the master bedroom is finished and reflections on our house addition.

 

I’m very, very thankful to report that our master bedroom is finished!

The addition itself was completed a year ago in May. Actually we moved in on our 13th anniversary! We furnished our room with the bare essentials and called it a day. I was itching to have it feel finished but also completely exhausted and experiencing major decision fatigue from the entire project. We needed to just be in our new space and rest for awhile.

Here’s a little trip down memory lane:

February, 2017:

 

 

 

 

March, 2017:

 

April, 2017:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May, 2017:

 

 

End of May, 2017:

 

 

 

 

Wasn’t that fun?

But wait, apparently while we were resting after the addition,  we were also spending a winter starting garden seeds.

 

 

 

When David came home from Lowe’s and set up this apparatus one day, I told him, “You can do this for one winter. That’s it.” Shortly thereafter, work began on his workshop.

And here we are today, in June, 2018:

 

 

Isn’t it cozy?

David gave me a budget this spring for whatever indoor house projects I wanted. I chose to use the money for the boys’ room makeover, our living room rug, and finishing up the master bedroom. I can’t tell you how much fun I had. Thanks to my husband, for letting me be creative and have fun with our house.

When David was overseas in March, my cousin kept the kids for a day so that I could go to IKEA all by myself. It was blissful. I bought everything I needed for the boys’ room and our bedroom at once, and then focused on one project at a time.

Now, the addition.

We get more comments than anything else on our vaulted ceiling. That is all thanks to David. I didn’t have an opinion on the matter (very rare for me, I know), but I’m so glad he pushed for it. It didn’t cost us any more and I love the character it adds to our room.

We get the second highest number of comments on the light fixture. World Market, online!

 

 

Thanks to a gift from a friend, we were able to buy a couple of pieces of furniture and the colorful rug right away, but other than that, I’m so glad we waited a year to work on decorating the room in earnest.

I made decisions I wouldn’t have made before we spent some time in the space. One example is the bookcase. I just wouldn’t have thought we’d need yet another bookcase in our home. Huh. Why did I assume that? Have I not lived with us for 14 years? Well, after months of vacuuming around toppling, dusty stacks of books on our bedroom floor, I knew the solution.

My goal for this bookcase is to not cram it full. It holds books we’re currently reading/need to finish, and library books. Once we finish with library books they go into a basket in the hall to be returned. I keep laptops, camera, and more books in the cupboard underneath.

Also: it was a steal at IKEA. I can’t find the name of it online for you, but I discovered this on the showroom floor. I won’t even pretend that it’s quality furniture, but it cost less than $150 and isn’t it cute? And functional.

 

 

Every spring our favorite local plant shop, Seven Oaks, has a 20% store-wide sale. I waited for the sale in order to find plants to fill in our room for a great price. House plants can add up fast. I’ve learned through trial and error which ones I do well with and just keep buying the same few varieties. Sometimes I have to move plants to different areas of the house for them to thrive. It’s a fun puzzle.

If you have a brown thumb, I recommend starting with a snake plant (tall plant in the basket next to the bookcase), or a ZZ plant (terra cotta planter, below), both of which do well in mid or low light, and want to get nice and dry between watering. My favorite places to find planters (read: the least expensive) are IKEA and Homegoods.

 

 

Last summer we hung an idea board to dream about taking a road trip to the Grand Canyon, and lo and behold, it appears that it’s actually happening this year! We have the dates set and basic itinerary plotted out. David waited in line on the internet for hours to reserve our cabin at the YMCA in Estes Park, CO for one leg of the trip.  Right now it still feels a bit dream-like, but we’re getting excited.

 

 

People ask us whether putting an addition on our house was worth it, and we say “one hundred times, yes.” Now, I always say to be sure to do your research beforehand. Because of the deal we got when we originally purchased this house and the climbing house prices, it made way more financial sense to add on than to move into a house large enough for our family (and I’m just talking four bedrooms/two bathrooms, nothing huge). It’s expensive to buy downtown, and becoming more so these days.

We have no intention of moving anytime soon, but no one knows what the future holds, so we’re taking care not to price ourselves out of the neighborhood.

 

 

But having said all of that, yes. We love that we had the addition put on. It was really stressful. It was really loud and chaotic and dirty for weeks and weeks. But the whole project, start to finish, took less than four months, and so of course, looking back, it feels like a very small amount of time (it did not feel like a small amount of time while trying to homeschool four children at the dining table with hammering and drilling and and an industrial fan blowing 4 feet away).

We were really cramped in our less-than-1500 sq foot house with one tiny bathroom and a 9-year-old boy and 7-year-old girl sharing a bedroom. Did we make it work? Yes. But now that we have more space, everyone is just happier. We all have some room to breathe.

 

 

Judah and Amelie love having their own bedrooms — appreciated even more because of all the years they had to share. And I’m not sorry they did have to share for so long. We cherish the relationship they have and the memories they made. But it’s nice to have privacy. It’s nice to have a place for their own stuff. It’s really nice to have a spot to play or hang out when friends come over.

 

 

Okay, back to our bedroom.

Hanging a shelf over the bed is another decision I wouldn’t have made a year ago. Large wall art is expensive, and though I combed fun websites and Homegoods for months, David and I could never agree on anything. Steve found and restored this wooden plank for us, and we both love it. I’m so glad we chose a shelf because that wall needed some dimension.

For years we had dark wood bedside tables we bought in India, but I wanted something lighter for this space. I’ve been wanting mismatched bedside tables for awhile, so I sold the other set on Craigslist. David’s table is from Overstock.com, and mine is from Homegoods. We’re still very happy with our woven rug from World Market.

 

 

A friend came over and pointed out that this cute little wood house from Chip and Joanna’s line at Target is actually a door stop. Which makes absolute sense now because it’s solid and rather heavy. But I’m keeping it right here.

 

 

Another difference waiting a year made for me is learning that I do like our room to feel minimal-ish. I like to say “cozy-minimal.” It’s fine balance. Others do it better than I. But it was sure fun to take a stab at it!

It felt torturous to agree to David’s request for no curtains. Who doesn’t hang curtains in a bedroom? But now I’m used to it and find I don’t miss them at all. I love our big, sunny window-views.

 

 

If you need your house to feel a bit more cozy, may I suggest: books and plants?

 

 

And there you have it, my friends.

For now of course. Homes are ever-evolving. And you know me, I can’t help tweaking things from time to time. For now, I’m taking a very refreshing break from house-decorating mode.

In short, we’re thrilled with our master bedroom addition. We’re even more thrilled with our second bathroom. We love the walk-in closet. All of it has been a blessing.

Our bathroom hasn’t changed a bit, but if you’re trying to remember, here it is:

 

 

 

 

It’s still our favorite feature of the addition.

As for next projects, we really, really need to remodel our original bathroom. David is thinking of taking this project on himself with a friend (which means: it’ll be another couple years).

We have plans from the same architect for a kitchen remodel, but agreed not to even talk about it for 2-3 years. I’m still undecided as to whether a new, larger kitchen would be worth the utter mayhem. The nice thing about experiencing any sort of renovation is that it gives you a big dose of realism for future house projects. Thankfully our kitchen is working just fine for now.

We love our house!

 

(For future reference, I went back and put all the house addition blog posts into their own category, which you’ll find on the right hand list. I should have done that from the beginning!)