The new house

As the husband so kindly pointed out....it's been more than a week since I last promised to share pictures of the new house. Yikes. The month of May came as fast as it went, and brought with it a nasty stomach bug (for me), our anniversary (that we still have yet to properly celebrate), a wedding, and a certain someone's first birthday and subsequent party. #excusesexcuses

ANYWAY. Here we go! Time to (finally!) share pics of the new house! Can you believe it will be two years in July that we've lived here? Some days I feel like we still live in someone else's house, and other days I look around to see just how much we've done to this home since we arrived.

So without further ado....the living room before (on move-in day):

And the after (but more like "progress" since "after" is just crazy talk):

Hands down, the living room is my biggest challenge. It's a formal living space! A family room! A place for the kids to play! In short? This room has multiple personalities. Coupled with the fact that the layout is super weird. The room is long & off centered. And the multiple doorways and windows make furniture placement tricky. On one hand, I love all the natural light that the room gets. But would I prefer our television to be somewhere else but smack dab over the fireplace? You bet. But sadly, the fireplace is the only option at this point. And the wall behind the couch has been awaiting some form of art for way too long than I'm proud to admit. Basically, this room has some work ahead of itself. #workinprogress 

The dining room before:

And after:

The dining room was a pretty straightforward space. We painted, added some DIY art, and replaced the light fixture with our old Restoration Hardware fixture we had at the previous house. I'm sure I'll want to change things up in here at some point, but for now the dining room is simple, streamlined, and the only zone in the house that doesn't look like we live in a three-ring circus (because we do).

The Kitchen:

With the exception of some new valances, table & a dishwasher, this kitchen is pretty much looking the same as it did on move-in day. While the space is nice (hey, I have no complaints about a new kitchen) it's definitely not our style. But one of my favorite things about this space is the eat-in area. I never realized how much I would love (and need) an eat-in kitchen until we had kids. It means our dining room is largely ignored, but I wouldn't trade an eat-in space for anything.

We have big plans to lighten things up in here (which should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me!). In the meantime, we'll live with the way things are for awhile. But I'd be lying to say that I wasn't itching to get things changed up in here. Like yesterday.

The half bath:

The mirror has been changed up & the shelves met their fate with a garbage can. But otherwise, what you see is what you (still) get in here. With the weather warming up, we've shifted our focus to outdoor projects, but this space is next on my radar. We plan to add picture molding, marble hex flooring, a new light fixture, faucet, paint & art. Not that I'm wishing my summer away already...but I'm super excited to get working in here.

The basement:

We've moved some new furniture down here, mounted a t.v., and replaced the carpet (after a major plumbing issue last summer). But as it stands, things still look the same down here. Only with more toys. Because, two kids.

So there you have it! It took me nearly a month to put this post together. Which means you'll get to see the second floor three years from now. You're welcome. If anyone has any questions about room sources & colors, feel free to ask at  smigelkm@yahoo.com!

Emme's playroom

So here's the thing about ignoring your blog for nearly two years...you discover posts that sat dormant & never saw the light of day. It seems I never got around to sharing pictures from Emme's playroom at the old house! Sigh. This brings a little tear to my eye, it was one of my favorite rooms. Everything was contained, pretty, and toys were at a minimum (vs. our current situation...a finished basement that houses an explosion of toys, princess figurines, and puzzle pieces that multiply by the second #icanteven)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the exception of the cube shelving from Target, pretty much everything in this room was thrifted, passed down or flea market/antique finds. Things have found themselves moved about the new house, serving new purposes...

The bulletin board (formerly a canvas painting), holds pre-school artwork in the kitchen.

The bronze horsehead bookends are sitting amongst the décor of our living room built in's.

The WWII shipping crate (that I added casters to) holds a slew of board games in the basement/family room.

 

The table & chairs currently reside in our living room (a great place for little people to eat lunch while watching a show). 

 

The wooden tool box is still holding books, but happily living in Emme's bedroom.

And I couldn't get enough of the pale blush color we painted this room (Pink Sea Salt by Martha Stewart), so we used it in Emme's bedroom at the new house.  

 

I can confidently say that our current playroom situation looks nothing like this (even on a good day), but that's the brilliant thing about basements. Out of sight, out of mind, right? It'll probably be a long time before it looks anything close to this...it's really one room at a time around here.

 

I'll be back this week to share some before pictures of the first floor of the new house! Get ready for lots of green, yellow, and honey oak wood tones....mmmmm, it's going to be good.

 

  

People are fascinated by pocket windows

Really, they are. But I'll get to that in a moment....

We're still a bit giddy with excitment from Sunday's event! Sure, it was a lot of work. And yes, by Saturday (when we were knee deep in mulch, dusting, mopping, hiding random crap in closets, etc.) we were ready to throw in the towel. But in the end it was totally worth it.

What started out as an architechtural tour 14 years ago, has slowly morphed into a 'see what people are doing with their homes' tour. It's a nosey man's dream come true! I don't think I can count the number of times the husband asked "why are we doing this again?". But I can tell you my answer was always the same--because we love our house & are happy to show it off!

Throughout the day, we consistently received the same comments about our home--how open & airy it felt, how deceivingly large it was once you were inside, how great the wall colors were & how well they flowed (which was news to me since 1. I've personally grown tired of the colors, and 2. sometimes the mix of beiges, grays & bright greens--with all of our crazy accents--feels like the inside of a circus tent). We were asked the typical questions we'd been told to expect--where did we get something, how did we make/do this or that, and what renovations we put into the house. Sadly--in addition to all the fun stuff we've done to this place--we had to admit all the non-fun stuff like replacements of the roof, furnaces, electrical, etc...snooze-fest!

I think one of the greatest comments came from a woman who loved our house because it was 'stylish and liveable'. What a huge compliment! We're all about making our home look great, but we don't ever want people to think they can't put their feet up on the coffee table or toss some pillows on the floor to get comfy on the couch. That's totally how we do things around here! Taking second place for compliments was a kind lady who remarked that HGTV should come by to take some photos of our house. I don't know that we're HGTV worthy at this point, but it was certainly nice of her to say! Overall the compliments were grand and kind, and by the end of the day the husband and I were sweaty and beaming with pride (contrary to popular belief, an 85 degree day in the middle of May is not the best day for a home tour....just sayin').

But I suppose you're wondering the top three things we were asked about all day long! So without further ado...

The pocket window

It's kind of hard to tell from this craptastic picture, but see the window to the left? It's a pocket window/door. For those of you not familiar, it functions like a normal window, but opens into a pocket in the ceiling (and based on that outstanding description, I'm beginning to wonder if a video tutorial would have been the way to go here...). At the beginning of the tour the husband foolishly asked me if he should remove the blind so that people could see how the window functions. And in my best 'I'm the wife & I know best' attitude, I told him to keep it on because no one is going to ask about it. Well, who turned out to be the fool? Not 5 seconds after uttering those words, 3 men came running over asking the husband for a presentation (needless to say the blind stayed off for the remainder of the day). People are super fascinated with this thing. I can't say the same as I'm crawling & performing acrobatics to get out onto the porch. But I suppose it's one of those features you don't see in most houses. The husband and I could not get over how many times we were asked about this window. You never know what's going to be on people's radar!

 

My mom's quilts

 

And this one in particular! People also wanted to know about our fabric window treatments & endless pillow covers. Yep, all my mom! She was around for part of the day to answer questions (she needs a business card!). But this was hands down one of the more frequent things people asked about all day. I commission my mom & her sewing skills on a regular basis, but I never realized just how lucky we were to have someone to do this stuff for us when we ask! 

 

My jewelery boards

 

Not in a million years did I think people would be asking about these. Mostly because I've had them for so long, and I just look at them as functional (not fascinating) at this point. They're $12 cork boards that I picked up at HomeGoods years ago. I had every intention of painting the frames...and then, well, life got in the way and I've had more important things to do since then. I got tired of wearing the same jewelery day in & day out, and this was an entirely fool-proof way to ensure that I'm wearing most of my stuff on a regular basis. Funny story, but when our house was robbed, the cop who responded to our call remarked that nothing had been taken from my boards. Well, duh...you're looking at around $50 worth of Forever 21 jewelry here! Theives are dumb, not stupid.

So there you have it! A little recap of this weekend's house tour. On the agenda this coming long weekend? Finally enjoying our tidy & organized home! 

The day after

We are exhausted. Really exhausted. But we learned this house tour was pretty awesome. And that people are nice & like to give compliments (and those with nothing nice to say kept their not so nice comments to themselves). And that the volunteers who put this event together are good, hardworking folks (it takes a village!). And the docents who worked shifts at our house are pretty awesome to take time out of their day to help us show off our home that we love so much.  

All in all, it was a success. All that hard work and doubting ourselves was totally worth it in the end. This neighborhood rocks (that was pretty evident yesterday). If you're finding City Dwellin' for the first time since visiting our house...welcome! And stick with me. I might have something interesting to say from time to time!

I'll be back tomorrow to share more stories from the tour, including the top 3 things most people asked us about. And you might be surprised....these weren't your run-of-the-mill "where'd you get that light fixture" questions!  

Are we ready for this?

So, I did something. I signed us up to be in our neighborhood association's tour of homes. Yep, add this to the 'crazy things I don't think are so crazy while I'm pregnant' list.

I'd always been a little curious as to how people got into the home tour. Last summer our neighbor encouraged me to do it, telling me the association was always looking for new homes to feature each year. I sort of forgot about it, until this past March, when the monthly newsletter went out with an attached application for the home tour. This was it! I was so in! I filled out the application, boasting how awesome our home was, added some historical references for kicks (information I'd been told in the past) and was ready to hit submit. And then it occured to me....I should probably tell the husband about this, right? That come May 20 hundreds to a thousand-some people would be trapsing through our home, and I was about to sign us up for this craziness. His response?

"Wait, what? This means I'll have to clean the man's den."

Ugh, as if that was my only problem!? At that point I considered him game. If cleaning one room in our home was his only issue, then he was totally on board (I've gotten really good at husband translation/speak these last 5 years). So off went my application, and I quickly received a response from the event chairperson that she'd be in touch with more details soon. And then I waited. A full month. Over the course of the month, I'd gone back and forth as to whether this was really a good idea afterall. I mean, there's so much we still need to do to this house. The kitchen floor still isn't replaced, the master bedroom makeover isn't complete, we're going on 5 years of no window treatments in the dining room, blah, blah, blah....you get the picture. The list could go on and on. And then it hit me...no one will know if the bedroom isn't complete, that we're contemplating new kitchen floors, or that there are no blinds on the windows (they'll be too busy admiring all the natural light!). House projects just never end. That's just a fact. When you get to the bottom of your to-do list, you start back at the top, tweaking all over again.

I must say, I was mildly relieved to hear this was a sentiment all the fellow homeowners shared at our informational meeting this past week. In fact, one person on the tour is in the midst of a kitchen remodel! So I guess I'd say we're fairing well at this point. No one will ever suspect that our old black & white linoleum floor is in need of an update (well, at least we hope no one suspects)! It was a pretty cool thing to sit down with these folks...we all share of love for our big old homes, we're always working on one house project or another (or sometimes juggling several at once), and we all love our neighborhood. To sum things up, we're all house proud. And if our house isn't perfect, that's okay. We love our homes anyway. I'd say that's the best kind of person to be showing off their digs, wouldn't you say?

The husband and I (and several contractors) will be working like busy bees at our house these next 2 weeks. But if anyone is interested in more info on the home tour (and you're in the Buffalo or Ontario, Canada area to attend), I certainly won't be too busy to shoot you some info. You can e-mail me at smigelkm@yahoo.com or check out our association's website for more info. The list of homes won't be made public until the day of the event (to keep all you crazies from stalking our homes), so you'll have to wait in suspense for a couple of more weeks. Sorry. But it will be good. Promise!

Looking forward to seeing some of you on the 20th! Even if we're missing blinds in the dining room (just don't point that out to the other folks, okay?)...