The Bathroom Remodel Begins

We have begun the official planning stages of the bathroom remodel! We plan to take you along for the ride, but figure it's going to be a few months before it's done. Here's the inspiration for our bathroom. You absolutely must go check out the blog that this photo belongs to. Chezerbey.com is complete modern eye candy.

A Great Find!

I came across this home tour on Apartment Therapy a while back and knew it would serve as major inspiration for our home. I especially loved the bedroom. I got right to work searching for two matching nightstands that would fit in our guest bedroom. I've been all over Craigslist and the mid century stores in Portland, but no luck. Today, while checking out all of the antique stores in wine country, with our good friends Rob and Amy (by the way, you must check out Amy's blog here), we found them!! Two matching nightstands. They're a little beat up, but solid wood, so it makes it super easy to clean up. They were originally $39 per piece, but we talked her down to $60 for both. Now all we need is some accessories and to make an upholstered headboard and we're all set!!

Dining Room Update

We have begun the very long tedious progress of finishing the living/dining room combo. This will be one of our biggest painting projects. Normally the accessorizing is saved to the end, but I just couldn't pass this guy up. I've been saving my groupons to Pistils Nursery on N. Mississippi Ave for awhile. I was hoping I could use the coupons to get me a few baby chicks, but I've lost that battle. Not only does Chris not want chickens, he pointed out the rules of our neighborhood says no farm animals. I'm still going to try my persuasive techniques though. Instead of live chicks, I went the live plant route and picked me up a nice big air plant. I figured we could use a little oxygen cleansing dude in our house and we came home with this... His name is T. Xerographica and he's a monster of an air plant. Generally you only have to mist them, but this one has to be soaked twice monthly. We put him in this cute tray that I stained, added some gray rocks, and he's done. I can breathe better already. And here's a shot of our half completed dining room. We have a number of things to finish:

1. paint the trim on the window (you can's see it, but it's still ugly brown)
2. hang floor to ceiling white curtain panels on the windows.
3. replace the white table top with a larger wood one to give some contrast to all the white.
4. hang a huge piece of artwork on the wall.
5. replace that horrifyingly ugly chandelier with this one:

Well, not this one exactly, since it retails for over $1100!!! But we have major plans for a DIY version that we'll post as soon as we tackle it. P.S. Isn't the photograph of the room gorgeous??!! That was shot from my amazingly talented hubby and there's almost no photoshop done to the photo...AMAZING!!

And It's Up!!

I am so proud that Chris' new website is up and running! Go check it out.

Its snowing!

This is the first time we have seen the house in the snow, I like it very much.

the kids have a snow day and are out having a snowball fight

This is our donkey. The previous owners were kind enough to leave him here for us, note the peg leg in the front.

Green!!

Town Meeting

We're those homeowners now. Yep the ones that go to town meetings. When you get an invitation in the mail that look like this how can you not? The fine print actually reads: You are receiving this open house invitation because your property has been included in the inventory as containing at least a portion of a tree grove. Surely you must believe we felt special, chosen if you will. We decided that since trees are overgrowing our property we should maybe find out what the Tree Grove Preservation Program was all about. You know, making sure if we cut one down we won't be thrown in jail...or maybe a tax incentive to keep the trees. So we headed down to City Hall planning for an entertaining night of arguments between loggers and tree huggers. We were quickly disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm shown by all. Turns out, nobody really seems to care about a tree unless you're subdividing the land. Thankfully we're not in the construction business so our trees are safe for now. They are currently looking pretty ugly... I have been told by the neighbors these are all producing fruit trees. We'll see...otherwise I'm getting out the axe! It's just too bad our town meetings are not more like this one

Jonathan Adler On a Budget

I love Jonathan Adler designs. His clean, modern home accessories makes my heart go pitter patter. Unfortunately, I cannot afford most (if any) of his stuff. Here's a few things I'm pining over currently: This beautiful table setting...at $70 a settingThis mirror...at $395 This adorable soap dish is actually in my price range...at $20I'm really wanting this white, clean lined, yet beautifully curvaceous lamp...at $695 I had resigned myself to only having Jonathan Adler lighting in my dreams, so went to the next best option: Goodwill of course. I wandered in there and found two of these hiding on the shelf for $6.99 a piece. Hmmm, I thought...clean lines, check....curvaceous, check....white, no check. What's a girl to do when she's almost got a Jonathan Adler impersonator in her midst? Spray paint it of course!!! And add a cheap-o IKEA shade for another $6. Not bad if I do say so myself.