Underfoot in the Backyard

I can't wait to start on this project for the yard.  Pebble mosaic pavers.  If you Google them, you can see beautiful, complex ones that would take a lot of time and money, but here is a picture that I think would be reasonably obtainable for us.

jeffreygardens.blogspot.com

One that is beautiful, and simple enough to make...

inspirationgreen.com

Maybe we will make them all different animals...

maggyhowarth.co.uk



They seem to be really simple to make.  Build a mold (flat bottom with edges in whatever shape you need).  Pour in a layer of sand.  Place your pebbles in whatever design you want pushing them all the way down to the flat part of the mold.  Pour cement on top.  Then wait for it to dry, remove it from the mold, and dust off the sand. 

I told Andrew I could build the molds with some of his scrap wood, but he insists on making the molds himself.  I got the distinct feeling he didn't want me using his tools.  Hmph.

Time to look for local pebbles.

more to follow.....

Inspiration

The funnest part of a renovation is probably picking out the color palette for each room.  We've been scouring the web looking for inspiration.  The house we live in now has some bold, dark colors, but we're afraid the new house doesn't have the ceiling height to pull them off.  We'll need a lighter palette in most of the spaces.  Here are some inspiring pictures that I found. 

from KatyElliot.com

These doors are from somewhere in Italy and I am in love with this pale green blue.  I love how clean, light, and peaceful these colors are.  This palette could translate into a bedroom like this:

yournestdesign.blogspot.com

This will probably be the color scheme for the upstairs bedroom, although we will leave the walls white.  The headboard and foot board will either be grey or black and we can pull in the green blue with the bedspread and pillows.  The floors will be wood, and we think maybe a large pile shag rug in a pale off-white under the bed.  FUN FUN FUN!!

I'll leave you with another inspiring photo, although I'm not sure where in the house we can use this palette.  Maybe the enclosed porch?  I love this photo.

yournestdesign.blogspot.com

I'm already a terrarium fanatic, so I love these green glass bottles.  It's just beautiful.

Homemade Blueprints

Since we don't have any blueprints of the house, I decided to draw up a general floor plan of the upstairs and downstairs.   I didn't have any graph paper and it is not to scale, but here it is anyway...

There are three downstairs bedrooms, but we will use the front bedroom as Andrew's office, and the back bedroom will be my art studio.  ( I am grateful to have a husband who is so supportive and generous!!)    The dotted line between the Kitchen and the main Living area was a wall, but we decided to rip it out to make the house feel more open.   The entrance to the downstairs bathroom will probably be moved. We are still hashing out ideas over the overall bathroom design.

The upstairs has a lot of potential storage space between the walls and the pitch of the roof line.  This will come in handy since we don't have much closet space anywhere in the house.  The main upstairs area will probably have bookshelves and a sitting area.  We also have plans to install Murphy beds in this area for when we have guests since we will only be using two rooms as actual bedrooms.  Murphy beds were a feature in a lot of bungalows and are great space savers.