project kid art

many weeks ago, we were still painting the stripes in the kitchen (side note: turns out the walls are gradient stripes not ombre.  love 'em anyway), liam and i busted out the paints and made some modern art for the playroom.  nothing fancy.  but totally fun.  we had a blast and some how managed to not get paint all over ourselves and the floor.  total win.

liam got our master piece started and moved on to other projects.  so i continued to add to his creative vision and we ended up with something pretty freaking awesome.  liam stops to look at it once and a while as we're playing downstairs and say something like "mommy i made that" or "oh wow mommy look at my painting."  it absolutely is little man.  all it took was a painting smock, a bunch of craft paint in random colours, a really large sheet of paper and someone to watch the terrorising toddler.

and the master piece

we had a blast.  love that we've put something completely original in the kids play space.

the man, kid, family, everything cave

i'm going to start this post by sharing my past experience with basements.  i grew up with a basement that i was absolutely terrified of.  so much so that both my brother and i frequently left the lights on after we went upstairs because we refused to be in the basement with them off.  of course the switches had to be in the middle of the basement.  inevitably mom or dad would yell at us to go back down and turn off the lights and we'd end up running and stomping our way up the stairs.   it was quite obvious to us that something scary lurked somewhere and when the lights were off it was going to get us.  i also lived in a pretty questionable basement "suite" when i was in university.  my former roommates, and most people for that matter, would agree that a shower that on more than one occasion backed up with sewage is not the most pleasant thing to happen in a basement.  this happened when there wasn't even a rainstorm.  many.  many.  times.

so ... based on the basements of my past i was super stoked to develop our basement when we bought our first house.  it had to meet the two most important criteria:  not scary and sewage backup proof.  we had a friend of ours develop it, same friend who did our current basement, however rob and i were able to pitch in a lot more with the first basement.  that's what happens when you add two minions that wander around and grab your tools or attach themselves to one or more of your limbs.  our first home's basement was awesome.  and not one inch of it was remotely scary.  fast forward to our current home.  we chose a floor plan that didn't have a bonus room upstairs.  we decided that because the lot we were building on allowed for a walk-out basement there was no need for a bonus room.  our bonus room was our basement and we were going to have it developed right away.  it just made more sense for us.  we also chose to have it developed by someone other than the builder building our home.  the cost was completely ridiculous. and based on some of the shoddy workmanship found in the upper two floors, we were glad that we went with someone else.  i love love love our basement.  we've got giant windows that look out into the forest that's beyond our backyard so it doesn't feel like you're in the basement.  and just like the first house, it's not one bit scary.  unless you count the mess of boxes and stuff underneath the stairs.

here's what it looked like during the construction of the house.

unfortunately i have absolutely no photos of the basement as it was being developed.  i was completely preoccupied with a teeny tiny person that had made her debut into the world only a few weeks earlier, as well as the not so teeny person that was starved for attention because of his new baby sister.  good times.

here's where we're at with the basement presently.

the first thing that stands out to me is whoa that's a whole lot'a brown.  for some reason we didn't seem to mind brown or dark wood in our last home.  it seemed to go pretty well with the dark green walls and it was a more "moody" basement.  now?  not so much.  we need things to be a little brighter, more colourful, cheery.  and man o man do we have a list for the basement.  it includes and is not limited to:

~ finish the bathroom.  it's currently being used as a storage room.  only the plumbing and electrical is done.
~ finish and organise the storage room.  this includes hanging drywall or plywood on the walls as well as organise all the crap that's under the stairs.
~ spray the tv console table.  thinking something dark/navy blue.
~ add some bright pillow covers and a few comfy throws.
~ stencil the back wall in the playroom area.  going to do this.
~ add a single expedit on the left side of the toy cabinet.  i want to lay it horizontal and have it act as a bench with storage baskets/bins underneath.
~ add a couple photo ledges the portion of wall that will be above the expedit bench and spray them the same colour as the tv console.
~ figure out what i'm going to do with my craft/sewing/office space.  i have a desk and that's about it. this area will be on the back burner for quite a while i think.
~ make some poufs for the kids.  love these ones and i'm pretty sure that if i find the time i could sew them.
~ re-cover the foam backs in the two glass display cases.  currently these house an antique violin and a rifle that belonged to rob's great grandfather.  the artifacts don't standout against the fabric we used. it's just kinda blah.
~  find a giant world map to cover the entire wall at the bottom of the stairs.  we'll add pins on it to all the places we've travelled, as individuals, as a couple and as a family.
~ switch out the photos in the really big frames and make an art gallery wall above the kids play kitchen.  liam and i already made some fun art for the playroom.  i'll share it later on.
~  i'm also thinking about some sort of fun storage for all the play food, dishes, etc. to go next to the kitchen.
~ finish the guest bedroom.  i didn't take any photos because we recently pillaged the mattress for liam's room, so really we don't even have a place for guests to even sleep anymore.
~ finish the laundry room.  i'm going to post on this one later.  it's kind of my pet project.

wow, this list seems much bigger written down than it did in my head.  all in good time.

have a super weekend.

life {lately} ~ vol. 26

life has been really really busy lately.

like stupid busy.

like, we both work out of our home full time, have two kids and feel like pulling our hair out busy.

like, we need to get our shit together and re-prioritize it busy.

like, i don't have time to take a pee busy.

and it doesn't appear it'll slow down anytime soon.

but if we put all that busy aside, life's pretty darn good.  i'm pushing the positivity here.

there's been some pretty good meal makin' and eaten' going on.

a few beers here and there.

valentine's on the chalkboard wall.

finally have one of the mudroom cushions finished and working on the second.

saturday morning cartoons and snuggles with scruffy.

early morning paparazzi shots in the car on the way to the day home. 

(i'll try anything to stop the madness/craziness in the morning)

and moose.  lots and lots of moose.

last sunday night after dinner four of them wandered into our backyard.

best dinner theatre ever.

project paint the walls

in keeping with my word words for 2014 i'm happy to say that the we've started knocking projects off our "operation house into home" list.  during the month of january we painted our breakfast nook.  and for serious, it took a month.  not just because we have little people running around the house that require most of our attention, rather it was because of the type of paint job we tackled.  as well as the attention starved little people running around.  i'd seen this pin a long long long time ago and threw the idea out to rob some time last year.  we need a bit of time to process whether we're going to do something or not.  don't even get me started on how long it's taken us to decide on wallpaper.

we knew we didn't want more grey and that we wanted/needed to inject some colour.  an ombre wall seemed like the right choice for what we wanted.  and as we were looking through paint fan decks, it became apparent to us that there seems to be a colour theme developing in our house.  blue, grey, white with an ever changing accent colour, currently it's orange.

our breakfast nook started out as a blank canvas.  when we built this house there were only a few rooms we had the builder paint a colour different from the main colour in the house (grey).  paint is something we can tackle, except maybe the gigantic wall in the family room.  i'm not so keen on getting up on scaffolding to paint that sucker.  but a ladder or a chair?  no problem.

we used four different shades of the same colour, had to tape each line very carefully, paint it and let it dry.  because of that we only painted a line a weekend.  hence it taking us an entire month just to paint three walls, most of which are covered in windows. we painted the bottom section first.  no reason other than we thought it would be easier to start at the bottom, then do the top and meet in the middle.  next time we'd start at the top and then work our way down.  that way there would always be a lighter colour to paint on top of instead of the other way around.

i highly recommend using frog tape for a project like this.  there were absolutely no paint bleeds between the stripes or around the door or window casings.  we used general paint.  wasn't that impressed with how the paint covered.  it seemed thin.  but, i loved these particular shades that general had.  

and now, ta-da.  the finished product.  just excuse the mismatched chairs.  we ordered our eames eiffel chairs and we're missing a few pieces for them.  as well as a couple of the chairs are cracked.  so we're now waiting on the parts and three new seats to arrive.  in the meantime our table and chairs are more reminiscent of a set i had in one of my university apartments.

we both absolutely love how this turned out.  and even more, we love the paint colours we chose.  they constantly change with the light and time of day.  sometimes they're super blue, sometimes really grey, and sometimes even green.  the kitchen also feels a little more calm.  if that's at all possible in a house with two under four.  we're now on the hunt for the right fabric for curtains.  and we've got the chairs.  sort of.  

so on a scale from one to ten, i'd say that our ombre wall painting project was a huge ten for the win.  

liamisms ~ vol. 4

"my pee is all gone today."

liam: daddy what's your favourite, cats or dogs?
rob: cats
liam: mommy what's your favourite?
me: dogs
liam: oh, mine's race cars.

"my bum hurts because i want some milk."

liam: i have a meeting today.
rob: is it an important meeting?
liam: yeah, it's like blah blah blah.

"come here and kiss me averie."  this was said as he was chasing her and she was trying to get far away from him.

liam: scruffy is wet.
rob: why?
liam: 'cuz i licked him.

i just love love love this guy to pieces.  wish we could record everything that he's saying lately.  he cracks us up daily.  both rob and i are constantly telling each other to "write that one down" and about sixty percent of the time we forget.

a room to dine

our dining room is the one room in our house that looks the most unfinished.  we've, rather i've had a hard time figuring out the feel of this room.  for a while it was going to be green, then it was going to be all white (every room in our house would be white if rob let me) and then it was going to be a combination of many colours.  the end result is that we've settled on white walls with a grey band running around the top of the wall, and blue.  seems to be a recurring theme in our home.  funny thing these dining rooms, damn first world problems.

we didn't have a formal dining room in our last house.  one eating area was all we needed.  it was a little small for entertaining ... er intimate.  not small.  i must admit, i've kinda liked have a larger space to have more people over for dinner.  we had our first adult dinner party in november for rob's birthday.  awesome to not be stuck in the kitchen.  felt so grown up in the dining room.

in the original plans for our house, the front room was closed off from the entry by a wall with a window looking in.  we more of the open concept floor plan people than wall people.  make it into one big open space.  so down the wall came.  and so did the walls that were going to encase the stairs for that matter.  by removing all the walls near and around the dining room, flex room as it was called in the plans, it made for a much better flow.  in hind sight, i should've listened to my husband when he said "make the doorway into the family room/kitchen larger."

that's right... my husband was right.  and i was wrong less right.

these are the only two photos i found of the dining room during construction.  apparently we were more concerned/excited about the other rooms in the house.

and the dining room now.

just as with pretty much all the rooms in the house, this one has quite a bit of work ahead of it.  we've created multiple lists.  and because the space is more dining room/entry the list seems longer and more time consuming than i'd first imagined.  then again, with two small humans running around, everything seems more time consuming that i'd first imagined.

here's the list ... so far:

~ paint, lots of paint.  narrowed it down to a choice of two different whites.  who knew it could be so difficult to find the right white paint?

~ paint the "blank canvas" wall a dark blue.

~ move african masks from family room to wall right beside entry door.

~ get glossy white console table for "blank canvas" wall.   

~ fill "blank canvas" wall with art from our travels and family.

~ new rugs for dining room and front entrance.

~ get a bar cart.  

~ paint back of china cabinet ... no idea on the colour yet.

~ re-cover bench cushion.

~ print/order/make giant photo canvas' for giant wall in dining room.

~ make/find/purchase modern looking floating blue credenza for giant wall in dining room.

~ new pillow cover for bench pillow.

~ and take out the over grown fig plant.