House Tour Part 1: Take Two

I know I haven't showed you guys the upstairs yet but  I wanted to show you how we've rearranged the downstairs.  As we get closer to "done" (if that is an achievable state) we'll start to focus on the upstairs.  

You can see what we did initially in house tour part 1.  After getting the rest of our furniture we had stored all over the east coast, we rearranged the downstairs rooms.

The new living room (former library):

The official dining room:

The entry way:

The future billiard room:

The kitchen has stayed the same:

We've also added some outdoor living space:

Roxy wanted to play while I was cleaning/making yogurt (pictured in one of the kitchen shots)/taking pictures for this post.

"Chase me!"

"Please?"

I chased her and then convinced her to hang out on the porch with me.

Homemade Pantry: Granola

This post is a bit of a misnomer.  Granola was on my list of things to start making at home and then I read the ingredient list of the Wegman's brand granola we get:

It is really pretty good.  I don't think I'd add soy lecithin if I were making it at home but otherwise I'm happy with what is in there.  So I will cross this off the list of things to make from scratch.

But as an update, I have continued to make yogurt at home.  So much that a couple of weeks ago when I knew I wouldn't get a chance, I picked some up at the grocery store and Kevin raised his eyebrows at me.

My favorite way to eat it is with some defrosted frozen berries, a bit of maple syrup, and granola.  It makes a good breakfast or snack.

Cleaning Strategy: Baskets

Having a clean house is different from having a neat house.  You can have a neat house and get away with it being dirty for longer than if it is cluttered.  Likewise, your house can be clean but it doesn't seem like it if there is stuff everywhere.  We're attempting to keep our house a bit neater, so it doesn't feel quite so messy.  Here is my new tactic: baskets.

Baskets for dog toys, baskets for blankets.

 Baskets for mail.

My mom made that basket, isn't it pretty?  I asked for a few more and she said no.  She made two baskets in her life (one for me and one for my sister) and she is done.

Baskets for dog gear and baskets for winter gear.  It is easy to pick stuff up and throw them in the basket, and once it is in there the house feels clean.  Let's see if we stick with it.

Gotcha Day 2013

We don't know any of our pets' actual birthdays, so we celebrate the day we got them ("gotcha day").  Kevin brought Roxy home eleven years ago, May 1, 2002 (well before I joined the family). We brought Kinsey home together April 24, 2009.  This year we decided to celebrate them together.  So Sunday they got a good walk in a nearby park, a toy, and a treat.  It was a good day for them.

We didn't want to leave Pippa out (even though we got her in September).  She got a treat and a toy too.  She's not always a third class citizen.

House Layout

Last weekend we went down to Philadelphia to pick up the last of the furniture that I stored at my sister's house when I moved to Alaska five years ago.  We got most of the stuff when I moved back East in 2010 but left my giant couch and a few other odds and ends.  My sister also generously gave me an antique couch our family friend Louise had given her, since it fits into our house so well.

Unfortunately, the L of the sectional was the wrong side to fit within the current configuration of our living room.  I didn't take a picture but here is how we've arranged it as a stop gap:

Yes, the tub is still in the living room.  Want to know where the rest of the bathroom fixtures are?  The sunroom:

A neighbor came over to introduce himself this weekend, one who actually used to own this house.  He made a comment along the lines of "I would love to see what you are doing to the house, I can see you are doing a lot of work."  I was curious as to what he meant since we haven't been doing a lot (yet) and the only thing I can think of is that he noticed the toilet through the window.  Great.

Anyway, back to the couch story.  The fact that the couch didn't quite fit in the living room got Kevin thinking outside the box.  He said, what if we used the now dining room as a living room and switched them?  Our plan for the dining room was to put a pool table in there instead of a dining table.  I took it another step and said, why don't we turn the library into the living room, keep the dining room as a dining room (we are using it more than we expected to) and use our now living room as the billiard room?  We don't need two living rooms.  We both love that room and we really aren't in there much. If we put the comfortable couch in there and the tv, we'd use it a lot more.

So that is our plan.  Right now the dining room has the couch and loveseat we were using (anyone want them? tell me now b/c they are going to habit for humanity restore this week).  The library also has Louise's antique couch - isn't it pretty?  It is heavy and I'm too nervous to attempt to take it up the stairs, so I'm waiting for one of our friends to come over to help.  Who is it going to be?

Kinsey and Pippa don't mind it is a mess right now, in fact, it makes for more interesting play.

I'll update you with some pictures of the after (hopefully shortly!).

Home ownership: a lesson learned

Our DIY bathroom remodel hit a snag.

Here are the before pictures.

Notice the weird floor that is half tile and half wood.  Our plan was to take down the wallpaper, take up the floors, put in ceramic tile floors and repaint a nicer color.  Easy right? Well we did take down the wallpaper and take up the floors before we hit a snag.  It seems like there was some water leaking through the back wall (we think through the window).  The lathe and part of the floor is pretty much rotten and we need to completely replace it.

We need to have a mason come in and make sure the brick is okay as well as figuring out the source of the water and fix it.  What was going to be an easy project turned into a major undertaking.

Meanwhile we have a bathtub in our living room and it looks like it will be staying for awhile.

We (and our friends) are making due.

I guess the lesson is to never expect something to be easy and fast (or inexpensive).