laundry room decisions

I can't wrap my head around the right coral and since I have three yellow ticking stripe curtain panels from the old house just taking up space and that I quite like , I figure I will see if they will work for the laundry room. 

 I think I will use two of the ticking panels for the closet and some of the third for a roman blind for the door and the flatiron for the sink skirt. We will see , things change.

I have some flatiron grey from tonic living  which goes so well with the grey painted mill work, I love the mix of the ticking yellow stripe and the zig zag print , I will have to mix them both I think.

one more night on the couch

I love sunny mornings , especially now that we have a nice lush lawn. Looks like mowing the lawn is on the to-do list for today. One good thing about having to wait until the end of summer to get our sod was that all the lawn mowers are on clearance. We had to get a gas mower since our lot is not one you want to mow with a giant extension cord, did it once and only once. I don't want to see our water bill after all the watering that I have had to do .

 Our poor Moe is reacting terribly to the ragweed that is in full bloom, we give him pills to alleviate his symptoms ( itching and scratching to rawness) which keeps me home due to the fact that the pills make him pee often and a lot....this made for an interesting party last weekend, we really need to pay more attention to him because several times he just couldn't hold it any more , it was not his fault though.

I have to wait until everyone is tucked in bed to apply the stain to the floors I have been working on. The other night this left me sleeping on the couch...one more night and that should do it.

 The area closest to the front door needs one more coat of stain then onto to top coats a plenty. Looking forward to having these floors completed , then I can move on to other pressing issue.

 Another project in the works is the laundry room. I want it to look like a chic room , not a utilitarian room. I want to play with a little color here , why not make the laundry pretty and fun? I will be painting all the trim grey and maybe above the trim coral. Did you know it is hard to find the right coral without it going too orange...I don't want orange.

 Do you know of a lovely coral paint color?

Well we have one kid off to school as of this week ...I can not believe I have a kid in high school it feels like I was just in high school !

I couldn't seem to convince Mason to let me take a first day of school photo for this first day of high school, especially since our house in in a very visible spot , could have been really embarrassing , I remember what it was like to be a kid.

This is the photo I was able to get Mason walking with a friend and Sophie watching them go.

Indulge me for just a moment while I remember how small my kids were when I started this blog way back in 2007, oh my how time flies. Sophie goes back to school on Tuesday . I am having a hard time with these early mornings 6:30 is just so early.

Let's enjoy a little look back.

 Kindergarten graduation day , oh I was blonde back then too ...

 Time is a cruel mistress...I loved having little ones, I miss that so much.

 Back to school photos were still fun...

 

Time flies , I'm going to try to savour all the time we have.

sub floor good riddance

I've been plugging away trying to get the flooring installed in the entrance, I am so pleased with how it looks. It even makes this space feel larger. Cutting around the curved stairs was not easy but somehow I managed to get a nice snug fit. 

Next step is to finish one last strip at the door after I cut down the casings and then sanding will begin. Moving on then to staining two coats and then many coats of diamond tough clear coat. 

Hoping to have this all complete by Friday and maybe even the laundry room will get painted. 

With the lumber pile disappearing in the dining room maybe I will be able to move forward in there soon. I have lots of ideas.

trying something new

 Surprise we chose wood. We toyed and toyed with the idea of brick , but I just couldn't commit. I was bothered by the cost , it wasn't as affordable as I had first thought and how would it clean and most of all how would it feel. This being the main through way to the main floor you must go through the entrance, and I am a barefoot girl , I worried it wouldn't be nice to walk on. So I tried my darnedest to find a tile I could afford and one that I would love . Here is the thing I realized , I don't love tile floors. We decided to choose an often selected flooring choice for our entrance...wood.
It is not often used here where we have winter but we are willing to give it a go. Lot's of protective coats. I will use a big rug , in fact our rug is larger than our old entrance all together. We said it's worth a try , and if in 5 years it looks awful than maybe by then we will find a tile that I love and we can always change it out.Who knows maybe it will be something we keep for the long haul.

If we were going to have more wood , which I love the look of , than it should have some interest  a design.
I played around a bit and decided on this pattern. I don't want to waste the time and effort to lay an elaborate pattern under the rug so I placed the pattern front and center , it was a bunch of work and I am so glad it is behind me . Tomorrow moving on to the "easy" part, lol.

The laundry gets a little love.

 I would love to work on removing the basic laundry tub and adding a butcher block counter across the sink area and right over the washer and dryer but its not the right time. I wanted to add more hanging to the wall , so I figured adding panelling with a big chair moulding trim would create a great spot for loads of hooks. For hanging more air dry items and hanging up utility items. I used the excess baseboard trim from our house , why not , for the panel frames I used door stop so it only cost $35.00, I love a bargain.

I think I know exactly how to paint this room now....I can't wait to see it all done. I need to sew and hang a curtain ( I think doors on this closet will just get in the way) over the closet and for sure a new rug. Then phase three will be counter and sink.
Another project on the table is finally the entrance. Bye bye subfloor.

But one little thing was bothering me , the placement of the register. It was in the way of a generous and useful sized rug. I asked if it could be moved , and this morning it was , thankfully it was perfectly positioned within the joists so it wasn't a difficult move. I love my Tribute builder. 

The plan is to get this entry completed this weekend . So looking forward to having 0% sub floor...

Rain rain come my way and come again tomorrow , k

 So good new everyone , we got sod baby , lot's and lot's of sod.

 My job is to keep it alive. Thankfully the heat wave has broken , look at those skies. They are calling for lots of rain but it keeps going around our area...come on rain , pour down on me.

 Ah weed free grass, this is so very exciting, two weeks from now we will have to break it in.

This reminds me we soon need to buy a new big mower and trimmer.

Linen closet , check that off the list

Isn't it funny how a little utilitarian spot can bring some of us such joy? I am so grateful for this linen closet , it is the first one I have had in the houses we have owned. No longer will I have to find spots to stash pillows, linens and other seldom used items. I finally have a spot for everything.
It took a lot of work to get to this point but I am happy to share it is mostly done.

We installed the pine flooring , I added the wainscoting trim, trimmed out the newel post , stained and painted the railing and spindles and wainscoting, hung a star fixture, stained the floors dark two coats , top coated the floors twice, removed the sliders , sold the sliders, trimmed out the opening for doors , hung doors( that's a little hard) and added dummy knobs, also added shoe moulding to the baseboards....like I said lots of work. But now I love it .

Just how I imagined it all in my head when it was being built. All the light creamy white and the darkest dark stain.

I may or may not trim out the opening , if I do it will have to be later , there are other pressing items on my list. I'm looking for some art for the wall where the round mirror is , haven't found anything right yet.

I went to pick up dummy knobs for the closet , but they were not any where to be found...after asking I was lead to the clearance section where these $24.99 dummies were marked down to $9.99 , that was $24.99 each , ridiculous right? don't you just love it when something you need is marked way down ?

Can I express how happy I am that we went with the pine flooring, well I love it so much.

I look forward to installing the rest of it , well I don't look forward to all the work involved but I do look forward to the end product.

Here is a little reminder of how this spot looked when we moved in....yuck right.

Not only did I complete the closet door install yesterday but we finally got our grass...what an exciting day here. Now I water and water but they are calling for rain for the next few days, I am very grateful for rain considering the mammoth task of watering all this sod , the one downside to having a corner lot I suppose.

Chorizo mexican soup

I have a little hidden talent , I can make an awesome tasty healthy soup. I normally just make up the recipes as I go. 

There is only one type of sausage I like , Chorizo . I also love Mexican food and flavours.

I can make a big batch of soup and it will keep 3 out of 4 of us fed for at least a couple of days.

Here is my latest creation if you would like to give it a try. 

 Doesn't that look yummy , it is, and it is full of veggies.

 I always start all of my soups this way, it brings out rich flavours and is a great start.

 Remove the stalks of the swiss chard

 Jarred roasted red peppers

 I love all of these products , no one asked me to use them , they are just what I used.

 I could always use a bigger pot.

 Also great stuff I like.
And here is the recipe for you . Let me know if you give it a try.

MMMM this is after 4 hours of simmering , the flavours are rich and scrumptous, I serve this with a tbsp of low fat sour cream , low fat cheese and a few crushed Fritos corn chips.

Good news too the entire pot is approx.1700 calories , so it is a nice low calorie soup, especially if you don't add the sour cream, cheese and fritos.