Miller Family Blog

Almost there... (house-wise)

So it's been over a month since the last update (so much for that 30-day internal clock I mentioned last time) but as you will soon see, we have been SUPER busy with the house! Here is what is going on at *** **th Street (you lurkers thought I would actually post my real address - AS IF!)

When we said the house "is in move-in condition", we meant it - but decided to get all new anyway. That's part of the fun of buying a home anyway right? A lot of projects started small like, "let's paint this room" but led to other things.... and now we are up to our eyeballs in renovations!

*****(Warning: some of these next bits of information are only for the super-bored. They are really trivial).*****

LIVING ROOM/DINING ROOM
First we decided we'd paint everything but the living room and dining room that are white. Then we thought "white? How boring" so we actually painted them first. The living room and hallways are Harvest Brown - a really pretty taupe color. The dining room is Egyptian Nile - a super-gorgeous, leaf-green color. Everything is getting thick white floor moldings and crown moldings up top, so that will really add a nice touch. We had our dining room floors polished and a high-gloss added (we had wood floors under the carpet the we ripped up in beautiful condition) along with a small area when you walk in our front door. The floor company called it my "foyer" which I find laughable but hey, if you want to say I have a foyer in my house (seems so Fresh Prince to me), then by all means!!! Our original plan was to do all-wood throughout our first floor but after much thinking, we decided that it is too cold and dangerous with two babies/toddlers. So we opted for just the wood in the dining room and we orderd Berba carpeting for the living room and hallway. That is called Wild Flower and it's a patterned mix of taupe, evergreen and cranberry - very pretty and it should hide dirt and Cheerios well. That is key. :)

We are getting new couches (I am thinking a maroon-ish plaid... Vinny is thinking dark leather), new units for the TV and perhaps a bookcase.... a new TV I believe (either in there or the bedroom...). You know what would work best? A plasma screen to hang on the wall and get out of the way. We are having so much difficulty finding a unit to house our TV that is 26" deep. They are all 21 1/4" deep. What, why? Does my TV have extra wires or something? Why is mine such an oddball!?!?! So back to the plasma- if anyone is feeling really generous, by all means.... Or maybe if like 200 people want to go in on a joint gift, there's an idea for you to consider.... ;)

KITCHEN
This is by far, the most exciting room to me! We were originally going to "get new hardware" to brighten up our clean, albeit old, cabinets. But after trying to figure out how we could cut out my wall stove (1- it didn't work and 2- it was the size of my apartment's easy-bake-oven and I deserve I normal-sized stove for pete's sake!) we realize I would have virtualy no counter space left.... so.... we ordered a brand-spanking new kitchen! I am drooling as I type this! LOL! We got maple wood in a "mocha" finish - it's kind of distressed looking in the creases and gives the cabinets a more dimensional look). I got the large cabinet thingamajig to house my fridge, cabinets all along the window area (she didn't have any there), more drawers, a caddy-corner sink oh and get this... a DISHWASHER! Yes... this excites me because I have never had one and wasn't supposed to have one in this house either. I must have died and gone to Good Wife heaven! Vinny argued with my Dad about ripping down the soffets (my Dad so nope... big job...leave them alone and Vinny said the opposite) but in the end, I told Vinny to do what he wanted.. so the soffets came off! (and a whole bunch of wiring sparked and was left hanging down from the attic but hey, that's trivial!) Now, our cabinets will go all the way to the ceiling with big, pretty crown moldings up top. Oooooh exciting! ;)

We decided against having a kitchen table because it's a small area and since the dining room is right there, we will eat in there (besides, I am not going to lug two booster seats back and forth when I need to feed the kids so we'd naturally be in the dining room to begin with). So instead, we got a counter with barstools on one of the kitchen walls. This works out great because there was room for cabinets under the counter AND we did a whole set above the counter too! Plus, I got my caddy-corner cabinet with decorative glass door and we know how important that was to me. ;) Now I spend some of my days thinking about what I want to display in there.....

For the floor... well... that was ripped up too! Seriously, besides my fairly new fridge, my entire kitchen was gutted. We picked out a pretty terracotta-colored, mosaic stone looking one-piece floor. I did sticky tiles in the apartment and they were suce a PITA. I still have the sticky glue crap coming up through the cracks once in a while....

Oh and as for some new appliances; I wanted a gas stove since I have one in the basement, but to run the pipes up, they'd have to cut through my new cabinets. So I am going with electric and I am actually kind of excited to get one of those easy to clean flat tops... they look fake don't they? I think I'll feel like I'm playing house. And we need a new microwave because we got the until that hangs over our stove.

BEDROOMS
Andrew's room is white (3 walls) with a blue accent wall. I thought the white looked nice and clean and then he has two wooden ceiling beams which added a boy-ish touch. His bedding set is called "All-Stars" and it's three shades of blue with different sporting equiptment and red stars on the set. He will have this border running along to tops of his walls. Because the bedding is so blue, I thought the white was appropriate. It's coming out really nice! The best part is the lamp I found for him in Lowes - it's a glass AIRPLANE that hangs from the ceiling! It's awesome and reminds me of my Grandpa Lou and all of the planes he used to make for me and my brothers that we hung from our ceiling when we were small. He has a wooden floor which we were going to polish & shine but since going with carpet in the living room, we got him a carpet as well.

Emily's room is so girly and fun! I bought the border at Babies R Us (it's called Blossoms) and it is a deep pink, with light pink and olive green accents. I think it's really different since it's not so pastel-y (I'm kind of over the predictable baby pastels). The bottom halves of her walls are Iced Cranberry (deep pink) and the top halves are Lyrical Pink (light pink). The border is going to run in the center of her walls. Since I am not going to buy a new crib set when I plan to have her in a bed in the next few months, I am just going to dye her dust ruffle a dark pink. If it works - great. If not, I'll buy a plain one. I also got her the curtains from the Blossoms set and I found the cutest message board at Target that is the exact plaid pink theme! I am going to hang it up and stick pictures in it for her. :) She already has a cream carpet that's in OK condition so we are going to shampoo that for her.

Our bedroom also has a cream carpet so that too will get cleaned up. We did our walls a very pale yellow since we are ordering cherry furniture (King bed... here I come!!!!) I also want to get a maroon~gold kind of bedding.... I think that would look nice. After furniture and our new big TV, there won't be much room to walk in our bedroom but that's ok. At this point, I think I'd give me left arm for a bed bigger then what I sleep in now (we sleep in a FULL... needless to say, I am actually excited when Vinny works night shifts because I get the whole tiny thing to myself). :)

BATHROOM
Ok how exciting can a bathroom be right? I'll mention it briefly. We painted it "Storm Watch" ( a fresh-looking, deep gray) and sponge-painted a shimmery pearl on the panels walls. We have a black and dark gray tiled floor and a shiny white shower insert (OMG these things are awesome!). The cabinets are white with black lines in the grooves with a long black counter top so basically, our bathroom is black, white and dark gray. For some color, I bought my rugs the other day and they are a dusty mauve. Vinny wasn't too happy but I like them.... oh and I told him I'm going to do a floral display with that color flower too, since we have so much counter space. Vinny thinks if he lives in an area that is remotely feminine he will "turn gay". What a jackass.

BASEMENT
My dad and Vinny ripped out the entire thing (besides the kitchen). After seeing what our neighbors did (my Dad makes friends with EVERYONE and got us invited in one night!), they are going that route so let's just say, there is a LOT of construction going on down there....

**

So I think that takes care of what is going on with our house. Lots of projects daily.... Hopefully, it will be done soon (we plan to be in there May 1) and then I can share some cool before and after picture!

posted by Gina M @ 12:23 PM