White Vans, Orange Shag, and Gazelle {or, Q&A about our wall-to-wall carpeting}

Let’s face it: installing wall-to-wall carpet is about as popular in the world of interior design as tweezing your nose hairs out at the dinner table would be, well, anywhere. (I hope? Don’t admit it if your dinner table is prone to such antics.)

But around here we love nose hairs being different. Okay, we actually just love comfortable and warm padding underfoot and not having to refinish the jank-fest floors in our upstairs in order to have the significantly more popular hardwoods with area rugs. We have all that downstairs and it is lovely. But it wasn’t feasible for our upstairs. Cue the obvious question, which I asked when we first uttered the words “wall-to-wall”: is it possible for wall-to-wall carpeting to be attractive? I say yes.

The truth is, I’ve never been happier to see an unmarked white van pull into our driveway than the day our wall-to-wall carpet appeared. (Incidentally, the carpeting was in that unmarked white van, in case you were wondering if a sleazy crack salesman emerged instead. Incidentally, such fellows don’t actually frequent our driveway, in case you were questioning my seeming moral dubiousness.)

But less talk about white vans and more talk about how we found our affordable, attractive, and eco-friendly carpet, in helpful Q&A format.

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What is it?

It’s wall-to-wall carpeting.

No, really, what is it?

Oh.

…

Hello?

Oh sorry, I got distracted by this carpet model I know.

What was the question?

WHAT KIND OF CARPET IS IT?

No need to shout; I heard you the first time.

…[fumes patiently]…

The brand of carpeting is Shaw, the style is Conquest, and the color is Limestone.

Thank you. Why did you choose carpeting over refinishing your wood floors?

The floors in our upstairs were not in good shape and refinishing them would not only have been time-consuming, but simply not worth the results. Kenley’s nursery floor was painted brick red, another room had old carpet glue adhered to much the floor. The boards everywhere were warped and uneven, typical of a second-story for a house as old as ours.

Do you have something against brick red painted floors?

Yes.

But didn’t you refinish your bedroom floor a few years ago?

Yes. It was a significant improvement, but still too shabby and old-looking overall.

Do you have something against old things?

Yes. I mean, no. I mean, sometimes.

How has it held up so far?

Swimmingly, for the 6 months in which it has lived here. It has a 20 year warranty and the retailer from which we purchased it said they would come replace any sections that didn’t survive our normal wear and tear. But so far it vacuums nicely, and the stain-resistant feature has already come in handy—liquids just pool on top of the rug rather than soak in. Plus I’m told that I will be able to parade a herd of gazelle across this carpet and still be able to clean it back to perfection.

Have you tested that claim?

No. The only gazelle with which I’m personally acquainted have been avoiding my calls.

I see. Is it true that Shaw’s products are eco-friendly?

Yes. One of the reasons I chose Shaw in the first place is because it’s made in the USA and the carpeting won’t give us cancer. Or something. (You can read more about the Green Label Plus program for low chemical emissions here.)

Speaking of green, I’ve heard that teething frogs taste better when eaten on this particular wall-to-wall carpeting. Is this true?

Yes.

But isn’t that texture a little rough on her sweet baby skin?

Not at all. It’s actually super soft. I can lay on it and be totally comfy, and Kenley happily face-plants into it on a regular basis.

In that case, I’m liking the texture.

Me too. One of the reasons I was initially against wall-to-wall is because it sometimes seems to create a flat sea of color. The basketweave texture in our carpeting prevents that from happening and adds a little modern interest to the floor. Ack I just got all design-speak.

Wouldn’t an orange shag rug have had the same effect?

OMG why didn’t you point that out sooner?! Now we’ve wasted all that money.

Well since you didn’t go with orange, how did you choose your color?

We threw five gazelle up in the air and chose our color based on an algorithm derived from the order in which they fell.

Really?

Yes, that’s why they aren’t returning my calls.

Really?

No. Actually, we just went to the carpet store, looked at the miniscule color swatches, then politely asked the owner if we could perhaps have some larger samples ordered directly from Shaw before we installed 1600 square feet of a color that looked totally different on a 3”x3” square. They were happy to oblige given the volume of our order, and had the swatches shipped directly to our house. It took about 1.38 seconds for both of us to realize which one was the right choice.

So much did it cost, then?

A lot, by our penny-pinching standards. In fact, it was the most money we’ve put into our home since living here. But we wanted a high-quality product that had good aesthetics and was eco-friendly, so that’s why we were fairly picky and didn’t just go with the cheapest big-box retailer option. We also had the entire upstairs and a stairwell done at once, which obviously cost more right now but saved us money in the long run: the retailer gave us a large volume discount and a free upgrade to the higher quality padding, neither of which we would have gotten if we’d done it one room at a time. I should also add, though, that Shaw does offer more expensive options, and our choice reminds me of some of the more expensive options sold by FLOR. So overall, we landed middle-of-the-road. Just call us roadkill.

It seems to me we’ve covered everything, roadkill. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Yes. This picture.

That doesn’t have anything to do with this post.

Correct.

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So there you have it! What do you think? Are you a wall-to-wall fan?

That Time My Blog Demanded Plastic Surgery {Plus Six Great Resources for Customizing Basic Blogs}

My blog hasn’t had a midlife crisis in a while, so it was no surprise to me when over the weekend it tried to sneak out to get hair implants and then began demanding a Porsche. I firmly said no while doing more important things, like creating that raindrop decal accent wall in K’s nursery. But when it began whining about its liver spots and then threatened to look up its old beaus on Facebook, I said whatever, enough is enough and offered a simple facelift as collateral. It appears to have been appeased with its new header and fonts and colors, but I’ve hidden the steroids just in case.

Speaking of blog facelifts, I’ve done various simple things over the years—obviously nothing major; I’m just using Blogger as a platform, after all—and have spent a lot of time googling all around for clear tutorials containing certain information about how to customize a Blogger blog. I thought I’d save some of you the googling around and compile helpful resources all in one tiny little post; unless you like the googling around, of course, in which case please don’t let me interfere. But might I recommend instead searching for something more exciting like hair implant fails? And then report back to me with your findings.

Visit the following links to learn how to…

1. Create a custom blog header. Say your blog was called That Time I Got a Chin Job and Other Midlife Musings. You could make a totally customized header that featured a close-up of your…chin job. 
2. Create a custom navigation bar OR create custom side tabs. Tabs like Nostalgia and Waxing would look great in a hip new font.
3. Center your navigation tabs. In case you don’t want Nostalgia and Waxing cuddling up in left alignment.
4. Create custom social media icons. You know, so your blog can connect with its old beaus.
5. Create a custom blog background. This could feature repeated images of your favorite bands from the 70s.
6. Create a thumbnail image gallery. This way you can give sneak peeks of all your before and afters. Refer to #1.

Ooooookay. I’ve officially poked way too much fun in the direction of midlife crisis. This will probably come back to haunt me in 35 years when I am trying to buy cheetah-print shorts at Aeropostale and some super hilarious 27-year old cashier is rolling her eyes at me. Signing off now.

P.S. If you’ve made a tutorial about blog customization OR know of another good one, please feel free to add it in the comments! :)

DIY Colorful Raindrop Decals {Nursery Accent Wall}

Several things happen when you sit nursing a baby for any great length of time.

1. You begin wondering if you’d be able to walk to the kitchen and get the eggless cookie dough out of the fridge without breaking baby’s latch.
2. You get an overwhelming urge to check and make sure your boob is still intact.
3. You begin daydreaming about how you could improve the space in which you are nursing.

This, my friends, is how Kenley’s sweet and colorful raindrop accent wall was born. Terrible pun completely intended.

The owner of the room approves and I’ve caught her studying her raindrops on a few occasions. When it was time to take her picture, though, she was more interested in studying the camera.

One of my favorite parts about this wall is that it is completely reversible: the raindrops are made out of adhesive vinyl. Which means that I could rearrange them every day into random shapes like a pancreas, or a squirrel, or a squirrel’s pancreas, if I was so moved. Luckily for you and the squirrel I’d need to bring to an untimely demise in order to know what a squirrel’s pancreas looks like, I am not so moved.

I did some much-needed stash-busting and used up all of the white and green vinyl that I had on hand, and then ordered the colored vinyl on eBay. I made the raindrop template on my Cricut and then pushed a button and went and did other things while my Cricut did all of the work for me. Yes, you could probably cut out 200 raindrops shape by hand with little to no whining and drama, but to be honest I’d rather pursue that squirrel and his pancreas.

When it was time to put them up, I did the white ones first, leaving space randomly between them for the colored ones. I did a fair amount of rearranging to get the colored ones where I wanted them—not too close to another one of the same color, evenly distributed across the wall, avoiding any sort of predictable pattern, etc. Organized chaos is my specialty.

When there were only a handful of spaces left, I used scraps of vinyl as placeholders so I could figure out how many more raindrops of certain colors I needed to cut out.

As far as measuring goes, there was a TON. And by a TON I mean a ton of none. (Recall my use of the word chaos.) I just started sticking the raindrops up there and eyeballed the distances between them. It’s imperfect, but no raindrop ever claimed to fall equidistant from its neighbor…possibly because the word equidistant is above a raindrop’s primitive vocabulary. This system worked because I could stick, stand back, and adjust when necessary. I might have had to be a responsible math-favoring adult if I’d been using a stencil and paint.

Overall, the wall makes Kenley’s nursery my hands-down favorite room in the house, and in my opinion its sweetness is exceeded only by the sweetness of the room’s primary occupant.

Total cost for the project: $12 and change for the colored vinyl. Total time on task: probably three or four hours uninterrupted by that cute little face. This project was definitely more time-consuming than it was difficult.

Have you ever made anything with adhesive vinyl? Who wants to hire Kenley to model their projects? Who wants to share my eggless cookie dough? On second thought, I don’t know if I am willing to share my baby or that cookie dough. Offers retracted.

Psst…you can see the rest of Kenley’s nursery here.

 

Linking up to DIY Showoff, Be Bold Challenge, and the Link Party Palooza!

Waxing Nostalgic About Our Formerly Decrepit Second Floor {Part 1: Nursery & Master Bedroom and Closet}

We started the projects discussed in this post in February 2011.

I started writing this post in September 2013.

It is now February 2014.

And you are now thinking: That’s great, Erin. What exactly is your point.

My point is that I have no point other than that there’s a good chance a triceratops still roamed the earth when we looked at each other and said “Why don’t we send the upstairs of our house to rehab?” But the time spent paid off, because we seriously have a brand new upstairs. Like almost as brand new as Cher’s face. However, this post will likely go down in history as The One Erin and Rick Will Revisit From Time to Time and Wonder Why They Didn’t Just Buy an RV and Live in a Field.

First up: the master bedroom.

Completed on the to-do list: Remove carpet. Demo closet. (Let me rephrase. DEMO CLOSET. Hmm. Still not accurately reflecting the enormity of the task. DEMO CLOSET. Okay that’s marginally better.) Scrape off textured ceiling. Skimcoat ceiling. Sand ceiling. Spray paint registers. Skimcoat junky plaster walls. Sand walls. Paint walls. Patch parts of junky plaster ceiling where we did a bad job the first time. Sand ceiling. Paint ceiling. Tear down old knot-bleeding trim. Replace with new MDF trim. Wood fill new trim. Sand new trim. Paint new trim. Remove boob light. Install chandelier. Have carpet installed!!

It’s sort of a tragedy to encompass all of these rooms’ work in just one teensy little post. Oh well. I shall console myself by gazing upon footage of this “before” angle.

And here’s a gratuitous “in-progress” shot as further proof of our insanity. I mean seriously, what kind of pregnant lady is okay with this sort of disaster happening in her nest.

 

You’ll notice that “after” picture contains no bed. Or other furniture. This is because we are going minimalist and have slept on the floor for the past six months. Actually, that’s a lie. The truth is that this photo was taken just minutes after the carpet was installed. Bedroom updates—helpfully complete with bed—coming soon.

Next stop on the tour: master closet and back stairs.

Completed on the to-do list: Remove carpet. Build up around the attic stairs and drywall over weird holes. Build new closet system. Paint walls. Spray paint and install new lights. Rebuild squeaky, caving stair treds. Finish installing baseboard. Wood fill trim. Sand trim. Paint trim. Take down railing. Paint railing. Install railing. Have carpet installed!!

A bonus not included here is “Console your hysterical wife after she trips on the stairs when the railing is gone and doesn’t even remember how she ended up at the bottom of the stairs because she was working so hard to not land on her baby belly.” Truly, I was in Mama Bear mode. Unsteady, balance-challenged Mama Bear mode. Bears in the wild don’t seem to have that problem. Perhaps it’s the four legs, or the general lack of stairs.

Final stop on today’s Part 1 tour: the nursery. Hey, look who’s here!

Completed on the to-do list: Skimcoat junky plaster walls. Sand walls. Paint walls. Skimcoat junky plaster ceiling. Sand ceiling. Paint ceiling. Frame new closet. Drywall new closet. Mud drywall. Paint closet. Sand trim. Paint trim. Rip out old carpet. Laugh at hideous red painted floor. Have carpet installed. Fill the room with cute things. Have baby installed!!

For more nursery details go here!

The details of our brand new upstairs started out being all cozy in one post but it was ridiculously long. So today you got Part 1 and next week you’ll get Part 2.

Before I sign off, I should add that that the majority of this work came to be in the seven months before Kenley was born. This was because we like to be ridiculous and obviously pregnancy is the best time to do renovation wanted to have the entire upstairs carpeted before she arrived, and in order for that to happen, a TON of messy work—as evidenced by the lists above—needed to be done first. With the October deadline looming over us, the carpet made its grand entrance just a month and a half before Kenley did. I’ll share more specifics about the carpet in an upcoming post. Spoiler alert: we are very happy with it.

Did your house need some resurfacing or did it come as a new blank slate? Should we have skipped all the labor and instead purchased an RV? According to Clark Griswold, they look nice parked in driveways.

If You’d Asked Me

There’s a question that people like to ask, sometimes at an interview, sometimes in an icebreaker, sometimes just in casual conversation:

Where do you see yourself five years from now?

When presented with this query, I’d generally take the opportunity to be brilliantly vague and answer with something really deep and mind-blowing.*

*Or not deep or mind-blowing at all.

And if you’d asked me a year ago today what I’d be doing in just one year, I probably would’ve said something like “I’ll be teaching.”**

**Mind=blown.

But all of that changed a year ago tomorrow: it was the day we found out that I was pregnant. And suddenly the “year from now” future looked different than it did the day before.

As I mentioned in my announcement post, we hadn’t been planning a baby. We weren’t doing anything to avoid it, either, but our entire awareness of the possibility of pregnancy only began the day I took the test. That night, Rick and I stared at each other, trying to comprehend the news that was surreally settling over us, that little plus sign between us. Some people might call this careless, but we call it a blessing; a blessing that now only grows with every passing day. Literally. I mean, babies these days just seem to have a perpetual need to outgrow cute outfits.

So if you’d asked me a year ago today where I saw myself today, my answer wouldn’t have included anything about a sweet little face, warm sleepy snuggles, glad-to-see-you morning grins that melt my heart.

I wasn’t planning on soft fuzzy hair or midnight I need you tears or the heart explosion that it is to watch your husband fall in love with your daughter.

A thousand yesterdays ago I wasn’t planning any of that for my today, and I know well that I can’t say for certain that I have a thousand tomorrows to soak it all in. So today I am thankful for every little bit of this blessing that, just one year ago today, I didn’t see coming.

Does your today look like you thought it would?

“There are many plans in a man's heart, nevertheless the Lord's counsel--that will stand.” Proverbs 19:21

Headbands, Hats, & Hoods (Plus Enough Cheeks for Three Babies)

Katie at For Lauren &+ Lauren is hosting a Baby Mama link-up today. Say what? An invitation to parade my baby’s squishy face across the Internet? Best link-up ever. Besides, I haven’t shown you my baby’s squishy face in almost two months and I’m SURE you are going through withdrawal. This concerns Kenley’s 3.5 month self. See?

Anyway, the link-up is for cute kids in cute clothing, so I’ve rounded up some of my favorites from the past month or so that show off Kenley’s style essentials. ;)

Baby girl style essential #1: The Grin. A small redhead once said “You’re never fully dressed without a smile.” This small baldhead agrees.

Baby girl style essential #2: Clothing That Professes Your Undying Love for Your Mother. A quick survey tells me that my own wardrobe is severely lacking in this category. Must work on that.

Baby girl style essential #3: The Headband. Annie may have said you’re never fully dressed without a smile, but around here you’re never fully dressed without a headband. Unless your name is Erin, in which case a headband would only draw attention to the fact that you haven’t brushed or washed your hair in two days. (Seriously, I DO have time to do these things…it’s just, why?)

Baby girl style essential #4: The Giant Man-Eating Dress. You get bonus points if it coordinates with mom and dad’s outfits. You also get bonus points if it is virtually impossible for mom and dad to hold onto you properly because of said giant man-eating skirt.

Baby fashion style essential #5: The Thumb. It pairs perfectly with pink and penguins and polka dots. You know what they say about alliterative outfits. (??)

Baby girl style essential #6: The Giant Man-Eating Hood…With Ears. Ears make everything better. Just ask van Gogh. Oh wait.

Baby girl style essential #7: Silly Hats. If the straps don’t stay under your chin because you have enough chins and cheeks for three babies, don’t sweat it. A cute smirk solves the problem.

Baby girl style essential #8: Giant Man-Eating Sunglasses. (I’m sensing a carnivorous trend here.) Try not to look too miserable when wearing them. But I might be miserable, too, if my aunt and uncle put me in these ridiculous sunglasses and then laughed at me while they took my picture.

Baby girl style essential #9: Coordinating Friend. Smooches optional.

Baby girl style essential #10: ??? I just like this picture. And needed a number 10. ;)

Katie invited us mamas to share style details, too, but truthfully I’m putting the robe in wardrobe these days and there must be some sort of occasion if I’ve changed into a shirt that isn’t accessorized with three day-old drool. Plus, I tried on a pair of shorts the other day and Rick informed me that they were mom shorts. He suggested I rectify the situation by instead purchasing a skort. A skort, people. If you see me out and about and I’m sporting a fanny pack WITH my skort, please still be my friend.

Happy Friday! :)

P.S. Spoonflower is giving away free 8”x8” swatches of silky faille until noon today! There are literally thousands of designs and colors to choose from, and the size is perfect for a gallery wall addition. :)