Polka Dot Playroom

We have been working like crazy to get this house in ship shape order to make it start to feel like home and this weekend it all caught up to us.  We are plain exhausted and Saturday morning I spent the afternoon hugging a certain white bowl, and then Pete decided he needed to give it some love on Sunday.  Ugh!  It was SO nice out this weekend too!  We each took a day to sleep (literally the whole 24 hours!) and now we are both feeling well enough to get back at it.  We are calling this next little chapter Phase Two Electric Boogaloo :).

Before we get into what's next on our long list of to do's, I am really excited to share our polka dot playroom with ya'll today.  Our goal was to have this as one of the first rooms finished so that our little Gracie-boo would have somewhere to play and keep her busy while we were working on the house. 

Here is what we started with:

Needless to say, it needed some work before it became a playroom.  It needed the flooring removed, the hanging lights taken down, the fireplace painted, new curtains, new carpet, the ceiling needed to be painted, the walls needed to be patched and painted, and the trim taken off and replaced.  Whew!  Luckily we had our AMAZING sister-in-law Katie, and our niece Julia back to help us out again :) 

And drum roll please .....

Here is our after:

 
We LOVE how it turned out!!!  There is a perfect amount of storage with the IKEA shelving and I love that there is a perfect comfortable spot for me a and friend to sit while we watch our wee ones play during play dates.  I love when a room turns out exactly how you envisioned!  Now all it needs is a little bit of art and it's done :)

Lastly I just want to touch on the fireplace in the playroom.  It is always tricky using a room with a fireplace as a playroom because of course there are safety concerns you need to address.  We knew we were dealing with a working gas fireplace and we really like the idea of using it to heat our home in the winter.  So we had to keep it.  I came across an inspiration picture on pinterest a while back and started my search for a fireplace screen on kijiji shortly after.

Check it out:

(http://www.interiorsbystudiom.com/blog/2013/11/montigo-fireplaces-fireplace-screens-safety-tips/)

So we found the perfect screen (after getting lost in the boonies trying to find the house to buy it at with 2 cranky kids in the back - remember that day hun? lol)  And we set off to Michaels to buy several cans of spray paint.

Here is how the fireplace looked when we moved in:

 

Here is how ours turned out with a fresh coat of paint and a bright fireplace screen:

We think it totally freshens up the room.  We did a bit of research on how best to paint our brick fireplace.  Young House Love (LOVE THEM!!!) has a great tutorial on how to get a great look.  Check it out at: http://www.younghouselove.com/2009/01/how-to-paint-a-brick-fireplace/

Well there you have it.  Gracie LOVES the playroom, and we know soon Levi will be all into her markers and dollies too.  And, yes, the white furniture has already been christened with markers - thank goodness they are washable!!!

Rebecca & Pete

We are IN!

Well, April 30th FINALLY rolled around and we are finally in!!!  It feels great to have the first week and a bit behind us.  Below is a picture of the hubs and I in front of our fixer upper on the day we took possession.

 And here is a cute little snapshot of our little family at our first home saying goodbye.

 
Here's the low down on what has been been our lives for the last week:

We got the house around 4pm on our possession day and by 6pm the first coat of paint was being rolled on!  On to a navy blue ceiling that is!  Oh my, this darn ceiling took FOREVER to cover!  The culprit was Gracie's new bedroom.  The room itself is a bit smaller than we are used to, but it will do just fine for sleeping in.  I knew I had to get started on that navy blue ceiling as fast as possible to try to stay with our deadline.  My biggest mistake was not using a primer first.  I swear I thought I heard the guy at Home Depot say it already had primer in it ... 3 coats of ceiling paint later ... live and learn.  So all in all, we ended up having to use a primer after the 3rd coat and then 2 more coats of ceiling paint after that.  A grand whopping total of SIX coats!  GRRRR!

Then it was onto Levi's room - a light blue ceiling this time.  Used the primer and no problem :)  Also on the agenda for the first night was to tear out the old trim in the kids rooms and start patching the BILLIONS of holes in the wall.  This task called for the dream team!  Our good good friends Rachel and John came to our rescue (for the second time that day!) and had it done in no time at all.

Pete's job on the first night was to begin tackling the demolition of both the kids bathroom upstairs and the master bathroom.  He made QUITE the dent the first night!  The push was on to get both rooms completely demo'd by the first Saturday as we were to have duct cleaning in to clean out our pipes.

Pete's muscle:

Other jobs checked off the list in the first week were:  raise the kitchen cabinets (thanks again to John!!!), paint both kids rooms, paint closet doors and bedroom doors and door trim, paint the upstairs hallway, as well as remove the flooring in the playroom, paint the ceiling, walls and fireplace.  Whew!  I am proud to say EVERYTHING got done!! WOOT WOOT!  Not without a little help from our friends though!  And honestly, we have the best family and old neighbours!!  Our sister-in-law, Katie, and our niece Julia painted and painted and painted until they both had hand cramps!!  It's like they couldn't get enough!  They were here for THREE DAYS!!!! They just kept coming back for more!!  We love them SO SO SO much and would be zombies without them!  And our old neighbours came one night as well to help paint and demo - their two teenage boys were mighty machines in action!.
 

We have also had our counter tops replaced with beautiful white marble-y looking laminate - we would have loved to put real marble in but- cha ching!!!!  These look just as beautiful to me :)

Here is the before to jog your memory:  (it's actually a hunter green but you can't really tell in the pic)

And here is the after:  (don't mind the messy counter in the background and the yucky cabinets - they will be painted white in a few short weeks!)

New sink and faucet as well:
 

Something we discovered this week that has me completely freaking out is M - I - C - E!  AHHHHHHHH!!!!!  I am one of the biggest germaphobes out there, and the idea of mice running a muck in my house just makes my skin crawl.  The only thing that made me feel a little bit better was the hubs booking a pest control specialist - STAT!!!  The specialist came and strategically placed traps and sprayed for bugs while he was at it - so now this house SHOULD be mice proof and bug proof for a while.  It actually wasn't the biggest surprise that we have a bit of a mouse problem.  The state that the house was left in was ... hmmm ... mouse friendly shall I put it?  Anyway, we have been CLEANING and CLEANING and CLEANING - so now it is starting to feel like home.

Our master bathroom is also coming along.  Our contractor started this past Wednesday and has already put down new sub-floor, moved the plumbing for the toilet, done the electrical for our new outlets, sconces, and chandelier and patched a giant hole in the ceiling for us.  He is hopeful I will blissfully be enjoying my bubble bath by next Wednesday!  We shall see!

As I write this, I have been holding my bladder since 7:30pm as Pete turned the water off to disconnect the grody old laundry tub.  Now it is almost 9pm and he just came upstairs to tell me he has to go out to get more soldering material - AHHHHH!  Hurry up honey!!!  Also, I have fired myself as his helper as two minutes in, I zapped myself!  Note to self - don't pick up a plugged in electrical cord while standing in a puddle of water.  I'm okay Mom :)

 
The plan was to paint the laundry room/powder room ceiling and the master bathroom ceiling tonight, but with no water and no clean brushes we are getting off to a slow start!!  Maybe we'll catch up on some Grey's tonight instead - after our water is back on that is!!!  Oh how I miss having a Home Depot RIGHT AROUND the CORNER!!!  Come on Pete!!!

We have also completely finished the playroom, and I am SO EXCITED to share those pics with ya, but this post is long enough and it's time to see what Meredith and Dr. Mc Dreamy are up to.  Night night!

Rebecca & Pete

Packing up a Princess!

We have had a countdown going for how many sleeps until we are outta here ... today the chalkboard says TEN!  Wowza!  Are we really ready for this?  These past couple of months have been such an emotional roller coaster.  We go from super excited to totally second guessing ourselves.  The problem here, is just simply too much time to think!  We just gotta get at it already!  Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you that I have a hard time with being patient, but I know that when that chalkboard says there is only one sleep left I am going to be thinking "wow, that went fast!". 

The house is pretty well packed.  I am an extremely organized person, so moving is actually kind of fun for me.  Something new for this move though is all the TOYS!!  Our little princess sure does have a lot of stuff!  There has to be at least ten boxes of just her stuff!  Tea sets, dress up clothes and dollies - OH MY!  We know our little princess pretty well, so for her, she does best with lots and lots and lots of preparation.  We have been telling her for months now that we will be leaving our current house, living with Grandma and Grandpa for a week, and then moving into our new house.  She is still calling it "The Dirty House" as when we had our first ever walk through she was with us and it was VERY DIRTY!!  So now whenever we mention the new house she says "the dirty house?"  Cute, but I hope it won't be called that forever!

We have had to make a ton of decisions over the past little while.  We have picked out tile, carpet, paint colours, trim types, doors for the bedrooms, vanitys, mirrors, and even a chandelier for the master bath.  The most fun decision for me was picking out the lighting for my dream bathroom.  We checked out a few local places, and even scoured online shops, until one day we came across this beauty at Living Lighting in Kitchener.  I also love that it was designed by Jo Allen from Critical Listing - a show I have been into lately on HGTV :)

  

This week we should have a bathtub arriving from Costco.ca.  One was already delivered here, but it came super duper damaged, so I had to send it back.  Sometimes I really do have to pat myself on the back for being so organized!  If we hadn't ordered it early and it came damaged now, we would be in some serious trouble!  Our  contractor who is renovating the master bath is scheduled to start pretty much right away, so we have to make sure we have the goods for him to get going.  Here is a pic of our free standing tub:

Bah!  I don't know!  My head is just spinning right now!  So much going on, I wish I could tell ya more!  I think for the first little while, we may let the pictures do the talking.  We will be sure to take some good before's  so you can get a sense of what we started with :)  Wish us luck!

First up will be the kids bedrooms, then playroom, then master bath - ciao!

Rebecca & Pete

Holy ****!

We are not the swearing kind .... not at all really ... well, maybe if one of us were to cut off a finger .... and definitely during labour - but any other time, it's pretty clean language around here.  We got to see the new house again last night and as we were leaving my soon to be handy man of a hubby blurted out "Holy ****!  This totally caught me off guard, and helped me understand a little better the stress that is on Pete.  I think when he said it, there was a little excitement too - in disbelief that this is really our dream home. 

Yesterday was a tad overwhelming for both of us as we had four contractors coming to the new house to take measurements.  Contractors included a roofer, a counter guy, a carpet installer, and a furnace dude.  Our general contractor (the one doing the master bathroom) had already been in to see the space, so he did not need to visit again.  We were supposed to have someone come to give us a quote on the windows too, but they never showed :(  BOOO!   The reason we had to have all of these "guys" in now is because we are participating in the Purchase Plus Improvements program for our mortgage.  We basically needed to get quotes from each of the contractors to send into our lender so we can get additional money to make improvements on our home.  We got a deal on the house, so we have some room in what we have been approved for with our mortgage to make it pretty :) 

Now it's decision time for so many things!  We have already picked out the carpet we like for the playroom and the upstairs kids bedrooms, but we have so many more decisions ahead of us like what tile to put in both bathrooms, what kind of tub we want, what kind of flooring we want in the main living area etc.  I am not the best at making design decisions, so I will have to lean on my sisters and a few friends for some help in this area, but I am GREAT with timelines, and I DO know that I have until the first week of May (or a bit earlier if materials take time to be ordered) to figure what we want. 

One major decision that we recently made was to just scrap the granite countertop on the island in the kitchen.  If you recall it currently looks like this:

The seller put on the listing that there was granite in the kitchen - which is normally a selling feature - but this is just so not us.  The dark greeny brown colour is just not going to fit with our vision for this kitchen.  Here is an inspiration picture I nabbed of Pinterest to help you imagine what we are going for:

We just love the look of the dark floors, white cabinets and white counter top!  The other reason we are taking out the existing island counter top is because it currently has a stove top in the middle of it, which leaves almost no space for me to make my tasty pastries!  My sister has an island with a stove top and she highly recommended that we do not do the same.  Her reasoning was that if you have anyone sitting at the counter behind your stove, you have the potential danger of catching your elbows on fire!  We certainly don't want that!  We will be moving the stove over to where the built in oven is currently sitting, and we will just replace both with an actual oven.  This also solves the problem of having no vent for the stove, as we will also be putting in a microwave with a range. 

We leave you today with a picture of my soon to be handy hubby freaking out at our celebration dinner: 

At least he had drink in hand!

Rebecca & Pete

A few before pics ...

So now that we have this dream home of ours, we thought we would post a few pictures from the original listing as well as a few of our own.  Take a look!

Front view of home

Front room

Living room, dining room, kitchen

Kitchen

Living room

This is the granite counter top for the island in the kitchen - it may just have to go!

This is the current master bathtub - ya it's going.

This is the vanity and toilet in the master bath - yep - they are going too!

See that lovely green tile on the floor - we are keeping that ... just kidding!

This is the shower in the master bathroom - the structure will remain, but everything else will be changed.

Ewwww!

Linen closet in master bath.

This is the tub in the kids bath.  There is no shower - weird huh?

Kids bath

Playroom lighting - can't wait to change this!

Laundry room/powder room

Playroom fireplace

Home sweet home!
 

Well, there you have it!  As we get to visit the home prior to our possession, we will take a few more, but you probably have a pretty good idea of what we are working with. 

Rebecca & Pete