I finally (almost) finished a room today. The farmhouse bathroom is now (almost) complete. I need to hang a picture of the girls and maybe a few other signs, but for the most part, it is how I want it. So here it comes. The very first "room reveal" for the farmhouse. Try to remember that I had some "help" from a certain 3-year-old while taking the photos.
0 Comments
One of my favorite things to think about when I'm starting to decorate a room is what details I can add to really make the room "mine". Today, I worked on the office nook. I would say this room is considered "finished", except for whatever I might find in tubs over the next few days. Hopefully I've got it organized enough now that I should be able to categorize any extra items and put them right away. Some of the details that I really adore about the new farmhouse office nook include the herringbone plank clothespin board, the Rise & Shine sign, and of course, the typewriter Scentsy warmer. I love the Farmhouse caddy sitting by my camera and the wire basket from Dollar General holding all of my Bible study items. My childrens' picture on the "love" picture frame along with the funky desk lamp are both details that I enjoy. Through the whole process of moving and planning and decorating, I'm trying to remember to take time for the details.
I wanted my office nook to be someplace that I can come each morning to spend time with Jesus. To be able to load and edit photographs for my clients in a peaceful environment. To be inspired in my workspace. To pay attention to the details as I mold the space to fit exactly what I am visualizing in my mind. I wanted to have a refreshing place to create. And I think this farmhouse office nook will be just that place. We finished cleaning out the inside of the old house yesterday afternoon and our buyers started moving in yesterday evening. At the farmhouse now, we are living in a state of chaos. The rooms that were somewhat organized last night have since become a bit chaotic again with more tubs added from the last of the belongings we brought over today. The biggest thing that I have been telling myself through this whole process is that I only want to have things in the farmhouse that we love and use.
I can think about whether or not the items I unpack spark joy for our family.
I can think about if it's worth keeping a specific belonging if it means cleaning and dusting around it for the next several years. I can think about how much time it would take to take care of an item and whether or not it's worth it to be away from my family to deal with certain "stuff". Because I know that I have the power to choose what gets to take up space in our home and what doesn't, I am going to put myself on a bit of a schedule to go through certain rooms over the next few weeks. I want to be completely moved in and settled before I begin spending more time at school preparing for the 2017-2018 school year.. So here's what I've got planned for myself. I want to have the main floor completely finished before the wedding I have to photograph on Saturday.
I'm looking forward to revealing some of these rooms to everyone over the next week or so when I purge the unwanted items from each room and put the finishing touches on them! Stay tuned! I've really tried to minimize belongings in our home over the last few years by using specific areas in the house for dual purposes. An example in the old house would have been our kitchen island. It had the dishwasher on one side and cabinets on two of the other sides. The top had a rustic-style organizer where bills, event invitations, and important papers landed. I had mason jars with pens and scissors in them. It was sort of the hub of the house. The problem is that it also became the "catch-all" a lot of the time. One of my goals for the farmhouse was to have locations in the house that would serve dual purposes, while making sure that these places didn't attract clutter. This is where I got the idea for a coffee bar charging station. As our girls have gotten older, they have started to spend more and more time engaged in electronics...mostly their iPads. We have rules for these and to be quite frank, they often end up on the refrigerator for a week at a time because the iPad is a privilege and when little girls make poor choices, privileges are revoked. I know that as they continue to grow, we will be dealing with other types of technology...cell phones, computers, and who knows what else. I knew I needed a central charging hub and I knew that this little space in the kitchen could be the perfect location if I would work it out right. I ended up finding a really well-made console table at a friend's garage sale in mid-June. I knew it would be perfect SOMEwhere in the farmhouse, so I bought it. We had several options for using the console table in this little nook by the basement stairs in the kitchen...a mail drop-off location, more counter-space for use in cooking, or just a decorative table. I knew that any of those three options could turn into clutter-central. That's when my sister-in-law mentioned putting our Keurig there. That really got the wheels-a-turning. I decided that having a coffee bar on top of the charging station would be perfect. And I decided to be very intentional about what I put there. In the old house, I always tried to hide the K-Cups.
Now, there is an outlet right behind where the wire basket sits.
Of course, there aren't enough plugs to service a charging station for the whole family...so I mounted a power strip on the wall behind the console table. Nothing fancy...I literally used thumbtacks to hang it (the farmhouse has plaster walls...have I mentioned that???). The girls picked out their own washi tape to identify their chargers and we fed them up through the drawer on the right. I plugged in my iPad and FitBit Blaze into the left drawer and we were done! A functional charging station inside and a beautiful coffee bar outside.
For a lot of the day, the rooms in the farmhouse looked like the one you see above. We carried in furniture and tubs, boxes and bags. We arranged and rearranged so many items and finally figured out the best layout for the main rooms downstairs. The girls and nieces carried things upstairs and organized all afternoon. Everyone was so helpful. Early in the day, Harlee asked me to please ask our minister, Brother Matt, to come out and pray for us and for our journey in the new house before we slept here. I kept meaning to give him a call and see if this would be possible. At 8:32, when she came downstairs and asked if he had ever agreed, it hit me that I had completely forgotten to even get a hold of him. So I sent him a text message and he and his wife Michelle ran out to "bless this mess".
I agree, Harlee. I definitely agree. I can't wait to share our room reveals as we finally get the farmhouse put together.
Thanks for sharing our journey with us, friends. Happy Sunday!
At the old house, we had a nice Realtree camo bedspread that my sister-in-law and I found on one of our Black Friday shopping escapades a few years ago.
It was fine for a few years, but it's already showing its age and it matched our old bedroom. When I started planning for our bedroom in the farmhouse, I was excited to be able to change the decorating style from deeper tones to a lighter feeling with a few dark anchor pieces. I was glancing through Facebook one day and a friend of ours had just listed a two-year-old queen bedroom set on there with a bed frame, night stands, and a nice dresser! I messaged her immediately and we ended up getting it! We had been sleeping on a full-size bed (and mattress) that was almost 34 years old. It has served us well and we decided to leave it for the new owners of the old house to use in their guest room. I purchased quilted bedspread, the box springs, and mattress and we were set
It was pretty entertaining.
The box springs were planks of wood that just fit together and made the foundation for the bed. The 12-inch memory foam mattress, was vacuumed sealed and rolled into a box that was about 18 inches square and as long as a queen bed is wide.
I can't wait to share the room reveal with you when we finish the details!
For now, here's a taste of what the quilt looks like with the new wall paint and new bed set! And here is Matthew's great-grandpa's wardrobe in the corner of our new bedroom. Don't mind the sleeping child. Claire Bear needed to try out the new bed after church camp. Today is moving day, folks...more reveal pics to come in the near future! Thanks for following along on our journey!
I fell asleep around 1:00 a.m. In a cabin full of 6, 7, and 8 year old girls...after telling them numerous times that it was time to go to sleep. I woke up at 6:00 a.m. and tip-toed around getting ready for the day so as not to wake the sleeping children. This is at least my 24th year at Kamp Keirsey. I came as a camper. Then as a junior counselor. And then a counselor. Even a director for a year or two. And now, as a mom. There is something about taking a break from the reality of day-to-day business at home and spending time enjoying the great outdoors, camp food, sleeping in a cabin, and having fellowship with other believers. There's something about spending one-on-one time with one of your kids. There's something about not having to rush to anything for 48 hours...except for the dining hall when the supper whistle blows. I will admit that I have thought about the farmhouse the last few days. I have thought about what I could be getting done...what I SHOULD be getting done. I am trying to focus solely on this special time with Claire and the joy of experiencing God with her at the same church camp that I came to as a child. I am trying to hear what God has to teach me. It's not always easy for me to take a break. But on mornings like this, where I'm the only one awake on campus and I walk outside to spend some time with Jesus and see a sunrise like THIS...that makes it a little easier to turn off the thoughts of what needs to be done at the farmhouse.
It makes it easier to bask in His creation. This has been a breath of fresh air. A much-needed "pause". A "reset," if you will. I will be refreshed and excited to get home tonight and continue work at the farmhouse...to see Matthew & the other two girls. But until then, I'll enjoy this time...because it's just what I needed. Three days ago, we took early occupancy of the farmhouse. It's official. We almost have a new address. The farmhouse almost belongs to us. We will officially close at the end of next week. Our seller allowed us to come on in and start painting and prepping for the big move. It's almost time to pack up the last little bit of our belongings from the home we've known for the last eleven years and move them to our new home.
I can't wait until the painter's tape is pulled off and we see the finished product!
Very, very soon, we will sleep for the very first time in Farmhouse 654. Sometimes, I think I have problems.
The closing date on the house has gotten pushed back several times. Our appraisal report didn't come today by 5:00. My kids just couldn't get along this afternoon. Harlee's softball team lost the championship game tonight. Sometimes, I think I have problems. And then tragedy strikes. Over this past weekend, one of our oldest daughter's classmates was killed in a car accident, along with his two-year-old brother and their mother. My heart is aching for this family. For his sister left behind to navigate life without her mom or two younger brothers. For his teachers. For his classmates. For my sweet Harlee and her friends, who have already started planning some sort of monument at the elementary school in memory of Phoenix from the class of 2025. Please join me, dear readers, in praying for this family and our community in the days ahead. My heart is just aching tonight. Yesterday, we spent day #2 at the farmhouse. On the "to do list" was to finish painting the master bedroom and to get the kitchen somewhat put together. One of my former colleagues is an amazing painter and volunteered to come down and help me knock out the bedroom walls. She. Was. Amazing. She filled holes, painted the edges with her favorite fancy Purdy paint brush, filled in the middle with the paint roller, and even painted the whole closet by the time she left late into the evening. And now it looks wonderful! After the bedroom was painted, Mr. Farmhouse left and took the two younger girls home and Harlee & I decided to tackle the kitchen. My dad had gone to Lee's Summit to pick up our new refrigerator yesterday afternoon and it was now safely installed in the new kitchen, thanks to Dad, Matthew, & my brother-in-law, Colby. We had only three tubs of kitchen stuff to go through and put away, so Harlee and I decided to go for it. We went through the tubs and only ended up keeping one tub of kitchen items. We put those items away and made a plan for where we would put the rest of the goodies we have left in our current kitchen. I have lots of pictures for the walls, decorative items for above the cabinets, and other countertop accents. I'm looking forward to putting all of those things out once we get the final appraisal report back (today sometime!!!) and set a final "for-sure 100% happening" closing date. I can't wait to share the details of the kitchen project with you! Until then...here's a preview! The Pioneer Woman Utensil Crock was the very first thing I bought for the farmhouse & I got the clock today at WalMart for $14.97!
|
Archives
December 2023
Categories
All
|