Erika'S CurtainsShabby Chic CurtainsCurtains ShowerNursery CurtainsRuffled CurtainsCurtain ShabbyGrace'S NurseryCurtain PanelsEmilee RuffledForwardNEW EMILEE Ruffled Curtain Panel in White or Colors Perfect For Nursery or Little Girl's Rooms with 4 Rows of Ruffles on Etsy, $60.00Ruffle WindowRuffled Curtains54X84 22Pink 54X84Circo Ruffle54X84 TargetPanel PinkPink RuffledGirl S BedroomsForwardPink ruffled curtains by Circo, on clearance for $8 each in store IF I CAN GET THERE BEFORE THEY'RE GONEDhurrie LightDhurrie RugIvory DhurrieMoroccan DhurrieSafavieh MoroccanSafavieh 5X8Safavieh DhurriesGarden SafaviehBedroom AlamedaForward@Overstock - Morrocan inspired design and dense hand-woven wool pile highlight this handmade dhurrie rug. Pink Ruffle Crib SkirtBedding RuffleTier RuffleSkirt BabyPink BeddingBaby BeddingRufflesAva AnnalieseGirl WattsForwardWe cant get enough of ruffles! Our 3 tier ruffle crib skirt has a 17 drop, and ruffles on all four sides. Make sure to check out our 2 andWelcome to our happy and humble abode! 

Feel free to leave your shoes at the door, and make yourself at home! Oh, and of course the disclaimer!  Our house is ALWAYS "under construction" as many would say.  And our "To Do" list never shrinks; it's just keeps growing and growing.  So please give my hubs a great big sympathy hug the next time you see him, because he is always seen toting around his tool box and tape measure and I always have a project for that "honey do list". 13 years ago was a very exciting time for my husband and I.  We were expecting our first child, we had just rushed to the altar and we were building our first home.  And we were youngsters at the ages of 19 and 20.  So although our hearts were big, our budget was small.  We had never owned a home before, and didn't have the first clue about what all it entailed.  We purchased a sweet little lot in a small Midwestern town and never looked back. Our home started out as a modular ranch, and the walls were delivered while I was in labor with our now oldest son. 

I remember getting out of the hospital and heading straight to see our new home and feeling more joy than my fingers are able to type out.  With shallow pockets, we ended up selecting the most inexpensive "builder grade" finishes throughout the entire home.  But none of that mattered.  We had one another, we had our baby and we had a blank canvas. OK, enough chit chat.  Let's take a look at the house already!  light curtains c4000But one last thing.  lowes motorized curtain rodAs much as we love our home and I love to organize, our home is NOT always picture perfect.  khandelwal curtains vadodaraThis blog is my place to share our stories and our home highs and lows, and if you click through to the projects you will notice that most of them will show our everyday messes.  starstruck insulated thermal blackout curtain

You can also find my thoughts on perfection in this post here.  Before I took these photos of our home, I cleaned and scrubbed and cleaned some more.  Inviting the world wide web of strangers to tour your home is far more intimidating than having your neighbor over for coffee or even hosting a cocktail party with 20 of your closest friends. Although our landing is small, the entryway flows into a much bigger space; snowman shower curtain kohl'sWhich really is not big, coming in at approximately 12 feet wide.sam hedaya curtains Majority of the changes in our living room have been simply cosmetic.  lowes waverly drapesWe installed a new floating laminate floor a year or two after we moved in.  The walls have been painted about five different colors, and the lighter we went, the bigger it felt.

As our family grew, we slowly changed out our furnishings.  And the media cabinet was one of our favorite DIY projects to date, simply created out of off-the-shelf white bookcases. A view that stops me in my tracks each day is looking from our living room back towards our dining room.  Hello beautiful blue storage hutch! The dining area was another blank canvas I couldn't wait to personalize.  It is where we come together as a family each evening, and I really wanted the space to be special. Stripes, curtains, a little Craigslist shopping and mixing and matching pieces for our new dining table and the space truly smiles for us now. The hutch wasn't always the beauty she is today.  Purchased second hand from a stranger, I couldn't wait to liven it up with paint.  I know I shouldn't play favorites, but this piece tops my list. The dining room acts as a bit of a connector of the entryway/living room and the kitchen.  And why does everyone in the Midwest have a love affair with oak? 

I think some oak can actually be quite lovely, but the oak that we put in our home - not so much and too much.  (I was initially outvoted on white cabinets, trim and doors.) After living with the oak for a few years, I finally convinced my husband that everything would feel much lighter and brighter with the help of a few coats of paint. We have giant plans for our kitchen, but the paint was a nice temporary fix until that day comes. Just inside our garage entrance and tucked behind our fridge, we installed a little wall message center.  LOVE doesn't begin to describe it. Heading back towards the hall now, there are a few bedrooms and our main bathroom. As much as we love our home and have completed quite a bit over the years, there is still a lot of fun to be had.  One room I have been working on extremely slowly, is our oldest son's space. He is growing faster than I like to admit, and suddenly his room needs to be tailored to a teenager!  Idon't have the first clue how to design a teenage boy's room, and he really is content with just about anything which means he doesn't provide me with much direction.

So for now I just let him do his thing and the room is nice and livable , it just needs a few finishing touches.  Fingers crossed we have those done before he heads off to college! Our other boy's bedroom is a different story.  This one was much easier for us to update and although it has already been a few years since we finished it, we still love it oh-so-much.  Decorating for younger kidlets is stree-free - can't go wrong - get to play with colors and patterns - kind of fun! Although we have one more bedroom on the main level, our younger two boys enjoy sharing a room for now.  The majority of the room was DIY'd, and our boys provided us with a lot of their own visions and input.  Because we don't store too many toys in the space, we didn't have many storage issues in the main sleeping area.  However, when it came to two little guys sharing a single small closet, it required me to get creative with the storage plan. We divided the closet with an inexpensive bookshelf and paired it with two sets of closet rods on either side. 

It has been functioning big for the boys (and us!).  We also added an additional rail of hooks behind their door to add extra hanging storage. Across the hall is the guest room, however, it initially started out as the master bedroom when we first moved in. Another project that I have always adored and now wish wasn't tucked so far away in our home, is our guest room desk nook.  That wallpaper gives me giant heart eyes! The guest room has an attached bath, which once again started falling apart, even before the main bathroom did!  Here is a before of the finishes we selected when the home was first built. We lived with it broken down for awhile, but when we found out we would be hosting a guest, it was time to get it fully functional again.  A week long makeover happened with a mad dash to the finish line. Now, let's head downstairs. We have finished our lower level twice now, due to an unfortunate flooding that took place a few years back.  The second time around we installed a waterproof vinyl laminate flooring and moisture resistant trim. 

We hope those updates will safeguard us in the future should our sump pump fail during a power outage again. This room has been through change after change after change.  I am not sure I will ever get it "right" or feel as though I am finished with it, because I really struggle working in an area of the home that doesn't receive any natural daylight.  And I sit in this space A LOT.  So I think I am raising the white flag until we can move it someday.  I am pretty happy with how far it has come however.  And the amount of storage I have is pretty gosh darn incredible. Not only have we built in a lot of cabinet storage, we also finished the closet under the stairs with flooring and walls, and now it is a storage haven. Another completely untouched room in our home is our family room.  We are talking complete blank slate to play with!  And I have big plans for this space someday! (Can you hear my evil, scheming laughter?) Our lower level is a simple horseshoe shape;

the family room marries the studio and our playroom. This space is by far the happiest of them all.  Bold color, a lot of pattern, and endless days filled building legos, playing games and entertaining lots of little pals.  Without investing a lot of money in expensive furniture, we have pieced together a few IKEA pieces and Craigslist finds to create storage for a variety of playroom toys, games and crafts. A bench pieced together from two narrow bookcases now has the room to seat many little bottoms.  And the best part is all of the easy-to-access toy storage below! Our three boys have received Legos as gifts since they were tiny tots.  And they also inherited bins of Legos from both mom and dad (yes, I loooooved building Lego houses as a kid as well).  They helped devise a storage plan and even sorted them down with me. Looking back on our 13+ year home adventure, there have been times we have felt frustrated, burnt out, overwhelmed and even have tried to sell a few times...