Red Door

So I quit posting because I thought no one was reading. During the last couple of weeks, I keep getting comments on when I am going to update the blog. So here is my update. I promise to start updating a couple of times a week. I have lots to say...

When I was a little kid, we used to go to the East Coast every summer. One day, in Marble Head, Massachusetts, we walked by a house with a red door. I can still see it like it was yesterday. I decided that one day I would have a house with a red door. It's probably one of the reasons that my favorite color is red.

Anyway, for my 35th birthday, I asked for a red door and a window box. I've always wanted one of those also. Here's my warning. Yes! I know that my front door is ugly and dated. However, I am not getting a new front door until we add a front porch (more on that later). So, Chris had our existing front door painted red for me.

I LOVE IT! It's just what I always wanted. Let me say it now! I will always have a red front door. My parents bought me the window box. Isn't it the cutest! We're just trying to update the house on budget.

Hanging Pictures

I promised myself that when we moved, I would make sure that everything had a place. Right?!? I wasn't going to just "stick something in a drawer." If I couldn't find a proper place for it, then I didn't need it.

So, on September 1 we will have been our house for two months. I am still trying to find proper places. I haven't hung up many pictures. I don't want to just stick pictures on the wall. I want them to be hung there because I love them, and they are perfect. I think this is becoming a phobia - I can't find the "perfect place" so I don't hang anything at all. Maybe I should Google some therapy.

Anyway, this is what I have hung so far. An artist that I found on the Internet did the picture in 2006 to commemorate the birth of Alexandra. She was very honored when I asked her do a second picture after Christian was born. These two pictures are on the top of my list of "what to grab in case we must evacuate for a hurricane."


BTW, here is a picture of what the foyer looked like before...

We painted the wood white, took down the wallpaper and replaced the chandelier. I need to get a better picture of the after from this same vantage point.

Starting to Feel Like Home!

We've now been in the new house for six weeks. We keep wondering when it will quit being called "new house" and just be "our house." I have to say that it already feels so much like home.

We've had our first overnight guests! Friends from Dallas came a spent a long weekend with us. It was nice to see them and nice to finally feel like things are back to normal.

We keep getting the same question over and over again. Yes! We love having a pool. Chris will say that he loves it in the summer. I am not sure how I will feel about it after we can't swim in it anymore, but I LOVE OUR POOL! We often wonder what we did after dinner when we didn't have a pool. The kids love to eat supper and jump in for an hour swim before bedtime. Alexandra is now swimming on her own (NO FLOATIES!!!), and Christian is swimming very well in his Puddle Jumper (see the picture).

The kids begin school on September 1. I asked Alexandra how she would sum up our summer. Here's what she said, "Willie (that's our painter that has become a part of our family), swimming, saying goodbye to my room, unpacking and corpse flower."

16 Days...

We have now been in the house 16 days. However, it feels like we have lived here forever (except for the boxes everywhere). Here are a few of our observations...

1. This house is so quiet. Literally, we marvel that we can't hear each other. Christian can be crying in his room, and I can't hear him. I have to carry his monitor with me. The walls are very insulated, and this house is wide and not very deep.

2. The dogs are much better behaved. Now, we could still be in the honeymoon period, but it has been nice. We had a few friends over to go swimming the other night. The dogs actually didn't bark, try to run away or steal food. It was shocking!

3. The front door faces south so we do not get any direct sunlight in the house. This was very bad when we bought the house. It was so dark! However, a fresh coat has paint has made it light and airy. You don't seem to notice that there is no sunlight spilling in the windows. In fact, I think it makes it feel rather cozy.

4. THE POOL! Wow! We are so enjoying it. We try to swim everyday even if it isn't for long periods of time. Christian is jumping off the side and trying to swim. Alexandra can go anywhere with her floaties on. Jack has even given the pool a try.

5. The first bath that I took in my "new" bathtub was such a surreal experience. The previous two families that owned our home were pregnant while they lived here. I climbed into the bath and laid there remembering how I felt pregnant right before I gave birth. I wondered if the PHOs felt the same way and worried about their children and dreamed of their futures all in this bathtub. I like to think that they did. That those Moms have left their positive energy in our home.

I promise to start doing frequent posts now that we are more settled. I have so great pictures to share so stay tuned...

We're Moving

I'm sorry that I haven't posted anything new in a long time. We are in the process of moving. Movers officially come on Friday. We are so busy that all we do is pack and unpack. I promise to post some new pictures soon. Don't give up on us :-)

Movie Room

The picture on the top is before. The picture on the bottom is after. So, here is what we did. We, first of all, painted the door leading into the room white (you can see the brown door very clearly in the before picture). We painted the walls Sherwin Williams color Rain to make the walls less reflective of light. We also painted the ceiling Sherwin Williams Top Sail. It was two colors lighter on the paint chip. This is to take the glare off of the white ceiling. That's it! This room is ready for Chris to move his couch and TV in.

Master Bedroom

There is really not much to say about the master bedroom. When we purchased our home, it was our least favorite room. First of all, it was dark. There are so many trees outside that there isn't a lot of natural light. Second of all, the PHO had painted the walls antique lace (light shade of yellow) over the wallpaper that you see in the above picture. Third of all, when they added the room above (Chris' media room and office), they dropped the ceiling to eight feet. We started calling our bedroom the tomb.

Here is a good picture of what antique lace looks like. I immediately started putting wall color samples to see what we were going to do with the tomb. What I quickly realized was that the yellow walls were killing my color samples. Yellow is such a strong color that you can't really tell what a color is going to look like in the room. So, two days into this project, I had a mild panic attack. Here is a little bit of what it consisted of... "I have to live 18 years in a tomb. Buying this house is the worst idea that I have ever had. Maybe I can just sleep in the movie room because I really like that room." Then, Chris (the non decorator) had a moment of genius. He said, "let's just paint the walls white." That got me thinking...Here is a sneak peek at what I decided to do. The wall our bed is going on is painted Robin's Nest. It is the most beautiful shade of aqua that I have ever seen. The other three walls are Steamed Milk. They are a great shade of white with grey undertones. On the wall opposite the blue wall, I am going to do a mural just using the blue paint. I can finally see my vision in my head coming to fruition, and I couldn't be more excited. I no longer feel that my bedroom is the tomb. It is going to be my sanctuary, and I love what it is becoming.