Looking back at project # 3.

Isaac's old room is now Bella's new room.

So project #3 was finished last summer, but I've been refraining from posting pictures because I wanted to have all the decor installed. As I started looking around for my special ideas and pieces to complement the kid's rooms, I started to get the bug to move. YES.. to move! Poor DH, he has to deal with a crazy woman who thinks she's normal. So last fall he told me, that it made his life much easier when I wasn't constantly jabbering about moving to the beach, or this or that about where we live now.  So I stopped. 

The old office is now Isaac's new room. Note the ugly bookcase.

Between all trips I hadn't planned for the rest of last year and the new start of project #4, I've lost track of the walls of my kid's bedrooms. Now, I'm almost finished with project #4 so I figured I better get on and post some pictures of last year's bedroom remodel.


We have 4 bedrooms in our home. One on the bedrooms you could get into it from the foyer and from the bedroom hallway.There was a huge built-in bookcase in too, so we used it as our office for a long time. We decided to make it into a real bedroom, so we closed the door next to the foyer, leaving it accessible only through the hall. We took down the bookcase too.


2 things I'm obsessed with: Minimalism and the beach. One of my favorite quotes is from Antoine de St. Exupery: "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away" I couldn't agree more. Pairing those two together keeps me sane and you know how that old saying goes; "When mother is happy, everyone is happy." I won't rest until I get my million dollar beach house.


First thing to go was the carpet. I won't go into the details about the alcoholic couple that owned this house with white carpet. We changed the carpet to a brown color, which will probably be outdated in 30 years but for now it looks awesome! Because we're remodeling in steps, it's been harder to  choose a main color for the walls, but I chose a light taupey grey that goes really well with the carpet and won't class the wood floors (the future wood floors that may never happen). The rooms had a dingy lamp and I replaced them with bright lights built into the fans. I love fans, can't live without them.

Our horrible closet doors in every room.

In Isaac's room, we were left with an  indentation on the walls because of the eliminated door and bookcase in Isaac's bedroom. The indentation lent it self to a perfect accent wall which I chose to paint in a deep teal. I love how that turned out. Where the bookcase was, I've a humongous wall map to go there, but I'm waiting for our construction guy Rob to finish our bathroom before bothering him to install it. I am a little worried about the over all feel that will bring to the room though. I'm already feeling like Isaac's sailboat collection is cluttering the room too much. Last year when we were in Brazil I took an awesome shot of Isaac and grandpa on the boat and I've been meaning to turn it into a huge canvas to cover that wall too. I just have too many ideas and I'm not sure which one I'll like best. 

The 2nd door into the room was right where the bookcase now stands.

In Isabella's room, I considered an accent wall too. Since I had such a hard time finding what I wanted for her bedding, I ended up going with a different approach. Her bedding is pretty busy, and so is her headboard. Because of the baseboard heaters and a Feng Shui "no-no", her bed cannot go anywhere but there. So I decided to paint her closet doors as an accent instead. I really liked how her room turned out too, except I wish the grey was a shade darker to make the white pop out more. But I'm not in the mood the paint all those walls again for third time. Long story....

In our bedroom, I painted a light shade of blue and made the accent our kiva fireplace. Kiva fireplaces are very popular in Santa Fe and a lot of people paint them in crazy colors. Because our bed was bought specifically for our house in Saratoga Springs, the leather headboard now looks out of place everywhere else. Luckily the shade of grey I chose for  walls matches the leather headboard OK. So I went a few shades darker to be at about the same value as the headboard. At least the headboard has something that complements it now. Our bedroom is currently serving as a "catch-all" for our bathroom remodel. So no pictures of that for now.


I'm pretty happy with project #3. I wish I had posted these sooner. In probably 2 weeks I'll be posting about project #4 already. Time flies.....

I love even years.

So I have a confession to make. Sometimes the high I seem to ride for most of my life, disappears. Yep, I get down. This week was one of those weeks. I can't even attribute it to PMS because.., well I don't know where I'm at with my cycle. I never do unless I'm trying to get pregnant which I gave up for now. The crazy thing, is the day before I got super depressed I was talking to a friend of mine about that very thing. She and I both are homeschooling mamas and were talking about how all these negative thoughts can enter your head when you're doing really well, and then BAM! All of a sudden you're down.

Thanks to God Almighty for his love and blessings, the longest day of the year so far is over and newer days have come and gone. I'm mostly back to myself. I remembered my friend saying how she needed to wake up and read the scriptures before she did anything else because it's the only way to make it through days like that. I find myself recommitting to that good habit, and following her self-prescription. It's amazing how a perfect and loving Heavenly Father can make little miracles happen in our lives to helps us keep on moving forward. Yesterday as I finished the last chapter of the Book of Mormon, my iPhone went straight to this talk. Take some time to listen.

LDS Women Are Incredible

Need I say more? It's time rev it up, put our shoulders to the wheel and push along. In the words of a dear friend, "Kick it up a notch!"  I'm already 13 days into the NEW year and have nothing to show for it. It's even my favorite type of year, an even numbered year. I'm committing myself to hurt a lot this year. No pain, not gain. No guts, no glory. If you read this, you better get movin' too. May I just remind ourselves of this beautiful saying someone came up with:

Happy New Year to all of us survivors, fighters, warriors, and above all women!