Our Master Suite (Finally)

Has it really been a year since my last blog post? Whoops!! It's been a busy year, with lots of local hiking, some trips to visit friends, and of course, house projects. I guess now that summer has come and gone (and Ron and Mom have done their annual week of work), I should update everyone on what's happening here in Ithaca.

Good food and relaxing on the deck are key to CrossFit recovery.

Now our rainfall showerhead is on the list, too!

Our bedroom has actually been finished for quite a while, I've just clearly been a slacker by not posting anything to the blog (SORRY!). Going back through our original pictures of the house is pretty crazy.

Our bedroom before...

Is that really the same room we have now?

I forgot how green it used to be!

We still have to update the inside of the closet to maximize the space, but our priority this spring was to have a fully functioning master bathroom. Technically we did a half-DIY for the bathroom, we left the plumbing, electrical, drywall, and tiling to the experts. Amit did install the shower doors, toilet, and vanity. Then we decided we needed to customize floating shelves. Now that everything is finished (aside from the backsplash), it looks fantastic!

It really helped that this room was a blank slate!

It was so nice to come home to progress every day, without actually doing the work!

Amit's hard work

We have doors!

Poor Emma!

Are you ready for the reveal??

And the other side...

I absolutely love how it turned out! 

It's even better than what I had pictured when we started.

The plus side to an empty bathroom?

It was so easy for them to give us two showerheads!

So there is my much overdue house update! Let's hope I can be better about updating this blog when the school year starts... 

Taking a Break from the DIY

We spent most of July working on the house, which was totally exhausting. Let's just say we've had a few days where neither of us wanted to do much of anything. But, if you know the two of us, you'll know we also find nature relaxing. Since we haven't had much time for a real vacation, we've been exploring the awesome hiking in Ithaca, as well as the fun summer activities here in town. As a bonus, Amit's weekday off is Wednesday, so we've been loving the fact that we get three whole days to explore together! (And Wednesdays make for some very quiet hiking, it's so nice to be able to avoid all the tourists.)

With three state parks all within 15 minutes, 

we've been getting a lot of good hikes in.

This was at Treman State Park.

We spent our Friday nights in July at Cornell, 

listening to the free concerts.

And eating some awesome ice cream.

During the week, we go for our nightly walk along the inlet.

Emma loves it!

The last time Ron and Mom were in town,

we took a little time out to do some shopping.

Mom and I are going to do some fun decorating with these!

We took this photo on our first hike in Taughannock State Park.

We had a big storm last week, 

and this was the same waterfall two days after the rain.

Unbelievable!

And this was the Upper Falls in Treman this past Wednesday.

We couldn't hike along the gorge because of the damage.

And what do we do on our Saturday mornings?

We go to the Farmer's Market, of course!

Well, after buying our eggs, meat and veggies for the week,

we sit next to the water and enjoy some fantastic breakfast burritos!
(And a little sparkling, fresh orange juice with a shot of beet juice.)

  

We're having a great time here in Ithaca and keep finding awesome new places to go! It's been great to have so much to do when we don't feel like painting trim.

The Living Room Makeover

One of the things that we liked about this house was the way the living room and dining room were open, and we knew that eventually we could knock the wall out of the kitchen and have a great space for entertaining. Since we spend most of our time in the living room, we decided that making it look presentable was a priority. Thanks to Pinterest and Houzz, I had a vision for the whole house, but I'll let you decide whether or not it turned out...

I know it's been more than a month since we bought the house, but I'll fill everyone in on a few more details. After closing on the house on Thursday, we had to go back to Rochester for Amit's last day of residency (Friday). We left Rochester early Saturday morning with car loads of supplies and then we hit the ground running as soon as we made it to Ithaca. I tried to run around the house to take all of the before pictures before Amit brought all of our necessities in, but I know I missed some shots.

"Before"

Dining Room on left, Living Room on right

Another view of the living room

Like I said in this post, we did a ton of work with Ron and Mom. As soon as they got to town, we got right to work. Amit had torn up the carpets before they got here, so we pretty much just got to priming and painting right away. Except for those darned carpet staples. There were so many staples to pull up! Let's just say we're putting plenty of sweat equity into this house. 

Here are some "In Progress" shots.

After priming the walls.

We tinted the primer to a beige, but it totally dried purple-ish.

Emma ended up spending her time at the top of the stairs,

since we were working throughout the rest of the house.

It's starting to look a little different...

After painting the walls - 

While I love wood,

I love white trim more.

Now my look was really starting to come together!

Once we had painted the living area, it was time to lay the flooring. Ron and Amit did an awesome job installing the laminate. I love my dark floors! (Next dog will need to have darker hair, though.)

Hooray for no more plywood floors!

Clearly Emma is happy about that.

Now that our furniture is in, it's really starting to look like a home. We've hung our curtains, hung a new dining room chandelier, and replaced the front door. Let's just say, it feels very good to have this room done!

Now it feels like ours!

(I apologize for the dark photos... It's been humid and rainy here the past few days.)

I'll leave you with our entire living room renovation - from beginning to end!

Updating Our Guest Rooms

Since our house has three bedrooms, and we currently only use one (unless Amit starts causing trouble), we have two extra rooms to fill! They both will function as guest rooms, but they also serve other roles - our office, my craft room, my yoga room, and a place for Emma to hang out. (Basically we're sending the one male in the house downstairs, unless he decides to take up crafting or yoga.)

Aside from the living room, let's just say the colors in this house were bright. While I love color, they were way too loud for us and my calm, peaceful color scheme for the house.

The main guestroom is the larger of the two extra rooms and while it was my favorite color, it clearly needed to be painted. Pink walls and blue carpet just isn't my style, though I guess the blue carpet could be reminiscent of the ocean...

Bedroom 1 - Before!

Now it functions as our guest room/office/craft room.
I have to say, the tables Amit built me look absolutely perfect in there! 

While we don't really have a lot of furniture to put in this room, it will comfortably fit the Aerobed when we have lots of guests. We did the same updates to this room (paint and carpet), even though I somehow picked a very similar wall color. We need to trim out the closets, doors, and install the baseboard trim in here, but we're making progress. We've turned it into a very serene yoga/workout room!

Bedroom 2 - Before!

I love how the blue looks with the white ceilings and new carpet!
Emma loves to come in here to tan and lay on my yoga mat.

Now that the bedrooms are nearly finished, the house is really starting to come together! We still need to finish the trim in all of the rooms, replace the current doors with some new six panel ones, and choose closet doors in the two guest rooms. Hopefully we'll have these two rooms fully finished within the next couple months!