On the Homefont

I thought I'd give you an update on what we've been up to at our new house & share some plans for our family room.

Above, our yard is finally getting there... The flowers are getting big enough for cutting and my husband built a pretty fence around the property. Life is so much easier without having to worry about our toddler & dog escaping to freedom! (We're waiting for it to gray/ dull a bit with age)

My husband's been working like crazy...And Christian has to do everything his dad does... He has to "help daddy" as he so urgently tells us, so here he is below, shoveling and "making a garden."

Below, our favorite spot to hang is under the maple tree in our two adirondack chairs. The other night, after transplanting an entire truckload of plants from my mom's garden, (thank you mom!!) we put the little one to bed & just sat out in the chairs. It felt so good because we've been running around like crazy and it was awesome to look around & see all that we'd accomplished. Writing this now, I realize we need more of this relaxing time...

Our little guy's having so much fun out there & we have one of those really ugly bright plastic baby pools with the slide in them. He absolutely loves it, which is enough to make me not care about how bad it looks.

Our friends, Amy & Greg, made us this awesome vegetable garden!! (below) Yes, they actually came over & built it & gave us plants & everything. I can't believe how sweet they are & can't wait for those 'maters to grow!! yum! yum!

We've picked the paint color for the outside of our house, the gray below, and hope to get to it in the next couple of weeks.

And finally, my in-laws came this weekend to help again. yay!! My husband & father-in-law removed all the panelling in the basement/ family room, waterproofed it, changed some walls, added new insulation & put in a new drywall ceiling to replace the drop ceiling. We're closing up the walls today with paneling & will be carpeting the floor.

The sofa will go on the left wall:

And the hutch will go on the other, for the TV & toys:

Below is where I'll be putting my office. (The sofa pictured will be reupholstered & going upstairs.)

I think I'll use a table as my desk that can double as an eating & game area: (image from Country Living)

Below is another view of the room. OH SO PRETTY!!! hahahaha We have a woodburning stove that we'd eventually like to replace with an actual fireplace.

I plan to put two cozy chairs & an ottoman in front of it: (image below from Cottage Living)

Below is the cottage by Ruthie Sommers from House Beautiful that I recently posted on. I really fell for the color on the walls & we've already bought the paint. (I went a bit lighter than the actual paint shown but it looks the same- funny how photos work like that.) It looks awesome on the paneling. (It's much brighter than I usually go for but I wanted a fun, casual, bright vibe down there & I'm excited for a change.)

Here's another image from Real Simple, with a similar color scheme. I'm loving all the pops of white: