March 23, 2011

Curtain Woes

March 23, 2011/ Michelle Scheibe

Remember my master bedroom curtain drama? I went from curtains to roman shades and back to curtains again. (Read about it here.) (Take a tour of our master bedroom here.)

After searching for every grey/silver/platinum curtain ever made (Seriously. I wish I was joking.), I narrowed the selection down to these 3 options…all from West Elm…

I bit the bullet back in February and ordered option B (even though I am still madly in love with C….I just could not bring myself to spend over half of my monthly budget on curtains….just couldn’t do it….but they are so very pretty…). But I ~~think~~ know option B will look equally as fabulous for about half of the cost.

Why aren’t these babies hanging yet???

Back in February they were on back order until March 9th. Fine. Whatever.

On March 10th I clicked on my order history to find out that they were on further back order until March 29th…..this is like moving Christmas morning…or my birthday….come on West Elm!! Don’t do this to a girl with no patience!!!

As ~~March 29th~~ “back order day” draws near , I have this horrible fear that I am going to wait this long and the grey is going to be all wrong in our bedroom.

Does anyone else have panic attacks about curtains?

Have you waited for something that was on back order for what seemed like a lifetime? How’d it turn out?

March 22, 2011

House Tour- Mudroom

March 22, 2011/ Michelle Scheibe

You caught a sneak peak our mudroom in a previous post.
Here’s the full tour….small spaces are so hard to photograph…

View from hallway

View from garage

View looking towards hallway

Amazingly boring, right?

Don’t worry. I have plans. They involve my father-in-law, some tools, and some lumber…maybe some coat hooks and storage baskets. I just need to finalize some ideas…if you’ve been reading long enough you know that I’m nothing but indecisive!

And because I feel bad lying to you…I hate when bloggers do that…this is what our mudroom actually looks like…

It houses a lovely dog litter box.

Yes, Ike is litter trained. I can think of no possible way to make this attractive but trust me, it’s worth the ugliness to not have to take the dog outside to do his business in an Iowa blizzard.

There you have it. The truth. I feel so much better.

Anyone have any great mudroom inspiration photos?

Anyone have any clever ways to help me out with this litter box situation? The one major problem is that he won’t use it if there is anything in his way to get to it….he’s lazy…

March 21, 2011

Mulch Island

March 21, 2011/ Michelle Scheibe

Sounds pretty exotic, right?

We have been having some pretty wonderful spring-like weather here in Iowa.

Nate and I have both come down with a pretty bad case of spring fever.

We can’t wait to get back to working on our yard. We’re weirdos that like playing in dirt and mulch.

This is the hot mess of a side yard that we started with…

Pretty, huh??

Nate whacked out all of the undergrowth (tiny trees, weeds, more weeds, etc) while I hauled the nastiness down to the tree line. Why do I always get the awesome jobs???

Which left us with this….

Definitely an improvement but there was obviously still some work to be done.

We wanted to create a “mulch island.”

Nate edged around the perimeter with a square shovel to help keep the mulch in the “island”.

He then sprayed the weeds in the “island”. (I prefer to keep things as chemical free as possible but Nate likes a pretty yard and that involves chemicals. I’m dealing. He has his weed killer. I have my spray paint.)

We then went to a local nursery and purchased a truck load of mulch which we spread throughout the island. It took a couple of truck loads. We then realized it was actually less expensive and more convenient to have it delivered. Lesson learned.

We planted some plants in the “island” (most were free from my parents..score!) and we ended last summer with this…