Painting!

It's starting to look like a new house!

Our guy got up a couple coats of paint so that we could approve our color choices. I am thrilled.

The walls are a really nice neutral gray. You can see up close (with our new floors!). The true color, looks darker, but it is very light and neutral on the walls. 

As you can see, we decided ( from advice from our guy) not to paint the entire paneled ceiling, just the beams. We really love love it - it feels updated with the white beams and it provides a nice contrast with the paneling. 

Our front window looks great, now - the white trim really brightens everything up. 

For reference, here's what it looked like before:

The family room also looks completely different with primer on the walls. So much bigger. 

And, our kitchen is turning white! Also very exciting :).

We are so happy with the decision to raise up the ceiling. Now that it's all up, it look like it's always been there, and it makes such a difference. 

Painting will hopefully be done by Thursday, and then I'll be coming in to prep for painting upstairs this week. 

Less than 2 weeks until move in!

Last weekend in Rohnert Park

A bit late, but here are some pictures of our last trip to our favorite neighborhood park by our old home. We sure will miss it!

No More Jungle Room!

I have this whole week off, so what better way to celebrate than to spend the day stripping wallpaper?

We had hopes of getting our handyman to do this, but he convinced us that it was something we should tackle ourselves, since we're trying to save money. I showed up planning to paint today, but since Danny (our guy) was going to take off the popcorn ceilings, I decided it made more sense to tackle the wallpaper instead. It was exhausting!

Master Before (well, with 3 top layer strips pulled off)

:

After! No popcorn on the ceiling or wallpaper!

This wallpaper was the worst, since I had to pull off the top layer, then do about 5 soaks of the under layer with sprayed water. And then I had to use a scraper for most of it, since it was too fragile to come off in large strips. But, so much better!

Here's Evan's room without the popcorn - it feels so much bigger. I also took down one set of closet doors to make a reading nook.

And the biggest transformation - the Jungle Room.

From this:

To this:

Of course, now that we've taken off the wallpaper, I'm wanting to paint the rooms before we move in. Where we'll find the time, I'm not sure. But, it sure is fun to see everything transformed. 

Be the time we get back from Thanksgiving, the drywall will be up downstairs and there should be paint on the walls! 

Life Updates

Here are some pictures from this week:

Our sweet bunny! Evan loves these pjs. He points to the feet and goes "grrrrrr" because of the bears :)

Peaking out the windows by our front door (with our new bright lights!)

Recessed lighting is installed and it's fantastic. We can actually see in our house now!

I took Evan for a quick play at the park tonight. So many leaves everywhere - fall here is gorgeous. 

The sunset couldn't be beat - it was stunning.

Watching Evan playing, I couldn't get over what a big boy he is becoming. 

More Beach Pictures

Stinson Beach Race

This morning, we took winding backroads south to Stinson Beach to watch Ed run a 30k.

It was chilly to start, but it was gorgeous. 

After we did a quick run around on the beach, Evan and I had a mother son breakfast date. It was surprisingly relaxing and wonderful. He sat in a regular chair like a grown up little boy and ate a ton of food. 

Then we headed back to the beach for some fun in the sun. 

Evan ran around for over 2 hours, and was especially excited about all the dogs playing on the beach. 

He was so tired by the end he passed out in my lap for about a minute, before a helicopter flew overhead and woke him up. 

As soon as he saw he was still at the beach, he leapt up with a smile and continued to play. 

A little after 11am, we changed into some cooler clothes and then waited at the finish line for Ed. Evan was so cute, clapping for all the finishers. 

Finally, "dada" rounded the corner and passed through the finish chute. Evan was so happy to see his dad finish and Ed had a great race. 

It was a lovely day!

Life Lately

I guess it's a sign of being a grown up when you get a day off of work with no little one (Evan still had daycare, and even had picture day!) and instead of doing something exciting you spend it running errands for your new home.

Our beautiful newly trimmed tree

It actually was pretty exciting to pick our paint colors, backsplash and countertops, and so much easier to do with just the two of us! We can really start to imagine our new home.

Our new paint - San Francisco Fog (big swatch on the right)

Our raised ceilings in the kitchen and breakfast nook

Lots to make me smile lately:

Our view driving into our new neighborhood

Our tired boy wearing daddy's jacket

Evan repeatedly asking me to put this bib on him as a fashion accessory

Hopefully we are moving a month from tomorrow!

We are Under Construction!

It's been a week since we've started demo on the house, and Evan and I saw it for the first time this weekend. 

Wow! Our rock wall is gone, as is all the flooring downstairs. 

Would you believe this crazy carpet was under our 70s shag? Apparently this place used to be even more retro fabulous than it was. 

Our garage is full of the demo. Our guy has already taken multiple trips hauling stuff - he said there was 1.5 tons of concrete behind our rock wall. 

It's exciting to picture the house with the new floors, which we ordered this week. Needless to say, we are a lot poorer :). 

We also are ordering all new doors to give it a nice, clean look. 

The biggest change, though, was the kitchen!

With all the doors, counters, and backsplash off, you can really start to imagine this as a new space. Plus, the ceiling is over a foot higher!

The big decision w're making today is whether or not we want an island. This hadn't even crossed our radar, but our guy thinks it would really improve the space. We're going back to measure and see if we want to put in a small island instead of our peninsula, which would allow us to add some more counter and cabinets along the wall. 

(Back from measuring and we've decided to keep the original footprint. With an island, it only gives about 32 inches of clearance at most on both sides, and everything I've read says 42 inches is a minimum. We are still going to add another set of wall cabinets to the left of the window to balance the space and we're feeling good about saving some money!)

This boy is excited about our new home!