Loads of Fun!!

It's finished!! Our Laundry room is finished and I couldn't be happier! Having the laundry in our actual house as opposed to the basement makes all the difference in the world! I don't have to trudge down to a damp, dark smelly basement with spiders and God knows what else AND our living room smells of fresh laundry! All it really took was a little help from our friend Bill Clifford who helped move the monster to the other side and a $282 check to our local electrician who spent a hot five minutes changing the plug for our dryer and moving it over! Worth every penny though. We now have an amazing laundry room and more storage! Stacking the washer and dryer was definitely the way to go, not only did we gain some room but you only have to bend over once which definitely makes a difference! And oh the music it plays! I swear the dryer goes on for like 4 minutes with a little jingle, gently letting me know it's done instead of scaring the crap out of me with a siren like beep! And they have Wrinkle prevent! Best invention EVER! Instead of having the clothes just sit there when I forget or don't feel like folding them right away, the dryer goes on for a minute or two every five minutes and it prvents wrinkles! Amazeballs! It feels so good to finally have a room officially done with brand new appliances. Lots of rooms are coming along but won't be "officially" done until we get some brand spanking newness up in them i.e. new fridge, new tub, new bed... Even though its the smallest room in the house, it gets used every day and it prevents us from being nakie so I say that's pretty important!

One Step At A Time...

I recently had a small mental break down over the state of our house. I felt as though we should be further along than we are. Like I said before I just want it all to be done and perfect, like now. But I know that's not reality. Reality is that Pete is commuting down to Boston every day and I'm commuting 2 days and that takes a huge toll on you! The truth is that we got rid of so much furniture that we have no where to put anything. I unpacked 15 boxes of books and we only had one small bookcase to put them so now they are piled on our landing. Our clothes are in heaps on the floor because we still need a bureau. And we JUST bought a couch yesterday! We are stuck in this crazy limbo. We wanted to do some renovations to the house, but an unexpected $1450 to fix the roof so the Black Hornets of Hell won't come back in sort of put a crimp on things. And our little savings for the house is draining faster that the downstairs tub. Actually Molasses drains faster the downstairs tub. Never in my life have I consistently spent more money in a month period, not even in Europe! Really my paychecks should just go straight to Lowes. I'm trying not to get discouraged, rather encouraged... to be creative. I have to take a breath and realize that SOMEDAY all these things will be done. For now We need to focus on what really needs to be done. Also we need to realize what we can splurge on and what we should save on. We splurged on a really nice living room couch/chair set from Jordans. I wanted to find something used on Craigslist but God said No and told me to talk to Barry and/or Elliott (whatever happened to the other one??) But it will be worth it, it is THE most used piece of furniture in the house, next to our bed Aaaaaoooohhh ZING! No, really that makes us sound like really lazy people. Anyway we splurged on a nice sofa and chair and saved on the chandelier in the dining room. The one I wanted was gorgeous and looked like pillar candles and was $250. The one we got works just fine and fits the decor and was $36. You can't beat that. And you can't watch the game on a chandelier! And instead of buying a $1000 dining room set from pottery barn we scouted around and have the beginnings of an even better set that is so US! We found this amazing rustic table at The Maxx for $220! Gorgeous gray distresses wood and with nailed galvanized tin on the top. So perfect. But we needed chairs. Finally craigslist provided us with these Pottery barn ladder backs (Pete has a thing for Ladder back chairs) 4 for $100 instead of $135 each!! Now we just need a long bench to go on one side and we are set!! Here's my question, leave the chairs the way they are matching the floor and surrounding wood or paint and distress them to match the table?? Help please!

I also found these perfect seat cushions, gray and yellow with lemons and Italian writing! Chello!!

Also thanks to a lovely lesbian in Medford (craigslist again!) I have fulfilled my dream of owning the pottery barn Modular wine hutch!! I'm not joking since I was old enough to start ordering my own catalogs I swore to myself one day I would own this. The problem was if you buy it from pottery barn it costs up to $2000. This beast is pure mahogany! But I scored it for $425!! And it is so perfect. Sometimes I say goodnight to it. It's that beautiful.

We found a few more craigslist scores like the antique corner hutch to hold our never used china. (Thanks Aunt Theresa!) We swapped out the old broken white knobs for these funky brass ones to give a less dated feel to it. And of course a couple of huge spoon and fork chalk boards next to the Buddha and ladies and gentlemen we are almost done with the dining room, just have to find that bench and hang some goodness on the walls!! Who's coming over for dinner?! So now only a few weeks after the movers have come we have one room really done!! Even though we rarely use it the downstairs bathroom is done! Originally we had big plans to gut this room completely. The window is broken, the sink vanity doesn't have real drawers, they are fake but come out?? Who does that?? The mirror looked like a 1st grade art project and the bath tub/shower drain is broken and it's a lovely shade of powder blue. Our plan was simple. Rip everything out! Replace the window, make a kick ass mirror with shells and rocks from Squirrel. Find a claw foot tub from a salvage place and a shower curtain from Garnet Hill. Replace the light fixtures and tile the wall with river stones. Make a new sink Vanity out of a vintage dresser to have drawers for storage and also have a funky old feel and put a bowl sink on top. And WHAM! New fabulous bathroom. Sigh. Our new plan was this. Toss the gross mirror and replace it with a small port hole mirror we had in our bedroom. Change out the knobs on the vanity, even though they aren't real drawers, they look better now. The knobs were only $1 and make a huge difference. We painted the walls a deep heather blue to make the wainscoting and tin ceiling pop. It's amazing what a little color and new fixtures can add to a room! Bought a $30 shelf at Walmart to add storage to the wall (added matching knobs) and raided Homegoods for a shower curtain, rugs and towels that matched. Replaced the old silver towel rack with a funky one I found for $12 at The Maxx and Voila! New Bathroom for $120 instead of $2500. Its not my dream bathroom but that will someday come. For now, It works. And like I said we are hardly in there, Its cheery and cozy and does its job. Just pay no attention to the blue monster behind the curtain!

At Least There Ain't No Hole In The Wash Tub!

Emmet and Ma Otter had it right. Don't sweat the small stuff. They were as poor as dirt but they were okay because there wasn't a hole in the wash tub! But can I just bitch about my own "wash tub" for a moment. Being a Nanny for the last thousand years I have seen my fair share of Laundry, and actually don't mind doing it provided I have a great laundry room to do it in! The thought of even having a "laundry room" made me do back flips! My whole life growing up and in every apartment I've had (that is if it even had laundry) I have been forced to take my clothes to a cold, wet basement. The point of doing Laundry is to have a basket of fresh smelling clean clothes, Nothing feels clean or fresh smelling in those basements - no matter how many dryer sheets you put in. So when we bought this house, the fact that it had an actual laundry room, well a large laundry closet, made me ecstatic!! No more dungeons!! The washer and dryer we were left with were okay, so we thought. But a few weeks ago Pete tried to dry his clothes from the rain and the dryer sounded like the four horsemen of the Apocalypse and it started to smell of smoke. I'm sure we could have had someone come over to fix it, But before Pete could take a breath I was on the phone ordering our brand new Washer and Dryer!! Obviously I had to assume the washer was bunk too, I needed a matching set after all. So we sprung for the Energy Star, front loading Samsung set! I was so overjoyed I actually cried a little. Last weekend we painted the pale yellow laundry room a gorgeous deep red in preparation for the delivery men! I felt like a little kid waiting for Santa as I jumped every time I heard a noise outside! I think I was most excited because once they were installed the room would be 85% done! I had dreams of hanging some shelves for storage, maybe a small table where I could fold things, a few fixtures to hold our broom and mop and maybe even a cheesy laundry sign that said something awful like "Put your duds in the suds" or "Colors free, Whites 50 cents" (who wouldn't want a somewhat racist laundry room?) Anyway the point is that in this seemingly endless battle over the house, we were so close to having ONE completely done and brand new room, and that felt GOOD! Finally they arrived and I was overjoyed!! I kept Hurley out of their way as they got rid of the old pieces of junk and installed my new gorgeous appliances that actually play a little musical diddy when they are done instead of that horrible beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. But then I heard it... "Uh, Honey... You might want to come check this out..." Not Good. They don't fit!!! They are Huuuuuge and take up almost the whole room. We stacked them to save space which isn't the problem, they are so damn wide they hit you in the face when you open the door and now the corner space is useless because you can barely squeeze by! Now we have to try to "walk" this behemoth bitch over to the other side of the room. But that's not all... The plug for the dryer is on the other side where it is now, so we either have to find a nonexistent plug extension for this massive beast or we have to hire an electrician to come and switch the plugs out - not cheap. And even when they are moved, I'm not sure there will be room for any shelves or a table if we want the doors to open. My Laundry dreams are slowly crumbling. At least the red looks good. One step at a time...

The Heart Of The Home

They say that "The kitchen is the heart of the home." And I fully believe this. Pete and I both LOVE to cook and entertain. In fact we fell in love while breading chicken cutlets in his kitchen. True Story. Anyway, every house we looked at, the first place we ran to was the kitchen. Now this kitchen DEFINITELY needs some help. It has some shaky bones and is small But I know we can make it work. When we first saw the kitchen during the open house it was lime green with a gorgeous vinyl floor (You know the kind that will NEVER BE CLEAN) and hunter green counter tops. But the blue bottles in the window, FIREPLACE and fun little chachkies (Which I just learned is Yiddish??) made it feel super cozy. I have always wanted an open plate rack too! Except for some reason these people only put SEVEN spaces!! I literally loose sleep over how much this bothers me, Why not EIGHT?! A Normal place setting you ding bats! Now I will have to take out the bars and move them closer together and pray that eight will fit because I can't live with that kind of malarkey. Pete wanted to get rid of the whole desk section completely and put in a big cupboard but I fought him. Don't get me wrong I am always one for storage and we certainly need it here in this kitchen, but I fell in love with this little nook! I want my laptop right there to look up recipes and Facebook stalk people while I wait for dinner to cook. Who knows, it a year or so I may be over it and want more storage but for now I'm pumped. A project in the future is to make a cork board out of our old wine corks for the wall. I would make it in a frame so that it can be removed, But I want to cover that back wall with a wine cork board to tack up pictures, coupons etc. And let's be honest, It'll only take a week or two to get the corks... As I said before we are working with a tiny budget for the WHOLE house, so we have to get creative and pick and choose what really needs to be done. The truth is, the kitchen is fine the way it is. No leaks or huge cracks anywhere and the appliances seem to be working - it does it's job. I just don't like it! I want brand new appliances that are shiny and not covered in old grease! I want a counter top that doesn't make me throw up a little!! I want cupboards that are functional and stylish that don't fall off in my hands when I open them! Sigh... For now I will have to focus on inspiration and things I can change easily! The whole inspiration for our soon to be gorgeous kitchen was a Tuscan Villa. I went back and forth between my love for things rustic and European and my love for things Bright and coastal. Europe won this war. And it's all thanks to this baby... I saw it at Anthropologie last year for over $900 and I found it at The Maxxsters on clearance for $250! I bought it before we even closed on the house! I just knew, without measuring that it had to be in our home! Our landlord called it "an old industrial sized storage unit" - he thought it was junk. He is an idiot. It just may be the most gorgeous table ever created. The top this beautiful untreated wood and the bottom is old almost rusted steel, and the shelves can be moved up and down. I was hoping to make it out kitchen island and I think it will actually work. The feeling of this table is what I wanted to puke all over our kitchen. The first step was paint. Our kitchen and dining room are open to each other in an L shape, so it was hard to paint them different colours. The kitchen technically stops where the linoleum floor stops. The area with the fireplace is supposed to be a "den". Whateves, I say its still part of the kitchen. But the point is I couldn't divide the spaces without it looking too compartmentalized. So all the walls were painted in Eclipse, which was that old yellow we saw in the Dining room. But we decided to keep the walls plain in the kitchen, instead of continuing with the pearlized look. Already it has made a huge difference. But now the counter tops look even more awful, don't know how much longer I can live with them! I'd love to see something natural like soap stone or concrete, I was never a fan of granite, especially not for the price, I don't care how "in" they are - they ain't IN my budget! I also need to put in a back splash. That is something I am fairly confident that with a little help from DIY.com I can do myself. I just can't decide what I want. Originally I wanted white subway tile with a few ceramic Mediterranean/Italian painted tiles thrown in. But now I feel the subway tiles would be too modern. But I would love to incorporate the Italian ceramic somehow, I absolutely fell in love with the gorgeous red, blue and yellow colours when I was in Capri and really want to showcase them somehow. I really like that the cabinets are white but they are made of really cheap wood and not painted in the inside. One thought would be to remove the cabinets completely in the corner to the right of the sink and have open shelves. Very farm house/cottage and I wouldn't have to worry about painting that section of cabinet, I'd also like to have a little more wall to make the kitchen seem bigger. OR we could just remove the doors from those cabinets - but the bases are so crappy I don't like that idea. What I would love to see is some sort of aging on the cabinets. They are pretty boring and since we can't afford new ones, I'd love to give them a cheap face lift with a little fancy paint. At first I though A crackle look, But that requires a ton of time and paint, and it was a bit busy. Then I thought good ol' distressing to give it that antiqued Provencial look - which is still a strong contender. But then I found this picture of an amazing kitchen, where they white washed the cabinets and it was the perfect combination of light bright cabinets with an old touch. I have to decide soon though because in less than two weeks we will actually be living there and will probably be wanting to use our kitchen! As you can see my design is all over the place. I Just can't decide, and am scared to commit! Once we are actually living there for more than a night and things start to get cleaned up, I'm hoping to have some more focus. Right now my brain is spinning a million different directions and I'm petrified of screwing up the most important house in the kitchen. Simple does not come easy to me. This Home's heart is about to have a triple bypass!

Two Kitchens I really freaking LOVE! Look at the DRAPER sign!!

Terrible Ideas... Don't You Just Love Those?

"The Trick To Overcoming Buyer's Remorse Is To Have A Plan. Pick One Room, And Make It Yours. Go Slowly Through The House And Introduce Yourself So It Can Introduce Itself To You." ~ Under The Tuscan Sun Kinda how I'm feeling right now. Completely overwhelmed with all that has to be done to this house. The truth is it has great bones, but there is just so much to do! I know Rome wasn't built in a day, but it would be really awesome if our new home could just come together. We have barely started and already it seems endless. I'm channeling my inner Francis Mayes. No I didn't buy a villa in Tuscany, if I had the money for that, I wouldn't be writing this now! But I did buy a giant farm house in Epping NH, which I would like to eventually exude the feeling of a villa in Tuscany. Having found my true self in Italy and having read and watched Under the Tuscan Sun over 30 times combined (I get obsessive when I find something that speaks to me) It's now time to project that feeling into the house. When we first saw the house the owners did an amazing job of staging it. I think she must have been an antique collector becuase nothing in that house was younger than 40 years! It had a fabulous "This Old House" feeling. Maybe not the most practical of placement for things - who needs a children's school desk from 1920 in the mudroom? But it felt earthy and interesting. We had to look beyond the staging to the soul of the house because that is what we would be left with. And at the end of the day the wide Oak floors, exposed beams and floods of sunlight are what called our name. Our own little Bramasole. This is how our dining room started, a lovely shade of lime/mint green. It wasn't awful but it was poorly done and was not singing to me. So the idea came from a leaflet at Lowes that was entitled Tuscan Sun! Un Segno! We would paint the walls in Eclipse (shout out team Edward) and then once dry we would go over the whole thing with a pearlized version. First in Xs then with a flat trowel in swirls. The idea is to create that Tuscan Stucco Look... After 5 hours of precise taping and another 3 of painting, the Eclipse No VOC paint (no fun getting high off fumes on a ladder)has been applied. VOILA! It took almost the whole weekend, But I think we did it! Once we get some furniture in here and stuff on the walls, it just may be the beginings of our European retreat! What do you think of the Antler chandelier? Pete says if you're gonna play that game you have to go huge. I say there is a fine line bewteen rustic and redneck. That should be on a t-shirt. I'm thinking a collection of Mason jars with lights is more what we need. Thoughts?

WE FOUND A HOME!!!

After Months of looking, boat loads of stress, heartache and sleepless nights we finally caught a break!! Our bid was accepted for an amazing little farm house on the epping/Newmarket line! Now origionally we wanted to stick closer to the seacoast, but we couldn't find anything! We looked at so many houses with no yards and neighbors right in your face. It wasn't worth it.After all of the horrible neighbors we've had and the years of living spitting distance to strangers we wanted land and privacey and that's exactly what we got!! We have over an acre of land and we are surrounded by forest and farms! We have two neighbors down the road that we met and seem like really nice people. I know this is a new way of life we will have to get used to.

Our neighbor "Mo" is a hunter and a nascar lover, not that I'm judging, just not used to it! But the house is amazing, right out of Pottery Barn... wide oak floors, exposed beams, a fireplace in the kitchen! The bedrooms are a little small but hopefully we can do something about that! And it has the porch with the swing that Peter promised me on our wedding day! Anyway we are supposed to close on April 20th!! So I won't be able to sleep until then! With our luck a meteor will hit the house or the owner will go to prison before we can close. So fingers crossed, but at least the first part is over!! Here is a little sneak peak of what will hopefully be our new home!!