Well, to say the least, it has been a while since I have last done a blog post. Work, family and life tend to make things pretty busy. We’ve been continuing to navigate first time homeownership and it feels like we experienced one issue after another with the house. Some of those issues led to updates that had to be done a bit earlier than anticipated, however before I get into that, I should probably start with the most recent and most significant update for our family, and that is we are expecting baby number 2! We are having a little boy due in February and we are thrilled! Life is definitely going to be a lot more hectic than it is already – full of new adventures and challenges, but we can’t wait. 

Now that I’ve shared the exciting news, let me rewind back to March 2021. Around this time, we’d been having an issue with the shower knobs in the master bathroom shower. One of them was not gripping the stem properly and so when we tried to turn the knob, instead of turning the water on, the knob continually twisted around. My husband attempted to fix this, which we initially thought he had, however we had a rude awakening the next day. While he was taking a shower, I happened to go downstairs just as water started dripping through the ceiling of our family room in a horizontal line that extended several feet. The water was coming from the pipes inside the master shower wall. The water travelled down the wall to the first level and then pooled over a spot on the ceiling and eventually soaked the drywall enough to drip through. Obviously, something had gone wrong and we learned the valuable lesson to just call a plumber when it comes to these kinds of issues. After calling some contractors out to assess and treat the damage, here is what we were left with.

We essentially had to remove the ceiling for half of the room and a large section of the wall where the water had soaked the drywall. The water also soaked the carpet and the wooden tiles underneath so the flooring had to be removed in the entire room. To say we were frustrated would be an understatement because we felt that if we had just called a plumber in the first place to fix the shower, we could have avoided destroying half the family room that in the end cost thousands of dollars to fix. Lesson learned.

So we removed the floor, had the contractors put up new drywall and then we repainted.

This left us with a decision about what to do about flooring in that room. When we first moved into the house, we knew we really wanted to have all new consistent flooring throughout the main level. The family room had carpet, the kitchen and entryway were ceramic tile, and the formal living room and dining room were laminate. We hadn’t planned on doing such a major project for a little while longer, but ultimately it didn’t make sense to us to spend the money to re-carpet the family room if we wanted to replace it eventually with the rest of the house anyway so we decided to pull the trigger and refloor the entire first level.

We removed the laminate in the living and dining rooms ourselves to save a bit on labor costs and worked with a local company to put in luxury vinyl plank (LVP). We went with LVP because I wanted a wood look for the floor but also something durable. LVP is scratch resistant, waterproof, and relatively affordable. While laminate might have been cheaper, it is not scratch resistant or waterproof and thus it couldn’t be used in the powder room or kitchen. And with a young child, we felt like the product would give us the look we were going for while having the durability to stand up to beating a young family could give it. The floors we picked out have texture to them, are beveled at the joints, and have some variation in color to give it dimension so they look really nice. It’s amazing the flooring products they have these days. I loved how they turned out and we are pretty happy with it so far.

After the floors were done, we were still in a bit of a limbo period with the living room because we were still waiting on furniture. The wait for furniture was a bit torturous because we’d already had to wait a year after moving in to order it. Once we did, we were promised a certain time frame and it kept getting pushed back. We understood that there were supply chain issues due to the pandemic, but there was also an element of shady sales tactics as well. We were unable to buy other furniture that we needed such as coffee and end tables, or decorate until we had these anchor pieces. Long story short, after several months of back and forth, an eventual order cancellation, then going to a different furniture store, in June we FINALLY received our couch and loveseat for the living room and the replacement sectional for the family room. We were then able to pick out our coffee and end tables for both rooms. It finally felt like we were making some progress. We still have more to do in the living room – lamps, plants, wall decor, shelving – but we are getting there.

It was around this time over the summer that we found out we were pregnant. With the new baby coming, we decided it was now time to replace the old, dated, brown shag carpeting that covered three quarters of the second level. This carpet was worn, torn and full of dog hair when we first moved in. While we had the carpet professionally cleaned, we were unfortunately unable to replace it right away due to financial constraints. I didn’t want to put it off any longer as I did not want the baby crawling around on that, not to mention it was a bit…ugly. So in October, we worked with the same company that put in the LVP to put in new lighter carpet on the whole second level.

So due to a series of events, we did several big projects this year and I love how they’ve updated the look of our home. We’ve now made enough progress that I was able to decorate a bit for Fall.

Next up are the nursery and a refresh for our toddler’s room. Then I think we’ll be taking time to adjust to life with a newborn and as a family of four.

Couch & Loveseat – La-Z-Boy

Coffee & End Tables – World Market

Rug – Boutique Rugs

Basket – At Home

Wicker Lantern – At Home

Round Basket Tray – Target

Coffee Table and Mantle Decor – Target, At Home, Michaels