The Reading Room - Mini-Makeover and Plans

When you walk into our front door, the first room you see, besides the entry you'd be standing in, is the formal living room.

Or at least, that's what we think it was intended for and probably was right after the house was built.  For us though, it was a space we didn't really know what to do with.  We were looking for houses in the 2000 square foot range when we were hunting and well, this one rang in at 2400 and a big chunk of that extra 400 square feet is this room.  So, extra space?  Great!  Except, what do we do with it??

A Kitchen Progression

A few people have either come up to me in person or messaged me in the past few weeks and asked me if I'm still blogging and I have no clue why!!!  HA!

Yes, folks.  Not only have you few made me feel like a million bucks with your gracious cares but also, don't worry.  Typing just isn't a priority at the moment so I might take a few weeks off here and there (particularly around this wonderful Christmas season), but this blog will never die.  It is my virtual home away from home and you can always expect at least one post a year.  ;)  While we're on the subject, let's just squeeze one right in before the year ends...

The kitchen!

Those two words have so much of a punch behind them.  A punch of excitement for how far our kitchen has come plus that glorious vision of where it's going (see the original plan here) and a whole 'nother punch for how slowwwwwwly it's going.  And I know that kitchen remodels aren't typically the hare in the race but I guess I have high (now squandered) expectations after the quick,  jaw-dropping makeover in our last house and after watching a couple of awesome bloggers makeover their kitchen in two weeks...I won't name any names.  #coughcljcough  So, needless to say, there have been a lot of good opportunities for patience and prudence heaped on top of perseverance and persistence over here.

But this, this post will make me feel good about where we are right now, I just know it.  It's easy to feel like you're semi-stalled with halfway mudded ceiling joints and a plywood counter top but when you bring it all the way back to the start... 

darn, we've made some good progress.

Let's see it.

Breakfast Nook "Reveal"

Or really "Breakfast Nook So Far" because, as you'll see, we're not done in here.  There's still painting (doors and ceiling) to be done, furniture to find, and decorating to do but HEY, we have come a looong way from here:

And here:

'Hidden' Paperwork Organization Station

I have been on an organizing kick.  I think it's just being in the guest room/office purging and organizing this past week that's lit a fire under my bum to organize allthethings.  (If you've been watching via Instagram, that room really, really has needed a good pare down.)  And really, while myself and my house can get quite unorganized at times (#blamethekids), I'm overall a pretty organized person...or at least, I try to be.  I function 1000 times better when things are where they should be and there's nary a junk drawer in sight (or not in sight for that matter).  If I'm high-maintenance at all, there's where the bulleye is.  When there's material chaos around me, there's generally a lack of productivity.  I admire those of you who, when surrounded by life's chaos, can still function at a high level and keep your cool.  Truly.  There's a freedom in that that I certainly don't ever achieve.

Anywho, like I said, I've been scooting along in the guest room.  Some things, specifically my organization station at the side of my desk in our rental, got moved into this guest room without a rhyme or reason and I needed to make that right to feel organized again.  One of those things was getting those clear plastic folders* functioning again.  There wasn't a place in the current guest room/office that I could think to put them (there's no desk for them to hang them near) so they just got tossed into one of the wardrobes and all of the paperwork they used to hold got moved elsewhere for the time being...which really wasn't working at all.

But then I had a light bulb moment last week while I was pulling some brown sugar out of our newly made-over pantry.  I COULD HANG THEM ON THE INSIDE OF THE PANTRY DOOR!

Our Fresh Pantry Makeover

You know, I have blog dreams of posting on the every-other-daily - giving the internet a new DIY project often to quell the monotony that daily life (especially that of stay-at-home moms...am I right?) can bring.  BUT, being one of those monotony-living moms means there isn't much room for projects AND blogging everyday.  So, in saying that, I just want to apologize for being absent here for almost THREE WEEKS!  It's not because I don't care but mostly because I've been painting, and painting, and painting some mo...and mostly keeping us all alive and thriving of course.  ;)

But, finally, I have something to show for all the painting.  Huzzah!

Our new and improved pantry:

I don't know that I ever shared what it looked like before but I definitely took a quick pic before I started and...

Breakfast Nook Update

It's pretty boring at this point still but I thought that, since I don't have any fun tutorials to share (yet!), maybe you'd settle for an update on breakfast nook progress.

Like I said though, it's pretty boring.

The walls are almost ready for paint - Anthony has been filling and sanding for the past several days (there were a few spots of troubled drywall thanks to vinyl wallpaper removal) - BUT, the window trim is all painted and you can sort of get a (very small) glimpse of the direction this room is going...the light at the end of the design tunnel.  Light and airy.  It's amazing what paint can do...have I ever mentioned that?  ;)  It take a good stretch of the imagination to envision what a room will look like when it's down to bare drywall but once paint starts going up, things get easier to picture.  It also gets way more exciting!  :D

Our Breakfast Nook - Current Project

October's room of the month is the breakfast nook (or any place you eat if you don't have a breakfast nook).  We should be getting that beam in the kitchen ceiling in the next month or so and then we'll get down with that kitchen makeover but since this room is right next to that, we'll start here and just flow over into the kitchen.

I for one, can't wait for that.  I feel like the kitchen with it's studded wall is the project that's been hanging over our heads in a dark cloud.  I don't mind unfinished things but when a room is unfinished and ready to be finished but has to wait on, in this case, cooler weather, patience is a daily struggle.

But, we'll focus that will to finish on the breakfast nook and maybe we'll forget about the studs...

Here's what our nook looked like right after we moved in:

And this is what it looks like today (behind the aging lens of an old iPhone):