Little By Little- House Progress

I'm closing in on the end of the school year and I couldn't be more excited! We spent this weekend in Grand Haven, one of my favorite places on the planet, and then out on a friend's boat yesterday. It's been a lovely weekend!

I'm looking forward to being home this summer to hang out with my favorite little munchkin and also to getting our house organized and decorated!

We haven't done tons lately and to be honest, I don't know that we will do any huge projects in this home since it probably will not be our "forever home".

But just painting and doing little things here and there has made a world of difference. We've put a little work into the dining room and I think it's the first room in the house that we can call finished.

We had the wallpaper taken down, painted, put up curtains and a little art and called it a day. Gil also took down the terrible light fixture and switched it out with one I love!

Here are some photos from when the previous owner was still occupying the house:

Here are photos of the dining room in its current state:

The pictures are a bit dark, but the wall color is navy and I love it with the touches of red. There are also splashes of navy in the adjoining rooms. Can't wait to work on some more projects in the coming months!

Crazy Michigan and Some Nursery Updates

We have been having some crazy weather here in Michigan the past week or so. We were due to come back from Winter break on  Monday, but we ended up with three snow days in a row! It was amazing! So today was my first day back to school...quite strange to start the week on a Thursday.

Over break, Gil was a champ, working on the nursery SOO much {after battling strep and a bad fever-poor guy!}.

When we first saw this house, we loved the spaciousness of the rooms but knew we had a lot of decor-updating ahead of us. This is how the nursery room looked when the previous owners were living here:

Not cute, right!? I will be honest, I haven't helped one ounce to actually prepare this room for our little guy. Gil gets all the credit. So far, he has taken down the lovely heart border, done some wall repair, painted the ceiling, primed and painted the trim, painted the walls, installed new outlet and light switch covers, and changed out the old registers for new ones. He also put together the crib, changing table, and dresser! I'm exhausted just writing all of that. He's one hard worker.

We still have a lot to do in the nursery, but it's definitely coming along.

 It's hard to tell the color of the walls from my iPhone pictures, but they are a light aqua. We are using aqua, gray, and yellow for the colors in the nursery. Kinda like this:

{source}

I bought this wall art from Etsy, which I'm waiting on any day now:

YassisPlace on Etsy

I also think I want to get this rug (although I haven't seen it in person yet) from IKEA. It was out of stock when we went last time...thumbs down. It looks a little brighter than it's showing up in the picture below. Even if we don't get this particular rug, we will get some kind of yellow rug for a pop of color on the floor.

Ikea Stockholm Rug

It will be fun to see how it all comes together. On a related note, we joined Amazon Mom  and have started to stock up on a few things. We got a shipment of newborn diapers the other day and they are ADORABLE. So teensy tiny.

Last but not least, I started working out again over break and am keeping track of my workouts (however minor) on a calendar on the fridge. Here's the bump & I on the treadmill. Getting big!

I Get Into Trouble at Home Goods...

After declaring that I was not going to spend money the other day...I went and found some furniture I liked. They were both "impulse" purchases, but they were items that I have been on the lookout for. So technically, they were well-thought-out impulse purchases. :)

I found a side table for the basement at Target. I can't find a picture online, so I'll have to take one later. This is the second table I have gotten from Target that I got a deal on because there was a minor scratch on it. I personally like a table with a little "character", so bring on the discount!

The second piece of furniture I found was a chest/trunk type piece for the foot of the guest bed. Our guest bedroom is really tiny, so I knew I didn't want to get a dresser for that room. Plus, we haven't had any long-term guests who would really need a dresser. I thought a chest would look great, would give extra storage space for blankets, and would also provide a place for someone to put their bags on. The piece I found was a bit more $ than I was planning to spend, but I loved it and thought it would be perfect in the space. Plus Gil okayed it. :)


I had been looking for ideas on Pinterest for what type of trunk I would like in this room. The item I bought doesn't look anything like these examples, but it does have that same old, weathered feel.

centsationalgirl.com

crushparty.blogspot.com

Because this room is so little, it's pretty much impossible to photograph it well. But here is the new addition:

It has a worn and weathered look to it that I love. 

A little closer shot:

Love it!

This room still needs pictures on the walls and curtains on the window, but it's definitely almost done!

To Paint or Not To Paint?

I have been toying with the idea of painting the living room for a while now. Our house was freshly painted in neutral colors when we moved in, so it was never an immediate thing we needed to do. But the more I think about that space, the less I like the sagey green wall color. It's fine, it's neutral. But it's just kinda blah.

I would love to paint the main floor blue. And by blue, I do not mean anything crazy. Nor do I mean powdery blue. I like aqua or something that has greenish tones. I want something subtle, but I love color in a house. Here are some examples that I like. What do you think?

This first picture is probably my favorite example:

bhg.com

A little more subtle:

myhomeideas.com

decor8blog.com

I wouldn't do turquoise, but I think this is gorgeous!

homedit.com

Gil, I see paintbrushes in your future!

This & That

Yesterday morning, I headed out for a walk with Laila.  It was really gloomy out, but the kind of gloomy that I really like (on occasion). It felt like some major weather was just waiting to happen. Sure enough, as we were walking, it began snowing really fat, fluffy flakes.  It was so pretty. I snagged a few pictures with my phone (love Instagram!).

Beginning of the walk

By the end of the walk, the ground was covered!

Of course, by mid-afternoon, the snow was all melted and there was only mud left in its place. Laila has been getting 5 minutes outside and then I make her come in. Otherwise, I tend to forget she's out there and that means TROUBLE when there is mud around.

I spent the day doing who knows what, just lounging, relaxing, and doing a few house things. Totally forgot to do my discussion board post for grad class (whoops!). Vacation will do that to 'ya! I did squeeze in 4 miles on the treadmill and it felt pretty good.

Today I'm going to finish cleaning the house and doing errands. Does anyone else hate returning clothes? I need to do that and I ALWAYS put it off. I'm going to try not to spend any money today. I've noticed the trend that when I'm on vacation, I tend to spend way more frivolously than usual.

Yesterday I bought a rug for our master bedroom (which I've been wanting to do for the longest time). I actually saw the rug first on Pinterest, but the site it led me too was a little pricier than I wanted to spend. I went on overstock to look at other options and came across the same rug for much cheaper. I knew I wanted to get a rug with a geometric pattern and I love this. Hopefully it'll look nice in person too! The only thing is, it's technically an "outdoor" rug...so we'll see how it feels in person. There was a review of the rug that said the person used it inside, so I decided to give it a try.

overstock.com

I also bought a console table to go behind the couch in the basement. I've noticed this console table a few times online when I've looked around, so I finally bit the bullet and bought it. It was on sale, so that made it easier!

target.com

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

The Mirror is Up!

Lately I've been taking the bull by the horns...at least with hanging things up in our house. Normally I would probably ask Gil to hang the mirror and pictures that I've hung around the house lately. I don't have a great track record for placing things on the wall in a good spot or hanging things straight. But I have to say, I've been on a role lately so I decided to tackle the mirror. I had a few problems, but was able to get it up on the wall successfully.

I love that this mirror was on sale at IKEA for (I think) $14.99 or so.

Fun pattern, pretty drawer knobs.

I don't know what all I want on this sideboard type table yet, but this is how it's currently looking. On the right is a vase of fresh lavender from Trader Joe's that I picked up today. So delicious smelling! I also framed my favorite of the prints from the IKEA pack that I used in the upstairs bathroom.

Here's another shot taken from the living room looking into the dining room area. The space where the red table is has been empty for the past two years. I love how it adds a pop of color, storage, and visual interest!

I really haven't spent much time decorating the basement, but I bought this from Target this week. I'm not a big proponent of buying pre-framed art from big chain stores, but I thought this was a really fun print.

Here's a shot from far away. I centered the picture on the wall, but now I kinda wish I hadn't because it would be fun to put a few smaller frames next to it. Maybe some other time...

I love these pillows that we picked up from IKEA a while ago. The green rug is also from IKEA. It looks dark here, but it's a fun bright green color actually. I'm not so good with picture-taking!

It's fun for me to keep track of our house progress since we bought it two years ago. I love our little bungalow!