My Home Sweet Home

What is your favorite place in your home?  Mine is a toss up between our family room and kitchen!  Perhaps it's because I spend majority of my time in these two rooms.  

I enjoy being in our family room for several reasons.  First off, it is very cozy and comfortable; I enjoy curling up with an over-sized pillow and blanket on rainy days like today!  I can read a book, watch something trashy like The Bachelor, grade papers, or take a power nap. Secondly, it's a place where Nick and I can put our feet up and connect after a long day at work.  Lastly, our family room is the perfect mix of Nick's and my style.  It is cozy, inviting, and warm; yet, it has a contemporary, sleek, no-clutter feel. 

Most of our home furnishing purchases over the past few months have been for our family room.  We bought a sectional couch from Costco (I tutored all last summer and saved every penny so that we could purchase a quality couch without feeling it in our bank accounts!), a large rug, and a coffee table.  The various furniture pieces that we accumulated from the first two years of our marriage are scattered among the house, in an effort to fill in the large, empty rooms!

Here are some pictures of our family room.  Since I the queen of disclaimers, here you go:  

1) The walls are bare!  Don't judge.  I am SLOWLY looking for pieces that I love and can afford. 

2) Yes, those blinds definitely kill me.  Dual pane windows and plantation shutters are in my near future.  Not sure what "near future" means in this case! 

3) My mantel is currently a hodge-podge of items.  I am in the process of framing a large photo from our wedding which will likely find it's home on our mantel.  Until then, it's a fantastic catch-all!

 View of the family room from the kitchen.  I love the open concept feel.  Whether you are in the kitchen or family room, you feel as though you are in the same room.  This is especially nice when I am cooking!

                       The closed door leads you into the indoor laundry room.  

Our new couch is massive!  Nick and I joke that we feel like we are sitting miles away from each other.  I like to claim that cozy corner right in the center of the couch!

Eventually, Nick would like to mount the TV on the wall.  For now, he is enjoying weekends that don't involve too many tools!

                                                                         Cozy!

                                     The view from the family room into the kitchen.  

Thanks for checking out my new favorite space!  Sometimes I look at this house and I have to pinch myself!  It is truly my "home sweet home".

The Great Unveiling

Now that my reports cards for the second trimester are finished... I'm ready to blog again!  Report cards have a way of zapping you and making you want to stay far away from your computer!  Glad I can check that off my list!

I thought I'd share our master bathroom renovation with you today!  We absolutely love our bathroom and often joke that it's our favorite place of the house.  Well, we actually might not be joking.  We love it.  It was by far the biggest project of our entire home renovation.  It took the most time, energy, planning, and money.  It was well worth it though!  Every day I feel like I am showering and getting ready in a hotel bathroom.  What a treat!  

Here is a photo of the bathroom when we purchased the house. Good condition, just dated.  The shower was extremely tiny.  

See this previous post for more pictures of the previous bathroom.

                                                           Here is the new bathroom! 

We opened the bathroom up by removing the wall in between the the vanity and toilet.  

Our new vanity (from Costco.com) helped to modernize the bathroom.  The previous bathroom only had one sink, so we plumbed this bathroom with a second sink so that we each have our own (praise the Lord!)

                            The under-mount sinks make cleaning so much easier!

We purchased Waterford sink hardware.  The sleek, clean look was what attracted us!  

Our mirror is actually a stand up full-length mirror!  We saw the idea of using a stand-up mirror as a bathroom mirror at an open house we went to.  We found our mirror at Ikea for $49.95... what a steal! 

We've already discussed my love for our new toilets... no nooks and crannies! The little white/blue box to the left of the toilet is our control for the warm floors.  Best. Invention. Ever. 

You've already seen the inside of our new showers in previous posts, but I haven't shown you our glass door yet!  We chose a hinge door so that we didn't have to have a bar over the top of the glass.  We also had a treatment called "Diamond Fusion" done.  Diamond Fusion is a wax coat put over the glass that allows water to bead up and not leave water marks. 

Our shower hardware.  We love the Kohler thermostatic gauge.  Our personal water temperatures are preset so all we have to do in the morning is turn the water on.  No messing with the handle to find that perfect temperature.  The little nozzle to the left is the plumbing for our handheld shower wand.  We need a special drill to install it... so for now, it's left undone!

Do you like it?  We feel pretty blessed!  A huge thank you to Paul Akimoff (aka: DAD) for all the painting and spackling and to Greg Gustason for help with plumbing and lighting!  We couldn't have done this bathroom without you two blessing us big time!

We still have little things to do, such as purchasing and installing a toilet paper holder and towel racks! But it doesn't matter... those things will come in good time!  

                                                   Thanks for reading!