I am inspired

I have been reading design blogs like Nesting Place, Just a Girl and recently I was introduced to her and her and her.  I love the philosophy with regards to making your home as lovely as possible as it should be a haven.  We spend so much time running and running that we often loose sight of the potential for beauty.  I am by no means a designer, but I do have a passion for all things design, comfortable kid friendly design.  When we bought our house it has been a rental for 15 years.  My soul was meant for this house, we drove into the driveway in December of 2003 and I said, "I could live here."  And so it was, we bought a complete and total fixer upper.

But we also found out, 1 week before closing, in January 2004, that we were pregnant with our 2nd child.  So we did the most work that we have done since that time in a 6 week period.   We tore out all the faux wood panneling, removed all the shag carpet, ripped out the dropped ceilings and brought the kitchen down to a pipe sticking out of the floor.  Eventually, I will scan all the pictures, but for now you can just imagine how ugly it was.  You should also know that we are very interested in retaining as much historical integrity of the home as we can.  So the horse hair plaster?  We will do everything we can not to remove it.  The crooked wood floors, that were covered over with hideous shag carpet and/or sleepers and vinyl tiles, will never be ripped out.  The original wainscotting that was uncovered in the kitchen after we ripped out the faux wood paneling was painted by us, reluctantly agreed to by Jer.  But I think you will agree, that is does look fantastic.

Before

After

Pretty dramatic, huh?  We love it and it has been almost a year since we had it painted.  We also painted all of the cabinets the same color as the wainscotting. In my typical fashion, I started it, but Jer finished the project, over the summer.  It brings a nice cohesion to the kitchen.  Of course Jer built the cabinets in 2004 and his skills have improved so much that he often comments on how much he would do differently.

It is always a constant state of flux here at our old farm house.  And we wouldn't have it any other way.