold with the shower curtain, window valances, and towels.  We went with cherry woods and oil-rubbed bronze for all the metal fixtures.  And we installed a whirlpool tub, which I use frequently--it's so relaxing!

We've come a long way from the hotel-style 1970s powder blue room that used to be there.  It doesn't even feel like the same house anymore.  This bedroom is truly "ours," and we love it!  Here are the "after" pictures:

The Shady Rest

When I was a teenager, I loved watching re-runs of Petticoat Junction on TV Land.  There was something so appealing and wholesome about life at the Shady Rest Hotel.  The family wasn't perfect.  Billy Jo, Bobby Jo, and Betty Jo got into their share of problems.  Uncle Joe's schemes usually didn't work out.  And Kate, the matriarch of the family, was a widow, so clearly, life hadn't always been easy for her.  But no matter what was going on within the Bradley family, guests were always welcome at the Shady Rest Hotel.  They stayed in a comfortable room, enjoyed hot meals in the dining room with the family, and joined in on sing-alongs around the piano in the lobby.  I always thought that if the Shady Rest were a real hotel, I'd love to go there.

Granted, Petticoat Junction was a hokey show in many ways, but it was full of love, laughter, and family values.  At the Shady Rest, there was a balance between family life and hospitality.  The hotel, after all, was the Bradley family home, and Kate had to juggle her responsibilities as a mother with managing the hotel.  In the idealized world of Hooterville, she performed both of these roles with grace.

We don't live in a place like Hooterville.  We don't have a little train running near our home.  We don't run a hotel, and we don't have three daughters.  But home and hospitality are very important to my husband and me, just as they were at the Shady Rest.

When we married in 2012, my husband had already lived in his house for a decade.  It is a two-story, three-bedroom colonial on a 2.5-acre lot in the country.  It's on a dirt road, and the house is surrounded by woods.  I grew up in the suburbs, and I love doing things in the city.  So moving to the country was an adjustment for me.  We briefly considered moving--but my husband would never be happy living in a suburban neighborhood, and there are a number of things about our location that are very appealing.  Our house is a good compromise for us.  It's not too far out of the city, so the shopping, restaurants, and amusements I enjoy in the city/suburbs aren't too far away.  But it's far enough out to satisfy my husband's love of the country.  So we decided to stay put for the long-term.

I will never love how muddy my car gets driving on the dirt road, or the necessity of a septic tank instead of a municipal sewer, or the not-so-appealing well water.  But there are many aspects of country life that I have learned to love.  I enjoy how quiet it is.  In the summertime, the woods create a great deal of privacy, as well as providing ample shade to help keep the house cooler.  And when snow falls in the winter, the woods look gorgeous.

But even though country life has grown on me, there is a big problem with the house:  It was built in 1978, and much of it is still stuck in the '70s.  My husband made a few updates--took down some fuzzy blue wallpaper in the first-floor bathroom, replaced the bright yellow kitchen countertops with blue, updated the family room carpet to a neutral berber.  For the most part, though, he left the house largely as it was, complete with ugly old blue carpet in the master bedroom, a very 1970s bathroom vanity lamp hanging from chains, and family room curtains featuring brown drawings of Independence Hall and Mount Vernon.  He always figured that if he got married someday, his wife would want to decorate, so he didn't put a lot of money into design or decoration.  I'm actually quite grateful for that.

Before we got married, I already had a lot of ideas for how I wanted to decorate the house, and those ideas keep developing.  It has been a collaborative effort between my husband and me.  He is very handy, and he knows the structural/engineering side of the house much better than I do.  He's also great at hunting down awesome discounts for home improvement stores.  I do the aesthetic design--choosing colors, fabrics, type of wood, curtains, wall art, etc.  I love to think about how a room will flow and function, how I can best organize it, how to use color to create the atmosphere I desire.  And because my husband made very few changes to the house, I have a blank slate to work with, and I don't have to feel bad that I am undoing what he did.

As much as I love interior design in and of itself, there are two overarching goals that drive our home projects.  First, we want to convert the old bachelor pad into a beautiful family home that is comfortable and functional for both of us and any children we may have someday.  From the flow of each room and the organization of the closets and cabinets to the feel of the furniture and the appeal of the color, I want our house to be a place we enjoy spending time, a place that works well for our daily routine, a place that satisfies our definition of "home."  Second, we want our home to be warm and inviting to guests.  We may not be running a hotel like the Shady Rest, but hospitality is very important to us.  We love to entertain friends and family, so while designing our home, choosing and arranging furniture, and even organizing the kitchen cupboards, we are seeking to make our house function well for guests.

This is what this blog will be about--home design and hospitality--creating our own version of the Shady Rest where we feel at home and where friends and family receive a warm welcome.