Fresh Air.

We went out to Logandale Trails to ride horses and have a campfire with my dad and his buddies. The kids loooooooved it! It was so nice to get out of town and get some fresh air. :)

POH.

We go to the St. George Parade of Homes every year. The kids are so good... they love staying at the hotel and picking "their rooms" in all the houses. Nate and I love to discuss all the houses and go out to eat! :) It's a fun family tradition.

House Tour (Upstairs).

Someone reminded me that I never did a house tour of the upstairs. I know, I know, it's so thrilling. I'm sure you've all been waiting for just such a thing with bated breath. I do happen to know that at least one person is interested, so I got off my behind and took some pictures today (not that I take good pictures, but you get the idea). (If you missed the downstairs tour, click here).

 

Before we moved in, we did a lot of work upstairs. We replaced all the dirty old beige carpet with a basic dark gray carpet. We painted the upstairs the same gray color that we did downstairs. We painted all the ceilings and trim bright white. We left the existing baseboard upstairs just to save a little money. We painted the stair rails white and all the interior doors black. We replaced the window coverings with the same white blinds we did downstairs.

 

It used to look like this before:

(The "before" pictures I took the first time we came to the house with our realtor, which is why they have random furniture and stuff in them.)

 

Now it looks like this: 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually, the bulk of the work we did on the house was done upstairs. When we bought the house, there were two bedrooms, the master bedroom, and a loft upstairs. We wanted the loft to be another bedroom for a total of 3 kids rooms upstairs. (Someday we're planning to have another wee one and we wanted space for everyone and we're just not the type to use a loft).

 

It used to be that when you walked upstairs, you walked right into the loft. So Nate built out the walls to close it off, added electrical, dry-walled, textured, matched the trim, built a closet, built shelves in the closet, put in a smoke detector, blah blah blah... (I pretty much just wrangled kids and fetched things from Lowes while he worked his guts out) and it looks great! We use that bedroom as Stetson's room.  

 

Before:

 

During:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we were making the huge construction mess, I started whining about how the master closet wasn't quite big enough. (No room for my shoes, people!). Nate tried to talk me into putting them in the linen closet that was at the end of the hall, sort of just hanging out by itself. Of course that would bug me to no end because I'm me, so the Super Husband came up with a better plan. We stole the existing closet out of the bedroom that backs up to our closet (the bedroom that will be for hypothetical baby number 3, but for now is empty) and basically walled it over on the spare bedroom side and sledge-hammed it open on the back side and then created a new, walk-in closet for that bedroom using the dumb linen closet in the hall and the empty hall space. (Does that make any sense?)

 

Probably not, but trust me, it was a brilliant plan and I'm constantly amazed at all the stuff my man knows how to do. The upstairs is now a million times better than before, according to us. :) We matched the look of the two doors on that side of the hall with the look of the two doors on the other side of the hall and it looks awesome. We happen to think we're smarter than the architect who designed this place. :) Now, the spare bedroom has a walk-in closet AND my master closet has plenty of room for shoes (and Nate got a whole side to himself that he can't even fill up). :) (If you want a better tour of my closet, click here).

 

This is the hall/linen closet and spare bedroom before:

 

 

 

 

This was during:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This is what it looks like now:

 

 

 

 

The spare room is pretty much just full of stuff I don't know what to do with right now. I've got to either find a place for it or sell it, I've just been too lazy. I've considered turning the spare room into a guest a room or a yoga room or something until it's time to make it a nursery, but I haven't mustered up the energy yet. :) There is something quite luxurious about having unused extra space, though. :)

 

Here's a view of both sides of the stairs now:

 

 

On the other side of the stairs from Stetson's room and the spare room, is Sonnet's room and the kids' bathroom. Sonnet wanted her room pink (it's the same pink I used in my office downstairs. What can I say, we're girlie.) We didn't do any construction to her room, just painted, put up a new light fixture and added some shelving and rods to the closet. (Nate built shelves in all three of the kids' bedroom closets and in the master closet. Go Nate!)

 

This was Sonnet's room before we moved in:

 

 

 

 

This was during:

 

This is now:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids' bathroom is gray. We painted in there and replaced the flooring. It was tile before, but it was beige and several of them were cracked. We put the same gray tile in all the bathrooms and I really like it. We painted the cabinets white and added some handles. It's cute... and it's pretty much always filthy, so I just try to avoid it. :)

 

Before:

 

During:

Now:

 

 

 

 

And last, there's the master bedroom. We painted it blue. Blue is the most calming color for me. :) It took me like 10 samples to find a color I loved, but love it I do. We put up a new light fixture and... that was pretty much it. :) Someday I want a big tufted headboard and a fancy mirrored vanity, but for now, it's a pretty space and I like it. :)

 

Before:

 

 

Now:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our bathroom got the same treatment as the other two bathrooms... tile floors replaced, cabinets painted white, hardware added, etc. I meant to rip out the builder mirror and replace the light fixture when we were in the midst of construction, but that project got forgotten about and I'm not ready to make a huge mess again. :) It's a really big bathroom. In our dreams, we imagine ripping out the tub and building a huge custom shower with three heads and a bench and a steamer. Haha. It's one of our fantasies. But it's way down on the list, I'm afraid. So, use your imagination. :)

 

Nate built me that laundry sorter thing (I'm doing whites right now, that's why there's a basket missing- haha) and the purse tree in the closet and a custom shoe shelf. There was originally a door on the closet, but we took it off. And of course, we incorporated the space from the spare bedroom closet into this closet, which basically made that whole left side way more useable and I'm super happy he was willing to take on the project.

 

The bath before:

 

 

 

The bath now:

 

 

 

 

 

The closet before:

 

 

 

The closet during construction:

 

 

 

 

The closet now: 

And there you have it. That's what the upstairs looks like now. :) If you have any questions on where anything came from or whatever, let me know! Now get out of my bathroom! (Haha, just kidding.) :)