Life on Woodland Ave

It's such a warm night. Sixty-something degrees. IN APRIL.

Simon is taking his late nap, and Paul and Porter are at church for rehearsal. I have brownies in the oven, my guilty pleasure on the TV, and I'm sitting down to check in and say hello. Ahhh. Feels so nice to just... bask in the silence. Haha.

We are FINALLY moved into the Wipe House. We moved in on Easter weekend, and it's been amazing. So fun - the boys are finally getting comfortable with the layout, the stair creaks, and the lack of noise at night. Simon is confident barreling up the stairs, and my heart doesn't plummet into the floorboards when I see him toddling to head downstairs.

The sounds of the neighborhood are soothing - kids. Sprinklers. Traffic only during peak travel times, like to and from work.

What I thought was going to be cramped, small quarters is actually just the right size for us. I'm slowly purging clothing and knick-knacks and excess everything and just getting comfortable with my necessities... it's such a good feeling. And, luckily, the boys are still spending about 2x a week over at auntie's house during the day so I can get some work done. tThey don't feel like they're completely displaced, which is the only thing I hoped.

We moved in before some of the final finishing touches were done, and I didn't want to do that, initially - but we were just too excited and my judgement was impaired, haha. It's probably going to take another month before we have everything done - like doorknobs - but little by little, it's coming together.

The one thing that sucks about out older, smaller home is our lack of closet space. We're figuring it out, we're totally making due... but while I was Googling creative closet organization, I came across this article on how an organized closet will reduce stress, and it was fascinating. In a perfect world (aka: when my boys get older and move in together via bunkbeds and I can have the third bedroom as a walk-in closet), I will absolutely be one of those girls that has a freakin' island in her closet to house all the shoes I don't wear and the handbags I don't use. It's amazing how much I'm realizing that clutter genuinely makes me itchy. I cannot wait to pay someone to come build me something amazing, with too many places to store things and an array of ways to color code and separate by season. I seriously can feel my anxiety reducing just as I'm pretending this is my current reality, and not the boxes of shoes lining my hallway. *insert wide-eyed emoticon*.

Anyway. Sorry for that tangent. But, things are good. I'm so happy to be in our place... I can't wait for all the precious memories to come with my little family.

Restoring Woodland: Gray & White Kitchen (BEFORE)

I was dead-set on an all-white kitchen, but over the last couple of weeks, we've picked out our cabinets and countertops (which are a pristine white), and I've had a little bit of panic about our little home looking to much like a little medical clinic.

I mean, is there a point where too much white looks - hospital like?

Paul mentioned to me that maybe we go with a soft, true gray downstairs - in the kitchen for sure. At first I was like no, I want all the white, and then I thought... Hmm. Gray could be a nice, cozy accent to our gleaming white interior.

So, then I did what every normal person does when they need to make a decision: I Googled. I found a few beautiful kitchen photos that were what I would consider to be my dream kitchen, and then I decided that gray was the way.

Then I did, again, what every normal girl in 2015 does: took to Instagram to ask people for their favorite grays. I'm way too indecisive for the 50 billion shades of gray and white that are out there. I mean, there's blue-toned, and green-toned, and beige-toned, and warm/cool-toned with no hint of blue or green... it's just... overwhelming.

Luckily, IG is amazing and several people recommended a particular shade of Sherwin Williams called TinMan.

The only problem was: TinMan doesn't exist. Well, at least not for me, now, online or in my local store. They told me it was a Rodda paint, and I was all Instagram doesn't lie. He shrugged apologetically, and pointed me to what he's found to be a perfect, true gray: Light French Gray.

I trusted him, and we tinted our 5 gallon bucket of brilliant white paint with Light French Gray, and my heart had slight palpitations as I changed my mind three times before he took it to the back to mix it up for us. We went straight to the house before I changed my mind and we had to put our 5 gallon bucket of Light French Gray on OfferUp because I want all white.

The result? Perfect. I'm literally in love, and Paul is trying to convince me to paint the whole downstairs with... but the problem I am having, is that I have a gray couch and other miscellaneous decor I want to decorate the (white) living room with, and it would be such a great way to balance out the new color of our attached kitchen. Gray couch, gray/white area rug, rustic wood and some silver/gold because I have an identity crisis and my style is quickly morphing from farmhouse chic to obnoxiously blingy 15 year old girl with her first pager... and a complimentary gray kitchen. I feel like gray in the living room would make everything darker, and too "matchy matchy". Anyway, some pics, because that's really all anyone cares about (and we're still in progress - saving some money and doing it ourselves):

Primer is drying, so wall is a little patchy 

Sherwin Williams - Light French Gray

Walk In The (Laminate, Distressed, Grey-Undertoned) Park

This past weekend was a fun weekend for all things #restoringwoodland. We got to look at floors, which, I thought was going to be a walk in the (laminate) park.

It's not.

It's brutal.

Like the abundance of shades of white available for your frustration, did you know there are 450 variations of "hardwood" flooring? We're going for laminate, but that didn't do much to narrow it down. There are grey undertones, gold undertones, yellow undertones, green undertones. Texture or no texture. Wide or thin (or, for hair-pulling fun, multi-width!). Long or short. I think we stressed out over samples of Smoked Chestnut and Seared Chestnut for a good 45 minutes before we realized they were virtually exactly the same. I mean... literally the same. We were actually looking at two samples of Smoked Chetsnut.

We went to a few different stores, took multiple photos and grabbed multiple samples, and finally have it narrowed down to what we think we want. As we were paying for two samples at Lowe's, the well-meaning cashier asked us if we were picking our flooring (oy) and then held up our two samples for her own analysis. "Hmm," she announced dramatically. "I have a definite front runner. But I won't say which one." It was a ploy to get us to ask her, eagerly, which was her pick, but I was so tired and annoyed I just took the bag from her hand and said. "Ok. Thanks!" Paul stayed back to ask which one she preferred, politely, as I flounced off to the car. I didn't ask him which she picked though. So, take that.

Anyway. The photo above is close to what we like - but not the exact one that we consider our front runner right now. We've decided we're grey-undertones, texture, vintage/reclaimed inspired, wide-plank fans.

While looking at flooring, we passed by the toilets - and Paul about had a meltdown. "Why are there, literally, 175 different toilets to choose from? Are they really THAT different? I can guarantee you, no one ever sits down on a toilet to proclaim: 'oh. This feels like a $179 toilet... not a $350 dollar toilet...'" I agreed with him out loud, although I thought back to a few rickety-toilets at gas stations, for example, that I'd eyed cautiously before deciding I was better off holding it. Those definitely weren't $350 toilets, amiright.

Pray for us. Haha. We're getting down to the final phases of this restoration, and the light at the end of the tunnel is dim but approaching. New home, here we come!

Shades of White

I'm not the best decision maker. In fact, I'll go out on a limb here and say that I might be the worst.

The worst, as in, one of my husband's least favorite things to do in the whole world is ask me what I want to do for dinner. It sparks a full-on mind-numbing mental meltdown on most days (for both of us).  

"I mean... do I want sushi? Spicy tuna kinda sounds good. Do YOU want sushi? I mean, I guess I should have salad. But you know what sounds REALLY good, though? Mac and cheese... wait. We had mac and cheese yesterday for lunch and I feel like I wouldn't be happy if I had it again. Steak? Eh, no, I don't want to spend $60 on dinner. Maybe we should just have cereal..."

I don't mean to. Truly, I don't. But, I'm reading a book right now called "The Best Yes" and I've come to realize that my difficulty doesn't come from not knowing what I want. It's from my fear of being wrong.

Paint is (somewhat) permanent. Once we paint our new house (!!!), we can't go back. Well, some people could. We can't... we're getting an amazing deal from a family contact that enjoys working with us on our home (he's the nicest guy!), but I'm sure he won't be thrilled if we call him back in two weeks and tell him that "Swiss Coffee" is actually too yellow, and I think that "Cascade White" might look better.

I would kill me, too.

So, Paul brought home these swatches yesterday, and laid them out for me. I started sweating. As if it wasn't scary enough, he told me he's already decided on his "top two", and he wanted to see if we were on the same page.

Um, ok. So now not only does my house color depend on my decision, but now my decision is going to decide whether or not my husband and I were on the same wavelength in our wants and desires?

Too much.

But. I just bit the bullet, and pulled out the two that I felt I liked without any further analysis. One of them was his favorite. *FIST PUMP* One decision down...

Now I just need to figure out dinner.