Grass. . . and Garden Surprises

We are really enjoying our outdoor space. The previous homeowner had at least two green thumbs and it's been such a surprise to see all of the perennials pop up and bloom each month (we first looked at the house in early March).

Matt's still enjoying having to mow the grass and he's really loving his new grill. The truth is we never thought we'd have a yard like this in the city and after eight years each of apartment living we couldn't be happier than we are walking around barefoot in the backyard.

Basement

Our finished basement has a family room area, a little wet bar area, a bathroom, and laundry room, as well as some concrete storage rooms. Matt instantly fell in love with his new theater space (he was testing the acoustics before we even made an offer). While Diane had to nix the idea of risers and recliner stadium seating, Matt's still got a lot of fun plans for this space in the coming years.

Until then, we're definitely enjoying it as-is for TV- and movie-watching, and we are looking forward to finding a carpet and new upholstery for the furniture soon.

We're very thankful to the previous homeowner for giving us a contemporary bathroom, and by doing so downstairs, we have the jet tub and standing shower we secretly wanted without having to sacrifice or interrupt the vintage flow of the top floors.

Upstairs

The master bedroom, two guest rooms, a bathroom and craft room are upstairs. They are all connected by an open hall space with built-in closets and cabinetry. We've still got plenty of projects up here too, ranging from window treatments and organization to a total overhaul of the bathroom decor.


The master bedroom is broken into two rooms separated by French doors. While we may someday take out the wall for resale, right now we're happy using the two spaces for a dressing room and what we're calling a "bed nook". The headboard is made from two of the house's original doors - we were so excited to find them in the garage.

The first guest room Matt christened "the Indiana Jones room" prior to our moving in, based on the much-loved furniture we planned to put in it. The brass bed is from Matt's great-grandparents' home in Montana and there's an Indian chest that was a birthday present to Diane from Matt and our parents a few years back. We also call it "the brown room" for obvious reasons; while we were painting, we all seemed to get hungry in this room as the paint looked exactly like hot fudge sauce in the tray.

Matt continued his room-naming in the second guest room. He named it "the Martha Stewart room" because it has traditional furniture (from Diane's grandparents' house) and a very special quilt handmade by Diane's Mom (our very own "Martha") as a 21st birthday gift.

Speaking of Martha, while Diane can't remotely touch her Mom when it comes to the craft stuff (but really, who can?), she likes to dabble a fair bit. So the craft room is Diane's "room of her own" where she can indulge her scary little ribbon fetish.

Finally, the biggest project of them all: the upstairs bathroom. We love the footed tub; can't say the same of the wallpaper and border. The main fixtures stay, the wallcoverings and cabinetry go. Matt's starting some of the plumbing work this week.

Main Floor

Welcome, c'mon in. We've had a lot of fun so far working on the main floor, which consists of the entry, living room, dining room, kitchen, den and powder room.

Still several projects to do and things to find but at least there are places to sit now (chairs were nonexistent on the main floor for pretty much the first month)! We love all of the moldings and woodwork, the funky original hardware on the windows, and of course the fireplace was a nice bonus prize.

We've been sitting in the living room more than we ever thought we would (there's no TV in there) and Diane's even been practicing piano a bit as there have been several requests for Christmas carols by December.

Hopefully by the end of the summer we'll have built-ins in here. We're thinking of stretching them along the wall surrounding the French doors (they lead to the den) and wrapping around the other wall as well, as we're already overflowing a bit.

The dining room is full of cherished family treasures from Diane's Great-Aunt Evelyn and Great-Uncle Clyde and their daughter Carol. Evelyn and Clyde made the dragonfly lamp, which hung above this same table in their house on Lake Geneva when Diane was a kid.

We are breaking in the kitchen slowly but surely. The previous homeowner did a nice job maximizing space so there are hidden cabinets, a pull-out pantry, and countless drawers for all our gadgets and serving pieces (not to mention shelves that hold most of the teapot collection).

Last on the main floor are the den and the little powder room. These are both on the to-do list; we're still putting things away in the den (to the extent that we've not taken any pictures of it yet) and we're planning on re-painting the powder room very soon.

DIY and Harper's Hiding Places

We spent the weekend after closing doing major DIY projects, including stripping wallpaper and painting the dining room, painting the living room, and painting all three bedrooms.

We had a LOT of help from our parents, thank goodness.

We had our only major paint misstep with the master bedroom dressing room - we were hoping for "Sahara Shade", we got nacho cheese. We've since repainted and is much more restful, not to mention palatable.

The following weekend, before moving all of our stuff in, we moved Harper (our feline fur-child) and, as he has done all of the other times we moved, he spent his first day going from hiding place to hiding place, storm-drill style.