Category: home

The Living Room, Almost Done

Well, we’ve been in this house almost seven months now and we finally have a few rooms that are shaping up to look like I want them to. The kitchen is done, and now the living room and breakfast room are almost there. Everything got painted, new light fixtures were installed, and furniture was bought. It’s such a great feeling to come home to this! (Please excuse my sad photography skills.)

A vertical shot to show off the fan:

I love the fireplace now that Lauren and I painted it! On the mantle is the woven mirror from Target that I love.

Our new media stand from Overstock.com, which makes me so happy:

And its matching side table:

The coffee table from IKEA:

David is adorable, by the way. He was so excited to have a coffee table that he went out that day and bought four coffee table books to display: one on dogs, Houston, the ocean, and a Christmas book.

A close-up of the buffet area:

Eventually I want to decorate this better, but right now it just has some random stuff on it. Two pitchers from Crate & Barrel that I think are pretty, a marriage prayer plate that we bought on our Honeymoon to Kauai, one of our engagement pictures, and a little DIY art that I made in about five minutes one day. Oh, and a candy bowl. Can’t forget the candy bowl!

And here’s our cute little table and chairs!

David bought me the rose for no reason at all. :)

It’s not quite finished, though. The next thing we need are some window shades or blinds. I keep vacillating between Roman shades (white or tan), bamboo shades, and white faux-wood blinds. You can’t really see it in these pictures, but we do have some sheer white curtains from Wal-mart in the living room that add interest. What’s your vote on the windows?

Once we get the windows taken care of, I’d like to get a rug for the living room. Again, I’m not sure of the color/pattern that would look best with what we have going on. I’m thinking something soft and easy on the eyes, and if there is a pattern it should be something with curves because we have a lot of corners and angles in the room. Suggestions?

Lastly, something needs to go on the wall in the breakfast room. I bought three bamboo dishes from IKEA that I think would look cute hanging in a row. I hope to try it out soon, but first I need to get some plate hangers.

After I get those things out of the way, it’s time to save our pennies for a little while before we tackle another room. Which one should it be? The bright red dining room? The tiny half bathroom that gets frequent use but needs a big overhaul? The extra room that we’d love to turn into an office? Or how about our own room? So many choices!

July 15, 2009
When It Rains, It Pours (Or Insert Another Such Pun)

Talk about a Monday.

This morning I was in a patient’s room giving 9 o’clock meds when I heard the sound of running water. At first I thought it was the shower, or perhaps the sink. But there was no one else in the room. A few moments later my confusion evaporated when water began pouring from the ceiling near the door. I kid you not, within minutes the entire room was covered with an inch of water. Brown, stinky, disgusting water. Obviously chaos erupted.

First of all, we had to get the patient and all of her belongings out of the room. That was interesting in itself considering she couldn’t walk and had to be wheeled in her bed. We found an empty room for the patient down the hall and parked her in it. At one point while I was in the leaky room packing her bags the light fixture crashed to the floor. Thankfully I was out of the way, but it sure scared me. We also soon discovered that the water leak was spreading to all of the other rooms nearby, but the one I was inside when it started by far got the worst of it. All in all we had to relocate 5-6 patients STAT.

Once we got them out of the way we focused on containing the leak. We had already thrown down tons of blankets to keep the water from gushing into the hallway. Maintenance got there in a hurry and brought with them huge barrels to vacuum the water into. There might have been 6 inches of water in that room before they began to clean it. The hallway smelled like the big pipes that run through the bayou. I know what those smell like because I used to play in them with my brothers when I was young. We were safe and sanitary like that. They ended up shutting down the entire hall, even the rooms that weren’t affected, so that they could work. Our unit capacity was cut in half.

So THAT was exciting. I have the day off tomorrow so I won’t have to deal with it. I’m secretly hoping that I won’t have to go in to work on Wednesday either, but that probably won’t happen.

If the crazy work day weren’t enough, David and I came home to discover that our air conditioner isn’t working. I set it at 78 degrees before I left this morning, and when I got home it was 83. When I turned it down to cool off, hot air began blowing out, and immediately the temperature began to rise. Obviously, in Houston this is not acceptable, and that is why I am currently at my in-laws’ house (again) waiting to see if we will need a new A/C unit or not.

Update: The compressor was locked up and needed a starter kit applied. So $440 later we’re back in our lovely home and cool as can be. I had better plans for that $440, but I just thank God it wasn’t $4400.

July 13, 2009
Some Things I Bought

I decided to go on a random mini shopping trip after work last night and this is what I picked up:

1. Bath & Body Works foaming hand soap – I love foaming soaps. They make it so much easier to wash my hands. And I love these scents: Wild honeysuckle, sea island cotton, and rainkissed leaves. Only $3 each right now!

2. C.O. Bigelow everyday lip balm – I was in the market for a new petroleum based lip balm, and this looked like as good as any. $5, and so far I really like it.

3. Scentport home fragrance diffuser – Picked this up because it was on sale for $4, and who doesn’t love a fresh linen smell to their room?

4. White ceramic shell – I was browsing TJ Maxx, and thought that this would be a perfect place for us to collect our change. For $10 we have a cute little decoration that is now the centerpiece to our new kitchen table, and hopefully it will be the end of me finding change all over the house (a girl can wish)!

5. Nike swim cap and goggles – I hate the goggles that I’ve been using, and have been really wanting a smaller, less bulky pair. I’ve never tried a swim cap before, but I think it’ll make things a lot easier. (Speaking of swimming, I swam the entire race length – 750 m – freestyle, without stopping, this week for the first time! I was very proud of myself.)

6. Pedometer – I’m going to start wearing this at work. I know I must walk miles during the day, and I want to prove it!

7. Target woven mirror – This was a bit of a splurge at $60, but I’ve been stalking it for weeks (I’ve actually visited it several times at the store before this) and it will look so great leaning on our mantle once we paint the fireplace white!

I haven’t shopped in awhile and this was a spur-of-the-moment trip, so it made me happy. :)

July 3, 2009
Meet Our Furniture

Hello. Let me introduce you to the furniture in our home. Don’t worry, it won’t take very long.

First up we have our bed:

If I weren’t already married to David I think I would marry this mattress. It is the single most expensive thing in our house but worth every penny. We will have this baby for the rest of our lives. Obviously it needs some dressing up. I’m thinking an upholstered headboard, a bench at the foot, some regular nightstands instead of TV trays, painting the chair rail white, and something on those blank walls.

Next we meet our one and only dresser, which stands across from the foot of the bed:

It’s a good thing we have decent closet space, because there’s not much room in this solid wood chest. This was David’s before we got married. It’s very well made, but not too pretty. I’m not sure what will become of it. We don’t really use that TV on top, it’s just there because that’s where the cable line is. (Although there was that one time I discovered that if I watched the results of Dancing With the Stars on this TV, I could get ready for bed at the same time! I was so pumped. Don’t those cable networks realize that people start getting tired after 8 p.m.? Sheesh.)

Let’s move back to the front of the house now. You’ve already seen my grandmother’s piano:

And here’s the bookshelf in the same room:

This will be a great room…eventually. The red is too bold for my taste, there is no lighting, and the bookshelves are cluttered and unorganized, for starters.

Heading back into the living room, we have David’s beloved recliner:

I think he loves this chair like I love our bed. That is why, although I don’t particularly care for the look, it will remain in our living room indefinitely. Sigh…the things we sacrifice for love! (Although I must admit that he has completely sacrificed his opinions on our home decor to me. Such a sweetie!)

Here are our loveseat, chair, and ottoman, which really aren’t ours at all:

We are “borrowing” them from David’s brother Chris and his wife Kim. They don’t need them at the moment, and we LOVE them. See how we’re taking such good care of them, Kim? How nice they look in our living room? How without them we would only have a single recliner, or be forced to pay lots of money for another good sofa? See how you should just let us keep them forever??

Anyway, next we have our main TV, which is currently perched upon some sort of desk that we are borrowing from David’s parents:

I can’t wait to get that area set up with a proper TV stand. We might just have to “forget” to give back the desk though, which is actually quite nice. Hmm, I see a pattern forming…

And now I’d like to introduce you to the newest member of our furniture family:

Yes, we FINALLY have a table!!!!!!!! Every one of those exclamation points is warranted. You have no idea how I have longed for this day. Six months of eating meals on the couch in my lap has really gotten old!

My mom and I found this table at an antique store last week for only $250. It was the first thing I laid my eyes upon, and I had a feeling I’d be taking it home. But we still browsed the entire day, just to be sure, before returning to snatch it up. I think it’s adorable. Pay no attention to the chairs in this picture, however. They’re just on temporary loan from my parents until we buy our own. I’m thinking white, maybe two sets of mismatching yet coordinating pairs? Not sure what style yet, though. What do you think?

Well that’s it, folks. You have just viewed our entire furniture collection, minus our guest bed which is really boring. In fact, most of the time I forget that room is even there. Our house is pretty much a blank slate, and I’m loving the challenge of filling it up and making it pretty. :)

June 16, 2009
Four Rooms, One Space

Here I am, finally bringing to you some pictures of our house since it was painted and updated a little bit. So far we’ve only worked on the kitchen, living room, breakfast room, and laundry room. So let’s get started!

Kitchen

Here was what it looked like before:

Here is what it looks like now:

The kitchen is the room in our house that is the most complete. (That’s probably because it doesn’t require any furniture.) I’m not crazy about the pinkish backsplash, but it will do for now. There’s kind of a lot going on in the left corner of the first picture, but that’s because we like bread products and that’s where they’re piled up for now. Notice the lovely flowers that David got me, in a beautiful Longaberger vase. The bamboo roman shade is from Target and it was really easy to install. Just ask my dad! ;)

Breakfast Room

This is the little nook right off the kitchen and living room. Here is what it looked like before:

Lots of wood, pinkish walls, cheap metal blinds, and one hideous light fixture. Let me show it to you up close:

Um, yeah. That had to go. So this is what the breakfast room looks like now:

Nothing too fancy, but it’s a big improvement, right? We still need some window treatments, something to go on the walls, and oh yeah – a table and chairs. What I’d like to get is a round, dark wood table with four mismatching yet coordinating white chairs. Sort of like this (the picture on the top right). I’m going antique shopping with my mom on Thursday to try to find something!

Laundry Room

Usually this room might be forgotten when it comes to decorating, or at least put off until last. But our laundry room leads to the door to our garage, so we go through it several times a day. Here it was before:

Just kind of blah. And here it is now:

I drew that whiteboard calendar myself because I couldn’t find one big enough at the store. I knew I wanted something like this when I was having all my computer problems and organization went out the window. Making this helped me to feel a lot better! I want to get rid of that peg board on the wall and put up something nicer, but it’s stuck on there good. Another project for a later date. Oh, see my reusable grocery bags and dog leashes hanging there by the door? Now I have no excuses!

Living Room

This is where we spend most of our time, so I want it to be a space I’m happy with. I like bright, open, airy places. But here is what it looked like before:

All of the same colored wood made it feel very closed in. This was the major painting job that was such an ordeal to get done. It was worth it though:

The stationary bike isn’t part of the usual decor…we just happened to have used it recently and I was too lazy to move it out of the way.

A small update I made to the mantel. On the right is one of our engagement pictures, and on the left is something I made in five minutes with some scrapbooking paper I had. The vase was a gift from my good friend Megan.

Obviously I’m not the world’s greatest photographer, but you get the idea! We have to keep our couches covered with sheets or else I think they would become giant mounds of dog hair. Second on the list after a kitchen table and chairs is a TV stand and a couple end tables and lamps. And I’m wondering if I should paint the fireplace brick white? Right now I’m leaning toward yes. I think it would complete the look.

So there you have it; the work we’ve done on our home so far. Comments? Questions? Praises? Constructive Criticism? I’d love to hear it! This post has been a long time coming and I stayed up late (for me) to get it up, so please at least take the time to say hello!

XOXO,
Kathleen

June 9, 2009