Random Thoughts...

Preface: So I am currently sitting at conferences... For all you out there that are not teachers, this is most dreaded night of the year. Not because I have to talk to parents ~ I love talking to parents ~ I dread it because I teach high school, where conferences are no longer a requirement. This means I sit for four hours in my room, and (fingers-crossed) four people stop in. Mostly to chat about nothing in particular. I may not even have their child in class. Or occasionally a student comes by to say hi and shows me pictures of their cat. (For some reason they all think I am a cat lady or something...) This is the second night of conferences so I finished all my grading/planning organizing/cleaning on night one, leaving lots of internet time for tonight. Hence this random post! As I have been perusing Pinterest I find myself focusing on the Home Decor category and have came to some conclusions....


I love my house. It is new and beautiful, and perfect for my family. I have a great kitchen with granite counters, stainless steel appliances, hardwood floors, a master bedroom with an amazing walk-in closet and bath. Everything I wanted! But it's not exactly the house I pictured myself living in. "What?!? Are you crazy?!?" Maybe.

I honestly pictured myself in a fixer-upper. An older home, with character just waiting to be unearthed! A place I could do all kinds of projects! 

Well in the realities of house hunting I discovered that is NOT at all what I actually want. That would require lots of time and $$$. I just want the character part :) And now I am looking for ways to add that into my new and beautiful home. 

We recently (last weekend) replaced our Craigslist couch and loveseat with a new sectional in our living room, which has brought to my attention the NEED FOR CHANGE! My decorating itch is at full strength right now, so I have created a list of "improvements" that I think would really make my house the home of my dreams! 

1. Paint! I really want to get the main living space painted, along with the bathrooms. I am thinking a greyish for the living room. Then some new pillowcases to add a pop of color. I really love this chevron case made by sillycyclone :) I also am thinking to repaint my thrift store coffee tables...maybe gold? 

2. Basement door. I just want to get it out of the way :) This door happens to be in the same spot as our door to the garage and the door to our downstairs bath. Needless to say, thats a lot of doors. My solution: Change this to be a barn style door that will slide behind our current "crap collector". I also want to paint a portion of it in chalkboard paint - or have a chalkboard attached somehow. It would be sooooo functional - plus it would be purdy! 

3. Kitchen backsplash. It seems like too much work and too much money to actually install a tile backsplash so I have came up with a few options - stencil a pattern like tile on that portion of the wall, or use paintable wallpaper in a beadboard style. or just real beadboard, but that seems very permanent. I have to investigate these further. I never said my improvements were well thought out...

4. On that note, I would also like to add beadboard in each of my bathrooms. Maybe the wallpaper would work? 

5. Photo collection. Time to redo the photos. When we moved in I did a simular grouping of photos as I had done in the other places we lived. I am now so over that! I want to make some large photos out of engineering prints for the living room. Maybe some subway type art? Change is in the air! 

6. Basement. This is probably wishful thinking, but I really would like to get our basement finished sooner than later. There is a lot we could do with the extra space, and it would be great to have it done a) so Gabe can play down there, and b) before we get too much crap down there. I'm thinking one big space, and then section off by the water heater and furnace using shelves with a neat back...like pegboard as a wall!

7. Trees. More specifically the Money Tree needed to pay for #6. Ha!

8. Clothesline. I would like to put up a more substantial clothesline somewhere. My drying rack is nice, but I need bigger space to hang dry items. Maybe it would work in the laundry room, or above Gabe's tub. I think they make retractable ones? Again, not well thought out...

9. Nook - Desk and storage. We still need to come up with a solution for this space. But I'm glad we have lived with it for a while to see what we actually would like there. I initially did not think a desk would be necessary, but am feeling like it actually would best meet our needs. Apparently ( I don't want to believe it) Gabe is going to continue to grow, so a place to sit and let him "work" would be good to have.

10. Bedroom. I guess eventually we should unpack that last box that is currently sitting in our bedroom. The one with pillows and blankets stacked on top of it to prevent Bella from scratching at in in the middle of the night. I need a bookcase or some sort of storage solution for this. Time to spend more time checking out the Thrift stores. But this is #10 so we'll see if we get that far.