Goodbye, New York

Greetings from a cave of moving boxes! We are slowly but surely packing up the brownstone. The truck arrives bright and early tomorrow morning and our flight leaves in the evening. The count down has begun. I'm feeling good.

A couple weeks ago though I was having major, major second thoughts about our move. I thought about all the growing I have done over the past almost decade while we've lived away from all our family. These years have been so good, hard and important to me. Michael, who has always been my rock, reminded me that there are lots of good, hard and important times ahead too. The next day he sent me this quote by Richard Wright. It's one of those good pieces of writing that can be about something very different, but can also speak straight to my heart and feel so very personal. I felt like this when we left Arizona, and I feel like this again as we prepare to return home:

I was leaving the South
To fling myself into the unknown...
I was taking a part of the South
To transplant in alien soil,
To see if it could grow differently,
If it could drink of new and cool rains,
Bend in strange winds,
Respond to the warmth of other suns
And, perhaps, to bloom.

Here's to another season for Jenny Komenda. Thanks, as always, for coming along for the ride. xo

Valley House Tour: The Mud Room

At the end of the hallway past the kitchen pantry, is a bright, open storage space that we've been calling the mud room.

Right now there is no interior door access to the garage (you have to walk out this door here and about the three steps outside to the right is the exterior door to the garage - another one of those head scratchers in this house!)

(More after the jump)...

Eventually (probably when we redo the kitchen in a year or so) we'd like to reconfigure the pantry-kitchen-mudroom area and the access spaces to the garage and to the play room, which is above the garage.

But for the next while, I have plans to make this space work as our mudroom, where the girls will keep most of their shoes, their backpacks and coats (I guess more like light sweaters at Christmas time?? This will be an adjustment!).

It works out nicely for the three nooks to belong to each one of my girls. We're going to take off the folding doors here and either do hooks and open shelving or replace the doors with something that operates a little smoother. (and pinches little fingers less!)

On the other side of the room are more closets with shelving, and I think I'll use this space as craft storage for the girls (we'll probably put a little table next to the window here for projects) and party supplies. Since our pantry is pretty small, I'm sure I'll have some kitchen overflow going into the closet on the left, as well.

More brick floors to be painted! :)

I need to look into why the closets have that ledge on top, but it looks like its to account for the ductwork. I need to think about a solution there. Maybe just taking down the plant portion above the door here would be good enough for now?

And then there's the spiral staircase in the corner that goes up to the playroom. My kids were seriously so stoked about this staircase (I would have been too when I was young - I loved anything that felt like a hide away or a secret space), but I have to admit that I'm stressing a little bit about having this in the house.

It's the only interior stairwell to the playroom and guest room area, so it will be used a lot - like all day, every day. It's actually not all that cumbersome to climb as an adult, but I worry about kids getting hurt. I have a couple of ideas for making it a little more safe, but this will be one of the changes to the house when we do the kitchen overhaul. I think I'll probably put some flush backing on each step for now, so no little legs can slip through.

Also, I have a really long vintage kilim runner that I'm thinking of cutting up and using on the treads here. Wouldn't that look so cool!? I'd consider painting the stairs themselves a fun color but they were recently powder coated by the previous owners in an oil-rubbed bronze finish, so the condition is great. And it might be tricky to get a smooth enough finish here without spraying. It looks black most of the time anyway, which might look best with the bold colors of the rug I want to use.

Speaking of unsafe, here is the top of the staircase. I was freaking out when we walked through the first time. I was like, how is this okay to leave this huge gap in the floor?! Where is the railing!

I was planning on having to fix it ourselves before moving in (or asking the sellers to do it), but then they mentioned that the railing was hanging out in the back yard. It had not been reinstalled yet after they did the powder coating.

I felt like an idiot because I had totally thought to myself 'what a weird little half fence to put around a tree!' Duh.

This shot shows you that back porch area that we're planning to use to expand the kitchen into eventually. We'll probably also close in this back portion so that there is interior access to the garage (that brown door on the right) and a full size set of interior stairs to the guest area and play room. Right now that area at the top of those brown stairs is a back porch on the playroom that I feel like we won't miss too much.

This is all so far down the road though. I'm glad we'll get to live in the house for a while (during all the seasons) so we can see what parts of the home work for us and which we could do without.

New Hair!!! (and a sneak peek of our master bath)

A couple weeks ago when we were in Phoenix and it was (seriously) 112 degrees, I thought to myself, "Your long hair must go. Like, now."

I have been growing my hair out for a couple years, but I've been bored with it lately. I'm not one to get attached to my hair, and it seems like lots of people are going short lately? I thought it would be a fun change for our big move. Plus, you know, hair grows back usually. No biggie. :)

I made an appointment at fancy Whittemore House for a cut and color (they are famous for their "hair painting" technique - not a foil in sight there).

(ha - just now I was like, what is all over my pants here?! #mirrorsmudges)

I love having short hair again. It takes half as long for my hair to dry and to curl it. But it's still long enough to pull up in a bun or a pony. I think it's fun to switch things up every now and then. This was right after my appointment (and after running through the rain to the subway).

I usually shower at night and wash my hair every two or three days with a volumizing shampoo and conditioner. Out of the shower, I comb in a styling cream in my damp hair. My friends at Pantene sent me their newest product - the Ultimate 10 BB Creme - about a month ago and I've been loving it on both my long hair and my new short cut. It combines ten hair products into one and really does a great job smoothing without weighing down my fine Swedish hair (seriously - check out the reviews).

After combing in the Pantene BB creme, I sort of toussel and scrunch up my hair to activate a bit of the natural wave I have. Then I go to bed! When I wake up if it needs it, I might selectively curl parts of my hair for a little more wave and bounce. In the summertime especially, I don't try to get "perfect hair" with loose, smooth curls just-so. The curls will end up falling down and my hair will frizz out about five steps out the door anyway, so why not try for that mussed up look from the get-go?

I sometimes also use a little bit of the salt water spray in my hair to get that beachy wave and then a little more of the BB creme on my dry hair to smooth out the ends and fly-aways.

And that's it! It takes about five minutes maybe? A huge deal for this busy mom (in fact these photos were taken right before a big video shoot we had at the brownstone yesterday - excited to share in the next month or two). Plus, my very favorite part of all is how many hair products I've been able to eliminate. Lately I've been using the BB creme, the beach spray and dry shampoo on the days I don't wash my hair - and that's it. You guys, I won't even show you how many hair products I've collected over the years. Such a waste of money and space! I'm getting rid of most all of it when we move. There's not all that much closed storage to speak of in our new master bathroom, so my new hair routine is happily working out for me on all fronts.

What do you think of my new do? I'm already excited for it to be a little longer (and maybe it will be more healthy now that I'm not ever blow-drying and rarely curling it?). Also, it's fun to be a blond again. :) ALSO! That bathtub is going, stat.

This post brought to you by Pantene Pro-V Ultimate 10 BB Creme. Thanks for supporting LGN's sponsors!

Valley House Tour: The Kitchen

Oh, the kitchen.

Ever since moving to our little townhouse in Cambridge almost a decade ago, I've dealt with cooking in tiny kitchens. I cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for 20 in a mini oven the size of one cookie sheet exactly. Only one rack! That goes on my list of proudest accomplishments. :)

Our kitchen in Brooklyn is pretty tiny too. Hardly any counter space and awkwardly laid out (at least I loved our range!). So as we were looking for a new house, I thought it would be completely fantastic to have a nice - like really nice - kitchen for once in my adult life.

Well, what I got with the Valley house is the hope for a 'someday-nice' kitchen. While we're saving up for the day (six months? a year from now?) where I can move plumbing and walls, I'll be DIYing the heck out of this kitchen to make it more "me" on the surface. Here are a million photos and my plans...

So, when you enter the kitchen from the music room, there's a little nook space for a separate freezer. My sister in law suggested putting a beverage fridge there, which sounds a bit like heaven for me and my Diet Coke habit. :) Although, I do love freezing summer produce to use the rest of the year, so a deep freeze might beat out a soda/juice/water fridge.

Next to the freezer nook is a little built-in desk space. I'll probably take the cabinet doors off - at least those two middle doors. And maybe put mirror in the paned doors? Or antique the backs of the existing glass. Something fun. The whole thing would be painted and there'd be a cute little chair, too.

The desk is at the end of a hallway that connects to the mudroom, which connects (sort of) to the garage, so the desk here would probably act as mail/school paperwork command central.

Also in that little hallway is a small pantry. It's not huge, but I'll take it!

Across from the pantry are these funny little shelves. I'm not so sure about the execution here, but I like the idea of having dry good stored on open shelving. I even think the thick wood planks could be cool looking if they were lined up and more symmetrical. I have to think about this one some more.

Around the corner from the pantry area, is where the kitchen starts.

To the right is a brand new glass cooktop and a pair of ovens.

Here's where I start to cry a little tear and sigh a little sigh. How will I live without my gas range? ;) I'm sure I'll survive, but oh how I wish I could go back in time and beg the seller to not change or add anything to the house. I'll be donating or selling everything that we take out eventually, but still. It all feels so wasteful.

Another little sigh: no vent hood (again - we haven't had one in I don't know how long). But that's a pretty easy fix.

I'm trying to figure out this brick situation. I think if it was painted white, it could be really cool, right? 

A speaking of brick, welcome to what I like to call the paver situation:

They're tiles made to look like brick, laid in the kitchen, mudroom, two of the bathrooms and the laundry room. That's a lot of red pavers. I ended up painting the ones in the laundry room already for that project I mentioned and it turned out really great. So I'll probably just end up doing that again in here. Part of me was tempted to pull these out while we're doing the wood floors and lay a tile down temporarily while save up for the big reno. After two seconds of thinking about that though, I decided I can live with the pavers, especially if they're painted. It's mostly that I hate that there's a brick pattern on the floor and on the range surround. It's like offset brick pattern overload and it hurts my eyes so much. But I know paint will help differentiate the two.

Opposite from the range is the prep area. The sellers put in a new fridge and a new dishwasher before listing the house. They also recently had the cabinets painted and put in the granite countertops.

I think the space is totally fine - definitely workable. With a few tweaks I think it can actually look a lot more like my style. 

I'll be keeping the granite for now, since countertops are so expensive. I'm planning on painting the cabinets a really pale gray, which might actually look really pretty with the golden tones in the granite. I might be ordering new doors and drawer fronts, depending on the cost. Something very simple would help a lot I think.

I'd love to pull down all or some of the upper cabinets to the left of the sink and put up open shelving, which I think will draw attention to the extra high ceilings rather than shorten the room, the way these uppers do now.

New lighting is a must in here. Probably a shade over the window (hung extra high).

The floors will probably be a mid-tone gray (again - the color of dirt!). (New and chunkier) bright white trim. Black gloss on the doors. 

Four bar stools will go here. (post to come on that - I think I found some winners!)

On the other side of the room is the dining area. 

There are two built-in corner hutches flanking the window that are just begging to be painted and given a little love. Maybe a wallpaper or grasscloth on the shelf backs? New doors and hardware too.

And (hooray!) I was able to find two more lanterns that I posted about here. I think a pair would look pretty amazing over our old dining table (also getting a paint job). I'll need to fashion some sort of cross bar situation so that both of the fixtures can hang from the center beam. I think plumbing pipes would probably work great.

Fab art goes here...

And there's our cozy kitchen/dining area! I'll have to save the full story for another post, but there are two porches on either side of the dining area here. The porch to the right of this photo below is an ideal candidate for expanding the kitchen onto so we can completely re-work this space. I might have to sell an organ to finance it though, so we might be waiting a while there. TBD! And in the meantime, every surface in this space will be getting a paint job. Clean, bright and more modern is the look I'll be going after.