House Goals Progress

This post is going to be a bit random, but I wanted to fill you in on some progress we've made on our house goals in the last couple of weeks.  I'm not sure how interior decorating is supposed to work, but I always had a vision, most likely from the countless hours I've spent watching HGTV, that it went room by room, in a very orderly controlled manner.  My mind does not really think that way, it's a bit more scattered, so it makes sense that we haven't progressed that way at all.  Plus, in trying to keep with my goal of choosing intentional items that have meaning and are unique, not things I just pick up at Home Goods because I want to get the room over and done with, I've been taking my time and as me and Shelly see things we like, we order them for this room or that. 

Because of my somewhat scattered way of thinking, Shelly had the idea of just going in phases instead of trying to get everything done at once.  Phase 1 consisted of ordering bar stools, fabric for throw pillows in the family room, lighting for the dining room and pendant lighting for above the bar area.  Phase 2 will consist of ordering a dining room table and an area rug for the family room and dining room. My budget for the area rugs is making it quite interesting to find something we like, but I'll be patient because I know it's out there.

Shelly chose this fabric,it's Hot House Flowers in Spark and Bleecker in Spark, both from Schmacher.  I wasn't in love with the floral at first, but after taking home a huge swatch for a couple of days its boldness started to grow on me and with the contrasting graphic, I figure it would help it not be so "old ladyish".  I now love it and can't wait to make some toss pillows.  I have to admit I felt very fancy when she called and said my fabric was in.  I've never had 'fabric come in'.  "Dahling, you're fabric is in."  I'm such a dork. 

This is the area rug for the living room to help break up all the red tones.  It's got gold and silver leather and suede weaving in and out.  It's amazing.  I've never loved an area rug so much.  Now to just put it in place...

These are the pendant lights she found for above the bar area.  They were a steal, well under $100 each and they are the absolute perfect size for the low ceiling. 

Two will hang here and replace that silly recessed light that rotates and provides minimal lighting. 

The bar stools are on back order and so the kids have been having to eat on the counter.  Really I don't make them eat here, I swear.  But for the last couple of weeks they've been eating here every morning, it's the weirdest thing.  It's like it had never occurred to them that it was a place to eat until they heard us talk about ordering bar stools so they could eat there.  It's quite unsanitary but I do clean it really well after they get down ;)   

The biggest progress has been made in the garage though.  After tearing into the paneling, Art discovered termites, so we had them spray 2 weeks ago.  They suggested we don't drywall for a couple of weeks to let the treatment seep in, so in the mean time Art epoxyd the floors.  This is what they looked like before.

The epoxy process is quite simple.  You first wash down the floors with an acid treatment to get them primed for the epoxy.  Then you just roll the epoxy on with a paint brush and sprinkle on little flecks to give it a more professional, finished look.

Art working hard rolling away

The kids took turns sprinkling

And this is a glimpse of what it looks like when complete.  They're not the greatest pictures so I apologize, but the idea is just to get a more uniform looking floor.

You still see some of the cracks in the concrete, but there's no more stains or blotches showing through like before.  The kit for a double garage is $100 at the Home Depot and it took about 4 hours of prep work and about 3 hours of painting/sprinkling.  We've had friends have this done professionally and it runs about $1000 so we saved ourselves quite a bit of cash by doing it ourselves. 

And so that is where we are at my friends.  This weekend Art will start to hang drywall and I will be a very good supervisor :)

I'm linking up to Jules' William Morris Project because with the little reminder to "have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful", we're on our way to creating a home we both love and find functional.  Thanks Jules, and thanks Mr. Morris :)