Loving Our Home Today

Maybe it's because I hosted a dinner party last night or it's because there are beautiful flowers on my dining room table perking up the place but I'm just loving the house today. So much so that I didn't leave it at all.

I began the day pulling weeds on the south side of the house. I hope I'm not too late to save the daffodils I believe are growing over there. The weeds were plentiful and the ants, even more so.

Before the end of the day our friend Lee stopped over to bring some fresh picked raspberries off his bush and to plant a sunflower plant for us. I can't wait for it to grow like crazy! The yard has a LONG way to go but I did make a dent in the weeds this week.

Anyway, all this love for our home made me take some more pictures. The only new thing you'll see is the couch below. Scott drove to Zeeland, MI a few weekends ago to pick it up. Zeeland is also the home of the Herman Miller furniture manufacturer. He was stoked.

Our new Eames Sofa Compact for the "family room"(we aren't sure what to call the room):



Backing up a bit to include the table:


A close up of the pattern:


I know the bedroom furniture was in the last post but those weren't such great photos. Not that these are very much better...but maybe a little:

Three of the 4 pieces:

(Still need new bedding. It's on the list.)

A close up of the bottom of the dresser (Soho made by Copeland):


And, finally, the room I was really loving today: The dining room.
The view from the entry way into the living/dining area (with my birthday present globe in the foreground):


And the table with the pretty flowers given to me at the dinner party last night:

(Nothing on the walls yet. We can't decide!)

The light fixture is from the house Scott grew up in. It's one of the only things he's carried around with him everywhere he's gone.

Scott cut a tree down in our front yard. It blocked the coolest part of the house - the garage windows. I agree you can see the coolness factor of our house better without the tree but I haven't come to terms with it being gone yet. It was a pretty little tree. Maybe the next update I'll photograph the outside.

Happy weekend everyone!

Filling up the place

Scott has taken a self-taught class in mid-century modern furniture over the last 3 weeks. While in Chicago for a friend's wedding we hit several re-sale shops. He's also been all over Ebay....to a point where I told him he has to stop. We have regular ol' furniture to get us by in our living room for now. We, however, have not a stitch of furniture in our master bedroom. We also do not have a dining room table. We also have a whole storage unit to clean out. I digress....

The point is - through his ebay shopping excursions we've now acquired the two pieces below. There are two more chairs and a desk (this was actually my request) on the way.

First: A Knoll Bertoia Diamond Chair (covered):

And, our new coffee table is Knoll by Lewis Butler:

Scott says it isn't a "sought after piece" but it's still worth showing!


As for other goings on:
I've unpacked all of our boxes labeled "bathroom" which made room in the little bedroom to bring in some more boxes. I also unearthed some clothing (it felt like I went shopping!). Little by little I'm bringing stuff in from the garage in hopes to make room for the stuff in the storage unit. Not to fear, however. There are also 2 large boxes collecting loads of things we don't need. If it's been boxed up this long....ya know?

And, since the "restore" part of the house is getting closer to complete, I might as well turn this in to a a bit of a "Living on Sunny Ln." blog too. I'm fairly private so their won't be much.....but, I want to keep this space active.

Mostly I've been cooking. Today, I'm drying fruit in the oven:

Weekend agenda:
Buy dining room table
Clean mortar off brick
Entry way marble cleaned (in progress)
Thaw out (thank you higher temps!)
Maybe move some things from storage (please)
Pick paint color for living room (decisions, decisions...)

Kitchen Pendant Light

It's been up for a while but I just realized I had not posted a photo. Isn't she pretty?



Scott found it on ebay, in London. It's a Fog and Morup design (Denmark). It had a black cord on it originally. Ryan swapped it out for the white one you see here. It'll be perfect once our orange back splash is up (we're thinking that will happen when the guest bathroom remodel happens, April-ish).

Please also notice - the trim is painted! YAY!

Coming soon (ie: when the purchases arrive) - photos of the vintage furniture Scott has been addicted to finding. If nothing else, at least it'll help us pick some wall colors!

Kitchen - Before and after

The kitchen is 95% done. Garbage disposal needs power. Trim needs added/repaired. Back splash needs added. Trim and a wall or 2 need paint. And we need to hang the window dressing. We do, however, have dishes in the cabinets, food in the fridge, fire on the cook top and water running from the sink. So, we might as well show you some before and after pics. Everyone's fav!

The day we bought it:


And now:


How far we've come! Since I haven't posted pics of the cook top close up:


First thing I cooked - sauteed spinach in sesame oil.

A quick trip down memory lane of getting to a working kitchen:














What an awesome Christmas present!

The kitchen

A few posts ago I mentioned "design our marmoleum floors". Well, Scott saw some pictures and was inspired. He designed the floor and back splash below. He incorporated it into an Ikea photo that shows our cabinets (the brown cabinets on bottom) but not really our layout. We are considering 1 or 2 of the horizontal cabinets - probably in stainless though. We also decided to go with a re-issue laminate (boomerang, the offwhite version with the light gray booms) counter tops for now. We can add the red quartz counter tops later fairly easily when money isn't as tight.



In other news....we are still in the waiting game. The house in not ours yet. Appraisal still to come. General contractors can be so elusive....
For those who don't know how a 203K loan works - you have to turn in your #'s and they have to cover everything that needs done on the house (even if you're going to do it yourself - you have to show that the contractor is doing it and getting paid...rubish) within the amount of money they are giving you to do it in. They don't want to know that you are going to add some money to the pot in order to only have to do it once instead of spending $800 now to "get it done" and another $2K later to do it right. It's a frustrating process but one that will HAVE to be worth it.

Red counter tops?

We are currently trying to decide on counter top colors. Seems too soon, you say? In order to get the two appraisals (before rehab and post rehab) we have to submit a list of all the work we are doing, including cost of materials and labor. It's extensive. Counter tops vary in pricing based on many things. The picture below is a close approximation of the colors of the cabinets we've picked. The lighting is what it is in the photo, but otherwise, how do you feel about red counter tops?

From Ideas

Stayed tuned for the next installment: Design our marmoleum floors!