Holiday Tour 2011...just a teensy late

Did you hear? Our home was included in the Clarence Friends of the Library 2011 Holiday Home Tour.  The preparation is nothing short of a type of torture that I'm SURE has been outlawed by the Geneva Convention.  HOWEVER, the benefit is that all those nagging little (and big) projects that had been hanging out there in la la land got DONE.  Go grab a snack, a drink, and some toothpicks to keep your eyes open as you peruse the next 30 something photos of the house....in all its CLEANESS.  Did I mention I have an eight year old boy, a four year old boy and a 35 year old boy?  They all live here...at the same time....at the same time I had to keep the ENTIRE house clean.  I deserve a trophy for that.  Or a tiara.

Have I mentioned how much I love my kitchen now?  I'm going to share that love AGAIN soon in a Before and After post.   

The dining room.  I managed to hide my oakey oak dining room table...the hubster put the kabosh on painting or staining it.   Little does he know the plans afoot when he leaves on his next business travel overseas.  BWAHAHAHA.

Hedge apples....just because they're cool. 

God bless my husband and friend for lugging the cabinet out of the basement.  I love this thing.  Love.  The weight...well....just shy of elephant.

The $1 chair.  More on that to come too....I'm such a tease. 

So here's the deal.  When a person hides their oakey oak dining table...well...you have to do something about those oakey oak dining CHAIRS.  Solution?  Hide them in the basement and scrounge the house.  I kinda love the bench there.  That might stay...at least until I find permanent "new" chairs.  Actually what I would sorta totally love is to have mismatched...just all in the same wood tone....or painted....

The den....because my dad is a genius bookcase builder.  Love that guy.

Master bedroom. Makes me want a nap.

Guest room.  Uh yes, I'm a ding dong and this is the only shot I took.

Back to being a tease.  This is the new downstairs bath....that deserves its own post.  Its own blog really.  Its own country to run to be honest.

Back stairs.  Do I have a photo of the beautiful front stair case and foyer tree you ask?  Uh no.  Woops.

Upstairs bath.  Artwork by a very famous artiste named Marshall V.  He was two.  Genius. Pure genius.

Boys' room

If you're still awake I thank you for taking the time to go through my virtual Holiday Home Tour. Oh, it's January you say?  Just pretend it's Dec. 25 and you're delighted to look at Christmas photos. ;-)

From the Beginning....

circa 2003

In the beginning....many moons ago....we moved into a very white house.  EVERY room (except for one baby blue one upstairs) was painted HIGH GLOSS WHITE or was textured with a disastorously pointy finish.  We had a teeny babe...who we knew would someday walk and may fall into the wall, and be severly injured by the very strange plaster finish. 

Seriously, we were scared to walk near the wall for fear of tetanus or severly snagged sweaters.

We scraped and sanded all the pointy walls....and was that a job.  Yes it was. 

THEN came the fun part....PAINT.  COLOR.  VARIETY. We'd lived in apartments through college and they were all some shade of white or blah.  Years in that environment make a girl crave color.  LOTS of color.

This much color.  I loved it.  I still love it.  But it's time for a change. I think.  I don't know.  What do you think?  NO NO, it's time for a change.  A beautiful, restful, calm, change.

OOhh...might that be the change there on the wall?  It might.

Look how pretty it looks with the family rules signs back there.....

and yes, I know that window needs something...I'm workin' on it.

 Oh and it looks pretty with the bookcases back there....

Curse you Martha and all your pretty colors....

To give a little perspective....the night I painted our dining room red my first little guy, Marshall, learned to walk.  It was quite a night.....walking baby and red dining room.  Good thing we scraped those walls, huh?

See, he still has all his beautiful skin intact. ;-)  Seven years later.

And in case you're wondering, no, the kitchen is not done.  This is how I work....like a scattery scatterbrain. I mean, really, ten projects is WAY better than one. ;-)

The Guest Room

My tip for the day:  You should ALWAYS be fancy when doing home improvement. 

The best "fancy" is over the top plastic jewelry...it washes.  Paired with sweat pants and cheetah slippers you'll be on top of the world. ;-)

Welcome to my FAV.O.RITE. room in our house.  Is it weird that my favorite room is the guest room.  I think that means I should me working harder on the rooms I ACTUALLY spend time in. ;-)  I heard somewhere that you should sleep in your guestroom just to experience what your guests will...will they be comfortable?  Warm enough?  Cool enough? Etc, etc. 

This room contains many of my mostest special-est things.  The bed skirt/cover that my mom made as a young wife.  The ragrug I bought from an elderly woman in the neighboring town during a yard sale....she was SO grateful that I bought it....she said no one had bought one all day.  Thinking back, I should have bought them all.  She was only asking $5 for each one....and she had handmade them all.  Lesson learned.

Sand from some of the beaches we've visisted. 

Beautiful vintage pillowcases.  This one was made by my grandmother and great aunt. 

This one I just recently picked up....here.  Love that place.  There was only one...and the gal at the checkout asked why I would want one that was a single.  I love things that don't match. 

The most beautiful color by number EVER.  I ran into Goodwill one day to buy a basket....and this called out to me.  I actually walked to the front of the store to buy the basket, then turned around half way and went back for the painting....it had to come home with me. 

My favorite room is also white.  To anyone who knows our home, knows that when we moved in EVERY ROOM was painted high gloss white.   It offended every sensibility I had.  I painted everything...not white.  This room just seemed to call out for white though ....so I repainted with a softer milkier satin white.  I love it.  Probably should do this in more rooms.  But white is stark.  Stark if there is nothing on the wall for a splash of juicy color.

 Enter one of the door headers I bought at the Mechanicsville school demolition auction.  I pulled down four of these huge puppies with my bare hands (and a pry bar).  God bless my poor friend for coming with me....she's terrified of ladders and I nearly gave her a stroke standing on the top of one trying to reach these, yanking back and forth.  I digress.....this one was a pretty shade of green...just the right amount of juicy color.

The header looked lonely....and every room needs a good sign, right?  It needed more.....I was thinking a cute garland would be nice....like a bunch of little mittens or something wintry.  The wreath will do for now.

The other thing I'm a little crazy about right now are signs that MEAN something to me....that remind me of special places.  This is one of our special, warm fuzzy places.  Vacation heaven?  Yes.  And a few blobs for good measure. ;-)  Oh...and added some door hardware...just 'cause I thought it was neat.  I am beginning to have a real affinity for old wood.  To all my local peeps....I dig old wood...don't throw it away.  Feel free to leave it on my porch. ;-)

Just a few things left to add to the guest room....then it will be pure "Farmhouse by the Sea"....

**revamp the lamp

**paint little table that's waiting in the basement for a side table

**bamboo shades

**new duvet cover