New Tub!

Here are the pics of the new tub....











We haven't added the new faucets yet because we don't want the bronze finish to be scratched up during the wall and tile installation. Now we're still using the old one for now. It's coming along!

If Walls Could Talk

Our house is just one big project right now, lol. I started patching up the walls in the living room and hallway the other day to prepare them for painting. Then I realized just how dinged up and coated with paint these 30 year old walls are. We're using a really good quality satin paint (we have kids - the walls must be cleanable!) but the satin finish has a slight sheen and it really highlights all the imperfections in the wall. So, I made the major decision to drastically change the look and feel of our walls. I went to Lowes and bought a huge bucket of texturizing plaster and brought it home and went to work! As I've mentioned before, my goal is to turn this place into a cozy little cottage. The walls are going to lend themselves to that cottage type feel now. Basically, I'm just applying a thick layer of the plaster (or drywall compound, whatever you call it) in a random pattern over the walls. It looks so cool!!! Very warm, very old, very charming. And I haven't even painted yet! I like the look so much that I'm going to also do the kitchen and dining room even though we've already painted in there. (Lol, Jeff wasn't too happy about that idea, but it will be well worth it. Poor guy has already painted the kitchen twice to please his picky little wife!) I think I'm going to wait to do those rooms closer to spring when we'll be tearing out the countertops and floors. It is very much a process and will take a really long time to complete the entire house, but that is my goal...little by little, room by room. And it's so fun to put that stuff up, too. I feel like a painter slapping my brush around on a huge canvas!



One wall in the living room, the back wall, is going to be painted a very refreshing bluish/greenish color. It's the same color that will be going in a small portion of the bathroom (We have a whole gallon of it...would be a shame to waste it!) I put a large sample of it on the living room back wall the other day and couldn't believe how wonderful it felt:) From the living room, you see four different colors...cool bluish-green/sunny warm yellow in the living room/ mellow peasoup green in the kitchen, and a bold cranberry red in the dining room. I can't wait to see how it all comes together. I'm thinking about applying a loose white glaze over the top of the paint to settle into the crevices in order to highlight the textured walls



Next week during the holiday break, Jeff and Norm will start ripping out our old tub. I'm so nervous! But I'm looking forward to replacing it.



Our roof was completed a week or two ago - so glad to have THAT taken care of! No more leaks in the sunroom! We removed the skylights because that's where the water was coming in.



I guess that's all for now!

Rub-a-Dub-Dub, A Roof and a Tub

One drawback of buying an older home is that you have to replace what is old and worn out. But one advantage of buying an older home is that you get to replace what is old and worn out with what truly matches your taste.



Our home has good bones, but there are certain elements in each room that will slowly but certainly be replaced one room at a time. For instance, I really don't like our baseboards. They are very plain and not very farmhouse/cottage-like. I love nice wide baseboards, so what I have in mind are about 5 inches wide. We need trim around our windows (our windows have none...*yawn*)and also some pretty crown moulding throughout most of the house. All of the plain core doors will be replaced by more substantial doors with more detail. And the ceilings throughout our house are either popcorn or plaster, which does not at all go with the kind of environment I'm trying to create. I would love to cover over the ceilings with pine planks painted a gloss white or off white. Yeah, we're going to be busy for a while, lol, but it's very exciting and fulfilling for me to slowly turn the cottage that currently only exists in my mind into a beautiful real space.



On to the rub-a-dub-dub part of this entry...Our house has two and a half bathrooms, but one of them is upstairs and incomplete (our whole upstairs is one huge incomplete space!). So that now leaves us with only one whole bathroom...a small one at that. I didn't at all mind this when we were considering buying the house because I knew that when the girls were old enough for us to move to the master bedroom upstairs, Sydney would take over our current bedroom/half bath and the two younger girls would use the full bath for all of their girly needs. And I hate cleaning bathrooms, so I wasn't at all turned off by the idea of having a smaller bath. It was still bigger than the ones we had before when we were renting.



The decor, however, is a different story. The flooring is linoleum that is relatively new but very plain. The light fixture above the sink screams 70's, the one above the door is a sad little excuse for lighting. The shelving is plastic-coated ClosetMaid, which is great if they are inside of a closet, but mine are just out in the open. The countertop use to be ugly yellow laminate covered with contact paper (ick!), but that was our very first makeover tackled our first month here. We replaced it with tile and it looks much better. It looks like what you might find in an older country home. Below is a picture of the countertop we did...it's certainly not perfect but looks better than yellow laminate!

The tub, ugh, has seen better days. It is very old and unsightly. And narrow. I keep it hidden behind shower curtains. We knew that someday we would replace it, but we'll soon be replacing the linoleum floor with tile and if the tub is ever going to come out, now is the time to do it. I've had my eye on a certain Whirlpool tub (below) and told Jeff about a month ago that this is what I would love to have. Since the bathroom is small, why not make it small and cozy and relaxing...a pretty little jewel box in which to escape? And I can't tell you how much this would help me when my joints are giving me trouble or when my stess levels are at their peak.







Well, today Jeff called me from work to tell me that not only are we ready to get our roof replaced, but we'll be able to renovate our bathroom now as well...*and* he's even springing for the Whirlpool tub:) I was so happily surprised! Surprised because, for one thing, we'll have to literally move the wall on one end of the tub down about an inch and a half...tearing down and building it up again. Plus, the tub will need to be surrounded by tile so that we can also us it to shower. So lots of work involved.



Besides replacing the lighting and sink faucet and door, we'll also have to build real wood shelving to replace the Closetmaid shelves. This shouldn't be hard, and I'd like to add some nice moulding to it for an added touch. The old baseboards will need to be replaced with nice wide baseboards, plus crown moulding added around the tops of the walls. Ah, and I would love to put up pine planks on the ceiling, but that is kind of spendy, so we'll have to see. I know that we are putting this in our kitchen this coming spring, so maybe we should practice installing it in our bathroom, lol. It's not a big space, so maybe we can fit it into our budget. As I mentioned, our floor will be tile that looks really old world. The color is called Toasted Wheat (below). I'm not sure if the tile surrounding the tub should be the same as the floor or more similar to the countertop. We'll see.







We are going to have so much going on here at home. We have a roofer in mind but we'll probably be getting our roofing shingles in Chattanooga, and I don't know *when* this month we'll get down there. Our weekends are booked with activities (yardsale, congregation picnic, wedding!) I hate the thought of waiting until November to begin, but that is probably when it will be. This month, Jeff is going to start on whipping the deck back into shape, replacing old boards and then restaining it. Plus, we're working on our living room. It would be nice if we could just put the paint up, lol, since I finally have the right color, but we need to first repair and dings in the walls, and before that, Jeff has to run the wiring for surround sound and a couple of wall sconces that are going to flank the fireplace. Such a process! But it's enough work to keep us busy this fall.



Poor Lindsay and Zoe...I have all that new bedding, etc., that I bought several weeks ago for their room, and it's yet to even come out of the packaging:( They don't even know I have it! It's at the top of my closet now. Eese and I often talk about how with our homes, if we do anything, we want to do it right. I don't want to pull out the "accessories" for their room until the room itself is completed (new paint, moulding, baseboards, doors, refinished furniture...), but I'm happy that I have something to go on and a design plan for their room.



That's my home news for the day:)

No Place Like Home

MID pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;
A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there,
Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.
Home! Home! sweet Home!
There's no place like Home, there's no place like Home!

An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain;
O, give me my lowly thatched cottage again!
The birds singing gaily, that came at my call -
Give me them - and the peace of mind, dearer than all!
Home! Home! sweet, sweet Home!
There's no place like Home! there's no place like Home!

How sweet 'tis to sit 'neath a fond father's smile,
And the cares of a mother to soothe and beguile!
Let others delight mid new pleasures to roam,
But give me, of give me, the pleasures of home!
Home! Home! sweet, sweet Home!
There's no place like Home! there's no place like Home!

To thee I'll return, overburdened with care;
The heart's dearest solace will smile on me there;
No more from the cottage again will I roam;
Be it ever so humble there's no place like home.
Home! Home! sweet, sweet Home!
There's no place like Home! there's no place like Home!
~John Howard Payne

Isn't this the way most of us feel - or would like to feel - about being home? I thought this poem perfectly summed up the way I feel about my own home. It is, to me, a haven from the world and a place for my family to thrive and find solace. The physical house alone does not bring feelings of comfort and belonging, but rather those that live under it's roof and their various day to day activities.

I have been married now for almost 12 years and am slowly learning the art of homemaking. And I do truly believe that it is an art for some people. I say that because for some, homemaking is just completing the chores that need to be done at home, day after day. Other people seem to have a great passion for carrying out those daily tasks with much forethought, precision, and attention to detail. I have been slowly making that artful transition.

This home journal was set up to record the various aspects of artfully caring for my home and family. Feel free to drop in at any time to see what we've been up to here in our home. You will always be welcomed!