Bloggy Break

I tried to write this yesterday but as I began this post my computer had a near death experience. Perhaps that's a sign that I should just stop blogging?

So...I haven't blogged in awhile.

I have been meaning to. We have several small updates done and there are a couple rooms I haven't shared yet, I just haven't gotten around to it. We are both so burnt out. We're done. For 16 months (or so, I try not to think about it) our whole lives revolved around this house. It's been nice to just take a break and not have to worry about getting things done and to just be able to enjoy our home. That is after all the whole point of this whole thing, right?

I am starting to get antsy though. I want some things done around here. The problem with that is a) The Husband is not as eager as I am to get projects done and b) we live in a small town and whenever I get the motivation to start a project we can't find the materials locally. Stupid small towns. Oh and I guess the third and most important reason is that our business has really taken off. Right now making money trumps house projects. Go figure.

I am also losing steam. For the entire life of this blog there were things happening almost daily. That is no longer the case, nor do I want it to be. Our projects list is slowly dwindling down. Right now the list still seems long but they aren't going to be happening in 'rapid' (let's use that word loosely, ok?) succession like they were before. Which is fine, believe me, it is fine. I am all for things slowing down here and you know, actually having a life. This leaves me with a decision though. Do I just stop blogging all together? Do I do random blog posts here and there? Or do I branch out a bit with the blog and add some more topics? Or am I over thinking this? I am pretty sure the last one is the right answer. Who knows though, maybe one day it'll be BAM here's a cookie recipe. Your mind would be blown. Okay, probably not but I bet you'd crave cookies all day and thats almost the same thing. Almost.

So in short, I have no idea what the long term future of this blog is but I should have some updates soon.

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.