let's go up

 yesterday, i showed you the lighting that we are replacing on the first floor,

let's talk about the second floor lighting ok? ok!

 

 

the picture above is not really about little O at the bottom but more about the light above him. again, it's not the greatest picture. maybe when we move in, i can take a better photo. for right now i am relying on the pictures i took before construction took place so sorry this is all i have peeps.

ok...back to my reason for showing this picture. the light in the hallway (both upstairs and downstairs) is really not bad. they (both upstairs and downstairs) are an antique brass fixture with a white glass shade. so i don't mind them. i think we might actually keep them. might. 

they do need a good cleaning since the are original but they remind me of this light fixture.

so we will see.

 

this is the upstairs bath. nothing really special about it. it's all white and eventually we are going to gut it. yes, i already have ideas on what i want to do in there but for now, we are touching up most of the eye sores. we had the mirror removed and that lovely horizontal fixture was taken down.

 honestly, i can't wait to remove that whole sink area...just looking at it drives me crazy but again..most of the eye sores are gone. so we bought a new mirror and two sconces for this bath that will hopefully help take your eyes off the lovely faux marble top.

 

in Oliver's room, there was only a ceiling fan with no light. so of course that had to come down.

i don't know about you but i have to have an ceiling fixture in a bedroom.

 

in the guest bedroom, i think the previous owner was a little conflicted on what he wanted. fan or light..well why not both. not sure if he had ever heard of a light kit on a fan. probably not right?

as you probably already guessed...they both were removed.

 

so now that  you've seen all the old fixtures..let's look a the new ones!

1. this is the new guest bedroom fixture...simple and clean. nuff said.

 

2. i love this light. it's for the laundry room. i found it after looking through the numerous Restoration Hardware catalogs i got in the mail. since there is an ceiling attic access in the small laundry room, we had to look for a wall sconce. we needed a fixture that would have a low profile, a metal finish and something that would not get easily broken if it one of us accidentally hit it while accessing the attic. perfect right?  

 

3. Oliver's bathroom is going to have a set of these sconces. i think they will be adorable..or at least i hope they will be! they are directional..again i love that in a bathroom. they are kind of boyish which is great for O but they aren't overly masculine so perfect for the guests too. 

 

4. you might remember me telling you about the Ikea light that we originally picked out for Oliver's room here. well we ended up with this smaller black fixture from World Market. honestly i think i've been under a rock. i haven't been to a WM in years! i had seen quite a few posts about all the new goods at WM and decided to check them out. i went on a shopping trip (by myself!) one Saturday and saw the fixture in person. i knew it would be perfect for his new room so i scooped it up! word of caution though...if you do get a light fixture from WM, don't forget to pick up a light kit! the lady who helped me get the pendant box down forgot to mention that the light kit was not included. oops!

 

So there is our lights for the second floor. tomorrow...they will be installed! eek..so excited!

just add a bulb.

 

not so much the case in our new house...add a bulb that is.

 

most of the fixtures at the new house are dated (circa 1982) or they are not quite our taste.

 

so we decided to replace a lot of them.  

others like hallway lights, we will replace those in the near future. 

  it's been a lot of fun picking out new fixtures but also a little stressful.

 i usually like to take my time when it comes to selections on my own house...

find things as i go and not so much all store bought.

 

 because we really want to have the new house pretty close to move in ready,

it meant a lot of the lights needed to be replaced...now. 

so i thought i would share with you what we selected for the first floor.

 

before i do that though, i wanna show you what we are replacing first.

 

should be fun..

 

above you can see the entry light, it's actually not hideous.

i really think it could be a great piece with a little tlc.

 since it's not quite the style we are going for, it's finding a new home. 

 

this is the dining room light. it isn't much of a keeper (nor was the carpet or the paneling).

so it's being replaced.

 

this breakfast room fixture was not the proper scale for the room

nor the style we like so it's a goner.

 

even though i have grown to love brass again,

i am not a big fan of this light that is in the future powder room.

 

this isn't the greatest picture of the master vanity light but honestly, this is the only picture i have.

 i guess the fixture was just so awful, i never felt the need to take a picture of it.

it's hard to tell in this picture what it looks like but picture a frosted horizontal glass

 light fixture with antique brass flowers.

 

still can't picture it, don't worry. it was ugly.

my contractor told me so. when i asked him to remove the mirror, he asked if i also wanted the fixture taken down. which i said yes fairly quickly and that made him tell me that in all the years he's been doing houses, he's never seen an uglier light then the one in our master bath. 

 

sweet!

 

good thing we are replacing it huh?! 

 

so let's talk about the good stuff...

 

out with the ugly and in with the pretty right?!

 

 

1. The breakfast room will get this antique black pendant from Schoolhouse Electric. i still need to find a breakfast table for the area but i plan on doing something like this. i love how classic this fixture looks and how awesome it will look with the new kitchen finishes.

 

2. The lovely master light that i just spoke about will be replaced with two of these antique pewter wall sconces. the vanity area is less then 4' wide and i love having a light on either side of my mirror when i am applying my makeup. the fact that these swivel is just pure bonus!  

so you ask what's wrong with a light above the mirror? well it tends to cast shadows on a face..like those horrible dark circles under our eyes..some of us actually have them and other don't but the light makes you think you do. tricky huh? i'd rather walk into the bathroom knowing that the circles under my eyes are real and not from the light above.

 

3. you all know about this light. i actually don't have a picture of the existing light in our master. it's just a socket with a bulb really..nothing special...but the new light is pretty darn special. you can read about it here.

 

4. ah...the entry light. b and i were shopping at Crate and Barrel weeks ago and this fixture had me at hello. it's the prettiest gun metal gray. i love that it isn't heavy looking and has a little whimsy to it.

 

5. you might remember this fixture from a previous post. we found our new dining room light while visiting one of our local antique stores. i can't wait to see this bad boy up and over my dining table!

 

6. the powder room light...ahh...i love this light. i had it pinned before we even bought the new house. i knew i wanted to use it some where and when the time came to select lights...

this was at the top of my list.

 

so there you have it..the first floor replacements. i will share tomorrow my second floor fixtures and it's has beens. :)

 

Happy Wednesday!

up to my elbows

in bubble wrap and boxes.

 

i am tired of packing..it's down to the things we use every day and those weird sized items that don't fit nicely into a box. those weird items....ugh they are giving me a headache.

 

we still have a ton of work to be done on the new house and i feel a little bit of anxiety coming on...

BUT

 i am keeping the faith..it will get done.

 

the lord got us this far!

 

no matter what..we will still be moving into the new house in less then 7 days!

 

so ready! :)

 

before i leave you...here are some progress pics..

 

old washer/dryer closet in kitchen and a stunned looking Oliver.

 

doors, flooring and base removed..

 

cabinets gone...beautiful new red oak floor installed!

i'm in love...i almost kept them natural looking!

 

but that red oak flooring was stained last week...and it looked amazing!

it still needs two more coats and some poly...but that first coat was enough to get us excited. 

 

but seeing the beautiful floors was short lived (for now). 

they had to cover them so that the remainder of the work could proceed. 

as you can see from the picture above...dry wall work was done last week.

 

(sorry for the blurry photo...my 2 year old assistant was

 running laps around me while i was taking this photo.)

the old railing was removed to prepare for the new painted/stained railing.

 

the kitchen counters were installed!

 

and since i am a "details" girl...

the baseboard was added late Friday afternoon.

 i love how trimwork transforms a room.

they trimmed around the vents rather then "notch" the baseboard.

 it looks so much cleaner this way.

 

last but not least...Sunday, the laundry tile was installed (not grouted, yet)!

 

Happy Monday...

friday foto

we've got one more week in the old house and just a couple more things to pack..

then it's off to the new house! 

yahoo!

b and i are chomping at the bit to get into our new house and get settled. 

living with mountains of boxes all around is not fun...but we can survive one more week. 

there is a lot of work scheduled for this weekend and i know come Monday, 

i will have more pictures to share with you! 

so excited.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

capture

 i had to take photos of my mother's day flowers that b and O gave me. 

they were mostly closed up when i got them on Sunday but today, 

they were open and just amazing!

 i wish i could have a yard filled with them! 

after i took a couple shots of the flowers, i called O over to come and see the flowers.

 i love capturing him experiencing something new. 

he's never really held a flower or touched a flower like this. 

it was sweet...he smelled one then he would touch a flower then two at a time, bend down and look at the water, come back up and smell the flowers again. 

there are days where my little guy looks so grown up to me and then there are moments like this above

 when i am able to freeze time and soak up the baby-ness that is still left. 

i will desperately miss those chubby cheeks when they are gone. 

i

my sweet boy has stolen my heart. 

gosh i love this boy so!

made to be a boy's momma

the other day at the new house, i had a couple of back to back appointments. There was the painter, then the contractor and then the countertop guy. so that mean O was there too. the flooring guys were working on the second floor and it was loud. there was an air gun, a compressor, a belt sander and lots of loud pounding going on which scared Oliver. he was really upset, very clingy and wanted to go home. so i tried to distract him while we waited for our appointments. 

there were little scrap pieces of hardwood laying around so i had O gather a bunch and we went to the only room that didn't have anyone working in it, the dining room. i had him line them up like a choo choo train and after awhile i had him stack the pieces of wood. when he got bored i then asked him to set them up on their side. O knocked a piece over which resulted in a domino effect...the rest all fell down. at first O was really upset and kept saying "oh no..oh NO!' over and over. he was really struggling with the noise and wanted to go home. sweet boy....but we had to stay. 

after i set them back up, i purposely knocked them down and said see..it's so fun! this got his attention and after a couple times of me setting them up for him to knock them right back down..i was getting giggles and "yays!". when the domino game wore off...he was back to being afraid of everything.

i had one more meeting left... so i built him a "ramp" with a "track" and pulled out a monster truck that i had stored in my purse. 

O squealed with delight and played with this until we had to go home for lunch. 

as O was playing with my handy contraption, i thought to myself with a big smile...

i am was made to be this boy's momma! 

oh nelson..

(all images above from decorpad)

remodelista

pinterest

i've been dreaming about having a George Nelson light fixture for years and years. 

i can finally say...i get to order one! 

all of the lighting in the new house needs to be replaced but the master bedroom really needs to be replaced because right now, there is just a bare bulb in a socket. 

uh not pretty. 

so i mentioned how i still loved the Nelson Ball lamp and b said..

"show me." so i did. i showed him the actual light and all these pictures for examples.

after seeing the pictures, he said "ok."

:)

i can not wait to see it hanging in our room. 

i just love each GN lamp softens a room not to mention multiple ones!

eek! 

so excited! 

weekend recap - a day late

this past weekend was all about the new house. 

we are two weeks out from 

operation - move in

b had been gone all week so when he got home on Friday, i was itching to show him all the progress that had been made to the new house...but i had to run a few errands and so did he. 

soooo after O's nap, we drove on over to our new hood (i so love this drive!) and we were wowed. 

the biggest item to be installed last week (and this weekend)...

the hardwood floors. 

(first floor)

oh were we...giddy!

 like two school girls!

ahem...i mean one school girl and an excited manly man. 

your welcome b.

wanna see a before and in progress stream of photos? 

me too...here we go...

before.

tile floor and baseboard removed.

florescent light removed...and four beautiful can lights installed. ahhhh!

oh my oh my...hardwood floors in the kitchen. whaaaaat? 

i'm in love..but still lots more to do in here. 

can not wait to see the countertops and backsplash tile put in this week!

even though the hardwood floors really were the wow factor...we loved seeing the plumbing rough-ins.

this will be our future powder room.

 pedestal sink on left with toilet on right. 

here is the before picture...

as you can see, this room used to be a vanity room. it was apart of our master bathroom but since there is another vanity room that you can't see on the other side of the tub/shower room, we felt confident we could work with just one vanity room. so we are turning this into a powder room for our guests. 

our contractor also was able to get the plumbing and electric we needed for the upstairs laundry closet/room-ish. 

so do you want to take another before and in progress journey with me..

great! 

before with door closed.

before with door open. this used to be the linen closet. lucky for us there is a 5' vanity in the bathroom across the hall that will give us tons of storage for towels and toiletries. 

here is that same closet with a new door opening, flooring removed and the back wall moved back taking part of the guest bedroom closet. this was all done so we could put a stackable washer and dryer upstairs. 

turns out, we will have some extra room for possible shelves. 

and here it is with the rough-ins...starting to look more and more like a laundry space!

before we left...i took a picture of Oliver and b in one of Oliver's closets. 

aren't they cute? 

love them!

on Saturday morning, we headed back over to the new house and b cleaned up the yard while O and i played with side walk chalk. 

the yard was a mess..and still needs a lot of work but just having the "grass" mowed and the driveway blown off did wonders. 

i LOVE this lamp. it's pretty awesome and would look better in our house of course. 

once we got home, i got cleaned up and headed to Stanton to pick up a fabric sample for a potential new sofa oh and to visit with my friend Alyssa who was working. i took a look around the store to see what was new and immediately fell for a pair of white ceramic lamps. i love the linen shade and the bulbous shape of the lamp. i really want a pair of lamps like these for the master bedroom...so these are going on the wish list. 

once i got home and O was up, we headed back to the new house to see what was finished.

we didn't stay long because we were all ready for dinner so we headed on over to our local sushi place. 

my boy loves him some miso soup (and so does his momma). 

this was the first time he "drank" from the bowl.

i love that little sly smile he gave me before slurping up the last drops of soup!

on sunday (Mother's Day), b took O to the park so that i could work on some drawings 

and have a little me time. 

i got two sweet cards from my boys and would have gotten one of these bad boys...

via

in the classic white finish...

BUT i told him not to...

at least not right now.

 i figure it's just one more box we will have to lug on over to the new house and really i won't open it up and use it until we are settled so why not wait.

you could say i have a present waiting for me whenever i'd like to go pick it up. 

maybe i should save it for a day when i really need a pick me up.

whatcha think...good plan?

i can't wait to start making some yummy goodies in it though..so who knows when i'll get it.

well that was our weekend...how was yours?