A Trip Down Under.

The basement. A lovely space ... where organization has yet to make an appearance and the boys reign supreme. There are bins of cars and trucks and trains and blocks for as far as the eye can see. I'm still trying to figure out where it all came from and how on earth did I keep it all so hidden at our last house? I start twitching if I stay down there for too long. And as a blogging disclaimer ... I cleaned up nothing for these photos. You know, those crazy people (um ... perhaps me on the rarest of occasions!) ... who tidy up the exact spot a photo is being snapped to give the illusion that life really appears that way ... for more than a mere 30 seconds. The basement comes as is. And by that .... I mean dry wall perched on the window sill ... 2 holes cut from the wall in effort to locate the source of our ever occurring flood, green curtains stuffed in the blinds ... Shamu and friends lining the carpet, boxes of pictures and unclaimed treasures from our other house ...

I think I'll just start referring to it as raw. Natural. A blank canvas. A spot where the Charmings find themselves letting loose (or do they do that pretty much anywhere?) ... and being creative. A spot where we held a photo shoot the other morning.

Where we had drum dancing.

And crazy faces.

Attempted such scary feats as "fire" hopping ...

And percussion straddling ...

Where we pretended to be disappointed ...

Only to laugh at ourselves a few seconds later ...

A spot where deep thoughts can occur ...

And artistic talents can be pondered ...

A little niche where one can relax next to the excessive collection of 80's cds ...

And a spot where the boys can play and I can pretend not to hear them ...

Ahh ... a basement. Where have you been all my life?

The No-Nappers.

So ... it's a rainy day. I'm in a thin slice of heaven. I LOVE rain. I don't, however, love that the basement is still leaking but I'm sure that will get fixed ... eventually. I was REALLY excited to get these crazies to bed this afternoon. Hard to do when there has been no outside exploring to diminish their wiggles ... but nonetheless ... I tried.My nap-time plans ... a lemon pillow. I found one. Online. Only problem ... it is $178 and it's not even made out of GOLD. So ... I ventured into the fabric closet and found just what I needed ... for FREE :)

The crazies woke up (or make that ... they never actually went to sleep ... Joshua told me he kept his eyes open and was listening to the crickets??) and I still had a bit of work left to do ...

But I stuffed in the pillow and pinned the bottom together. It might still be like that in a year or two ... just be careful you don't get stabbed when you sit down to rock.

KM ... thinking this might be good with your bowl of lemons?? Do you need one?

Take Two.

This is the color that caused drops of salty tears to well up in my eyes. I was trying to branch out. Explore the land of green goodness. Get away from my "go-to" brown and blue combo.

I had visions of avocado green but I ended up with something you'd find on an Easter egg. And in a small amount - say the amount of paint it would take to cover an egg - I'm sure this color would be spectacular. But on a wall ... where I have to eat breakfast everyday ... it made me nauseous.

Thankfully, Matt, assured me it could be changed. But where was I to receive inspiration for the next wall color?

See that Anthropologie bowl? I bought one just a few months ago in a deep teal. And so ... my cereal bowl became my inspiration. 5 minutes later, Matt was on the phone ... and the paint was being mixed.

An action shot of the room being transformed ...

Linen on the top ... Inner Balance on the bottom.
LOVE IT!
And the new dining room color ... goodbye Easter egg ... hello Aegean Teal ... (although J How let me know this morning that I should have painted the walls red. Red is his favorite color).
And my inspiration for the living room colors ... this picture:
It's a work in progress ...
But it's coming along ...
-------------------------------------------
And in other news ... I baked with The Charmings this morning.

Does anyone want to borrow a two year old?

Salt Dough Valentines.

It was a twelve step process. 6 for making the Valentines and another 6 for my recovery. I usually love a good project (and this was really no different) but this time ... I involved another family member. A family member with little concern for things like cleanliness and order. I invited ELI BENNETT to join the making process and well ... this face should say it all:
If he wasn't trying to eat the salt dough ... he was shoving it in places that it didn't belong. And at my suggestion that he stick to making hearts he insisted on "ba-looga whales and doll-pins."
J How and I, on the other hand, see order as a positive thing. Keeping the dough on the cookies sheet. Using a rolling pin to achieve the correct thickness ... making HEARTS for Valentine's Day.
Thank goodness for the firstborn child :)
And one other thing ... EB is learning how to use the "big boy potty" (which really deserves a post of its own) ... but would it be enough for me to say that he's a free spirit and with that ... pants are generally considered optional attire. How and "Buns" watching the hearts (and whales and trains) bake ... And then ... to the decorations. Ahh ... Eli Bennett and paint. I'm sure I'm not going to live as long now that the two of them have been introduced.
And someone (who must be losing braincells from all the paint fumes) brought glitter to the table and was watching the extreme concentration on J How's face and admiring his patterned painting (one pink heart, one red heart) when an unnamed pant-less child attacked the glitter bottle. It's a good thing he's cute. (And even cuter when covered in sparkles!)
Then ... the ribbon ...
And finally, the finished project.
And just between you and me ... some parent brought shamrock plates to the Valentine's Day party. I'm sure it wasn't me ... but if it was ... I'm going to say it was all in the name of advanced planning. Now they have something to use in March :)

The Process.

Well. This weekend was not without tears. I'm fairly certain that it is only because I am "with child" that I WEPT over a paint color choice ... but nonetheless ... there were tears. And a bit of laughter that I was actually crying over paint but I've heard of people doing it over milk ... so I think I'm okay.

------------------------------------

I'm a pretty traditional person. (And a rule follower). And by both of those accounts ... the tan baseboards and doors didn't really work for me. Plus .. they made life in a slightly "light challenged" basement a bit drearier than I would have liked. So ... first up was having all that switched to Swiss Coffee ... and that alone made the BIGGEST difference.

After that ... we went with what we knew. A paint

color from our cottage house. And thus ... the piano room and hallway were given new life with a bit of Hampton Court. And it was lovely seeing the hand prints left on the flat paint from the past six years DISAPPEAR!

So ... the room that is closest to being finished is the "piano room."

It was the easiest room to finish ... putting everything in just about the same spot as it was in our other house ...

This piece, on the other hand, was a bit of a challenge.

It was PERFECT in my CB blue master bedroom ... but this master bedroom was to be brown. And yellow stripes don't exactly look lovely against chocolate brown walls ...

(the "in process" walls with CB blue paint on the ceiling) ...

So ... I bought a bit of paper and some double-sided tape and ... it looks completely different.

(The rest of the room is still a bit funky ... so I'll have to share pictures later).

And finally ... the true before of the living room.

The peachy-tan walls have been replaced with "crisp linen" and "inner balance" ... separated by a FABULOUS chair rail. It's heavenly.

And ... the tragic paint choice for the dining room has been replaced.

Thanks to an Anthropologie bowl that was sitting nearby ...

I think the rooms will be done tomorrow (at least the paint) ...

AND I CAN HARDLY WAIT!

Who knew the correct paint color could actually make the hormonal tears VANISH?!! (At least for the moment!!)

The Befores.

When Ben and I first walked into - what is now our new house - I breezed through. I glanced at a few things ... walked up and down the stairs ... and headed out the door. I LOVED the "bones" of the house but knew if I thought about it for too long, my heart might get a little too attached. I do have to admit that I saw a lot of clean wall space and my brain was SUPER excited at the possibilities of making this house ... our home.

And in mid-December ... we were pretty shocked to hear that our offer had been accepted and we had ONE MONTH to move!

And since we knew the family who lived here before us ... they gave us access to the house (before it was really ours) and that allowed Ben to get his hands dirty and get to work!

The house still had its flat paint in place from 6 years ago along with every hand print of each person that had ever walked through the door. Parts of the house were pretty grunge ... but nothing that a little LOVING couldn't fix.

We've had cleaners, carpet cleaners, our favorite handyman, painters, pool fence people, oven repair people ... in and out of our doors. Of course, Ben has done a TON of work and last night ... our favorite painter arrived to completely transform our living area!!

So before I give you some of the "partially completed afters" ... I thought you might like to see the "befores" ...

Ben's office ...

The Sitting Room ... or where the piano now lives ...

The hallway ... which has our family's first EVER hall closet!

The kitchen (and part of the dining room) ...

The Living Room (or tv room - as the kids call it) ...

The Laundry ROOM (so excited about this!!) ...

The Master Bedroom ...

And Bath (and the closet where the 3rd born will be sleeping!) ...

The Truly Unorganized Playroom ...

And some random room that is currently housing boxes ...

The Soon To Be Nursery ... after a short stint in the closet ...

The Guest Room ....

The Boy's Room ...

And ... the backyard ...

Matt and I spent the morning picking paint colors ... and Ben is off to pick up the paint! Bye-bye pinkish-tan walls ... and hello "Inner Balance," "Mountain Mist," and some greenish-blue color!

Here's to hoping I picked the right ones!!

I guess we'll find out by Wednesday!