Upstairs

The kids rooms are all nice sizes. I've posted pictures of Kate's bedroom before.

Aunt Lorie shares this room with Kate when she visits. And I've spent many hours in this bed through thunder storms.

The little patchwork dog on her bed was mine, then it was Alex's and now Kate has it.

Shade your eyes. Kendall's room was like this when we moved in. I had every intention of changing it...and then she saw it, and fell in love. 

The giraffe coat racks in both girls rooms have a special story. Brian's dad had one in his room when he was young. It has been passed down and the girl's received it for Christmas one year. Lin, Brian's aunt, made a second one to match it exactly so both Kendall and Kate could have their own. She makes INCREDIBLE things, I wish I had her talent!

Yes, we organize books by color.

These were my Little Golden Books when I was little, with a few new ones added in.

I really love the kids' bathroom. Hexagon floor tile, subway tile in the bath, beadboard, pedestal sinks, Restoration Hardware fixtures, sigh. Can we take this bathroom with us?

The only thing that would make this better is if it were a "Jack and Jill" bath. Speaking of bathrooms can anyone tell me what a Pullman bath is??

Sadly all the Pottery Barn towels are starting to get grungy looking. I think we'll have to replace them soon. They've been used daily for three years so they've worked pretty hard. 

Master bedroom just down the hall. I hear the sound of little feet going into the bathroom in the morning. Actually I could tell you whose little feet just by sound alone. Jack came home from the hospital and slept next to me in this room in his little cradle. 

These curtains were here when we moved in. I've worked around them instead of replacing them. It's hard to see it but I LOVE that little silver table. The kids love it too, they think it's a drum.

The previous owners did a fantastic job on our bathroom. French doors, marble floors, granite and Restoration Hardware again. 

I have a little confession. See that light fixture in the master bedroom? 2/3 of the bulbs have been out FOREVER. It took us until this weekend to figure out how to change them-it required a wrench. Man our room seems bright now. Why does it take moving to make us do these things?!

Ah, nap time is over. Little Man's room. I picked out the starfish tied to his curtains with Susan, my mother-in-law, when I was pregnant one summer in Ocean City. Susan also cross stitched those prints over his crib.

This room is one we repainted. It was what I would call University of Kentucky blue.

His rocker used to live in Kate's bedroom. It was pink until the girls' preschool teacher recovered it for us.

Alex made that cute hat for us and the Little Engine that Could book was Pop's book. The little buoys were a gift from Aunt Lorie. I love all those little touches that give a room a story. Of course we had to have a Harvard hat from Brian displayed.

Tomorrow we'll cover the basement

The Deck

You may remember the original deck shown in Kendall's old birthday photos. It was a great deck with planters surrounding the perimeter that we planted our veggie garden in each year. We loved the layout but it was original to the house and falling apart. the planters also took up a LOT of square footage. The current deck is the same size but taking out the planters gave us a lot of outside living space.

We added a bench and a fire pit. Our original plan was to use stone and a stone fire pit or chimney on the lower level. The week we tore the old deck out we found out we were moving so we decided to go the less expensive route and stick to all wood.

Our poor yard took a beating and has been seeded.

In the below photo you can see the little bench nook that we had added in. The fire pit is now sitting in front of that bench.

Where the grill is now used to be one huge planter. The door that you see there leads to the mudroom, great for when the kids come in from playing.

We made all the steps leading off the deck (two different sets) six feet wide, they were narrow on the old deck.

The bench seat opens up for storage.

The "before pictures were in the spring so these after pictures have an unfair advantage, ha.

This House

I have a crush on my house, a house crush if you will. Did I ever record the story of finding this house? Brian and I made 2 or 3 trips to this sleepy little town during our house search. We must have looked at 48 houses and all I went home with was the realization that people don't take care of their houses. I went back home and Brian continued to work here, I received daily emails with houses as they came on the market. One morning this house showed up in my inbox. I immediately called Brian, "this is the ONE, this is it, go get this house!" The sellers were going on vacation the next day and hadn't wanted it on the market until they got back, our realtor did some persuading and got Brian in that night. We had an offer in before they left the next morning. They also had a back up offer.

The first time I saw this house was the day we moved in. Brian had sent millions of pictures, drawn floor plans, went to the inspection, had a power of attorney at the closing....I walked in on moving day. Brian has great taste, I trusted him completely. When we first moved in I felt like it was massive (around 3800 sq ft) but now it's just normal, it's comfortable and the space is so well laid out that it's all space that we use.

We've been here three years and have finally hung some stuff on the walls. Why did we finally hang stuff? Well, because we're moving. Despite my love affair with this house I'm ridiculously excited about the next step. This move is great for Brian's career and great for our family, I can't wait really. And the next house we plan on hanging stuff on the walls immediately, ha.

So, I've set out to record this house. While Jack is too small to have any memories of this house Kendall and Kate certainly will. This may take awhile, I've taken a TON of photos. Maybe we can divide it up, one level each day?

Our front porch, I love the coffered ceiling, brick porch and walkway, square columns. She looks good filled with mums and gourds in the fall.

The foyer. Directly in front of the staircase is one of two half baths on this level. To the left, a coat closet. This house has ridiculous closets, lots of storage. I don't think I'll ever have another house that can match this one in storage space.

Straight ahead you'll see the bar and the kitchen but to the left is...

Formal living room. This room has one of two wood burning fire places and three big windows. This room has hosted Easter mornings, and birthday parties. Our Christmas tree goes in this room and I love to come in at night, pull the drapes closed and sit on the couch to watch the twinkle lights. Jack likes to sneak in here to bang on the glass tabletops and walk into the fireplace. 

Connected to the living room is the dining room. Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner is hosted here. Peek through that door and you'll see the eat in portion of the kitchen.

We're back in the foyer with a look into the dry bar.

We have a moving company to move our stuff and we'll be flying to our new home. This means that all the liquids (ahem, alcohol) and food have to be consumed or disposed of. Notice the lack of wine in the wine rack. 

Directly in front of the bar are the steps to the basement. Basement is for another post.

Standing in the dry bar looking into the kitchen.

These open shelves vexed me for awhile. I've always liked them but strugled with styling them.  As time has gone on I've added layers and I'm really happy with how they look. Especially that cow creamer, moooo.

What's for dinner? Well, honestly not much lately.

I can watch the kids play through here. Or at night we can set our empty popcorn bowl up there on the ledge so we don't have to get off the couch. :) Sometimes we turn the TV on to the kids music station and have little dance parties while I cook dinner.

Through the kitchen to the family room, pass that to find the mud room and then waaaay in the back there is the other half bath. I think it's safe to call this Kate's bathroom. She may be the only one that uses it.

The mudroom has a large closet with shelves and hooks. You can come straight in from the garage and hang your back pack up. That's a nice idea but let's be honest,  usually the back pack, coat and shoes are strewn out between door and kitchen. I had big dreams of turning that closet into one of those "lockers" with bench and hooks. My dream was shot down and replaced by new siding and a big ol deck. 

Family room.

Behind the brown chair are big french doors leading to the deck. As soon as it starts to get dark out I love to pull those curtains closed. The room feels so cozy all closed up for the night.

I think I need some colorful pillows here. Brian hates lots of pillows. We've cleared things off a lot, you can tell by the empty mantel and side tables.

 The mantel used to hold a collection of black and white family pictures. 

Now is has a big green mossy ball and a white pineapple. Everyone needs a big green mossy ball, I think.

See that little kid's table over there, HOURS have been spent there. Usually it's absolutely covered in various papers, markers...now Jack even climbs on one of the chairs and colors.

Those french doors lead to my office. So nice to be on the main floor.

Not a good shot but currently the pinboard holds a book page wreath. Such an empty little pinboard.

Green binders are the Russel and Hazel binders, I highly recommend. The red clock is IKEA and opens up to hold some sewing supplies. Oh look, I can put more pillows here ;)

And that's it for the first level. Next time we'll head upstairs.

This Boy

This is my boy. I love this boy and all his boyness.

poor quality phone picture

Growing up when I thought of having kids I wanted boys. Little men in their puffy vests and plaid shirts, their short hair cuts and little man shoes. Then I got pregnant the first time and I did a 180, suddenly I started thinking about my mom and my four sisters and the relationships that we have and then I very much wanted a girl. Insert Kendall here. About 22 months later I was about to have our second baby and all I could think about was that I REALLY wanted Kendall to have a sister. Insert Kate here. Then we decided we were through. I sold all my maternity clothes and baby gear and settled in for our life with girls. Then I got the baby itch. It's partially Jennie's fault (Sprouts Spot). We had both of our other babies at the same time and she was putting ideas in my head. We decided to go for it (Brian and I as well as the Sprout Spot family) and this time it really didn't matter to me. I could easily see Brian surrounded by "his girls" and I loved the idea of a bunch of sisters growing up together (think of all the bickering over clothes!) but I was also thinking back to my old dream of a little man in a plaid shirt and a puffy vest. Insert Jack here. Suddenly our pink princess infested house has trucks and little red wagons, plaid shirts and puffy vests.

This boy is the sweetest boy there is. I love how he randomly pats my arm, love those open mouth baby kisses. I love how his sisters can do the most RANDOM things (throwing Cheerios) and he dissolves into a fit of giggles. I love how, like his sisters, he is in no hurry to walk. He'll stand in the middle of the floor, unsupported for as long as he wants but if you get close enough to him and try to encourage him to walk he'll either fall like a log into your arms or slooooooooowly lower himself down to the floor and crawl to you...the stinker. Not that I'm in a hurry for him to walk. He has enough boy qualities that I know things will get significantly harder once he's on two wheels. When Aunt Lorie watched the kids for our trip she texted me saying, "Jack is like a tornado with four limbs." He is into everything. Turn your back for two seconds and he will have pulled everything out of any drawer that doesn't have a child lock, pulled all the books off the bookcase, yanked your dishtowels off the counters, thrown your toothbrush in the toilet and produced an amazingly stinky diaper.

Checking out the work that's happening on the deck. Jack thinks he's the foreman of the job.

My most favorite thing that he does right now involves how he gets into the mudroom. See that door back there? It leads to the mudroom and there is a step down from the carpeted family room onto the hard tile of the mudroom. He knows that he has to back down the step in order to avoid injury (and this little man is no stranger to self induced, exploration caused injuries). He has taken a tumble down that step and is willing to avoid that pain at all costs. So he crawls towards that door but once he gets about SIX feet from it, he'll crawl in a circle like a little dog making a bed. Around, then around again until he's in the right position. Finally he'll stop and start to back that thing up...from six feet away. Crawling backwards is not one of his best skills so he'll often have to stop and realign after bumping into a wall or door. He'll sliiiiide down the step on his belly, be down no longer then .3 seconds when he's back into the living room to find something else to get into or to just try it all again. Love him.