Our House

Two years ago today, Zac and I got the keys to our first house. For three years we had been living in an apartment two blocks away from what would soon be our home. When we first started the search for a house we had no idea that it we would be lucky enough to find the perfect one so close by.

Since Zac and I moved in, we've made some changes; things that have made us love our home even more.

One of the first changes we made was to the coat closet in the foyer. When we moved in, it had an accordian style door, two shelves, and a hanging rod. That particular wall was painted green.

I saw a picture online of a mudroom style closet that I loved, so Zac and I started to revamp the coat closet. Zac removed the door, the shelves, and the hanging rod. We painted the inside of the closet a light shade of green while the walls got a few coats of a warm tan color. Zac built a padded bench to take the place of the lower shelf. We purchased three pillows and Zac made three more to be placed on the bench. After adding six hooks along a strip of trim, we finished the closet by adding a wall decal that reads "Breathe, you're home."

Another closet change took place in our office. We decided to transform our third bedroom into an office and since the room had more than one closet we decided to turn one of them into a large built in book case. This is what it looked like when we first moved in:

And this is how it looked after we removed the two sliding doors and added four shelves:

When we first moved in and people saw pictures of our formal sitting room, they thought that we were crazy. It was true, the room needed a lot of help. For starters each wall was a different color. The longest wall was tan, the smalled wall was red, and the third wall was a medium shade of green. What really threw the look of the room off was the dark black color of the fireplace.

Zac and I saw the potential and got to work picking out paint colors to fix the problem. We ended up with a rich, warm tan color. With all the walls sharing a color the room already felt bigger and more inviting. The room really lightened up with the final coats of white paint on the fireplace. After the wedding we plan to finish furnishing our larger living room space and this smaller room will become a sitting room.

The biggest change came in our kitchen. When we moved in the kitchen felt a little cave-ish. The stain on the cabinets was dark and the walls were painted a dark red. The only touches of light color were the white appliances.

You'll see from the photo below that we painted all of our cabinets white to lighten up the space. We also removed the cabinet hanging above the counter. Though we eliminated four cabinet spaces to place dishes it was well worth it to open up the room and create a nice flow from kitchen to informal dining and living spaces. (We repurposed the kitchen cabinets by hanging them in the garage and giving Zac more space to organize his tools.)

From a different point of view you can really see how that red color (and the green color on the larger living room wall in the background). The contrast of the red against the brown tile and dark cabinets really made the space feel small.

Though we don't love the brown tile countertops (which can also be found in all of our bathrooms) it hasn't been high on our priority list of changes to make. Eventually we'll change it out but for now we're working to highlight what we've got. Our new paint color really works with it rather than against it. The tan color of our walls compliments the tile well which makes the tile stick out less.

In the picture above you can see that the trim around the lighting is white. When we first moved in the trim was the same dark stain as the cabinets. (You can kind of see it in the photo below.) We gave the ceiling a fresh coat of white paint and then decided to paint the trim white, too. It did a lot to make the lighting less of a focal point and it no longer felt like the ceiling was going to close in on us.

Compared to the photo above our new kitchen (pictured below) is a much lighter, brighter space. That's not just because the photo is taken in the day with the blinds open. (I realize it's not the fairest of comparisons.)

The white paint on our fireplace, trim, kitchen ceiling, and cabinets have all done wonders to lighten up our space. We're really happy with the changes that we've made to the house, especially to the kitchen.

These pictures were all taken last summer. Since then we've made several more changes to the house including changing out the light fixtures downstairs, hanging up family pictures, and other decor changes. One of these days I'll have to post a video tour to show all of the fun things we've done.



Oh My Gourd Part 2

Time for a little update! About two weeks ago I filled you all in on our surprise compost pile plant life. (Click here to refresh your memory.)

Within a short period of time our compost pile had gone from looking like this:

To looking like this:

Recently, we noticed this bad boy had sprouted out from one of the vines.

We've been uncertain about what this bulging plant really is but just a few days ago we got our answer. The fruit of our plant has gotten much bigger in size and it has also begun to turn orange. We've got ourselves a pumpkin!

It turns out that the pumpkin seeds from last year's Halloween carvings are doing well in the compost pile. Not only has the pumpkin grown tremendously, but so has the plant that it has sprouted from. If you scroll up to the top of this post you can see what the plant looked like about a week and a half ago. Today the plant looks like this:

The walls of the compost pile have disappeared under a jungle of leaves. As much as we love to see that the pumpkin plant is thriving (especially in this summer heat) we will be pruning it back just a little so that it doesn't spill too far outside of the compost pile walls. Along with all the new leaves, we've spotted a lot of new flowers as well. Hopefully this will mean that we'll have a few more pumpkins growing as well.

For now we at least have one new pumpkin! Zac and I found this little guy growing on the ground just outside of the compost pile. We took this photo a few days ago when the new little pumpkin was the size of a baseball. Today the pumpkin is about the size of a child's small bouncy ball.

It's amazing how quickly they grow! Unfortunately, we don't think that these pumpkins will make it another three and a half months to become our carved jack 'o lanterns come Halloween. We hope that several more pumpkins will sprout up in time for the holiday celebration. It would be such a cool thing to be able to pick out our own pumpkin every year for Haloween. I'm sure that the future kiddos will have fun picking out their own pumpkins, watching them grow, carving them, and then putting them on display for all the other trick or treaters in the neighborhood.

In the meantime, Zac and I are excitedly awaiting the arrival of new pumpkins.....stay tuned!

Oh My Gourd!

Last summer, Zac and I thought that it would be nice to build a little compost area in our backyard. Now that we were no longer living in an apartment and had plenty of space outside, we could make it happen.

Zac removed the railroad ties that lined the length of the back fence and used them to construct a good sized compost bin. He filled it up with dirt that had been dug out of another part of our backyard (more details on that later), and we began to use our new compost pile regularly.

The majority of things that found their way to the compost pile included peelings from cucumbers, potatoes, bananas, zucchini, squash, oranges, etc. We also threw in grass trimmings, strawberry stems, watermelon rinds and our carved pumpkins after Halloween was over.  All in all our compost pile was working out just as we'd hoped. The railroad ties fit together nicely so we didn't have to worry about leakage of dirt through the walls of the bin. Plus Zac had constructed it along the fence furthest from the patio door which prevented us from being pestered by flies who found the compost pile to be their new hot spot.

A few months ago Zac and I started to notice a little plant growing in the middle of our compost pile. We had no idea what it was but we were curious to find out. Although we still used the compost pile for its original purpose, Zac also began to start watering the little plant that had sprouted up. As if it had grown overnight, our little plant had taken over the compost space and now it looks like this:

We were amazed at how big the plant had gotten in such a short amount of time. The leaves that are growing suggest that the plant is in the squash family. Zac and I started to think back on all of the things that we had thrown away in the compost pile that could have resulted in such a big plant. The very first thing that came to mind were the pumpkins that were tossed in at the beginning of November. Not only had we thrown in whole pumpkins but when we were carving them we disposed of their inner plant parts and threw those in the compost pile as well. Other thoughts on the potential result of this plant included squash, zucchini, and watermelon.

After the leaves filled in the entire bin the flowers started to bloom. Big, beautiful, yellow flowers started sprouting up all over the compost pile.

We also noticed a little fruit or veggie starting to grow. The first time we saw it, it was as small and green as a ripe lime.

Now it has grown to the size of a football. It seems to be the only one of its kind. Out of all the blooms on this plant this has been the only thing that has started to grow. From the coloring and shape our best bet is that we have a watermelon plant on our hands. No complaints from us there! We LOVE watermelon.

Perhaps soon we'll know for sure what this is.....we'll keep you updated.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

Last week while shopping around for a new bed for Jim, I stumbled upon this beautiful mirror at Marshall's.

For only $19.99 (down from $40.00) it seemed like a great deal for such a pretty mirror and I knew exactly where it would go. Recently Zac and I have been talking about putting a mirror on the wall behind the front door that faces the staircase. The wall is completely bare and it has needed a little something to give the space some character and say "people live here".

At first we were looking at something like this:

The hooks would add a bit of functionality to the mirror, giving us someplace to hang our keys. We realized however that since we come in through the garage door and not the front door (a fact that inspired Zac during his plans to propose to me back in January) having hooks by the front door wouldn't make much sense. In addition, Zac built a spot for our guests to hang their coats when they walk in so the hooks on the mirror probably wouldn't be used anyways. So in the end we decided that functionality could take a backseat to something that looked interesting and unique. The mirror from Marshall's seemed to fit the bill.

Zac and I both think that the mirror's style and size fit well in the space. The size of the mirror isn't too big that it dominates the space yet it's not too small that it get's lost on the wall. As for the color, I really like the way that the black finish pops against our choice of paint color. I have a tendency to paint everything white. I just love the crispness of white against other colors. As a result, while working on our house we have added a lot of white elements including painting all cabinets white, adding white trim to the bathroom mirrors, and building a white desk for our office. So, when I came home with this intricate black frame, Zac immediately assumed that I was going to whip out a can of white spray paint and go to town turning it into a white glossy ornament to adorn our wall. After putting it up against the wall I surprised us both by saying that I liked the mirror just as it was and that the black really made a statement against the paint. I think Zac was more excited about this news than he let on. The few black elements we have in our living room (the trim around the fireplace and the coffee and console tables) are his favorite pieces. I think perhaps the strong look of the black pieces gives a little masculinity to the room that I have made light and dainty with all the white. In any case, I see a few more black pieces being added to our space in the future.

This summer I hope to dedicate a few posts to our house and the changes we''ve made to it. Zac and I are both very proud of the work that we've done and excited about the potential our house still has to get even better. Every change we make gives our house a little more personality and makes us more and more excited to call this place home (if that's even possible).