- Meeska Mooska... -

...MI[NNIE] MOUSE!!! 

Oh, toooooodles! 

We finally kicked Harper out of her baby bedroom [we aren't the parenting-book-reading type of authority figures, but we thought it may be better to "upgrade" the princess to a new room before Baby F. numero dos makes his/her appearance and needs the crib and Harper feels replaced/booted!]. She's been sleeping in her old frontless crib with a toddler rail for a while now, so we didn't think moving to a regular bed would be too much of a transition. ...And we were right! She loves her new space; and to no one's surprise, she picked "Meee Mowse" [AKA Minnie] for her new room's theme! Bed frame and dresser all compliments of my ole' bachelorette apartment..... ;) ...maybe we'll upgrade Harp to some non-IKEA furniture when we build the new house!

So!

First there was this...

...and then there was this!

There's been a few more furnishings/finishing touches added, but I roll through life at about 80% these days so these are the only pics I have!  But she's been doing awesome in this big new bed, sleeping through the night [in her undies and waking up dry every day, btw!!!] and seeming more and more like a little girl and less and less like a toddler every day!  

- xoxoxo -

- B&A [and another AFTER!]: Nursery -

[Don't miss PART I of the nursery remodel........]

Project: Goodbye House, Hello Home!

~ Guest Bedroom #1 ---> NURSERY! ~

~~~~~

 

Paint color:

• BEHR - Dolphin Fin

A few details I love: 

• The additions to the [original] chevron canvases.  I'm a little bit of a freak when it comes to collages, and I had this idea brewin' in my brain for the baby's nursery for a while.  Thanks to my dad for helping me turn my ideas into reality! 

• Teal accents.  At first we were strictly sticking to the gray and yellow color scheme, but I quickly realized it was monotonous and wanted to add a pop of color! Since all this was planned before Harper came along, we decided to go with teal to keep the nursery unisex.  Love the finished look! 

• White furniture.  Brian isn't a giant fan of white, but how can you argue against a hormonal/pregnant wife?! ;)  I remember him always saying, "But what if our little buddy is a boy...... He'll be a pansy sleeping in white furniture!" I disagreed, BUT luckily our "little buddy" is a girl! 

Posting the progress:

• Chevron Canvases

• B&A: Guest Bedroom #1

• Harper's Nursery!

Goodbye house, hello home!

- Harper's Nursery! -

I know you will be sooooo elated to read ALL about our prepping of "guest bedroom #1"...

...here!...

...and here!

When we first moved into this house, Harper's nursery guest bedroom #1 looked like this: 

And after the remodel but before an offspring was on the radar [but kind of on the radar?], the finished guest bedroom looked like this: 

[I shalt not beat a dead horse even deader; in the rare chance that anyone is actually interested, the entire B&A: Guest Bedroom #1 post is over here!]

I've known since like 7th grade that I wanted a unisex nursery so I could use it for each new baby without having to repaint/redecorate.  Additionally, yellow and gray has always been one of my favorite color schemes; so as we were initially decorating the house, I decided to put the hammer down and get right on it!  Hello gray walls and yellow accents! We absolutely painted/decorated this room knowing it would morph into a nursery someday...

And then that "someday" eventually came along, and I put Brian to work again! 

New light...

...new furniture...

...and new baby decor!  I've been taking sewing lessons from my mom, and she graciously helped me make some pillows for the crib [well let's be honest: she actually did most of the sewing because I didn't want them to look janky/jacked...]! 

We also made a garland banner of teal-patterned material + gray burlap.  It hangs proudly over the changing table! 

[Baby Harper was along for the crafting adventures, too! 34w2d and 35w in these photos!] 

When the crib + dresser arrived and the crafting was finished, I called the troops together to help assemble the room! Goodbye guest bedroom #1, hello NURSERY!  My dad helped nail up the collage as Brian hung some shelving.  And while the men slaved away, my saint of a mother washed our first load of BABY LAUNDRY!  We didn't have many clothes yet for our unknown gendered fetus, but I wanted a few sheets, blankets, and changing pad covers ready to go. 

Oh, what was *I* doing while everyone else was slaving away?  Standing, pointing, directing, and bossing the masses. 35w4d rendered me waaaay too ginormous to move/bend over/exert effort.....

Fast forward a couple months annnnnd...

...it's a Baby Harper! She loved laying in her big girl crib as we hung photos and put the FINAL touches on everything! 

Thanks Brian, Mom, and Dad for making Harper's room JUST PERFECT!  I love it so much, and so does she!!! :-* 

[Another post with finished photos coming ASAP!]

- B&A: Hallway Closet -

Project: Goodbye House, Hello Home!

~ Hallway Closet ~

~~~~~

A few details I love: 

• Having extra space.  Finally.  As soon as these shelves were up, I moved all the towels off the storage shelves in our master closet. Whilst stocking, I realized I have an inexcusable towel-buying and shampoo-hoarding problem.  Wow.  ...Only two people live here and we don't even shower that much... [But Beauty Brands annual liter sale. Who can pass up that kind of investment?! Also, the pink and orange towels are from college and should probably be in the trash, but I'm a stage-4 clinger.]

• Wood shelves.  I have to admit, I wanted this extra storage space so badly that I was basically begging Brian to put the flimsy white wire racks back up. ...But he had a better idea in mind...as always... So I sat around like a patient little minion and I suppppose now it was worth the wait. :) 

Posting the progress:

• Closet Shelves

Goodbye house, hello home!

- B&A: Kitchen -

The kitchen was a sad sad sad HOT MESS when we bought this house! :(  The flickering fluorescent lights were the first thing to go, but the mouse poop in the cabinets was a very soon second.  I was game for keeping the original countertops and faucet and "refinishing" the cabinets by way of some sort of cool Pinterest-y tricks, but Brian had a vision of something drastically different [and when he has those visions I just nod and agree because everything he touches turns to gold!]. Looking back, I think his vision was directed by thinking that giving me a nice kitchen would equal me cooking nice meals... Still debatable? ...But we're working on it.

We moved into the house in May with half of the new cabinets and zero of the new countertops, but I'd say it was worth the wait..... ;) So so so happy with the finished room and so grateful for all the hard work and help our families gave to make it possible! 

Project: Goodbye House, Hello Home!

~ Kitchen ~

~~~~~

Brian: *stressed* Did you move that washrag and those bananas out of the way before you took the picture?!??!

Bridget: No. They're part of the kitchen.....

Paint colors:

• BEHR - Special custom color that I conned the man at the counter into mixing. None of the 3,000 paint chips did the job. [It looks green but in fact is not; green tint is the result of a faulty cheap been-dropped-too-many-times-in-college camera and/or perhaps just a faulty camera user.]

A few details I love: 

• Granite countertops.  We had a hard time picking a pattern, but after many trips to the E&B Granite showroom I finally made up my mind. [And you will not be surprised to hear that the granite man talked me into a "lighter" version of slab we almost chose... Dark and twisty decorating. This blog is turning into therapy because I am now realizing the dark attraction is definitely an obsession and therefore a problem.]  The people who lived here before had a dining table and chairs pushed up against the wall, but Brian changed it to a peninsula [same height as the sink side] with cabinets underneath. I blog here, craft here, and cook here! ...Well basically I do everything except sleep here.  So useful!  And we prefer high-top chairs and dangling legs so it's a win-win. FINALLY, to put a cherry on it, the E&B installation men were just as lovable as the counters. 

• Appliances.  All brand new from Best Buy because there were none in this house to begin with.  We looked around at the scratch-and-dent Sears and a) everything was SUPER scratched or dented [don't know what we were expecting?!] and b) realized it wasn't a whole heck of a lot cheaper than new stuff. To heck with a budget, no? Plus Best Buy gave us a huge discount for buying in "bulk," so whaddya know? ...There's some kind of method to this madness! 

• Wine rack.  A wedding gift from my friend and bridesmaid Emily!  

• Lighting.  One of Brian's "brightest" visions...in my opinion at least! ;) I thought he was literally going nuts when there were ten gaping holes in the ceiling [also thought it would be hideously BRIGHT in here if a light was actually going in every single hole...], but now it looks great! The can lights are from Menards and the under-the-cabinet lights are from A&D and the sink light and peninsula hanging light are also from A&D. ...And they're from the same "family" as the living room chandelier, which is awesome considering the kitchen and living room are basically like one room.   

• Dark cabinets.  ...Because why turn to the light side now?  Of course not. 

Posting the progress:

• And so it begins...!

• Hardwood Floor 

• Kitchen Cabinets -- Part I

• Kitchen Cabinets -- Part II 

• Dirty Work

• Kitchen Appliances [Installed]

• Handyman

• Countertops [Installed]

• Faucets [Installed]

Goodbye house, hello home!

- B&A: Guest Bedroom #2 -

This may or may not be my favorite room in the house................

...Ok, it totally is.

Project: Goodbye House, Hello Home!

~ Guest Bedroom #2 ~

~~~~~

Paint colors:

• BEHR - Dophin Fin

A few details I love: 

• EVERY DETAIL. Obviously. This is basically our "old bedroom" at the apartment with a few new special twists.  I loved it then, but I love it even more now. 

• Photo collage.  A little collection of our parents' and grandparents' wedding pictures + some more randoms of our great- and great-great-grandparents!  "We may not have it all together, but together we have it all."  Brian and I are so blessed and lucky! Love our fams and love their smiling faces on our wall!!!  I made this "standing collage" for a fireplace mantle display at our wedding reception hoping to work them into a "wall collage" some day!   

• Black + white + purple color combo.  Be proud: here is displayed a minor diversion of my dark and twisty decorating tastes! But 75% of the room is dark purple and/or black, which is probably why I'm attracted to it. #laughoutloud

• Reused furniture/decor. Did you notice that alllll the furniture in here is IKEA stuff that we had in the apartment?  Bed and nightstand and dresser and comforter and purple rug and purple vases and white sticks and white globe lights ALL reused. A few pieces we added: a vase of purple flowers from our wedding and word pillows on the bed.  Reusable stuff totally floats my boat.

• The clock [in the collage]. My dad loves to hate on this clock because "it doesn't match the decor" but I disagree and I love it!  So there it hangs.  One night when we were in the bedroom hanging up the frames, Brian was mysteriously messing around with the clock dials. 
• Bridget: What are you doing?!
• Brian:  Just setting the clock...
• Bridget:  But I took out the batteries.
• Bridget: .....
• Bridget:  And I don't want it to tick, because when guests are sleeping in here it will be right over their head and it will be really loud and annoying.
• Brian:  I know, I'm just setting it permanently to our wedding time! 
• Bridget: #socute #lovehim

Posting the progress:

• Collage Obsession

• Closet Doors [Installed]

We have had a handful of guests sleep in here so far and are ready for more!  Come visit us anytime!! :)

Goodbye house, hello home!

- B&A: Guest Bathroom -

Project: Goodbye House, Hello Home!

~ Guest Bathroom ~

~~~~~

Paint colors:

• BEHR - Raffia Cream

A few details I love: 

• Granite vanity top. The splotches in this countertop really tie in every color of the bathroom!  We got it in "remnant form" from E&B Granite. 

• Crosses.  I wish that I was a crucifix person [mostly because I am a Catholic person and it comes with the territory], but sadly I am nottttt. I hope my plethora of Irish Catholic ancestors are not cursing me from heaven... Hmm. So instead, I picked out this collage of crosses; I think it really does the trick!  50% off at Hobby Lobby.  Cant' beat it! 

• Same toilet as our master bathroom, so I will re-profess my love from the master bathroom post.  Hot off the rack from Lowe's. Super-sucker flush power + handicap height so we don't have to squat toooo low + elongated bowl which is perfff for big-booty-Judies [like me]. Three stars for three stellar qualities. So glad this toity is mine.

Posting the progress:

• Watch out! ...Who would ever pick this hideous green color, anyway???

• Toilets

• Toilets [Installed]

• Vanity Mirrors

This is Brian's favorite place to poop..... It could be yours, too! ;) 

Goodbye house, hello home!

- B&A: Guest Bedroom #1 -

Project: Goodbye House, Hello Home!

~ Guest Bedroom #1 ~

~~~~~

Paint color:

• BEHR - Dolphin Fin

A few details I love: 

• Chevron canvases.  Bought this material [on sale, obvi] at Jackman's Fabrics and went to town with a staple gun. I definitely recommend it for your next planned rainy-night wine-guzzling project. 

• Curtain.  My mom sewed this with more material from Jackman's. We have elephant material just sitting in a stash for when this "guest bedroom" becomes a "nursery"... But not yet. Yellow curtains shall remain for now.

• Reused furniture.  I had this IKEA dresser chest and bookcase in my apartment for a few years. Love being able to reuse everything; and it looks different and awesome in a new space! 

Posting the progress:

• Chevron Canvases

• Closet Doors [Installed]

Goodbye house, hello home!