May
24 2
comments

Eleanor had her last day of nursery school (the kids all sang songs for the parents — it was adorable), and then we went house hunting. Wait, that needs more exclamation marks. We went house hunting!!! We are so giddy about this. The kids keep saying that we’re looking for our “rainbow house”, so fingers crossed, we’ll find it.

Eleanor would like some secret passages in the new house too. (We’re working on it, kid.)

My Writing Elsewhere…

And now: Babble! The things I write all over the interwebs!

IKEA Stockholm 2013 Collection

link    Honor Roll  •  2 Comments  •  May 24, 2013

Our Organized Bathroom Storage Area

May
23 21
comments

This post is sponsored by Glad®. Take small steps to reduce waste and earn a chance to win big. Sign up for Glad’s Trim Your Waste program here.

I’ll be starting on bigger changes to prepare for moving soon, but until an agent comes and I can go over my ideas for what we will do, I figured I should start small.

Our home has 2.5 baths — one full bath upstairs by the bedrooms, one on the main floor, and a half bath that we added to the basement when we finished it. The bathroom upstairs has storage directly outside of it. It wasn’t bad, since the system I put in place six years ago is still working for us, but it needed a little attention. Do you think we should add doors? There were bi-fold doors when we bought the house, but they were broken when we moved in, so we took them out. I don’t mind having the area open, but what would you prefer in a house?

Here’s the space now.

Bathroom Storage Closet

It’s not a huge difference (hence no “before” shot), but I was able to consolidate some things. Brandon’s stuff was on the other side before, along with the extra toothbrushes, bars of soap, and assorted other sundries. Now it’s all together, and the other side can be devoted almost entirely to linens.

We keep a small garbage can in the bathroom but when we have something recyclable to throw out, like a plastic bottle or the cardboard tube from a roll of toilet paper, we bring it downstairs to sort in the kitchen bin. Trim Your Waste with Glad has more green ideas, and by signing up, you can be eligible to win prizes like $2500 to green your home, or make a donation to Keep America Beautiful. (More information and rules can be found here.) We do try our best to live cleaner and greener. Sometimes that means going through fewer paper towels by using cloth instead, and sometimes that means buying refills for cleaning products, soap, and anything else we can. My giant shampoo and conditioner refills are comically big, but I use them to refill the smaller ones in the shower so we are buying less packaging in the long run. It’s a small step, but it helps.

Shampoo and Conditioner Refills

A quick aside: I remember that I wrote years ago about not caring about what shampoo and conditioner I used, and that I just went with the cheap stuff. That was before I fried my hair, trying to bleach it and go red. When I went for a hair cut the next time after dying it, my stylist used Kevin Murphy and my hair was instantly better. I’ve used it since.

I know it’s a little thing, but having my storage areas organized makes me happy.

link    Bathrooms, Organization  •  21 Comments  •  May 23, 2013

Let’s Go!

May
22 72
comments

Today is our anniversary! Brandon and I have been married for nine years. We’ve been parents for four of those years, and homeowners for six. It’s been good.

I’ve been trying to push him toward a new adventure for us and our family, but we weren’t in agreement. I wanted us to pick up and move to San Francisco for a year.

I love it there! You will too, and the kids will think the streetcars and trolleys are the best things ever! Plus they haven’t settled in with school yet! You’re home now, and I can work from anywhere! We’ll just rent the house out while we’re gone! We could afford it for a year! It will be fun!

And so on.

Brandon is more practical.

It’s an expensive city. It’s hard to find a nice place to live, especially when you’re new to the area. We have a dog and three cats — that’s not attractive to renters. We have a lot of stuff. Our family is here.

And so on.

Eventually, he relented, but it was not an excited let’s go! kind of thing. More like fiiiiiine, let’s go. I was disappointed. I’m not going to drag us all out there if he isn’t into it. An exciting year in another city would be marred by resentment, don’t you think? If we’re going to make a big change, we need to all be on board.

Brandon and the Kids

I’d been looking at real estate listings for months, finding amazing homes in the Chicago area that were way out of our price range. I wasn’t really looking for something, just browsing the same way you might watch House Hunters. Of course, it’s all too easy to type in our town, start narrowing it down by budget, number of bedrooms… You know. Just to see what’s out there.

Then I went on that Housewalk, and oh boy.

There are still things to do to this house, and I think Brandon would be happy staying put. It’s a great house, and we’ve made it really nice over the last six years, but there’s only so much we can do before we start to over-improve a property. If we knew we were going to stay in our home for another six years, we wouldn’t worry about it, but I’m ready for new projects. A new adventure! And when I talked to Brandon about it, he agreed that he was ready too. We’ll be looking for a new home, here in Oak Park, but hopefully in one of the historic districts.

Brandon and August

We’re going to see what our house is worth (I have an idea, but I’d like an expert’s opinion), and we’ll start preparing to sell. I mean, I love pink paint in my living room, but I’m pretty sure that’s only going to appeal to a very small segment of the market. I think the Edison chandelier in the bedroom is probably pretty taste-specific too.

Our house should be ready to hit the market in a month, if not sooner. I’ll be sharing our progress here, of course. We’re excited!

link    My Home  •  72 Comments  •  May 22, 2013

La La La La Lovely Library

May
21 33
comments

Sometimes I can’t come up with a snappy title. Sing it to this.

Under the Eaves in the Library

Hey, I can finally share more pictures of the library! I took these photos last month, shortly after adding the new coffee/play table to the space. Then my computer died and the little laptop I bought to work on while traveling (since I was doing so much of that last year) wasn’t powerful enough to edit RAW photo files. Luckily, my old computer was still under warranty, and I’m now working on a brand new replacement. It took a while to get it, but it’s here and it’s zippy!

Anyway, wide angle shots.

Making it Lovely's Library

Making it Lovely's Library

Got your bearings? Good. Let’s get closer.

Eleanor and August each have toys in their rooms, but we also keep a fabric bin full of stuffed animals for both of them in the library. It eliminates some of the “mine!” dibs to have them on neutral ground. That’s why it’s so good to have the castle out there too.

Stuffed Animals

Clearly I put the cutest toys on top.

The fiddle leaf fig is still doing well. We had a rough first couple of weeks, but now it’s thriving.

Fiddle Leaf Fig

I’d wanted a Michelle Armas painting forever, and when the one I really wanted sold out before I could commit to buying it, I was disappointed. When I spotted that smaller pink and orange one, I bought it right away, even though I wasn’t sure where I’d put it. Turns out it was just what I needed for the library. I also picked up one of those cube sculpture things I featured here.

Michelle Armas Painting in Making it Lovely's Library

And look! Decorating with books, in a library! What will I think of next?

Making it Lovely's Library

link    Library  •  33 Comments  •  May 21, 2013

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