DECOR8!

I would have to say that decorating is on my "top five" list of things I love.
That list would probably look something like this:

1. God
2. Husband
3. Family
4. Decorating
5. Baths

Hmm... there's no room for sushi in that list. Or friends. Or sushi with friends. Might have to tweak it a bit.

Anyhoo, here's a few more pics for ya! You could call this our "New House Tour."

{The Master Bedroom}

This mirror used to be gold, but I have a secret (or not so) love affair with spray paint and couldn't resist. I think the new dark teal colour is fabulous. Of course, the picture doesn't show the true colour. It looks black.


The bed. I guess I like throw pillows, because every chair and empty surface in my house has a pillow on it. The pillows on the bed are not complete yet. Mainly because I found what I thought to be a set of king sized shams at Ross. When I got them home, it was one sham. What a shame! I really like that sham! It was on clearance, so I called back at the store to try and locate the match. Nada. Tried another Ross nearby. Nada. Commenced searching online. Nada yet. But I will persist. I know it's kinda silly, but I just want one room to be finished! I did score on the shiny pillows in the foreground. I found two of those pretties at the GW for six bucks each. They still had the "Linens and Things" price tag on them. Can you believe they were marked at $39.99?

I've had my eye on these velvet shades at IKEA for a while now. Wasn't planning to buy orange. Wasn't about to pay thirty dollars for them either! But last visit to IKEA yielded great reward. We had a credit there and were able to get a few things. These shades had been clearanced down to $15! The orange ones wanted me to take them home, so, I snatched em right up.

This goofy fake palm tree has traveled from house to house with us. We shuffle it from room to room, hoping it will fit somewhere... but it may be time to say goodbye. Sniff.

The baby snuck into this photo. Love him!

This pillow is another score from the GW and, at first I thought it was UGLY. It kinda looks like someone's macrame' project from the 7o's. I tried to walk away, but I couldn't escape it. Now, in my room, it reminds me of the sun rising.

The seven year old (WHA?!) snuck into this photo. She is never far from the baby.

{The Living Room, Part 2}

My living room is slowly but surely feeling more put together. This arrangement is directly facing the front door. We painted the table and mirror to match. I had intended to hang that plastic chandelier in the girls room in our last house, but never did it. It had pink "crystals." I decided to unstring the pink crystals and spray paint them the same dark teal/peacock colour that I used in my room.

Dried hydrangeas from my Mom's yard. Glittery pumpkin from a sweet friend. I like bling!

A closer look. Again, the photo is not showing the true teal colour. Humpf!

Another sweet deal from IKEA... the rug. It was on clearance also, and for its size, it was a fabulous price. See the new pillows on the couch? They are actually a midnight blue and ONLY five bucks! I love deals! And pillows! We sold the blue swivel chairs and just threw some faux fur over some old wooden chairs from my grandparents. Not the most comfortable, but will do for now.

Pretty rug.

Another girlie snuck into my photo. This one has dimples! The silhouette in the background is my seven year old again. I love that she has stepped up and is now my dish washer!

I really debated about the rug because of this patterned loveseat. But after a day of doubting my creative eye, I decided I was gonna just go with it! Be bold! The colours are almost the same and the patterns complement each other. The pillow was made by my sweet sewing sis and I LOVE it! That mix of patterns is perfect, in my opinion. Pair a floral or organic pattern with stripes. It always looks good. In one of my design magazines recently, I read that every room should have one spot of black. Hmm... the black glitter pumpkin and my stripey pillow will do.

Thanks for joining me for another tour!

~christa jean

Wishies

Here is some more progress to report. We finally have the mirrors (remember when I found these bad boys for 5 bucks each?!) and light hung in our dining room. I have plans to paint this room still and I've decided to make it a bit dramatic! We've kept the wall color schemes quite neutral in this house. That way, I can add in pops of color with accessories and such. But, I say! (in me best British accent), have some fun with at least one room!

In this room, I aim to paint an almost a mermaid/emerald green on the top 3/4 of the walls and then add a board and batten molding look (inspired by Thrifty Decor Chick) to the bottom. My hubby even suggested painting the ceiling in the same green, only making it super glossy. He's got classy taste and we usually decorate well together, except, uhhhh, when we don't.

I am loving this IKEA light (always looks like a big dandelion wishie to me) that I've seen sooo many places and it's probably "so last season", but I don't care. It brings a sense of whimsy to this space that works well with the formal look of the crystal and mirrors. Oh, and by the way, I found those lamps in our local Re-Store, BEFORE they were even priced and placed for sale. Yup, I go snooping sometimes.

Okay, I wasn't really scrounging around in their store room. I just happened to be walking by and caught a glimpse and asked how much they would be. The nice sales man told me 9 dollars a piece. I said, "SOLD!" and promptly bought them. This was before I had a house or even had an idea what to do with them. The shades date them, unfortunately, so I'm keeping an eye out for some replacements.

I had plans to paint a design on the green in this room to make it look wall papered, but now I'm re-thinking that plan. Do you see why? The light makes shadows dance all over the walls. It is so fun! One day they are snowflakes, another day flowers. Today, I overheard the shadows referred to as large spiders. Ewww. My little guy calls them "fans" (he's obsessed with fans).

Anyhoo, here is my life in stages, friends.

~christa jean

Transforme

We have lived in our new house now for just over a month. In that span of time I've unloaded millions of boxes (more like 160 or something), while filling up more boxes for a G-sale. I've found that I kept too much stuff. Time to simplify!

I've also painted four rooms (with help!), ironed seven sets of curtains, organized (and re-organized) twenty kitchen drawers.

I have probably had a dozen meltdowns, mainly because, my house is in process.

Seems to be a sloooooow process.
Isn't that just like us? We are being changed from "glory to glory", only, I seem to be so impatient. I want it done NOW!

Take a tour with me through some of our house "process" and help me say "NO" to perfectionism.
Sweet little hutch we found on Craigslist. With my dishes here, I have more room for food in the kitchen! I have plans to paint the backdrop behind the dishes to make them pop. Gee, maybe that will happen by December.

This is the wall directly facing the front door. It's all jumbled right now, but once the mirror is hung, it will feel more put together. I'm thinkin' I will paint that table a funky color, like coral!

This is probably the first thing you see when you enter the house. I LOVE it, but haven't quite figured out how to arrange all the "tchotkes" or "neeners" or "knick knacks", whatevah you call 'em. I like that this gives the illusion of an entry way so that we don't just walk into the living room furniture.

Aaaannnnnd, then, there is the other area that you see when you walk through the door. These are the "last stand" of boxes. They were all hiding in the office/guest room/drum room, but we painted that room over the weekend and decided to put them right where I would pull my hair out every time I walked by. It's been working! The pile is half that now and, hey, I still have my hair.

I am fond of quaint conversation nooks. This is directly behind the cube shelf in our faux entry way. The fur is only temporary. I just draped them over the chairs because, dagnabit! I'm tired of them. They remind me of denim blue. If they don't sell on Craigs, they are going in the G-sale!

Not sure what to do with this corner and the beautiful antique, albeit, sad looking rocking chair. I soooooo wanna re-upholster it! But, I DO NOT want to attempt it on my own. I have some fabric I already like, if I could just find someone to do it for me, for, say $100. That would be stellar!

This funky little love seat was scored down in OR at the G.W. for a whopping 10 bucks! Not the most comfortable seat, but sassy all the same.

The lighting is off in this pic, but as you can see I have more blue "denim" in my living room than is acceptable. Although, I do still love the bones on this couch. I aim to keep it for as long as I can and just keep adding different pillows when the mood hits me. Hey, when the pillows are only 5 bucks (the blue ones), I think I can handle that!

Again, stinky lighting, but I'm trying to show you the panel curtains (which are only partly done) from IKEA.

Oh, so sweet garden stool, where to put you?!

I didn't take a picture of the whole living room because there were books and boxes still around. Drat, perfectionism! I loathe thee! But, you would be proud of me, I've actually had quite a few guests over, even in what feels to me to be barely organized chaos. That's progress, people!

Vintage inspired canisters that were super cheap at Tuesday Morning. I adore the crystalline blue soap that I found at fancy WINCO.

I think I like birds. They tend to pop up here and there in my house.

Hubby talked me into the curved shower curtain rods and I really love the look. They give you more arm room too! Towels scored on clearance at Tarjay.

And then there's me... trying so hard to figure out where to look that my eyes are going buggy and my smile is forced. Ah well, THIS is how big I am.


I'm supposed to just get bigger they say.


Two more months.


Now, if I could just get the baby room done!


~ christa jean

DWELL.

If I could list the number of houses that I've set my heart on since moving to Washington, it would be kinda funny. It's not an exorbitant amount, but it is an indicator of how fickle a heart can be.

There was that one house. A house right on the Puget Sound, with land and a chicken coop and a guest house. It was offered to us as a rental, but we were resisting the thought of renting for a short time and then having to move again when we found a more permanent place to abide (who likes to move their stuff and then move it all again?). That home passed us by.

The Victorian was, so I thought, the one for us. It was nestled right in downtown but still had some land. It had a brook running through one corner, a HUGE garden, a tree house, a shop, a green house, an attached guest cottage, and a chicken coop replete with chickens (do you sense a theme here?). But, alas. That house was out of our price range. Then there was the house that was on 2+ acres. It also had a bubbling brook running through the property. My heart leapt at the first sight of this property. I remembered all my fondest childhood memories of wading in the creek by our house, looking for crawdads and dreaming I was Diana, Anne's bosom buddy. All my dreams for owning land seemed to be coming to fruition in this piece of property.

The bridge over the brook. So Anne-of-Green-Gables-esque.
Views of farmland.

Cross over the brook and take a jaunt up to the barn.
The big barn with the chicken coop.

And here we go strolling back down to the house.

The house that was 3,700 square feet, people!

That didn't include two other outbuildings.

And then... the horror. When we walked through the house, we saw room after room that didn't make any sense. And some rooms undone. And three hallways in a row. What were they smoking?!


Even if we had been able to get the house for, say $100,000 (it was a foreclosure), we would have had to sink another huge chunk of time and money into re-modeling it. Which, on a sunny day, sounds like a fun idea. Seriously. We love to take the old and make it new.


But, if you'll remember with me, we have a baby due end of August. And four other munchkins who need to be loved and homeschooled. And then the remodeling idea doesn't sound so grand to me. Not at this time in my life.


Oh, how the wait has felt endless. Just when I thought I'd gotten to be pretty good at being patient, I find that I have a looooooooong way to go. Just when I thought the waiting was unbearable, I'd have to wait some more.


Yet, the promise still remained.

{The view off the front porch}

Then there was the house that we actually put an offer on. It was in a stellar neighborhood, had a circular driveway, two acres, and lovely arches inside.


The offer was refused.


And so, we waited more.

The ironic thing is that, somewhere in the middle of our wanderings, probably six to eight months ago, we were offered a house. The owners happen to be friends and they had bought it one year ago to fix up and sell. We walked through the house when it was just newly sheetrocked (is that even a word?) and thought it was cute and quaint, but too small a lot for us. And it was on a corner. With neighbors (gasp!) nearby. No chicken coop. No land with a brook to wade in. No space to roam and enjoy the quiet life.


So, we dismissed it.


A few months later, they asked us about it again and wondered if we would pray about it, because they had had us in mind when they bought it. We smiled and nodded, thinking "It was nice of you to think of us, but... we have bigger dreams to follow."


Shortly after that, I was soaking in the tub one night. That seems to be a place where I can clear my mind, and often, I am able to listen to that still, small voice. That still, small voice left an impression in my heart that we were to "take the Turner house". What? I must've heard wrong. But the impression wouldn't leave me. I also felt that I needed to hide that word in my heart and not say anything to my hubby, for the Lord would take care of his heart. But, I shared it with Carter (he pried it out of me!) and unfortunately, I missed the timing. He, well, let's just say, he had his eye on a bigger fish.


Then, time passed, and we put the offer on the house I mentioned before, the bigger fish.



The day the offer was refused, I suggested we take one more look at the Turner house (I call it that because it's on Turner Street). He agreed. That night we ran into the owner and in the course of conversation let him know that the other house we had been pursuing did not work out. He inquired if we had pondered the Turner house anymore. We said, yes, actually. He said that if we were at all interested, he would put our name in the paperwork with an exclusionary clause stating that we would not have to go through a realtor to purchase said home. And, oh yeah, the house was going on the market the next day.



Seemingly fortuitous timing, eh? Well, I don't think chance was involved in this.
The very next morning we ran into him again, at a gas station of all places. He told us that his wife was at the house that very moment cleaning it and that she would let us in.
So, we went and looked. It was like a brand new house.
The very next day, we started talking price. Two days later we put earnest money down. Now we just wait for the final papers to be processed.

Take a peek at what the house looked like one year ago.

Yeah, Wow. U.G.L.Y.

Take a peek at what it looks like now...

WHAT?!

Amazing.

It was built in 1947 and they were able to keep and restore the original wood floors.

It has five bedrooms and one bonus room. A nice and open kitchen which we've already bought an island for.


The bonus room.

They had to take the house all the way down to the studs, so it is essentially like a brand new house inside. As much as we love to move into a house and put our own fingerprint on it, this fact, that it is totally move-in ready, makes my heart happy.

There are still things I don't love about it, the yard for instance. The linoleum. Being on a corner. No formal dining area. But I can live with those things. I can live with the fact that we can afford this house and that it was meant for us.

Did I get my dream house? No, not yet. But there is still time, should the Lord tarry. We could build in three years if we wanted to. In all this time of waiting, we've learned how to save well. Something we were never good at before. Buying a parcel of land outright is now not an impossibility.

There's a line in a song that says, "So we never got to Paris and found the cafe of our dreams, but our table holds a whole world of memories. No, we never went to Venice and strolled the streets alone, but we built our worlds together and we got the best of both."

If we never get the house of our dreams, at least we have each other and we have a place to

DWELL.

~christa jean