Living

We can actually live in our living room now! Last Saturday, we brought home a piano and that groovy yellow chair. It may get reupholstered someday, but for ten smackaroos, it's perfect.
Jesse couldn't believe that I finally found my piano. He would scour craigslist for me and be baffled when none of them interested me. Then we saw this one. It's an older Baldwin studio piano, pretty good tone and pitch. Best of all, it was under budget.

I think I'm finally getting used to a mostly finished living room. For awhile there I felt like I was in the wrong house! I'd still like to find the perfect area rug, hang something over the mantel, put in some sort of heating unit (pellet or wood stove? Fireplace?), and wouldn't an antique umbrella stand with mirror look great next to that window? For now, it is pretty delightful having a mostly finished space.

Come visit us!  We'll hang in the living room!

The Kids' Room

Finally took some pictures of the girls' room.  Jesse has been so handy downstairs in the basement.  He creates these amazing pieces out of very ordinary pieces of wood and not wood.  I've been redeemed for hauling around my loads of fabric.  The curtains are from 2 meters imported from Japan.  Three years ago.  The carpet is an Ikea as is find of years past. 

The best part about this room is how functional and roomy it is.  The kids actually play in it!  Yay!

The Kitchen

I love our kitchen.  The first few days after we moved in, Jesse and I found ourselves sitting on the kitchen floor at night.  It was the most put together room in the house, and we just loved how it felt.  I will love it even more on Friday when Andy our trusty plumber comes to install our dishwasher.

Our sink is huge.  Jesse really wanted a farm sink and they are super expensive.  Unless you get this one from Ikea.  Then it's just super huge.  I wanted the smaller one tub version, but this one does make a statement.    I sewed curtains for the two windows and our doorless cupboard from this cute fabric.  Gwyn insisted that I get the floral as well as the circle pattern.  I think she was right.  I like the different designs but same colors.   You don't even really notice that they are different (especially if you're Jesse!).

This is our delightful new slide in range.  It's fun having gas again, and the convection oven really does cook things evenly.  It's a little weird having to cook things at the low end of what the recipe calls for.  In this picture you can see the curtain cupboard.  We didn't have enough space to do a lazy susan, but we wanted to get the most out of what space we had.  So we left the cupboard open, and it goes all the way back to the wall.   I'm not sure if it was the best way to do it, but oh well!

Jesse made this open shelving for what we use everyday.  We found the wrought iron shelf brackets at an antique mall, though they are definitely not antiques.  We wanted to keep the kitchen looking open, so that's why we opted for these shelves instead of a traditional cabinet.

This picture is a little wonky, but it's what we ended up with by the fridge.  At the last minute, we realized we didn't have a junk drawer or a place for the microwave.  With this arrangement, we have a little bit more counter space, and a cool cupboard up top.  I use the counter all the time for making things right out of the fridge like sandwiches.

So this is our way too fancy for us kitchen.  It's awesome, but I feel like I'm in a time share, y'know.

The Dining Room

Finally!  Here's the hardest part about taking pictures of our house.  It's only clean at night when the light is bad.  In weighing the options, flash seemed better than never posting again.  So....Here they are.

The previous owners let us have this dining room table.  It's beautiful, and with benches we'll be able to squeeze in 8. 

We got the credenza off of Craigslist for $30.  Finally, I have a place for the obi I've been carting around for years.  The credenza was an essential addition, as our kitchen space is so limited.  Inside are all my crazy Japanese ceramics, table linens, extra plates, etc. 

The color of the room has much to be desired.  It's also a flat paint, so it just sucks up light, making it the darkest room in the house.  I guess that might be nice if you were into intimate dinners, but that's just not us.  Unfortunately, after painting my mom's house, I know how much prep would go into painting the room and I just can't get myself motivated to make the change yet.  (See all those moldings, plus the window, and three doorways.  Eeeek!  Can  you imagine how much tape that will take?)  Also, I'm not sure where to go with the color since the kitchen is so vivid.  Even more, we are contemplating opening up the kitchen into the dining room even more, so that would have a huge influence on the color. 

What do you think is a good wall color for a dining room?

The Garden

I hear that one of the previous occupants of the house didn't have any children.  She spent her time on the garden.  On our first spring visit, there were numerous columbines.  When we came in June, the irises were spilling over everywhere.  Before that, we hear that crocuses and tulips pop up along the path.  Now it's lilies.  I think there are about ten different varieties in the front and back yard. 

We will need to make some changes to give the kids some more room.  But for now, we're enjoying the beauty.

A New Home

We're here, we're here!  At home in Wisconsin!  I'll take some pictures tomorrow in the sunlight and show you our new house. 

But for now, here's the quick and dirty version.

We moved in last Monday after signing away our children's inheritance.  Good news is that our payment is affordable.  Yay for low interest rates! 

Especially since the a/c broke on Wednesday, the hottest day of the year.  If you live in Verano, give those maintenance workers a wistful smile from me.  I miss them.  So much.  I like our guys here a ton.  But I'm not too fond of the check I have to write whenever they come over. 

We love the house.  It's really perfect for our little family (and whoever wants to come to WI for a visit).  Not loving the mice in the basement, but hoping that if there are any more they'll either move on or meet their end trying to get that last lick of peanut butter off the trap. 

Everything else is of course perfect!  Well, not really.  But we're working on it.  We should be old pros at moving.  Instead we're bumbling around forgetting important things like feeding our kids (thank you new neighbors who took care of that not once, but twice.)  Enrolling the kids in school, registering our car, putting up pictures.  All in good time.  For now, we sit in the sunroom (because it's the only room with enough furniture to seat us all)  licking our popsicles (since the a/c only got fixed yesterday), staring at a blank wall (no pictures up) or reading a book (we did get library cards!).  Perfect!