Master Bedroom

I know I said that I'd have an outdoor update for you but it's not quite ready yet. It's coming though, I promise!

The Husband finished one of his projects so now I can share the Master Bedroom with you. So far I think the Master Bedroom is tied with the Kitchen for my favourite space in the house.

I really should have made the bed better before taking these. 

We bought the bookcase for the reading corner from Ikea. It's the Billy Bookcase if anyone is wondering, I just painted the back panel yellow. I measured on our house plans what size of bookcase we needed. I didn't take into account the thickness of our baseboard so the bookcase didn't fit. Oops. My brother in law is a carpenter and he assured me that they do this sometimes when they measure too. I don't feel as bad about it now.

The Husband took about a half inch off the bookcase section so it would fit. It still needs something though....oh yeah, some books would probably be good there.

We want to add some handles to the doors to fancy them up a bit too. And like every other room in our house it needs.....area rugs. I bet you all were on the edge of your seats on that one. I also want to put something else in that corner where our initials are. They were from our wedding but I think they are too short for that space.

So that's our little retreat. I love it, it is so cozy and relaxing. Plus the bed is super comfy even if it needs a few more throw pillows.

Spare Bedroom

Yikes! It's been awhile since I posted. I have been waiting very impatiently for The Husband to finish up some projects around here so I can keep going with the house tour but the projects just don't seem to get done. Hint hint hubby.

Anyways, lets move on the Spare Room shall we?

Like pretty much every other room in our house it still needs some work. Mainly an area rug. I actually have wall art to go in this room but that's pretty far down on the project list right now.

I absolutely love the curtains in this room.

This is the wall art we have for this room:

Right now it's on the floor leaning against the wall. That look just isn't working for me. I am debating whether or not I should refinish an old headboard that we have for this room or hang these pictures behind the bed instead. I am thinking the headboard and the pictures would be too much. 

Now that I am looking at these pictures something needs to go above the chair too. Hmm....

P.S. I might actually have an outdoor update for you soon! 

Family Room

When we were working on the plans for our house I wanted a large Family Room. Not because I want a large family but because I wanted a space that could grow with us. I wanted the space to be flexible. I  didn't want a room that was just big enough for our furniture and the appropriate amount of space to sit in front of the TV.

Right now it's just me and The Husband (and our dog, Jack, of course) so we have the space behind the couch set up as a games area. Our office isn't set up yet so we also use this space to work sometimes.

I wanted this room to have a fun. casual vibe. So I opted to go for some fun colors mixed in with some fun prints.

This space still needs some work. Like area rugs, end tables, wall art, etc. We also have a few bigger projects that need to get done in here. The entertainment unit is one of them...

Or maybe we should just leave it like this?

We also want to put stone or tile around the fireplace. And if you haven't noticed, I am conveniently not showing you the other side of this room. Right now it's storage for our stair rail that is still in progress. I don't know what we are going to do over there yet. Right now I am thinking maybe a storage trunk would be neat. I don't know, I'll keep you posted though!

Where We Eat

I was originally going to title this post 'Dining Room', I am so creative, I know. But then I realized that I am not sure if we actually have a Dining Room or an Eat in Kitchen. Who decides these things anyways? Does it even matter? Clearly I am over thinking this.

In our old house we had a formal Dining Room and a Breakfast Nook. Where did we eat in that house? On the couch of course. The formal Dining Room was used maybe 3 times in the 4 years that we lived there, it just seemed too stuffy to eat in there. The Breakfast Nook was rarely used because it had a higher pub style table which we just didn't find comfortable. In this house we wanted a place for our dining room table but somewhere that was still casual, somewhere we'd feel comfortable eating everyday. I think we succeeded.

There needs to be an area rug in here, that table just looks lost right now. I want to put a console table against the wall to the right of the island and our island needs stools. Right now we are just using the extra dining chairs but the plan is to get some stools to go there. 

Side note: If you look closely you can tell that our stair rail isn't done yet, we started on it upstairs and it looks amazing so far. I can't wait to see what it looks like down here. 

Isn't my fall centrepiece fancy? Ha. The plan was to add some pinecones in the bowl. Then it snowed. I am not digging around in the snow for pinecones. My centrepiece is just going to have to deal with it.

Sitting Room

Now that we are pretty much all moved in I thought I'd share what our house looks like furnished and decorated. Technically we're not done decorating although, is anyone ever done decorating? We still need some wall art and other things here and there. I'll start with where we are now and I'll update you on any changes or updates we happen to make down the road.

You've already seen the Kitchen so I guess we'll move to the Sitting Room next. Our main floor is made up of the Kitchen, Dining Room, Front Entrance, Sitting Room, Pantry, Mud Room, and Laundry Room. The Kitchen, Dining Room, and Sitting Room are all open to each other.  When I show you the Dining Room I'll show some pictures of how those rooms work together.

We wanted more of a formal Sitting Room (we use the word formal pretty loosely around here) so that if we are hosting big family events people can be hanging out in the Sitting Room but still be close to the Kitchen and whoever is cooking in the kitchen. Considering that we are self employed we also wanted a comfy place to hold informal meetings without having our clients come into the areas of our home that we use more frequently.

Anyways, enough rambling. Let's move onto some pictures!

I would like to upgrade the coffee and end table at some point but these cheapie Ikea ones work for now. We also need to get something on those walls, I am just not sure what yet. I like how it is all coming together so far though!

Sources:

Wall Color: Benjamin Moore Cape May Cobblestone

Curtains: Sears

Coffee and End Table : Ikea

Area Rug: Rugs USA

Sofa and Chairs: Palliser

Lamps: HomeSense

Throw Pillows: Etsy Shop, Pickfair

Pretty Shiny Things and Some Backsplash

One of the last things we finished before moving in was the backsplash in the Kitchen. I didn't want to be cooking in there without the backsplash up and I didn't want to have to put the stove and hood vent in only to have to take them back out so we could do the backsplash.

I absolutely love how the backsplash in the kitchen turned out. We used a white subway tile in a brick pattern with a dark grey grout. Nothing earth shattering but I think it totally suits our kitchen.

Aren't our appliances so pretty and shiny? They are just a small step up from the ones in our camper. We ended up going with Electrolux appliances. Appliance shopping was hard. I really went back and forth on this decision. Originally I had wanted Electrolux but the I wasn't sure if buying a pricier appliance would be worth it in the long run. I figured that any appliance suite is going to be somewhat pricey so I might as well spend the money on something I love. I ended up getting them cheaper than we had budgeted for so it was a win win.

So far I love them. We had Thanksgiving here last weekend (Canada, eh) and they all did awesome. The dishwasher does a great job, our dishes literally sparkle when you take them plus it's super quiet. We ran it after Thanksgiving dinner and I don't think anyone even noticed it was running. The fridge is massive. It held all of our turkey day leftovers and there is still lots of room. If you've ever been to one of my family get togethers you'll know that that's really saying something. Plus it has this cool zone drawer that's like bonus space. We used it for our beverages. It held a dozen pepsi and I think two dozen beer. I don't know but there were a lot of drinks in there. The range has really been put to the test. So far it's cooked a pizza, 3 pies, a turkey, and our traditional breakfast dish. They all came out great. Well I didn't eat any pie but people went back for seconds or maybe thirds so it must have been good. Overall I am very satisfied with our appliance purchases.

I wonder what I should bake next...

Disclaimer: I am pretty sure Electrolux doesn't know that I exist. I was not compensated in any way, shape, or form to write this post. I just really like my appliances.

And We're In.

I haven't blogged in a while but I have a good excuse this time, we have been busy moving in! Two weeks ago I felt like we'd never get to move in and now look at where we are. We still aren't completely done, there are little details to finish up like the baseboard in the gym, the stair rail, the backsplash in the laundry room, and a few other odds and ends but it's enough that we can stop and catch our breath. We don't have to spend every waking moment tiling or dealing with trades or whatever else gets thrown at us that day. We can take our time and finish up the final details on our own time when we want to, not because we have to.

In the meantime, it is so nice being in the new house and being able to rest our heads here:

And the tiling continues...

Last week we finished the tile in the shower in the Master Bath. This was the biggest tile job we've tackled so far, actually it's most likely the biggest tile job we'll ever do. The Husband says if we ever want to re-tile we're hiring it out. So, I think it's pretty safe to say that we are both glad that this shower is done. We still have most of the grout left to do but at least the hard part is over.

We're still waiting for the glass company to come out and give us a quote for the shower doors. I am guessing it's going to be at least another month before we get shower doors in here.

The shower head was mounted a bit on the low side. I am not sure if our plumber had a momentary lapse in judgement or if it's the fixture we bought, or what happened there. In all honesty we're both short so we can both safely stand under the shower it just doesn't look right to us. We might get a different pipe to attach the shower head with, or maybe change out the shower head all together. I don't really see the big deal but The Husband is not impressed so I'll leave that up to him. I am just glad we have a shower, that you know, looks like a shower.

Now we just have the backsplash in the Kitchen and the Laundry Room left to do...

Electricity is Good.

Oh the things we take for granted in this day and age.

The electrician has been working on the house for the last week or so trying to get all of the final electrical work done. He has a bit more work to do but it is so nice to walk into a room and be able to have light with just the flick of a switch.

Our old house had ugly builder basic light fixtures so I was excited to get to pick out lights that we actually liked. I think my favourite fixtures are the kitchen pendants. I am not a fan of mini pendants but I was worried that picking a larger pendant would the away too much from the rest of the kitchen. We ended up going with West Elm's Industrial Pendant.

I think it's a pretty popular fixture but it fit what we were looking for. It's a fairly substantial size but the clear glass globe doesn't hide too much of the kitchen. I really like how it looks in our kitchen. I am not sure we hung the pendants at the right height though. To me they look like should be a bit higher. What do you think? Higher? Lower? Just right?  

Now if we could only get running water. Our plumber showed up for a whole 15 minutes today. At this rate we should have water by December.

Front Door Impressions

Our painter is officially done!! When he first started working on the house both The Husband and I really liked him. He was really picky and saw imperfections that we would have never noticed. That didn't last long though. The longer he was at our house the sloppier he got. You could tell that he was just over the project and wanted it to be done. I am going to be finishing up any paint touches up that need to be done at the end just so that we don't have to deal with him anymore.

The last job that the painter did for us was to stain our exterior doors. We have three. The front door, the door off the kitchen to what will be the deck, and the door from the family room which will eventually lead to a patio or a lower level of the deck. We really like how the front door turned out.

Before

After 

The outside of the front door

It's funny what a difference a few small changes can make.

The other two doors are a different story. They are a different wood finish, they are oak and the front door is fir. We didn't really realize the difference until they were stained. We would have preferred that they were all the same but at this point we aren't willing to take the time to see if that was our mistake and we missed the difference on the quote or if we were just shipped the wrong doors. It looks like the stain didn't take as well to the other two side doors as it did the front so they aren't quite the same color. Plus the painter did a sloppy job. Once we are moved in and have a bit more time we might try to touch up the stain ourselves or see if there was a mistake made by our door supplier. For now we are just going to live with it. They look okay during the day, it's at night when all the kitchen lights (yup, we have lights!! I'll be back to talk about those later) are on that they look the worst. They are slowly growing on me, they don't look nearly as bad as they did when we first picked them up. Maybe I'll eventually learn to love them or maybe we'll replace with a better quality door down the road. For right now we have doors and that's what really matters.

Door from the Kitchen to the not-yet-built deck

Check Out My Closet!

I am done painting the shelves in our walk in closet! After everything was taped and primed the process went a lot smoother. I love how it turned out. Our closet looks so bright and airy. I can't wait to put my clothes away now! Maybe the love for our new closet will help us keep our bedroom clean? Probably not.

View from the door

His Side

Her Side

Closet Island

The big drawer on the end of the island is going to be a bench. I am planning on making an upholstered seat for it, I just have to pick out some fabric for it. Right now these are the fabrics I am thinking about:

I like the robin's egg blue color, I am just not sure if it's enough contrast to the grey and white already in the closet. 

 I love all the color in this one but I think we'd get sick of it. It's almost too much.

This one is by far my favourite. I love the pattern, it's feminine but modern at the same time. I just can't decide if I want to go with a grey and white fabric in a grey and white room or if I should keep looking and find something with more color to it (but less color than the fabric sample above). Decisions, decisions. 

What's Cooking in Our Kitchen?

Cabinets and countertops, that's what.

Our cabinets were installed on June 21st and we were told that the countertops would take about 3 weeks. Well they were just installed on Monday. So according to my math (which could be wrong) they were only 6 weeks late. Better late than never, right?

Yes, that's a dishwasher!! It's kind of like one of the Price is Right models right now though. It looks pretty but it doesn't really do anything. We just put it in so the cabinet guys could see if they needed a filler strip, it's not hooked up yet.

Again, I apologize for the crappy iPhone pics. I promise when we move in I'll take some prettier pictures.

Rub A Dub Dub

We tiled a tub. Well the tub surround, not the actual tub. That would be weird. 

We still need to finish the bottom left corner because the plumber broke off a small corner of the tub when he was installing it so we need to repair that before we can finish tiling but that won't take very long so I am considering this job done! Minus the grout but we're going to wait until were done tiling the shower in our bathroom and then we'll do all the grout at once. 

Sh*tty Shelves

I know, I know, I haven't posted in a while. We've been busy with some big changes. I have a couple of little things to post about and then I have a couple of big, exciting posts coming up!! Yay, I can't wait to share them with you!

Anyways on to these sh*tty shelves. When the finishers were up we had them build some custom shelves in the pantry and the master walk in closet. Our original plan was to get the painter to paint them. As it turns out he didn't include the price of painting these in his original quote. So, guess who gets to paint them? Yup, that'd be me. As it turns out I hate HATE painting shelves. Especially these ones. We have built in shelves in the bedrooms that were a piece of cake to paint but these shelves are going to be the end of me. We had contemplated putting the same built-in shelves in all of the closets, I am so glad we decided against that.

Over the weekend I did all the prep work to paint the master closet shelves. I patched and sanded all the nail holes and taped the edges where the shelves meet the walls. I contemplated not taping at all but there are a lot of awkward corners and edges to paint around so I decided to play it safe.

These don't look like they would be that hard to paint and they aren't too bad until you get the shelves in the middle. The shelves look really thick but it's just a false front that helps hide the cleats that are supporting the shelves. It's a great idea until you have to paint under them. I really wish these would have been built differently but it's a bit late now. I foresee a few frustrating weekends ahead of me. I am sure once they are all painted and pretty I'll like them again but it's not going to be fun process.

I started priming and only got about halfway through The Husband's side before I gave up. Hopefully my next attempt goes a bit better.

His Side.

Her Side.

Anyone want to come help me paint?

Clifford, the Big Red Truck

Last Wednesday we had a special delivery:

A Big Red Truck, which I promptly named Clifford. What is this big red truck for, you ask? Well let me tell you. It's to drill for our geothermal heating system. How fun does that sound ?! Yeah, not really. 

For anyone who doesn't know what geothermal is I'll give you a brief summary of what I know about it (which isn't much to be totally honest with you). Basically you are using the temperature of the earth to heat and cool your house. In the summer if you go out and dig in the garden the soil that is a few inches deep is cool to the touch, which means that it is colder than the air around you. In the winter if you were to dig deeper than the frost line the earth is warmer than the air around you. When using geothermal you are using this to your advantage. To access the earth's natural heating and cooling system you drill deep into the ground (usually a couple hundred feet). Into the drilled holes you run a pipe that connects to heat pumps inside your house. You then continuously run water through those pipes. The heat pumps then, through energy transfer, convert the temperature of the water in the pipes into energy that is used to heat and cool your house. Pretty cool, hey? 

There are a few reasons why we wanted to go this route:

1) It's energy efficient and good for the environment.

2) No gas bill. Ever. Out here in the boonies we didn't have the utilities run to our lot so using geothermal eliminated the need to have a gas line run at all. 

3) To prove that it works. I am not sure if there is general skepticism around geothermal or if it's more the small town mentality where we live or the fact that we live quite a ways north but the majority of people we talk to seem to think that geothermal isn't going to work. I think we've even been laughed at a few times. 

We've been trying to get the drilling and trenching done for this since last fall but the weather (and the installer's schedule) has been working against us. We finally finished the drilling on Monday though:

Yes, it looks like a swamp pit right now. There are 12 holes, 5 inches in diameter, and 150 feet deep. It's so wet because you have to keep flushing out the drilled holes with water so that dirt doesn't get in the way when you are putting the pipe down. 

Toward the end of next week the installer is coming back to tie all the lines together and finish the install in the house. That means that I'll be able to have hot water. I can shower and do laundry in my own house!!  Oh, and it also means we won't freeze this winter. That's probably important too. 

Basement Flooring

Our initial plan for the flooring in the basement was to stain and seal the concrete. That didn't work out as planned (see here) so we had to come up with Plan B. We are only finishing part of the basement for now, a bathroom, the gym, and a small hallway. In the gym I am going to do a foam floor so we just needed to figure out what to do in the bathroom and the hallway. Our first thought was to paint it until we finished the rest of the basement but we couldn't decide on a color. The walls down there are grey so we didn't want to paint the floor grey too (prison cell, anyone?) and any other color seemed weird to us. Our next idea was to use linoleum. We went to the local flooring shop and picked out a few samples. We found one that we both liked (shocking, I know) and the price was right, so we went for it.

I don't have any progress pictures because a) I was always busy holding up one end of the flooring and b) installing linoleum is frustrating. Really. It's up there with the wallpaper.

It turned out really good though. The flooring we picked tied in the white from the trim, the grey from the walls, and the brown from the laminate. It's such a good match (color wise) to the laminate that they blend right in to each other. It's like home decor camouflage.

Anyways enough chit chat. Let's get to the pictures already.

It's a small space, so it wasn't a huge job but it's one more thing crossed off our list!