The Parts of My House That I Do Not Like

OK. So that title does sound a bit negative, but I promise this post has a positive spin! 

I'm here to let you in on the parts of my house that I just do. not. like. I'll venture to say that nobody is completely happy with their home. You may have inherited a college house with college furniture (there is literally a Led Zeppelin bar stool in our kitchen- can I just please GET IT TOGETHER and cover that thing?) or the couch you are sitting on is 30 years old and smells of your great aunt Helen or you're living in what feels like the most #basic apartment ever... For most people there are parts of your home that just make you want to curl up in a ball and cry. And while there are many spaces in my house I do LOVE-  below are some of the parts in my home that I would like to chuck to the curb and start completely over.  

+ The Astroturf front porch. Yes, I said Astroturf. My 85 year old neighbor has it as well and while we both agree it's comfortable on the feet, I could personally do without. However, the stuff is GLUED down and I don't think it's coming up in the next 20 years. We're just living with it and trying to find anything that complements what I would best describe as a "neon grass green with touches of a Hi-Glo tint".

 

 
+ My big bulky beige monster of a couch. Nathan bought this at the beginning of the house renovation because he needed a couch. It was probably a bad sign when the furniture salesman referred to the giant thing as a "Video Gamer Couch". That's all that needed to be said for Nathan and it was out the door with a "SOLD" tag. I don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon. I'm not going to lie... it IS the most comfortable couch in the world, but it's really hard to work with design wise. Exhibit A below.

 

 

 
+ Our guest room. Remember when we painted our guest room navy? (which I do still like) and then I painted the desk coral? Well that coral desk actually smells and is STILL tacky. I don't know if it was a bad batch of paint or we did something wrong. But I'm over the desk and over the trendy color scheme. At this point, I'm just holding out until it becomes Max's big boy room and I'm storing a bunch of junk in there in the meantime. 

+ My dining room chairs. OK this one started out as a big dislike, but they have actually grown on me and I intend to keep them a little longer... maybe eventually have them recovered? These chairs are AT LEAST 25 years old (from my aunt and uncle). I sat on them when I was like 4 and I still sit on them and I am 29. #Math

+ My kitchen floor. While it's a perfectly good kitchen floor, I wish I would have put more thought into this one. This was one of the FIRST decisions we made and we literally just bought the cheapest tile at Lowes. We didn't have the money for an entire first floor of hardwood  (and we didn't know what kind of hardwood we wanted) so we decided to go with tile for the kitchen. There are no plans to do anything with this floor, but sometimes I wish we would have done something different.

+ My entire unfinished basement/laundry room/prison toilet situation. Enough said.

Yeah there isn't going to be a picture of this one.  

I'm sure I could come up with more, but those are the main ones that basically make me want to pull my hair out. But here's the positive spin...  not only have these things made me realize what I want to avoid in a future home, but it's causing me to work with what I have. Hopefully this encourages you to do the same and to not be so discouraged with your own home.  Maybe I'll  come back with some posts about how to  work with these so called problem areas. #RealLifeHouseProbs

This post is not intended to come off ungrateful. I am blessed to call this my home and to have a roof over my head, but it's here to remind myself that there will always be aspects of my home that aren't all that great- but you just have to embrace them anyway and make the best of things... yes even Astroturf. 

Did someone say free Putt-Putt?

-Tricia 

Den Progress: Paint, Carpet, and a Steal of a Couch

Stopping in with a little update on our addition. I'm impressed with myself- 2 posts in a week with another planned for Friday. Pick your jaw up off the floor.

If you want to get up to speed, you can see our fabulous Before pictures of our addition here.
 

Where were we? One of the first items of business for this room was painting those really awful brown walls. It was a very bad color that we inherited and it needed to go. We decided to go with a greige from Sherwin Williams (I forgot the name but it did have "Greige" in it so hope that helps…). The color definitely comes off more gray in the room. I think the "greige" tones prevent it from leaning more cool. I think I like it, but my final opinion will come when I get the rest of the room in order.

I'm not going to pretend this room isn't already full of toys- so I saved myself the time of removing them and "neatly piled" them for your viewing pleasure....

 

 

Here's a few Before and Afters...

Please note the Afters are Unedited. I currently don't have time to edit "progress" pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next step was replacing the badly stained carpet.  We went to Home Depot searching for a remnant (we had luck doing that for our guest room), but came up with nothing. So that meant we needed to order. Honestly- I just wanted something durable, light, and neutral- so after hours of comparing samples we went with the more affordable in-stock Home Depot line. Wouldn't you know it- after hours of deciphering we got home and realized it was the SAME EXACT carpet that we put in our guest room. I guess that means that I like it? We'll go with that.  

 

 

 

I like carpet- I do. When most of your first floor is either hard wood or tile- I think it's nice to have somewhere soft to sprawl out on. Picture me sprawling.

 

And the latest update that I'm really excited about is our new couch. We bought it secondhand- but you wouldn't know it. It was hardly sat upon due to it being used for staging purposes in a home. I knew we couldn't splurge on an expensive couch, so when I saw this posted on Facebook I jumped! I also like the color- its light and neutral and warm. As for the comfy factor- husband has approved it. It's not as comfy as our giant monstrosity in our living room, but it's working. Having somewhere to sit already makes a world of difference in the room.

 

I threw some throw pillows and fabric on it to get an idea of the look- but I'm actually leaning in a different direction in my 'scheme'...

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

This corner seems promising to me...

 

 

 

 

Now you may be like- wow you have a single couch floating in the room- that's great but what else? Well, our plan is to get 2 chairs to go opposite the couch and also add an ottoman/coffee table situation in the center. I want this room to be uber Baby proof- no sharp corners- so soft furntiure for everyone!

 

 

 

Once I get the basics, I'll be focusing on adding some color and pattern. I think my biggest challenge will be finding a perfect yet affordable rug (The current was just thrown in there to prevent baby crumbs and spills). I have found tons of rugs that I love, but they are all SO expensive. It's hard to justify an expensive rug purchase, but they can really make the room- especially our currently VERY neutral- but much improved already den.

 

 

I'll be back with some follow up posts about plans for our fireplace, lighting, those beams, and where I'm leading as far as colors/textures for the room!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Tricia