The Oregon House

We pulled out of the driveway of the Oregon house this morning. This has quickly become “Home” for us, and I was sad to leave. It felt like we really just got here, got the house mostly set up and then it was time to leave. I took pictures of the rooms this week while we were cleaning up and preparing the rooms for the kids to be here in October. I was going to share all of this in Tuesday’s post but realized it would be too long of a post and I really felt like reflecting on the house and all of the work we did while on the road today. This post is pretty long and has lots of pictures, just FYI!

I originally had visions of a farmhouse style interior when we bought the house, but that was not really the direction we went. I will say it from the outset, I am NOT any good at interior decorating. The Mister and I just went out and bought furniture and furnishings that appealed to us. You’ll notice we are pretty minimalist with our things, and as mentioned in a previous blog post, tchotchkies are not anything the Mister really appreciates or cares about. I hate dusting, so lots of little knick-knacks are not going to be hanging around our house. I do have more wall art that I want to find, but I am not actively searching for it. We’ll pick up other little things that speak “Oregon House!” to us as time goes on.

The Mister found these little red chairs and they are pretty comfy. We are big on thrifting, and look for items at estate sales and thrift shops. The thrifted items here are the pillows in the chairs, the “Live” and “Love” wall hangings and all of the items on the little table, including the picture frames. We hung a cheap TV we bought at Fred Myers on the wall, and next year we’ll get a wire cover that attaches to the wall for the cords that hang down and paint it to match the wall. Next year we will also be repainting the living room (right now the grey changes color depending on the time of day and it has a green undertone which is not to my liking). We will also paint the background of the bookcase and the hallways (downstairs, upstairs, and the stairway) the same color so there is a more uniform color throughout the house.

The Mister really loved this modular couch. All of the pieces are moveable, so we can set it up any way we like. He loves to be all snuggled together, so that ottoman is usually snugged up and becomes part of the couch. The wooden tray was made by his dad, and I love having something he made in our home. The side table belonged to Brad’s mom, and it is there temporarily until we find a table that fits there and matches the living room a little better. The Mister made the quilt ladder for me to use in Havasu, but I didn’t have any quilts to put on it (I know, that’s horrifying to read from a quilter… but I tend to give my quilts away). We brought it here and right now the top rung has an afghan that was my birthday gift that Brad’s mom made for me last year. The second rung is an afghan that was made by a woman who was very special to Brad, his Aunt Maye. The last two rungs have my Modern InstaBee quilt that I draped over both rungs to make the ladder look fuller. By the time I come back, I should have several more quilts with me to put on the ladder!

Through the hallway and to the right is the Master Bedroom. It is on the north east corner of the house and is on the street side. The picture above is taken from the doorway. This room was the only room in the house whose color I loved, but not until we bought the comforter set. It was sort of a bland could-be-grey-could-be-greenish-blue color at first. But the comforter has a gorgeous light blue-green background that pulled out the blue-green of the walls. And it’s perfect! I’m not big on natural wood (you’ll remember that statement and laugh after reading a bit further), and especially dark wood, but when I saw this bed I absolutely loved it. I think it looks great in here! I ordered the curtain rods and blackout curtains from Amazon, and while I’m not thrilled with how dark the beige turned out to be, it still works in the room. The window behind the bed is as long as the other windows, but it’s the only good spot in the room for the bed. So when we re-side the house we will change this window to a wider, but shorter window that stretches along the length of the wall. I think that will be awesome!

The master bedroom also has these roomy built ins, and the doors and drawers open and close pretty smoothly. For doors that have hinges and connectors that are painted over, anyway.

I was planning on putting a cozy chair and table here, but in reality I’d never be in the bedroom using it. So we decided to buy the matching dresser to the bed. Like I said earlier, we are pretty minimalist with our decor, but I think the room came together nicely. I will probably look for a few more wall decor items for this room.

In my To-Do Tuesday post from almost two weeks ago I showed Before pictures of this room. It was a lavender-ish color, which is perfect for a little girls room, but I wanted something different. I seem to really be loving blue-greens, so I repainted this room the same HGTV Sherwin Williams Tradewind Blue that I painted the upstairs room in.

This room really came together just like I envisioned it. I found this metal panel bed on Wayfair for an amazing price, $121.99!! We had a mattress from Brad’s mom, and her previous bed did not need a box spring for the mattress and neither did this one. Perfect! I found the Martha Stewart Coverlet and Sham brand new in the packaging at an estate sale for $15. Shabam! It reminds me of going to my grandma’s house where her beds had those embossed looking coverlets on them. The throw was purchased from Amazon, as was the pillow cover. I LOVE that pillow cover!!

I knew I wanted a vanity for this room. Nothing massive and expensive, but a place where a guest could put a laptop and use it, as well as have a place to get themselves made up because our bathroom is so tiny and has no space for getting ready in the morning. I was looking for some antique furniture to give the room a cottage feel, but didn’t really find what I wanted at any thrift shops or estate sales. I found this vanity set on Amazon for what I thought was a great price. The little tchotckies on the vanity were thrifted items with the exception of the handkerchief that was handmade by Brad’s mom and the little clock which also belonged to Brad’s mom.

I showed pictures of the upstairs guest bedroom after I finished painting it in THIS post. This was the Room Of Many Colors (Joseph would be proud… har har). This room now has an oak daybed with trundle that the Mister loves. We had a comforter set with it but the sheets and the comforter didn’t match the room. I purchased a white duvet cover/sham set and covered up the non-matching comforter. This room is so huge that I chose to make it sort of a mock living room/bedroom for a guest. The table is solid oak and Brad found it at a yard sale for FIVE DOLLARS. I am not big on silk plants, but I saw this at United Gospel Mission Thrift store and picked it up for $6. The lamp and little side table were Brad’s mom’s. The afghan on the bed was recently crocheted by Brad’s mom. She intended it to be for a charity auction that her retirement assisted living manager was going to arrange, but it never came to fruition. I was blessed to be able to get it for the house. The green is not the same color as in the rest of the room, but I absolutely don’t care. I love that I have some of Brad’s mom’s handiwork in our home.

This secretary desk and lamp were Brad’s mom and fit well in that area of the room. I do still need to find a chair for the desk.

This nook originally had a formica counter here that was used as a desk. We pulled that out and I put this dresser that also belonged to Brad’s mom here. I found the container of silk flowers at a yard sale for $3 and the galvanized metal pitchers were from Goodwill.

I loved this pillow cover I found on Amazon. It’s just so cheery! This room is hard to figure out wall art for, since the side walls are half-height due to the pitch of the ceiling. I may try to find something for each side of the window by the bed, and something for above the secretary.

Finally, we come to the last room of the house. This is where you chuckle at my saying I don’t like natural wood. Because this entire side of the upstairs is covered in wood! And… I LOVE it. This is the room that the Mister and I fell in love with when looking at pictures of the house. This is pretty much the room that made us decide we wanted THIS house!

This area of the house will eventually be our hobby area. My sewing room and the Mister’s Amateur Radio room. We haven’t decided what will go where, but we will start working on it next year. You can see the hallway here that has a bathroom entrance to the left, a large closet directly opposite the bathroom, and the entrance to the guest bedroom at the end of the hall.

This side of the room was bumped out when they made the upstairs addition to the house in the 70’s. They added windows and raised the roof line here. The microwave on the floor was to be part of our upstairs mini-kitchen area but, despite having three-prong outlets all over the upstairs rooms, the outlet here on the banister is the only one that is a real, properly grounded, three-prong outlet (with the exception of the bathroom where the wiring was updated and GFCI outlets were installed). The mister left the microwave here until we figure out what we’re going to do with the wiring. I just got lazy and didn’t want to move it for the picture. The wiring in the house is a long story that, if you ever meet up with the Mister and I, Brad would love to tell you all about. I hope you have a while to visit…Hahaha! Next year’s plans include taking all of our multi-colored sockets, switches and mis-matched covers (brown, tan, white) and making them all white next year.

Well, that’s it for pictures of the house. We were so busy getting the house cleaned up and prepared for leaving that I completely forgot to take pictures of the dining area and kitchen. I’ll have to get them next time. We already have a big to-do list for next year, and we’re anxious to get back to work! For now, we say goodbye to our beautiful Oregon and head back to Arizona where school is soon to start, and sewing projects will start showing back up on the blog.

– Christine and Brad