Our House: One Year Later

It's hard to believe that we've been in this house for more than a year already! In some ways it feels like we've been here forever, but in other ways it still feels like we just moved in. This place definitely feels like home, but there are still some big ticket items I'd like to check off before really calling it done--not that a house is ever really "done."

I feel like we're entering the maintenance phase more than the start-from-scratch phase. It's a good feeling to be really comfortable in your own house. And we really are. I couldn't love this house more. It's fulfilling every single hope I had for it--tons of entertaining space, great kitchen, open feel, separate work space...it has it all.

Here are some of the things we've done lately:

Kitchen

This room is mostly complete. We added four stools to the counter and they've added so much function! Dan and I were in a design debate over what type of stools to get. I lobbied for a chair with a back, since I envisioned the kids sitting there doing homework eventually while we cooked, and I wasn't sure how comfortable a backless stool would be. Dan argued that the sight-lines are much better with a backless chair and that the kids would get used to it. If they didn't, the dining room table is two feet away and they could work there instead. In the end, I conceded, and I have to admit he is right. These chairs are awesome, and so cheap! I highly recommend them. They're comfy, sturdy, and tuck in easily under the island.

Dining Room
We found it! The perfect dining room table! It's a gorgeous 8-seater that extends to seat twelve. We bought it during a crazy sale at Arhaus (who's surprised?), so we got it for 50% off. We also got a matching bench. I'm not sure we'll use the bench every day (though we have been so far). Eventually, I'd like to get chairs and a rug to go under the table. I haven't seen anything that I love yet and I really want to be deliberate about that choice.

Living Room

Again, this room is mostly done. Eventually I'd like to add some greenery (probably fake), some floor cushions, and way down the road--when I'm not constantly thinking about sticky hands--a new couch. In the meantime, we added this small table from World Market, and I LOVE it! It's the perfect place to set a cup of tea while I'm reading a magazine.

Office

Oh, Arhaus, how I love thee. Let me count the ways. Dan and I couldn't find the perfect piece for the office that would house our printer and our files. Then we went to the Arhaus showroom on a whim, and BAM! There it was. Isn't she lovely? I'm eventually going to get some boxes to use as a filing cabinet and get rid of my existing one. But is already so functional. I love it.

Deck

I can't say enough what a good decision it was to do our deck in the late winter, meaning it was ready for use when the weather got warmer. We enjoyed this deck all summer and fall. We got an 8-seat table plus a deck box that doubles as extra seating.
 

Patio

Same deal here as the deck. So functional! I love that there is enough room for a shaded area, but also for a fire pit. And, we specifically designed the patio to be large enough to hold our sukkah, which we got to use this year!!

Decor
Dan is a bit of a perfectionist, which means he is in charge of hanging any art in our house. I have slowly been forcing asking him to hang things on the walls so they aren't completely bare. We're getting there. And, I got an AWESOME piece of art for our bedroom that I am totally in love with. We need to find some furniture in there before we know it's permanent place, but right now I can see it from bed and it makes me happy.

Lighting
I think we're done with lighting for now. We got gorgeous pieces for all of our bedrooms (our chandelier, Zahara's petal semi-flush mount, and Asher's industrial-style). I couldn't be happier with these. Eventually we'll add a big statement light in the living room, and replace the builder-grade lights in the dining room, kitchen, and foyer. But that's down the line.

We're making great progress on our to-do list, but there's still quite a bit. The largest items are the dining room and bedroom, which are still largely untouched. We've got time though. For now, I'm loving my house even more with each passing day!

• Kitchen backsplash (we're doing this ourselves over winter break!)
• Kitchen bar stools
• Dining room table and chairs
• Office furniture (have a desk, need a place for printer and files, etc.)
• Mudroom build-out (need a place for coats, backpacks, shoes)
• Basement organization (bookshelves, toy storage)
• Basement guest room curtains
• Master bedroom bedframe (we put our old one in the guest room )
• Master bedroom curtains
• Master bedroom furniture (probably a bench for the end of the bed and a chaise lounge)
• Master bedroom light (it's roughed in, but we need a fixture)
• Asher room light
• Zahara room light
• Guest room curtains (bedroom and bathroom)
• Guest room nightstands
• Decor throughout the house (nothing is on the walls yet and it's starting to drive me crazy!)-
• Patio furniture --got chairs for fire pit, but still need something under the deck (lounge seating)
• Deck furniture
• Fire Pit

DIY Mirror Frame

I love our master bathroom. It's clean, airy and spacious. But, it was missing something. We have a huge builder-grade, wall-to-wall mirror. It bounces around tons of light, but I thought it would look nicer if it were framed. Frames for a mirror that size were cost prohibitive, and buying a new mirror seemed unnecessary, so I decided to make my own.

Before

I used the last remaining days before I went back to work to make this happen. Luckily my friend Dani was on maternity leave and was game to help me out. We headed to Home Depot to gather supplies.

There are a lot of great tutorials online already, so I won't try and recreate one here. I followed Blue Cricket Design's tutorial pretty closely. I'll just add in a couple of pointers. First, I used pre-primed moulding. It costs a little bit more, but I liked the decorative elements and it saved me time.

I grabbed a twelve-foot piece and cut it down to size myself. It took a while--so long, in fact that a contractor who kept offering to help me managed to practically cut down an entire forest while I was still cutting my first piece. But, sometimes the pride that comes with doing it yourself is worth the extra time and muscle pains.

After what felt like hours in Home Depot waiting for help with paint (long story...short version is that the perfect brown paint is really, really hard to come by), we headed back to my house. We used Dani's miter saw to cut the moulding into 45 degree angles to form the frame.

We diverged from the tutorial a little bit in the next step because my mirror had big plastic clips that would prevent the frame from sitting flush against the mirror. We measured the clips and used Dani's Dremel tool to notch etches in the two sides of the frame. Sidenote: how amazing is Dani? Woodworking while baby wearing? That's a truly modern woman.*

After taking the wood upstairs to make sure the cuts were accurate and the pieces fit together, we started painting. I painted the backs and fronts of the wood so bare wood wouldn't reflect in the mirror once hung.

When all three coats were dry, it was time to hang the frame. Here's where things didn't go so well. We followed the directions in the tutorial and used liquid nails to hang the wood. All the pieces fit perfectly together, but the painters tape was not enough to keep them from sliding town.

In the morning I caulked and painted the corners to make the seams less noticeable.

I don't love how the corners turned out, but overall I'm pretty happy with the outcome. The whole project only cost around $50. The biggest expense was for moulding, which came in at $33. 

For not very much money, and a little bit of effort, the room looks so much more finished. Hooray for fun DIY activities with good friends!

* All safety precautions were taken to ensure the baby was not harmed in any way. 

Zahara's New Play Kitchen

Dan and I were thinking about what to get Zahara for her second birthday, so naturally I turned to Pinterest for ideas. Play kitchens seemed to be popular, and having seen Zoey enthusiastically play with them at friends' houses, we knew it was the right choice for us.

At first I had all sorts of wild ideas about making a kitchen from old cabinets, or even from scraps of wood. Dan brought me to my senses and reminded me that I am no longer a spouse on sabbatical with endless free time. Instead, we decided to go for the middle ground between of store-bought and home-made: an IKEA hack.

IKEA sells a great play kitchen for a reasonable price. I loved the size and the various components, but I was not a fan of the look. I'm just not into that raw birch look.

Once again I turned to Pinterest to find examples of glammed-up IKEA Duktigs. I decided on white cabinets, a butcher-block counter, and a pop of color in the top bookshelves. I had a few of the supplies I needed, and gathered the rest at Home Depot.

Dan was out of town the week before Zahara's birthday, which meant I needed to work from home so I could do drop-offs and pick-ups for little Z. Since I wasn't spending two hours each day commuting, I actually had time during the day to work on this kitchen. It was perfect timing.

The first step in creating Zahara's custom kitchen was sanding all the raw pieces of wood with 150 grit sandpaper. I gave all sides a light sanding so that it would accept the paint more evenly.

I had a quart of paint color-matched to the IKEA white, using a recipe I found online. I gave each piece three very thin coats. After two coats I could still see a little bit of the raw wood peeking through, but after three it was perfect.

I used my leftover stain from the DIY ruler to make my butcher block. I love the warmth that the dark wood adds. Two coats were perfect to create this look.

After giving everything a few days to cure, Dan was home and it was time to assemble. We waited until the night before her birthday so she would wake up to a fun surprise. I know this sounds weird, but it's nights like these that really make me feel like a parent. Assembly didn't take too long, but staying up and putting together a surprise for the morning just feels like a classic play out of the parent playbook.

I mentioned before that I wanted to add a pop of color to the bookshelves. I waited until everything was assembled to measure out where to paint. Then I painted a couple of quick coats on what would become the two end cubbies.

We decked out the new kitchen with some adorable pots and pans and a 14-piece vegetable set, both from IKEA. Our friends helped stock the fridge with some play groceries (thanks Dani and Brian!).

I could not love this kitchen any more; it came out even better than I could have imagined. And for Zahara, it was love at first sight! It gives me such pleasure to watch her washing her veggies, making meals in her microwave, and cooking on the stove.

Pantry Door Makeover

A couple of weeks ago we went to Nick and Laura's house for brunch to see their new house. Nick, a former member of Spouses on Sabbatical, is no stranger to house projects, and Laura is pretty crafty too. They've put a lot of work into the house already and it looks great. One of my favorite features is the chalkboard calendar in the kitchen. When Dan saw it he asked if we could do something similar in our house. Another excuse to play with chalkboard paint? You don't have to ask me twice! It's not like I have a slight obsession or anything.*

This is a super simple project that is low cost, low time-commitment and makes a big impact. Here's what you'll need:

• Mini-roller and pan
• Rust-Oleum black chalkboard paint
• Painter's tape
• 2 inch brush
• 150 grit sandpaper
• Touch up paint for the door

The first thing to do is pick out a spot for your new chalkboard; I chose the outside of our pantry door. The door is basic builder-grade quality, but I like the framed out arch. If you have a plain door with no architectural features, consider making some. Use craft paper to create the shape you want your new chalkboard to be and use that as a template to give your chalkboard a little more character. Just tape the paper on the door and lightly trace with a pencil. Then place painter's tape on the outside of the lines and paint inside. 

If your door already has a natural frame like mine, place painter's tape on the outside edges. Press hard on the tape to ensure it has a good seal. Pay special attention around curves. I removed all the hardware from the door because the handle jutted into the area I needed to paint.

Next, lightly sand the surface to help the paint adhere better. I used 150 grit.

Gently mix the paint and pour a small amount into your pan. A little goes a long way, and you want thin, even coats. I did three coats and barely used 1/5 of the can. I let each coat dry for at least two hours before re-coating. 

First coat

Second coat

Remove your tape while the last coat is still wet. It helps to prevent paint from peeling off with the tape.

Third coat

I have to say I am a little disappointed with the ScotchBlue tape. My edges were not as crisp as I had hoped. The arch was actually terrible. I'm sure that is partly user error.

Hopefully you can skip this step, but after my last coat was dry I taped around the inside of my chalkboard to touch up the edges. This time I used Frog Tape and a 2 inch paintbrush.

The hardest part of this project came next: waiting for my chalkboard to cure. I waited three full days to make sure it had time to harden. Then it was ready for seasoning. This is a really important part of the process. Seasoning makes sure that you don't end up with ghost writing, where your writing is still visible after you erase it. I learned this the hard way from my mistake in my chalkboard platter.

To season your board, take a piece of chalk and rub it vertically, then horizontally all over the board. The goal is to get into every nook and cranny. This is a pretty dusty affair, and I went through a couple of pieces of chalk. When you're done coating the board, wipe away with a dry paper towel or cloth. If you want the board to look like new again, wait a few days and then use a damp (not wet) towel.

Now it's ready for the glorious art (ha!). I wanted a calendar up top and a place for Zoey to draw on bottom. I went to my best friend Pinterest for some inspiration and came up with this. I am pleased as punch with it and can't wait to update it every month. Hopefully I'll get better and more adventurous with my chalkboard art. I'll keep you posted!

I can't get over what a big impact it makes for less than $20! I am still building my supply stash back up after leaving some things in England so I pretty much had to buy everything for this project. I imagine most people will already have a lot of these supplies.

Budget breakdown:

• Wooster Pro Mini Roller Kit: $8.35
• Rust-Oleum Chalkboard Paint: $4.83 (scored at 50% off with a coupon)
• ScotchBlue Painter's Tape: $0 (already owned)
• 3M Pro Grade Precision Sandpaper in 150 grit: $3.97 
• 2 Inch Paint Brush: $0 (already owned)
• Latex paint: $0 (already owned)
• TOTAL SPENT: $17.15

* You'll tell me if this is starting to get out of hand, right? I can't help it. Chalkboards are so easy and fun!

Previous chalkboard projects:

Chalkboard Teapot

Chalkboard Platters

Making Tea Time Pretty

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Easy Upgrade