patio made-over

remember Sergio? the guy who did such a fantastic job on our garage, well once he had finished the garage, the idea was for him to move inside the house and help us finish the bedrooms. but he was faster than the guys doing the electrical, so we asked him about our sad looking patio.

when we first moved in, it looked like a jungle of poorly cared for plants, so we cleaned it up to make it look more tidy, with the intention to renovate it at some point.
we weren't sure if we should tear it down or just spruce it up, so we did nothing more on it. the aged green plastic on the roof leaked and really blocked so much light from coming into the house, so we knew that had to go, but weren't sure what to replace it with.

I came home from work the first day to a house flooded with light - you could actually see the sky now.

these two agreed it was an improvement as they lay in the sunshine from the comfort of the back of the couch...I didn't realise how quickly it would transform, and kicked myself for not taking a before shot that morning
the next evening it looked like thisand then it was all done!

we decided to go with Suntuf polycarbonate roofing in grey, to give it a little shade but still let in the light. It even blocks UV rays :) but I love how you can still see the sky.from this angle it looks like we have a new house... amazing the difference some small changes make!eventually that window on the right will be replaced with a 9 foot long bi-fold door that will open up onto a deck at the same height as the interior floor. This will then be where we put our dining table as we currently don't have a dining room, only an eat in kitchen.

Then you'll step down onto another level of deck at ground level to give it the illusion that it is an extension of the house into the garden. (we do live in California, so figure we should make the most of our outdoor spaces!)

but that's a few projects away from happening yet. in the mean time, we'll make do with our new entertaining area as is - just in time for summer!

recycle this wallpaper?

the renovations are coming along, and today I spent the morning removing the wallpaper in the hallway. it was a bittersweet feeling. it couldn't stay - McKenzie saw to that in her early days with us, and we'd always intended to take it down. but it had just grown on us, as most of the wallpaper in this place has.

everyone told us it would be a b*tch to take down (since it has probably been there for 40 plus years) but it peeled off so easily and in perfect sheets for the most part.I was left with these great whole sturdy pieces and thought what a great craft project it would make.
imagine the right little cabinet lined with this bright and sunny pattern.so I got online to come up with a few ideas to justify hanging onto this stuff. and was instantly inspired...

here

here

herehere

and here.

now I just have to find a place to hide it that Bryce won't throw it out on me :P

PS - if you'd like some let me know and I can send you some, there is a bunch of it.

let the renovations begin!

last week we officially started renovating 2 of the 3 bedrooms and the hallway in our house. after living here for almost 2 years, and talking about it, planning and designing and talking some more, it finally came time to break into the walls...

bryce decided I should be the one to swing the first hammer. so I reluctantly tried hitting the wall as hard as I could - but it just left a scuff...

harder they said - so I tried again, with 2 hands...
here's Bryce showing me how it's done...
then Hannah wanted in on the action too

Bryce powered through this wall in the first night
and the next day finished off this onethe renos we are doing to the 2 bedrooms are mostly cosmetic. but we had to upgrade the electrical in the house and since we were opening up the walls, and had guessed that these exterior walls were probably not insulated we decided to rip them back to the studs.

on Monday our contractor put a new header in above this existing window

to make way for our new french doors! (which he installed the wrong way round...) they are outswing doors so as not to eat up into the space in the room, but he installed them as inswings, so they're coming back out again tomorrow and reinstalled.

but even in the wrong way, we're really happy with the bright and airy feeling it has given the room already!

baby room

even though I am 6.5 months pregnant, and boy does it show... the whole idea that we are going to have a baby is still so surreal for me - is that normal? my sister keeps asking me if I've started buying for the baby yet, but I'm afraid that every time I look at clothes or baby stuff, it just doesn't feel like it's time yet. not that I'm a particularly superstitious person, I guess I just don't want to jinx anything...

what I can wrap my head around though is the baby room, and this I am totally into. we have decided to convert the office into the baby's room so that we'll still be able to have a spare bedroom for guests.

since we've come to love our vintage wallpaper in our place we're going to do one wall in this great orla keily and leave the rest of the walls white.

we're splurging on this bed... I have loved it since I saw it years ago in Dwell or some other designer magazine. I love how beautiful yet practical it is - it goes from baby to toddler up to a 10 year old, which is how I like to justify it. I am also going to buy it second hand, so really it's a bargain!

the downside, as my very practical friend Olivia pointed out to me, is that this bed needs round/ oval sheets, which limits the selection. but I am going to make some, since I couldn't find any that I really like anyway - why do people think that pink and blue and pastel are the only colours when it comes to babies? and Bryce will be happy I am finally putting my great sewing machine to good use!

I found these bibs on etsy which you must admit are just the cutest things ever

when I saw the 3 of them laid together like this I knew that this mustard and gray colour palette is exactly what I wanted. not too boyish and not too girlish and not too pastel'ish :) so this is my inspiration for the sheets, bumper and pillow case.and look how well the mustard colour goes with pink
and blue :)

my next bit of inspiration came from this gorgeous crochet blanket and I have been making one since about the time I fell pregnant (so I guess technically Louise, I have made a start on things...)

as far as furniture in the room we'll need a feeding chair, and Jonathan Adler just happens to be having a sale... remember this guy?

well there's also this guy too, both would be perfect in my book. although I suspect this one might be a little more practical as a feeding chair, since there are arms to rest the baby's head and my arm. I really don't know much about feeding chairs - what am I supposed to look for? will it get messy? I think this rug is the perfect cheery yellow to brighten up the room, and with a name like Betty, how could it be wrong?

we'll need some sort of changing table, and although stokke has a matching change table that goes from a change table to a desk we decided that it would be a bit matchy matchy so we're just going to pop a changing pad on a cute rustic white dresser that we already have.

I found this great idea and thought it would be a great way to hang some of the uber cute baby clothes which would add some colour to the room. kind of like a practical mobile above the change table.

and then this is another idea that I thought was pretty cool (again practical decoration) and I was thinking I could have cute pictures and photos in the different frames.

I'm sure there will be more as we go, but as soon as we start renovating I'll post pictures of how it's turning out.

you can see it all in one place and all the links on my pinterest here

all cracked up

we are still working on our garage and this weekend we plan to make some more progress on the exterior. we need to replace the guttering, replace some wooden trim that has rotted away, and I'd really like to fix this vent that has been bugging me how far from the middle it is situated! and then there's the concrete...

here is the delightful crack that runs from the start of the driveway, through to the back of the garage which was mostly likely caused by an earthquake some time in the last 56 years.

when we bought the house we didn't think it was that big a deal, but after some research we found out that the slab was not poured deep enough and was not reinforced by rebar so the solution to really fix it is to lift the whole garage up, dig up the whole slab and re-pour a deeper reinforced one ($cha ching$!!!)

so since that is not really an option with our budget we are going to try plan b - which involves digging out the cracked area and filling it back in with some concrete to make it smooth, then we are going to cover it with racedeck which is flexible enough to withstand the movement.

chances are this will be a temporary fix since the earth will continue to move, but we think it will make a big difference to the look of the garage. and I can stop tripping over this bit right here!

new garage door

on Wednesday we got a new garage door, which excites me to no end. the old one was original (about 50 years old) and was one piece of solid wood you had to tilt, but the springs had come loose on one side so it was a bit of a death trap each time you tried to open it. and that gigantic crack in the concrete extends all the way through the slab of the garage (we live in earthquake country here), so the door had been shaved off on each side so it could close, and they had not done a very nice job of it either...

here's our new bright shiny white clean lined door, with automatic opener, and a rubber edge that seals the uneven opening - amazing the things that make me happy these days :)I know the white clashes with the cream colour that the garage currently is, but here's the colour scheme we are thinking:

the front door to the garage will be red, with bright white trim, and the main colour will be brown

we really like the dark dark brown, but wonder if it will be too much since it is the main colour

and we intend to paint the house the same colour (it currently looks like this)

we're hoping it will look like this eichler we got the idea from

so we're starting with the garage to see how we like it. :)

what do you think?

kitchen inspiration

now that we have been in our place for 8 months (how time flies) and have really lived in the spaces, we are finally getting to a stage where we are ready sink our teeth into the planning of the renovation and since the kitchen is the first thing you see when you walk in the door - we are really keen to start there.

since the space is fairly small we are thinking white on white to open up the space

here's some inspiration for what I have in mind for our currently green and gold and wood and tile kitchen which you can see here to get the creative juices flowing...

photo here

photo here

photo here

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