A Birthday Paw-ty for the Ages!

Birthday weekend has come and gone and I'm happy to report that it was a big success.  Who knew that putting seven 2 year olds in one room with cake and ice cream would be such a great idea?!

James had a blast and really appreciated the puppy theme - especially since his buddy, Jingle the Husky Pup, was all over the place.  I'm going to let the photos speak, but let's just say this - puppy dog adoptions + a balloon battle = a successful toddler birthday party!

It was a chaotic great time and I'm pretty sure everyone enjoyed themselves.  I know that James partied like a rock star - so much so that he grabbed a 2+ hour nap once the shin dig ended.  So far, two is looking pretty good. 

Happy 2nd Birthday James!

Two year have gone by since our sweet little boy joined our family and changed our lives forever.  Never before did Ed and I know what love was until we saw that little face at 11:09 am on March 1, 2012.  Now we sit here, 2 years later with a bustling toddler who loves to smile, dance and play.  He is truly the love of our lives and we want to wish him the happiest 2nd Birthday ever!

Last year, we made a video to highlight his first year and decided to make it a tradition so here you have our little buddy James - year 2.

Enjoy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!!

Bare No More

Since the basement has been getting so much attention lately, we thought it was time to spread the love and turn our attention to the large blank wall that lives above our couch in the living room.

Since buying the place, we have been back and forth on what to do with the space.  For a while we thought about putting a large mirror up there. We searched for something and when we came up short, we sort of shelved the project and turned our attention elsewhere.

Then I saw this photo and it inspired me.

I loved the idea of a gallery wall over the couch - I just needed to convince Ed that it was a good one. He is not a big fan of lots of holes in the wall - especially freshly painted perfect walls.  But after showing him this look and sharing with him the ways we could make it work, he happily came on board.

The first task was to source the photos and items to highlight on the wall.  We wanted to have more than just photographs to give the wall a little variety.  The first thing that came to mind was a piece of James art.  The kid comes home daily with armloads of artwork and of course because we are first time parents, we save everything!  After digging through the enormous box, we found this little gem and thought it would be perfect.

Another no brainer was the metal "M" that we purchased at a local art shop in Carytown, Richmond when we were there last summer.  It had been sitting in the bag in our coat closet waiting for the perfect place to live and now it is happily perched on 2 skinny nails.

During this hunt and gather phase, a Groupon for discounted canvas prints arrived in my Inbox so we decided to take advantage and order some of our favorites.  I love how even though they are photos, they add a bit of texture and dimension to the wall.

So, after months of months of collecting the frames and photos and keepsakes and then waiting for a day when both Ed and I were home alone with James occupied elsewhere, we now have a gallery wall above our couch.

We are really happy with how it turned out, and it wasn't without lots of planning.  We actually mapped out the frame positions on the floor to make sure we liked the configuration before nailing them to the wall.  

We knew that we didn't want a linear pattern - too hard to hang and get it right.  Instead we went with this collage-style look and are pretty psyched with the end result.  The best part was that when James walked in the house later that night, he went immediately to the wall and started naming everyone in the photos.  LOVE!

Oh - and since we had all the supplies out, we hung this lovely in the kitchen.  You gotta love Julia Child!

Bon Appetite!

Bannister Revisited

You may remember the trials and tribulations of our first floor bannister.  Well, it was time to tackle the basement bannister and with limited funds, we had to revise our plan of replacing it to match the upstairs model.

Enter semi-gloss white paint.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, re-painting something old makes it look brand new.  It can take a tired, old bannister from this...

... to this:

Not too shabby.  :)

Ed tackled this puppy while I was in New York attending Toy Fair so it was an awesome surprise to come home to.  In addition to this guy, he also painted the hand rail attached to the wall just above:

The paint job really pulled the entire look of the space together as it mirrors all the beautiful white moldings throughout the basement.  It's all coming together!!

We Didn't Start the Fire

But we sure did make it pretty again.  And by we, I mean Ed - the super hero of saving sad looking fireplaces!

We have one in our basement and up until a few days ago, it looked like this:

Not so terrible in this photo, but up close, it was dirty and peeling and had an awful gold door.  

Not cute.  

When the door came off, we were served up some of this:

Really not cute.

You gotta love the previous home owner who painted around the door rather than take the time to take the darn thing off!

Well, it was nothing a paint can and some brushes couldn't fix.  Super Hero Ed to the rescue! He spent lots of time stripping the gross caulk from the brick and cleaning out the fire box, but once that was done, he revived this ugly duckling and made her beautiful again.

Since these photos were taken, we adorned her with a new fireplace screen obtained from Target - photos to come during the big basement reveal, but here is a preview of the screen:

I have to tell you, I'm not a big fireplace person because I am deathly afraid of having a fire in my house.  But now that our fireplace is so pretty, I might consider a toasty, crackling fire on a cold, cold night (not uncommon these days!).  After a proper chimney inspection and cleaning of course.  What I am most excited about is styling the mantle.  I have some ideas in mind and have started collecting items and can't wait to get everything up and running.  Who knew a fireplace could be so much fun!

Let There Be Light Fixtures!

It's birthday week around here and we are working overtime to get the house ~ more specifically the basement ~ ready for the big day.  We had hoped to host the main event in our newly renovated basement, but because our James is Mr. Popular, we have outgrown the space so it's off to the LRR Rec Center we go.  BUT that does not mean that inquiring minds will ignore the basement so we are determined to finish it.

Lots has happened since the last post, but with Toy Fair 2014 taking up 100% of my time for almost 2 weeks, it was impossible to update everyone.   One of the most exciting additions we recently added to the space are the new light fixtures in the halls and main room.  As with the rest of the house, the light fixtures in the basement were builder specials and had to go.  I mean what the heck is with the spire on the bottom of these guys?!  Talk about a puncture wound waiting to happen!

We decided that the main room needed something big and bold. The original plan was to install 2 rows of high hats, but with the time crunch and the ample amounts of electrical involved, we shelved that idea and went with these instead:

Aren't they AWESOME!!  I found them a few months back when we were updating the first floor, but they didn't really work with the look up there.  But they are PERFECT for our basement space.  I can't tell you how much I love these guys - I think they are my favorite part of the basement so far.  

  

As for the halls, we went with a basic flush mount - just a little more our style vs. the 19th century look of the original fixtures.  It's amazing how a simple update to some light fixtures can transform the look and feel of a space.  Love, love, LOVE!

It's Coming Together

This phrase has been the theme of the basement renovation and I have to say, it truly IS coming together.  As of this past Monday, all the walls and trim are officially painted.  Fact:  painting trim is a giant pain in the @ss! We happen to have a lot of it (baseboard moldings, crown moldings, fancy door moldings), so it took what felt like forever and a day.  But it is finally done and it looks great.  It's amazing how a fresh coat of white semi-gloss paint on trim can refresh a room.

Also done are the new outlets and switches.  One of the fatal flaws of this house were old, dingy outlets and switches.  When we first moved in, Ed and good friend Rob replaced every single one of them on the first and second floors.  It was quite a task which included a few electrical zaps for both of them, but once finished, it made such a difference.  Yesterday, the outlets and switches looked like this:

And today they look like this:

A low cost upgrade with big visual bang!  And speaking of visual bang, check out this hottie at work!

On tap for tonight (post James going to bed, of course!) is the moving of the new furniture into place, the updating of the horrible light fixtures (more on that in a separate post), cleaning of the paint drops off the floor and maybe painting of the bannister.  The list is never ending...but it's coming together!