OUR HOME // living room

Our living room is one of my favorite rooms in the house.  It took a while to finish because we needed some different furniture than what was in our old home's teeny tiny living room.  Living room furniture can be big and expensive, so we took a while finding some deals and slowly put things together.  We found our couch on Craigslist, and it was a like-new Ikea couch that was used as a staging couch, so it had basically never been used!  The other chairs in the room are all thrifted and the coffee table is a DIY, which I shared here.
I put up the bunting for our housewarming party almost a year ago and I've never taken it down, though I've been thinking about painting the ceiling a fun color, so it may come down.  I'm so used to it now, I don't even notice it!  And I've already basically killed my houseplant, so it might be a better idea to get a faux plant for that corner.  Dan is trying to nurse it back to health in his study for the time being.  I'm not sure why I thought I could keep a houseplant alive.  Ain't nobody got time for that.  It's my fault for putting it in a hard-to-water corner.  Don't let these photos fool you.  These days almost all but two or three fronds are completely crunchy, brown, and dead.



 



A few more globes from my collection live in the living room and the stacks of vintage books are from my mom.  She works in a school library and whenever they give away old versions of books, she picks the ones with cool vintage patterns on the cover and sends them to me.  
I knew that if I had a big wall available, I wanted to do a gallery wall.  It's not too big yet, and half of the prints are my own, but eventually I'd love to have a bigger and better gallery wall!  I've been wanting to put a huge shelving unit on that wall, so I may even move the gallery wall into the corner and include the Back to the Future print!   I haven't been able to spend a lot of time in this room since we got Dusty because she didn't quite grasp that the rug was not an acceptable place for her to pee.  I think she's finally figured it out (crossing fingers) and recently I've been enjoying reading on the couch with her curled up next to me.
 





couch/ikea (via craigslist) :: pillows + rug + side tables + sheepskin + curtains/ikea  lamps + woven tray/target :: chairs + globes+ chevron throw/thrifted glass diamond/moorea seal :: coffee table + bunting/diy

OUR HOME // exterior before + after

I was hoping to write this post much sooner, but hey, house projects always take longer than anticipated, right?  Honestly, our garage still doesn't have any siding on it after 6 months, and you can still see the scaffolding up on the left (still finishing some trim paint), so we're definitely not done, but it'll happen.  Someday.  But!  For all intents and purposes, we're basically done with the hard stuff.
When we were looking around for a house, we were looking for a project, mostly because we wanted a cheap house.  Like, really cheap.  And in Tacoma's housing market, that's not too hard, especially if you're ready to put in a little elbow grease to get the most out of your cheap house.  We had looked at the house behind the one we ended up buying, but the interior was awful.  It needed to be completely re-done.  The exterior was fine, but the interior was pretty bad.  We decided to pass on that one and as we walked home, we saw the house we ended up buying.  It looked like a dump.  The exterior was in sorry shape.  We didn't even bother looking at it because we figured with an exterior like that, there was no way the interior was decent.  Well, we were wrong, and the interior had been completely remodeled.   Unfortunately someone had done a terrible job of keeping up the exterior shingle siding and  had done the worst paint job I've ever seen on a house. they barely even masked off the windows and doors and sprayed a thick coat of paint right over paint that was already peeling.




So in January, we ripped it all off.  After looking into some construction companies around town and getting some estimates, we ended up just doing it ourselves.  My Dad and Uncle came down from Alaska, along with my brother, who was heading back to college after being home for Christmas break, and then my cousin and other brother drove up from Portland to help as well.  My Dad and his brother worked with my Grampa for years doing construction on houses, so it was almost a reunion tour of my Grampa's old construction business, Auke Bay Builders!  It actually felt really cool to be able to work alongside my family like that.  Anyway, Dan & I did all the demo before they showed up, so when they arrived we got right to the siding... after hauling 600 lbs of old shingles to the dump.



 

It took about two weeks total.  There were a couple snafu's to fix after taking off the old siding.  The front porch had some weird off-kilter-ness to it, so my Dad squared it up.  But many hands made light(ish) work, and I was so thankful to have the expertise of my Dad and Uncle available.  Replacing the old shingle siding with new shingle siding would've been too expensive, so we went with HardiePlank Lap siding, which is nice because it's not actually wood, it's fiber cement material.  This makes it fire-resistant, among other things, which is nice.  Plus, you only have to score with a knife and then snap in order to cut pieces, rather than sawing each one, which saved a ton of time.  I love the look of shingles, and it fits the style of our house, so we decided to do cedar shingles in the gables, which I think looks super sharp.





We decided to paint it a dark charcoal.  After seeing some darker colored houses around town, I thought it looked both modern and classic.  I figure there are so many houses painted "safe" colors like beige, I wanted to do something more unique and bold.  We tested a couple shades of charcoal and ended up with a near-black shade, but after painting the whole house, I'm in love with it.  I feel like we've got the snazziest house on the block!

Since the interior of our house isn't in need of immediate renovation, our next project (well, other than finishing the siding on the garage to match the house...) will probably be fencing in our side yard in front of the detached garage to give us more enclosed, private yard space.  I got these patio tiles at Ikea the other day from the As-Is section (35 tiles for only $1 each!!), so I'm excited to start installing them soon!  I'd like to make some more raised beds to expand our veggie garden, too.





I'm so proud of the work we've done in less than a year.  I always get sad seeing all the run down craftsman homes around town that obviously used to be so beautiful.  When we were looking for a house, I wanted to be able to revive one of those homes back to it's former glory, so it's been really fun actually getting to do that.  Our house had sat vacant for years before we moved in with no one taking care of it.  Thankfully the interior hadn't fallen into disrepair, so we've been able to focus all our energies on fixing up the exterior.

a peek into our new home

So far we don't have any room in the house completed, but things are looking better than the boxes everywhere after moving in.  We had our housewarming party on Friday night so I cleaned up the house (read: shove piles of stuff into cabinets), and it looked pretty sharp, so I took some photos.  I still have tons of painting and decorating to do.  I only have one piece of art hung so far, and I'm in serious need of some drapes in the living room to really pull things together.  But we've got more pressing, non-decor house stuff to do in this coming month, so finishing up my decor ambitions will probably go on pause for a little bit.  I'm super happy with how things are coming along, though, and it's so fun to see things come together!  We put up the bunting from our wedding in the living room for the party and it just looks so festive I don't want to take it down!  We get so much more light in this house than our last place, and I'm totally in love with it.
  
quilt/urban outfittters :: iPhone dock + lamp/modcloth :: sidetable/target :: basket + rug/ikea
  
rug + pillows/ikea :: teepee print/beauchamping :: camera print/christine berrie chair/thrifted :: couch/ikea (craigslist) :: mt. mckinley print/ranger doug

we're homeowners!

So, if you guys follow me over on instagram and twitter, you probably already know this, but... we're homeowners!  Hooray!  It's been a long, arduous, exciting, exhausting, frustrating process the past 6 months, but we feel like we ended up with our dream home and all the hassle was totally worth it.  It's pretty bizarre to be sitting inside our home.  Like, these our our walls, we can do whatever we want to them!  I can knock that one down if I want.  I can paint it, I can tear up the floors, I can do... anything!  I'm almost paralyzed with the freedom, I'm not sure what I want to do now!  For now, we need a few items that will require an Ikea run.  We went on a thrift adventure yesterday to look for a few things and got some necessities.  I have my very own studio space that have absolutely no furniture for, so I'll have to design that space from scratch, which is pretty thrilling, actually.  The Winne has it's own special parking spot, too, which is so much better than having to park it in the backyard with a nasty tree right over it, making it all gross and dirty.  The poor girl need some cosmetic TLC, as she got a bit grimy, but there's a faucet right next to her, so I can give her a bath and a good scrub now!

I feel like we're still in that "new parent" stage where we're afraid that if we leave the house for more than an hour we'll come back and it'll be burnt to the ground or something.  Oh, the heavy weight of responsibility.  I'm excited to get to know this house, though.  I'm certain we'll have to fix many things, and we already know that we need to replace the siding as it's in pretty rough shape, but there's something about fixing up your own house that just feels so rewarding, even if it's hard work.  I can't wait to show you guys some peeks at the house.  It's a total wreck right now, with all the empty boxes still laying around, but things are coming along.  Oh!  And we have a living room that has a perfect spot for a Christmas tree!  Christmas tree farm, here I come!

a wishlist for a new space

Every time I move, I daydream about decorating the new space.  My brain thinks that mentally designing rooms is a perfectly appropriate thing to do during the hours of 2-4 am, keeping me awake until the wee hours.  I can't help it though.  It's so exciting to envision a new space, making new arrangements and putting up new artwork.  In this new place I really want to invest in some beautiful prints from artists I love.  Hanging artwork and photos in groups, gallery style, is pretty "in" these days (from what I can tell, according to pinterest), but I really do love making little collections of framed art and photos on my walls.  It's like having little collections of pretty things, like a shadowbox, but more grown-up and chic.    We have pretty much everything we need, practically speaking, but it's always fun to get a few new things when moving into a new space.  We'll have double the square footage, so we'll probably need a couple new furniture items, but nothing too major.  Our new bedroom will only be big enough to hold our bed and maybe a hutch, for a bit of storage.  It'll be nice to have a room that is only for sleeping, as our bedroom is super tiny right now and half of it is devoted to housing our clothes.  I'd love it to be really simple and relaxing, but also cozy and homey.  We're making a walk-in closet out of a room that's attached, so it'll be great to have a whole separate space for hanging clothes and such.

pillow/karli ingersoll :: print/beauchamping :: decal/shanna murray :: iphone dock/modcloth

Our bathroom is pretty small and simple and doesn't have a lot of storage.  Thankfully there is a built-in right next to the bathroom door, so we can store things in there, but I'd like to get a little unit for storing things we use frequently.  I like having a see-through shower curtain, to let in as much light as possible into the shower (and, you know, so murderers can't hide behind it), but this zig zag curtain is so fun and graphic.  I also like that it's not super girly, which I feel like shower curtains (and curtains in general) can tend to be.

print/karli ingersoll :: shower curtain + storage unit/urban outfitters

A big ticket item on my wishlist is a new couch.  Right now we only have a little loveseat and a couple chairs because absolutely nothing else can fit in our current living room.  I adore the clean, midcentury couches that Thrive has, but they are waaaay out of our price range.  This one from urban outfitters has the same look and is a lot cheaper (though still pretty spendy... compared to thrifting), and it has the added bonus that you can fold the back down to make a bed.  Since we won't have room for a guest room in this new place, it'd be nice to at least have a couch that people can sleep on comfortably.  Dan hates futons, so I think this is a good solution.

I really love the coffee table with the glass top, too.  I like having cool coffee table books, and having them displayed underneath the glass table top is a great way to have them visible, but not taking up valuable space.  I'm also totally and completely in love with the honeycomb shelves that Josh & Sarah made.  I wanted to buy them back when they were selling them, but we weren't moving for a while and I didn't have space to store them.  Maybe I'll have to use their tutorial over at A Beautiful Mess to make my own.  Oh!  Yeah, and we'll have a garage/shop, so I can finally have space to make stuff, woo!

wire baskets + couch /urban outfitters :: letters/anthropologie :: honeycomb shelves/subtle takeover

Something I'm absolutely thrilled about?  Having a table that is just for eating.  No more coffee table/desk/dining table!  We won't have room for a full dining table, but we really don't need that much, since 99.9% of the time it's just Dan & I.  I really like a bar height table, so I'd like to get something like this Ikea table.  And I've been coveting that Ikea cart for quite a while.  I think the first time I saw it was on Rachel's blog, and I've been dreaming about it ever since.  Cooking in a bigger kitchen is going to be dreamy, though I will be sad to no longer have a gas range.  I've never cooked on an electric stovetop, so hopefully that doesn't mess with my cooking too much!  It'll be way easier to clean though!

bar table and stools + cart/ikea :: giant ice cube tray/williams sonoma

the flavor bible /amazon :: bowls/anthropologie

Something I'm REALLY excited about is finally having my own craft/office/studio space!  I have so many ideas that my brain is nearly exploding, so that space will probably require a post all it's own.