Monthly Archives: June 2016

It’s been one month since we moved into our new house and things have been progressing quite well!  The first floor is basically done and the yard is looking great.  I wanted to share a few before and after pics just because.

Foyer (sorry, late afternoon light in after pic):

Living Room:

Dining Room:

Kitchen (after than before):

Family Room (after then before, plus since the after pic was taken, I rearranged the mantel a bit):

That’s all for now, kids.  Upstairs project begin in earnest this week. I’ve already started accessorizing the Harry Potter Bathroom and I can’t wait until the painting is done so I can break out the bling!

Whew, this past week has been so fun and productive.  Especially thanks to my mom who stayed with us for a week and helped us knock out all of our outdoor projects.

Thursday afternoon we hit the local nursery and stocked up on plants.  We got tons of flowers for pots and planters, plus a variety of perennial ground cover for the front of the house.  Friday thru Sunday were spent planting and spreading top soil.  Here are the results:

As much as I hate those partially rotted little wood stumps bordering the front garden, they’ll do for now until we can get them dug up and replaced with stone or something.

Friday was a big day of deliveries: our reading chairs, my dad’s piano, a dresser, and a new hammock.  The family room is pretty much done except for some additional lighting and maybe a rug.  It’s so elegant.

Saturday ShortMan and I knocked out the final painting project on the first floor: the dining room.  We love the results.

This next weekend I am hoping we can enjoy some down time.  Could I possibly get some reading done in the new hammock or on the patio?  I sure hope so!  But I do want to get started on the guest bathroom project which entails painting and accessorizing with all my Harry Potter goodies.

I still haven’t decided whether I’m going to tackle the guest room or the library first.  It depends on whether we acquire a double bed or take a trip to IKEA…  So stay tuned for more bookishly delightful home projects!

While ShortMan was waiting for lawn service estimates and dishwasher delivery, I popped by his mom’s house to pick up some of the goodies I had stored there since last fall.  Primary target: decorative antique books for the built-ins in the living room.  And since I couldn’t prime while the dishwasher was being installed, I staged all the books!

It’s amazing how everything fit like it was destined!  Details:

Left is mostly antiques and collectibles (with the bottom shelf Shakespeare). Right from top down: book club editions from my grandparents and Asian books, coffee table books, Hub’s shelf*, and treasury volumes from Mom In Law.

*Hubs wants to cultivate his one designated shelf, and so far it includes his Galileo thermometer, his dad’s ashtray, and a picture of his parents.

In other news, the horrendous red foyer and hallway have been primed.  Next step, painting ceilings, then we can finally tackle color!

The family room has to be my favorite room in the house, mainly because of the gorgeous fireplace and surrounding mantle.  Here are a couple of before pictures when the house was still empty:

I decided this would be the ideal space to display my nonfiction collection and signed books.So here we have it in all its glory via a somewhat dim iPhone panorama…

I feel a bit more narration is in order and I wanted to share some more detail.  Blow left is my signed shelf with books about books on the mantle and my antique typewriter on the hearth.  Right is the left side of the mantle with our globe, my HG Wells history books, and my snapshot souvenir book from the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

And here is the nonfiction in all its glory, sorted by subject and also including some of my favorite keepsakes (the little shelf on the left are some of my miniature volumes):

These shelves include (left top to bottom, then right top to bottom) Tudor read, Tudor TBR, Anotholgies, Romanov, mountain climbing and biographies, and memoirs.

Shelf details:  WWI and Beatles.

Shelf details: BEA TBR, NF TBR, and Jounrnals (left); Space, science and true crime, Spamalot memorabilia, Templars/conspiracy theory and reviews (right).

We have grander plans for the room including my dad’s square grand piano being delivered in 2 weeks, and we’d like to get two nice chairs to put in front of the fire.  All in due time.

I did finally complete one room in the house.  I know it’s just the powder room, but it feels like an accomplishment to have one room finished.  I really like the addition of a brigh yellow wall which makes it feel quite a bit brighter and bigger. (before and after)

And unexpectedly, we were dishwasher-less, but the new one has been installed today.  And we hired a lawn service!

Phew, it’s been a busy week.  I’ll have more to post in the next few days about staging the shelves in my living room and other things that come up