Window love!

This is not my usual post. Our Sunday was spent grouting the tile in our kitchen. What a pain that is! My husband bought the pre-mixed grout this time and it is soooooo much harder the clean off of everything! Holy cow! I would recommend NOT using it! Haha! Anyway, after many more hours of scrubbing, I'll be sure to post a picture of the finished product!
While doing this remodel, I've noticed a trend. One that I really love! Those black window frames! So our kitchen windows are super old but currently in style!

Tile before grout

 It add just the perfect amount of modern! Check out some of these pictures! Here's a few exterior pics to drool over:

Traditional Exterior by Mechanicsburg Design-Build Firms Farinelli Construction Inc

Traditional Exterior by Minneapolis Design-Build Firms Awad + Koontz Architects Builders

Farmhouse Exterior by Grand Rapids Home Builders Hanson Homes, Inc.

Farmhouse Exterior by Austin General Contractors Redbud Custom Homes

Farmhouse Exterior by Atlanta Architects & Building Designers Kemp Hall Studio

And here are a few interior pictures:

Farmhouse Living Room by Houston Architects & Building Designers Dillon Kyle Architects (DKA)

Farmhouse Living Room by Granville Architects & Building Designers ENJOY Co.

Farmhouse Kitchen by Larkspur Building Designers and Drafters Paulina Oldenbrook Interior Architecture & Design

Farmhouse Kitchen by Seattle Architects & Building Designers MAKE Design Studio

Farmhouse Bedroom by San Francisco Architects & Building Designers a.d.d. concept + design

So what do you all think? We will probably still have to change our kitchen windows at some point because they are so old, (and because I'm slightly OCD and they don't match the rest of the house). For now, though, I'll enjoy them as they are and imagine I'm really trendy! Haha! I better get back to scrubbing that grout now! 

That plank wall...

After getting numerous questions about our wood plank wall in our dining room and entry way, I have decided to go ahead and write a post about it. Unfortunately, I don't have a good before picture of this wall because I wasn't planning on blogging about it at the time. Just imagine 1970s wallpaper covering the wall, with orange shag carpet, and a brass chandelier, and you'll get the picture. Here's a before shot that captures part of the dining room.

"Before" dining room/living room

This was probably the easiest project I did in our house because I was sitting on the couch the whole time! Haha! Jonas did this last year right after Boden was born. So as I was sitting holding this sweet little guy,

Boden 1 week

the big boys were working on our plank wall. We like to use the forced child labor method to get things done around here. No, just kidding, Bjorn was begging to help! So we put him to work painting some boards! As you can tell, he's concentrating hard!

Bjorn working hard!

Now, I don't really think you all need a full blown tutorial on how to do a plank wall. As my husband said, "If you can't figure out how to nail a board to the wall then you probably shouldn't try this". Haha! Probably a little politically incorrect but maybe still true. So, I'll just tell you a bit about what we did. We (Jonas) first painted over the wallpaper. The whole reason we decided to do the plank wall in the first place was because we didn't want to remove the wallpaper. Ha! We bought some cedar fencing planks from Home Depot, a variety of both 5 and 6 feet in length, and let them dry out in the house for a week. I would recommend letting them dry out even longer if you don't want gaps between the boards because even after a week, ours still shrunk up some. You can see the difference between the two pictures below. I don't mind though, I think it adds to the rustic-ness (I don't think that's a word) of it.

So after a week of sitting in the house, it was time to paint them. We used a variety of paint colors. Two of the colors were left over paint from our fireplace and the boys room. The dark gray/brown we used on the fireplace and is SW black fox, and the lightest gray is SW repose gray. The other three colors are metallic spray paint. I don't remember the brand but we used the colors champagne, silver, and copper I believe. Once those were all dry, my husband started nailing them on the wall with a Brad gun using a staggered pattern. He had a bit of cutting to do around the outlets etc. and ends of the wall which he used a combination of a miter saw, table saw, and jigsaw for depending on his need. Once he got started on actually putting the boards up, it probably took him a day or two to finish. I love it! It was totally worth all the work he did! Haha! I really do have a great husband! I have finally ordered dining room chairs but they are back ordered until the end of March. When I get them in, then I'll put up some pictures of the whole dining room. Yay!

Plank wall going in!

Plank wall finished!

Entry Way

This was picture was taken a while ago and therefore the reason for the fall decorations. I'm still working on how I really want to decorate it so I won't show you a current picture because it's rather bare! Haha! Anyway, hope you all are having a great week! 

A Little Weekend Fun!

Sorry folks,  we're starting out with the baby! 💕
Can you believe it's been a whole year already? How much they grow in that first year! Just look at this little bug!

Engelhartphotography.com

We kicked off the weekend Friday with a big boy haircut for this little fella. He looks so grown up now! It's amazing what that first haircut does to make them look less like a baby and more like a toddler. And yes, I saved his hair even though his baby book remains empty.  Poor neglected 3rd child!

Saturday was party day. We had a little get-together for him in the evening. You should have seen him with his cupcake! He took it and tried to put the whole thing in his mouth! Haha! I will admit they were pretty good! Coconut pineapple cupcakes that I made from scratch.

Engelhartphotography.com

I try not to get too sentimental about my kids growing up, but when birthdays roll around, I fail big time! Little Boden has been such a joy and a wonderful addition to our family! I still can't believe he's one! It feels so surreal. He is such a happy boy! He loves his big brothers and his doggy so much and he seems to always have a smile on his face. However, he has recently decided that he wants things immediately and has developed a bit of a temper. Look out!

Sunday, all fun and games were over and back to work we went! I worked on painting in the laundry room while doing laundry in between coats of paint. Amazingly, no paint ended up on our clean clothes! Haha. Still have the trim to do in this room and some other finishing touches. I ordered cabinet pulls to match the kitchen which will add a nice flow I think. In case you have not seen the previous laundry room or have forgotten,  I will indulge you in a couple of  before and almost done photos.

So far in this room,  we have ripped out the orange and yellow cabinet, scraped popcorn off the ceiling, textured the ceiling (which we hired out), painted, added a new cabinet, changed the door to the half bath,  added our washer and dryer,  and now I just completed painting the cabinet and door. It's looking so much better. If we decide to stay here forever though, I would like to expand the laundry room.


While I worked on the laundry room, Jonas finished up the backsplash in the kitchen. Well, he finished the installation anyway. Still has to do the grout. Our kitchen is nearing completion and boy,  is that an awesome thought! Once it's all done I'll post a whole bunch of pictures, but for now here are a couple.

Close up of the grout covered tile

Oh,  the sunshine flooding in is so nice! I can't wait for spring! We do get a break from the winter however, because in 6 days we'll be on our way to Hawaii! That means 2 Sundays off from house renovating! Woohoo!