Life update

Hi all! It has definitely been a while since I checked in around here. I took a few weeks off this summer so I could soak in the time with my kids before they start school. I figured I would check in with a life update to let you know what I have been up to as well as what I am working on for the next few weeks with my home and this blog.

On a personal front I am knee deep into the last few weeks of summer, we are school clothes shopping, school supplies are purchased ( and still need labeling), back packs are hanging in the mudroom, my kids are fighting every second of the day and are “bored” all the time. Yep, gotta love those blissful days of summer.

I am kidding, I have filled our summer days with many trips to beaches and lakes with friends, zoo trips, tons of family time with out of town guests, a trip canoeing, kayaking and fishing, library trips, baseball games, a horse show my daughter got 4th place in, sleeping in, bike rides, bonfires, so many smores, and water park fun. After a few weeks of car issues we threw up our hands and got a new car, joining the uber cool and swagtastic mini-van crew. Our battle cry is “minivan” and we make this look cool.

On the design front we got a new sofa for the living room. I changed things around earlier this summer and we carved out a smaller family room in what used to be the dining room. I combined the living room into a great room with the addition of the dining table in here. We are adoring this lay out so much. The most recent home tour can be found here. 

Our house is not a big time TV watching situation, so having a smaller room with just a sofa and TV has worked great for us when we do have a movie night. Most of the time you can see us rocking out to music, typically John Mayer, Bruno Mars, Sara Bareilles… relaxing and chill music like that. We also do a lot of reading, art projects, my kids skateboard in the house, make forts in the living room. A lot of living goes on so this layout has worked beautifully in our home.

I painted the dining room chairs, changed up the kids art table, added new fabric to those chairs, a new bench in the sun room…. lots of little changes have been happening.

A far as the bathroom that we redid due to water damage, we still need to finish it up. The last few steps to any renovation seems to be the ones that drag on and on. It is functional again so the hurried situation of getting it done is no longer pressuring us. Small things like adding crown molding, attaching the baseboards, new cabinet door hardware need to be done.

Once that is all done I am itching to reveal it all to you! I went bold with the tile, but calmed things down with the rest of the colors, added in some warmth with wood accents. With it being thrown together while we were standing in the home improvement store and literally selecting finishes on the spot I am happy with the results.

The next big renovation I am looking to do is our laundry room. I have wanted to add a counter top in there for a long time now. Having that work space would be amazing. Our laundry room/mudroom combo is also the entrance to the garage, so I have to keep things as neat as possible otherwise we literally cannot get into our house. I need place for stuff, laundry baskets, clothes…. all that comes with a house filled with 5 people, 2 dogs and 2 guinea pigs.

My husband Dale is working from home most of the time now, so we will be changing around things in the basement. It is partially finished with heating and cooling down there, some walls. But there is still the concrete floor and concrete exterior walls exposed. We do have a family room, play area, craft room and a trampoline down there (seriously) but I have felt it was never pretty enough to share. However, with our focus shifting to the function of it add an office space for Dale and a better work situation for me down there I will be sharing the space as it is and getting started on renovating it.

I feel like I am always changing my house up, I assumed that eventually it would be “done”, but as my kids get older the needs of our home shift, as our life changes things need to adjust to those changes in our home too. I am finally accepting that nothing will ever be 100% done because our life is always evolving and changing. We may get things more or less done within a few years, then we will have teenagers and the use of our space will change again, then our kids start going off to college our home will shift again and the needs of the way it functions will need to be altered. There is no stagnate in life, this is all just a phase until we move onto the next phase.

This life update I am loving summer with my trio of little-ish kids, but the routine of school starting is looking really appealing too. As I write this on a beautiful summer day, clear blue skies, breeze blowing, birds chirping; I have bribed my kids to give me time to work with them having tablet time. Once I press save on this draft we will be heading to the park with scooters, balls or skateboards in tow, juggling the mix of being a stay at home Mom as well as a blogger has proved difficult this summer. So I am eager to get back into a routine with work, school, and finally having a clean house! First on my to-do list is decorate for fall, finish up the bathroom, and get to planning on the laundry room. Thanks so much for sticking around during this less exciting time for the blog and things will start ramping up again for sure! How has your summer been going?