Operation Mudroom

The mudroom is finished and fully working!  Yeah!!  It is so nice to have a place to take off muddy wet boots, hang up coats and store backpacks, purses and other clutter that comprises day-to-day life!  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but beware...there are a bunch of them.  For other updates about the house renovations see here and here.

Here are the before shots--the day before my folks moved out (which explains all the clutter).  This had been a family room which we turned into the powder room, laundry room and mudroom.

 

This is the after--

View from the hallway, looking toward the garage door with bathroom to the left and broom closet to the right.

The broom closet and a centralized place to drop keys, pens, and other misc. stuff that you never know what to do with at any given time!

 The broom, dustpan, swiffer, vacuum, plastic bags, etc., etc., etc.  all nicely hidden away :)

The view standing at the windows and looking into the room (garage door is on the right), with the lockers on the left.

J and I share a locker and C has her own locker, which she will eventually share with Mei-Mei.  J deliberately left the space underneath open so that we could put everyday shoes and boots there.

One of the requests that I had was that he build doors so that we could close and hide the clutter.  So many of the mudrooms that I looked at on Pinterest had open cubbies, which look great when they are styled for a magazine, but not so great when you get into the day-to-day of life.  This way, no one has to see it!

 Nice and tidy, right?!  We also opted to add in a skylight, since we were changing the roof-line a bit anyway and I'm so glad that we did.  It makes the room bright and sunny.

 

 I love how this bench turned out!  It had originally been in my grandmother's house in the country.  I distinctly remember the snakeskin seat.  Totally freaked me out at the time.  When she downsized, no one had room/need of it, so we took it and it lived for 12 years up in our attic.  I knew I wanted to use it in the new house and the mudroom seemed like the perfect place--you always need to sit down when you're putting on your shoes or boots, don't you?

 The birdie material with the red gives the room a nice punch, and look at the carvings!  Love :)

While we had solved the problem regarding our own coats, we removed a closet that guests had used so we needed to figure out an alternative.  On one of our walks down by the Lake, we found a nice, flat piece of driftwood and J had the idea of using boat cleats as hooks for a coat rack.  Simple, easy and affordable.  A win-win! 

J and I couldn't decide about window treatments.  We wanted something that provided a little bit of coverage, but we also liked how we could see outside.  I found a pretty eyelet material and started out making the cafe curtains.  I was going to make a valance, but now that they are up, we kinda like them just the way they are...we'll see.  We're still toying with the idea of putting up some beadboard around and of course adding in some other "accessories".  We'll see.....and to think that in October we were living like this:



 (There is the bench...patiently waiting to be rescued!)

...and clueless about the fact that Superstorm Sandy was about to hit and wipe out power for 6 days.

I think J has totally outdone himself, don't you!?







Wordless Wednesday

(the project manager and the architect)

Snow day!

Yippeee!  The snow was floating and the wind was blowing...so much so, that we got a snow day.  It was the perfect way to start the weekend!

Any teachers out there know that the weather forecasters often predict "gloom and doom", only to have a light dusting.  Bummer.  The real trick to a snow day is for the flakes to start falling fast and heavy early in the morning.  Like 4:30 a.m.  That's what it did yesterday.  The cold wind chill also helped the cause.

 Later on in the afternoon, after the sun had come, the Noodle and I went out and romped in the snow a bit.  After about 45 minutes, she announced that she thought it would be a good idea to go in and have some real hot cocoa, not just the pretend kind we were drinking admist a snow pile.  With frozen fingers and a cold bum, I wholeheartedly agreed with her.

 We added 2 big marshmallows.  Just 'cuz.  Yum!

Hello Monday

I haven't done a "Hello Monday" post in a while, so how about a few shout outs?
Hello pretty, little waterfall which is only a short walk from our home.

Hello skipping stones and looking for shells.  A winter day in the '50s?  We'll take it!

Hello determined look--riding your horse is serious business.  Especially in your jammies.

Hello, welcome to my shoe shop!

Hello un-expected home reno projects.  You weren't on our agenda, but I guess that doesn't matter.

Hello to planned projects--much easier to manage!

Hello to bright, happy smiles.  Someone made the switch to full-day Kindergarten in the middle of January and couldn't be more pleased!!

Linking up with Lisa and her Hello posts.

When it rains, it pours...

...quite literally.  In our living room.  NOT on the list of home improvement plans.........Grrrr.

 A few weekends ago I was upstairs in the shower.  It was still pretty early, so it was dark outside.  As I was coming downstairs from the shower, J was coming up and asked me if it was raining out.  I said I didn't think so and he replied with "Grrrreat!!!!"  As we walked down and over to one of the windows in the living room, I saw the water rushing down the wall and the window.  On the inside.  This is generally not the best way to start a Saturday morning.  Big sigh.

We knew that the bath/shower directly above the living room needed some work, especially the tile/grout, but I guess it took exchanging the shower-head to really accelerate the process.  Seems that with the new shower-head, more water was hitting on the weak spots and eventually the water just starting pouring down.  We had planned on working on the bathroom, but that still quite a bit down the road.  Guess what just got moved up on the importance list?!

The Lord had us under his wing though.  Thankfully we have a second bathroom (with a shower) that we can use.  If this had happened a few months earlier, we'd have been in a whole mess of trouble since it just got finished this past November. 

So now J's working on patching the living room, replacing the last few windows, creating a little extra space in the bathroom and re-tiling the bathtub.  Good thing he doesn't mind taking a little break for this:

Happy Saturday folks!

Hello...Market edition

Hello and happy New Year's Eve!  2012 is winding down and we're getting ready to say hello to 2013.  These pics were snapped at our wonderful downtown market on Christmas Eve...enjoy!

Hello to stall after stall of yummy goodness.

Hello to eating colorfully--so much more fun!

 

Hello to playful cupcakes--LEGOs and Sesame Street.

Hello to a reminder of what "real" food looks like.  This was what freaked the Noodle out!

Hello to cheese--oh how I love you!

Hello to pastries galore.  No calories here, eh?!

Hello to the Market celebrating a birthday and 100 years of history...here's to 100 more!

 Linking up with Lisa and her Hello Monday post.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

As I type this, the wind is howling, the snow is swirling and we're hunkered down, ready to brave the blizzard that is in full force. Sounds somewhat similar to the end of October when Superstorm Sandy hit--hopefully we don't lose power for 6 days like we did a few months ago!  Seems like the perfect time to post about our Christmas festivities, so get comfy--there are a bunch of photos :)

I really do believe that it is the most wonderful time of the year!  I love everything about the Christmas season--the sights, the sounds, the smells and, of course, the yummy tastes!  Another thing that I love about Christmas is all of the traditions.  The tried and true ones and the newly established ones.  From year to year, our Christmas remains pretty similar, but that's how I like it.

Christmas Eve we always go downtown to this wonderful foodie market that is celebrating 100 years of operation.  You can pretty much buy anything here--goat, pheasant, a whole pig, Middle Eastern pastries, crepes, Irish pasties, purple potatoes, kumquats, and pomegranates just to name a few.  Our city has a large immigrant population that has changed as the years have gone by...this market is a definite reflection of all the different cultures, customs, languages and foods.  When we go, we don't usually buy a whole lot, but we do do a lot of gazing and salivating.  Ha!  This year, the sight of the whole pig left the Noodle a bit squeamish and freaked out--not that I blame her!

Our church has a children's service that begins at 4:30.  This year, the Noodle sang in the choir (a first!).  She was front and center and sang her little heart out.  So cute!

After that, we came home and had Christmas tea with Lollie and Papa.  Again, another tradition that harkens back to when I was a child and we lived in England.

Christmas morning, the Noodle actually slept in a bit (I believe it was 6:45 this time) and then we took our time opening gifts.  When she walked down and saw the tree, she couldn't believe it.   She just kept gazing at it and saying "Wow!"  Santa definitely found his way to our house ;)

 

Christmas morning wouldn't be complete without an opportunity to play with some of the new gifts.  Both J and the Noodle were excited to rip into the new LEGO horse stable set and to get building.  It was definitely the year of the horse.

Then we headed out to celebrate with Grandma and Grandpa, J's brother and his wife and all the "peeps". It was a whirlwind of activity and excitment but so much fun. By the time we were ready to leave, all 3 of us were exhuasted. We had an uneventful trip home, got our jammies on cuddled on the couch--the perfect end to a wonderful Christmas!