The Perspective of a Child

The following conversation was one that Ella had with a man we met at the pool on vacation.  We were sitting close by and got to hear this lovely encounter:


Ella: Wow, you look old. (don't worry, I'll work on her social skills later. Luckily he took it well.  I'm not even sure how this came up but they had been talking previously
)
Man: How old do you think I am?

Ella: 25

Man: Well, I'm actually 67

Ella: 67! Gee, that's almost 100!

Seriously, I think she went from being his best friend to his worst enemy. From you look 25 to being almost 100. Gotta love the perspective of a child.

Home Tour: "R" House

Okay friends, without further ado, here it is...

HOME TOUR (Phase I)- I say Phase I because I'm sure over time I'll make changes, we have plans to paint and add wall treatments, so I know it will evolve over time, but for now I am beyond pleased with how nicely it's turned out.

Our eat in kitchen.  The curtains are a beautiful blue color.  It's amazing because during the day with natural light they look like the same color as the walls (pictured below), but by evening they look gray blue (pictured above) and contrast with the wall.  I don't mind either way.

 looking from kitchen into living room.  We LOVE LOVE LOVE our ceiling fan light fixture.  Yes, that's also a ceiling fan.  I went home from the store dreaming about that fixture, so it went on the must have list.  We also love our Craigs list find leather couches, and our new rug from RugsUSA.com. And yes, that's also my laundry basket sitting out.  I'm a working mom, so this house gets lived in too.  That's just how it is.

 We love our hard wood floors and I think our table lamps in the entry hall make a big statement.  Also note all the baskets used throughout to add storage.  Town homes are not known for storage and ours is no exception.  I have used a lot of strategically placed baskets and it helps a lot, plus it looks pretty.  When function and beauty come together I get giddy.  There could be no better union in my Design Book.

A quick "before photo" taken just a week after moving in.

And the "after photo"This is the view you get when you come to the top of the stairs.  I love the wall color.  After months of studying Pinterest I ended up going with Comfort Gray by Sherwin Williams.  It's a soothing green actually, but if you love green with a gray undertone, then this is a good option.

This pillow became my color inspiration for the entire main floor.  I couldn't decide between blue and green, and I loved that this palette incorporated both.  It brought in citrus greens and softer gray green tones and steel blues too, and of course it brings in the dark brown that I knew we'd incorporate with the flooring and couches.  I think it has come together quite nicely if I do say so myself.

The table is an Ethan Allen hand me down from my parents that we decided to paint that lovely blue green shade with Annie Sloan chalk paint.  I actually combined Robins Egg Blue with a grey cream color to get the shade you see on the table.  The mirrors above my kitchen table were a purchase from Kirklands.   I loved the idea of making them mirror the windows in the home so that they would add dimension and reflect light.  The kitchen rug was a fun find from Target.  The bench is another Kirklands steal.  The burlap table runner was an Etsy find.

 And here you can see our kitchen.  We just love having a dishwasher finally, having double ovens, and having that open concept.  The dark cabinets are a nice complement to the other features in the home.  I'll take more photos of the kitchen during the day when the lighting is better.

 This mirror is a Home Goods find and I knew the instant I saw it that I would love having it at the top of the stairs as you came up onto the main floor.  With the Benjamin Moore, Revere Pewter, as a backdrop, it's just the right touch.

The light fixtures that the builder provided were a no go for me.  When I saw these Edison Lights at Lowe's I knew they were the right fit for "R House."  

This is the shelf Shaun built for the entry.  I was inspired by pictures on Pinterest, and from there we figured out that if we bought three separate pieces and the hooks, we could assemble this ourselves.  It's proven to be another very functional and beautiful statement piece in the house.  Aaaah, this makes my heart happy.

This was the "before."  A blank canvas...And the "after."  

And yet ANOTHER view.  Can you tell how excited I am about this shelf.  We might eventually by a bench with storage to go below, but all in good time.

And since this home tour is taking place in the fall, I had to show off my Autumn outdoor display.  Simple but nice.  Just how I like it.

Now we move down to the basement rec room... 

The view when you come down the hall

I wanted this room to be comfy and cozy.  I still have plans to paint it and the color is still being carefully considered, but something in the gray family.

This room also serves as the girls play room.  I wanted it to be a place the whole family could come and watch a show together, where the girls could come and color, play games, have friends over.  This little corner tucked away by the back door was a perfect spot to put the girls bookshelves and many of their toys.  The magazine rack from Home Goods is wonderful for holding coloring books and other craft papers.

I love these gray pillow accents from Target.  I'm thinking I may take the walls and make them that dark.  It could be really stunning.  Or I may keep them the same pewter color that I have going down the hall (see below).  What do you think?

And lastly, some work we've done in the Den as we like to call it.

 Loving our chair from our couch set in here as a comfy place to sit and read, or talk with whoever is sitting at the desk.  The lamp was a great find at Home Goods.  It makes me happy just to turn it on at night.  The topiary in the back was a good steal of a deal from Tuesday Mornings.  Can you tell I love my discount Designer stores?

 This lamp was a must have from the moment I saw it at Home Goods.  If pieces can speak to you, this one spoke to me.  I  saw it and knew it would have a home on my craigslist find pottery barn desk.  As you can see, it's quite a statement piece.  Shaun hates it, but that's okay because I've gotten about five other compliments on it, so obviously he's been vetoed:)

Decorating the shelves proved to be quite a challenge.  We needed them to be functional and hold our collection of books and scrapbooks, but we also wanted them to be decorative and display treasured family photos.  I think it turned out pretty nicely, thanks to a lot of help from Shaun's sister.


So that's it for the Home Tour so far.  More to come.  "R House" may be it's own blog soon if I can find the time to devote to making it nice.  If you have projects you want me to help you with and you live locally, give me a budget and I'd love to make you part of my Design Blog.  For now my own house will have to suffice as Guinea pig.And these are our IKEA built ins.  The floor plan called for this room to be the formal dining room, but we knew with the way we live a Den would be far more useful and functional.  We completely scored when we found the beautiful wood desk on Craigs List, and from searching Pinterest all summer I discovered this built in idea from IKEA.

Our Weekend Warriors, Grandma and Grandpa C

So again I admit to being far overdue with this post, but moving has thrown a kink into my blogging time among many other things.  I'm starting to get back into a groove now. I've been getting back to jogging and going to the gym, planning meals, and all the other daily things that for a while had fallen by the wayside.  It feels good to be getting back to some of the things I love, and not only focusing on the house.

Two weeks after moving in, Shaun's parents came to visit.  Initially when they bought their tickets, we were supposed to have been in the house for a few months, but with the delay in moving, it ended up becoming what I like to call a "Weekend Warrior" visit.  Let me preface the pictures to come by saying that Shaun's parents, my lovely in-laws, are AMAZING!  They seem to have boundless energy, they are fantastic "do it yourselfers," and they could market themselves as contractors they do such a good job.  Shaun's talked so much about his dad and his ability to fix just about anything that now when anything in our house breaks Ella will say, "I guess we need Grandpa C to come and fix it for us."  Even if it's one of her toys that's broken she will say this, it's really quite cute.

So they came, they worked, and then it was time to leave.  They did in three days what would have taken us ten days to do on our own.  Oh, and on top of all of that, we threw Amelia a birthday party, and we threw a Thrive Food Storage Party.  We really only provided the kitchen.  My mother in law hosted it.  For those of you that are unfamiliar with Thrive Food Storage, it's amazing food that will keep for forty years if you do not open it.  A good investment for a rainy day.  Anyway, we did all that too.

The girls with their dad and Grandpa

My beauty queens and the horse Grandma C bought Ella.  Her "prize" as Grandma liked to call it.

 One of my favorites of all time of Amelia and her Grandma

 Our bedroom is starting to take shape.  You can see my paint samples to the side of the bedpost.  That will be a later project.  Also note our fan with a bit of bling on the end.  Love that little detail.

One of the biggest projects of the weekend were these bookshelves.  Shaun and his dad assembled the shelves (thank you Billy bookcases from IKEA) on Friday, and Shaun's sister, mom and I decorated them Saturday.  I have to give most of the credit to Shaun's sister, Heidi.  Seriously the talent that runs in his family is limitless.

Another big project was converting the wall on the side of the oven into a chalkboard wall.  That meant buying sheet metal, cutting it to size, screwing it in place, and painting the whole thing with chalkboard paint.  Finished project= magnetic chalkboard wall in my kitchen that's turned into a great place to display art, the girls to draw, and for me to keep organized.  Priceless!  See below.

 Among other things, Grandma painted our kitchen and living room, they did our bookshelves, arranged a photo wall, did the chalk board wall, went shopping for many items you will see in later posts, hung fixtures, and helped us discover and fix a leak in our dishwasher.  My goodness if only I had half the talent they possess.  I'm so grateful for all of their help. We are extremely blessed that both of us have very supportive and loving parents.  We couldn't do a lot of what we've done without my parents too.  They just help in a different way.

 And remember we celebrated a third birthday party in there too.  Amelia loved having a party with her family there.  She had BOTH sets of grandparents, her Aunt Heidi and Uncle Paul, her cousins Maddie and Quincy, and her friend, Riley.  It was a super success!  We had a rainbow birthday party with a rainbow cake and rainbow decorations.  She was thrilled.

 The girls enjoyed getting to know their Aunt Heidi a little better too.  She was so good with them and loved reading them stories and teaching them some sign language.  

So there you have it, it was a whirlwind of a weekend, and we filled it with about a week's worth of projects.  We needed another week with them here just so we could actually visit.  Hopefully we can see them again soon.  It's no fun having family so far away.  It does make us appreciate what time we get with them though.  So thank you Pat and Craig for coming and being our "weekend warriors" with special help from Aunt Heidi and her family too.  We miss you guys!

Calderwood Vacation 2013

I think I must have been getting ESP back in the summer when I decided to book our VA Beach Family vacation for the week of October 8th, because it just so happened my husband is off anyway due to the lovely government shut down.  Hey, if you're going to have to take vacation to get  a paycheck, you should actually TAKE a vacation I say.  So I'm trying to see it as a blessing, and not worry too much about what will happen if this shutdown continues much longer.  I'm saying prayers for our leaders that they might start acting like adults instead of a bunch of children, but in the mean time we are trying to see the silver lining in this ever darkening cloud of the world around us.

We LOVED our vacation to the beach, despite the fact that we were there catching the after effects of a tropical storm.  Yep, not a single ray of sun was seen this past week, but we had fun despite the weather.  We had a great place to stay in with it's own full kitchen and separate bedroom.  We had a balcony overlooking the four pools, all of of which were heated and glorious even in the rain.  Two of the four were hot tub warm and I will fully admit that's where I spent most of my time.  The other two pools they kept at a comfortable 84 degrees, so the girls enjoyed playing in those.

We arrived on Tuesday, which also happened to be our 9th anniversary.  We celebrated by going out to dinner at one of the local seafood restaurants, Bubba's, which was actually quite nice.  Of course the girls were with us, but we were so happy to have our vacation ahead of us, and it was a nice way to celebrate nine years together, especially since on our honeymoon we also went to the beach (although the weather that year was PERFECT).  One of the best parts of the trip was snuggling up and watching movies after we put the girls to bed every night.  

Wednesday the weather was so bad we couldn't even begin to brave the outdoors, so we headed just a mile south to the Virginia Aquarium.  The girls LOVED seeing all of the various see animals, and they especially loved that it was so hands on.  They got to pet sting rays, hermit crabs, and see all varieties of fish.  The crocodiles gave them a scare when they snapped at them as they came up to the window.  It made all of us jump, but poor Ella started to cry.  The 3-D movie also scared her a bit when one of the fish jumped out and ate a smaller fish.  It's a good thing we were in the back row because she was ready to bolt of out of the theater.  All in all I think we made quite a memory that day.  When we got back to the condo, Shaun took the girls out swimming in the rain.  They LOVED it!

 Shaun in the I-max theater... ready for his Under the Sea adventure!

NERD!

My cute family!

The crocodile that tried to eat my children.

Thursday the weather was a little better.  Overcast and windy, but no rain.  So we decided to enjoy walks on the beach and more swimming in the pool.  We even rented one of those four person bikes and rode it on the boardwalk.  Let me tell you, harder than it looks!  But the girls LOVED it.

Just look at this handsome man I've been married to for nine years!  He's a keeper:)

These two are keepers too.  I'm so blessed.

By Wednesday evening we saw some patches of clear sky, but they never lasted more than a minute or two.

In our condo the girls enjoyed the big jetted Jacuzzis.

Friday it appeared the weather wasn't going to let up, so after checking out we decided to head home via Jamestown.  Shaun and I had gone many years ago and we really enjoyed it, so we thought the girls would love seeing all of the live exhibits Jamestown has to offer.  

The girls really enjoyed seeing all of the exhibits, but they liked the boats the best.

 What a beautiful family I have!

So life tried to give us lemons with a government shut down and crummy weather, but we decided to make some pretty sweet lemonade I'd say!  I'm so grateful for all of our blessings, and I'm most especially grateful for my beautiful family.