Were You Raised In A Barn?!

Summer is in full swing at the Fiorucci house and with it is lots of outdoor fun.

Our sliding door receives much use as it is the main entrance into the backyard

and all the neighborhood fun that awaits.
We have more people knocking at our sliding door than we do our front door in the summer months!

Spending the winter laying down new wood floors, I often thought about how to protect them from the summer's sun.

Do I go back to curtains and cover up the big, new and beautiful trim I just put up?

When indecision plagues me like this I don't do a thing.

I have learned if I don't love it as an idea, I won't when it's done.

Then an opportunity came-a-knockin'.  

While sitting at my desk at work, a man came in to take care of an order he wanted.
As he leaves he asks me if I have horses.

I must admit, this is the strangest question I've heard at my work.
Telling him no, I asked him why.
Seems he had been working on a horse barn that day and salvaged 

a cedar and steel horse stall barn door with it's track and thought if I had horses I might want it.

I may have squealed.

Ok, I did.

I leapt out of my chair and followed him to his truck and bought it on the spot.

For fifty bucks.  FIFTY BUCKS.

What a bargain - which totally appealed to my Dutch heritage.

This bad boy is going to be my new "curtains" for my slider.

Pardon the fact the door is laying on it's side.

This is the backside which will be visible in the family room.
The possibilities are endless what I can do with this blank slate.

The rustic look of this door makes me swoon.

My boys run in and out of the slider door several times a day and as with most kids, quite often forget to close the door.

When staring at a wide open slider door, I will admit I often ask my kids

"What?  Were you born in a barn?!?!"

Now they will be able to answer, "Well, kinda Mom. And it's your fault."

Until then, this is what I have to get working on.
Cleaning up thirty plus years of barn life.

I can hardly wait until this project is complete!

Projects & Pictures

The list of renovations we decided on doing wasn't too long of a list.

But it was a lot of work.

Here is the much simplified version of all I had yet to do once the floors were completed.

Next up, framing in the dry-wall only doorways!

The Birth of New Floors!

After tearing up our old floors we began laying down the new laminate wood flooring.

The first two rows are a tad tricky. 

It isn't until the 3rd and 4th rows do the pieces really begin to feel locked into place and stop moving around.

With just a few rows in place, my excitement was a little, um, over-the-top. 
I'm lucky my family loves me.

Keeping the sub floor free of debris is important and every few rows, I'd fire up the shop vac and suck up anything I could find. 

There may have been a few Nerf bullets inadvertently sucked up.

After starting in the family room, we worked our way into the front entry hall and the coat closet.

The process continues from the front entry hall into the living and dining rooms.

Snap, lock, up, cut, down, snap, lock, up, cut, down.  Repeat 7 million times.

Workin' it from the family room into the kitchen.
All those corners and cabinetry made it, shall we say, interesting.

Moment of honesty :  It is 11:45 pm on News Year's Eve when my husband took this picture.  There is no humanly way possible I could have gotten up the next morning knowing that a tiny section of the house was still left to finish.   I was slightly tired and sore from doing the up-down-cut-snap-lock dance moves and my muscles were a tad unhappy with me.  (Crossfit ain't got nothin' on me!) 
So on News Year's Eve, my family and I are cutting, snapping and locking the final pieces into place.

Hey, I know how to party.

A future project will be painting those oak cabinets white as well as a fun idea I have of bringing a barn look to a very contemporary home. 

Stay tuned!

Inspiring Spaces

It's Inspiring Spaces Friday! 

Here are some of my favorite spaces I've come across this week.

I love the rustic wood used in this console table. 

I must say, it inspires me to make something of my own....

Isn't it great how the space that is often forgotten was made into built-ins? 

Giving it a dark color adds that special "pop" of color that is unexpected.

Mixing in stonework on the island with brickwork as the counter backsplash makes for this beautiful and organic space.  Love this!

Stonework as a placemat?  Genius! 

In fact, it has inspired me to do a project of my own.

You knew that would happen didn't you?

Hopefully you've been inspired a little today as well and your weekend can now be used to make your home a little bit more creatively yours.

Take what inspires and go DO.