Apartment tour: Family Room

This is our everything room.

We used to have a white couch.  Just a week ago, we drove to Ikea and got the gray covers (on mega sale!) because we just couldn't handle the white.  I was washing/bleaching one or two of the cushion covers almost weekly and it didn't stay as clean as we would like.  One of us and our OCD nature (I'll leave you to guess who) couldn't handle the toddler hands all over the couch when covered in blueberries or chips or you name it which is a daily occurrence.  The gray feels so much more comfortable.  The material is slightly different, not just 100% cotton, which makes it more durable.

To those of you who have white couches with toddlers, hats off to you.

We are trying to minimize the amount of holes we'll need to fill later.  The walls are all concrete so that's different.  None of the windows have screens, but in the summer, Bryce put screens on a couple that we open the most.

Here's the kid corner, but who are we kidding, there are toys everywhere.  Most days, we have that green mat out on the floor with Carter rolling around on it.  We are trying to organize our arts/crafts things (in the plastic bins).  We color/cut/glue almost every day.

Apartment tour: Outside

Moving across the ocean to a country with an entirely different culture and lifestyle than what you've lived for almost 30 years is pretty difficult.  But I have to say, so many of our prayers have been answered.  Even the little things.  Our apartment was a huge answer to prayer.  

Back home, the places that we lived, the majority live in houses with yards whether the house is owned or rented.  Here, it seems that the majority (even in small suburban towns) live in apartments.  

Let me tell you more about our home (again).  It's 3 bed, 2 bath.  It's less than a 2 minute walk from our door to the door of Bryce's office door.  It's on the first floor.  The FIRST FLOOR!  That means it feels like we have our own yard even though it's not mowed by us and it's shared space.   

She loves being outside.  We really took advantage of the nice weather right when we moved here.

There's a law about 10+ apartments requiring a play structure.  Our area is pretty simple with a swing, a balance beam, bars, a sand box and a table.  We do have a hobby of visiting other nearby apartment play grounds on a regular basis. 

This gives you an idea of what our space looks like--that's our place on the left.  The greenhouse looking thing is a covered bike area.

Apartment tour: Madison's room

To start our home tour...just as with the last house, Maddie's room was the first to be figured out and finished.

To save time and money, we decided to take nothing to Switzerland aside from kids toys, kids books, clothes, shoes, and other small necessities on the plane with us.  Remember how ridiculous we looked?

We furnished our entire apartment with Ikea.  It's simple, clean, and everything has a purpose.  I love it.  It's funny, really, that our house in Portland was twice the size.  This apartment is exactly how much space we need, no more, no less, no frills, and we love it.  We really love it.  The simplicity that comes with living in a small space is refreshing.  We don't feel like we have to buy more stuff to fill it up.  We can only have so many toys sitting around.  We only have so much closet/fridge/freezer/storage space.  

 Not much explaining here.  Just thought I'd invite you into our space.

See that stoplight alarm clock?  We're working on it.  Red means "stay in bed! (or in your room)" and green means "wake up!"  Thank you, Amazon.

 She wanted to show you how she sleeps in her big girl bed.

Then jump and say "Ta da!"

Here's my 2 year old going on 18 years old.

Breakfast area

If you were to come over and eat some waffles with blueberries and maple syrup (because everyone loves waffles, right?), you would sit here.

Welcome to our little breakfast nook.

Before:

Love our birdfeeder right outside so we can watch the birds while we eat.  Thanks, Dad!

Table & chairs: Thrift store find

Light: Home Depot (It was one of the very few that Bryce liked and it just so happened to be one of the cheapest...

Placemats & napkins: Crate & Barrel

Seat cushions: Ikea

Paint: Clary Sage by Sherwin Williams

Afternoon at the park

One of the main reasons why we loved this specific neighborhood is the park.  We are about a 10 minute walk (.5 miles down a paved path) from a huge park with soccer fields, baseball fields, a river with a boat ramp, picnic areas, running trails, playgrounds, and grills.  We are out on the trails running or walking almost every day.  Madison loves the swings.  It's fun to watch people kayak and canoe down the river and the path is shaded most of the way which is nice for running on hot days.

We are pretty sure she has some kind of grass/pollen allergy.  We can be inside all day and she's fine, then 5 minutes sitting in the grass and she starts sneezing, her eyes start watering, and they get really red.  But that doesn't stop us from getting outside in the pretty weather!

Happy Monday!

The playroom

While Bryce was traveled in Switzerland for work (back in March), when I wasn't at Nanny's and after Madison went to bed, I tackled a painting project in the playroom.

Before:

Since it was my first-ever priming/painting job BY MYSELF, I figured it was a good room to start with because it's just a playroom and I could mess up without it being a big deal (aka Bryce wouldn't care if the lines were off).  The colors were so intense that I had to do 2 coats of primer plus the 2 coats of finish paint/primer in one.  Buuuut later I learned that it could've been just 1 coat of primer and 1 coat of paint since the paint we used (Behr Ultra paint+primer) is so good at covering.

Aside from Madison's room, this is my favorite room.  It's bright and fun and cozy all at the same time.  Good thing I like it because we are in this room a lot!  Often times, I take my computer up and Madison plays with toys while I get some work done.  Or she pulls things off the shelf, one by one.

The color is Benjamin Moore "healing aloe" but it's Behr paint from Home Depot.  Apparently Home Depot buys a lot of paint formulas of the bigger more expensive paint companies (Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams), so you can go, give them a color, and if it's in their system, they put it under a machine, the computer literally squirts die into the paint can, and you have the exact color you want for a better price.

I also love that we have an Ikea just 25 minutes away.  Love the shelves, they're perfect storage for toys and books.  And the storage ottoman is a great place to stow away toys for when she gets a little older.

For the little reading nook, I'd love to add a few pillows and a floor cushions like these.

But since she is only reciting her ABCs and not reading full books yet, I'll wait on those projects :-)

Couch, shelves, baskets, ottoman: Ikea

Wall shelves: made by sweet husband

Books/toys galore: her grandparents, of course

Elephant/monkey toy bags: Container Store

Map: piece of wrapping paper from Paper Source in a poster frame from JoAnn's

Quilt: homemade by Granny Whited

ABC cross stitch quilt: homemade by Aunt Christie

Madison's room

We finally can say that we have ONE room in the new house that is officially done.  Of course, it is the room of our sweet girl.  I have to say, it's probably my favorite room.  Kids rooms are so fun with bright colors and patterns.  It actually gets the most natural light out of almost all the rooms in the house (thank you Emily, for blackout curtains!).

She looks like this every time I come in after a nap.  Standing up so happy.

We filled holes in the walls, painted, moved her furniture in, got a new dresser (because we are using her other one in the master), and hung up pictures and a mobile.

She loves those owls!

I also had the gold frame and wanted to display some recent favorite photos from my instagram (@emwhited).  They are literally taped to the wall with blue painter's tape right now.

She loves looking at herself in the mirror.

I still want to add the date to the embroidery hoop under the flags.

Her room was probably the easiest one to finish because the only big thing we needed to do was paint.  Plus, since the walls were a light lilac color and the paint is paint+primer in one, we were able to do one thick coat and it looks fine (woohoo!).

Walls: Benjamin Moore Stonington Gray (Behr Ultra paint from Home Depot)

Dresser, mirror, white frames: Ikea

Bookcase: Target

Chair: Free given to us

Bedding: Talented older sister, Emily, made it! (I picked out Amy Butler fabric "Lark" collection)

Black out curtains: Also made by Emily (I think it's Premier Prints chevron fabric from fabric.com)

Crib: Craigslist (we painted it white)
Stuffed owl: Pier 1 (...I planned on sewing one, but let's be real, that probably never would've happened.  Then my mother in law gave this one to Madison. Love it!)

Floor cushion/ottoman: TJ Maxx

Mobile: Gift from friend, Andrea
"M" art: gift from friend, Meredith
Madison growth chart: gift from sister, Laura

Projects

When we bought this house, we thought, wow, pretty much move-in ready, just a few things we would want to do....and then our list grew and grew.  Until we realized that we need to chill, take it easy, hang out with new friends, and be okay with the "undone."

So I quickly found myself saying...

It is okay that our dining room has half wallpaper still up and half stenciled grapevines.

It is okay that our half bathroom has cheetah print wallpaper and a border of little Africans hunting tigers.

It's also okay that our garage is completely unorganized.

And that hardly any pictures are hung because I'm afraid to do it and then not like it and want to change it and for some reason, holes in the wall feel like serious commitment.

It's even okay that there is half carpet/half linoleum in our master bathroom (carpet that is also semi pulled up from when we wanted to see what kind of sub flooring was there.

And that we have barely touched the backyard (although it is super low maintenance HOORAY!).

And that there are toys in every room (because it will probably be like this for the rest of our lives that we have kids under the age of 15...)

I find it funny that I am the one that usually forces us to sit back and relax.  I have always considered myself somewhat of a type A personality, but let me tell you, I have never met a harder more motivated worker than my husband.  If something needs done, he gets it done.  Then on a random evening after installing a new toilet, sealing tile floor, cleaning up the kitchen, you find him opening up the patio solar lights he ordered and putting them together at 9pm.  On a weeknight!   Ah hem, husband, that's 30 minutes away from when I would like to be in bed falling asleep.

On rainy Portland days, doing house work is fine.  But we have been finding a balance.  When it's time to work, we work hard.  When it's time to relax, we know how to get our Netflix on, order pizza, or get out of the house.

New house

We have been crazy ever since the day we moved in.  We go to Home Depot every weekend.  So much for my "limit the house projects" idea!  I think we are in the mode that we just want to get the main updates finished so we can enjoy them while we're here.  We have been able to do some pretty big updates since moving in which we are so excited about!  We knew that once we moved into a house, we wanted to do the major updates soon after moving in so we could enjoy them before/if/when we resell the home.  Not saying we are moving soon, but resale is always on the mind of a homeowner.  I can't believe we are homeowners.  I feel like we are not just too young to have a baby but also to own a home!  Haha.  We are true adults now, I guess.  We are turning into our parents...we go to Costco and Home Depot on the weekends.

I'll start showing some "before/after" pictures soon!

A few of the paint colors were nice and neutral, like a light tan color in the entry and hallways, but most of them were pretty intense for our taste, like mustard yellow and brick red in the play room upstairs and green toothpaste mint in the master bedroom.

We were also blessed with a good amount of wallpaper that I've had the joy of trying to take down.  If you have ever experienced the process of removing wallpaper, you are probably with me in saying "I will never put wallpaper up in my house ever."  The funny thing is, wallpaper is becoming trendy again!  But that still doesn't deter me.  Painting is such an easier thing to deal with.

We absolutely LOVE our house.  It's basically more than we could've ever dreamed of and more than we need right now, but we're hoping to fill the rooms with kiddos over the next few years.  (I'm not pregnant.)  I have really been appreciating the small things like having a fan in the bathroom that keeps it from getting really moist while taking a hot shower, having more than one bathroom when guests are over (!!!!), having a garage to keep the stroller in so it's not sitting right next to the front door inside the house and so I don't have to haul it up and down stairs to go for a walk, a kitchen sink big enough to wash a pan in, having cabinets high enough that our coffee pot fits on the counter beneath them, and more storage space so we can actually find things in our closet.  In other words, we have a lot to be thankful for!

But thinking back, we loved our house in Blacksburg with all the quirks and it will forever be so special to us.

The Red House

We are in the process of buying a house.  Our first house that we will own.

We're calling it the red house.  It reminds me of a cottage.

We love it.

It's more space than we were expecting or even wanted, but it is in the exact neighborhood that we love, 3 miles from his work, running trails directly behind the house, .5 mile walking to a huge park, .6 miles from a grocery store, and a decent backyard that is fenced in.  Another thing I love about it-it is move-in ready with no major necessary changes, but definitely a few cosmetic things we can/want to do to make it our own.  I think we'll have fun making changes like painting walls, painting the kitchen cabinets, planting grass in the backyard (it's all gravel/dirt).  

They accepted our offer and we dove right into it.  We had the inspection last Thursday, working up on the contract with our realtor, had the roof double-checked, and will have an appraisal.  We are supposed to close on February 28th, so it's perfect timing since our temporary housing ends at the end of the month.

Can't wait to start posting fun house projects that we tackle.  BUT Bryce and I decided to not go crazy with projects, so we'll have to enforce some kind of every-other-weekend rule or limit the projects each month so we can explore the area, go hiking, have quality family time, meet people, and relax.

Nursery: Before and After

Before, the nursery was just a (messy) office.  I work from home, so it was a functional space that I spent a lot of time in during the day.

After, we combined the guest bedroom and the office (by moving my desk and our book cases along one wall in the guest bedroom).  I actually love the space in the "new" office because there's more natural light during the day.  Plus, the way the room is set up, it feels like there's more space in there now.

Now, the nursery is pretty much completed (except for hanging a mobile made by a sweet friend and sewing the curtains).  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  It's not too baby-ish, not to girl-y, not too matchy, and full of bright colors and books.

I love that "M" that Meredith made me for the shower!  It's perfect!

The crib has beautiful bedding made by my older sister.  She used to have a business of making custom baby bedding on etsy.  She's incredibly talented.  The crib and mattress were a steal from Craigslist and Bryce painted it white for me.

The bookshelves were made by Bryce.  Ikea sells picture ledges exactly like it, but I figured we could make some for cheap.  Unfortunately, when I was buying the wood at Home Depot, I accidentally bought the expensive wood that is sold by-the-foot, so it ended up being the same price as the Ikea shelves would've been.  Oh well!  They're more special since Daddy made them.  I saw the below picture on Pinterest and I loved the idea of using books as artwork in the room.  I love children's books, especially the classics.

Source: projectnursery.com via Elissa on Pinterest

The glider was given to us by my older sister (THANK YOU!) and Connie and I recovered it.  I got the ottoman "pouf" at TJ Maxx.

The brown chair on the other side of the crib doesn't fit anywhere else in the house, so it stayed in the "office" now nursery.  I have to mention the beautiful cross-stitch quilt that my Aunt Christie made for Madison.  It is amazing!  I marvel at the talent and time that it took for her to do that.

Because we have a serious lack of storage/closet space, I wanted to use a long dresser as the changing table.  Above the dresser, I did a collage of things.  I saw the below picture on Pinterest and loved how she arranged the mirror and pictures, so I basically used that idea.

Source: bowerpowerblog.com via Elissa on Pinterest

I started by using scrap paper to lay out where I wanted to hang everything.  That way, Bryce would have no questions about where each should go.

I also love this lamp from Ikea.  It has a dimming function, perfect for a nursery.

After spending too much time looking on etsy for cute nursery art, I decided to try and make my own artwork for the wall using etsy finds as inspiration.  It was my first time playing around on Photoshop, but I managed to make some cute additions for the wall.

I love this verse.  I also included some maternity photos that we may or may not switch out for newborn photos later on.

There's a picture of my older sister and I playing dress-up at Nanny's house when we were pretty young.  I thought this picture is perfect for a little girl's room.  And because this part of the country is extra special to us...

There it is, folks!  Now we are just waiting for the little one to arrive so she can love her nursery and care about each detail that I spent time on (NOT).  That's okay, because I wanted to make the room one that I enjoyed since I will probably clock a lot of nursing hours in here.