A few favorites

We have lived in our townhome for a little over 5 years.  We purchased this place right after we tied the knot.  Well, not right after.  It took three months to find this place, but it felt like a lifetime to me! I remember looking at all different types of homes (capes, split levels, ranches, colonials).  We then switched gears and decided to purchase a townhouse as our first home.  Boy are there are lot to choose from! Some with yards, some with garages, some with basements, some that sagged, some that felt like a tomb, some that were so open they were missing doors, some that were so dirty I wanted to shower afterwards.  But, alas, when we stepped foot into our townhome for the first time, Dave and I looked at each other and just knew!

We are not people who agree easily on big purchases.  It took four trips to Fortunoff to pick out our wedding china.  We saw more wedding reception locations that I can count and purchases our first home was not an easy feat for us.  But something about this place stole our hearts.

It wasn't a pretty place, but it had potential.  The location was great, too.  We back up to the woods, so it's peaceful and on a few occasions we have spotted deer lurking in our driveway.  It's been a place that we can call home, find comfort and discover ourselves.

These walls have heard our laughter through good times, watched our tears flow in times of sadness and cringed during moments of anger.  These walls have watched us grow as individuals and as a family.  These walls have seen some hideous decor decisions and have taken a beating by nails and paintbrushes and some bunny teeth chewing the moulding.

For this post, I wanted to share my three favorite rooms.  I'll break down each of them in separate posts, but just wanted to introduce them today.

First is our half bath.  Here is it on the day of our inspection.

YIKES!!  I forgot how much beige was in crammed in that room. This was our first big project.  With the help of my dad we gutted this room and gave it a new life.  Ugliness went out and a calming oasis went in.

Here's the finished project.

So much better!  I love this bathroom.  Is that weird to say? I love the colors, the flooring, the sink, and most of all, the fact that we did it!!

My second favorite room is our kitchen.  Here it is on the day of inspection.

Looks like a typical 1970's kitchen. I actually forgot how much brown there was.

Here it is after a little paint and some decorating.  We added the island, which has made a HUGE difference for Mr. Pal and I.  We enjoy cooking meals together and the island added much needed counter work space.

Ignore the green tape on the island.  Baby Girl Pal was sticking her fingers between the slats and getting hurt.

And I saved my favorite room for last.  Here's the spare bedroom when we moved in.

This room gets great light from the two windows.  The downside is that it's above the garage.  This means it's kind of chilly in the winter and a bit warm in the summer. We finally found that by leaving the door to the room open all the time regulates the temperature, so it's more comfortable.

Here's that spare room as our Nursery for Baby Girl Pal.

 I LOVE THIS ROOM!!  This is my by far my favorite room in the house. I love the design direction we went for the nursery.  We stepped outside of the norm and decided to just create her space, instead of buying the usual "nursery theme in a bag."  It's completely personalized and so much love went into designing this room.  I love spending time in this room with my little girl and creating memories and just watching her grow.

So what's the deal with showing just my favorite rooms? Well, we are leaving our first home.  We bit off more than we could chew when we first went house shopping.  We never looked ahead to possible income changing factors (job loss, new baby, etc).  We walked in with blinders on and our checkbook open.  We have learned a lot from this experience and appreciate how much we have grown.

Mr. Pal and I already allow ourselves to daydream about our "dream home."  We know now to be more realistic.  We also know potential can go far, but only so far.  We have decided to make a list of our must haves and a list of what we can do without.  We know now that being a homeowner means there are compromises and surprises.

We aren't sure yet when we are going to go, but we are ready to start a new chapter in our lives and press the "reset" button.  Life should totally come with a "reset button!"

Quick bathroom change

A few months back...ok, honestly, it was like a year ago, not a few months.  So about a year ago Mr. Pal & I were shopping and came across this bathroom set.  

Nice, right?!

We toyed with the idea of revamping our full bathroom since we've had the same bath set since we got engaged (2007, yeah, that's not that long ago, but we get tired of decor stuff quickly!) Here's the set we used to have.

Via Bedbathandbeyond.com

So we checked the price of this Parisian themed set and decided it was worth it and so we bought it.  In the car on the way home we talked about possibly doing some kind of faux finish on the walls.  Maybe something to look like stone or maybe something more in the red family.  We were just so excited to paint and have a new look to the bathroom.

After dropping off our goodies at home we drove to Home Depot and started looking at paints.  Faux finishes, textures, deep colors. You name it, we grabbed it! We were so excited and couldn't wait to redo the bathroom.

When we got home with our paint chips I taped up a few of the paint chips with the solid colors and the faux finishes on the wall so we could live with them for a few days and pick which we liked best.
Well, days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months....you get the picture right?  So those paint chips started to just blend in with what we had on the wall.  I forgot they were there until someone would come over and ask if we picked out a color.  Yeah, it got embarrassing when the same people started to ask when we were going to paint.

As for all the bathroom supplies they sat in a box on the floor.....in the dining room. Great spot, right? I forgot we had them actually.  My nephew would repeatedly ask me when I was going to do something with the box in the dining room, but I was too lazy/disinterested/busy/enter any excuse here/etc.

Then, I lost my job.  Now, there was no excuse for why we weren't painting the bathroom.  I decided I was over the faux finish idea. It was too time consuming (yes, I know, I'm not working, what else do I have to do, but I tend to lose interest in things quickly, so it needed to be a quick revamp.)

In November, we were going to be hosting Thanksgiving so I needed to get the dining room in tip top shape.  I moved that box of stuff and saw that we had a whole new bathroom set.  Yay us! And, as luck would have it, I was standing in our dining room while holding up the shower curtain package.  Here's a picture of the dining room.  Maybe you can see where I'm going with this?

Yup, I loved the colors in the dining room and they looked like they'd be great as the backdrop for our bathroom stuff.

So, I picked on day to bang out this little project.  First, I wiped all the walls down with a mixture of vinegar & water since there were light stains on the walls from the steam.  Then I spruced up the ceiling with a fresh coat of white paint.  No picture since really, it went from white to cleaner white.  Speaking of which I totally love fresh painted white trim and doors.  Always makes everything look so brand new and fresh!
Then I just painted my little heart out! I did three walls with the tan color and one wall with the red/maroon color.

I love it!!!

I even have a spot to display my perfume bottles.  I love perfume bottles. I think they're so beautiful.  I'd love to add to this collection, but they can get pricey since I like the antique ones, so the addition of perfume bottles will be a slow process.
 

Speaking of antiques, we picked up these fleur de lis pulls at an antique dealer and added them to the doors of our cabinet.  We just had plain gold ones that were gross.  

Here's a close-up of one. I'm not sure that they are antique, but I love how they look!

Oh and here's my pride and joy of the bathroom! Is it weird to have a pride and joy of a bathroom?  Well, it doesn't matter, here is The Mat!

Yup those are wine corks and no I didn't drink that many bottles on my own...maybe half? I'm kidding!  My family & my in-laws helped out with donating their corks to me about  two years ago.  I had more than enough to make the mat. Oh, and please excuse the pieces of my hair on the floor. No matter how many times I vacuum the bathrooms my hair is still all over the place!

The mat was really easy to make.  Just slice the cork in half with a knife (be careful of your fingers! I spliced mine a few times doing this). Then lay them out in your desired design on a shelf liner. Then hot glue those suckers down!

I have to be honest though, some of them are getting a little wiggly and one did fall off. I have to re-glue, but I ran out of hot glue sticks.  But for just Mr. Pal & I it works! And we love it!
So any quick changes to any of your rooms that became a year long project in the making?

Under the sink disaster

When Mr. Pal & I first looked at our townhome I was so excited to see the large counter and cabinet area in the main bathroom.  I always felt that I never had enough space for our stuff and the large cabinet made me so happy. I couldn't wait to have room for all our stuff.

When we moved in, being that I had more important things to do, like point out where the couch goes, I just crammed all our toiletry stuff under the sink and called it a day.

I tried a few times to organize it, but in the end, it always went back to being a disaster.  The areas I tried to organize were now just little bins of messes.

Yikes!! What is all that stuff? Do we even need it all? It gave me a headache every morning when I grabbed my make-up bag and then would knock over all the bottles around it.  Plus, we never had room for toilet paper, so I would just toss the rolls in the cabinet and slam the door shut.  I like to think I'm organized, but when I'm not happy with something, I tend to make the problem bigger.

So, I figured it was time to face the music cabinet and get organized.  I started by pulling out all our stuff and organizing it into keep and toss piles.  Umm, why am I keeping an giant empty bottle of body lotion?

Here are my two piles.  I'm embarrassed to say that many of the lotion bottles were epmty. I don't know why I didn't toss them when I bought a new bottle.  I feel like a hoarder! So all that stuff in the top picture got tossed.  The pile of stuff in the bottom picture I kept.  I was hoping the toss pile would be bigger, but no such luck!

It looks like we take a lot of baths at that Pal house, but we really don't.  I think I've taken 3 in the two and half years that we've lived here.  I think I'll make it a point to take more since we have a ton of bubble bath stuff.

Once I knew what I was keeping it was time to get the cabinet filled and organized.  I decided to ditch the make-up bag and use a mini-three drawer container to house all my stuff.

That also gave me a designated shelf to place all the stuff I use every day within reach.  Behind that I put all the bubble bath stuff (since now I'm so gonna be a bath girl! haha) in a clear bag.  Now it's all contained in one package.

On the other side I put all our first-aid type stuff in a caddy and then lined up a box next to it for all of Mr. Pal's stuff he uses everyday.  I tried to keep all the remaining items contained in order for nothing to be knocked over and make a mess.

I'm happy with how it turned out.

Now, I just hope it stays this way! :)