Coming Up For Air

So that was ... an experience. Let me break down the timeline for you:

6/7-6/10 -- house guests

6/9-6/13 -- Mark out of town

6/12-6/15 -- business trip for me

6/18-6/21 -- dying painful death of kidney infection

6/24-6/27 -- horrifyingly crazy week at work

6/28 -- closing/moving day (with bonus thunder and lightning monsoons)

See the wind blowing the rain sideways? That was awesome.

6/29 -- finish cleaning out the old house

6/30 -- leave for Massachusetts at 4 am

HAAAAAAAA. I lost my mind somewhere around mid-June. I think it's maybe in one of those boxes out there?

Anyway, we are fully out of the old house and into the new, disaster that it might be. It was kind of stressful leaving for vacation immediately after moving, especially seeing as I couldn't find any of my clothes, but we had a fantastic, relaxing week on Cape Cod. My parents have a cottage there, and my best friend, who has been coming up to visit annually since we were assigned as freshman year roommates in college, rented a house around the corner with her husband and AH-dorable son. 

(This kid, OMG. He is so cute and so sweet and SO SMART. 18 months and speaking in sentences! He repeats everything you say, then uses it in context. Amazing! Uncle Mark might have lost his ever loving mind at Toys 'R' Us when he discovered the wee man's love of Thomas.)

We had a fantastic week despite the less than fantastic weather. Lots of smoked meat, ice cream, and wine on the porch, as well as daily afternoon naps and a great dinner out at the restaurant where I worked all through college (hat tip to Mom for babysitting). It was a great respite after the flaming hell that was June, and I was so sad to leave at the (literal) crack of dawn on Sunday. 

We made it home by 1:30 on Sunday and spent the afternoon trying to get organized. I don't know about you, but I have to get the kitchen sorted out first. If the kitchen is clean and functional and uncluttered, I feel like I can take my time working through the rest of the house, figuring out where things should go. By 10, it was done, our first dinner had been cooked and cleaned up, and I was ready to drop. 

OMG, I have a gas stoooove! (I also have to relearn how to cooook.)

The rest of the house? It looks pretty much like this:

I have my work cut out for me.

**One week later, because of course I never posted the draft post**

I did make some progress for, like, five minutes there. I actually found the dining room table and everything, see?

Aaaand then we had to clear out the garage to make room for the extra fridge and freezer. (OMG, I cannot even express in words how excited I am for that stupid chest freezer after years of having only wee bottom freezer drawers.) (Pretty sure that was the death knell of my youth.) Anyway, we are now happily refrigerating beer and freezing a few random things Mark found at Trader Joe's, and the dining room is back to looking like this:

Craaaaap. I'm going to need some of that beer. 

**Ooh, also! Furniture update from last time. We ordered the kitchen table and chairs, as well as the bar stools. There was also a very important couch development. We found out the cloud couch is available in a sectional. They had either the amazing 46" deep version or a slightly smaller 43" deep version (still v. comfy). As much as I loved the 46", we went with the 43". The 46" only had a wedge-shaped corner piece, which would have been a bit too big for the room. The 43" has a square corner piece and should be pretty perfect. I went with a beigey cotton/linen blend slipcover that the store claims is washable. We shall see. It is very cozy and squishy and should be here in 60-90 days. (SERIOUSLY? It takes three months to make a damn couch??)

∆

It has been barely a month since I blabbered at you last, however, hardly anything is quite the same. Well, that sounded sort of High Drama Queen; Mark, my family, etc., are fine, thankfully, but the last five-ish weeks have been absolutely INSANE, in the very best of ways. Quite often terrifying, for sure, but it's like years of shitty luck are being made up for overnight. Let me explain, bullet-style:

1. Sometime in October, I was having a day where I was really frustrated by life as a work-at-home freelancer. I felt like I had destroyed my career by leaving the law firm. I hated selling/promoting myself, I hated billable hours, I hated the unpredictable schedule of my little part-time gig that was so important to my sanity (pays almost nothing, but guarantees I can make my student loan payment every month AND it gets me out of the house and around people regularly). When I get into these funks, it usually prompts a flurry of resume sending. What I did not expect was to receive a call regarding one of the jobs I had applied for, let alone to end up with a job that I am pretty excited about. It is with the loss control department of an insurance company, which is somewhat unusual for me, however, the company insures clients that are regulated by the federal agency I worked for. I have spent the last six years specializing in this particular flavor of compliance, so it seems to be a good match. I am thrilled because it is a real salary in my field with no billable hours and a bunch of colleagues who are also law firm refugees, working for a company with a firm belief in work/life balance. I am absolutely gobsmacked, but utterly grateful. I'm only four days in, but I really I hope it actually is as good as it seems.
2. Also, in October, I was chatting with a friend of mine about her new (adorable, smooshy) son. We had chatted previously about my firm belief that I have undiagnosed PCOS, and she has had her own challenges (oh lordy, the degree of understatement there...) in that area. Anyway, in her new mom delight, she basically forced her RE's telephone number into my hands and made me swear to call. I was high on the smell of new baby noggin and therefore powerless to resist, so I called. Aaaand we're off -- so began a long, long month of testing. And by "testing," obviously I mean the withdrawal of my entire blood volume, some good ol' wanding, and a bit of invasive spelunking. We met with the doctor (my friend was right; the doctor is indeed awesome) again this morning for a final wrap up of all of the testing, and hey! I was right! PCOS it is. The good news for the moment is that I have treatment options. The test results were clean, other than the expected PCOS markers. Mark's analysis results were great. Ovarian reserve looks good. I am somewhat youngish (33). The condition I have has a medical course of action. Obviously there are no guarantees that any of this will work, and even if I do manage to get myself knocked up, there is a higher risk of miscarriage. However, for now? I am choosing to be optimistic. I like having a plan, and I intend to deal with the plan failing if and when that happens.*
3. As if jobs and babies weren't enough for one month, we decided to buy a new house, just to throw some crazy, out of control anxiety into the mix. Here's how THAT went down. Mark is a defense contractor (oh, engineers...), and his government client has been trying to recruit him to the government side for ages. He finally decided that this would be a good career move (although it's probably going to take the government another 6 months to come up with funding for him, moving at their glacial pace), I agreed, and we made the call to postpone our move to Massachusetts and stay in the DC area for another 6+ years. My one caveat, however, was that if we were to stay, I did not want to stay in our current house. I hate the three level living thing, and I cannot imagine how much more (like, exponentially more) it would suck if we also had small children and all of these stairs. Mark agreed and so I started looking at houses in our area. By chance, I happened upon a new development going in just off of the major highway we both use for commuting. It's walkable to the metro, closer than we currently are to Old Town Alexandria, and being built by a really reputable area builder. I loved the floorplan online and fell head over heels in love after walking through the model. However, I just didn't think the timing would work out for us. I didn't have a real job at that point and Mark would have needed the pay bump from going to the government in order to make this house feasible. The lots were selling out SO quickly (new construction does not exist this close to DC unless you're planning a tear down), so I figured it was just not meant to be and that this would just be the house no other could ever live up to in my mind. And then! I got my job and Mark ran a bunch of numbers and we realized it was so completely doable. My parents flew in for Thanksgiving and they loved it and thought it was a good investment. Mark's parents did a lot of long-distance picture reviewing and thought it was a good investment. Everyone I expected to crush my dreams kept saying we should go for it. Suddenly it was real, and WHOA. TERROR. But! We did it! We signed the purchase agreement the day before Thanksgiving, and now we're waiting on the financing people for final approval. We've chosen the masonry, the kitchen, the tiling, the carpeting, the hardwoods. If all goes to plan (I am knocking on every available wood surface), they should be breaking ground in late February/early March and we should be moving in June. I cannot believe this is happening, that we got so lucky. I want to move in tomorrow and am fully aware that this is going to be the most agonizing six months of waaaaiting ever.

So I think we're caught up now, yes? I think I need to sit down. (Seriously, my old ass was out until 3 am last night. TIRED.) However, today is my last day at the store, so I have to get a move on. Six hours of dealing with last minute holiday shoppers in an insanely crowded store are all that stand between me and a normal 8-5 schedule. I am the embodiment of glamour. 

*Another blog post for another day: Fertility clinic waiting rooms and the palpable awkwardness therein. Holy moly; it's comical, really. I kept wondering, as we were waiting for our first appointment, whether we looked as naive as I'm sure we are. Was our shiny happiness, our lack of battle scars as visible as it felt? Would we end up looking as resigned as that one woman? As silent as that couple? That room is always a subtle reminder not to rely too heavily on the doctor's determined optimism.

My Private Shame: Let Me Show You It

Yeah, I'm talking embarrassing home decor, or lack thereof, again. Buckle up, for this one's a doozy.

As I have mentioned, we live in Northern Virginia, where townhomes and condos are ubiquitous, developments are thrown up overnight, and homes built in the last 25 years or so are utterly devoid of character. We live in one of these modern (read: "character free") townhomes, which Mark had purchased about a month before we met. (So close! I was so close to having input into where we would live!) I was a renter (of an utterly charming, WWII era townhouse in a neighborhood tucked into a virtual arboretum minutes outside of DC), so although it broke my heart, I had to do the moving when we became WHORES!.

We had some minor growing pains upon moving in, mostly because we had mesh our styles, and well, Mark needed some help. He thought booze was an acceptable decorating theme, for example. He also has appallingly bad taste in art, as you'll see. It's ok, though. We have done a lot of work together to make the house more "us," installing gorgeous hardwood* floors, gutting the kitchen and bathrooms, and by Mark trusting me more when it comes to decorating choices. It's not perfect by any stretch, but we've made a lot of progress.

That said, talking Mark into redecorating that does not involve construction still involves the hard sell, and the non-public areas of the house are in need of some HELP. We covered my bedroom, which, still looks much the same. I am pretty sure I want to move ahead with the curtains, as soon as the sewing motivation strikes, and I found this quilt and shams, which I think would be fresh and cute. The guest room is as it will be for the foreseeable future:

I'm not thrilled with the bed frame, but Mark made it, so it stays. Also not pleased that we have the bed up on risers so that we can fit his ancient, saggy mattress under the bed. I keep telling him I'm not leaving and taking my mattresses, but alas. Overall, though, it's fluffy and airy and girly, as I generally like guest rooms to be. Makes it feel clean and comfy, maybe?

The den of burning shame, however, is just next door to my fluffy, girly guest room, and it is a horrible cluttered hell. Mark has always used this room as an office, filled to the brim with a giant particle board desk, and computers and wires and clutter. (OH MY.) It got even more crowded and horrible when we had to move my cute little white desk in to share the room. We dismantled much of the room when we were having the windows replaced, and in the window replacement process, the installers managed to break a crucial piece of Mark's desk. (I may or may not have wanted to offer them my hypothetical firstborn in gratitude.) We were able to clear out the hulking horror of a desk, but were left with the detritus it had contained. It's... there are no words:

CRAP EVERYWHERE.

Massive, hideous chair.

AGHHH

HALP MEEEEE.

That there? That is the attic door that has been on the top of Mark's To Do list for the last year and a half, while we have been living with a gaping hole in my closet ceiling. It's super fun when it's 95 degrees out and 150 in the attic.

My cute little desk, covered in crap for two.

 Oh, and that terrible taste in art I mentioned earlier? BEHOLD:

 

 

Yeeeeah. These used to hang in the living room and dining room. Can you even imagine? I mean, there are no words to adequately describe how awful these things are. I like to call it "Bad Vegas Art." (Actually, that's false; I would prefer to call it "SOLD TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER.") Despite this, I actually attempted to decorate around them in thanks for being able to move them out of the part of the house people regularly see. I bought this fabric:

and even spray painted the lamps and desk accessories in keeping with the green/red olive/pimento theme:

WIFE OF THE DAMN YEAR

Despite my efforts, I have been unable to light a fire under Mark's ass to get rid of the clutter. In fact, it has only gotten worse, as it became the repository for crapola during the last bathroom reno, and it looks so terrible that whenever we lack a good place to put something, it seems to get shoved in there while I keep sighing and closing the door. However, I work from home, and as I have been getting a little busier, I have begun to need a proper office. I end up sitting on the couch or hunched over the kitchen counter, neither of which is helpful for my productivity.

SO. First things first -- this room needs to be cleaned out. Mark has some separation anxiety when it comes to computers/wires/clutter (OH MY), so I am anticipating that more junk than I would like will end up in the attic, but if that's what it takes, I'll deal. Once that is done, I am planning to turn it into a bright, cheery space. Unfortunately the ceilings in our bedrooms are all high and sloping, so I can't paint the room myself. I don't want to hire someone, so I am going to have to work with the bland beige walls. I found a really vibrant print that I LOVE, and its colors are my jumping off point. I'm thinking something like this:

I have the PB desk already -- it's just one of the three drawer cabinets with a small desktop. I like the idea of a smaller profile, white leather(ette?) desk chair. Comfy, but not overpowering for the room. I would like to leave room for a daybed should we ever need this room to do double duty as a guest room, but for now, I think I will just enjoy the openness of the room not being crowded with furniture. As for fabrics, I already have some of the Waverly Cross Section fabric, so I need to work that in somehow. I think the best way might be in pillows to coordinate with the window treatment. The room has a big double window; I would like to make a cornice board to give some height (and because it's way easier than curtains) and either go with white wood blinds or white sheers underneath. I think the pink and white canvas canopy stripe is cute and clean for the cornice board, and bonus, it's CHEAP. God help me, I am thinking green grosgrain ribbon to cover the seams and to coordinate with the cross section fabric. (You can take the girl out of New England, you know?) Let's hope the art pulls everything together so that it doesn't end up looking like a little girl's room. The plaid silk was an early idea from a renovation I saw in Southern Living, but eh, I don't think it's meant to be. Overall, I think this will be easy to achieve, once I can convince Mark it's worthwhile.

What do you think? Too much pink? Too ... girly?

*Brazilian cherry -- stunning, but the color darkens significantly over time, and it turns out that dark floors are a total bitch to keep clean.

The grass (or wall) is always greener... (Part II, OMG)

Sooo, yesterday.  HAAAAA.  We went to a party hosted by Mark's boss last weekend, and I guess several of those "So what do you do?" questions kind of got under my skin.  Couple that with the kid thing (that I am not quite ready to talk about, though I do kind of wish the community cultivated by some of my favorite online people still existed in force), and BOOM -- identity implosion.  Good times.

Anyway, onward to that cheery decorating post!  As I was trying to say yesterday before I was so rudely derailed by feeeelinggggssss, I spend a lot of my free time decorating my house in my head.  We are big on home improvements around here.  Mark bought a house that was in great condition but had not been touched from the original 1995 builder basics (other than some hellacious paint we discovered in removing woodwork and mirrors -- holy Crayola).  We spent the summer of 2009 gutting the main floor of our house, ripping out carpeting and laying hardwood floors, gutting the kitchen and putting it all back together.  It was a looooong 6 weeks, particularly for Mark, who worked Every. Single. Night. after a full day at the office.  The work totally paid off though, because we took this:

to THIS:

Not bad for six weeks, right?  These were actually taken right after we finished the work, so it has been accessorized a bit since then.  (I would totally take new pictures for you if it weren't so filthy right now.)  We have a rug in the kitchen sitting room, hardware for the cabinets, Polish pottery plates on the soffit above the cabinets, a new light fixture to replace the fluorescent box, etc.

So here's the issue:  the yellow is grating on my last nerve.  It's cozy, but I feel like the room is too much of a jumble of color, at least right next to the more subtle feeling in the living room and dining room.  It's hard to tell from these photos, actually.  The living room and dining room are primarily a warm tan/taupe, with the one long, shared wall painted a pale, pale blue.  This works really well with the tan and blue striped chairs, the cognac leather sofa, and the crewel work drapery panels, which have the tan, the blue, a darker brown, and a sagey green on an ivory background.  I love these rooms.  The rollicking yellows and in your face riot of Blue! Red! Green! Yellow! in the kitchen, though, I am loving much less.

I am bound by a few things:  the granite counters in the kitchen, which are the very common "Santa Cecilia" pattern; the kitchen rug, which you can see in the mood board below (although it is definitely more muted in person); and the artwork, also in the mood board (because those custom frames were pricey and I have nowhere else to stick them, nor any suitable replacements).  So here's what I'm thinking:

I think the soft gray color would work well for the walls.  There is quite a bit of gray in the counters and the background of the rug, and the ladies in the posters have gray skin.  It would also blend well with the adjacent living and dining rooms.  The couch is an easy fix; the cover has taken a BEATING, so I am leaning toward just picking up a crisp white slipcover from Ikea.  It can be thrown in the wash with some bleach when it gets dirty, and it's only $39.  Perfect.

Where I am torn is fabrics.  I would like to make two cornice boards, for above the couch and for the bay windows in the kitchen, which would hang over the existing white sheers.  I love the subtle blues and grays in the fabrics above, but I worry that they might be too muted when paired with the more vibrant artwork and rug.  Do they blend enough?

The other issue is the furniture.  The cabinet we use as a tv stand is currently just your basic "Ikea Pine" and the coffee and end tables are a cherry-ish wood toned top with black iron base.  None of the furniture is precious, obvs, so I am toying with painting the wood.  Would white be too light with the dark kitchen?  Maybe a gray that's a little darker than the walls?  Or a blueish gray?  Maybe covering the cabinet shelves with cool fabric or shelf paper? 

So that's the currently state of kitchen dithering.  What do you think?

"Budget" Is a Four-Letter Word

Ohhh, the laundry room woes, you guys.  After all of our discussing before the long weekend and all of my plotting, planning, and mood board creating, Mark came home that Friday night and blew it all to hell.  As we were chatting, I brought up wanting to get out early on Saturday morning to make the rounds of stores, so we could be sure to get to Ikea before Rt. 95 went to hell in a handbasket, as it does (even on weekends!  I hate how congested NoVA is!).  That's when Mark piped up with, "Sooo, about that...." Evidently he had spent some time that afternoon playing with our finances, and he determined that this month was perhaps not the best time to dive head first into a renovation project.  This was disappointing to say the least; I was also kind of ticked that he waited until AFTER I had spent two days working on plans before bringing this up.  (Insert Mark's howling laughter at the understatement here.)  However, I kind of love the fact that he handles all of that stuff, so I usually just suck it up and get over myself, challenging as that may be.  (Mark is now clutching his sides and convulsing, because OH HOW THE LAUGHTER HURTS.)

After some discussion, the plan for the weekend morphed into information gathering.  Our first stop was the Crate & Barrel Outlet -- my happy place.  I wanted to check the prices on the glass canisters I had eyeballed for detergent and clothespins.  They were the same price as in the regular stores, but at $10-12, you really can't go wrong, so I grabbed them.  Also in our wanderings we found a little stainless trashcan, the perfect size for dryer lint, and at $12?  SOLD. 

Next we decided to hit the Habitat for Humanity ReStore nearby, just in case there happened to be another smoking deal like this one.  We lucked out there last winter when I was looking for a printer table.  We found a 1960s mahogany Music Minder record cabinet that was in need of some love.  The innards had been removed, and it looked as though the back had been hacked a bit to allow it to be used for media storage.  We picked it up for $30, and a few coats of glossy black spray paint later, it became a perfect printer table, with tons of room for supply storage inside.  We weren't quite so lucky this time.  While the ReStore had lots of cabinets, most were being sold as complete sets (in the neighborhood of $700!), and regardless, the cabinets in stock were primarily lowers and we were just looking for uppers.  We poked around the tile remnants and light fixtures, but eventually had to move on.  You win some, you lose some.

Last stop was Lowe's. We wanted to check out flooring, paint, and the light fixture, which was our first stop.  They had the really cute vintage schoolhouse style light in stock for only $25, so we decided to pick it up.  Replacing the existing fluorescent bar would be a must even if the rest of the reno never materialized.  From there we moved on to flooring where we found self stick vinyl tiles for $.88 each -- perfect.  We preferred the look of the tiles with grout, but that would require removal of the washer and dryer for a week or more, so we'll have to play that by ear.  We wandered by the paints and grabbed some great swatches.  Then, as we were wandering through the kitchen area, it occurred to me that they might have some inexpensive stock cabinets, so we looked around and sure enough, stock cabinets!  They came in white and ready-to-finish; the white ones looked kind of plastic-y to me, so we seriously considered the ready-to-finish.  They came in the same sizes as the Ikea cabinets, but would have been only about $220 total.  Sure, they weren't as pretty, but I kind of liked the idea of making the ordinary pretty -- a challenge!

However, I played with some numbers upon returning home, and it turns out the ready-to-finish cabinets really aren't that big a bargain.  Once you factor in the supplies needed (sandpaper, paint brushes/rollers, paint, etc.), there was only about a $20 difference between the unfinished Lowe's cabinets and the pretty, glass-doored Ikea ones.  Ikea it is!  Well, someday...

So yeah, after all of that (and all of my yammering), the only real change we've made thus far is the light fixture.  Don't get me wrong -- I LOVE the lack of fluorescent lighting -- but I am also totally impatient very much looking forward to the upcoming stages of transformation too.  I'll keep you posted.

Why would we spend a long weekend relaxing when there is a room in our house we could demolish?

Waaaay back in July, I was sort of obsessing about my laundry room.  We have a laundry closet, really.  It's in our basement family room (which is actually the entry level floor of the house) (which is one quality of the house that I LOATHE ("Welcome to our home!  Please ignore the bachelor pad tv room, exercise bikes, and Mt. Washmore!")), with the machines and a very utilitarian shelf hidden behind some bi-fold doors.  It is UG-LYYY.  (See?  That's it, in all its bi-fold door glory over there on the left.)  I spent a good couple of pre-vacation weeks drooling over gorgeous, Hollywood fantasy laundry rooms, and making Mark promise that we can build something like that in our long-term house, wherever that is.  Then I went on vacation and toured The House, promptly fell in love, and forgot all about the ol' laundry nook.

Well, now that Mark has denied me The House*, my thoughts have returned to laundrylaundrylaundry.  We decided to stay home this weekend rather than travel back up to MA, and the laundry room is on the agenda.  We spent some time down there last night, measuring and planning our attack.  Our first step was to remove the bi-fold doors and OMG, it looks giant already.  (Trust me, it's more dramatic in person.)

If you recall, our original plan was to sort of follow the Young House Love approach and remove the frame around the laundry area, turning it from a closet into a recessed nook.  However, if you can see on the edge of that second photo, there is an identical door frame right next to it for the HVAC closet.  After some debating last night, we decided that if we were to remove the laundry door frame, the wall might look a bit unbalanced.  Not gonna lie, this was kind of a relief.  While Mark is really, really handy, he just cannot do drywall.  Well, he can hang the drywall just fine, but mudding?  Forget about it.  We're also thinking that if we decide later on that creating a true nook would be better, it would be much easier to take out the frame then than to try to recreate the frame if we don't like the look of a nook. 

I have been playing around online, bookmarking and pinning away, and this is what I have come up with for a motif:

Here's what we need to do to make this happen:

1. Demo!  This is now exponentially easier since we are not cutting into the wall.  However, we need to pull out the washer and dryer, and oh my hell, are they heavy.  In addition, it's a gas dryer, so a plumber may be required (OH PLEASE GOD, LET A PLUMBER BE REQUIRED).
2. Light fixture:  Remove the nasty fluorescent bar thingy, paint ceiling, and install adorable Schoolhouse-esque fixture (which is actually the cheap knockoff available at Lowe's.
3. Patch and paint walls and trim.
4. Install self-stick vinyl tiles in the pretty slate-ish color while reminding selves that it's only a laundry room and the floor will mostly be covered by the washer and dryer and it won't scream "LINOLEUM!".
5. Install pretty Ikea cabinetry!  This is our splurge, but I think the added storage will be both pretty and really helpful.  We've settled on the Akurum cabinets in Stat White; we'll do a 36"x30" two-door cabinet (glass doors) in the middle, and a 15"x30" single-door cabinet (solid doors) on either side.  We had originally planned to do single glass doors and solid doors on the double cabinet, but we had to flip this to get the 30" tall cabinets.  This will give us some float above so that we do not need to move the light fixture.
6. Reinstall the washer and dryer.  It does, after all, need to function as a laundry room.
7. Install pretty Ikea countertop!  Did you know they sell gorgeous slabs of butcher block countertop?  They do!  It's called "Lagan" (of course it is), and it's solid beech.  Best of all, for a 96"x25" slab, it's only $59.  I know!  This will give us plenty of material for the 67" width of the closet, plus some extra to create simple brackets to support the counter.  (We're planning to just rest the counter on top of the brackets so that it is easily removable in case of repairs.)
8. Decorate!  Because, as we all know, the only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessor-ahz.  I am totally stealing the YHL tack of covering up pipes and hoses with framed art.  Have you all heard of Vintage Printable?  It is the greatest thing ever -- all of this public domain artwork, ready to print and display.  I'm thinking a couple of botanicals popped into some Ikea Virserum frames would be perfect.  I'm also planning to snag a tabletop ironing board to hang on the wall.  I might even try to make a pretty cover for it!  (Though I'll probably just buy one on Etsy.)  I'm also planning to grab a couple of simple glass canisters at Crate and Barrel, one for detergent and one for clothespins.  I have the same ones in my kitchen and love them.  What else?  Oh!  Maybe a little countertop trashcan for lint and a cute soap dispenser for hand sanitizer.  I also love that little "Keep Calm and Wash On" poster, which could be cute on the wall.  Basically I'm trying to create a pretty little corner of the male (ahem, Red Sox) dominated basement.

Oh my GOD, I need to stop talking now.  But there it is:  the plan.  We're going to hit Home Depot and/or Lowe's tonight, then be waiting on Ikea's doorstep tomorrow when they open.  Keep your fingers crossed!

*I kid, he's not "denying" me; it's just not buttering his bread, so to speak.  What can you do?  We'll just keep looking until we find one we both love.  Don't worry -- there's another house across the street from The House that's for sale for about $150k less.  It's a knock down (teeny tiny, vintage '60s (not in a good way) with '70s decor -- lovely), but I think we could buy the land and build the house we really want and still not outspend the neighborhood.  We'll see...

I'm Back!!

Honestly, how is it even possible for vacation to go by so quickly?  Ridiculous!  Anyway, despite some of the crappiest weather Cape Cod has produced in recent memory, I had a great time.  There was (again) much lobster eating, wine drinking, and book reading while rocking lazily on the front porch.  I also got to spend some time with one of my best college friends and her gorgeous and charming baby boy.  (I was *thisclose* to just sticking him in my luggage, he was that awesome.)  In short, it was all summer vacation is meant to be.  Mark had an equally fabulous time in South Dakota where, judging by the laundry, he alternated between sweaty hard labor and rolling in dirt.  (And he wonders why I have no desire to spend a week and a half building houses...)

The big news is that my mom and I went house hunting while I was home, which was so fun.  I even got a chance to see this house, and it turns out I still love it.  Hooray!  However, all of my adorable little cosmetic ideas?  Those would totally have to be on the back burner, because this house?  It needs some MAJOR work.  Let's see, there's the roof, the furnace, an oil-to-gas conversion, windows, asbestos removal, and some moisture issues in the basement to ameliorate before we even begin to think about the HIDEOUS bathrooms.  I'm guessing there's about $50-75k of work needed. 

And despite this, I can still see us there.  It has so much living space for the square footage.  Sure, it's not a master suite kind of house (the master bath and closet are WEE), but I can see a Christmas tree in the corner of the living room, I can imagine our huge family clogging up the kitchen at parties (as we do), and I can practically smell snowy nights curled up by one of the three fireplaces.  The yard is YOOOGE, and only about 1/3 of the property has actually been cleared of trees, which Mark likes, of course. 

Let's not forget, Mark's job is here, and though I have job prospects in Massachusetts, nothing is even close to set in stone.  I really need to relax and embrace the "wait and see" approach we have chosen, but it's tough.  I'm kind of hoping that the owners (two brothers who have not occupied the house in years; it was most recently a rental, but is now unoccupied) might be more willing to negotiate after another harsh winter on the market, seeing as even the seller's agent admitted that the house is way over priced.  I'm also banking on other buyers being driven away by the work required, despite the huge parcel of land in a nice part of a great town that has a low housing inventory, even in this market.  HAAAAAA.

Oh, and if this isn't a sign -- I was lamenting to my mom while we were driving through the town that the grocery options (Stop & Shop and Whole Foods) were less than stellar, particularly when compared to my beloved Wegmans.  However!  I happened upon an article this morning announcing the newest Wegmans location in Massachusetts, and I kid you not, it is less than 10 minutes from the house.  Meant to be?  We'll see.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed though.

Dreams: Crushed. -- UPDATED!

Well, I suppose they weren't actually realistic dreams, but still.  I am saaaaad, you guys. There was this house....

Let me back up.  You see, one of my favorite time sucks is to house hunt on realtor.com, looking for my "next" house.  The house we live in now, although my husband and I have completely overhauled it since moving in, doesn't really feel like it's "mine."  My husband bought it a few weeks before we met, and we have slowly ripped it apart and made it more ours, but would I have chosen this house myself?  Nope.  Not even close.  I love love love older houses with charming built ins and woodwork and character, and this house was built in the mid-90s.  It is one of many (MANY) northern VA brick townhouses, big on builder basics and short on charm.  We have done our best to make things better, but I still dream about when we'll be able to find a house that's really ours.  Hence, realtor.com and I are likethis.

I've been focusing my stalking search on the western suburbs of Boston lately.  We were both born and raised in the Boston area, and it's in our (loose) 3 year plan to head back there.  There is a decent chance he would be working in the northwest suburbs, so I am limiting the towns to metrowest-ish suburbs, specifically those with really good school systems, since we're hoping that will be a concern by the time we move back.  (We're thinking now that we would rather pay a little more for the house/taxes than pay for private schools later on.  I may feel differently should I find myself residing in Stepford, but I suppose I'll jump off cross that charming, New England-y, covered bridge when I come to it.)

So, stalking.  I am definitely more of an arts & crafts kind of gal, but for some reason, perhaps too much perusing of the Young House Love archives, I saw this 50s rancher and was just blown away by the POTENTIAL.

Can't you just imagine it with some soft gray paint, crisp white trim, glossy black shutters, and a black front door?  I'm thinking something like this color scheme here:

(Photo from Things That Inspire)

The interior is even better.  Check out the view from inside the front door:

Those glossy hardwoods appear to be pristine.  I would LOVE to see them refinished to tone down that orangey tint.  A nice coffee color that shows the wood grain would look fantastic.  I would also slap some crisp white paint on anything standing still long enough -- the spindles in those railings, the baseboards, the window trim, the mantle over the fireplace -- all of it.  And speaking of the fireplace, let's take a closer look.

I'm thinking that with all of the crisp white trim, and a darker color on the floor, a nice warm neutral would be perfect for the walls (Sherwin Williams Basket Beige is a fav).  I think I would also carry the paint color on to the brick and the wood paneling above.  The brass screen would be tossed as well, in favor of a more classic looking spark guard.  I might even want to build some shelving on the left side of the fireplace, just to make centering artwork easier.

Next up is the HUGE kitchen:

Crazy enormous for a house this old, right?  I would totally take advantage of all of the space, and where it's a one story rancher, I would love to see how big a structural nightmare it would be to vault the ceiling a little, since I looove a high ceiling in a kitchen.  I would start with some recessed task lighting, which I know not everyone is a fan of.  However, I find it really functional for a kitchen, and it leaves the ceiling uncluttered, which would allow for a statement lighting fixture over the big center island I would love to see.  I'm thinking maybe a pair of these and one of these over the sink?  As for cabinets, they would be white, likely a simple shaker style, some glass front doors, a simple white subway tile backsplash.  How gorgeous is this?

(Photo from J.E.M. Woodworking & Cabinets)
I toy with the idea of a different color cabinet for the island, like a gray blue, but I'm probably too practical for that.  Eh.  I go back and forth on counters too.  I have a really busy granite right now, which is nice in that it never looks dirty, but the busy look limits the decorating options.  My style has become simpler, cleaner, so I think I would go with something more plain, like a honed black granite, or a mostly white granite.  (I love white and gray marble, but it is far too impractical for me.)  I really love slate too, but I would have to do some more research on durability and upkeep there as well.  Floors would likely be hardwoods, stained to match the rest of the house during the refinishing.

Open to the kitchen is the dining room, which features another fireplace (perhaps dual sided with the living room?).  However, the fireplace is covered in some seriously mid-century stonework:

It is ... not my thing.  I would get rid of the screen for sure, but this is probably one of those elements that it would take living with for a while in order to figure out the right approach.  Perhaps some paint?  I think the stone wall would look awesome with some open display shelves too.  That little three season room in the back would make a great sitting room with a few gallons of paint for the walls and floor too.

The bedrooms in the house (there are three) are all fairly similar, and they seem to be good sizes and have great light.  This is the master:

There is also a full basement, complete with garage, family room, and storage area, which I looong for, seeing as we have almost no storage in our current basement.

How great is that?  Some thick carpeting, a warmer paint color, some comfy couches, and this would be an awesome family room.  It even has a pass through for a future bar, which the husband loved.

In short, it wasn't the house I had always imagined, but it became a dream house when I imagined us making it our own.  We have done a lot of big home improvements together, and the great thing about this house was that the projects appeared to be mostly cosmetic, with the potential for BIG payoff.  Like, night and day, kind of payoff.  Plus, the house is on 1.73 wooded acres in a town with awesome schools, and it was listed for under $600k.  Whaaa?  It was almost ... realistic.  This is why my hopes and dreams were shattered when I pulled up Redfin (my fav stalking site, because it shows the property lines on a map of the neighborhood) and saw the big, fat UNDER CONTRACT next to "my" house.  Siiiigh.

Oh well -- on to the next house!

Update:  Evidently the contract fell through, because it's listed for sale again.  Hooray!  (Although I'm sorry for the homeowners, because clearly I'm in no position to buy it, so it would surely be nice for them if someone would.  Anyone?  Look how cute it could be!)