Living Room Makeover

When we first moved into our new house, the living room drove me batty. The far end of the room has a large brick fireplace. It made the room feel dark. It seemed like it was in a constant standoff with the tv for attention. And most importantly, it was not centered on the wall! Dude. Where's my symmetry?

No matter what I did, I just couldn't get the furniture arrangement to look right. So I did what all people of my generation do when faced with an epic dilemma. I turned to Google. Thus began many nights spent pouring over blogs, forums, and interior design websites. I learned new words like "focal point." I became embroiled in the fascinatingly divisive issue of tv placement over the fireplace versus tv placement not over the fireplace. Turns out this issue is as divisive as how to replace a roll of toilet paper (over or under?!). Basically, for a long, long time, furniture arrangement consumed me. It was the biggest and most pressing problem in my life (first world problems). I would wake up pondering the dauntingly unsolvable puzzle of where to put the couch and fall asleep arranging all my actual and nonexistent furniture in my head.

This is what I had to work with. 

Ew.

A big pile of ew. The ew was so great, I didn't even know where to begin. My furniture was (obviously) purchased to fit my old house and just didn't seem to work in the new place. At least not in a way that I could envision. Nothing seemed to fit. It was like an absurd and unwinnable game of furniture Tetris. 

My living room in it's awkward, teenage stage:

Hey living room, there's a pimple on your forehead. Oh nevermind. That's just a visually cumbersome couch. 

I was kind of stumped for a while so I decided to let go of furniture placement and do something bold. For several weeks I had played with the idea of white washing that dark brick. So I just went for it! It was scary at first. I mean, when you go white, you go white. You can't dip your toe in and test the waters. You have to put your big girl panties on and straight-up commit. 

I initially tried to white wash the brick using 50% paint and 50% water. I read so many "before and after" blog posts that made the whole process seem so easy. But it was much harder than the pictures showed (or I'm just unusually inept at white washing brick, which could totally be the case. I'll just add it to the list of other important things I cannot do, like roll my "r's," eat anchovies, and say "facetious"). After one coat of white wash, my fireplace just looked....weird. "Hey, I like your fireplace. Is it intentionally blotchy or did a giant seagull have explosive diarrhea in here?" So I ended up doing three coats of the white wash and in the end it just looked white. Next time, I'll just do my whole family (who had to listen to me complain about my sore painting hand and swear over my excessive paint spillage for five hours) a favor and I'll just paint it straight out of the can!

Pshhh. White wash. Whatevs. Sounds like something British people during their afternoon tea. 

With the painted fireplace under my belt, I decided to tackle the furniture placement one more time. Since we just bought a house and are a little strapped for cash, I wanted to make the furniture that we already have work as much as possible. With that goal in mind, I employed a couple interior designer "tips" that seemed to keep cropping up all over the internet. I was skeptical...but you know what? The tips actually worked! Internet - 1,000 bonus points!

1) Le Focal Point

First tip was to find the focal point of the room. Obviously that was the very large (and now bright white) fireplace. With the focal point in mind, I arranged the largest piece of furniture to face the focal point and then placed the rest of the furniture around that configuration. The best tip I read regarding furniture placement was to consider your furniture from two points- 1) facing the focal point and 2) from the entrance of the room. You want the room to look nice from these two perspectives. 

2) Take Out Your Competition 

If you have a room with a TV AND a fireplace, these two elements seem to want to compete. To solve this, you CAN put the tv above the fireplace. But that's typically not ideal tv-viewing height. You could put the tv on a completely different wall but your room may seem off-balance or as if it is lacking a focal point. I scoured and scoured the internet and the best solution I could find was to have the tv either built in next to the fireplace or placed at an angle. The fireplace can still be the focus but you can comfortably view tv while facing the focal point.

3) No Wallflower Furniture

The hardest tip for me to follow was to pull furniture away from the walls. Apparently shoving furniture against the wall is kind of a designer no-no. Ooops. That's what I've done basically my entire life. But I tried it and it actually worked! By bringing the furniture away from the wall and closer together, the entire room seemed cozier. I am now a huge fan of this tip.

4) I like Big Rugs (And I Cannot Lie)

All the interior design tips I read said that your rug should be large enough that at the front two legs of your furniture pieces (or at least the couch) are on top of the rug. This seemed weird to me. I always had my rug free floating in the middle of the room. But when I tried it, I found that this tip was golden. Eventually, I had to go buy a bigger rug. But I don't regret it in the tiniest bit!

And TA-DA! Here is the end result (ignore the blue garland).

It's not 100% complete. I still need to find some art to go on the other side of the TV to balance everything out and get rid of the empty wall space (who am I kidding, I probably won't touch it again for like ten years). But it's such a huge improvement over how it was before. It is now my favorite room in the house!

I LOVE IT!

(except technically, the green chair should be moved a little to the left and a little farther from the wall. STOP OCD. STOP IT!)

And this rug is ah-mazing. It's like laying on a bed of brand new stuffed animals. The blue color is pretty fun too. I want to roll around in it and eat fishy crackers. Cause that would be totally glamorous.

Tonight, I put on a fire and sprawled out all over the rug. I just couldn't help myself.

SO COZY~!

I envision many living room camp-outs in our future!

Or I can just put the kids to bed and roast marshmallows by myself. That way I don't have to share. And none of the marshmallows get burnt.

Playroom In Progress

One of the reasons we bought our new house is because it has a basement. And because it is a split level home, the basement is one and a HALF floors away from the kitchen/dinning room. In theory, the kids could play as loud and obnoxiously as they want and I wouldn't have to hear it.

Great plan, right?

Except the kids didn't ever go in the basement.

We had just doubled our square footage. Tripled the number of bathrooms (thereby increasing the odds that I could pee ALONE). And tripled the number of floors in our house. And yet, the kids followed me around the new house like a troupe of mesmerized ducklings.

Whenever I turned around, I'd be stepping on a child or knocking one over. You could find me sitting on the toilet with the door half open and 1.5 kids spilling onto the tiled bathroom floor. I'd walk into my closet to pick out an outfit, turn around and find that I was suddenly dressing to an audience. The kids would shoot hairbands back and forth across my face as I tried to flat iron my hair. I couldn't eat a single morsel without someone yelling, "What's that? I want one. I'm hungry too. Can I have one? Make me one!"

The kids never wanted to go to the basement to play. For them, being sent to the basement to play was equivalent to a timeout sentence. I seriously didn't get it. When I was a kid, I LOVED having a room devoted just to my toys. So what was the friggen deal? Turns out, the kids simply thought the basement was "creepy." I went down to survey the situation and decided that the piles of kids toys thrown haphazrdly around the room wasn't exactly inviting.

And that is how the Great Playroom Design Plan was born. This design is still in the midst of the implementation phase. But the room's as finished as it's going to be for a while. So I thought I could unveil our Playroom In Progress.

Prep work: applying the painter's tape. This is my least favorite part about painting but Jacob offered a decent amount of help.

The kids begged and begged to help. So I gave them a mini lesson in painting. They had so much fun painting that they keep offering (unhelpful) suggestions about new walls to paint around the house. I'm currently working on a Craigslist Ad to farm out their skills (read: noise) to other homes. ("Painters for hire. Free labor in exchange for a meal of fish crackers and apple slices. May follow you to the bathroom and belt out fart songs without warning").

Serious business. 

The finished blue walls. 

Then I sent the kids to bed, tuned the radio to catch the commentary at the end of that day's Seahawks game, opened a can of Diet Dr. Pepper, and got to work painting some clouds. These clouds have been brought to you by several viewings of "how to pain clouds" youtube videos (and maybe one or two funny cat videos for good measure and a much needed down time activity).

There is a closet in the basement. I have big plans for this closet. But for now, it's houses a kitchen playset that I found used on the internet. 

I played around with toy storage ideas for several day before finally settling on these book cases from Target with special storage cubes These shelves were SO easy to put together. And you don't need any extra tools. Well, you do need a drill to anchor it to the wall...which is why it remains unanchored. I'm too afraid to touch my husband's tools. If I used one and didn't put it back exactly the way he likes it, I could be blacklisted from ever touching his nice things ever again. (Note to self, buy own set a tools.)

And so...here is phase I of the playroom roll out. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. And the kids actually play down there now!!

New

Guess where I'm finally blogging from? The new home!

One week ago, we were packing all that we own into boxes. We dropped the kids off at my parents' house and were able to pack everything away in the space of one day.

I tried packing WITH the kids...but they weren't much help.

That night my husband and I slept on our mattress on the floor. Our last night in the old place was very much like our first night in that place eight years ago: just us, lots of boxes, empty space, and a mattress on the floor. The next day we filled a 15 foot U-Haul, a mini van, and a sedan with all our possessions (apparently compared to most five person families we do not own very much stuff- a tiny house is good for possession control), and drove away. Our last few moments as residents.

I said one wistful goodbye to the house where I became a wife, mom, and a lawyer (in that order). I have a love-hate relationship with that house. But ultimately it is a house of all my most precious memories from the last eight years: making a home with my new husband, our first fight over a towel being left on the floor, the first big purchase we made as a couple (a new couch), to bringing home all my babies, to opening the letter with the news I had passed the bar exam, game nights with friends, Halloween parties, birthday parties, seven Christmases (wow, that sounds like a lot), Jacob and Ryan taking their first steps. Everything. Everything happened right there.

This house saw me through so much joy and also brought me so much frustration. My memories are anchored to this cute, old, tiny, adorable, frustrating house. I love it so. I hate it so. I will miss the thought of it but I will not miss IT.

All these thoughts swam around in my brain as we were packing and loading boxes into the U-haul. But once we got on the road, it was impossible to dwell on the old house. I was moving towards a brand new adventure. And so, SO excited to make a home at the new place.

So, internet world, meet our new home.

It's not incredibly large, or fancy, or luxurious, or new. But it feels like ALL those things to us. When you are used to living in a 950 square foot home and sharing one bathroom with four males, EVERYTHING is impressive.

The numbers: this house was built in the 80's. It's a split-level home with 1,900 square feet and a two car garage. It's on .3 acres. Three bedrooms. Three toilets. But these numbers don't really do it justice. It has just been entirely remodeled on the inside. And it's in a wonderful location. It's one block away from high-bank waterfront homes. I hear there is a trail for beach access, although we haven't yet ventured that far. And the homes around us are filled with families and everyone is incredibly friendly.

Thursday evening, I pulled up into our driveway and within ten minutes our yard was filled with seven children (including mine) running and laughing and playing together. I sat on the steps with two neighbor moms and we chatted as the kids played. In less than one week at our new place we had what we never had in the eight years we lived at our old place. Sitting on the steps surrounded by new friendly faces and amid several hospitable offers of help, I realized how much we've been blessed. We hadn't just bought a home, we'd acquired a community.

Random photo of Ryan being silly

Jacob has been having a hard time adjusting to his new school. This threw us off guard because he absolutely loved Kindergarten and had no trouble starting school at an unfamiliar place last year. He had been crying at drop off every day and refused to take the bus to school. I finally made him take the bus Thursday morning. We walked down to the bus stop where we joined nearly a dozen other children and their parents. As the bus pulled up, Jacob backed away and started to get upset. He begged and begged me to drive him to school. Then the boy who lives two doors down (and who has since become his new best friend) walked up to Jacob and said, "Hey, you can sit with me." Reluctantly Jacob followed him onto the bus, looked back at me with tears in his eyes.

That broke my heart. But when I picked Jacob up after school he told me how much be loved the bus ride and his new friend. Friday morning, he hopped right onto the bus like an old pro. He's spent afternoons and evenings playing with his new friend ever since they met a couple days ago. The other day, his friend came over and brought us freshly laid eggs from their own chickens!

And the neighbors have already helped us build Train World in our basement

Although everyone's been very friendly and welcoming, the house doesn't quite feel like home yet. It still feels like we're camping. Or living in a vacation rental for the week. I wake up each morning, look around and exclaim to myself, "I actually LIVE here!"

There's just so much to be excited about. For example, the other night I washed my dishes in a real actual DISHWASHER! My dishes have never EVER been washed in a dishwasher before (and I'm having to re-learn how to load one of these suckers). I pulled them out to inspect them and just couldn't get over how sparkly and clean and warm they were. I pressed them to my face and delighted in the sensation of modern day conveniences (and then had to wash them all over again because I had just gotten them dirty again ....  but ..... DISHWASHER!).

I don't know if my dishes and I can handle all this pampering!

Also, my super generous father in law bought us a brand new washer and drier. You guys. These thing have LIGHTS and lots of fancy settings. And they are super quiet. Except for when the laundry is done at which point the drier SINGS. It SINGS. The first time I heard music coming from my drier I thought someone left their phone in their pants and all hell was about to break loose. Nope. Just the drier. Playing me a little tune to say that my clothes are dry and warm and waiting for me to press against my face.

Speaking of luxuries, I still walk into our bedroom, point at the master bathroom, and exclaim, "There's a BATHROOM in my BEDROOM!" This concept is so foreign and exciting to me. I have an entire sink just to myself! I can get up in the morning and take a shower without walking down a hallway or being barged in on by one of three males needing to take a dump during my lathering process.

Ok, here's the kicker....I can do my hair standing up in front of a mirror! In the last house, the only outlet in our only bathroom did not work. For eight long years, I did my hair and make up sitting on the floor in our bedroom in front of the mirror on our closet door. Who would have thought that having a working outlet in a bathroom would bring someone (in the first world) so much joy?!

Doing my hair standing UP!

And finally....it may be the middle of September and we may be boasting the hottest summer on record but I just could not go one week in the new house without enjoying one more new luxury- a wood burning fireplace! We didn't have any fireplace or wood stove at the old place and it's something I've always longed for on cold, grey days. So Wednesday night, the kids an I enjoyed marshmallows by a hand-built fire. I can't wait for our next gloomy, grey day. These are the types of days that I've always loved the best and, it just so happens, they are very abundant in the Seattle area.

SO COZY! BRING ON THE RAIN!

And last but not least, I've already discovered all the nearby McDonald's and ice cream parlors even thought I don't even know where the urgent care is (priorities!).

Celebrating long days of unpacking, school pick ups, and work with some Phish Food.

Closing Time!

We signed our closing papers for our new house today! It's official- we're moving! We pick up the keys tomorrow.

But closing on the house was only one tiny part of the day's excitement. I rushed out the door at 7am to deliver the two youngest to the babysitters while my husband took Jacob to school. An hour later I discovered, via text from my husband, that Jacob had cried again at drop off. On the drive to school he kept saying that he didn't feel good. As soon as they got to the classroom, he froze, covered his face, and started to cry. He choked out between sobs "I don't want to go to school."

20 miles away from Jacob's classroom, I sat at my desk while my heart broke for him. This is such unusual behavior. He's always loved school. He makes friends so easily. He excels in both reading and math. His teacher is young and very sweet. He loves to learn. So, why? I've tried to pry it out of him, I've subtly combed for clues. He is uncrackable. I have no idea why he gets so upset at the classroom doorway. I'm hoping this is just a short phase and he starts to love school again. (His new school is awesome).

I pushed my worries aside and got some work done. But right before my 2pm conference call, the babysitter called to say that Jon was puking again. I rushed through the conference call, packed my stuff and headed out to pick up the boys. My husband and I were supposed to meet our realtor at the new house at 3:30 to go over the inspection report. Stopping to pick up the kids had me pushing it really close. Somehow we got there only slightly late. We walked through the new house (omg, I'll have a dishwasher!!!) and then packed up the kids to our 4pm meeting with the title company to sign our closing documents.

We sat in the waiting room for twenty minutes and Jon was fussy the entire time. He was clearly tired and still not feeling well. He wailed and cried whenever I put him down. I tried my best to console him but it's kind of hard to hold a baby while you're wiping your three year old's butt, opening your three year old's snacks, and washing your three year old's hands.

They finally called us in to sign the closing documents and Jon decided it was not cool at all. He started to cry and fidget and squirm. I had the brilliant idea of giving him a lollipop to hold. He sucked on it just long enough to get it sticky and then he fidgeted and squirmed some more, this time with sticky hands, in my lap. Six hours later, I'm STILL trying to pull apart sticky strands of my own hair. I'm pretty sure my sweater can only be saved with dry cleaning. And Jon only stopped crying as he crawled out of my lap onto the table for the fifth time.

"Hey you got some important documents to sign? I can help with that!

We affixed our formal signatures to about 349 pieces of paper, emptied out our entire savings, and voila! New home! It's ours! And we will be eating hot dogs for the next three years. Except Ryan. He will be eating cold dogs. Because if I call them hot dogs, he refuses to eat them because (OBVIOUSLY) they are too hot.

After we signed our lives away, I took the two younger kids home while my husband picked up Jacob. Twenty minutes into the commute, and ten minutes from our home, I got a call from my husband. His car broke down. MULTIPLE EXPLETIVES. So I turned around and drove another 20 minutes to save them from the side of the road. When thirty minutes had passed and the tow truck had not arrived, we left for some fast food. As we were pulling into the Dairy Queen drive thru Jacob read their sign and corrected me, "Mom, it's NOT fast food. The sign even says." This proved to be very foretelling.

We waited behind several cars in the drive thru line only to find out when it was finally our turn that they only take cash. It took all I could muster not to throw a dirty diaper in frustration. We zipped out of line, got some cash, and returned to the back of the line once again. It took another thirty minutes to put in our order and get our food. Meanwhile we were trapped in a drive thru line with a crying baby, a hungry three year old, and a seven year old who asks too many questions. 

Eventually, we returned to our broken down dinosaur of a Subaru (it has almost 300K miles on it) and ate a luxurious lunch in our minivan in some random middle school parking lot. Another forty minutes and the tow truck had finally arrived. 

Because I'm totally insane, after we got home at 8pm and put the kids to bed (an hour long process), I spent the next 1.5 hours in the kitchen making tomorrow's dinner (it was supposed to be tonight's dinner and we were supposed to eat the leftovers tomorrow). Now I'm exhausted and my back hurts and I'm out of chocolate. 

But we did it! We bought a house! And Monday evening, I will be loading gazillion dishes into a DISHWASHER instead of scrubbing them all by hand. It's totally about the little things.