Chapter 3: Creating a Nursery

As I mentioned in Chapter 1, I selected the Hayley bedding collection at Pottery Barn Kids for nugget’s crib. My wonderfully sweet friends Kristy, Laura and Lynette purchased the bedding for me as a shower gift. And this was no easy task since the bedding is still on backorder…and has been for months now. But when my friends set their minds to something they typically get what they want. And that’s how I ended up with the complete set before my due date. What else can I say except they are amazing friends and I love them dearly! xoxo

I wanted to incorporate more of the nature theme found in the bedding into other elements of the room. While searching one of my favorite websites etsy.com, I found a few stores selling tree decals that stick to the wall. I was instantly hooked and ordered my tree in white with pink birdies.

When my tree arrived, everyone told me there was only one person who could help me with sticking it to the wall – Keith’s grandpa Milo. He is the sweetest and most patient man around – two qualities that were definitely needed during the installation process.

The tree measures 48.5" x 80". Yeah, that’s kinda big so it’s a good thing that Milo is tall.

The hardest part was sticking the tree trunk and all the branches to the wall. First, we used tape to temporarily fix the pattern on the wall since there were numerous pieces. Then we had to peel off the backing sheet and use a credit card to rub over the transfer tape to make sure it sticks well onto the wall.

Once the pattern was secure, we carefully removed the clear application tape by pulling it in a downward motion.

There were a few instances when we got air bubbles in the decal, but smoothing it out with a credit card really helped.

It took more than 1.5 hours to install the tree and branches. After that point, I released Milo from his duties and worked on the leaves and birdies on my own. That took another 1.5 hours.

But all that time was well worth it in the end. It’s so flippin’ cute!!!!! (Note: I realize the white tree is slighly hard to see in the photos, but I promise it looks fab in person!)

And the red armchair in the photo was my grandma Toot's favorite chair. It’s super comfy and I love the idea of snuggling with nugget in Toot's old chair because it will be like she is there with us. I bought a slipcover to go over it since red isn’t really part of the nursery theme. I’ve never used a slipcover before so I’ll post an update on how that goes…I’m guessing it will be a humorous. Stay tuned!

Chapter 18: Kitchen Renovation

Let the happy dance begin! This past weekend we had some helpers come into town to work on the house. The fabulous crew consisted of Keith’s grandpa, dad and brother. Let’s just say we got A LOT done...more than we even hoped to accomplish. Keith and I can’t thank them enough!!! xoxo


Project numero uno on our agenda was replacing the floor trim in the kitchen.

The old trim was plastic and got thrown away during the demolition phase. So Keith and I went to Home Depot and grabbed some new wood to match the trim in the rest of the house.

Keith’s brother Andy and grandpa Milo are experts at cutting precise lines with wood so we pretty much just left them alone to do what they do best.

Along with replacing the trim, we needed to also paint it with Glidden’s Dove White along with the chair rail, window frames, door frames and pocket doors.

One of the things I think is so cool about this happy house are the pocket doors. We have three total. Unfortunately, the previous homeowners did not use the pocket doors because the kitchen tile they installed blocked the doors shut. But now that the doors slide beautifully because of the hardwood, they needed a bit of TLC from us...with Walter supervising of course!

I swear the doors probably were white at one point, but 40+ years have passed and they kinda turned yellow. But nothing a little Dove White paint can’t fix. I envision myself using the pocket doors more frequently when I’m cooking dinner and the nugget is crawling around on the floor. I can simply shut the doors to keep her from roaming around the house without my watchful eye. Brilliant!

Like always, the Dove White paint really makes the wall color pop. We just need to spackle the nail holes in the floor trim followed by a little paint touch-up and we’ll be as good as gold. And we only painted one of the pocket doors – still have to two left to paint along with the door to the patio. Sigh! Painting is our lives.

Stay tuned… I need Keith to help me hang some items on the wall. Decorating is one of the best parts!

Chapter 17: Kitchen Renovation

After a long and arduous search, we finally found the perfect bar stools for our kitchen (insert sigh of relief)! I think we were both surprised by how expensive a bar stool costs. To us, something under $75 sounded reasonable. Ha! We quickly realized that might get us one bar stool at Ikea, but anywhere else we’d need to open our wallet and take out another Benjamin Franklin. So that was reality check #1.


Reality check #2 was the fact that I couldn’t find “inexpensive” white bar stools. I know, some of you might be thinking it’s weird that I would want white bar stools to go in my dark maple cabinet kitchen. But trust me, it can work! Pottery Barn and West Elm had some lovely selections, but the $200+ price tag for one bar stool was slightly ridiculous, in our opinion. We searched Target, Walmart, Garden Ridge, Billiard-type stores and even did some internet searching, but I just couldn’t find what I was looking for – at a good price.


So with two reality checks, I needed to rethink my vision. During a trip to Columbus, I dragged Keith into his first World Market store. Unfortunately, we don’t have any World Market stores in Pittsburgh and I had almost forgotten how much I love this place! And the best part of this trip was the fact that Keith really liked the store too…and that rarely happens! The second best part was the fact that we found bar stools – the Elana bar stool to be specific. I fell in love with the banana leaf fibers and how they were sorted from light to dark and then woven together to achieve an appealing herringbone pattern. It wasn’t white, but it was light and natural.


Only problem is that they didn’t carry the counter-depth height bar stools in the store – it was only available online. And while the price tag was right, we feared the bulk shipping prices would kill us. So we waited awhile to make a decision. As luck would have it, we got a special Friends and Family e-mail promotion a couple weeks later. The discount on the promotion would off-set the cost of the bulk shipping so we jumped on the opportunity and submitted our order.


And kudos to World Market for fast and efficient shipping. We placed the order on Friday before 5 p.m. and the bar stools arrived from California on Wednesday. Holy cow!

Besides looking fabulous in our kitchen, I adore these bar stools for being comfortable. We have a nice wide seat and high back for extra support. As an added bonus, I even think Nugget’s Fisher Price Space Saver High Chair will fit nicely on one of these stools.

The kitchen is getting very, very close to be done! We've been super busy the past couple weeks and I promise to share details soon!