Fans, Lights, Rugs, & Paint... Oh My

When we first looked at our house, I didn't even notice that I would later want to be replacing practically every single light fixture in the whole place.  Holy cow does that add up quick.  So of course we are doing it as we can.  The first thing to go was the ceiling fan/light in the family room.  It was black and silver/chrome and looked like an airplane.  Sadly it worked really well and had a cool remote, but seriously, look at this thing...

 it had to go!

 Here's an up close and personal view of it.  And in the background that one above the kitchen table was the next to go...

Not only was it ugly, but it was not centered where it should be at all.

 So not my style.
This was back when we had no idea how to place the furniture in this room.
And back when it was driving me crazy that we had not figured out window treatments either.  
This room is connected to the kitchen and eating area and it is a huge room that felt so cold and uninviting to me before we had started to put our stamp on it and figure some things out.  

We got the new ceiling fan/light at Lowe's.
Since the room is so big, we went with a 60" fan.

 So much better.

Although I like the roth + allen light from Lowe's that we put above the table area, we have since learned that it is not bright enough for this space at all.  Luckily we have another fixture upstairs that needs to be changed and so we will put this one there eventually once we find another replacement for this spot that will be brighter.

 After a couple months I still wasn't happy with our tv on that big wall to the right of the fireplace, so one night Mr. H and I moved it all around and finally it started to come together better.  But as soon as we did that, all I could notice was how awful the paint looked throughout the whole house.  I knew I wanted the interior to be grey, but I had no idea how light or how dark or where to start.
Choosing a grey was super hard!!! Usually I know right what I like and I go for it.  But the greys that I thought I would like looked too purple in our house.  Or too blue.  Or too light or too cool.  

We finally chose the one we liked the best and painted the hallway with it and lived with it for a while before deciding that was it.

Luckily, the more we painted, the more we loved the color.  Even the girls have been helping.  It's been a family affair.  ;)

One morning the room looked like this as I left for work...

 and when I got home Mr. H had it all put back together again and the paint looked SO nice!

The paint that was on the walls before was a matte finish and it was starting to show every little scratch and every spot the girls have run their hands along it, etc.  It looks so much better now. (The bamboo shades have all been from Home Depot or Lowe's and the curtain rods and panels in this room were from JCPenney.

Of course you know how as soon as you do one thing to improve the room, it makes you notice how bad the next thing looks?

The rug was the next thing that had to go.  It wasn't quite big enough for this room, and we'd had it for years in our old house and it was time to be replaced.  

We wanted something shaggier and soft since the flooring everywhere else is hardwood and tile.

I have been looking everywhere for an 8x10 rug that I liked that wouldn't break the bank, but I was finding nothing.  Well, I found things I liked, but nothing I was willing to spend that much money on.

Until recently!  Sam's Club had a great deal on Drexel carpet rugs so we snatched one up and we love it!

 Oh and funny story, while we were moving things around to put the new rug down, Mr. H stepped on this...!!!!

IN MY HOUSE!!!!!  In the family room!!!!
Are you shivering with heebie jeebies yet?!?!  I am!
A couple days before we found it I sent Mr. H a pic of what looked like rat poop that I found on the INSIDE of the window sill when I was cleaning.  I text him the pic and said I sure hope this is not rat poop and that we have rats in our house!!!  He replied that it looked like lizard poop, and that we have so many lizards outside it might have gotten pushed through the window somehow.  Well, as it turns out, it was lizard poop!!! And that damn lizard had been living in our house!!! Under our couch!!! Probably sitting there right underneath us, slithering away while we watched Scandal the night before!!! O.  M.  G.  

Thank goodness I waited for Mr. H before I started to move things around and put down the new rug!  I would have flipped out and probably called 911 if I found this lizard and he was not home. (Shivers) Anyway, he caught it in a box lid, and I won't tell you what Abbey did to it in the backyard after that, but it won't be coming back.  

So after the lizard fiasco, here's how it turned out with the new rug down...

Claire's a fan. 

This space in the room has been stressing me out too because I didn't know what to put here, and don't like how this wine rack looks...

but I do love my new SWIM sign that I bought on Etsy.  I looked for one that said POOL all summer and never saw one I liked, and when I saw this one I had to have it.  And it gave me a vision for the space too.  Now I'm looking for a wider and shorter wine rack/buffet type piece to fill the space, and I've got ideas on how to style it and I'd like to find a fun mirror to go above it.  I'll let ya know when I find it.  The little end table in the pic I found on clearance at World Market and I loved the bit of red on it.  Sitting on it now is this book...

I'm reading my co-worker's signed copy of The Vincent Boys by Abbi Glines.  It's really good and I think it's so cool that the author signed the one I'm reading!! 

Anyway, 

back to the family room...

we got this cool back lighting for the tv at Ikea yesterday and it's plugged in to access through a switch.

This room is dark as the sun starts to go down, and this little bit of lighting really adds a lot.  We were excited about this find.  

Recently I also found an orange lamp at Marshall's along with this great pallet type tray that I knew would be perfect to hold the girls pencils and crayons on the homework station.

 Makes me giddy.
And this lil notebook just screamed my name...

Love my list note pad.
I've already got about 4 different lists going in it.  

That's all for now.
I am coming down with Claire's cold so I'm off to make some tea and watch Homeland with my honey.  
I'll be back tomorrow with a WIWW post.  
Ta Ta for now friends. 

The Girls' Bathroom Before & After pics... & More...

One thing the girls really were hoping for in our new house was a bathroom with two sinks.  Their old bathroom was tiny, so when we first looked at our new house and they saw that their bathroom had two sinks, they high fived each other and both said "YeSSssss!" Here's what it looked like before we moved in...

We were so happy about the two sinks that we didn't realize how little storage there is in this bathroom.  There are no drawers, only cabinet space under the sinks.  We need to get another wall cabinet to place above the toilet for a little more storage, but here is what we have done so far...

This was before we moved in because the carpet was still throughout upstairs.
And after...

I had been looking for a beachy type greenish blue'ish color, and found Zen by Behr.

 I loved it and couldn't wait to paint!

 We also couldn't wait to paint the oak vanity too!  
We chose Mine Coal by Behr for that and love the way it turned out.  I'm thinking about painting my kitchen island the same color.

 It's hard to see the grey but we love it.  We added hardware to the cabinets, switched out the door handle, and since the above pic was taken also added a tp holder on the side of the vanity too.  And added a tension rod to the window with a small valance.  Oh and we've had that window along with three other upstairs windows tinted too because the sun was brutal on this side of the house in the summer.  The tinting has helped a lot.

I love the mermaid art which reminded me of both my girls, constantly wanting to be in the pool.  I found those at Bed Bath & Beyond.  
So that's all for their bathroom so far.
We still need the storage cabinet for above the toilet, and some day we'd like to replace the vanity lights, builder mirror, and countertops/faucets.  

Mr. Hass also recently painted the linen closets upstairs.  Here's a pic of the one between our room and Claire's room from before we moved in...

 And this is the one outside the girls bathroom...

And voila!!!

 Big difference huh?!
I love how much paint can change things.
And hardware helps too.
I painted the girls oak toy box in the pic above by the linen closet too.

 I had some fun while painting and I shared this on instagram saying that maybe I should have done more "tagging" in my formative years.  ;)

Much better black.  
It has all the girls dress up clothes in it and they have been having so much fun with that accessible to them again.  
We were using the toy box to hold the tv in the loft until recently after I ordered a yellow media center and they were so happy to get their toy box back.  

I've impressed myself with this sudden urge to blog.
Hopefully it sticks around cause we're not done working around here, so there will be more before and afters to come.
I'm off to finish laundry and then later we are heading to my friend from work's house for dinner.  She wants to teach the girls and I how to make tortillas.
Can't wait!

Entry Way & Then Some...

This post might seem a little long for a subject as simple as the entryway flooring.  But the house has come a long way since we moved in back in May, so I am also sharing some other changes from along the way that have been done to this space as well.

 Remember this pic from my last post?  I took it before we moved into the house.  And this next one is a picture of the kitchen table/entry hall area right before we had moved in anything.

And this was right when you walked into the front door...

 And then what it looked like with carpet ripped out, but the entry tile remaining.

 The hallway before much was even hung on the walls, and before we had even thought about new paint colors...

 The back of the front door and an itty bitty rug which didn't look so itty bitty in our old house...

 This next pic you can see how broken and choppy the flooring looks in the living room with the wood floor and then the tile by the front door...

 It has driven my ocd type A brain crazy to not have homes for things in our new house.  And now that we are finally figuring out furniture placement and things like that my brain is feeling much better.  This is what this space above looks like now...

 And another pic where you can see the flooring goes to the front door now...

We are really loving the paint color that we've decided on for the large rooms and walls throughout the house.  In the background you can see where I painted two swatches against the wall, and in the family room and hallway we now have the paint done.  Next we'll do the kitchen, and then hallways upstairs.  The ceilings are so tall in the living room that we might hire out for that area.  (The rug is new for the family room and I am just waiting for Mr. H to get home from work today and help me move all the furniture so that we can lay it out!)

But I digress, back to the hallway...

 I couldn't stand how blank and bare this hallway was so I was quick to hang frames we already had.  But then I quickly decided that the aqua frames were too bright aqua for the space, and that the black wasn't doing it for me.

 So I left it until we painted the hallway...

 This is the wall I want to put up brick wallpaper on and make into a "mudroom" wall for backpacks and stuff.  Sadly, the brick wallpaper turned out to be quite the fiasco.  I think we had a bad roll and the image was peeling off.  But Mr. H also said it was a pain in his you know what and that he'd rather pay someone to do it.  So, that might me our next move because the company sent us a new roll and I still really want the brick here.  

 The back of the front door and the garage door entrance...

 And demo day...

 They made quick work and finished in one day.  Here's Claire showing off the new floors...

 There's a heavy box by the front door to weigh down the transition piece of flooring that was recently glued down.  
And just for fun, this is a similar picture from the same angle taken from before we moved into the house...

Oh how I hated that leaf light!

Looks so different huh?

And don't worry, we don't plan to leave that front room empty forever.

I just want baseboards throughout downstairs and shutters in the front windows of the house first. 

And then one day perhaps a place to sit and some decor as well.  Or maybe we'll just keep it empty for slumber parties.  ;)

 This pic is dark, but the new hallway flooring, with hand weights on the transition piece.  ;)

 Sorry these are all iphone pics.  It's way too hard to grab my big camera these days.  It's still so fun to come into the house from the garage and see the wood floor instead of the tile.

 Last weekend I went to Home Goods after I worked and I found this cute green'ish colored bench that I knew would be perfect on my mudroom wall!  And I think the color will play off the brick wall paper nicely too once that's hung up.

I've had lots of questions about these rugs on instagram.  I got them from Urban Outfitters and I love em.  
I am liking the white and lighter frames up in the hallway now too.  The empty frame is for Hannah's school picture if it ever shows up in the mail.  And the chalkboard on the lower part of the wall is for the girls chore lists, which I've yet to write down on there, but I will!
I'm still looking for a lantern style light to replace the two lights in the hallway too.  
The list will never be done, but it feels good to be checking some things off!

I'm off to relax a bit on this very rare rainy So Cal day.  Both girls soccer games were cancelled today and after our busy week and Halloween last night, I do not mind one bit!!!