a fresh coat of stain

 Saturday was spent power washing the cedar shingles on the front of the house. 

They are in desperate need of a new coat of stain. 

 It was quite a hot day and when Darren was finished the most heavenly scent of cedar filled the air. 

If you like that smell - I, for one, happen to love it. 

{during}

 Next, the staining. 

The smell involved here was much less appealing. I didn't wear a respirator and I ended with the the most wicked headache. 

Lesson learned. I will be wearing a mask when I resume. 

Also, I have done more than my share of painting, but I have not often used stain. It is quite a different experince. 

It is like painting with water - smelly, messy water. 

It runs EVERYWHERE - it drips off the brush, down my arm and onto my feet, and whatever else happens to be below. 

I have realized that this project is going to take a LONG time, but that is okay. 

I plan to take it one section at a time, and Darren will help with the high bits. When it is done it will look so much better. 

We will then be able to add the trim around the windows that never was added. 

The hard work will pay off. That is what I must keep reminding myself!

 {after - my first section done}

2 blogs into 1

I have been feeling the need to simply my life. Managing 2 blogs is too much. I have also been feeling the desire to post less about our home and the projects we are doing. I love it, I hope I always will, but priorities have changed and I need to focus my efforts else where. So for now I will only be posting on our family blog. We have been doing some renovations around here but they are not cosmetic, they are internal. We don't know what this means or where it may take our family! But we do have quite a few loose ends to tie up and unfinished projects to complete.
One of them being the master bathroom......

{before}

This bathroom took longer than I ever expected it would, but I was very patient where I normally am not.
I usually make due with "good enough" and then when I find "just perfect" I always wish I had taken my time.
We have a couple of minor things left to do, but for the most part we are done.

{after}

 Darren was not at all excited when I told him that I wanted to paint the walls all white. He now thinks it turned out really nice - why does he still doubt, silly boy!

(I must admit if I were to be honest I had my concerns as well. We had never done board and batten all the way to the ceiling before, and white at that. I almost talked myself out of it several times. In the end I am glad that I stuck to my original vision. It is so bright and clean.)

I have a couple of black and white photos that Shannon took of us when she was here that I want to frame and hang on this blank wall. But that will have to wait until the next time I get over to Ikea. It is a long and expensive trip for $20 picture frames. But I will get there.... someday...

Today.....

....I should have done the laundry. I should have done the dishes. I should have vacuumed the floors. I should have done some end of the year school reports. I should have been finishing the master bathroom. Instead I painted the front door. It is not drastically different. Actually I wondered if Darren would even notice. He did. And he loves it. In fact he said that he likes it much better than the previous color and that he never really liked that color to begin with. He never told me that, and he never would have if it had remained. But since it changed, he felt he could. That is just the kind of guy he is!
Thank you Rachel for the color sample, and the kid watching while I went to go and buy the paint, and for the company while I sat on your front porch until Darren could come and jump start the van so I could get home to paint the door, just as the rain began to fall. But I painted anyways - and the sun came out and dried up all the paint and the itsy-bitsy front door was put back together again!

bathroom update

This room is just taking FOREVER! But in the end I am grateful. I have been able to really think and re-think my choices which have changed, again and again. It is coming along though. And I hope that we will be completely done in a couple of weeks.

We ordered a faucet from ebay for 1/3 of the price as the same 1 here. It always makes me nervous though because I don't get to see it in person before purchase. 

It arrived. And it is just what I hoped it would be.

We now have the sink and the faucet. I have 2/3 of the room painted. Darren put up the light and started building the new cabinet. I hung the mirror. Things are slowly, very, very slowly getting checked off the list. 

 I had my sister-in-law {thank you Shannon} pick me up a light from Lowes in the States, but that was 1 of the things I changed my mind on and it will now be used for another project I have on my to-do list!
The light below I found at Home Depot. Can I just tell you how much I love this new light. I searched high and low, here and there and EVERYWHERE for a light I liked at a decent price.

disclaimer: I know when someone is sharing a renovation of their home on their blog I am always so excited to see the end result. I have by no means meant to build up this bathroom to be something super special. It is and always will be just a bathroom, but a bathroom that is a little more us than was here before.

a fair divided excellence

I have been wondering what to do above our bed, and have been trying different ideas, but nothing really seemed to work. I wanted it to look very relaxed and random. Then I saw this post from At Home. Jaimie has an amazing eye and an inspiring home decor blog. And she just so happens to be a fellow British Columbian - an Islander even! Maybe someday I will get the chance to met her. She has created the most beautiful vignette in her home (I love the pinwheels she made! I think they would be so great at a birthday party or a shower even!). So inspired by her I was able to take items I already had around the house to do my own version and fill this space with things that are sentimental to me. 

Being over the bed, I of course had to think practically. Everything is attached to the wall or to the window attached to the wall, so they won't be falling off in the middle of the night (or when our children go jumping on the bed!!)

When Darren and I were married our good friends Jeff and Toby gave us a card with this Shakespeare quote on it - it has been my very most favorite ever since.

board and batten

We spent our Saturday, a beautiful sunny Saturday, in the bathroom. That is the LAST place my husband wanted to be, but he did it for me. As we were working away I remembered back to when we first moved into this house. It is by far the nicest house we have ever owned. Upon purchase, Darren was so excited by the fact that we wouldn't have any projects to do as it was only 2 years old. Poor man. Little did he know that no matter where we live there will ALWAYS be projects to do. I am so grateful for his help and willingness. This bathroom is going very slowly, but it is going. Today we got all the molding on the walls, and I even sanded all the edges. It is really for caulking and paint. There is still so far to go, but we checked 1 major thing off the list. 

And it will be so nice to have this pile gone from our bedroom.

Thank you Darren, for all you do!

sunshine

As I am sure countless mothers have done before me, I have sung this song to each and every child of mine. And 1 by 1 as the children came along, together we would sing this to the new baby on the way. This song becomes personal. It is a mothers ballad to her children. Each 1 claiming it as her own, as if for the first time. Her individual expression of her love for her child. 

No one else was there as I sang this to my babies. In those moments it belonged to us, and us alone. The world outside ceased to exist if only for a moment here and there. Nothing else mattered. 

Thanks to Debra and her vinyl magic, I was able to make this for our home. The only problem is where to put it. I want 1 in every room of the house. It makes he happy just to look at it - like a spot of sunshine on the wall, forever reminding me of the most tender moments in my life.

Thank you Debra.

I {LOVE} it.

change in course

We started reno's on our bathroom and soon after realized that we were going in the wrong direction. We want to spend as little money as possible, but if we are going to do this we might as well be happy with the end results. So we had to stop and re-think. This has taken weeks. I have never had such trouble with a room before. I think it is because the fixtures in a bathroom are pretty permanent. It is not quite like re-painting a room if you don't like the color. If I don't like the cabinet, or the sink, or the faucet that I buy and install, I am out a lot more than $30. 

I thought that I had finally figured it all out for a 2nd time and began again. Then I started to panic, what if I don't like it when it is all done?, or what if it doesn't come together like it does in my mind?

{Below are some pictures I have used for inspiration}

I think I want a vanity like this...

{source unknown}

or maybe something like this...

{source: Ana White}

1 of these....

walls like this...

{source unknown}

a sink like this (already purchased)...

{source unknown}

and a faucet like this.

I, even I,  am having my doubts. I love all white bathrooms in pictures, but will I love it in reality?

Sincerely, Creatively Confused.

progress - it's slow but it's coming

 I was able to sew 2 of the 4 curtain panels for the girls room over the last 2 days. Until now the fabric has just been hanging over the rods. But since it is getting lighter later, I have been compelled to get them sewn.

(This room is really hard to photograph, although it gets the most light, everything looks really muddy. Then again, maybe it really is?, or maybe it is my lack of photographic ability)

Also, Emma got this framed 'sisters' picture from her friend Clara for her birthday. It is just a perfect addition.

Thank you Clara {and Debra!}

Master Bath

Since the bedroom is pretty much done, we have started on the master bathroom. We are going to be spending as little money as possible and working with almost everything we already have. But if I could I would.........

{I tried really hard to source pictures this time and had no luck. Thank you to all for your inspiration.}

I started with this armoire which use to be in the school room. 

I am needing more book shelves in there instead and more storage in the bathroom. 

So out it went. I gave it a fresh coat of paint and some new knobs. I used the leftover paint from the master bedroom walls (free). 

It looks much fresher and brighter.

 {before}

{during}

 {after}