coastal dream home {updated}

{updated with more photos!}

Hi there! It's me here. Remember me?? I'm home and on bed rest, much better than being in the hospital, plugging along at almost 33 weeks and feeling pretty good about that! There is one thing I wish I could do, but can't, and that is go through a few of the homes in the Utah Valley Parade of Homes. One in particular caught my eye and I'm so obsessed that I show my husband the pictures over and over. I'm trying to justify a way to walk through just one house, I can walk through my house, why not tour this one, ya know? I go to doctor appointments twice a week right now... if my doc is okay with me walking from the parking lot and through the HUGE hospital and to her office I think it should be okay to walk through a pretty house, right??

This house is the epitome of beach/coastal style and everything that is home perfection. I love that they fused many different styles for an overall eclectic look. I love the fresh color all over. It's light, bright and airy. It's a happy house!

My "someday house" inspiration files just got an overload of ideas!




I am in love with the reclaimed oak flooring throughout the house! They did a different pattern in the piano room, I think it's gorgeous.



and "hello, mudroom!" Someone was really thinking here, brick floors in the mudroom are perfect, and the barn wood on the wall is about the cutest thing ever.

I'm so in love with this orange bicycle picture. Me thinks I need one of these.



I always love a good white kitchen, this one does not disappoint.

The master suite... swoon.

I've been trying to sell Scott on grass cloth wall paper for a while now, I don't know if I'll ever convince him, but I'm more in love with it than ever now! The ceilings are so gorgeous, this room is one of my favorite bedrooms ever.

The kids spaces are so fun and colorful.


And who hasn't dreamed of bathing the babes in a claw foot tub like this one? I want this bathroom! I love the tile work and the colors.

Adorable bunk room.

I think it's about the cutest thing ever! One more thing on my list. :) I've seen a few like this popping up over the last year or so and I think it's brilliant. And adorable.

And as if you needed more, check out the gorgeous work spaces!
The photographer in me loves the vintage camera display, I should probably do more with mine that just let them hang out on the mantel!

I love the office, it's a little bit masculine mixed with just enough feminine.

And of course the lovely laundry room, I love the blue cabinetry!


This home won two awards, best interior design and best master suite. Very well deserved. For Utah, this home is a real departure from the heavy "mountain lodge" style that is so popular around here. I'm so happy to see something like this, and it looks like there are a lot of others out there who agree! Throw out the stucco and dark and heavy stuff and bring in a little of the coast (even if we are in a state of mountains and desert!)

The home is built by Hatfield Homes, interior design is by Lindy Allen of Four Chairs Furniture, and all of the images used are by permission and most are taken by the home owner, Cristi Bastian. It's model #14, and if you love it like I do, you should go vote for it to win the People's Choice award!

When I emailed Lindy for permission to use their photos and share this home, she sent along a coupon for our lucky readers! Most of the furniture, wall paper, rugs, etc that you see came from Four Chairs.

Yay! Thanks, Lindy!

And thank you to Hiya Papaya for use of their gorgeous images of this home. Go on over and check out them out for more photos!

See more pictures and details on Four Chairs Facebook fan page.

Also, the ever wonderful House of Turquoise is featuring this home over the course of several days, go over to see even more house perfection.

So, what's your favorite part? Anyone else out there dying to see this house as much as I am?

pretty things

I'm sitting here going nuts, thinking about my basement being just a hair away from finished and ready to decorate, and the baby's room that I've been so excited to put together (and now I can't do anything but sit here in the hospital and think about it)
Being stuck in the hospital like this feels like prison, but I know we are blessed to have this baby still growing inside of me and I'll do what I've gotta do to get him here safe and healthy.

I had a better-than-expected Mother's Day today. Scott and the boys came and spent most of the day with me in the hospital. The boys made me pretty pictures and cards to hang on my wall. I need to take a picture of them, but they make me happy. Scott wrote me a very sweet letter and brought me nutella and strawberries (one of my favorite indulgences!) and a book I've wanted for a long time now:

href="http://www.thedesignfile.net/.a/6a0112793ddf7b28a40147e316fb60970b-pi">
"No Place Like Home" by Stephen Saint-Onge.

I love the room makeovers he used to do for Better Homes and Gardens. He has done some t.v. shows as well, but I don't watch much t.v. so I didn't really know that. The book has a lot of pictures of great rooms and his advice and thoughts on making a home a comfortable place for your family.

I snuggled up and started reading it tonight after my fellas left.I love his philosophy of surrounding your family with things that inspire you. The only problem is that it gets me so excited to go home and put the basement together that I start to get a little twitchy sitting here!

So rather than think about being twitchy in the hospital, here are some pretty and colorful things that cheer me up right now:

Baby Quilts!


via ETSY quiltrhapsody

If I can't be home putting his room together, at least I can keep dreaming about it. I love that hexagon quilt, so much!



via Etsy romeojulietdesigns

I can picture something like either of these quits in his room (here's that little idea board I made a few months ago)

Hubby votes for the dots, and I love the simplicity of it. I'll probably make my own version of something more that, it's a little more realistic for my skill level, and I think it's adorable! I think I would go insane trying to do something as detailed as the hexagon quilt.

Cheerful red door and living room:

via southern living

I can't get over Chris's toilet paper roll art (Seriously. Toilet paper rolls.) Who thinks of these things? She does!

Go look at the whole process and prepare to be amazed!
(and yes, indeed, we do have the same duvet set!)

And random, but adorable- colorful rainbow cake.

via martha
Do you think one could use natural vegetable dies and get the same effect? I don't know if that much food coloring would be good for the body. :)

a peek at the stairs...

The pictures I posted this morning had some troubles, so here's a second try at the progress on the stairs. It's going to be Gor-geous!

way before:


after the drywall phase- we opened up that closed dark stairway:


current progress:
I mentioned in my post this morning, but to re-cap: the treads will be stained dark, the trim pieces and banister parts are going to be white, along with the column/post thing at the bottom.

I promise some better pictures when it's all said and done and baby and I are home and recovering. Until then, I'm afraid my posts will be sporadic and random... but it's all for a good cause!

basement progress update: post # 954... or something like that

An explanation of sorts: I'm having to press the pause button on my whole life right now. Long story short- On Thursday, April 21, I started going into pre-term labor (my other two were early as well) upon arriving at labor and delivery found that we had a premature rupture of membranes, which means the water had broken and I was slowly leaking fluid. I was only 25 weeks at the time, so it was really scary. They got my contractions stopped, pumped us full of antibiotics and now I'm here on hospital bed rest until my baby boy is born. We are hoping that's not any time too soon. I'm having a hard time being stuck here, unable to care for my kids and my home, but it's important that I give this baby more time to grow so he can be healthy. So here we wait. My hubby is doing an amazing job of holding down the fort, we have lots of help from family, friends, and neighbors and we're going to be okay. I'm married to a most amazing man, who visits me once sometimes twice a day, is working from home and taking care of our kids most of the time, and holding our little family together. We have gained a lot of strength through prayer and appreciate any prayers offered in Baby Noah's behalf. He is strong and so far looking well and healthy.

Meanwhile, on the home front, the work has continued on the stairs. I had actually prepared a blog post that morning I ended up in here, to update the progress and obviously never finished it, so I'll attempt to do what I can from here, with what pictures I have available. Carpet is scheduled for this week and it's making me a little bit crazy that I won't get to see it all until after the baby is born and I get to come home.
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So here is what I intended to post about 10 days ago...




This is what I walked in to find while Scott was getting his tools rounded up last week to go down and work on the built-in shelf in the basement family room. The boys saw him gathering his stuff and quickly ran to get their tools too.

Scott and I were talking before bed the other night about how we've always had some big house project going on since we bought our first house, 9 months after we were married. We wasted no time ripping up the flooring in that house, re-doing bannisters, moldings, doing our first nursery, painting every wall in every room, painting the kitchen cabinets white, getting rid of blue counter tops, putting in a back yard, a garden... the list goes on. Then in our second house, it was our first basement finishing project, and a few upstairs things, but mostly downstairs. We finished that basement a few months before putting the house up for sale and moving on (because we're nuts) and then came this house. Our second basement finish in just over two years. Not to mention the endless projects upstairs, the painting, the bead board, the trims, the kids rooms, the shutters, the door, the yard... You get the idea. Talking about it made us tired to think about it. It might be insane, but we're just happy working on things together. I've said before that we often feel like the Pioneers. Always building, always working, making things work and getting it how we like it, then moving on and starting over. We say it jokingly, because I guess we get some strange fix out of all of it.

The whole point is that for the first time in over 6 years of house tweaking, I think I've finally found the one project that I'm just so tired of that I can hardly stand it... and that is this basement. I'm so tired of it I could seriously cry. We're so close, and have been for like a month now. We've had some crazy delays and it's just the last tiny bit left, but it seems like it's taking forever. Our stair parts where delayed by nearly two weeks because the parade of homes is coming up and the mill that makes the trim parts was really slammed with orders, the wood flooring for the office was on back order and had to come from China, it took forever, little things like that have really made what should be the home stretch feel like a marathon.

Last week we had some good progress, however. The door that goes downstairs got ripped out, and the stair parts came (hallelujah!) and the stair work finally started!

The first thing was the demolition of that door going down to the basement. We're going for "light, bright and open" and that door just doesn't fit the bill. By the time these stairs are finished and spiffied-up it would be a shame to hide them behind that door.
so... down it came! Don't worry, it's going to look great when it's all done, but being in construction mode is always ugly.
The boys sat at the top of the stairway and talked our neighbor-contractor's ear off for most of the afternoon that first day. They asked questions, but mostly told him he was making a big mess and that he was going to be in big trouble for "breaking" the walls and stairs. I heard him tell them "Sometimes you've gotta make a big mess before you can make it look pretty!" Carter didn't buy it, but I like the thinking behind that... pretty much the story of our lives.
They busted out their tool boxes and goggles and went to "work" right along with him. It cracks me up to hear them chattering his ear off.
My little workin' men have been having a ton of fun with all of this.

Here's a little in-progress peek at the built in that Scott's been slaving away over.
I had been picturing these baskets in the bottom, so he put that bottom shelf in first just to accommodate them. I plan on putting extra blankets and pillows in them for comfy movie nights in the family room. There will be two more shelves in the middle, the shelves and sides will be crisp white and I'm thinking about using some of my left over armoire paint for the beadboard back, just to make it pop a little. I can always paint it white later if we don't like it, but I can see it in my head and I think it will be great.

We officially ordered and paid for the carpet last week, it should be in any day. As soon as those stairs and the banisters are in, we're good to go with the carpet. Hopefully we'll wrap this all up in the next few weeks.


UPDATE:

Remember the before:


And here's what has been done while I've been here in the hospital:




Eeek! I'm so excited that it's making me crazy! The treads are gorgeous cherry, they will be stained dark, the trim pieces and banisters will be white. I'm loving it so much! My husband sent a bunch of pictures to my phone and I can't get the rest of them to work with blogger, if I were home it wouldn't be a big deal, but for now this will have to hold everyone over... not that you were all on pins and needles over this like I have been, but ya know.

We're so glad that we had this part hired out, with everything going on, it's so nice to know that work is still being done and that this basement will get done one way or the other. We had planned to do the painting and staining on our own, but decided that under the circumstances it was best to just get it done quickly and get that carpet in, since it's sitting in a warehouse ready to go.

I'll continue to update from here as much as I can, and it's kind of ironic that I'm not going to get to see it in person for a while, but it brings me comfort to have the project winding down. I need to get out of here and set up Baby's room, but it looks like that's not going to happen for a while.

custom slipcover

Remember that great chair that I found last spring? You know, the one I planned to learn re-upholstery on? It's still one of my goals to learn to reupholster, however, I kind of wanted that thing finished, and with all that's going on right now I didn't see that happening any time soon.

Besides, I had no idea what fabric I wanted, and since I'm famous for changing my mind (seriously, ask my husband!) I decided that a slipcover would we a great way to go... I tried making my own last spring and it turned out "ok" but not great. And it kind of gave me a headache.

In a random google search I found Shelley (Custom Slipcovers by Shelley) and decided to turn my chair over to her!

I found a cute pin stripe fabric that will go with anything (the stripes are charcoal gray and if you look close one of them has a bit of blue-ishness in it.

And here it is!


To say I'm in love with it would be a total understatement! I'm so happy with how it turned out! I'm such an impatient sewer, I would have gone crazy attempting something like this, it was so nice to just turn it over to her and not worry about it.

This chair was supposed to go in the basement, I still might do that, it would look so cute with sectional, but I'm loving it in the upstairs family room right now.

We have one more little makeover coming to it, in the form of some pretty new wood legs to replace the dated wheels. It's going to look even cuter!

Check out Shelley's blog for more of her amazing transformations! Pure slip covering genius!

office peek and our pillow picks...

Progress news! We found the prettiest bamboo about a month ago that was exactly what we wanted for the office floor... the bad news- it was out of stock and it comes from China, so it took about a month to get here. The good news is it came in this week and Scott got right to work laying it...
It's beautiful! Slightly distressed and hand scraped, we love it! He's done a great job putting it down, all that's left are two rows you can't see in the picture on the far right of the room and the closet.

The other good news is that the carpet installer came and got an official measurement yesterday. As soon as the stairs are done we're ready to get the carpet installed. We're waiting on a few stair parts to arrive and then we should be good down there. If all goes well, we're looking at maybe another week or so. WAHOO!!!

And now back to the pillow talk...

I was so surprised to see the poll so heavily weighted to one choice. Not surprisingly, it was the one we liked the best too...



Yep, it's the orange, blue, brown combo! Reassuring to know a lot of you liked it too! I still like those bold red stripey pillows a lot, but might have to find some other place to use them. :)

I designed the red/blue/bold stripey scheme first, then for fun threw that orange one together. I was surprised when we both really preferred the orange. I wasn't really thinking we would go orange, but it works beautifully with that shade of blue, it's nice and warm, a little unexpected and just the dose of fun that our young family needs.

As for the votes, we had a little problem with our poll... for some reason it re-set itself yesterday, like started over at zero sometime late morning, so I don't know the exact number of votes, but I can say that when I saw it Wednesday and Wednesday night, B was winning by a lot. We were somewhere around 50-ish votes and B was winning with about 70% of the vote. This morning we're at 44 votes- 8 votes for A, 28 votes for B and 11 votes for C. Wednesday it looked like A was in second place, so I really wish we had the numbers for all of the days combined, but it's safe to say that choice B won with between 60%-70% of the vote for both of the days that it was counting.

Some of you mentioned you wanted to know the choice I didn't like at all... for me that was choice C. and it wasn't that I didn't like the pillows, because I really like the more rectangle pillows and the monogram pillow of course as well, I think it just didn't appeal to us because we're so "blue and green" everywhere upstairs in our main living area that I'm trying to do something different in our space in the basement. The blue is about the same blue I've used throughout the house, so it ties it in with the colors upstairs, but the orange is something new, and we like that!

Now I've got to get those fabrics ordered and get to work! :)

Thanks for humoring me and playing along! It was fun to hear from many of you, and fun to see what you prefer too!