Wells' Tractor Room

Bedroom number three in two years!

Here's #1 in Wyoming, and #2 in Pittsburgh. 

I don't want to say it's nothing special because it's intentional, but it's nothing over-the-top. He doesn't spend a whole lot of time in there playing because he drags his toys everywhere else, since the last place we usually hang out is his room. So, instead, I keep some of his toys in a box in our room, and everything else that's out for him to play with is downstairs. I do have plans to get him a toy box, but I don't know if that'll be this year or not. I have a few bookmarked. 

Otherwise, I spent less than $100 on this room, if you count the curtains + curtain rod. (Uh, I don't.)

 I keep most of his tractor books in there because those are his preferred bedtime reading. Also, that SkipHop table is always a worthwhile investment if you're considering one for a baby. We started with it at 4 months and he still uses it to play on with his cars and trucks. 

So the theme is "tractor" but we aren't John Deere people. Anything with a red/blue/whatever color is preferred. That's a throw my mom found online and the two pictures on the shelf are Wells on lawnmowers ("tractors"). 

This is "Pap's tractor", that Wells says good night to, hello to, good-bye to, etc.
That shelf (Target, last year, really like it) was originally for the Hatch Rest but I moved it to his dresser so the light wouldn't keep him awake. 

I already had the frames from last year's room, so this was just getting the prints for a dollar each. 

I found this on Etsy. I looked for a very long time for something kind of vintage and not loud when it came to a print. 

 I actually went through all of Hobby Lobby one day two months ago, just hoping to find something farm/tractor-inspired and they had nothing. It was super disappointing. 

But this was from a seller in England and it was like $22 plus $10 shipping and the frame was maybe $20. 

In a perfect world, I'd have found something with the alphabet on it or numbers or something. I realized I could only look for so long, though, or it'd be time to move again. 

So much of what you see for boys is like this and that is decidedly not my style. 

We're the weirdos who don't put anything over the crib because of paranoia. 

I should've taken a close up here: these tractor prints are from Amazon. They are printed on canvas. It was $13 for the set of 4 and I just popped them into the frames that went with Wells' first two rooms, that originally held woodland animal prints. The frames are from Walmart (Better Homes and Gardens) and I mismatched them on purpose.

The green and yellow felt tractor bunting is from Amazon. 

It was from his birthday party so I repurposed it. 

The blinds are never up (my blackout shades are the prescribed Taking Cara Babies method) so he was curious about what was out the window. 

It was Scott on the lawnmower. 

Fall Decorations (new house, weird year, etc) {UPDATED}

I loudly will proclaim fall to be my favorite season by far and I will cash in my #basic card on this any day.....but I don't have a ton of decorations for it. It's weird. I started collecting a little of this and a little of that starting in 2009 when we got married. I have "fall", I have "Thanksgiving", and I have "Halloween". Most of what I have that falls into the Halloween category were decorations I used in my classroom. They don't really fit in with my fall decorations. So I rarely put up the Halloween decorations now. I've never been a huge Halloween fan and I don't know how much I want to make of it with Wells, going forward. The first year, I adored dressing him up. Last year, he didn't know any different, he was incredibly difficult about things, there was a terrible wind/rain storm in Pittsburgh so he couldn't trick-or-treat anyway (not that we were really planning on it?), and answering the doorbell for trick-or-treaters is just awkward to me. I never hated Halloween, though, until I started teaching in Colorado and they forced me to wear a costume and participate each year. Other schools never did. And don't get me started on Halloween and adults; Halloween is a kids' holiday, guys. 

I think I'm really going to take my cue from Wells and how he feels about it over the next few years. He might really like it? If he doesn't, I'll likely just ignore it. Also, with the way public school is going, I don't see how kids could get to have fun Halloween parties right now. 

So here's what I came up with this year...

I got the pumpkin sign and the candle (Sand + Fog Autumn Harvest) at Homegoods last week. I like that they are understated. I got the letterboard idea from Pinterest. I'm not that creative. 

I got these stuffed pumpkins at Target last year and Hobby Lobby this year. I love them, but I don't want Wells to get them so they stay out of reach. 

Runner is from Hobby Lobby. I originally got it for the table but it doesn't look right there. 

This corner is a little cluttered (I keep the bookcase here because there's no good wall for it and I don't want Wells to assume he can climb it at some point; it physically can't fall on him from this angle.)

But it holds some odds and ends of decorations I've collected over the years. Wells about destroyed that scarecrow last year, so it stays out of reach. 

Once upon a time, I filled these shelves. And it's not like Wells is out to destroy my decor...he just touches and moves things and I hate taking the time to move them back. So this is pretty bare. 

Our front door could probably use a good power wash. 

And...I really don't like our kitchen, so I didn't do much in there. I won't complain because goodness knows this house is a million times better than the last go-around, but still. I feel like I had perfected the decor for fall (and Christmas) in our house in Colorado after being there for 4ish years. This year-to-year stuff is exhausting again. 

Are you a Fall person or a Halloween person? I like decorations that can last from September to the end of November. 

Linking up with Emily and Sarah!

Yellow door and things.

I think a nice spring wreath will help. I'll put it on the command hook...that they hung in the middle of the door. Ugh. Better look for a fluffy wreath to cover all that up.

I could go on and on about the disadvantages of renting. It's a waste of money, yes. It's less work than homeownership, sure. Basically it means that Scott can't rip things apart whenever he feels like it and I can't paint a room when I don't like a color. While some of this is a definite plus, some is considered a minus.

To be perfectly honest, we've never rented an "older" house.

Our first house in Alaska in 2009 was built in 1993 but it had been gutted and remodeled on the inside so it was "like new". Our second house was built in maybe 2005? It was still very 2005 on the inside but it was spotless when we moved in in 2011 so I took it, happily. To date, that was my favorite house. Our house in Missouri was probably also built in the early 2000s but was very clean and kept up-to-date. It was probably the prettiest on the outside.

And, well, our Colorado house was a mess on the inside, and we knew this when we low-balled with our offer to buy it. It was 100% intentional to buy a remodeling project because the land that went with it was worth it.  We completely redid it all because we owned it.

Our Laramie house, also one we bought, was built in 1966. So it was older, definitely, but we had the ability (but not the time) to do what we wanted to it. Scott fixed up the kitchen a bit before we left Wyoming. But since it wasn't a rental, it was at our mercy and I did do some painting.

This Pittsburgh rental was also built in the 1960s, I'm assuming. Maybe the 1950s based on the timeline the neighbors have given me.

Good things:
The outside has been nicely landscaped so it's just upkeep on our end. Landscaping was a never ending battle in Colorado because of the prairie wind.

There's a covered patio, nice sliding door, flat yard, shed, and one-car garage.

It's a ranch house, which is what we're used to and is so much easier with the baby (and for the purposes of moving in and out).

It's in a nice, settled neighborhood that is off the main highway but is still just minutes from everything we could want/need. Better than both our Colorado house and our Laramie house in this way (Laramie didn't have much and the Colorado house was far from town).

I believe most of the walls are freshly painted and, when looking at the color choices, Scott realized it was the same color palette he used in our Colorado basement. The paint for this house is in the basement here and yes, whoever painted all the rooms used the same Pin from Pinterest as inspiration and it's identical to what Scott used in our Colorado basement.

The main bathroom has just been redone with subway tile and a double sink.

There's a full Pittsburgh potty in the basement, with a sink and shower (and a door), but it was soooo dirty when we moved in. Not like bathroom-dirty. Like actual dirt. We don't use it and I took pictures of it and the rental company will see those eventually. I suppose it'll be fine for dog-bathing.

The bedrooms are pretty large for a ranch. Our furniture, which is huge, fits perfectly.

The kitchen has almost brand-new appliances and a ton of storage. This was the only reason I came to look at this house in the first place. The person who posted the pictures did a horrible job and didn't post any of the outside.

I like the lighting in this house. No fluorescents. Dimmer switches. LED/can lights in the kitchen.

The basement is the same size as the house and has a ton of storage. There's also a finished family room but we likely will just use it for storage because this is our staging grounds to get rid of all.the.things. before our next move. It's time to consolidate. We did that with furniture before we left Wyoming. Now it's time for all the boxes full of stuff.

There's a nice washer and dryer and, while they're not guaranteed for the duration of the lease (they won't replace them if they break), this was the only rental I looked at where we wouldn't have had to buy a set. We have had our own in every other rental and left those in Colorado. The Laramie house came with a set and they also stayed put.

The bad:
The front door is pale yellow. I don't know who thought that was a good idea, but I'd like to talk to them and then I'd like to paint it navy blue.

The guest room could also use a coat of paint. It was the only room you can tell they didn't do anything to, as well as the half bath. It has updated features but still has striped yellow wallpaper.

The backyard isn't completely fenced in. We're going to be putting up a temporary fence around the gaps, but we haven't gotten to it yet.

I'm 99% sure the outside walls of this house aren't insulated and it's not exactly been a warm winter. The bedrooms, especially the master, run like 5 degrees cooler than the rest of the house.

The kitchen also gets a bit chilly.

Pretty sure the windows are just very old single-pane windows.

Wells' bedroom carpet is purple.

The owners have two locked closets in the basement and we're pretty sure there's pot-growing equipment or something in them. Whatever. Not my problem. Everything is still as illegal as can be in Pennsylvania (even transporting a gun in your vehicle apparently!), so when the DEA shows up, I'll just point them to the basement.

The master and the guest room have the same wood floors as the rest of the house (the original wood floors) but those two rooms simply had the carpet pulled up and weren't refinished like the living room, dining room, and hallway. They're kind of a mess to look at.

This really is just about the physical features of the property, but it's worth mentioning...

The company we rent from double charges us for the dogs. This is the only place that not only made us pay a huge deposit, but we have to pay monthly, per dog. I mentioned before that rental pickings were slim, so it is what it is. The lady I deal with is nice enough but that's not the point. I'm pretty sure I dealt with pure evil in the agent we rented from in Wasilla, Alaska, so this lady isn't that bad in comparison, but still. Agencies are agencies. I would've much rather rented from one owner.

Anyway. Good and bad everywhere. I know Scott hates renting so, so much and I hate the complications that go along with it, like getting bad landlords, etc. If our house in Colorado would've been under contract in December or something, we would've looked to buy instead, but it would've been far too complicated to try and buy a third house right now, otherwise. While renting can be a huge waste of money, it does give us a chance to just reset and decide what we want to do next. We'll *most likely* rent again when we leave Pittsburgh, just because in July of 2020 we'll be heading to another base for just a one-year school. After that, going to a regular duty station for 3 more years, we'll be ready to buy again.

Wells' Nursery

Since I don't do affiliate links, I haven't linked most items. If you want a link, let me know!

To preface, we'll be in this house for about 6-8 months more, so we weren't looking to design a forever-space for this little guy. All I did was paint the walls. They were a light brown/tan (which was perfectly livable), but I re-did them in Valspar's Rocky Bluffs, which is the color I use for everything. Also, there are no pictures of the closet (don't nurseries always showcase a closet or am I imagining this?) because the closet is indeed being used for storing baby items. It's organized but I've already started rotating things out and putting unused items away for now.

My plan for baby was gray walls, navy blue, and woodland creatures whether the baby was a boy or a girl. For a girl, I would've added in some pink here or there. For Wells, navy blue is taking over and that's okay #becausePennState and navy is my favorite color.

We are VERY lucky in the sense that almost everything in Wells' nursery was either bought for us through our registry, gifted to us, or it was something we've repurposed from other rooms in our house. The only things we really sought out were the 3 main pieces of furniture: the crib, changing table/dresser, and glider. Along with the carseat and stroller.

I bought this shelf for like $10 in Alaska years ago and painted it. It was always in our guest room.

The arrow sign was like $5 at Hobby Lobby a few years ago and was also in our room in Colorado. 

The books were either gifted or I snagged them out of the book order this past spring.

Algonquin is a super old book and Scott found it in a CON-EX after his last Afghanistan deployment. It was just randomly laying there and he had no idea where it came from, so he brought it home and, I kid you not, read it to the dogs. Because the dog on the front looks like Scout. 

I need to get some hooks to put on the wall to hold the curtains back. The curtain rods were already in the room and I wasn't about to replace them for no reason, but the curtains don't slide super well. Which is probably because of the blackout material. 

The swing is Fisher-Price.

The chair is from WayFair. It was a close-out last month. $600+ down to $229. I don't have an ottoman yet, but I'm thinking I'll get a non-matching one from Amazon this fall. It hasn't been completely necessary yet. The throw was thoughtfully made by a blog friend.

The rug was bought in Afghanistan back in 2012. I like the colors. I think it's goat hair? We had it in the guest room in Colorado but we've not gotten much use out of it otherwise. Scott had brought back a few rugs during that deployment and he originally said he didn't want that "Taliban rug" in the baby's room...but seriously: We either throw away a very valuable rug and buy a new one, or we just put the rug down. (And he didn't actually buy it from the Taliban.)

Crib is from Target. I wanted not gray and not white and the floors are a light wood so, even though this will only be his room for several months, I liked the dark wood crib a lot. 

Changing table/dresser is from Wayfair. We bought it in April-ish and it's not on the site anymore. The top is removable so it'll serve as a regular dresser.

I initially thought it'd be great to have a longer dresser for the space during changes or for storage. However, they were all a little expensive for what I wanted to spend for a changing table and the room isn't huge, so this one serves us well. We've discovered we don't actually need the extra table space, anyway.

I ordered the watercolors of the dogs for Scott for his birthday a few years ago. 

My cousin gave us this Brittany pillow cover for Christmas. I think it was from Pottery Barn? No better place to put it. 

These baskets/crates are from Amazon. My mom got them all for us because she liked them and I really do too. 

The prints are from Etsy. I have two more, but am still trying to decide where to put them. Maybe on the shelves that are still hanging out in Colorado once we get all the furniture moved here. 

Curtains were $10 a panel at Target. I got 4 panels so hopefully they'll fit wherever we move next as well. 

Lampstand was bought at Salvation Army in Alaska for $9 and I painted it years ago. 

I took these pictures before Wells was born so some of the arrangement has changed but the basics are still there. The swing is by our bed now and the monitor sits by the swing. I put the Hatch light/sound machine away for now because the swing does sounds and I'll use the Hatch when he starts sleeping in his crib/room.

We also put this mat down for tummy time (my mom sent it) and Wells hates it but, hey, Jett loves it. 

Some Wyoming Before/After Pictures

Disclaimer: These are the most un-staged pictures I've probably ever put on here. The goal is not to show perfection or "done". As is with most of this last year, the goal is to show "progress". 

This will be the baby's room.

Before:

Before:

After:

Those are two of the four boxes of clothes that do not fit me and have been shoved into the storage unit. 

After:

Christmas decorations that need a box and lots of things that Scott thought would go into his "hunting room". It's a hunting room no longer.

After:

New light fixtures are on the to-do list. This house doesn't have any ceiling light fixtures because of the shape/material of the ceilings. But I do love the ceilings. 

The living room and kitchen is open and has been painted yellow. That needed to go away, so I used my stand-by paint of Valspar Rocky Bluffs and turned most of the yellow into gray two weeks ago. My plan is to finish that part next weekend. 

Before:

After:

One of my favorite parts of the house is that the floors are all hardwood (like, old, original hardwood) or tile. There's no carpet, no linoleum, etc. The blonde trim in the living room is also something I like and I think it looks good with the gray and with the floor. 

I never assumed I'd be repainting another house so quickly (as I painted the whole darn Colorado house over two years), but it'll allllll be worth it. 

Who's a fan of snakes?

I saw a rattlesnake in the yard a few weeks ago.  You might ask, "Kristin, you spend very little time outdoors...how would you know what a rattlesnake looks like?"

Well, after I ran it over with the four-wheeler, hopefully mortally wounding it, it rattled its way under our shed.  That's how I know.

This past weekend, Scott came across this same snake while he was mowing.  He ran it over with the mower.  I would show you the aftermath but...I don't feel comfortable putting gory pictures online. If you want to see it, shoot me an email :)

Ever since the first day I saw the rattlesnake, I've been on high alert.  I saw no snakes last year and I've seen several this year, whether that's been in our yard (3), on the dirt road (many), or smushed on the highway (several).

My official position on non-poisonous snakes is that I don't want to see them.  I don't want them where I am. They usually startle me.  I feel the same way about spiders. I won't run screaming from a non-poisonous snake though.  They don't bother me that much.

The other day, Scott told me to get the camera and get outside because there was "a snake, but not a poisonous one".

So there's that. 

Happy weekend :)

Starting to feel like home

Our kitchen is not quite finished.  We need to install more cabinets on the wall by the oven.  We need to paint a few of those cabinets still.  We need to order a few custom-made cabinet doors.  We will eventually get a new dishwasher (though this one works so well that I see no rush there).  We need to paint the walls and we still haven't decided on a color.  We also need to finish the trim around the bar and paint it.

But it is 100% functional as a kitchen and dining area.  And for the first time, it feels like it belongs to Kristin and Scott.  For the first few months we were here, it was just a demolition zone (see pictures at the end of this post).  We've now been in this house for 6 months and now that the heavy duty work is out of the way (eh, most of it), I don't have to curl up in the corner with my glass of moscato and just wait for it to be over.  

That's a swamp cooler on the wall, by the way.  I meant to do a separate post on that back in June when we installed it.  It's like an air conditioner for the desert climate.  Keeps that house at 70 degrees or cooler during the summer, using evaporated water in an energy-efficient way.  We realized we needed it when we were ripping up carpet and it was 90 degrees inside and that's not a motivating temperature.  Without this $500 investment (installed by Scott), we'd have not gotten very far on this place.  I have no idea how the previous owner got by without it.  

In case you've forgotten….June 2014.

And here's the in-between phase…which has been most of the last six months.  

These are in no particular order.  Just a sampling.

Oh, you'd do it too if you had a puppy and hole in the countertop. 

I desperately tried to keep up normalcy by crock-potting dinner.

Progress is progress, right?  Goal for December:  paint the kitchen walls and cabinets that are left.