round 3 of first floor renovation planning

Back in June, I wrote this post about how we were in round 2 of the mud room renovation planning. I would now say we are in round 3. Round 2 consisted of getting bids on a major renovation - relocating a bathroom, knocking down walls, a new kitchen, the mud room. The plan was to break the renovation into two phases with the first phase being a new mud room, some spatial reconfiguration of the back hall and mostly aesthetic updates to our living room. We got three separate bids which were on average significantly higher than anticipated. In addition to having sticker shock, we also have started to doubt the idea of doing two significant phases of a first floor renovation - twice the mess, twice the disruption in daily life. And while we plan to be in this house for several years to come, its most likely not our forever home thus the idea of spending a large chunk of our time here in a construction zone just isn't appealing.

So back to the drawing board. For round 3 of planning, I am changing my approach in how I look at the project. In round 1, I was too focused on just the mud room and not thinking about the flow of the rest of the first floor. In round 2, I didn't give enough consideration to what it would be like to live through/pay for such extensive renovations. For round 3, its going to be all about balance. I want a design plan that feels right - flows, is functional and aesthetically pleasing - but that also is realistic for us - affordable and not going to require multiple stages of renovation. I think both round 1 and 2 have been useful stages to move us in the right direction and I do not consider them wrong turns or wastes of time. Rather, I feel like they have been necessary steps to get us to the final design that is right for us. Hey, third time is the charm - right?

Another change in my approach is that I am being more fluid in my design process. I always start with floor plans which hasn't changed but I am now also thinking more about the details that so greatly contribute to the look and feel of a space. I am giving myself the freedom to think about things like color, light and furniture because by this point I have much better grasp on the potentials of the space. So in no particular order and without any real design boards here are a few things that are currently providing me inspiration as I enter in round 3 of our first floor renovation planning. 

Carlisle sectional by Pottery Barn

Jeff and I have always wanted a sectional for our living room.  So with each plan I have drawn one in with varying degrees of success. At certain points in the process, the sectional was overly driving design decisions. But now,  I feel like I am at a good place with it - create a design that will accommodate one but isn't necessarily designed for it. It might not be the perfect furniture selection but I am ok with that. I want our living room to be super cozy and I think for us a sectional is something we really will enjoy. I think thats why I am so drawn to this Pottery Barn sectional - it just looks so comfortable! Its more traditional than I usual go for and I do tend to prefer a L shaped sectional opposed to a chaise sectional but I don't know I just keep coming back to this one. 

Home of Michelle R. Smith via Lonny

via Domino

I really like these two rooms for their eclectic mix. All the different styles of furniture work effortlessly well together and I love how curated but still laid back both rooms feel. These types of rooms can also be budget friendly because not everything needs to be new or perfectly matched. Its about gather things you love over time from all sorts of places. 

Home of Brian McCarthy via House Beautiful

I have had this image saved since basically we bought the house. I love the darker trim especially this steely blue mixed with the chestnut leather and natural woven rug. At this point, I am not sure I would go blue seeing as we painted our den BM's Normandy but I am liking the idea of maybe dark green trim. Maybe something like this wall color.

via REMODELISTA

Finally, I have been gathering lots of images of colonial fireplace walls. I love the texture that the paneling brings and I think it feels right for the age and style of our home. 

source unknown

via Country Living

via House & Home

To check our living room inspiration at our old house see this post or to read more about my thoughts on sectionals click here. 

our jungle

You might have noticed that posts about our garden have been noticeably absent this season. That is because we no longer have a garden or a yard but a jungle. To recap, when we bought the house last August the yard was in really rough shape - junk and trash scattered, invasive bamboo, large wood stumps and rocks - not to mention the weeds. Our first task was just to get the junk cleared out which were able to do right before the leaves started to fall. So many leaves..... We several really large old oak trees that I love but they create a huge amount of work that pretty much took up the majority of our fall yard work. Winter came and went and in the spring, we were able to clear 3 of the 7 major garden beds. I even planted some lettuces and started a black raspberry patch. Then a very rainy May and June hit which washed out my edible garden and created amazing growing conditions for weeds come July. When we returned from Michigan at the end of the month, the weeds had shot up to astounding heights like 9 feet. Throughout August, they just grew and grew. We had one week, that the heat broke and I was able to clear 2 beds but now we are back to intense heat and humidity so they continue to grow... 

I am really quite embarrassed by the state of our yard and I have seriously debated sticking a sign in our front yard that reads "I know it looks so bad but you should see what we started with! And how much work we have on the inside!". With the heat and a super busy month of weddings, it is not looking promising that our yard is going to improve anytime in the near future. So in the meantime, I sit and plan. Plan for October and weekends of hard labor spent outside. Jeff tells me I need to adjust expectations and focus on manageable projects thus I am working on editing down my list.

1. WEEDING - I think we could get 5 out of the 7 garden beds under control. Like I mentioned, 3 of the 5 have already been cleared so the weeds are relatively new growth and shouldn't be too hard to clean up.
2. MULCH - Mulch the beds that we clear. Without mulch, there is no way the weeds won't just spring right back up.
3. BACKYARD - We had lined up guys to excavate out the bamboo (which invades the rear portion of our backyard) but as of late they have been rather MIA...We really are hoping that they will still do the work as we are running out of time to get it done AND then get grass seed or sod down before the winter. 
4. NEW GRASS - Assuming we can get the backyard excavated, we will then seed or sod. We have started looking into the pros and cons of each and will need to do more research and planning before making our decision. 
5. TREE REMOVAL - We have one small dead tree in the front yard which I think Jeff could manage taking down....with some supervision.
6. TRIM BUSHES - We have several large bushes in the front that are in desperate need of a really good haircut.
7. TRANSPLANT - Once the beds are cleared, there are several plants and two hydrangea bushes that I would like to relocate. 
8. LEAVES - They have already started to drop and this year I would like to stay on top of keeping them cleaned up.

What do you think? Sound doable? And yes these are actual images of our backyard....

a brand new site for the place home!

And we are back! Welcome to the whole new THE PLACE HOME! The website now represents THE PLACE HOME in its entirety - the blog, design assistance and home restoration (coming soon). It also features amazing photos of our home taken by the wonderful Emily Suzanne.

The new site has been a long time in the works and getting it built was a little more involved than I had anticipated. But I think all of the effort and time spent has totally been worth it! A special thanks to my sister and Jeff for all their edits, Emily Suzanne for being such a joy to work with and Rachael for her hard work in helping me to get the site to look and function just as I had envisioned it. 

We are still making a few tweaks but I couldn't wait any longer to share! There is a bunch of new content, images and pages to check out but a few highlights include...

1. Our Home: The page devoted to images of our house! 
2. Design Assistance: The page where you can learn more about my approach to design and working together (e-design clients welcome!).
3. Blog Sidebar: Like the original design, here you can easily search content, follow THE PLACE HOME on social media, look at recurring series and check out the catalogues of old posts (THE BEAUTIFUL HOME, THE FUNCTIONAL HOME, THE HOME EXPERIENCED - still working on getting caught up on these). I also will be adding back our newsletter sign up as well as my picks for daily reads so keep an eye out for those.
4. About: A new and improved page about my background and how THE PLACE HOME came to be plus lots of cute pictures of Booker.

I hope everyone likes the changes! Monday, I will be back to my regular blogging schedule. Happy weekend!