house update... sort of {entry no. 1 of my house & home journal}

...like my brain.

as i compile this post, i realize it's a little too hodge-podge for my liking. it seems to lack a theme or direction, save the one thread that runs through it all, which is photos of or references to all things around the house... little bits and pieces of here and there. other than that, this will be somewhat all over the place. but sometimes, that's just the state of my brain, too... fragmented and all over the place. some call it "a lot on my mind". others might say "frazzled". to me, it feels like dubious "mommy brain" that's taken over my once sharply-able-to-focus-and-get-it-done brain.

but you don't want to hear about what's going on in my brain, i'm guessing. i assure you... it would be worse than listening to someone's boring dream that they had the night before. *yawns*

so instead, i'll just post some pics and explanations of them... especially for those who have kept asking for house pics, but also as a means to journal our journey of moving into a new home and making it our own. {woh... never thought i could say that!... pinch me so i know it's not just a dream.}

some of these shots were taken in response to project life 365 challenges for the week... "light"... "in the house"... "fresh". but then i realized that all my photos for those challenges could be a mini house update when put together. so put them all together, i did.

if i were organized in my plan of attack, and if i was anywhere near where i'd like to be by this point in the diy, renovating and decorating departments and documentation of those things, i'd have some posts lined up with some photos to show the progress or, at the very least, before and after shots. but i'm not organized... not with the house progress, nor with the documenting it. at my speed, if i'm lucky, every on of my plans for this home just might be completed circa 2041. i'll be almost seventy years old. weird.

anyway, i apologize that these are not more big-picture type views. i need to put my other lens on for those shots, so i can zoom out. my good lens has no zoom, and with rooms as small as ours, i can't back up far enough in many cases to get a whole-room shot.

that's okay, though... i'm not quite ready for the big reveals anyway. i can only do the corners that look complete... or close to it. what you don't see are the areas that are not only incomplete, but quite a mess as well. uh-uh! no. no. no. nope! not showin' you that. =)

so... here's what's new...

the kitchen is almost done... well, the short-term things that could be done within our existing budget, that is. major changes will have to happen way down the road. things like •new oven •new fridge •new flooring •new backsplash •built-in banquette for the breakfast nook {something like this one} ... you know... the biggies!

for right now, we've tackled the smallies. we've removed the lighting that was there when we bought the house {awful!} and replaced it with fresher, funner, more true-to-period fixtures. i'll share a little bit more about one of those fixtures below.

we've also painted. the only sans cabinetry wall got a coat of fresh white. having been a dingy yellow previously, it's amazing how much that one change brightened up the space. we also painted the soffits above the cabinets a fun orange. with the mid-century brown wood-grain laminate cabinets we have, that orange took our kitchen to fabulous brady bunch kitchen level that we were totally going for!!... although, our orange is a bit brighter and fresher, and the kitchen is lighter in general. {can't wait to show some pics of that part!} speaking of cabinets, we also replaced the hardware, and in some places, removed it altogether. like the former lighting in our kitchen, the door and drawer pulls were an awful early american style and so not in keeping with the 60s design that the rest of the house is. so i removed them on the doors and replaced them {with something very similar to these} on the drawers. now i just have to fill in the holes on the doors with stained-to-match wood putty. {i did one door already, and you can't even tell there was ever anything there... yay!}

everything else in the room that is done or will be done is decor-related as opposed to refurbish-, remodel- or remake-related.

for instance, that lovely stretched textile print that my sweet friend {with the brand new baby} gave me {pictured above}. it's so bright and cheerful and i love it on that big wall... it fills up the space perfectly and brings just the right amount of color to the room. eventually, that wall will be filled with a giant mural of one of my black and white photos {can't wait for that!}. but this works for now. only thing is, now i have to find something else to replace it and fill the space in the office that it was originally pegged for.

i included this next photo in for a couple reasons. first, i took the picture for yesterday's project life 365 challenge, which was "fresh". sad but true... orange juice was the only food-related thing in the house to photograph that was even remotely fresh {grocery shopping is first on the to-do list after the hubby gets paid!}. but i also added it to show just how much that orange light above the table casts a glow on the room when it's turned on. it made the white background of my photo seem peachy, which is why i actually prefer that light fixture when it's off... especially when trying to get photos of things that i want to look fresh.

with that... orange juice photo-shoot's over and breakfast is served, as you can see in this little snapshot i got of isaac enjoying that last drop of fresh in our kitchen. i hope to always highlight our spaces from a lived-in, utilized perspective as well as through shots like below, because those are the images that tell the story of us and how we live... not just our surroundings.

i'll save the details for my real kitchen post {the full one}, but i'll quickly mention that this kitchen is the most special place of all for my family in this home so far. and i don't mean it's my favorite room from an interior design standpoint {which it happens to be at the moment}. i mean it's the place where the most memorable moments are taking place and the best memories are being created. i've never felt like i had a home where the kitchen was the heart... until now. but again, more on that in another post at another time.

now back to that light... the pièce de résistance in our kitchen would have to be the orange pendant light that i salvaged from my dad's garage while my family cleaned it out after his passing six years ago. it's such a great lamp design... very unique. but i love it even more knowing my dad brought it home from one of his carpentry jobs {where it was likely destined for a dumpster}. he probably had some vision for it in his own home, but it ended up buried in the vast store of collected odds and ends that he'd bring home from his job sites {from which i also snagged an awesome vintage metal sign letter}.

note... that chain and ceiling plate will soon be replaced with chrome-plated versions to match the metals in the rest of the kitchen. to get rid of that orangey glow on the wall, i've purposefully overexposed the above photo of the lamp. but you can still see the detail of the groovy design. some day, i'm going to do some research on this fixture to find out when it was made. it definitely looks mid-century, but it seems like it might a little closer to the 70s than the 60s. i'm very curious to know. it uses one of those oversize, round, white bulbs, which makes it extra appealing when the light is off and you can it, because even the bulb looks vintage. anyway, that's about it for the kitchen for now.

oh, wait... i forgot to mention another totally-within-our-budget change we made in the kitchen... new window treatments. there came with the house curtains that did not complement this space at all. so they came down almost immediately after moving in. i ordered some faux wood blinds to match the similar wood-grain laminate on the cabinets.

having not had a window in my kitchen for the eight years before moving here, this big, bright window makes me truly happy! if there are two things in a house that i feel are a must, it's a window in the bathroom and one in the kitchen... at least one. i feel lucky that the one we have is a good size, as often the original windows on these mid-century modern ranch kitchens were quite tiny. ours is above the sink and faces south... double bonus! i'm a happy kitchen camper!

okay... NOW i'm done rambling on about the kitchen. again... i'll be posting a full kitchen re-do post with before-and-after shots and all the details of any plans for the future some other time {after i've finished all that i can with this stage}.

there's only one other room that is as near to completion as the kitchen is... isaac's room. so i figured i'd include a photo from that space, too. again... just a little peek via one small corner, because i've still got some things to wrap up in there as well. so i'll wait on the rest of it.

most of what is seen here is simply all things that came along from the old house... old things in a new space. the wood truck is the only new item... given to isaac by his cousin, jesse, while my sister watched him at her house on moving day.

i'm excited to reveal his room too, because even though i never got around to writing an all-out reveal post of isaac's nursery at the old house, there were enough photos sprinkled throughout my pregnancy and his first year to show what it was like. but now that he's a toddler, i've tried to make his room a little more grown-up and sophisticated, while still keeping lots of whimsical touches. it's been so much fun to work on, and i find i want to hang out in there with him on the days when it's tidy {which aren't very frequent}.

so... one last little peek... this time into the living room. for this space, it's mostly major things that are in need of being done. but there is still some painting that will be taking place shortly, as well as some furniture diy and arranging. once those two modifications have taken place, i'll feel comfortable hanging artwork. and then i'll be ready to post about it. can't wait, because that is probably the most quintessential mid-century modern room in the house. and it has soooooo much potential.

sorry to be so secretive. the intent is not to tease. it's simply that i don't have my act together. truth be told, i'm still unpacking in a few places, because those areas were waiting on storage or painting before things could be put away. yes... after three months, this is the harsh truth. but i've heard from so many people who have kids that unpacking and remodeling can take years when children are in the mix. i believe it!

the good news is we had an electrician friend of ours come and add new outlets and grounding to our electrical wiring, as well as replace the old fuse box with a breaker box! now i can work on my computer without worrying about it frying in the case of a power surge. and now that those new outlets are in, i can paint the office! when i finish up the many little things that add up to one big task in the kitchen and isaac's room, the office and our bedroom will be the next priorities. they are going to be a lot of fun, too!

who knows. maybe soon i'll get it in gear and get organized with the house planning. i think it's absolutely necessary to have a concrete plan, don't you? as with any other job or task, i'm certain that planning and scheduling for home renovations is so important. otherwise, things tend to sit idle.

i'm realizing, even as i type, the most important thing i could do is write down some goals and come up with a schedule. maybe mr. b. and i can do that today, as he's home from work taking sick leave.

with that, i wrap up... i've got some goal lists and schedules to get crackin' on!

happy first full day of spring!