Simple Things

We moved into this house in 2001 and so it has all oak trim and woodwork, a lighter honey oak. It's nice, but not quite a current trend. It also has all brass doorknobs and brass trim on the fireplace. Last weekend we decided it can't be that difficult to just spray paint the gold parts of the fireplace, right? Right!

Before:

Before (both top and bottom trim was brass)

After:

After

The fireplace now looks like its always been trimmed in black and we'll probably tape and protect the glass and surround and spray the rest of the box to make it all look like new.  We should have done this years ago...when we started remodeling other areas of the house.  Next up, doorknob replacements! Slowly but surely!

I am a grown up with grown up furniture.

The furniture has arrived!

So, it was initially supposed to deliver July 11th I guess, but I was not aware of that. I find that a lot of the time if you don't call and ask, sometimes things just show up, or don't. In this case, they called to tell me the delivery date changed..even though I never had a date to start. Anyway. The new delivery date was July 25th. My birthday! Hooray! What's better than brand new furniture on your birthday. Nothing. Shhhh Nothing! They called to schedule and set it for between 745 and 945 in the morning. I went upstairs to get ready at 730 thinking I had 15 minutes (after working for about 45 minutes) and heard a truck pull up. Well. I guess I'll get furniture in my pajamas, smelling like waffles and NOT like toothpaste. Oh well. The kids were still asleep too, which was fine. I cleared a path and held the doors as necessary. After putting all our things away. This is what we have.

From the doorway

It is fantastic. We LOVE it.

From the door, straight in.

From my side of the bed, at the beautiful dresser and mirror

From the husband's side

My side of the bed

My favorite thing is my new nightstand. We've never had room for both of us to have a real nightstand until we moved into this house. Ten years ago. I've been using a homemade purple shelf thing for the last 16 years. It did the job, but wasn't pretty and didn't hold very much. The new nightstands - we each get our own - are beautiful, tall and fantastic.

My nightstand. My very own.

I love it so very much. This is my favorite part of it. I ordered some drawer organizers from Amazon and can't wait to find all the uses for them, in these drawers and all over my house.

My top drawer with a new organizer for my nail polishes.

We love it. We're grown ups. Adults with real furniture. The bed is super tall now also, which is both odd and awesome. I love a tall bed I guess. I've decided that if and when I find a beautiful comforter that I love as much as our old purple one, I'll buy it and go back to purple accents for this room. For now the brown and cream works really well. Now I need to decide on artwork and wall decor. I'm thinking three photos above the bed maybe, one of each kid and one of us (the husband and me). I'm going to take my time, so I get it right.

New Shower Door

The new shower door was just installed. It MAKES the bathroom. It looks so great, with clear views into and out of the shower, no obstructed view because of the stupid curtain. I love it. Have to wait to use it until the morning, but it looks FANTASTIC.

Thanks to Allied Glass for the door and install, great job, very friendly, highly recommended.

Out back

Last weekend we were trying to decide where to take the girls for dinner. We'd like to go to restaurants, but unless there's a kid menu and/or chicken in kid form, it's not a very safe bet. The husband mentioned he'd like to go to Outback and the 4yo heard him. Daddy, you can't eat out back!

Oh the things the children say.

In other good news, the master shower looks fantastic. I have pictures to show and such but I want to wait until the whole room is complete before I write it up with pictures. The shower was the biggest part, he tore out the old one and put in a new pan, new plumbing and tiled it up beautifully. There are niches for our shampoos and two showerheads. TWO showerheads. And enough room to turn around, do a dance AND shave my legs. I can't wait to use it. First we need to rip out the vanity, toilet, paint the walls, tile the floor, and install the new vanity and cabinet and pick out a toilet. THEN I'll have the whole story to tell. It's going to be awesome, though, I just know it.

Joy Dare: Day 24

Honestly, I give up on trying to do these regularly. I'll just do it when I get to it..and I'll be grateful when Jan. is over and it ends.

Three Things Blue

1. The accent color I intend to use in my soon to be remodeled master bathroom. The husband has been working really hard on it, and started cutting tile last night. The shower is going to be awesome. Twice as wide as before, clean, two shower heads, niches for our shampoos. So awesome. We'll also have a new vanity and sink and I think blue will be the perfect accent color to the brown tones of the rest of everything. I'll post about it, with pictures, when it's all done.
2. The sky. Even if the sun isn't out, I enjoy seeing the blue sky occasionally during the winter. Yesterday, not today.
3. Hmm. The ink in my pen is blue. I'm online all the time, my job is online, my friends, everything is online. But I still take notes on paper sometimes. I blame my children for my inability to remember things better so I make notes and keep written reminders of things. My favorite pen has blue ink. So..there.

Joy Dare: Day 23

3 gifts found in Christ

1. Eternal Life. John 3:16. Such a gimme for this list, but such an important one. Something I'm hoping my girls will grow to see the importance of.
2. Forgiveness? That feels hypocritical, but I think I've forgiven people, I just can't forget.
3. The perfect mate. It's pretty clear the husband is my perfect match, no matter what we both do to irritate each other. We're in sync 99% of the time and it's peaceful and blissful.

The master bathroom is getting to a point where I'm going to actually have to choose a paint color. Eeek!