Interior home improvements: paint & walls

Since Jesse's been home, he has been working away on our living room, one of the sunniest rooms and one that I thought was perfectly fine when we first bought the house. It has four wide windows facing east and south, and has one wall of built-in shelves with space for a TV. The walls are white, and the trim was cream, the same cream that was our bedroom trim, the sunroom walls and the kitchen cabinets. The shelves were a cream too, with a rosy pink that I loved:

(Taken on one of our first days!)


Jesse thought that all things cream should be painted white. I didn't really see the point (why waste take time painting off-white stuff regular white? Aren't they the same thing similar? Too similar to bother changing? No?)

Anyway, once we started painting the open shelving and kitchen cabinets white, I immediately loved it and agreed that it brightened up the space and looked much cleaner. But I wasn't completely sold, and didn't fully support the painting of the sunroom walls...but again, once they were painted the room seemed much bigger and...sunnier.

 The living room was the last hurtle, and until January I was subtly shutting Jesse down whenever he suggested painting over the cream. He even went so far as to get paint for the back of the shelves! He wanted to paint over the rose salmon pink!


 I figured if I put him off long enough, he'd give up or even realize he liked the pink behind the books and pictures. But no. He didn't hate it, but would ask every couple weekends if we could start painting them. Then he started painting the trim white, and finished that quicker than I thought he would. So he moved onto making the shelves white...and once he finished THOSE, and since the books were off anyway, he mentioned a navy blue-gray backsplash. So I decided that he wanted the pink gone more than I wanted it there. Also, I could use this later if there's something I really want that he adamantly does not (thinking pretty girly curtains or something in an upstairs bedroom that he hates). I can remind him how I compromised the pretty pink and cream shelves, and hopefully he'll admit defeat with whatever I'm pushing for :)

halfway through:

Also, the darker back is pretty (especially in the daytime) and it goes nicely with our rug and gray couch and dark record player :)

Jesse also rearranged some pictures, and our boring wall is no more! Love the 'F' that Casey got us for Christmas, the thrift store finds, and of course a photo of Pop's.

With that wall housing a few frames, it left room in the corner for a true gem; a photo of Pippa!

A New Year!!!

2013 was definitely an eventful year. It marked our first year of marriage, we purchased our HOUSE, which still seems exciting after three-quarters of a year having it, and we welcomed our love Pippa, who has lit up our lives more than I thought she could!

 
late summer

late fall

I knew having a dog would happen for us, because we both love dogs and we have space for one here (although nowhere fenced in---on the to-do list for 2014!) but I did NOT think a puppy would be happening, nor did I think we'd be getting any animals the first summer of living here. But, one look at that face and of course I was sold. And as she continues to grow (I don't even have a guess of how heavy she is now, but she passed her mom's mere 40 lbs by August) and shed all over our pretty floors and rugs, I just love her more. And can't imagine not having her to explore with and take on long walks each weekend and day of vacation.

Vacation has been so great, and school starts tomorrow...I will miss waking up and taking walks with sweet Pippa each day. It's always beautiful and tiring, and it will be sad to go back to just weekends.

She loves it! The trails are away from the road, so she doesn't need her leash. Free to gallop through orchards and fields and the woods:

In other news, I finally had time (with almost two weeks of vacation!) to sew covers for the glider rocker that I acquired earlier this year from another teacher. It has thick, comfy cushions and a padded footrest that glides! WITH the glider! Your feet move with you. It is a beautiful thing, and ideal for grading papers/having a warm mug of tea after a long day. Maybe it's a teacher thing, but I knew instantly that I loved this chair, and that Jesse would not. BUT he didn't banish it upstairs, and we both agreed that it would be better if it was brighter and not so....dark blue.


SO I found major sale fabric in Keene, which was so fun. The fabric store could easily entertain me for an entire day, but I didn't even browse the 'nice' room that had beautiful fabrics that were really expensive. Instead, I looked only in the sale section, and found a few different fabrics I liked. A few of them were a little bright, but would make really pretty pillows or small curtains for the kitchen window above the sink. Future projects, maybe.

I found this, and somehow the muted mustard-green seemed ideal.

I love the flowers and the color would go in any of the rooms in the house that this chair may end up; a bedroom upstairs, our room, or a living room. I don't have a sewing machine (yet!) so I brought it over to my parents, and my mom showed me how to use one of hers that I believe was made two centuries ago...yes, in the 1800s. It was her grandmothers, and she used it when she was growing up. Needless to say, it's got new wiring :)


I'm grateful for my mother's guidance with the whole process, because I would not have bothered with at least five of the steps that she deemed necessary (such as marking your line, making sure the fabric seams are aligned, etc. etc.)

And after a morning of hard work and more precision than I anticipated, voila!


It's currently in our bedroom, and all I have left to do is attach fabric to the footrest with cute little pins I found (the pillow isn't removable from the wood).

Jesse has been away for most of the past two weeks, observing a new program that they'll take over next year, but he was able to sneak away for Christmas Eve and morning. And then the gifts kept coming, with this arriving in the mail two days ago!

When clearing out the barn, Jesse found a box of records, really cool ones (Fleetwood Mac, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, jazz and 50s collections) that instantly made me want a record player so we could listen. I found some old holiday records when Christmas shopping, and bought them up (less than a dollar for both) and now we can listen! I remember listening to the Peter Pan musical, Harry Belafonte, and french records in my mom's home office when we were younger, and I've always loved the crackly sound of records. I brought the box of records in from the barn early on New Year's Eve morning, when it was a brisk 0˚ and they sound....a bit warbly. Hopefully it's because of the cold, and hopefully we'll be listening to music on that in no time! It already has a home on our shelves near the TV.

Last Saturday was the 4th annual Holiday Party hosted by Kelly and Jake, who are newly engaged!!! It is so exciting, and the party was so fun--all of us girls get together (which seems to happen less and less each year, life is just busy) but the party was extra special this year:

So excited, and I am honored to be part of this :) 

Missing Jesse, but seeing him for New Year's Eve was so special and I am so excited for another year with him. I went to see him in NY where he's been working with Thai Scholar students applying to college. He took a bunch of them skating, and while it wasn't on my list of things I was eager to do (I would have packed my skates), it was on a beautiful mountaintop and actually fun. Jesse was pulling kids around the rink, showing them how to stop (and stand...and move) and he was so patient and encouraging, I was reminded of how he was the first summer I worked with him when he taught us how to surf... He is really just the sweetest. He's worked so hard growing his business and I am so proud of him and proud I get to be his wife. As sappy as it sounds, seeing him in his rental (figure) skates, helping his students attempt to skate around the rink reminded me how great he is; at his job, at skating :), at working with kids from all over the place. 

Excited for 2014!