Updates, It's been a while!
/It’s been a while since we’ve checked in over here on the blog. 2021 was A YEAR! On top of everything going on in the world we were neck deep in a new construction home build. Late summer we finally moved into the home we’ve been building since the end of 2019! We purchased some property out in the country and just as things were getting started the world went through a huge shift. Suffice to say, it was a difficult and arduous build. It was difficult at times to see ourselves ever living in it because it just seemed so endless. But it was so worth all of it. I have always enjoyed anything involving design and with this being our third (and hopefully last, at least for a long while) home build, I gladly took the reigns of designing it inside and out. I bounced most of my ideas off my husband (he had some great input) but essentially took most all the liberties. It was sometimes overwhelming but always fun to run through all the ideas I’ve been hoarding in my mind and design and decorate every square inch. Everything from the faucets, to the light fixtures, cabinetry, furniture pieces, tiles, flooring… everything, was well thought out and we’re feeling pretty good about it all. Below is a quick home tour, with long descriptions (sorry, it’s been a year!).
1. Our home looking so lovely with all the snow. It’s crazy how many shades of white paint we went through to end up with the same white as our last home. But if it works, it works, right?! I wanted to keep it simple. Having black windows, we decided to keep the contrasting trim to a minimum and then add natural wood where ever we could and continue to keep adding now.
2. The kitchen and dining space. Because of the open floor plan and everything being in eye-line, I wanted to keep it all minimal and cohesive without being too cold and boring. And because I am most comfortable and happy in spaces with not much color, we added lots of natural wood elements. I did this with our last home and really amped it up for this one. I love natural wood. I think I would live in a log cabin if I could. I had my eye on our dining table for a couple years and finally got hubby on board and it’s been outstanding. It also took a little convincing to get him on board with the pendants (he thought they would be too big, they absolutely are not) and the stools (he wanted backless but realized I was also right about getting ones with low backs so not to block the view). See… everything thought out. We built that slat wall ourselves and I can’t tell you how much I love it. I smile every time I walk by. It’s the perfect way to add loads of warmth to our black and white space without adding a slew of colors I would inevitably end up hating.
3. Our minimal kitchen. We went with a 6-burner stove and people kept telling me that I would never use all the burners but guess what? I use all of them. And I clean the stove-top after every single time I use it and it’s great. We opted for an extra large sink, just because I hand wash all of our dishes. It’s been so nice having the space to set them down and still have lots of room. I bought up a bunch of hardware to test out before committing and went simple with all pulls to keep hubby happy. I wanted to mix knobs and pulls but it worked out. The painted slab fronts keep it so easy to clean. A quick wipe and all sparkly again. White cabinetry is another thing people got on me about… “They’ll get dirty.” Correct, they will if you don’t clean them. But so will any other color.
4. Our kiddo’s bathroom. Over the moon about the green tile. We are taking that color element and pulling it into his bedroom - that is our next project. Because this is not a huge bathroom, we pushed out the bedroom next door to make space for floor to ceiling built-in cabinetry, which you can’t see from this angle.
5. We built this slat wall ourselves too. This one first actually. I wanted loads of natural wood to add warmth and to contrast all the white cabinetry. Since it’s a long hallway, it was the perfect place to add such a large wooden feature. Hubby was worried it would darken the space too much and I assured him it would actually brighten it up… and it did. It’s also a great conversation piece and I adore the wood on wood elements we have with the mirror and console table. Those are pieces from our last house which I based the stain color for the slats around.
6. Our bathroom. I love the mirrors. Those were such a great find. I scoured the stores and internet for a good year before finding them. So oversized and perfect. The sleek almost concrete-like feel of the floor tiles work so well with the handmade look of the white shower tiles. The 7 towel and robe hooks were amongst some of the first purchases I made for the house. Yes, I actually put a lot of time into finding the perfect ones. Every detail people.
7. Our shower. My dream. People gave me weird looks and I got a lots of “Umm are you sure?” when I told them what I wanted our shower to look like but of course I didn’t care. And look it turned out grand. You just walk in and every day I feel like I’m in a spa.
8. The living room with it’s vaulted ceiling and many windows overlooking our 5 acres. Not a single window treatment in the entire house. Got weird looks for that too when I repeatedly said no window treatments. We worked really hard to be able to be where we are and there is just no way I am going to cover up that view. Just no way. Sometimes hubby says he wants the blackout curtains up in our bedroom but I just tell him, “No. Not happening. Just put your eye mask on.” And it’s fine. The beautiful light that fills that room in the mornings is just too lovely to hide. Anyway, the living room is where we, as a family, spend most of our time. It’s spacious and comfortable and I love it. And probably once every week we each say what an amazing find (the best find) the swivel chairs were. I wanted swivel chairs so that one could sit and join the convo and/or watch TV and then be able to spin around and look out the windows. Another item I scoured the stores and internet to find. And funny enough, I found them while running errands with the kiddo. Wasn’t even looking for chairs. I saw it sitting there and I made a beeline right to it, sat down, spun around and around, and closed my eyes while I thought of ways to convince hubby to splurge on one of them. After the sale price went back to the full regular price, hubby finally agreed and said, “We’ll take two”. The sofa is from our last house. It was almost brand new when we moved. We love that thing too. We’ve had many and this is our all-time favorite.
1. Enjoying our first snow at the new house. Our land is slopey in a lot of spots so we had so much fun sledding around. I was hoping for more snow but we were thrilled to get what we got. I hate the rain but I love the snow.
2. Christmas with my family. I’m thinking this may be the first family photo of all of us plus the pups. Bennington (aka Benni) is our Maltese. And Indy is my sister’s Siberian Husky. She recently became 3-legged and is actually getting around so well. Proud of that girl.
3. Our kiddo turned 11 and it is blowing my mind. Since his birthday is so close to Christmas, he gets his birthday party 2 weeks prior. That’s generally with family and friends. This year we wrapped it up together with our housewarming so we had a big blowout party. Then on his actual birthday, he gets a day with just the 3 of us. He’s allergic to corn so he usually can’t have cake. Sometimes he eats it anyways and suffers the consequences, since it’s for a special occasion. But this year I found corn free cake mix and made him cupcakes! I don’t eat much sugar, almost none. And no, I don’t eat fake or alternative sugar in place of. I just don’t really eat it. But I took a bite, a big bite of these and whoa were they good!
4. Giving a home tour to my family. Hubby races dirt bikes so we have a few of them, including the little one in the back. Family took a few rides and it scares me every time someone does. Why? Because it looks little but almost everyone does an accidental wheelie from the sheer power of it. Sister showed up in heels but brought sneaks. I tell everyone, if you want to come over you better not wear heels… ankles can roll out here. Ankles have rolled out here.
5. A little roller coaster action at an old amusement park we hadn’t been to in years. We went with the family and just had the best time. Kiddo said it was one of his favorite summer days. Since we live in the Pacific Northwest, we have more gloomy and rainy days than we do sunny ones. So we try to take advantage of every speck of sunshine.
6. Enjoying some sunshine at the waterfront. They did a huge redo of the waterfront on the Washington side of the river some years ago. And this was the first time we went to see it. We had no idea how amazing it was and now we want to go there all the time.
7. Full-on embracing the country life. This was before our really thoughtful and generous neighbor installed hundreds of feet of drip line for our hundreds of newly planted Leland Cypress. This was when I was watering them with a hose that barely reached. Pulling hundreds of feet of farm house up and down the hill is quite the work out. And then section by section the hoses broke. At the end, I was running buckets of water up and down the hill, trying to save our poor trees from a really bad heat wave. I did this for weeks and gave up. A few trees started dying off and that’s when our neighbor down the way, decided he would save us and our trees. I should be thanking him every time I see him. Thank you!
8. Celebrating my birthday and Father’s Day at the waterfront. This was right before we moved and we were just so tired from all the stuff we had to do to get the house ready, we just needed a fun weekend. And we got it.
Thanks for all the continued support. We were taking the year off of social media for the shop to focus on the house build and for quality family time. And even with the lack of social media presence, we got so much love from all of you and please know that it never went unnoticed. Every order, every kind message, every shout out, every bit of it was much appreciated. Thanks for sticking with us and keeping us busy! Lots of new pieces coming now and later, so be sure to check back again soon. Love!!!
xo,