La Moneda, an Update

Dear readers, we have owned La Moneda for three years now, and lived in it for two of them. Let’s do a little #tbt here. This is where we started.

Since then, we’ve made upgrades both big and small, our first being, of course, to almost double the size of the house. Before too much longer, we’ll even have a finished basement! It is the most exciting feeling to think that almost all of the major interior renovations we wanted to do have been done.

And it has sent me into overdrive when it comes to the idea of “finishing” the house. I’m so glad Gooplet has gone from being a newborn, to a super-curious toddler in that time, because it’s changed my vision for our space completely.

By completely, I mean my vision now includes more colors than simply blue and white.

I love seeing Design Mom’s “Living with Kids” series, and even more, I love reading the homeowners’ takes on their spaces. While ogling this one the other day, I thought a lot about a question I’m pretty sure Gabby asks with every feature, “What do you want your kids to remember about growing up here?” I hadn’t given it a moment’s thought because I’m not a fancy blogger whose home would be featured on Design Mom.

But then I realized I should absolutely give it thought before I take one more step toward “finishing” this house.

So far, I can tell you for sure that we don’t have designated spaces just for kids or grown ups. Gooplet doesn’t get his own playroom, my husband doesn’t have a man cave, and that craft room I’ve always dreamed of isn’t happening either. That’s not a choice I would have expected to make, but let’s be honest, parenting has thrown me for enough loops that I’m already over it. I want my kids (well, my kid) to remember that home is where we are together.

What about you dear readers? If you have kids, how do you want them to remember their home?

(Clicking on the pictures will take you to their sources.)

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Finally

A friend came over once, and noticed I had a lot of “things that say things” on my walls. She is 100% correct. I love words, and surrounding myself with especially good ones is a habit of mine. I was mindlessly scrolling the internet this past weekend, and finally bit the bullet and purchased this piece.

(Etsy)

I’ve been wanting something for the exposed brick wall in the kitchen/living area of our house, and this is exactly the right size and sentiment. Can’t wait for it to get here.

ps, Here’s some more of what’s on our walls from earlier this year, when I challenged myself to get some art with pictures instead of just words and mostly succeeded.

Framed – Wordless Edition

I’m drawn to prints with type all over them, as you saw yesterday, but that just won’t work all over the house.  You shouldn’t be able to read my living room wall like the first chapter of a best-seller.  Thus, I’ve searched high and low for some art without type.  And by high and low I mean I pretty much looked on Etsy and Minted.  And I found like, 5 prints that I like.  That are all basically the same colors.  Here they are:

Colors, by Laura Trevey on Etsy

Distant Island, by Clare Elsaesser on Etsy

Morning Blooms No. 1 by Emily Jeffords on her site

Out to Sea, by Carolyn MacLaren on Minted

Confetti, by Blair Culwell Staky on Minted

The Meadow, by Melanie Sevarin on Minted

Any other ideas for me, dear readers?  Especially those outside the blue, white, and pink realm?  What’s on your walls?  What do you love?

#AndThenWeBoughtAHouse, an Update

Dear readers, it’s about to get all #AndThenWeBoughtAHouse up in here.  Can you just hang on for a couple of days, and then we’ll move on?  Bear with me?

First off, the #AndThenWeBoughtAHouse house now has a name.  La Moneda, which is a play on the Chilean “White House,” except it isn’t really called “The White House,” but is actually white.  Like every single thing I’m picking out for the inside of our house.  The whole naming process involves a long story, but the point of it is the name is cute, he liked it, and the rule of this house is if my husband actually has an opinion about something, we roll with it.  La Moneda it is.

As it has a Chilean name, it will also have a Chilean doormat to greet you when you visit.

You can get one too, if you like.

ps, this is what’s gracing our back door.

Things are going along swimmingly, in that it’s framed, and 10 weeks ago it wasn’t.  And though the inside still appears to be nothing but a bunch of wood beams, we’re making the kind of decisions that mean it won’t always be.

After a couple of iterations, the kitchen inspiration is now a hybrid of this:

(source)

and this:

(source)

It turns out I care deeply about any number of things I didn’t realize I would, like what kind of handles my appliances have, and just how much I’m willing to pay for a range (spoiler alert: not the $4000 price differential for one of those fancy-looking ones).  Yet to be seen is whether or not I’ll spring for the farmhouse sink.  I’m telling you, dear readers, the excitement never ends.  And faucets really are that expensive.

The master bathroom is now fully tiled, or at least, we have serious plans for it to be.  There’s no good way for me to show you that till everything is said and done, but the shower floor will have hexagon tiles because, again, my husband liked them, and he’s getting what he wants here.*  So how nice for me that I found this hexagon print on Minted, which will also hang in the bathroom.

(source)

My biggest dilemma is figuring out what colors we’ll paint the upstairs.  The entire downstairs will be white (Benjamin Moore, Simply White, to be specific), at least until we’ve lived in the house long enough that I understand the light it gets and how we use the space.  I’m pretty sure our bedroom will be Benjamin Moore’s Edgecomb Gray (famously, here), which is what we had our old bedroom, and 3/4 of my parents’ beach house painted.  But do I do it throughout the master bathroom and closet?  Change things up?  Keep everything white because it is The White House after all, and one less decision is always an easy route, and besides everything I pin is white anyway?

*Dear readers, especially those who don’t know me well, I hope you’ll forgive my being tongue-in-cheek here.  My husband is, of course, getting some of what he wants, and that’s well-deserved because the rest of this house is a whole-lotta what I want.

Saving My Pennies

Dear readers, I will be back tomorrow with a killer snack for you, but I have to pop in and die over this first:

This is only the world’s most gorgeous chair.  It’s the Bow Back Piper chair from Society Social, and it looks like it was made for me.  I caught it in Mackenzie’s apartment, which was featured on Glitter Guide today.

I’m saving my pennies for one of my own.  I have the most basic, boring desk chair right now, and this would be more than a little step up.

This is classic Glass of Milk decorating, dear readers.  I get whatever I can stand at IKEA and live with it until I see something special and I just know.  This chair is like that.