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31 days of Savoring Home: Day 3 Leigh’s home!

Posted by Kristen on Oct 3, 2012 in 31 Days of Savoring Home, House and Home | 4 comments

Today you all get the treat of peeking in one of my bestest friends Leigh’s place. We have known each other since junior high. She and her hubby were in Germany when we were in Switzerland our first year so we spent many weekends crisscrossing the border thrifting, sipping gluwein and making holidays abroad much more like home! She talked me into one of my most expensive thrift store purchases in Switzerland and I am so glad she did! She currently lives in Waco, Texas with her husband Bo and her sweeties, Katy Jo and Annabelle. When I asked Leigh to share about her home I had so many spaces in mind that I hoped she would share!! And she did!

Here is what Leigh has to say about her home…

Actually my favorite room in the house is not a room it’s just a certain area in my living room (amidst all the craziness of kid toys and scattered laundry). I love my over-sized Ikea chair. It gets the perfect light, its close to the TV, and it has a really comfortable ottoman too. Not to mention, I have two beautiful quilts on it making it even more special. The teal and pink quilt was a wedding gift to my parents (not sure how I got it… shh) and the other quilt was a recent estate sale find. So fun. I love to curl up and read in this chair plus I can occasionally be found sitting here watching my guilty pleasure, Real Housewives of New York City. Its the best spot in the whole house. It feels like home because I’ve decorated around it. The quilts, of course, spruce it up. And right next to it, I have a large side table with a growing collection of photos of family and friends. I even starting stuffing favorite snap shots underneath the glass cover of the table, after my mother’s suggestion. The fun olive green pillow was made by my mother in law.

While my parents were visiting they too added special touches to my home. My mom worked fervently on this beautiful wall display of my antique plates. It really pulls our little eating area together.

Then, in my girls’ room my dad built them the coolest book ledges ever. We have received many compliments on these ledges and Katy Jo enjoys them immensely.

Finally, my bed (our bed)… a great big king size bed with a perfectly simple cream colored bedspread. My dad also hung this old turquoise door for us. I think it adds just the right amount of color to our white bedroom. Even though our master bedroom is quite sparse, I really like it and it feels like home, primarily because I used mismatches pieces I already had or found for cheap at garage sales. I didn’t just go out and buy stuff at Target. I worked hard to use what I already had plus revamping what I could buy for cheap. Bo’s nightstand was a $5 dollar find that I painted and changed out the knobs. My nightstand was a handy me down piece I received from my Aunt Jan (which she got at Pinecrest Camp in Arkansas). And I absolutely love our family photos above the bed!

I really love my home!

I love Leigh’s use of vintage shabby chic stuff! I love that she hunts for her treasures and mixes and matches! Thanks for sharing, friend! And I am for sure itching to hop on a plane!

31 days of Savoring Home: Day 2 Kitchen before!

Posted by Kristen on Oct 2, 2012 in 31 Days of Savoring Home, House and Home | 4 comments

When we decided to venture into this foreclosure the drawbacks were the kitchen and the bedroom situation. The kitchen was a traditional gally kitchen with the sink, dishwasher, and oven all on one small wall with very minimal counter space and a door at the end of the “aisle” meaning it was going to be our main little boy traffic zone from the backyard. We originally considered a big renovation, adding another bedroom and bath but decided our money was best spent hiring someone to help us redo the kitchen. And although we are still pining for an extra room we are loving the kitchen and so glad we expanded it!

(on a completely unrelated note, it looks like Seth was thinking about escaping to Spain (based on the book above) while he was doing the house inspection…..geesh that was a stressful time. So glad he didn’t leave us and go to Spain)

So…….I dreamed and pinned and researched and drew. We eventually decided the best plan would be to remove the door and put in a window in it’s place. We knocked out a wall between the dining room and kitchen to open up the space and added a counter top for serving, ~~homework and junk mail~~ important papers, and just extra space in general. We added the window in the place of the door so that I could see the boys in the backyard while washing dishes and working in the kitchen. And to minimize the traffic zone through the kitchen from the back door. The window is one of my favorite things about the kitchen!

For the backsplash I chose a faux metal tile from Lowe’s. My original plan was the paint it and distress it but in the end I have really liked the mix of finishes and I am holding off on changing it up. For the paint we had to go with the same paint as the living room and dining room because the rooms are all connected. We went with Timothy Hay from the Martha Stewart line at Home Depot. We are really pleased with how it turned out and ties the spaces together.

Martha Stewart- Timothy Hay (it looks much more cheery in person. And it is for sure more accurate in the pictures.)

We utilized the original cabinets and had them repainted to match the drawers and additional cabinets that we added. We updated the hardware with brushed oiled bronze hardware from Home Depot to compliment the faucet (Moen also from Home Depot). We added molding above the cabinets to make the cabinets go up to the ceiling and to match the rest of the rooms.

Because of the limited cabinet storage space we also had our contractor build open shelving around the sink. I wanted these shelves to be practical to store things that we use on a regular basis like snacks and fruit but also wanted some pretties. My favorite things on the shelves are the old tins, my special sign made by my friend Jennifer (you will get to hear about her home soon!) and my Green Gate cups…these are mommy only cups! I see lots of Swiss hot chocolate in their future.

None of the appliances worked so we looked around for scratch and dent sales. We decided for resale value to go for the stainless steal which was a huge splurge. I still laugh when I look at our fridge. After our mini fridge in Switzerland it seems comical that we could even manage to even use part of it…but somehow we do. We went with a double oven and I am so glad we did! It comes in handy so often when I am cooking dinner and doing baking projects with the kids. On Saturday we made homemade pizzas with some family and we were able to cook 4 pizzas at once! The oven for me, along with all of the appliances were a pleasant surprise. With all of the decisions to make I left the appliances to Seth. I knew he would stick to our budget and I knew in the end whatever we got would do the job. But what he got exceeded my expectations. I didn’t even review what he ordered I just saw them when I came and they were in. Great job, Seth!

We went with Santa Cecilia granite counter tops. I initially wanted a smaller grain, if that’s what it’s called. So the counter tops didn’t turn out exactly like I wanted but I love that I can set hot things on them, they hide the spots and spills a little better and they are just so durable with kids.

For the floor we chose a tile with a tweed texture look to it. I loved the added texture and wanted to bring out the warmth of the creams and taupe from the counter tops.

So, there you have it! The kitchen. Let me know if I forgot anything!

I mentioned before that the appliances were a pleasant surprise but I really must say that the whole kitchen feels like a big fat gift. Seth has known for a while that I wanted a place of our own and the Foreign Service lifestyle just doesn’t always make that easy. When we bought the house it needed so many repairs and it would have been easy to slap some paint on cabinets and try to make it all work for a while but Seth really let me go with the kitchen and make choices that I really loved. I am sure he thought my mix of aluminum back splash, oiled bronze fixtures, etc were way out there but he just let me enjoy the process….and in the end he liked it all! I spend most of my days in there and I still pinch myself sometimes that it’s ours. Strange I know but true.

Tomorrow you get to tour a bit of my friend Leigh’s humble abode! You are going to love it! At the end of seeing her sweet space you may just want to hop a plane and head down to Texas for some Southern hospitality! Or maybe that’s just what it makes me want to do, but you’ll love the pictures!

PS- this is our 500th post…craziness!! We started in December of 2006 and have now blogged from the US, South America and Europe, through many moves, the addition of 2 babies, ups, downs and in betweens. Thanks for reading!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 1 Our Kitchen, the heart of our home!

Posted by Kristen on Oct 1, 2012 in 31 Days of Savoring Home, House and Home | 1 comment

Just a little disclaimer before I get going on Day 2: I am not writing about our house because I think it’s oh so cool and worth talking about….and I am not writing about it because it’s done! It is all a work in progress (ie paper blinds, random nails from constantly moving pictures, uncovered vents and plugs…) but it is simply a blessing to us. Not perfect, not brag-worthy, but a blessing. And it for sure feels vulnerable to let the world into our space, so please go easy on us! The gals around the globe who have agreed to share their spaces are coming from a variety of backgrounds and incomes so you will get the treat of seeing how people have used their spaces both big and small, with zero budget and with abundance. It’s going to be so neat to see how homes grow into beautiful spaces!

Oh yea, and disclaimer part 2: I went to bed a bit petrified that I thought it was a good idea to challenge myself for 31 days. This will be a growing experience for sure! I will try to post daily before noon my time so that you ladies across the pond can get in a read before bed.

So, here we go!

I think it makes sense to start our little tour with the kitchen. The kitchen is for sure the heart of our home. Both literally and figuratively. When you walk into our split foyer house you can go up or down. Most people walk up. And when you walk up you walk right into the entrance into the kitchen. Today I will share a few pictures that will show you why I love this space. This is the place we all gather. This is where I feel like I do my most “providing” for my family. It’s where I can be creative in a very necessary job of feeding my family. This is where we talk, laugh, cry, tantrum, slip, fall, get up, burn cookies, smell delightful smells, light a candle that spread a sweet scent throughout the house, open the window to hear the voices of brothers playing, greet daddy after work, store the amazing childhood temptations like scissors, scotch tape and medicines, create things to serve friends and family, make peace offerings and bake celebration treats. See why it’s the heart of the house?!

come on up!

see, work in progress…can you spot the missing drawer?

my husband can attest to the kitchen never being this clean! the counters are sparkly for you, friends!

aprons are always out…they aren’t clutter in this space, for me they add a pop color and they are a sign that we are still cookin’!

I was tempted to keep the new fridge shiny and cleared of papers and such…but this space is about our family and I just couldn’t get used to the blank shiny…this is more us! I do try to keep the front tidy-ish but the side is covered with pictures of friends and family and magnets from our travels. and those little hand prints…they are just signs of life, right?!

this little corner houses a very important part of the kitchen…this tiny stool. throughout the day little hands lift it and drag it not so gracefully to sneak a peak at what’s cooking, to reach the tall faucet to wash wormy hands, or to attempt to open the fridge. My goal for our kitchen is for it to be a place where the kids can learn to love cooking and to understand more about nutrition….no lies here, this is a challenge. Baking with 2 balancing on this little stool gets interesting. and adding another stool isn’t the issue!

Tomorrow I will share the before pictures and tell you a little of how and why we chose what we did.

31 days of Savoring Home: Welcome!

Posted by Kristen on Oct 1, 2012 in 31 Days of Savoring Home, House and Home | 2 comments

So I mentioned a while back that I was going to try to challenge myself to jump in and link up with The Nester for her 31 day series challenge…along with hundreds of other bloggers. I have been humming and hawing, dragging my feet, talking myself in and out of it and finally decided it is worth a try. In the midst of my mommy bubble I am excited to be more disciplined about writing. And the topic will be “31 Days of Savoring Home”.

For those of you that don’t know our story….basically we bought a house while overseas, returned to fix it up and now call it home! The process has been interesting and challenging in many ways. A growing experience for sure! Our desire is that our house be a haven for our family and a place of warm welcome for family and friends! So, this month I will slowly write and photograph my way through how we have been trying to make our house into a home. The good, the bad, and the ugly. And also sharing some ways to make a space “home” even when it isn’t your forever home.

But have no fear, I won’t spend 31 days just talking about our home sweet home. I have friends around the country and globe who have agreed to share their favorite spaces in their nests with you. Their homes are so lovely and I am so excited to introduce you to these gals!

Check back here tomorrow as we take a kitchen tour! You can check below for the addition of the daily posts!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 1 Our Kitchen, the heart of our home!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 2 Kitchen Before

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 3 Leigh’s House!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 4 Smells like home!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 5 Dining room

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 6 Power Washing!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 7 Personalities

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 8 Jenny’s home!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 9 Overgrown!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 10 Daniela’s flat

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 11 Leaving Home!