Nesting

Over the past five weeks, instead of updating this blog, Trevor and I have been nesting. Like, ne-heh-hesting. Nesting the hell out of new our house, in fact.

The first steps in our nesting process were some of the "big" projects. The house is in good shape, but the previous owner (an unmarried middle aged contractor) was a hunter and fisher, and he let his hobbies direct his design aesthetic. This is what the house looked like before we moved in:

The living room...

...which is full of both furniture and full of stuff--so much stuff

The upstairs bedroom...

...also full of stuff, and a fishing-themed wallpaper border, and, just out of the frame, a rifle (not a show piece, but his actual hunting rifle that was just propped up in the corner of his bedroom)

Once we moved in and most of his stuff was out out the house (notice that I didn't say "all" since he left us treasures--bags of old clothes, kids' toys, twenty-year-old computers, holiday decorations--throughout the house [in the sheds, the basement, and the attic crawlspace]), we started to erase the rustic...let's say "charm," and make it more us.

With the help of Fran and John Power, who lived with us for a couple of months this summer while their new house was being built, we got the wallpaper borders scraped and the walls painted. Trevor and his dad laid a new upstairs bedroom floor, and T. and I were finally able to move our stuff up and out of our makeshift bedroom downstairs.

Here's our new room:

New floors, courtesy of John and Trevor Power, handymen extraordinaire

Roo loved getting upstairs after having been denied access for three months.

So with that big project out of the way, we were able to start getting some new stuff and moving some things around. We put our old couch and ottoman, along with our old t.v., in the bedroom:

The new set-up is perfect for reading in the afternoon, the sun shining through the skylight.

And we got a new couch for the living room:

The delivery guys arrive...

...get ready...

...and get it in the house in a matter of minutes!

It's very square.

Roo had to check it out.

We want to get a few more chairs, and maybe a stool for the kitchen bar, and we absolutely positively need bookshelves. We've got our big pine shelf (custom made by one Mr. John Power) from the loft, but that only holds about six boxes of books (art, mass market paperbacks, and graphic novels/comics). There are another twenty boxes in the front room that are all cooped up and need a permanent home. This makes me sad.

But, what makes me happy is this rug:

Helloooo! I'm the cutest rug in the world!

And this rose bush in the backyard also makes me very happy:

Hi! We're super pretty!

To continue our nesting, I got these mums (which I think are required for all Crystal Lake residents to invest in--like, you're un-American if you don't have some mums)...

 

...and we have put exactly two pieces of art on the walls. Correction: on one wall. 

A Mexican ceremonial mask similar to the ones we saw while vacationing in Austin, and a childhood portrait of T.'s mom, Maureen, painted by T.'s great-grandfather

Hanging more art is something that will come very slowly and probably not for a long time, but it's so nice to have at least a little something up.

Our other nesting activities include crafting (I've befriended some gals from our block, and they're super crafty [like, put my sad scarves to shame, crafty], and they've inspired me to up my crafting game), 

A wreath I'm working on (it'll be argyle-ish)

and using our mantle to display some important doo-dads, including one little wooden fellow that T. got for me to satisfy my desire to decorate our entire house with amazing whales.

The body tilts up so you can keep a secret treat inside. Like a tiny Pinocchio.

Why do I want to decorate our house with whales? (well, why not? okay?) Because the previous owner had this piece of art hung up in the living room:

Harlooooooooooooooooooo. Smiling whale.

I wanted to write it into the contract when we bought the house, but Trevor would not let me. Rude. But we do still have this weather vane on the top of the garage:

Yes, that's a whale

And Caren got us these terrific tea towels for the kitchen:

So I guess that'll satisfy my whale wants for a while. Until, at least, I can talk Trevor into letting me get this,

and this,

and this,

Are you kidding me with how cute this is?

Today I'm switching my style brainstorming from whales to Halloween, though, so stay tuned for a post about how I plan to make our home a house of terror for the neighborhood children. Yahoo!