Pink and Paris

When my girls first found out that they would get to share a room in the ugly house, they were less than enamored with the idea. My older one, especially. She was feeling particularly woeful about the idea of having her sister in her space all. the. time.

So very sad when we don't get our way. Sniff, sniff.

However, my girls got pretty much free reign on the design of their room. The only stipulations included the comforters had to stay, and they had to agree on what they were going to do. I am quite confident that there was some definite big-sister influence on the little one. But as both were happy with their idea of a Paris themed room, that is the way we went.


First, lets have a before again, shall we?

Ahh, yes. The sports people again. They were everywhere in this house. and the vibrant green carpet. And the wallpaper.


And now I present the after:

 It is very pink. I wasn't fibbing, was I? We have carted that tea party chandelier into three houses now. She is still holding up just fine. They each have a lamp for their bunk as well, for nighttime reading.

 The curtains that were picked out and designed by the girls and their Nana. I didn't even see them until they were done. How's that for trust? They were going for Paris cafe. I kinda think we are closer to Minnie Mouse Clubhouse, but that's just me.The white spots on the walls is from the sprayer when we painted the ceiling. I cannot tell you why the probably 30 minute job of touching those up has been put off this long. I am sure it is my laziness, but I just start thinking about dragging out the paint, and I get tired.

We went with curtains instead of closet doors for now, since there is less chance of the curtains injuring little hands. And we have yet to build out the closet. We simply lowered the bar and shelves to make it more accessible. 

 It is much more the colors I had in mind in the first place.

A peek under the bottom bunk reveals some of her favorite things. This was the only spot her sister would even allow such stickers to reside. We also have Chloe the stuffed dog, Lily Mohawk, the kitty, and our unicorn pillow pet.

Paris in all of it's finery. From Great Grammy's house.

I wish to share with you all that in order to even photograph this room, I had to clean the desk. An entire trash bag of paper went out the door, as well as various other treasures, such as loose sequins, rocks, empty hand sanitizer bottles, etc. Maddening, I tell you. Utterly maddening.






 

The small Eiffel tower is actually from Paris. It is another heirloom from their great-grandmother's house. The big one is from Las Vegas. It was on clearance at the Paris hotel. Not exactly an heirloom. 

The shelf was in the house when we moved in. It was in the living room, literally bolted to the wall. We had to break the shelf to get it off. However, my grandpa fixed it up for the girls. He even re-stained it so it would look brand new. I didn't have the heart to paint it after he went to so much work for them. 

 

And of course, the hangout of a few special friends. Someone is having a bad hair day. And it appears someone else had a serious migraine or hangover, I'm not sure. One of those friends must have needed power for something, as I just now see that the outlet covers are off. Huh.

They have a really cool  purple shag rug too. The pictures do not do it justice. It is several variations of purple and really, really soft. We actually went back into Ikea just before we left that trip, looking for a slightly larger frame for the boy's wardrobe. No luck there, but wouldn't you know it, in there clearance section, there was the very rug I hunted all over Ikea the day before looking for. And half price. I rolled that sucker up and carted it out. My husband is a saint. He somehow rearranged the car so it would fit. Because it was pretty stuffed after Ikea. But I just drove 500 miles one way for Ikea. I sure as heck wasn't leaving it there.

Their room cost very little to do. We had the beds, comforters and paint. We had most of the wall decorations. The bookshelf , owl picture, and rug came from Ikea. The desk is a hand me down. The barbie house is an old shelf we had. Matt laid the hardwood floor. And Nana made the curtains. They have blinds behind the curtains that hide completely away during the day. 

(Someday soon I will do a breakdown of what we actually spent to completely redo this house. Even I am amazed how little we were able to do it for.)

So there you have it. Pink Paris in a nutshell. They tolerate sharing a room quite well. I think they even like it, even if admitting it is unthinkable. 

Till next time!

A New Year Story

OK, so now that we have lived here awhile, I have been asked what else we have done to this house. I suppose we should share.
 - The bathroom is done
 - The backsplash is up
 - The apple tree produced a couple hundred pounds of apples that had to be dealt with
 - My grandparents provided us with enough produce to feed an army- that required canning and freezing and an entire new deep freeze to hold it
- The wallpaper in the basement is down
 -The basement is painted
 - The lights are up
 - The curtains and blinds are hanging
 - The rugs are in place
 - The pictures are on the wall
 - The sandbox is built
 - As of today, the swingset is up.

Well, that list makes me feel better about what we've done with our time recently. Unfortunately, we had a computer issue and the in-process pics of these amazing home renovations have been lost. I shall however, take some after pics this week and share. And in the next couple weeks, we shall be hanging our baseboard. As I am sure there will be drama. And I will make sure there is a play-by-play of the drama shared for all to see :)

I digress.

I am sharing a quick peek at our bedroom. I intend to take some new pictures tomorrow, so the curtains and pictures are in there. You know, something slightly more recent.

So now, onto the New Year. 2012 taught both Matt and I plenty of new skills. We have turned from somewhat reluctant in home repair to confident DIY folks. We look around this house and see how much has been accomplished in such a short time, and it gives us a lot of faith that we can keep it going. Some projects are hard. Three children greatly increase the time it required, as helpful as they try to be. We are still deciding what our next project will be that we tackle. Maybe some outdoor play spaces, such as a new deck. Maybe we will build some furniture for spaces that need it. Maybe we should just clean out the garage so two cars could actually fit in it. (No joke, the sheer amount of kid crap in there is astounding and takes up an entire car stall space.)

My goal was always to share these events with all my friends. I have been so blessed to have so many amazing people that actually care what we are doing here. We have fabulous family up here that has helped us in more ways than I can count. It is simply awesome to be so near my parents, who help up in any way they can, and my grandparents, who take every opportunity to stuff my kids with candy that they can. I miss the city greatly, and my sister, who would have lived so close to me had we stayed. And someday we may go back. But for now, our story continues in tiny town USA.

 So bear with me, folks. I have big plans for the new year. I intend to write more often and share more frequently. Tomorrow there will be more pictures, and more stories. But for now, I shall bid you all good night :)