Archive for November, 2007
Silver Bells (And Pigs)
Is Christmas in the air or what? Now that it’s our second “winter” in Richmond we’re used to the milder temperatures and the fact that some of our annuals are actually still blooming. But even though there’s been no morning frost (let alone snow) as of yet, we still hear the Christmas songs on the radio and see the Christmas trees at Lowe’s so we know that the 25th of December is just around the corner.
And we’ve come up with a fun ornament theme for our tree this year that makes us feel mucho sophisticado: all silver. Not stuffy sterling silver ornaments or anything, just a firm rule that anything silver goes.
We already picked up some fun mirrored disco ball ornaments at CB2 and found the coolest silver starburst ornament at Z Gallerie while we were in NYC last weekend. And Target has been a great resource for silver balls of all sizes along with some fun shapes like a silver piggy bank ornament and a mini Empire State Building to hang in honor of our old hometown.
Anyone who’s asked us what we’d like for Christmas knows about our special ornament request, so hopefully our tree will be noticably more full of silver ornaments of all shapes and sizes by next year. I actually read something that said that the perfect number of ornaments for a six foot tree is 120-140. So far we only have about 40, so we better get cracking!
Spin City
I’m so excited about this next post. It’s my favorite transformation to date and the ironic part is that I’m about to reveal our brand spankin’ new laundry nook and I’m not even the one who does the laundry (it’s the twenty first century people!).
The fact that we cobbled this model-home-looking laundry center together on a budget just makes my chest puff up with pride. It has worked wonders on updating our house and laundry has never been more fun for my hubby (sorry babe, your love of doing laundry is now public knowledge).
Here’s what it looked like as we knocked out those bi-fold doors (see how close the wall was to the sunroom door- it robbed us of so much hall space!):
And here’s a shot of our beautiful new laundry nook:
We made the counter ourselves from a piece of plywood that we painted and polyurethaned, we leaned two big frames from Ikea (showcasing some cheap wrapping paper, which always makes for cheap art) against the back wall to cover the ugly plugs and pipes, and we hung some Wal-Mart blinds to cover the cluttered storage shelf above:
And we even got a rolling storage caddy from Target (for under twenty bucks) which fits perfectly beside our washer and dryer and holds all of our cleaning supplies:
Life is good in our little laundry nook. And we’d love to hear about how you’ve organized everything from your laundry room to your attic- we have about 20 other corners, closets, and crevices that could benefit from a little organization so let us know what works for you.
Playing Architect
We’ve finally found a way to show off the changing layout of our house without actually inviting everyone over for a visit (although we’re always happy to give tours). The other day I was browsing RemodelingMySpace.com and saw a link to some free (!!) software called Floorplanner, which they had reviewed as an easy-to-use tool for creating 2D house plans. They also showcase software like Plan 3D and Google SketchUp if you’re looking to do more involved, 3D drawings. But I’m starting slow…
Last night I cranked away on two very different floor plans: our old layout, and our almost-there new layout. Check each of them out below, but ignore the square footage and other technical stuff (I didn’t bother to measure every room exactly). I just tried to make everything as proportional as possible. So without further ado…
Here’s our old floor plan:
And now our new floor plan:
Some noteworthy changes are:
- The wider doorways around the kitchen and den
- The new wood floor uniting the kitchen, den and laundry/bathroom area
- The more open laundry nook (buh-bye bi-fold doors)
- The living room became a living / dining room
- The dining room became a third bedroom
- And, of course, the new kitchen (with about 50% more counter-space!)
Hope all my time was worth it and you guys can better visualize the transformation happening over here. And again, Floorplanner is free so I encourage everyone to take it for a spin. We’d love to see the results.
