Sunday, February 21, 2010

"New" living room

With all the moving we down sized soooo much. We got rid of loads of stuff. (thank goodness for that concidering how much moving we ended up doing)
Among the things we got rid of was my purple couch and chair. I like it so much better then the family room plaid set but this one is sturdier and looks cleaner. So- we kept this set and went with it.
The one thing I didnt want with this move was to reproduce exactly how we lived before so I tried to mix our stuff up.Though we had a green plaid living room set, I didnt want to settle for a country cute thing.
Instead of loading the room with lots of family pics I kept them to the one shelving area and added art instead.Jody bought me these two baticks at an art show. I just adore them! I finally got around to framing them and now they are on either side of the wood stove. I also added sculptures from africa and isreal and a few Baha'i pieces as well as Hindu and chinese peices.
I bought a few red pillows to bring out the red in the couch.
Its very cozy and user friendly. A real flop and chill kind of room. We are very happy with it. :)

An office for Jody

Jody has wanted a real space of his own for ages and ages. So now with all the extra space he got one. What was once my rubber stamp shop is now Jodys office.
The leasers had started to paint it a deep green that wasnt too bad so we went with that. I had to redo all the walls that the stamp shelves were on. Lots of plaster and sanding.

Now Jody has room for his bike rollers, weights,books, his comuter for writting his book, his antique sterio and records and his trombone.
The best part for me is this is a space to display all the "man" stuff Jody has collected over the years without having to put it in the living room or something.

The freezer found its way into the office but thats ok. Eventually we will get some simple curtains up for him. He is just IN LOVE with his man land! This effort won me some brownie points!

Vayda goes orange

With 4 upstairs bedrooms and only two kids Vayda had the pick. Maya kept her original pink room but Vayda decided to upgrade from her very tiny room to Bens old room.
The leasers had painted Bens red room a grey green :( Ick. Vayda wanted the room but not the drab color.
Shes nearly 16 and has been hands on with most projects around here for 7 yrs so I knew she was totally capable of painting her own space.
I told her too that if she was going to paint it then I would let her pick ANY color she wanted. So- thats what led to cheeto orange! She wanted cheery and she got cheery!
It was a drastic change and she just loves it. Its not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. And suprisingly, its matches soooo much.
As for her painting capabilities- she did great. She says she'll never paint again....but she did great.The leasers took or burned the shelves that where in the red room. ???? No idea what went on there. We still have to install a few shelves and some curtains for Vayda but for the most part shes all moved in.

An Art Studio

As we were preparing to move back to Romulus I woke up one morning with a thought in mind....

"I am going to have an art studio and I am going to paint it purple"!

For the studio I chose what is actually the dining room of the house. We had used it for years as a family room (see above). So the purple art studio is the first thing you see when you enter our house. This is a little off for a victorian farm house but after all that we have endured....
I do not care! I have let this house dictate to me the way it is to be decorated for 7 yrs. Then in an effort to move all the thinking was about what other people would like best.

Now that we are 'forced' back here I am having it all my way.

We all love the purple studio. Maya Rae says its very inspiring. I havent had any real time to really 'bond' with the space yet but to walk through it its nice.

With 3000 sq ft and only 4 people we have all the room in the world for extras like this. I made this room comfortable for all of us girls. There is a mom zone but there is also a craft table, TONS of kid and teen friendly supplies and a sewing station.

A NEW WOODSTOVE

As part of out making the most of a challenging situation we decided to buy ourselves a better heat source. For 7 yrs we have lived with the wood furnace. Its a great way to save $ on the heat bill but its just never been able to keep up with our old breezy, drafty, cold farm house.
We went to the bank for a good old fashioned loan. Got it! Thats progress in itself :)
Once that was secured we went to Martins in Fayette for the biggest and best wood stove they have. The folks who installed it were great. They did a wonderful job, were pleasent and kept things neat.

Here is the very first fire!
Next only in line behind the birth of my children and marrying Jody is this wonderful, wonderful moment in my life!!!! :)

With the stove we bought an Eco Fan. It moves 150 cubic feet of air around and uses NO electric. It transfers the heat into its own electric. Cool thing. In this pic it looks like the pattles are clear but they are just moving. Its made of heavy metal.
My newest and most favorite pass time.My favorite sight.

Let me go on and on about the wood stove......
The thing is- I love it. It makes me feel safe and (literally) warm. I love knowing that even if the power goes off we will have heat. Even if we get 10' of snow, we will have heat. Even if the freakin world is coming to an end....we will have heat. This sence of certainty makes me feel calm and happy. Very little gets me worked up like being too cold in the winter. Now I will never ever have to deal with that issue again :)
Its the best!

A new bathroom


Well- as I mentioned- the leasers ripped half of the bathroom floor up in an effort to begin a bathroom renovation. They did put in the shower surround we had left. That was done well enough with the exception of the faucets which we fixed. The bathroom was in dire need of a reno even before they got to it though.
In an effort to make the most of things I hired a guy to come and install the toilet.
A nice new 1.6 gallon flush. This is a major improvement over the old 6 gallon flush with a phantom leak.

Well- I figured if he was going to do that he may as well install a new subfloor and the peel and stick tile.
That led to new walls, fixing the shower faucet and installing the sink too.
I did all the caulking (4 tubes worth!) and the paint.

I chose the colors based on the floor tile. Matched the walls exactly to the tile and went for navy blue for the upper walls and ceiling. We all just love it! Its been said that it feels like you are standing behind short walls with the night sky above you. Eventually I will find several antique hanging mirrors to hang on the walls on the navy to bounce the light around.



The shower is amazing! Awesome endless water and great pressure! Everything is so nice and new and clean.

A little life

We are living at Lowes these days and Maya Rae came across this weak plant on clearance. She brought it home to transplant it and add a little life to her room.
The girl loves her plants.

Back in Romulus

So on the 15th we were back in Romulus. Jody went and drove the bus like Super Man himself after such a hard day moving us again. Ben went back to Ithaca to his new place. (hes renting a room from family friends in Ithaca and working at Barns and Noble) The girls and I set to unpacking the house.
I started with the kitchen so we could just function. Here are all the jars back in their rightful place.
'So how was the house' you might ask.
Weeeelllllll- its was a wreck! Erika and Mark Grutel- our leasers- trashed the joint.

Some of the issues included...
-there was 20 wheel barrow loads of horse manure filling the garage a foot deep

-there was a five gallon pail full of dog shit covering the root cellar floor

-there was crayon, marker, pen, chalk, buggers and- I am hoping- chocolate covering every wall in every room from the 3' mark down.

-there was milk and slime on every window and wall. We had to use a knife to chip the cereal off the walls.

-there were door knobs broken, screens wripped, cieling fan chains broken, small holes in the walls.

-they tore up half of the bathroom floor

-they half painted two rooms

-there was plastic tacked and duck taped to the wood work

-there were 100 small hammer marks pounded into the wooden floor

-the yard was covered in toys, tools, animal equiptment

ETC!

So after the kitchen was unpacked and rescoured we set to scouring and re-renovating every room in the house.