Our Nest

Welcome to our home! I love this sign, it's from Lilian Vernon.  The plaque

hanging off the bottom is interchangeable, there are 10 of them which include a

plaque for every season.  This is Fall.

 

 

Our front yard in bloom.  That's honeysuckle on the metal spires,
sage up front, and aster in the back.

 

 

Please enjoy this "tour" of our home. The front door from inside the house. 

All paint colors in the house are Valspar from Lowe's, which is a great brand. 

The whole first floor is "Willow Wind Green."

 

 Close-up of the mirror and decorations by the front door.  Mirror is from Target.  The vase is from a set, the other 5 vases are above the kitchen cabinets (scroll down to see). 
I change out the flowers seasonally, this is Fall.

 

 

This is the powder room, AKA the "red room." I let DH pick the color for this room. 
It was a nice, wine red on the paint chip.  And blood red on the wall. 
DH really likes it, so it will stay the way it is. I just don't use this room. 
Artwork on the wall is by my younger sister.

 

 

 

The first floor of the house.  The dining room table is several years old from Ikea, I hope to replace it soon, but that seems unlikely. These are the Fall decorations.

 

 

This is Fred.   He is handmade out of a rock and copper wire by a local artist on Ocracoke Island, NC, where we went for vacation in June of '08.  He watches over the new kitchen from his perch on the wall next to the stairs.  Fred is one of my favorite things in the house.

 

 

Baker's rack on the other side of the kitchen from Room Store. 
The blue bowl was handmade by DH's mother.  I love my fall scarecrows and pumpkins.

 

 

Kitchen Rennovation July 2008

Man this was a tough job! The builders of our TH cut corners absolutely everywhere they could, which makes it difficult to change anything.  A recurring problem in our house.

DH's father came down from upstate NY to instruct and help us with this, he has already rennovated 2 kitchens of his own in this way.  He was here for 4 days.  Start to finish, the entire project took 8 days, working late into the night each day. Lighting is from Lowe's.  We got a new dishwasher and flat-top stove from  Home Depot in March 2008. 

Kitchen curtains are from Bed Bath and Beyond. 

 

Our kichen before:

 

 

 

And After. We installed/added:

• Built an 8-inch lip off the back of the island.  We pulled stools up to it, see pic below.
• Tiled the existing laminate countertops.
• Hand-stained wood trim on the countertops.
• Tore out the ~ 4 inch "splashguard" that went from the countertops up the wall.
• Added a beadboard backsplash.
• New sink.
• New garbage disposal.

 

Better shot of the beadboard backsplash

 

The other side of the kitchen.  The door in this picture is the pantry.

 

It's very hard to take a picture of the pantry because it's a small triangle-shaped room.

 

Close-up of the desk that's part of the kitchen.  Tiling this was PITA!  Eventually I'm going to cover the cubby where the recycling bin is below with the same curtains that are on the

kitchen window.

 

New sink.  It's much better quality and 2 inches deeper than the one we had before, which necessitated buying a new garbage disposal that would fit underneath it.

 

 Here's the new stools pulled up to the island, I love them! They're from Linens and Things.  The beautiful roses are from DH, isn't he sweet :-)  Eventually we're going to replace all the outlet and switch plates in the house with oil rubbed bronze ones.

 

 

 

Left to do in the kitchen:

• Replace upper cabinet doors with new doors with glass fronts.  See inspiration picture at bottom of bio.

 

Close-up of my above-the-cabinet decor, since lots of Nesties seem to want ideas for this. 
The vases are a set of 6 miniature ceramic jars from Signals.  The 6th jar is on the mirror ledge
by the front door (see 4th pic of bio).  The flowers are faux from Michael's, I change them
every season.  They are currently Fall.

      

 

 

        

Close-up of the sliding glass door that leads to the backyard, with Raymond (cat) and Brodie (dog), who are asking, "Why are you taking a picture of us instead of letting us outside?"  I hope to replace the sliding door with french doors at some point.

 

 

Our slightly-larger-than-a-postage-stamp backyard.  We have one of the biggest backyards of any TH in our neighborhood, which is one of the reasons we choose this house.  In the back left corner, the doghouse-shaped structure is our compost bin.  You can't really see it in this pic, but behind it is the tub where we keep all the gardening supplies.

 

 

This is DH's gym. It's a bit messy.

 

 

Here's the family room.  We moved this room around in December '08
when we mounted the TV (see next pic)

 

 

Mounted TV! Whoo-hoo! It wouldn't work about the fireplace for a myriad of reasons. 
We still need cable covers. 

 
Fireplace mantle with the new painting my parents got me for Christmas. 
It's a watercolor of Silver Lake, Ocracoke (Outer Banks of NC). 
My family and DH and I have vacationed there many times.

 

 

 Close-up shot of my decor on top of the DVD tower with Fall flowers.

 

 

Turn right and head up the stairs to the third floor. 
More artwork on the wall from my younger sister.

 

 

Here is DH's office.  He installed the shelves himself, we need a third row between the desk

and the current bottom row.  DH has been learning to play the harmonica for several

months now, and the amp was a Christmas present.

 

 

The master bath.  This will eventually be decorated in a carribean theme after our honeymoon in St. Lucia.
       

 

The start of our carribean theme, a batik painting that DH bought for me while we were on our honeymoon in St. Lucia.  This artwork is a close tie with Fred for my favorite things in the house.

 

 

The master bedroom.  This room still needs to be painted.  Bedroom set is from Room Store.

 

 Our Furbabies

This is our Shetland Sheepdog Brodie. We get his hair cut short every few months,
check it out in the next pic!

 

 

Here's Brodie all trimmed down!

 

 

Our cat, Raymond.  He's a big loveball.

 

Seasonal Decor 

Spring

 

 

 

Summer

 

 Fall and Halloween

 

Inspiration Pictures

Like most knotties/nesties, I didn't think to save the name of the nesties who
pictures these are when I started nesting.  If any of these pictures are yours, let me
know so I can give you proper credit!

 

 

I love this rug, it's what I want for our living room. 
I love this nestie's use of color for the throw pillows.

 

 

I love this frameless shower.

 

 

I love this nestie's kitchen.   I also love the doors with the glass in them,

we're going to do that in our kitchen.

 

This is another great example of doors with glass panes.

 

 

This is a great idea for window treatments for a sliding glass door.
I really want to replace the vertical blinds in front of our sliding glass door.

 

 

DH and I want to replace our wood patio with a paver-stone patio, similar to this one.