A stool.

(at the demo site)

(all cleaned up!)

This is my "new" stool...Daylan found this little gem for me at a demo site last week. It was destined to go down with the house and he thought I might like it. I got the picture he had sent and begged him to go back and pick it up before it was too late. By this point in the day he had changed his mind and decided it was too UGLY to bring home! And yet with a little convincing he turned back and grabbed it for me (true love). He brought it home and took it straight into the garage. I think he was hoping I would forget about it...no such luck sweetie. Despite it being so cold I stood in the garage with my stool just smiling to myself. After giving it a good wipe down and a bee's wax polishing I am so happy with our new front entry stool.

Its a process...

We have been busy working on our Laundry/mud room. Its been messy and a we have come across a few bumps but we are at the drywall stage (yay) as of this weekend and its so exciting! Daylan continues to insist on doing the work himself and I continue to be amazed at what he can do. I can't wait to share the finished rooms. It will be so nice to have more than one bathroom running again:) I am stuck on what we should do for the flooring. Any advice or ideas would be great!

(iphone pic by Deacon.)

A home tour. (Merin and Mike Melnyk.)

This is the home of Merin and Mike. They worked so hard on their first house. Merin and her two girlfriends scraped the ceilings. Family got together to help with the painting and refinishing of the floors. Mom and Merin especially had so much fun planning every little detail of the decor. Even though we have had to finish the kitchen without her (it was completely gutted since last spring) it has been finished just as Merin had envisioned. I love this home. Its full of spirit, and warmth. I so hope we can find a lovely little family to fill it. Enjoy the tour!
























(here is just one image from the "before", just to give you an idea of its transformation.)

Before and After -Front Entry

I really wish I had taken better before pictures of our house. I just was so excited to get to work (haha. ok, I was just so excited for DAYLAN to get to work on the house) that I didn't really think about how fun it would be to have good before picture to compare to. The night we got the keys we had family over for a little house warming party. To see the concern on some of their faces was a little unnerving! But that night they pulled up the carpet in the main floor. There was so much help we received from those boys. Thank you so much! Here is our front entry today.
(before)





(after)

Before and After -Toy Room

Sooooo, our basement was not really what sold me on the house! It was kinda scary. Truthfully it was a maze down there. With rooms leading off of rooms, it felt like everywhere you turned there was another door. So we took away the door to the main family room and opened it up taller and wider. There was also a small room off the family room. We knocked down that wall and door and opened it right up. There was a support beam that needed to stay so we used that space in the ceiling and added monkey bars and a ladder up to the bars. The kids LOVE it. Attached to the monkey bars are some rings that the kids also love to swing on. Daylan did some built-ins along the wall for all the toys and games. And finally the carpet is now something the kids can play on without me worrying about them getting skinned knees! So no more paneling, or orange carpet or fluorescent lighting...lol. wow. Thank you for all your hard work Day! I am so lucky to have you. This is now one of our favorite rooms.
xo.
(before)


(after)

Before and After.

Last fall I stumbled across these two beautiful chairs second hand. It felt almost criminal to only pay 25.00 each! Then as I lifted the first chair and carried it to the truck "pixie dust" started to fall to the ground. The foam was shot! I mean completely broken down...powder. Daylan was following behind me with the second chair and had a very sceptical look for me as more foam slipped through a seam. My grin only deepened. I was not shaken. No siree. These chairs were great! The frame is teak, and I have (after much deliberation) recovered in a wool/felt fabric. This should be strong enough for the kids to climb on and dark enough that it will hide dirty little foot prints. These are my chairs!

Litchfield Home Tour

This is my Mom's (and Dad's) place. She is thinking of painting and wanted me to take some pictures to help her decide if she was ready for the change or not. I took advantage of the situation and decided to document her lovely home as well. Over the years she has done a lot of traveling. We lived as a family in Japan for almost four years, and while we were there mom found a lot of really great stuff at the markets. The boys in the family have had a lot of fun doing work on this house, like the floors, stairs and built-ins to name a few...and maybe soon some painting! Mom, your home is so BEAUTIFUL.

Before and After - Kitchen Tour

I know I promised these a long time ago, but honestly I feel silly putting them up. I thought I would slowly (maybe a post a week about the house) go around and show you what we have done. This is our first house and it's been a blast to work on it with my mom and AMAZING husband who puts all our ideas into reality. He comes home from work in the evening and transforms our home as he works into the night. So feel free to have a look around. There are still a few finishing touches (like a back splash behind the sink side counter) but it could be a while yet on that.I hope you like it!
(BEFORE)





(AFTER)