We can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

We are now getting to the fun stuff...slowly but surely...paint, flooring, lighting are happening or are about to!! Prior, it was a lot of behind the scenes work and prepping.

The kitchen has gone from this

 

to this...with lots of creamy paint.  The island is a really cool slate gray. We are also doing some kitchen built ins in that color.

 

The concrete countertops will look something like this and we will be installed next week but with one large farm sink.

Our floors are also arriving next week too...real barn wood from Vintage Timberworks.
I cannot decide if I would prefer the top one that is more rustic in nature or sand them more like the bottom sample. I am little nervous too because it is very authentic stuff.  Some batches are more gray or more red with most of it being white oak.  I just hope it is not too red.

Grant's bathroom looks pretty different. A sea of pink before. Poor guy.

Now, dark gray subway tile and ceramic tile that looks like wood flooring.

This sink console will be installed but we will paint the base a creamy white.

The guest room was all beige and dirty carpet.

It is now a creamy white and wide plank wood floors will be installed soon.

 

 

 

I am excited for the powder room. This is its currents state..ha ha.

I want to put a concrete sink like this in there..but single faucet and smaller.

On a piece of wood..kind of like this.

 

 

And the whole house is getting painted

 

We chose loggia by Sherwin Williams..the bottom sample

 

The whole house looked like this before..wallpaper everywhere and dirty carpet

We are now getting to work on the exterior.  Painting is about to begin.  The exterior will be creamy by Sherwin Williams and the trim and shutters will be a slate gray that we had matched to our new sliding and pocket doors. You can kind of see the samples in the below photo.

 

 

There will be lots of things happening next week:)  Can't Wait!!

xo,
Paige

 

Does your home make you happy?

I just saw this on houzz the other day...does your home make you happy?  It really is the perfect question. A pretty simple one and one I have thought about many times without asking the actual question.

To me, it is about a feeling.  A feeling you get when you are looking at a magazine.  Or a feeling you get when you go to a house or a dinner party. Or, as a real estate agent, a feeling you get when you walk through somebody's home.  Or even driving down the street...the house that makes you say, "I would LOVE to live there."  You imagine the kind of life that is lived there. A feeling of warmth, stylish, charming or cool or it could be feeling of sadness, cold, or just not being your style at all.

This house below makes me very happy.  We are currently renting a house in a darling beach community while we remodel our fixer rural home.  Every time, I walk by this particular house..I just get a feeling of Awww!!  Besides being so darling, there are a couple of features that really make my heart happy..  #1-The gas entry lanterns.   And #2 the string lights on the upstairs balcony.  When we walk by on a chilly evening being Peeping Tom's, I picture the happy homeowners sitting by a roaring fire with a glass of wine:) Does it really get much more charming?

 

On the flipside, it is so sad when you see a home that you know was amazing during it's prime but because of circumstances (foreclosure, death, etc.) the house has no longer been cared for. While this is always sad, it also equals opportunity for one lucky or savvy home buyer.   These homes can be given a new life.  If you have the means and time, it is amazing what a few coats of paint, ripping up old carpet and cleaning/sprucing up the yard can do. 

And with so many laminate and less expensive and engineered products out there..i.e. Home Depot's distressed Brown Hickory is only $1.88 psf and if they  installed the "wood" flooring it would be less than $3/psf.  So, for a 2,000 esf house, you could install all new floors in your home for approximately $6,000. While it is a chunk of money, to have new flooring in your entire house...is so worth it and is such a great return on your investment!

  And wide plank:)

There are also many multi-million dollar homes with beautiful views but the interior style does not make me "happy".  Either too stark, too modern, too ornate or looks like it is straight from the 60's(ok I am getting picky, hugh?!) And, a feeling of coldness, will just consume me. But, frankly, it does not matter the feeling I get when I see a home but how the inhabitant feels.  How does your home make you feel?  What would you do differently if you could? 

When I see that "perfect" home, an overwhelming feeling comes over me .It also has a lot to do with the home environment or "feel".  Like Tracy Porter's home and Brooke Gianetti's homes that are filled with lots of animal life, love, comfort, laughter and, of course, style! I am definitely attracted to more of a farm and rural environment.

With all of that being said, my "perfect" house is from the movie, It's Complicated. We all know this house, as it was crazy on the blogosphere several years ago, but it is the one that I keep coming back to every time.  While there are not any animals in the movie (or maybe 1), they certainly could fit right in...I believe these images below are from Hooked on Houses. It is so charming!!!  I love how the house was beautiful yet understated,  simple yet layered, and had a very easy and flowing floor plan. 

I do not believe our old house made me "happy".  However,  I was very grateful for it which I believe are two different things. The things that bugged me-the inefficient floor plan (for our family life-it could work very well for somebody else), ornate features, perfect neighborhood, strict HOA, and overall "cookie cutterness" which I am far from!

So, what house was going to make us happy? A rural fixer that was smaller and charming and we could make it our own. It took us a good 9 months to figure it out and get the courage to go for it and put our house on the market. I was a little scared. Scared of failure and I guess scared of success, too!  Scared of the unknown.  Scared of uprooting our children.  But in the end...we had to follow our dream and our hearts.

 After some hiccups getting our house into escrow, we finally did...first step accomplished. Then we made offers on several houses that we thought were the "one".  But we (as the Buyers) could not agree on pricing (or even come close for that matter) with the Sellers, and my husband and I were not agreeing on location and I was becoming so disappointed and quite concerned. I was beginning to think that I was crazy for uprooting my family to follow my dream. And, now it was too late.  We had signed a contract and could not back out. 

We had no choice but to move forward and make the best of it.  We decided to rent a little beach house and enjoy the next 3 to 6 months. We did not know where we would be going next but had faith we would find our "dream fixer".  In other words, the house that we could make our ideal home. We put all of our stuff in storage. We moved with a few boxes of our clothes and some of our children's toys. It has really felt like we have been on vacation the whole time. It became such a beautiful experience. Lots of family and beach time.  We are so thankful that those original offers were not accepted and after taking a leap of faith...things really started to fall into place:)  And, fyi, those homes are still on the market (do I hear overpriced?)!

But, with a 6 week countdown to our move-in date..it was all so so worth it:) We are so fortunate that we waited (we really did not have a choice) and found our perfect house..our wish...our little diamond in the rough. As my son says, "it is ok to tell you my wish now, because it came true":)

And, one more thing, do not be scared to offend a Seller. We bought our house for 15% less than the asking price.  We almost did not look at our new house because it was way out of our price range.  You never know unless you ask:) And you never know somebody's motivation.

Have a beautiful day and hope you are having so much fun this holiday season!!

xo,
Paige

Making Progress!

I had a vision of what our next house was going to be like.  I was craving a modern farmhouse meets a charming ranch. When we fell in love with this house, I was pretty sure I could achieve my goal(but maybe not 100%)! So, for the last month, I have been busy choosing all of the different finishes, flooring, stone, paint, majority of the lighting, etc. as well as overseeing the construction...opening up walls, upgrading plumbing and electrical, and replacing some of the doors and windows, as well as the roof.  It has been a whirlwind but so much fun!  My husband, Mark said to me the other day after we left the house, " I am finally getting excited..it is starting to look like a home."  Pretty funny (and scary..haha), I said to him. "You are just now getting excited." Fyi, We have been emotionally invested in this house for at least 3 months now.  I guess better late then never:)

While I felt happy about all of the choices I made, I was also getting a little anxious as they were about to be installed, as well as during installation. Is this going to achieve what I was looking for? Did I make the right decisions? A little bit of self doubt certainly set in.  And, today, it was such a sigh of relief. It is all starting to come together and it felt really good:)

A few of the big projects we are working on right now...

 This is where our family room stands currently: We are about to paint and are waiting on the pocket door system and barn wood flooring to arrive which will completely change the space.  I can't decide between a cream or a gray greige or a taupy greige for the walls!! There will be a large lantern in the space..either driftwood or black. I am trying to persuade my hubbie to let me paint the ceiling a creamy color. I think he can be persuaded:)

 

 

 

But this is not what it has always looked like. Not only was the family room wall to wall carpet but part of the room was sunken in...how badly does this scream 1969!!  But it was probably quite stylish back in the day.  It is always interesting to think of a house and its inhabitants in their prime.

 

The filling in of the floor was one the easiest and fastest thing we have accomplished to date..kind of surprising.  It took one day and it was filled with concrete and now it is all perfectly level, so spacious, and everything is cohesive. A photo below of before. This picture is taken from the entry and looking toward the room.

 

 

 

While some people loved the wood mantle, it is just not our style.  We did give it to somebody that is so excited to give it a new home.  Also, anything that was truly salvageable from this renovation, was donated. 

 

Another major project of the moment is our son's room.  Here are some before pictures. My sweet little boy, I could not have him endure pink tile, bad wallpaper, or cabinets that do not close.

 There a couple of cool features already about this bathroom...the size (very spacious) for #1 and the roman tub/shower #2.  It is half shower and half tub and just fabulous.  With a nice new coat of porcelain paint the tub will be as good as new!

 Progress=charcoal gray subway tile and porcelain floor tile that looks like wood. It is striking and soothing at the same time. This may be one of my favorite rooms in the house..my son is certain of it. The walls will be a pale gray, the double sink console will be black concrete with creamy white legs, and of course, there will be some industrial lighting and wood mirrors. I am so excited for the finished product. And, even better, it is right next to the laundry room.  How is that for some easy laundering??

 

A little closer look at the floors

 

One more project that has made a huge difference was opening up the space between the family room and kitchen.  Before, it was approximately 3 feet wide and now it is 7 feet wide.  Instead of framing it with your typical wood, we used some barn wood from our favorite antique wood source, Vintage Timberworks.  I am so happy with how it turned out.  We will bring the drywall flush to the wood so hopefully it will look like it has always been here.

 

An upcoming transformation will be the kitchen-The kitchen cabinets will be a creamy white and the concrete countertops, huge farm sink, and most of the stainless appliances have been ordered. We will be doing a cozy breakfast nook with either a settee or built in seating.  The built ins that flank the seating area will be a charcoal gray. The barn wood flooring will continue in here. And lots of great lighting and hardware:)

 

 Until next time!! xo, Paige

Before and a peek into the after

I wanted to start sharing a few photos of our 1969 fixer.  She was covered in wallpaper from head to toe and shag carpet with a sunken living room. But she had so much potential.  I was talking with my mom the other night and she said" You have more vision than anybody I know".  I asked her,"What do you mean...can you not see the potential in our new home?" And, she said she does but she stated that she thinks it is so much easier to start from scratch.  When building new or remodeling...both parties are making hundreds and probably thousands of decisions.  This is a personal decision..one that is different for everybody. But, when you find something worth remodeling and you like the general floor plan..in my eyes it is so much easier and the prize comes so much faster..hehe (i.e. much faster time frames).  I am ready to start making memories in this home. And we will be in with several months versus 2 years.

So, here we go.. a few photos of what we are dealing with...lovely red wood (not my particular taste), a sunken great room, and lots of carpet

 

I do love this high  wood beamed ceiling...we have a lot planned for this room

 

Again, lots of red wood and wall paper...an easy fix

 

Lovely orange master ..let's see what we can do here

 

The media room...this will be our fun room:

 

And this is the direction we are going to take it...lots of barn wood..mixed barn siding and floors

 

 

 

and gray

 

Inspiration from horses and other animals

 Unique lighting

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great sliders and pocket doors to really take advantage of California outdoor living

 

 

Lots of comfy and slipcovered seating to mix with our leather sofa and chairs

 

 

 

We are making progress so quickly over there, so I will be posting some room tours soon!!

 

xoxo, Paige