The Neverending Story

  Did anybody start singing the song after they read the title?  The Neverending Story was one of favorite movies as a kid.  Yes, I still am a geek and like geeky movies like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings.
    I took a hiatus from blogging about the house.  Two events played a role in my sabbatical.  The first was all of the company and fun we had this summer with various visits from family and friends and fitting in fun adventures like trips to Long Beach Island on the Jersey Shore (with a pit stop at Ikea), summer camp for the girls, and just all around summer fun.  The second obstacle to a productive blog was my own unproductivity (spell check is telling me that this is not a word, but I like it anyway).  We haven't really done anything and when we did, I didn't have the energy or time to blog.  We are now in the middle of a busy fall.  The girls are back at school.  My oldest is homeschooling and we started back with ballet, Irish Dance, Youth Group, Bible Study and various other normal life events. Dan and I are also working on some rental homes and we are trying to get our lives in general back in order.  With all of that in mind I figured the best way to manage my time would be to ignore the important issues and get back to the blog that has too long been neglected.  Play along with me and pretend that my reasoning makes total sense.
  Now, on the the Title of this post.  Almost a year ago I posted About Erika and her fabulous team at Urban Grace  designing a mudroom plan for us.  The mudroom was one of the first rooms we got in order, but I never posted about it.  Well here are some snap shots of the progress and the BIG REVEAL!

Our contractor extraordinaire built this using plans from Ana White.  We modified them sightly and added bead board to back of the locker.  

The molding and brackets underneath the cubbies really made it feel more substantial and added a lot character to the piece.

We debated putting drawers or shelves on the bottom of the locker.  When we considered how we live (kinda messy), we decided it would be best to get baskets the kids could just throw their shoes in.  Eventually, we would like to build some big wooden boxes with little wheels on the bottom, but for now these woven baskets from Land of Nod work well.

   Now onto the big machinery in the room. We chose the  Samsung VRT PowerFoam Steam for its value.  It cost less than the Whirlpool and had many features.  From our minimal research we found that it performed well and required fewer repairs than other models.

The corner cabinet is our laundry shoot from the upstairs hall.  This is by far one of the favorite things we put into the house.

Entry door and closet to hide all of the messy stuff.

  The ongoing saga of the mudroom is almost complete.  I'd like to add a few accessories and a nicer rug.  All in all it is a useful room and accomplishes what we want it to.  It hides our shoes, cleans our clothes, and keeps the mud contained.
  Hopefully, I'll be back with more updates.  Progress would require us to actually finish projects so don't hold your breath.  How did your summer projects go or did you spend all summer playing like we did?

It's Been a While

  So.... we've been in our house for about 3 weeks and today is the first day that it feels like home (sort of).  I think I'm able to feel that way because I only see 4 unpacked boxes and 6 curtain rods that need to be hung up.  I vacuumed and swept about 18 times today. The vacuuming and sweeping is significant since it's the first time I've had enough access to the floors to vacuum or sweep.  Yes, today was the first step in making this house a home!
   We've been busy putting up closet organizers to unpack clothes, putting handles on drawers and doors in the kitchen so we could actually open them, and taking a quick trip to Ikea to exchange the wrong drawer fronts for the right ones.  Some may see that four hour trip as a hardship, but it was one I happily endured.  I like to think of myself as an optimist, and honestly who doesn't think a free cup of coffee and $1.00 frozen yogurt is worth a four hour drive?
   Enjoy the pics of the first floor.  Everyone else is asleep and I just got inspired to post, so these pictures are hot off the presses.  No staging or photo-shopping here folks.  This is the real deal in real time. 

We will have 2 upper corner cabinets that will be turned into the laundry shoot.  This is not top on the priority list as much as the girls would like it to be.  They are already devising ways to send secret messages down the laundry shoot. 

On the right we plan to do some sort of built in storage/locker system for coats and shoes.  You'll be hearing about a lot of "plans"  We dream big around these parts.

This is the pantry/message area.  My "plan" for this area is to paint the back splash area with chalk board paint and paint the cupboards white.

The kitchen is great.  We still need to put up shelves on either side of the range hood.

I'm thinking of putting a moveable island in the middle of the kitchen.  I don't know if that would be overkill?  Any thoughts on the subject?

I'm am so excited about all of the counter space.  I can't stop putting things all over it.  It's a blessing and a curse a the same time.

Entry way.  I have big plans for this area.  I just don't know what they are yet.

Living Room. 

I went ahead and hung up some of my favorite things.  I may have jumped the gun on this, but  it makes me happy!

 

 

 

There is the tour of the first floor.  Excuse the grainy iPhone pics. I  will try and take some better ones with a "real camera".  Have  a great day! 

Got it Sold!

   We moved all of our earthly belongings from our old house to our new one last weekend.  It was bitter sweet.  We were sad to leave a place where our little kids have become big kids, but we are so excited about making new memories in our new home.  The new house is not quite move in ready, but since that has never been an issue with us in our previous houses we didn't figure we would let it stop us this time.  The move went relatively well considering I had only packed about 6 boxes before Wednesday.  Thankfully some super friends and my mom showed up to save to the day.  Thank You!  One of my super helpful friends gave birth and raised some super helpful, strong, and energetic teenage boys who were also a fantastic help. We couldn't have done it without them.  Well, we probably could have, but we may have  still be moving boxes a week later. 

The Empty House

     We are busy trying to find important things like clean underwear, favorite toys and library books that got packed in random boxes, but all in all I think we'll make it through.   We already celebrated a birthday in the new house, so we're on our way to making memories.  Who doesn't love a birthday pic with moving boxes in the background?  If you get a chance stop by for a visit.  I might make you unpack a box or clean a window, but I have found my coffee pot, so I can make it worth your time!

The counter top getting put into place.

This is right before the 850 lb counter landed on Dan's finger.  He wanted to cry, but he manned up!

I love it, especially because it's a dirt hiding color.

It can only get better.

 Happy weekend friends!

  Be warned. This is not a pretty post of fantastic updates being done to the house.  Oh no, this is the ugly side of moving.  This is where I show you that I've given up any pretense of hygiene or housekeeping.  We found out last Thursday that we'd be closing on our current house on Feb. 21st.  We are ecstatic to be closing on our house, but in all of our planning we never once considered the closing date would happen BEFORE the date on the contract.  The wording in the Real Estate sales contract is "On or About" such and such date.  This usually means 1-2 weeks after the such and such date.  In all of our house sales we have NEVER closed before the contract date.  Needless to say I am not really prepared to move.  The new house is also not ready to house us.  Oh well...that's never been an issue in the past :).

            So here's the deal,  In order to motivate myself to get the job done, I am posting for my friends and family, and anyone on the World Wide Web who is unfortunate enough to find this blog, the sad condition of my house at this moment in time in order to motivate myself to get something done.  I take pride in my ability to pack up a house, but I wouldn't be honest if I didn't think I had met my match.  Well enough talk,  here is the proof of the sad state of affairs @ the Murch Household.  

My hall is not really florescent yellow.

   I don't really think there is any explanation needed.  It is what it is.  I am off to pack and think of a meaningful way to celebrate my youngest daughter's 6th birthday amongst all of this mess.  This should turn out to be a fun week.  Looking forward to having some good stories to tell.  Oh, and if you get a chance, pray for us.  We could use it!

Quick Update

   Here's a quick update of what we've been up to.  It seems like work is being done in every room. I have no idea how they do it on EXTREME HOME MAKEOVER, but I have a feeling the 100's of people on the project help just a little bit.  We've got our own version of Extreme Home Building happening.  I think you could also refer to it as chaos, but that doesn't have the same ring to it.  I hope to be back later in the week with real progress, but for now enjoy some of our half done projects.

Paint and floors in the same room.  How exciting is that?

I'll be adding a board and batten treatment to the bottom of the wall.  Hopefully it will end up looking like the picture below

I found this on Pinterest.

Ignore the look on my husbands face.  I think he was going for his "moody" look.  You can catch a glimpse of the bead board ceiling in the kitchen.  I would have done every single ceiling like this if I could have afforded it.  It looks great in person.  No matter what the rest of the house looks like, I can always "look up".

  Anyone else painting?  If you see me with paint in my hair or on my hands just smile knowingly.  I find if I look in the mirror it just depresses me.  I feel much better with the image of myself that I've created in my head.  Ignorance really is bliss.