On Happy Accidents and Power Tools

Well, I finally got some window treatments up in the Master Bedroom. And it only took three years.
Mike loves it when I call him at work to ask where the drill is. Actually, I did okay - no errant holes (in the wall OR in my skin).

I'd been meaning to hang drapes in the MB for a while, especially after seeing the dramatic difference drapes made in some of our other rooms. I wasted a lot of time drooling over several panels from Pottery Barn and Anthropologie, but in the end, I just couldn't justify the prices. Which, unfortunately, ran from $99 to $248 per panel. Times six. Ouch.

The Ella Drape from Pottery Barn $99/panel (96")

The Audrey Drape from Pottery Barn $99/panel (96")
The Adorations Drape from Anthropologie $178/panel (96")
The Avignon Drape from Anthropologie $248(!)/panel (96")
Had I been absolutely, positively sure that the MB would remain the same for a while, I maybe, maybe would've saved up and taken the plunge with the expensive drapes. BUT I'm not sure about that the room WILL stay the same, for a few reasons. For one, I'm not crazy about our headboard and would like to get a new bed sometime soon, if the budget allows. Also, I've had second thoughts about the paint color, which I do love, but Mike does not. So, rather than buy some crazy-expensive drapes that were going to look nice in THIS bedroom, I figured I'd play it safe for now and buy some cheaper, neutral drapes that would look nice in almost ANY bedroom.

So, my sister and I headed out to Target. Although I have three windows in the MB, I initially tried to get away with using only 4 panels, in another attempt at keeping costs down. I thought I could maybe hang just one drape in the areas between two windows...


Soooo, after digging through a VERY picked over window treatment selection (almost the entire aisle was on clearance - which was good and bad), I really didn't see anything that jumped out at me. I settled on a Thomas O'Brien herringbone drape that looked like it had promise. The color on the package said "White," but these drapes are most definitely NOT white. They're more of a cream or ivory color. I told my sis that I had a feeling I was gonna get the drapes home and either hate them, or end up loving them and this would be one more happy accident to add to the list. Luckily, I snagged the last four 95" drapes. No small feat considering the state of the drapery aisle. As an added bonus, the panels had been marked down from $34.99 to $24.99. I also picked up three black curtain rods on clearance for $9.99.

I went home with my panels and curtain rods and got to work. An hour later I was staring at some surprisingly nice drapes in a room that looked liked someone had cut some serious corners by trying to use four panels where there definitely should have been six. It seemed I had underestimated the angle of the bends in the wall and there was no way the four panel plan was gonna work, short of me buying an expensive rod system.
I already knew I'd gotten the last four panels in my local Target, but a quick Internet search showed that they were available online and in a Target store a few towns over. The very next day, my wonderful mother stopped in to said Target on her way home from work and picked them up for me!

And now that I have all six panels hung up and looking pretty, I am officially declaring this one a happy accident.

P.S. Happy Birthday Dana!

A Funny Thing Happened...

Sometimes, when Mike works overnight, dangerous things can happen. It all started innocently enough. My lack of spouse accounted for me sitting up til all hours, listening for strange sounds that only existed in my head (ah, the life of a firefighters wife) and watching chick flicks to pass the time. And that's when it happened - while absentmindedly flipping through channels, I came upon one of my all time favorite movie house movies. Spanglish.

It is not easy to find interior shots of the house in this movie. You'll just have to watch it for yourself! There are actually two houses: the Clasky family home and the Malibu vacation home they rent for the summer. I, however, am exclusively obsessed with the family home. The home itself can't be easily put into words. It's beautiful, of course. Just the right amounts of classic and well-loved. The house is full of knick-knacks, accessories, pillows, you name it. Some of you might think it just looks cluttered, but I love it. It is very apparent that a family lives here. And yet, it's classy and elegant all the same. They have a freakin' foosball table in the middle of the family room and yet somehow, inexplicably, it's still beautiful.

My favorite room in the house is the master bedroom. It's a blur of florals and stripes and colors and yet it all comes together. I want to hibernate in this room all winter. That being said, even at 1:00 A.M., while listening for signs of a break-in that would never happen, I realized that the closest I was gonna get to a room like this was re-creating it as best I could in my own, much smaller, bedroom. And so, after several days of Spanglish-induced shopping, I've come to one absolute conclusion: I CANNOT STOP BUYING PILLOWS AND BLANKETS.

And now, my bed looks like this:


I think I've officially reached the maximum allowable pillow count on our bed. I'm up to 10(!). Or is it 12? Something like that. Mike's actually been a good sport about all of this. I suspect it's because the bed, if nothing else, has become infinitely more comfortable. And after all, pillows are cheaper than shoes and handbags.

On Saturday, I attended a lovely wedding shower (hi Jen!) with my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law. When the shower ended, my sister-in-law, Kristen, my mother-in-law, Loretta and I decided we weren't quite ready to go home yet. So where did we go? Well, T.J. Maxx of course! Ah, the old standby. The place where I feel almost as at-home as at home. T.J. Maxx is always hit or miss, but when you hit, you HIT. It was one of those days! Kristen, Loretta and I ended up spending an hour "enabling the hell out of each other" and while we all walked away with some very cute things, Loretta was definitely the grand-prize winner of the day. Loretta went home with THIS:


FOR SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS! Can you believe that!?! We later found out that the chair, from the Compositions line by Schnadig Furniture usually retails for around $1,000.00!!! It's from the same maker that does all of the Ralph Lauren Home furniture. Unbelievable! We literally did NOT believe the price tag. We kept asking the T.J. Maxx employees, "Well, what's wrong with it? Something has to be wrong." But no, it was pretty much perfect. And you should have seen Kristen man up to carry the chair into Loretta's house while wearing two-inch heels. Like I said, it was one of those days.

I ended up getting a cute little table to go behind the chaise lounge in my bedroom. The chaise currently serves as further evidence of my blanket/pillow buying madness. I've wanted it to serve as a good place to read, but that wasn't happening until i got some good light in there somewhere. And the reading lamp I needed wasn't happening until I found a tall, narrow table to fit behind the chaise. So now, I have my reading spot. I also snagged that tray on the blanket, it's really beautiful in person, with a mother-of-pearl type inlay. (Shout out to Jen again - see your shower favor there???)


Now, I need some artwork to hang above the chaise. This one section of wall looks particularly sad and empty. For some reason, I don't like the idea of buying art at chain stores. I'll be stalking etsy for something, I think.


Jeez, it's embarrassing when you forget the remove all the "daily life" crap from your pics before posting...


I'll leave you with this pic of Finn and Cullen at public skating on Saturday. Here's Finn giving his little bro a ride around the rink. In the interest of full disclosure, this picture was taken seconds before they wiped out. Not to worry, there were no serious injuries sustained. Although Cullen did tell me his eyes hurt. Whatever that means. Seeing as he was wearing a helmet with a full cage on it. I think he just picked a random body part and struck out this time. Ah, well.

Pics of the World's Smallest Bathroom to come! Some day.

Some Spanglish pics found at Hooked on Houses.

A Month Late. A Buck Short.

Okay, yes, it is officially a month after Christmas. But I couldn't very well let these pics go to waste, now could I? Or, maybe I could have, as once again half of my pics are from my crappy cell phone camera...


Annnd, of course, any excuse to show off the rink...



On a COMPLETELY UNRELATED NOTE (as in, NO this is NOT some kind of "hint." NO, I am NOT pregnant again). I found this old scan while going through my computer looking for the Christmas pics. Is this not the most freakish sonogram you've ever seen?


This is Mr. Cullen, in utero, acting as if he was fully expecting us. I think he's saying, "Here I am! Over here! See you in July!" I usually cannot make heads or tails of these things, but Cullen was doing his damnedest to make it all plain as day for his sometimes-a-little-slow Mom. Okay, enough about that. Just had to share that one.

Tomorrow I'll post some pics of our quick fix of the World's Smallest Bathroom.

Works in Progress

The last time I mentioned the formal living room and dining room was almost a year ago. Jeez. Now I feel guilty.

Anyway, to help alleviate all this blog guilt, I thought I'd share some current pics of the formal living/dining area to keep you updated. Sorry these pics are so dark, I'm not sure why they came out like that...

One of my favorite things about the living room is my little craigslist-dresser-that-could. I talked about it when I bought it, here. So what if I started this project in '07? Heh heh. I finally got the dresser painted (BM Monterey White) and added the new hardware from Quality Bath.

After lusting over the botanical prints from Restoration Hardware, which are like, $2700 apiece (okay, I'm exaggerating), I decided to make my own - and so I did. I picked the ferns myself during one of our impromptu family hikes and bought some nice, coordinating card stock at Michael's. The little decorative labels came from Michael's as well. I looked up the names of the different ferns online. Some of them might even be correctly identified! The frames came from Christmas Tree Shop - I swear the have the cheapest frames anywhere! Their frames are all over my house. The total cost of the project was about $45 for all nine botanicals. Not bad, eh? Much better than that $1800 it would've cost at RH, anyway.

We also (finally!) hung the window treatments. These are some of the very first items I bought for the house back in '06. We stored them for years until we were ready for them. I fell in love with the drapes the moment I laid eyes on them in the Pottery Barn catalog. I patiently (or not so patiently, depending on who you ask) waited for them to go on sale, and the rest is history. And you know what? I still love them. Every day I look at them and think, "I love these drapes! I love these shades!" I do have to admit that I was a little worried about becoming yet another PB carbon-copy-house. But they ARE only window treatments and I DID see the roman shades in the Kate Townsend-Simpson house on lonnymag.com (which, in my mind, gives them serious street cred). Moving on...

When the island became usable, we were finally able to move the round table from the kitchen into the dining room. We bought this table specifically for the dining room, and I think it looks really great in there. The table came with four leaves that extend the table to a huge 81" diameter - all while remaining round in shape. The pictures show the table with the leaves on. If you look closely, you can see the seam where the leaves meet the actual table. For the record, all those extra chairs in the room were placed there for a party and aren't normally there...

I love love LOVE the idea of having a fireplace in the dining room. I picture everyone gathered around the table at a big Christmas Eve party, with a fire warming the room while it snows outside. Hopefully, this will come true and I'll have the pics to prove it!

The only snag we hit with the fireplace was that we had to place the table so as to ensure that even at 81", somebody's seat (literal and figurative) wouldn't end up getting scorched. So, we had to set the table slightly off center. For a while, I had a hard time getting past it, but as the room gets filled in, it looks better and less noticeable.

Mike and I recently found some chandeliers that we actually agreed on (oh happy day!) online at Golden Lighting. I bought the rugs for these rooms online at Target.com. Typically, I don't like buying certain things sight unseen, but I was getting desperate. At the time, I was dying for seagrass, but we were on a strict budget, and these 8x 10 rugs were something like $140 a piece, with free shipping. Hello! Mike HATES them - but I love them and he loves me. So for now, they stay. Still, I'd love to have seagrass someday...

The living room still needs lots of work and lots of new furniture, as discussed in my recent sofa post. Almost everything in these rooms came from craigslist. Literally. Some of it will stay, but some of it has got. to. go.

So, I guess that's it for now. Hopefully the rooms will be a bit more pulled together at the next update. Maybe I'll even have a new sofa!

Have a Seat?

Sofas. Couches. Settees. Divans. Divans?

Call them what you will, we need one. If I have to look at the what-was-supposed-to-be-a temporary-craigslist-sofa-that-has-somehow-stuck-
around-for-three-effing-years sofa in my beautiful, formal living room for one more day, I am going to become suicidal. Or, sofacidal. Heh. I just made that up.

I've seen some incredible prices on furniture lately. I don't know if it's the economy, or the fact that Ikea has recently graced us Bostonians with its presence, but prices seem to be falling. Which is a good thing.

I have been looking for a nice, sturdy (preferably slipcovered) sofa for forever. Well, it seems like forever. I've ordered fabric swatches from half the furniture companies in North America. I have my heart set on a light colored sofa, so feel free to snicker behind my back. I *think* I've narrowed it down to three options. Of course my husband, ever the opinionated decorator, will have to have a say in all of this. But, for now, here are the three I'm considering (all are under $1500):

1. The Eaton Sofa from Nantuckit Furniture. Oh, how I would love to own the two-over-two model with a beautiful natural linen slipcover on it. At $1339, this one wouldn't totally break the bank. Plus, it IS slipcovered, which ranks high on my wish list as we have small children and "machine washable" is pretty much a prerequisite for anything in our house.


2. The Brooke Sofa, which I found at Boston Interiors. Not sure if I'd be able to find it elsewhere, but at $1299, the price isn't bad. It's not slipcovered, but I do like it. I don't know much about their quality, though. Or even where their sofas come from for that matter.3. The Loring Sofa from Room and Board. I realize this one isn't slipcovered either, but look at it! So beautiful. I love the tight back and the two (instead of three) seat cushions. And of course, I could always get a slipcover made some time down the road. At $1199, it's actually the cheapest of the three and currently in the lead in the Sofa Race in My Head.


I've also always loved the Seabury Sofa from Pottery Barn, but at $2000+, it's a long shot. I might be able to track down a similar model through Rowe, as I believe they make some of the PB furniture, but we'll see.

As much as I'd LOVE to see a new sofa in my living room, I'm not 100% sure we should be looking into buying furniture right now, for three reasons...

1. We are finishing up a major home renovation. Translation: We are tapped OUT.

2. We have a four-year old and a three-year old. Both boys. Translation: Anything we buy within the next ten years will undoubtedly end up looking like this:


3. I really, really like white furniture. Translation: See No. 2, above.

Sooo, I guess we have some things to think through. I really believe we'd do okay with a slipcovered sofa, even in white. And yes, even with two crazy little boys. After all, the sofa will be in the formal living room and the boys don't go in there for much other than nerf tag and fort building. Both of which are fairly sofa-friendly activities.

Then again, these are the same kids who drew "elephants" on their new wool rug. With Sharpies.

The Big Reveal

Okay, here it is...the moment you've all been waiting for.... (or, at least, the moment I've been waiting for):

The new second floor bathroom! Tadaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

(That fuzzy pink thing at the bottom of pic no. 4 is my knee - I'm wearing my bathrobe. Sexy, I know.)

I had a feeling that I wasn't gonna have enough time to get some pics this morning and I ended up taking them last night. So, I apologize for the glare and the color being off and the general crappiness of quality.

This remodel was 99% DIY. Mike did everything from gutting the room himself to building the beautiful mahogany decking around the air tub. This room in particular was a compromise for us, and I am really happy with the results. We wanted a spa-like feel, but had to keep it kid-friendly. And, for Mike's sake, I didn't want anything too feminine. I have to say, I think we did okay. I think we spent just over $6,000, all in all. Not too bad for a complete gut job. The room had been the smallest of four bedrooms on the second floor and while some would disagree with swapping out a bedroom for a bathroom, we ultimately decided it was the right thing to do for us. I'm working on a before and after post, to better illustrate the transformation. I'll also be including details for all of the products we used in the remodel.

There are many, many little things that still need to be dealt with* but for the most part, we're callin' it d-o-n-e!

*I suppose one of those things would be window treatments. I should probably try to get those up before Mike gives the old lady who works at the church next door a heart attack.

And We're Back

Well, I'm back from my self-imposed blog exile. Not really sure what brought it on - other than a complete lack of anything to write about (I'm pretty sure complete lack of ambition played a part as well). Anyway, I still don't have MUCH to write about...work on the house kind of ceased for the holidays and you know how hard it can be to get back into the swing of things after a nice little hiatus! So, I don't have much to report on house-wise, but there are a few interesting things I want to bring up:

1. Target has begun carrying (mostly online) some really nice wallpaper. Not totally cheap, but not designer prices, either. Wallpaper is definitely making a comeback. Now, if you find a print you like, it doesn't necessarily have to go on the wall. A nice, bold wallpaper pattern looks great on the inside of a glass-doored bookcase. Or inside bureau drawers. Here are some pics from the Target website:

2. I know many people (myself included) are feeling the pinch right now. It can be very depressing when all you do is visualize your dream room(s), but don't have the extra cash to make the dream a reality. With the economy continuing to tank, now seems like a good time to explore alternative ways to get things done. Like craigslist. I've noticed that there's a real abundance of good, quality stuff on my local craigslist. Maybe people are downsizing. Maybe they're trying to make some extra money. I don't know, but for whatever reason, it sure seems like there's a lot to be had right now. I strongly urge everyone to take a look on craigslist before going out to purchase new. Now, I totally understand that there's quite a difference between buying a used side table and a used couch. It's not for everyone, and obviously you have to draw your own lines. But, as far as nice, solid, wood furniture goes, they don't make 'em like they used to (or, if they do, they're reeeeally expensive). There's plenty of stuff out there that would look brand new (not to mention unique) with a little paint and some elbow grease. As a matter of fact, I think I'll go check it out right now.

I'll try to get some new pics of the backyard skating rink up tomorrow. We have ice! Mike is in hockey heaven :)