trim up in the house!

When we bought our house there was lovely brownish pinkish carpet throughout with the exception of laminate floors in the bathroom and kitchen.  My husband pulled up all the carpet and I rolled around sitting on his skateboard pulling out the staples with pliers.  The skateboard idea was great and I highly recommend it.  Saved my back and knees.  The wood floors underneath were in decent shape and looked nice once they were refinished but we were left with baseboards that look like this in many areas.

 Beat up with some funky gaps.  We are still in the process of painting them all white.  Clearly some quarter round was in order to fill these gaps and finish it off.  The thing is I'm not the best at measurement and precise cutting.  I'm more of a make it up as you go along kinda gal.  I have seen so much inspiration in blogland and what I lack in expertise I can make up for with pure stubbornness. I'm a long way from a board and batten wall but I'm managing to install our quarter round just fine with a little coaching.

Lots of gaps to be filled with my cutting skills.

They are filling in nicely though.  Pay no mind to the dirty floors please.  Some paint to touch it up and I think it will look pretty nice!  It is amazing to me what these little things do for a house.  Such a small thing really but makes it looks soooo much more finished.

I have completed about 3% of the house thus far.  Perhaps I won't be feeling so proud and peppy as it drags on but at this moment I have to tell you I'm pretty psyched.  Isn't it nice when you do something you were pretty sure you would stink at?

The Shady Porch
Its Overflowing

Living Little

http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/houses/anderjack/

Look at this lovely little home from Tumbleweed houses.  Did living little ever look so appealing?! Ok our house isn't this little and it isn't this scenic either but it is fairly small.  It works really well for us and we're very fond of our little ranch home.  As anyone with an older home knows, large closets and lots of storage space wasn't really a big thing way back but our house makes efficient use of space and it fits our small family well.  I love the ease of caring for a toddler in a small ranch home.  No stairs to worry about except the basement stairs that are safely behind a door.  I can keep an eye and ear on him at all times with ease.  It is not easy to hide a mess in here since upon entering the front door you are standing in the living room and have a clear view to the kitchen, dining room, hall way, one of the bedrooms and the bathroom.  It can be a good thing and forces me to keep things tidy and fight the clutter which can be against my nature. 

Little homes are gaining popularity but not here in northern NJ where large is still king!  We would love a larger home someday but not much larger.  An upgrade to 4 bedrooms instead of 3 and at least another bathroom since living with one bathroom can have its challenges.  A larger kitchen would be nice but other than that our "dream home" wouldn't be terribly big.  With a larger size would come more cleaning, higher costs for maintenance and much more time spent caring for our home rather than enjoying living in it.  It can be hard not to get swept up into wishing for bigger all the time.  What about you...    are you living little?  Do you dream of a larger house?  Do you have a large house but would like to downgrade and live smaller? 


Coming next... our house tour!