Birthday Wishes

Last night J asked what I wanted for my birthday, and I gave him the typical candy and movies bit. “There’s nothing else?” he pressed. “Like, something you really have your heart set on?”

I couldn’t think of anything. Except a new house.

It’s not that I don’t like our house– I love it. The bones are perfect, the location is ideal. I just want this house to be overhauled: I want fresh paint, I want a new kitchen, I want wood floors, I want moulding. The works. I’ve been keeping a Look Book for years. Every time I see something I like, I’ll try and save it. It happened once during an episode of ‘Skins’ where I screencapped the staircase in a character’s hallway:

(I know, right? Definitely worth pausing for.)

The Look Book and wistful pining have tided me over for years now, but I’m starting to get anxious. I helped my mom move into her new place a couple weeks ago, and we painted the walls these beautiful shades of sea blue and celery green. And, just before that, we finally redid the kids rooms and put up beadboard.

All of it put me in the mood for further home improvements. Almost every room in the house is basic beige walls with windows– there’s a small baseboard, but no other trim. In the photo above, that moulding around the window? We did that. None of our other windows have moulding. It seems like a small thing, but it made a huge difference. It’s like– nothing here is awful, and I can’t complain; it’s just a bunch of small, tiny changes I would make that I know would make a tremendous visual impact.

… Well, okay. Most of them aren’t small. Heh. Here’s a run-down of my fantasy home redo:

I’d want them in the whole house, but Jason thinks first floor only. I also want more variance and a hand-scraped look, but Jason wants a uniform smooth color. These are Armstrong engineered oak in a 7 inch plank, and they’re my current top choice. Although– let’s be honest– I’d be happy with anything.

Ah, my kitchen. Right now, it’s white appliances, beige counters, and the most boring light wood cabinets you can imagine. But in my dream, it’s this:

I know they’re not everyone’s style, but I’m a huge fan of white cabinets (if done correctly). I think a clean, Shaker-style panel works best; especially paired with satin nickel pulls. These are a laminate option from Thomasville. Open shelving would be a dream, glass-front cabinet doors would be equally lovely. I actually like the white-on-white in this kitchen, although for our own house I’d like a Corian countertop called Earth.

Jason, I know, wants to go darker and more expensive– I think his dream would be a black granite– but for me, there’s something so organic and warm about this countertop. I’m just in love with it.

When we bought this house, we had enough wiggle room in our budget to either upgrade inside the home (like a pimped out kitchen), or to upgrade the actual floorplan. We opted for floorplan, because it would be more costly to change size and exterior down the line. One of the upgrades we made was to add a covered patio in the back. It’s right off the dining room, and it’s actually very pretty, with a paneled ceiling and a fan option– and we’ve done nothing with it since we moved in. It’s become the space of abandoned projects and outgrown toys. We’ve never bought a grill. We keep talking about it, but so far: nothing. There’s no seating to speak of, minus a single recliner Jason’s brother brought down this summer. It’s just– it just needs a lot of help.

I’d love something like this:

That’s the Pottery Barn Chesapeake outdoor dining set. It doesn’t have to be brand name; I just like solid wood furniture. Some string lantern lights would be perfect. Or– in my wildest dreams– we turn the current eat-in nook into part of the kitchen, and make our current backdoor into French doors, and our current patio into an enclosed dining room. (In my WILDEST dreams.)

But those are my big-ticket things. Those are Lottery or Big Promotion things. Things that are more realistic, and that I would be grateful for:

Wall-mounting the TV in our bedroom.