White Paper Packages Tied up with String

I had ordered a rug off of ebay last week and have been tracking its shipping status all week.  It was due to arrive today and when I got home from running some errands this morning, the status was marked as delivered.  

I looked all around the front door for it, the porch, both sides of the house…no rug. I checked the back door even though there's a tall fence in our back yard which is inaccessible from the outside.  No rug. I peeked around our neighbors' porches to see if it was mistakenly delivered there.  I checked the address online to make sure they delivered it to our home.  I initiated an online chat with UPS and called their customer service number (never did get the chance to speak to a human).  

WHERE'S MY RUG?!?!?!?!!?

I put my boots back on and wandered aimlessly around the yard.  Then I saw it: the UPS guy threw it over the back fence into a snowbank.  And, of course, the rug is wrapped entirely in white plastic, making it virtually impossible to see.

I picked it up and skipped gaily into the house. I can't be too mad at the UPS man.  He usually brings me good things.

I am always a little nervous about ordering things online without knowing exactly what the colors will be.  But as soon as I began opening it up, I loved it.

It adds a nice bit of funk to an otherwise very traditional looking room.     

I have big plans for this room!

                          

Laura Has Two Nervous Breakdowns! And Recovers.

After the past couple of days, I feel like I should lie down for a very long time.  Earlier this week, I had to strip a portion of the buffet so that we could stain it to match the new breakfast bar.

So, needless to say, I was a bit insecure about stripping the buffet for the following reasons:

a.) I have never stripped any piece of furniture in my life

b.) this buffet is a huge, hulking antique piece of furniture 

c.) I have no idea what I am doing

I read a couple of tutorials on Citristrip and took a deep breath. I can trust everything I read on the internet, right?  Surely these tutorials wouldn't steer me wrong?  

I spread the stripper on like frosting using a metal putty knife-like contraption. I left it sit for 3-4 hours and then began scraping it off.  It got most of the finish off, but I had to go around to different spots and do a bit of touch up.  The stripper left a residue, which is apparently common for gel strippers to do.  

After some sanding, it looked like this:

Pretty darn good.  

Now it was time to choose a stain.  We played around with a couple of colors.  I wanted a medium shade of walnut and chose a color that looked good with the veining on the countertop.

After staining, I liked the color.  However, as the day progressed it kept looking darker and darker to me. Because it's oak, the black really stuck in the grain of the wood and made it look almost charcoal-toned.  

Cue nervous breakdown #1. 

"Now what do I do?  I just stripped a section of 90 year old wood…can I strip the color off again, or would that wreck the wood?  It will take me forever to strip, sand and re-stain the breakfast bar and buffet.  I am such an idiot…how could I have chosen this color? You are an incompetent buffoon…" and so on.

The china cabinet was scheduled to come the following morning and I didn't know what to do.  The cabinet was supposed to be stained to match the countertop & buffet but I didn't like the color on those.  I figured the best approach would be to get the color nailed on the china cabinet and then tackle the color on the countertops, which meant a lot of pressure to get this right this time.      

The china cabinet arrived the next morning and it was beautiful!  But I still felt sick about choosing a color for it because I had obviously chosen poorly the day before.  And I still felt like an incompetent buffoon.

Our contractor put some danish oil on a piece of maple and I instantly loved it.  That  is the color I've been searching for.  

Beautiful.  

So long story short, we've been adding a danish oil with a yellow tint to the countertops to try to bring it closer to the color of the china cabinet.  We have two coats on it right now and I think it's as close as I am going to get, plus the added bonus of not having to strip and sand both surfaces down again.  Our contractor is a genius. 

After an eventful day, I decided to enjoy the simple pleasure of putting my plates away in the cabinet and admire its general splendor.  Cue nervous breakdown #2.  

The plates don't fit.  

I tried a different plate from a different set and it doesn't fit either.  I called our contractor and the cabinet was made 12" deep, not 13" like our upper cabinets.  The standard upper cabinet is 12" deep but our manufacturer makes inset cabinets like ours 13" deep to compensate for the inset.  I asked him what could we do….and he said we may have to scrap the cabinet.  

Luckily, this nervous breakdown was shorter.  I googled to see what the standard size dinner plate is and it ranges from 10-14", in case anyone out there wants to know.  Oh, sweet relief.  I can just buy new plates and all will be well.  I found a set at Target and will score them when they're on sale.  

I think I can say the kitchen is officially done!  

Pinterest Day

Once or twice a year, my pal Megan & I get together to create some of the things we've pinned on Pinterest.  It's nice to actually create some of the things we like in other people's homes and use them in our own.  What a fantastic concept!

I recovered an old bulletin board with a subtle chevron fabric and used some brass railheads from Hancock's.  I love the result!  This will eventually hang in our mudroom once that space gets finished up.

Megan used pages from a vintage book to craft a pennant out.  She penned "Noel" onto the pages and it now resides in her home on a mirror.  

She has way nicer penmanship than I.

I also made a noel sign (?) for our mantel.  I spray painted the N a glossy white, the E a metallic gold and wrapped the L in a twine.  

I also sprayed the bottom fourth of a vase in glossy white to add a bit more modern feel.  I think I need to add more white berries to the wreath, but I like how the mantel looks now:

It will hopefully look even better when I paint the funky yellow on the picture rail….

Celebrating

Greg & I took the two little kiddos to a new cafe in the third ward this past weekend to celebrate the one year anniversary of Luciana's adoption.

It was nice to think about the past year, how full and adventurous it's been.  We adopted Luciana, purchased and renovated our home and now we have Marielle: two kiddos and a new home all in a year!  

No wonder I needed coffee.  

It was a lovely morning. I hope you all had a great weekend as well.

                         

Tres

Marielle is three months old today.

She still has the furrowed brow, serious side of her but is showing a little more of her light-hearted side these past couple of weeks.  She also has a serious double chin.

Lots of improvements and finishing touches have been going on around here.

Remember the buffet?  

There was a space between the two cupboards where the old radiator used to be.  Because we switched from radiant to forced air, we decided to put a shelf in this space to put that space to work.  The carpenter put in the shelf today.

He pried the original baseboard off the back wall and moved it to the front.  It needs a good scrub-down, but I wanted to post this anyway (trying to keep it real here).

I'll likely use it to store cookbooks once I have it stained.  

We're also getting the fence put in this week.  We have the back fence in and the front fence will likely be built next week.  I felt awkward snapping photos of the crew while they were building it in the backyard so all the photos I have of the fence so far are "stalker shots" that I took of the progress through the window.  I'll post new fence photos next week.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

                                                                                                                       

Most Improved

We haven't done that much to the exterior of our home.  The biggest change, taking the boards off the windows, was actually free!  We also put on a new roof and one of our neighbors crafted two window boxes for the front of the house as a housewarming gift.  I also put a couple of perennials in the front bed and some stucco work is currently being done.

A couple of months ago, one of my neighbors handed me an application for our neighborhood's Most Improved Home contest.  I submitted the application, along with a photo of our home from the day we closed on it:

I also submitted some photos of our home from a couple of months ago, even though the stucco work hadn't been started.  

The contest was judged by a panel based on some unknown measure of awesomeness.  I received a letter this week indicating we had won 2nd place!  What a great surprise.

Although most of the work we've done in the house has been on the interior, it's nice to look back through the photos and see what a difference the little changes can make.  

It was so great to see the other winners' before & after photos as well.  Some people did some landscaping, others some painting, and others added water features or retaining walls.  Such a great idea….can we have an interior improvement contest as well?  If so, count me in!

Thank you to our neighborhood, BMO Harris Bank, Lowe's, and Bank Mutual for sponsoring this event!