Third Floor Bath Design Board & Renovation Progress

As I mentioned in this post, we are really looking to makeover this bathroom on a budget. Mostly it NEEDED some plumbing work and for the old, filthy linoleum floor and toilet to be replaced. Everything else is pretty much just cosmetic decorating! 

For the floors, we decided to save money and go with peel and stick vinyl tiles. This makes installation MUCH easier, saves us a ton of money, and still looks great. As I mentioned in my last post on the subject, we've pretty much maxed out our ceiling price on this house for when we eventually go to sell, therefore we don't want to invest much more into it because we won't see that money back. That being said, we still need to make it function and make it look nice.  Nice looking vinyl tiles will definitely be appealing in our area, though maybe I wouldn't do it in a more higher end neighborhood. 

We also plan to add in a new toilet and new bath hardware that matches the rest of the house. I also am going to have an electrician install a new fan/light fixture combination because the one that is in there is really ugly and dated. We will also add new, thicker baseboard throughout the room. I think these updates alone will make the bathroom look so much better and feel like new!

Everything else will just be accessorizing and making it welcoming for guests! 

Here are the products that we are using:

• TrafficMASTER Carrara Marble 12 x 24" Peel and Stick Vinyl Tile 
• Kohler Wellworth Elongated White Toilet 
• Glacier Bay Lyndhurst Centerset Bronze Bathroom Faucet
• Pottery Barn Grand Embroidered Organic Bath Towels in Blue Opal 
• NuTone InVent Oil Rubbed Bronze Ceiling Exhaust Fan 
• Pottery Barn Aubrey Woven Tote 
• Pottery Barn White Ruffle Shower Curtain

My sweet husband worked like crazy on the bathroom this weekend. He ripped up the hard to reach linoleum, laid cement boards throughout the entire space, and spread a thin layer of thinset to fill the cracks between the cement boards and make everything nice and smooth.  Next weekend we lay down the tiles, grout, and install the baseboard and new toilet! Slowly but surely it is coming along! As I mentioned, this room HAS to be done before baby #3 makes his/her debut in October so we are trying to crank this out! (Thanks Evan!)

I'm excited to get to the fun (aka pretty!) stuff! 

New Phase of Life, New Goals

Any kind of fresh start or new beginning always makes me think about my goals. I absolutely love goal setting and seeing my dreams down on paper. It helps me make decisions and gives me a sense of purpose in the sense that I'm working towards something!

As I enter this new phase of life that consists of me being a stay-at-home mom, I've been thinking a lot about how I want to raise my children, care for my family, be a better member of my community and steward of the earth. I'll be sharing bits and pieces of these goals on the blog and how I'm making progress on them over time! Here's what I've got so far: 

• Provide unstructured time for the kids.. a LOT of it! (This is actually one of the main reasons I decided to take the leap and be a stay-at-home mom.)
• Learn to love cooking. Eat more whole foods, eat a balanced diet, drink way more water, try new recipes, get in a good flow of meal planning/grocery shopping. Confession: I hate cooking.  Evan has typically done most of the cooking - he enjoys it and he is WAY better at it! However, with me staying home it makes way more sense for me to make dinners and take on most of the grocery shopping. So yeah, I don't just want to suffer through it every day/every week, I want to find ways to really enjoy it! 
• Swap my make-up and bath products for more "clean" products
• Swap my cleaning supplies for more "clean" products
• Simplify our "Stuff".  Get rid of the crap. We have so much crap. So many toys and clothes and baby stuff we can hardly fit in our house! I want to PURGE and only keep what we really want/need. Along with this, I only want to buy things I really love, and want to make conscious decisions not to buy more than we need. Donate what we don't use and appreciate what we have. 
• Be more earth friendly. While we are pretty darn good at recycling, I know there are so many areas we can be more earth friendly and reduce our footprint. 
• Garden. Growing up, my next door neighbor was a psychiatrist and she told me that if everyone would garden she would be out of business. (20-years later, I still remember this!) I love the sentiment and totally believe gardening is good for the mind, body, and soul. If we ever move to a bigger house with more land, I imagine planting a HUGE garden. In the meantime, I at least want to plant our own herbs, vegetables, and some beautiful flowers in our own yard, and make gardening a regular activity during our summer days off. 
• READ! While working, reading for pleasure got away from me. In the few shorts week I've been home I've already picked it up again and forgot how much I loved it (How is that even possible? Another huge sign I was stretched way too thin). I want to make bi-weekly trips to the library, start reading magazines again, and re-read the 9000 coffee table books I haven't touched in 5-years. Also, I want to read no less than 10-books a day to my kids. Along with that, it is pretty much eliminate screen time as much as possible. 
• Pay off our House. If we don't end up moving, our goal is to pay off this house in the next three years. Personal finance is one of my absolute favorite topics and I'm pretty much obsessed with budgeting and financial planning. These goals are more important than ever now that we eliminated my income. Can't wait to share more on this topic! 
• Blog because I love it! I never have had goals to be a top blogger or make an income from this blog, I do it because (now more than ever) it a fun, creative outlet for me to share what inspires me with an awesome community of people.  Seriously I've made some great friends who live across the country and the world. I don't have a ton of close friends who are as passionate about decorating and DIYing as I am, so it is so great to have this community. Still, sometimes I look at the bloggers who for every single post work with professional photographers, graphic designers,copy writers, and stylists and think "oh my gosh what the heck am I doing? My blog is a joke!" Well, maybe to some it totally is but I still love it and want to keep doing it for the joy that brings me, even if I'm the smallest fish in the biggest pond. 
• Don't forget to invest in and treat myself. Moms, career women, people in general... you know where I'm coming from! We easily can shift ourselves to being last on the list and put everything before ourselves. I want to remember that if I don't fill my own cup first, I won't have much else to give anyone else. (I crash on burn on this cycle far too often.)  

All of this being said, I know life is about to get CRAZY with the addition of another little babe in October! While I have all these great goals, I know we'll just be in survival mode the next few months and therefore, I'm not putting any pressure on myself to strive or accomplish ANYTHING during that time other than being a caring, kind, patient mom and take care of my family. (And even then, my bigger goal is to live each day with an abundance of grace!) 

Anyway, can't wait to expand more on each of these topics and share my detailed goals under each category and our progress! Just may take some time ;) 

Super Simple Side Tables

Do you all have a room that you've neglected in your house? For us, this has sadly been our master bedroom. When we moved in, we removed the wallpaper and the carpeting, painted the walls, refinished the wood floors, hung a gallery wall, and then.... stopped! The biggest reason is that I discovered that all of the beds I want will not fit up our narrow staircase. Ugh. (Darn consequence of living in a house built in 1940!) Since I couldn't get my ideal bed, it kind of crushed my dream/vision for the room and I just stopped decorating it altogether. I figured in our next house I'll get a bed and bedroom set that I really love! 

Well, that is fine from a form standpoint but from a function standpoint? Not so much! I'm almost embarrassed to admit this, but for YEARS our nightstands were these cheap, old Target end tables I had in ,my college apartment 13-years ago. They were super short and super small, and no matter how often we fixed them the legs were continually falling off.  After falling apart for the 945th time, Evan got so fed up with our nightstands that he decided to just go out to the garage, see what wood we had on hand in the garage, and build some new ones! (He's the best!) 

Using scrap wood and a stain we already had on hand, he created two simple but beautiful, functional nightstands! The top is made of a birch plywood we previously used to make shelves when we did our kitchen built-ins project.  He used our router to bevel the top and give them each nice smooth edges. We made them 22 inches long by 25 inches wide so they would fit perfectly next to our bed, under the windows. The legs are simply made of basic two by fours. He then sanded and sanded until they were super smooth, put on a coat of stain, and probably 6 coats of polyurethane on the top! Cost of project = an afternoon in the garage (and a few evenings of applying polyurethane!) 

My favorite thing is that they have a huge surface area so I can fit a lamp, two (soon to be three!) baby monitors, my phone, my book, my humidifier, and a glass of water. All of my nighttime necessities! 

It has actually inspired me to look at this room with fresh eyes and do some more redecorating. Kind of like my family room, I have the problem that this room is another sea of gray. I'm thinking DIY headboard, new curtains, new rug, crown molding, maybe new bedding.. new everything.... Ahh! We'll save that for another post :) 

The DEEPER Reasons Why Modern Farmhouses are So Appealing

Obviously modern farmhouses are all the rage right now! Who doesn't love beautiful white painted houses, shiplap, barn metal pendant light fixtures, weathered wood, rustic furnishings, and barn doors? From a style perspective, there is a lot to love. However, I've been thinking a lot about it and I think the appeal of these homes - for me at least -  goes well beyond the particular style elements, and actually reflects my deeper desire for a certain quality of life.

DESIGN STYLE vs. LIFESTYLE

Here are 4 elements of the farmhouse lifestyle that I think subconsciously may also be driving us in our desire to capture the farmhouse design style in our homes: 

1. A Simpler Life
   • When I think about life on a farm, I think about a quieter, simpler, unplugged life. A place where time moves a little slower and you live a little more in the moment. Away from the hustle bustle, the commute, the noise, and the rat race. Away from the computer screen, a life all but removed from social media, and a place where evenings are spent watching sunsets instead of watching TV. Less consumerism, less commercialism. I think of white space, fresh air, and nature. There isn't anything flashy about it and it isn't a place where you are trying to impress anybody.  It isn't over the top, but it is everything you need. It is a well loved, functional, lived-in HOME. 
2. A Sense of Feeling Closer to Nature
   • When I think about life on a farm, I think about being connected to nature every day. Up with the sunrise and outdoors getting work done. Growing gardens and harvesting the fields. Caring for, feeding, raising and loving on animals. Dirt beneath your fingertips and sun on your face. Wild flowers, farmer tans, and fresh air. Laundry drying in the breeze. Eating food that has been grown, picked and washed with your own two hands. Less processing, less packaging. A true appreciation of the seasons. Sunsets on the porch and stars in the night sky.  The sounds of crickets and the glow of lightening bugs. 
3. A Strong Work Ethic & Sense of Pride
   • When I think about life on a farm, I think of HARD WORK. The kind of work that is demanding and yet rewarding. The kind of hard work that leaves you exhausted and yet fulfilled. The kind of hard work that may not make you a millionaire but makes you feel rich and fulfilled, nonetheless. Hands on, minds engaged kind of work. The kind of work you are proud of. The kind of hard work that allows you to fall sound asleep at night! 
4. A Connection to History
   • When I think about life on a farm, I think about early America and amber waves of grain. I think about my Grandma Eva and Grandpa Lynn, and how they raised my dad and his four siblings on a small family farm in Wisconsin. I think of antiques and family heirlooms. I think of repurposing things on hand to make them more functional or more beautiful. I think of restoring and appreciating treasures from long ago instead of buying something new.  I think of flea markets and farmers markets and strong communities. 

My thought is that maybe by capturing some of this farmhouse design style within our homes, we are actually trying to tap into the essence of all of these great elements that are historically associated with a farmhouse lifestyle. I know I personally am drawn to both aspects - there is both aesthetic and emotional appeal!  While I'm a true city/suburb girl at heart and will probably never actually live on a farm, I know I want to incorporate elements of both the design and the lifestyle in my family's everyday experience. 

What do you say? Do think there is a deeper connection, or do you think the appeal is mostly aesthetic?