Happy Holidays!

New decorations this year - window wreaths to match the door wreaths (so thrilled that Pottery Barn got them back in stock!), and one of those red/green laser lights. Of course with a toddler who loves Christmas lights, we had to put out everything. The lights are mismatched and the application is sloppy but hey it's the twinkle that counts.

Indoors, we moved the tree to the fireplace wall (we rotate every once in a while, it seems) and went with silver ribbons instead of red. We got a new star when the old one decided not to turn on. Most exciting - with our family complete, we all got new stockings thus forever christening us as Mommy and Daddy.

Our village inherited an ice rink (we mostly keep it off because it plays music continuously when on) and our thrilled toddler helped me set the whole thing up and requested "more people" (little does she know that this village is just a small subset of the stuff I keep at my parents' house...). The cats aren't thrilled to lose their window seat but have found other places to sleep for the holiday season, fortunately.

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Dead as a Door...bell

Can you tell the difference between these two pictures? It's more obvious in person:

On the top, our doorbells is glowing. On the bottom, it isn't.

Right around when we were getting the electrical work redone for our new room, our doorbell stopped working. There had been a short - the crew admitted to that. Though they didn't think the two were related.

Well whatever it was, we now have no electrical power to the doorbell, which had magically just worked, emitting a constant glow and chiming an actual manual bell.

Our electrician friend managed to get it working partially - one of the two bell tones seemed permanently fried but the other started working  if the whole unit was loaded up with C batteries. So we got a "ding" instead of a "ding dong." That seemed a decent fix.

 The problem was that it was short-lived. Within a week or two, the doorbell was dead again.

Apparently the constant glow sucks up 4 C batteries in about 10 days. Obviously not something we wanted to sustain.

So we're back to no doorbell. This has not been a bad thing what with a newborn napping at various points of the day. But because it's there and people expect it to work, it has also meant that we haven't always answered for people we actually want to see, like our neighbors (by now I think most of them know it's broken). I probably at least should put a little sign on it or a piece of tape.

The options now are to purchase a fake add-on bell or pay an electrician to fix it, which might involve a whole new unit and new wiring. Neither are great solutions. Since the builders for the new room denied it was related even then, I don't think we can convince them now to come fix it, so we are on our own for whatever costly solution we decide on.

But I miss that glow...

Empty (?) Basement

We briefly tried keeping tools in the garage, once. But separated from the house by 3 locks and a messy breezeway that required shoes to pass through, not to mention a coat, meant that we never wanted to go out there. So we would bring in what we needed - a screwdriver, hammer, etc. - and then it would in the kitchen or otherwise inappropriate spot for weeks before we finally put it back. That got old quick. So when we acquired a fancy tool chest, we agreed we would use it more if it went in the basement.

Now that the garage is so much more accessible to the rest of the house and separated by only a simple toggle lock, we wanted to start making more use of it. And thanks to our new attic over the garage, we've been able to clear out some space. That meant the tool chest could finally migrate to its rightful place.

We love it there, and it makes so much more sense. D even hopes that with better organizing and as we move more upstairs, he can really start to use the work bench area along the back wall. It's already been built, we just have to clear it out.

And that suddenly meant more room in the basement, too. We cleared out the additional drawers (and moved what we couldn't trash out to that oh-so-spacious attic) to create another totally empty basement wall. Plus not having a giant metal tool chest full of sharp tools made the room a lot more child friendly. So what did we do? Immediately buy a gigantic jungle gym.

We don't really intend to make the basement into "the playroom."  We'd rather have the kids playing up on the main floor and don't want the toys stored on a separate floor where we'd have to haul them up and down. But it is a really nice space right now to let her climb and run and spin and get out the energy that, this time of year, she might not be able to exhaust by playing at a playground.

Find new space, fill new space.

We really have to start clearing out from what feels like a massive accumulation phase.

A Plan and a Few Random Things

We caved in and called professional help from the Container Store for organizational advice. While we work back and forth with her on some ideas, we realized that our number one plan should be thinning out our own unneeded stuff and giving up that space to the kids. We have so many bookshelves and cabinets already that will work fairly well for hiding toys, but they are full of old binders, magazines, and other things. Between the added attic storage in our garage for things we don't want to throw out but rarely (if ever) need and a new sense of having to throw out things we will truly never need (is there really any reason to keep my notes from my high school AP Calculus class when it all looks like gibberish now? probably not) might give us at least some solution at no cost. Then at least we won't need quite so many additional shelves and drawers. So we will see how that goes.

In the meantime, we have made a few small adjustments to our home decor that I'm excited to share. After looking online for a Turkish lamp, I found this beauty at a local store and knew the price was not too high, so it came home with me immediately. I've wanted one for ages but just did not have a good place for it. Good thing we have a brand new room!

Here's some more eye candy of my lamp. It has a warm LED bulb in it so the glass stays cool to the touch and isn't using much energy. I just want to figure out a way to better hide the switch, which is down about one foot along the power cord. 

Isn't it gorgeous? At least now I have a nightlight for when I need to come downstairs with a screaming baby at 3am...(silver lining?):

We also changed up our hallway. It used to have pictures strung up with yarn to minimize holes in the wall (we don't have the white paint so we wouldn't be able to fill and touch up if necessary). Here's the before picture, from this post - which totally coincidentally was exactly 6 years ago from today.

Unlike what I said in my post about refreshing the pictures on a regular basis, they were the exact same last week as they were 6 years ago. So much for that.

We inherited a beautiful picture that a family member painted (two actually - one is waiting to be framed) and decided the hallway was a perfect place. I think it makes the place feel a little more grown up than the sort of "just out of college" look of the unframed pictures hanging on yarn, don't you?

And not a "decor" update exactly but this Thanksgiving we had a roaring fire in the fire place thanks to our old oak tree. It is aged and dry and we have lots of it for the winter. Gone but not forgotten:

Thanks and Giving

Been doing lots of small upgrades and decorating things around the house but every time I sit down to write, I realize I'm short a picture and the light isn't right (or I have a baby asleep on my lap - that's a pretty common excuse these days). So allow me a post of a slightly different nature and a question for you, my dear reader (as I assume there is just one of you).

I've been blogging as a "new" homeowner now for over 7 years, so I probably should remove the "new" from the moniker. But there is never really a stage where any homeowner feels like they know it all and don't need help or are *done* and don't need to continue to work on things. It just doesn't happen. I think that what starts to remove the newness of the thing (besides having lived somewhere along enough that the things you upgraded or replaced need upgrading or replacing again...) is that you build a team of people you can call when things get rough or when you need a little extra help. The plumber, the electrician, the roofer - these folks come and fix things that we can't, no matter how "experienced" we are. The chimneysweep and the energy company that comes to service our boiler annually - they keep everything running. We are grateful that in many cases, we know who we can call. Or, if we don't, our neighbors do. And don't even get me started on how incredibly grateful we are for our amazing neighbors.

This year we needed a little extra help, with a new baby and a messy toddler that takes up all our free time (because of course we'd much rather spend time with her than spend it cleaning, raking, etc.). So we hired regular help to clean our house and keep our yard looking good (ok, maybe not good, maybe just not embarrassing). And we are grateful they are there and we are grateful that, for the moment anyway, we can afford it.

So what should I do to express my gratitude? I'm always afraid that any extra money will be the wrong amount of money: maybe so little as to seem stingy. "Stuff" or cards or homemade gifts seems like it might be unwanted, just unwelcome junk or calories. Is it better to give something/anything extra that expresses how thankful I am to have their help? How do you put a price tag on "thank you"?

So many leaves - where would we be without help?!

And this is not to mention all the other non-home-related helpers in my life: massage therapists, financial planners, teachers, nurses, etc that sometimes go the extra mile.

So tell us your tipping/giving ideas. What has worked for you and what hasn't? What would you want to receive?

Blind Saga Resolved

We resolved our blinds saga by throwing a lot of money at the problem. By the time we decided the blinds.com blinds weren't working out, we were already fully using the room for baby number 2 (surprise, we have a new human "addition" as well as a new room addition). The bright sunlight needed filtering periodically during the day when it shone into the crib, and the street light needed blocking when one of us brought her down to sleep there in the middle of the night so that at least one parent could catch some precious zzzzzs. Without any willingness to shop around ourselves, we brought in a local decorating store that had recently advertised that they did house calls for window dressing.

And so they came with binders. Lots of little samples that could be un-velcroed and held up to the window to see the way they filtered the sunlight (thank goodness it was sunny that day).

We picked a lovely gray that complemented the wall color in a cellular blind that can be raised and lowered from the top and bottom. We decided not to pay extra to have them installed for us, despite the frustration from installing the set from blinds.com. Fortunately, as we expected and hoped, these were much simpler. D had them both up within 20 minutes or so, with minimal hardware.

I love that we can raise and lower them from both ends, so we can get full sunlight but privacy (bottom half covered only) or as much light filtering as we need. They are magnetic at the top, making it easy even for someone short like me to snap the top edge into place.

We couldn't be happier, though I doubt I would go this route again, given the price. We definitely would have shopped around and done it on our own if the first order hadn't taken so long and we hadn't been in a rush for blinds in there. It is a sign of how much we love the room though - we couldn't wait to be able to use it around the clock.

Happy Halloween!

Well I was going to post about our window blinds but this seemed more appropriate. Happy Halloween!

(One quick addition on a home improvement sort of topic - we learned that a drywall saw is excellent at carving pumpkins!)

A Blind Saga

Our new room overlooks our driveway and feels pretty public, especially at night with the light on, so one of our first priorities was to install blinds. We wanted very simple window dressing, just enough to give us privacy but still allow a lot of light. We opted for blinds on naked windows instead of curtains or other drapery. You may remember we even started planning before the room was actually done. We chose our fabric from blinds.com, sent off the order, and waited.

And waited, and waited. The blinds had an arrival estimate of late August through September 6. They arrived exactly 1 week AFTER the estimated window, on September 13. Strike 1.

The instructions for the blinds were written originally for corded blinds, with installation of cordless blinds a sloppy and inaccurate afterthought. We were so confused that we thought we had been given the wrong hardware and called customer service for help. The person had no idea how the blinds were supposed to be installed or what our hardware kit should look like, so we eventually ended the call in frustration. Strikes 2 and 3.

OK, but perhaps if we could figure it out ourselves then we would be happy with the final product.

First thing to notice - the rolling fabric is very minimal but the cassette that holds it is giant and generic, which looks sloppy given how much we paid for it. In fact, we paid extra because it was supposed to provide a finished look at the top of the window.

Eh, nope - it sticks out from the window (despite having to give them the precise depth when ordering) and sits a little crooked.

The bottom of the blind is pretty  low quality too. Some kind of plastic strip glued inside the (cheap and vinyl/plastic feeling) fabric.

In the end, after over an hour of two people trying to figure out installation without the help of instructions, we were just thoroughly disappointed by the bad quality of the blinds (which were not all that cheap). If we wanted cheap blinds, we figured, we would have run to Lowes or Home Depot and at least gotten them immediately, and not a week late.

Fortunately blinds.com did not try to "fix" their order with suggestions of upgrades or recuts. They asked that we donate the blinds to Habitat for Humanity or other non-profit building organization and scan the receipt in, and then they would reimburse us. We did and they did and that was the end of it.

Except that our room still felt horribly on-display once it got dark out (which, given the advancing calendar, started at about 6:30pm). So it was back to the drawing board with all that time wasted. To be continued....

What is to be done?

I'm trying not to hyperventilate when I look at the toy disaster in the office and trying to find it funny that one of the only times I got no comments on a blog post was my last post when I asked for help on how to organize it. I take this to mean that no one has ever found a good solution to the chaos created by small children (except making one room a "play room" and just ignoring the problem).

We had one or two ideas since then, turning, as usual, to Ikea. We thought about using a Kallax (successor to the ever-poplar Expedit) and baskets, to as least corral the small toys, books, and craft items. Since we also want to make this a usable standing desk space, we are considering getting this unit (plus a few more to each side two or three squares high).

The problem then is that the desk sticks out into the room. D has argued that we could put larger toys underneath, but that doesn't keep them out of sight (my goal) and takes up an awful lot of the floor.

I suggested sticking just to the Kallax, on its side, and then a converting standing desk for a laptop like this:

But D thinks they are ugly (I don't really care how they look, but I appreciate that he does).

So, toy storage plus standing desk. No more ideas. Between that and the linen closet upstairs that is a complete mess, I've been debating paying money for professional help, like this from the Container Store. I'm still not sure how I feel about that though - paying someone else to come up with an idea that I can probably do myself (eventually) with the help of Pinterest and other internet decorating sources. Has anyone ever paid professionals to help them organize? I'd be interested to hear about your experiences. Also still seeking ideas for the problem area itself, if you have any thoughts.

Disaster Zone - suggestions needed

In the spring, if you'd have asked, I would have said our office space was a disaster zone: a mess of random papers and other junk that made the desk unusable (which was fine because no one needed to use it anyway). It wasn't for lack of trying. We have had a decent file cabinet and workable filing system for a while, plus we try to print and save as little as possible. But sentimental knick knacks, a cardboard box of baby photos from our parents, old cables and hard drives that aren't quite trash (or needs to be destroyed/wiped first), well, it takes up space:

With Herculean effort, we cleared the desk in anticipation of giving it to someone else who needed it more. We mostly found homes for everything (or stacked things in the corner) and gave some of it away (seriously how did we have at least 5 packages of lined paper?? do people even take hard copy notes anymore). And we did give the desk away. At least, we tried. It got halfway out the door and then gave up the ghost for good. It was a Craigslist Ikea find that had already moved from our old apartment, so one more move was apparently too much. So we moved it to the curb for trash pick-up then, instead of to its intended recipient.

So did our disaster zone improve? Not one bit. It just transformed. During the work on the breezeway (a room we have now taken to calling the "sun room" since it's beautifully sunny in there), we had to move all of the toddler's toys out of the living room. And so they migrated to the office, where they promptly become "out of sight, out of mind." It's quite nice having no toys (ok, who am I kidding, let's says *fewer* toys) in the living room. But now the office is a mess!

The small things that can be categorized are more or less "away." There's a train box, a puzzle box, a lego box, etc.

We could use perhaps a little more space for boxes like these, but the real problem is there are also tons of big toys. Toys that don't fit into cabinets. Multiple strolls around Ikea have failed to provide inspiration. Pinterest searches haven't helped. And so my question o you is how do we organize the toys so that this room is not a giant mess. We have one almost empty wall and would love to hide these toys in or behind some kind of furniture to pretend like grownups are still making the decorating decisions around here.

So put your ideas in a comment and help us out! And yes, while "throw the toys away/donate them/hide them in her bedroom" might seem like good options, they're not in the plans right now. So let's assume we are keeping them and just need a way to store them more efficiently in the office. Bonus points if whatever organizational system you suggest is also toddler accessible, to avoid having a constant stream of "mommy, can you get me my X?" "daddy, I want Y." and also lets us make *her* put them away.

New beds everywhere

We have some new beds around here! First, in an effort to make the guest bed less of a literal climb to get into at night, we got a 4'' low-profile boxspring. It was build it yourself but we're getting pretty used to that these days (seriously, building that Ikea Friheten sofa was pretty awful). It was straightforward and much cheaper than buying a pre-built one. We actually struggled to find a wood-slat boxspring. Ikea doesn't sell them (yes, we pretty much just start out there by default) because their mattress are all designed for their own beds, which don't need boxsprings. And most mattress stores charge a fortune.

We also bought a new mattress, the medium firm Myrbacka latex (Ikea of course). It was an equally awkward drive home as last time, but fortunately this time we enlisted the help of friends with a bigger vehicle, roof rack, and more skill at tying knots. The new one is much firmer than the one we tried out at the store, which I guess isn't surprising given all the use the in-store one gets. Because of that, and also just to protect it, we bought a plush topper for it.

In the end, the bed is over 6'' lower than it was before, meaning that guests don't need to hop or use a stool to get in or out. And toddler spills from climbing are a bit less dangerous (yup, those have happened).

And speaking of the toddler, this one graduated from a crib with dropped sides to her very own bed! More building...yay...I honestly was willing to consider buying from somewhere other than Ikea, but the little one asked for a blue bed and lo and behold, they actually had one (yes, she is spoiled and usually gets what she wants). And while it was a bit pricy for Ikea, it was still in line with or even cheaper than most other options. And so we got her the Busing extendable bed, which sadly necessitated buying the mattress that goes with it, the Vyssa Vinka, because it's Ikea so of course that means proprietary sizing. At its fullest position, it will be a twin bed. But for now and in its middle of three positions, the size is proprietary. Right now it is actually shorter than her crib bed, though it is wider. She's tiny and keeping it at its smallest setting means less space for her to accidentally roll out or lose her toys. She's pretty pleased with it, though I think her favorite part may have been picking out sheets.

For the first time in a long time, we were missing a piece of hardware from the kit. It wasn't critical to the construction but it was an important component to keeping the side piece near her head stable (the pieces designed to keep her from tumbling out of bed). And of course because of the way it was constructed, it had to be added during the building process and not afterwards. So we followed the (new?) process of requesting the missing piece from Ikea's website. I'm pretty sure that stores used to just stock some extra pieces at the customer service desk, but that does not appear to be the case anymore.

The process was going to take 2-3 weeks. We couldn't wait. Fortunately, it's a common-enough piece and we borrowed one from our bookshelves:

And then, just about when we'd forgotten we'd even ordered a replacement, this arrived in the mail:

Yes, apparently spare Ikea parts travel all the way from Sweden...I find this both delightful and very very strange.

For the Birds

This spring, our toddler decorated a bird house and we set it up on a shepherd's hook outside our picture window. To our surprise and delight, a mama bird took up residence pretty quickly. We saw her flying back and forth with twigs and things and built herself a nest. And then, abruptly, she was gone.

We thought that maybe there was too much foot traffic in the front yard. Otherwise we're not sure why she abandoned her home after about a week. The house was vacant the rest of the season (not surprising).

Then this fall with the new room slowly becoming our favorite place to hang out, we decided to take advantage of the good view of the backyard out the french doors and we hung up a bird feeder (same shepherd's hook, since we removed the house in the front).

Originally this post was going to be a call for help - after several days, we had no visitors. But suddenly yesterday:

The birds seem to have gotten the memo. We've seen blue jays and robins and whatever these little fellows are. We have a bird book by the door now to help identify them and we've put a little bowl of water out as well. The best part is we can enjoy these guys from inside our new room from the comfort of our sofa. Time to buy a better telephoto camera lens I guess.

Speaking of sofa and new room, we finally unfurled our new rug and LOVE IT. This is the ombre teal rug by CB2. We went with the smaller size (5'x8') after realizing the larger one (8'x10') would cover up almost all our new wood floor. And it fits beautifully. I love the way the shading follows the south-facing window, so it's like the sunlight on the floor (we tried it the other way but this direction was the clear winner). It perfectly matches one of our living room throw pillows, so it's more in line with the blues in the other room than I thought it would be.

Love love love.

Breezeway 15: done! and swanky closet

Finished finished finished! Final check is in the mail and the decorating has begun!

We have the rug but can't lay it down for another week or so while the floors totally finish curing. It's held up the rest of the minor purchases because I want to make sure I match the blue tone well. We're sticking mostly to the same reds and turquoises as the living room, but I think this rug will be a bit greener than some of the blues in the next room. The blinds should be arriving today too. I know it will take time to accumulate just the right things to hang on the walls and don't want to rush it. Still, it's frustrating to have empty walls now just begging to be filled.

Another small project we did this summer was adding the ceiling medallion to our swanky closet chandelier. It covers up the orange insulation though it does make us realize how dingy the closet ceiling is. Not that painting the ceiling in the closet is much of a priority.

While totally unnecessary, this fancy addition makes me smile whenever I go in the closet. A fun little update.