Ode to Our Dreamy Bungalow {Dining Room}

My only request for this whole "let's buy a house" thing (besides a yard for the dog, and a good neighborhood that I wouldn't fear for my life in while he was away on deployment…which then of course meant my beloved husband had to raise his, I mean, "our" price range…oh and an extra bedroom to house my sister), the ONLY thing I wanted was a dining room big enough to extend our table.

I love my table. It is the perfect size and extends into a square that seats 8 people and it was the very "real" first thing I bought by myself with my "big girl" job money.

Anyways. When I walked into this house I LOVED the dining room. The hubs thought it wasn't going to be big enough for the table, but it was by far the biggest dining room we had seen. Then, I saw the chandelier and 9 10 foot ceilings and picture rail and my whole heart was pumping like crazy. Yes, yes, yes.

All that…when originally, it looked like this.

I don't know why these photos are so terrible and blurry, I was probably running through the house "Real World" style when the roommates move in and see it for the first time... 

I was so, so in love.

In any case, I convince A that the dining room was way bigger than he thought, it was just filled with tiny furniture and so many random plants.

We moved in and I triumphantly sent him this cell phone (pre-iPhone) photo while he was on deployment, amidst boxes and ladders and unpacking and all.

SQUARE TABLE!

And, it remained that way for a while.

Until we filled the room with all sorts of other furniture.

We still pull it out to a square if we have a big group over, but with the piano and the hutch to the right, it's easier to keep it smaller for every day use. Which yes, caused me infinite sadness at first. Mainly because I know I will probably not have the opportunity to have it extended all the way out again for a while. Thanks Navy Housing. ::eye roll::

Though this room hasn't changed much throughout the time we've lived here, I have done a bunch of projects. The first was updating the chandelier a bit - I made the lights sit a bit lower, sprayed the stick parts silver, redistributed the hanging crystals, removed the hurricanes that obviously didn't belong, and used round bulbs instead of candlelight looking ones. And not too long ago I made that growth chart, which conveniently also highlights how tall those ceilings are. And one of my most popular projects ever…my wine rack.

Bonus! Hangry baby being fed in the kitchen…and the begging dog that is ever-present for meal time.

I am super sad to be leaving this room behind. Mainly because we truly will be leaving almost everything in it behind in storage. Neither of those hutches or piano are going to make the cut for the trip to Japan, but I LOVE THEM and will not part with them, so to storage they go.

Let's review.

Theirs:

Ours:

Theirs:

Ours:

Theirs:

Ours:

Theirs:

Ours:

We've hosted countless family dinners here, big and small, parties, play groups, holidays and coloring sessions. When it comes down to it, it really is the center of our home - which isn't all that surprising for us food-minded folks. Just like everything about this house, I find it comforting and reassuring, and will miss it greatly. 

Evelyn Rae is two and a half, Liam is fifteen months old

…and the kids love this room too. Mainly because it means food. All the time.

Ode to Our Dreamy Bungalow {The Living Room}

I think Im going to take this showcase room by room. Who knows, maybe I'll decide to combo up some rooms together along the way. You'll just have to wait and see. I know you are in total suspense.

As a reminder, I once posted these floor plans…which I think will probably be quite useful for reference.

They are, of course, not to scale, and some of the rooms have changes since I made them…for example, "Ashley's room" became our room, etc. But anyways. I had them, so here they are.

As you can see, our Living Room spans the whole width of our house. It is a gloriously large room and the very first thing that struck me when I walked into the house.

History lesson time! It turns out that there used to be a 5th bedroom in our house. Seeing as it was built in 1927, this makes sense, but I am super glad that along the way someone decided to bust out a wall and make a bigger living room.

You can see where the wall originally was here, and the entrance was the door that is now a closet in our hallway (the arrow). Fun! History lesson complete.

In any case, once upon a time our Living Room looked like this.

To the left

To the right

It was set up sort of awkwardly with lots of seating space, but not much definition. I had grand ideas of what I wanted to do, but had to wait a while for them to come to fruition. The Joes (we bought the house from two such friendly and welcoming men named Joe and Joe) didn't have any children, so they used the back bedroom as a TV den of sorts, so this room really just was for sitting. We, on the other hand, needed a functional layout for a television and living space.

First, we painted it green (the same color as the dining room). I striped down the dinky little mantle, stained it to match the rest of the woodwork (it was painted tan before) and painted the brick white. I actually hate the idea of painting brick unnecessarily, but this was ugly flat, red brick. Painting was necessary. Then - we bought a green couch, so decided to paint the room blue. This blue was entirely too blue.

But…

Then we found the perfect blue, painted the brick gray and built out a mantle for better proportions.

On the other side of the room, we repainted the bookshelves, installed new hardware on the cabinet doors, built in shelves underneath the window/TV area, and I sewed a little valance for that window. 

As far as the layout is concerned, we split the room using a sectional sofa, so that we have two defined seating spaces, and a nice little entry area between my new little nook next to the door and the console table behind the sofa.

Funny story. Right when you walk inside the door we have a double light switch. The first switch is for the porch light. And the second…

…well the second we could never figure out. When they knocked down the wall for the bedroom, they also dropped the ceiling to hide the support beams. So, we always sort of figured that there had been some sort of overhead lighting that the switch belonged to hidden somewhere up in there. 

…but then. Legitimately like a month ago. I was sitting on the floor with the kids in front of the fireplace. And a ball rolled underneath the bookcase to the left of the fireplace. Lo and behold - there, tucked all the way in the back, was an electrical socket that we never knew existed. The socket and plate were the EXACT same color as the wall and it is super dark under there! 

Guess what it was connected to? Yup. That's right. The second switch.

To which this lamp is now connected.

So, let's review. 

Theirs:

Ours:

 Theirs:

Ours:

Theirs:

Ours:

True to its name, this room has been used for living. Both of our  kiddos have taken their very first steps in here. We've watched more movies than I could count. Almost every single one of my bump series photos for both kids was taken in front of that fireplace. It has been decorated for every holiday. Snuggles, races, naps, late night nursing sessions, late night drinking sessions, birthday parties and plenty of messes.

It is a room made for living, and we have done just that, here, in our Living Room.


Evelyn Rae is two and a half, Liam is fourteen months old (for one more day)

…and considering how much I disliked that fireplace originally, I sure am going to miss it now.

Our Dreamy Bungalow: An Ode

Well. It's official. Our dreamy little (not so little if you are looking to buy - wink wink, nudge nudge) bungalow is officially on the market.

I am filled to the brim with mixed emotions. I am also in a sort of detached and absolute denial that the time will come when this house, our home, will no longer be ours.

We put our offer in on this house less than two weeks after our wedding in 2009. Between June 12 and July 1, we got married, drove from Wisconsin to Georgia, packed up what remained in our apartment there, picked up our other car, drove to Virginia, started looking at houses to buy, looked at approximately 20, put an offer in on this house, had it accepted, did the inspection and on July 1, A boarded a plane to meet his new ship on deployment.

But, I felt completely confident in our decision regarding this house. You see, our house was actually the very first one that I ever pulled up on the internet back when I was still in grad school and we thought, maybe we could go back to Norfolk, and maybe we could buy a house instead of renting. And  I fell so hard for it. So, so hard. I never in a million years dreamed that it would still be on the market when we started looking. But, there it was!

And then it became ours.

Meant to be.

This is the home that housed our first homecoming, the only place we have ever lived as a married couple, the home that we have brought two babies home to, and learned every DIY thing that we know about DIYing.

(Admittedly, still not experts, but still.)

It has been nothing but the best home for us, in the quaintest little neighborhood and holds millions of memories. It will always hold such a special place on our hearts.

And so, in that spirit, my next couple of posts are going to showcase our bungalow of dreams, and just how far we have come. An ode, if you will.

Let's start with the front of the house.

This was the house when we bought it.

Admittedly, adorable.

This front porch absolutely sold us on this house before we even saw the inside.

Oh, hello adorable front porch swing.

My husband loves to tell people that a front porch is important to us, essential really, because that is where our relationship really developed. Sitting at night on the front steps of my house in high school. He would get me home by curfew and then we would hang out on the porch steps until my dad flickered the light that it was time to come on inside. Young love.

Well, we have put our own spin on the front of this house.

We have:

• Painted the front door red
• Installed a new porch light
• Painted the porch ceiling light blue
• Changed the location of and style of the address numbers
• Added the flag
• Leveled the grade of the front yard
• Tried to grow grass approximately 12,000 times (see: failed projects)
• Added black shutters
• Installed a new storm door (that I don't hate with the fire of a thousand suns)
• Put new hardware on the existing door/new door bell
• Installed the planter beds out front
• Planted the tea olives and geraniums
• Planted the crepe myrtles out front
• Spent countless nights front porch sittin'

Theirs:

Ours:

Evelyn Rae is two and a half, Liam is one

…and this is another favorite photo from the front porch.

Just a one day old Evelyn Rae. 

Don't mind me... I'll just be over here getting all misty.

The Big Bunny Trip

After last year's big Bunny visit…

{which is still one of my all time favorite photos ever in existence}

…I didn't have much hope for this year's visit to see the fluffy guy.

But, we loaded up anyways.

We got to the place, were first (the only people) in line, (the bunny wasn't even there yet - we were ten minutes early - who the heck am I?) and my girl was so excited!

So excited she decided to practice some twirling.

…and then she saw him!

The Easter Bunny!

She started waving and jumping.

I started getting a GREAT feeling!

…that lasted about a half a second.

Because then, tears. Both kids. Refusal to go near Mr. Cottontail.

Eventually they calmed down and consented to be put in the chair, but Evelyn was not the only kid side eyeing the giant rabbit this year.

"Umm, Mom's not just gonna leave us here, right sis?" 

"I dunno. She seemed pretty content to just keel over from laughter last year..."

"In these situations, I generally like to throw as much shade as possible so she knows this is absolutely NOT COOL with me." 

"Oh, that's a good one. I've developed this duck face thing."

"Whaddya want from us, here Mom? What's the end goal?

"A smile? Sitting next to this creepy large stuffed animal thing that can't even be bothered to look straight ahead and pretend to be happy with literally the first customers of his shift?!"

"Hmm. Maybe we can pull something off that isn't entirely awful."

"This is the best you are getting, Ma. 

Now - where are those cookies you keep promising?"

Evelyn Rae is 2.5, Liam is 14 months old

…and…SIGH. Just, SIGH.