I know, I know. It's been a long time!

Thanks for all your friendly reminders about the lack of updates to my blog. In case you were unaware, I had the small task of bringing a new person into this world just 6 weeks ago & therefore was a little busy for a while. Give me a break! Geez!

So here's a picture of the new addition & I'll get back to the all important house updates shortly!

the garage has benefitted from my nesting instincts

Finally! I have a place for our tools & paint supplies & all the stuff we use all the time updating this house.  Here's the after photos from a long day of hard work. It only took me 3 days to recover.  At least everything is off the floor! Once I get the work bench cleaned off it will really be organized...

Baby on board

The first of our spring projects, we have finally started the work on the baby's room.  

Here is Zach prepping the wood work & walls.

Bowski holding down the drop cloths.

Greta picking the paint colors & testing out the bedding.

And here is the color we chose.  Ocean Wave by Valspar.  It is even brighter than it looks but should be great with the furniture we have ordered.  Zach wanted a super fun environment for his baby boy :) Very exciting!

little ado at thornhurst

the holidays were lovely in our new home and we added a new member to the family: the big dude pictured below is NUTS!

here you can see exactly how our cat feels about this new guy.

and here are some pics from yesterday's snow. the house really stands out from the road with the pine trees down.  we're looking forward to the spring when we can add back in some landscaping & vegetation and remove the ivy (keeping fingers crossed).

oh pine trees, oh pine trees...

...we tore you down just in time for chistmas.

Watch as Richie chops &  my dad pulls then runs.  In my nephew's words, "That's the fastest I've seen Grandad move in a long time."

it's official - zach's floor is done

First things first, we did finish the dining room to match our living room.  Here's Zach working & the final product.  Now all we need is a dining room set.  Until then, Grandma's formica will do!

Zach worked on his floor in his office last week too.  This is so exciting because the floor makes such a difference to the room.  The original floor was cork tile, all brown and laid in a random pattern.  

We stuck with a random pattern to be true to the house.  Then chose composite vinyl tile made by Congoleum to keep with the feel.  To liven things up a little though, we chose a contrasting color scheme to match our slate tiled entry.

Here's my dad replacing the floor boards once they'd been sanded & patched with matching wood filler. There  was carpet installed when we moved in & a glue residue had remained.

And here it is all complete!  This was midnight project for Zach.  Greta & I awoke to a gorgeous new floor :)  Again, she offered her paw of approval.

a living room all our own

Nothing makes you feel more at home than a living room set up like it's actually YOUR living room.  I was really excited to get this room done, since this is where we do the majority of our, you know, living.

Here it is all prepped for some color:

Zach's mom came to help and we got a huge amount of work done while she was here.  Also, my mom & dad put some time in too!

Here's Zach relaxing at night with our newspaper "curtains" since we took down the old ones.  Not sure what we'll do until I make the new ones...

And here is our first really ugly color.  I tried for one shade lighter in the living room than what we'd be using in the dining room.  Most of the time, this tactic works beautifully, this time not so much.  It sort of looked like mint tums or a hospital ward.  Not exactly the feel I was hoping for.

Thankfully, that was the first coat and because the other color was only one shade darker on the same paint strip, we were able to coat the room with only the already anticipated second coat.  Porter Scarborough was the ultimate shade.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that on the season finale of "Mad Men" that Trudy & Campbell have the same color in their Manhattan 60's living room.  Snazzy!