our casa

I remember telling my students that we were moving.  As a curious group of second graders they asked if they could see a picture of our new house.  I pulled one up for my kiddos and I remember several of them saying "It is very old and orange Mrs. G!"  Ha!  Gotta love kids!  

We saw the potential.  Our neighborhood was built in the 60's which meant big trees and we liked that the schools were within walking distance for our beans.

Here is the work we have done so far to our exterior....

When we moved in, the front yard consisted of a maple tree and old yews that lined the front windows. I quickly ripped out the yews by hand and got to work on designing the front beds.  Our front yard garden has been a labor of love for me. 

To cut costs we painted the shutters, front door, and garage doors.  My hubby installed new exterior lights while I spray painted the mailbox and added new house numbers.

We have dreams of one day adding architectural details to the exterior of our house.  I recently came across a cool design site called Plygem.com.  This site is geared towards homeowners who want to upgrade their exteriors by adding authentic period details that have been lost over the years.  They have great "green" options as well as a design studio that allows you to create samples for your home.  I am a SUCKER for bringing back the old!!!

                                              

Color trends for 2012

via Plygem.com



Just for funs!

via BHG and Pinterest

some kitchen details...

 kitchen idea board....

Good old Pinterest!  

Kitchen and living room before...

 The process.......

shaker style cabinets

I went through many whites to find one that was "soft"with not to many blue undertones.  We went with Benjamin Moore's Simply White and I couldn't be happier with it!

The floors are a distressed hickory.

After....

the reno part 1....

We have been in love with this house ever since we bought it almost 6 years ago.  With the birth of our 2 sweet beans and one more on the way we needed to do some hard thinking!

Should we stay or go???

We thought and thought and thought about our options and though this corky little house is by no means the biggest or easiest of floor plans we just could not say good-bye to it!

So comes ripping out walls, floors, ceiling, and windows to update our 1967 split to fit our growing needs and fam!    

Typical floor plan...living room opens to dining room.  The space solution for upstairs...make one big open concept living space.

Old dining room with my paint swatch art  on the walls.

Little door that leads to kitchen.

Another view of living room and front hall...excuse the mess...it was just about demo day.

Stairs to upstairs and stairs leading to downstairs family room.

Kitchen...

Another view....kitchen

Our lower level family room.  

Our lower level family room...The space solution...open up the wall to the basement so that we can see the kids playing.  Next add a mini mud-room in the existing nook between the basement and bathroom doors because this level is our garage access.    


And so it begins....

First floor opened up!  Holy Cow!

This is our new kitchen space.

Wall opened to the basement play area.

Front hall getting a face lift....

To be continued......

little details....vignettes and trays

I enjoy bringing my own artwork in to our home as much as I can.  Simple sketches can add nice backdrops for vignettes or wall groupings.  

I am drawn to organic images...i often sketch from what I see in nature.  



If your not up for sketching go to the library and check out some art history books.  Picasso and Cezzane are some good options.  Bring them to your local Kinko's or Staples and make an enlarged copy to frame. Just find something you dig and use your resources so you are not spending a fortune! 

Etsy also has some great priced sketches. Above is a fantastic example from the shop carambas ....check it out!


Some eye candy.......

examples via Pinterest and DecorPad