Home Sweet Home…That’s all Folks!

I feel like these last few photos will be used primarily for “before” pics when I get to re-doing these rooms.   I frankly ran out of steam by the time I got to the boys’ rooms.  I have many ideas for future wall treatments.  We have all white paint downstairs and while I am actually enjoying having a totally blank slate, I have visions of  board and batten, vertical and horizontal stripes (not in the same room), faux brick, and more in mind for the future.  I told Justin that I have been known to get the painting itch, and one day he might come home to a newly painted room.  But those were the days before 6 kids, so we’ll see. 

First off, we have Cameron’s BYU room.  A “house divided” was unacceptable a few years ago, but now Justin has come to the realization that it is what it is.  Cameron was brainwashed from a very young age to be a Cougar fan and that will simply never change.  I didn’t do it.  It’s not my fault.  Justin and Grandma Adele even showered Cam this past Christmas with BYU pajamas, hoodie and Jimmer basketball jersey. 

Colton’s room makes up for Cam’s room.  It sports U of U stadium turf and signed memorabilia from Coach Whittingham.  Colton is extra special.  He gets a tv in his room where he now watches Barney, Blues Clues and Baby Signing times during his quiet time.  His special-ed teacher said the compression of a hammock-like swing, which we are currently searching for, would be good for his development.  That, with his new slide, practically makes a playground in his room.  Lucky boy!  This room, so far, has also been Colton-proofed.  The décor  is out of reach, the pictures are pretty much glued to the wall so he can’t swing them and pull them down, and I have a handy new baby monitor with camera that I can watch his every little move from upstairs to keep him from rolling his nightstand around, banging the blinds, or tearing his closet doors down.  It has a talk-back feature so if he starts doing something dangerous, I can tell him to “move away” and he does. 

Wyatt’s room is in the beginning stages of a cabin retreat.  He got the furniture that Grandpa Leon built for his mom, so it is very special.  It is dark since his room is the only window in the basement with a window-well, which makes it even cozier.  It’s the perfect environment for sleeping in…which is not good for school days. 

The boys’ bathroom is pretty sparse.  I already had this décor in our previous home and I still like it, so it will do for now. 

The Laundry Room.  Let’s just say that I don’t hate doing laundry as much as I used to.  We had such a small laundry room (can’t really call it that) before that as I would change loads, I had to balance on one foot, brace myself with one hand on the door frame and grab the wet, twisted laundry with my free hand and shove it into the dryer.  While doing this balancing act, the clothes would often times fall into the kitty litter which was located directly under the washer door.  I swear a lot less now that I have a room that I can walk into to do laundry.

I’m going to take a little break from organizing and decorating to see one of my very best friends in California this week thanks to a very generous Christmas present from my husband.  I feel like I have a good start on our home, but I know there’s a lot of projects in my pipeline to come thanks to “blog land” and Pinterest. 

The End. 

The Man Cave

If I can’t find my husband, I know where he is hiding out…in the man cave.  It’s the only request he had when we decided to build a new home.  I thought it was a little extravagant and wasn’t fully on board with the idea at first, but we have already spent a lot of time with our family in friends in here. 

I replaced a few of his old favorite movies on blue ray for an anniversary present (I know, romantic) and got him a popcorn trolley for Christmas.  The kids love serving up and munching on unlimited amounts of popcorn! 

We have already used our home theatre for family night, date night, football and a UFC fight night.  The presidential debates are even more fun to watch in HD on a 132” screen.  I didn’t know Mitt Romney had so many wrinkles!  We plan on creating many lasting memories in this room!

Home Sweet Home…Part II

Here is our master bedroom.  Justin wanted a main floor master away from all the other bedrooms.  And now I have him and the blackout curtains to thank for the quiet, dark Saturday mornings away from the kids and noise we have to sleep in. 

The crown jewel of the master bathroom happens to be the double sinks.  There is nothing worse than sharing a sink with your spouse when getting ready.  These puppies have saved our marriage. 

Our half bath is nothing fancy, but it is right inside the entrance from the garage and keeps the kids from running through the house just to use the restroom.

Since we are going to have teenagers in the next few short years, I thought it would be best to separate the girls and the boys.  We decided to put all the girls’ rooms upstairs, and all the boys’ rooms downstairs.  Here are the girls’ rooms:

Britney’s Room - I asked each child what was important for them to have in their rooms.  Britney wanted a new desk.  She loves art and office supplies, so now she has a place to create.

Brooklyn’s Room – The design of this room was such a happy accident!  Brooklyn brought home her “scribble art” that she created at school.  It was such a fun design, I wanted to somehow incorporate it in her new room.  One day, I just happened to be shopping at Kohl’s (I never shop there) and saw the comforter on her bed 80% off.  I snatched it up because it matched her scribble art perfectly.  I love it when things like that happen!  

Matti’s Room – Matti’s favorite part about her room is the bay window.  In the future, I want to incorporate a window seat for storage and a place in the sun to read and relax. 

There was way too much pink upstairs, so I had to balance out the girls’ bathroom with a little blue, green, brown and white. 

We needed a place for the kids to hang out with their friends.  The bonus room above the garage does just that.  You can’t see the gaming devices and library from this angle, but there’s a library, comfy place to read, place to play board games, air hockey, school, dolls, listen to music and more.  If I ever hear the kids say they’re bored, I am going to freak out since they have so much to do up here!

We turned the downstairs family room into a game room… Justin and I also had to have a place for us to play with our friends!

Next tour:  Rest of the basement including the boys’ rooms, bath and Justin’s theatre aka:  man cave (he won’t let me take pics until his Rocky poster arrives…and it just did). 

Home Sweet Home…At Last!

It seems as if we are making the habit of ringing in each new year with a bang!  Two years ago, I quit my teaching job to stay home.    Last January we were sealed for time and all eternity.  This year, we have a new home.  Maybe next year we will have a new addition to our family.  That is on the horizon, but not yet…

Moving is stressful.  Plain and simple.  Although we had the help 0f our awesome neighbors and hired movers, who moved an estimated 8+ tons of furniture, there is never a dull moment in the Bancroft household.  Amongst running out of boxes, and willing neighbors running in and out of our old house to help move a few boxes the night before the movers came, a usually bubbly Matti laid on the couch, suddenly very sick.  After giving her a blessing, she was taken to Instacare, where we found out she had come down with pneumonia.  Not good timing.  My stress level with Christmas, moving, a very sick child and putting on an education workshop for church was almost too much to handle.  So thank you to all the neighbors, friends and grandparents who picked up the slack.  I wouldn’t have made it without you! 

Over the next few blog posts, I will share  the results of the organizing and decorating I have been doing in my “spare” time.  We are planning on staying here for the long haul.  It will be fun to see all the changes in decorating I will be making over the years, so this is just a starting point.  This is the 4th house I’ve built, Justin’s 3rd.  My track record has shown that I can usually have my house unpacked, organized and decorated within about a week.  I just can’t function surrounded by chaos and boxes.  But this beast has kicked my butt.  We have been here 3 1/2 weeks and I have most of the organizing and decorating in the main areas done.  A house and family twice the size has more than taken twice the time.

Building a home that is “ours” was one of the steps we needed to take to blend our family together, so I’m glad this dream has finally become a reality. 

Here’s my office.  This is the room I get to collapse in.  Once things calm down, I plan on blogging, reading and creating something in this space. 

The piano room is off to the left of the entrance.  Most people would use this room as a formal dining room, but we aren’t that formal, and we needed a place for our piano.  I am trying to re-teach myself to play, and Britney is moving right along with her lessons.  I put a collage of our wedding photos in here.  I love walking by this wall.  It is a constant reminder of our eternal goals.  We need a lot of reminders to get us through daily life and the challenges and surprises that come along with it.

Here is the gourmet kitchen.  Hope that doesn’t mean I need to become a gourmet chef.  I have daily cooking for 8 down now.  I’m glad I have the tools and space to do it.  I’m also glad I had the guts to put in a white kitchen with a house full of lots of dirty hands.  I love the way it turned out.  I think it is classic, and will never go out of style. 

Here is the birds eye view of our living room.  I greatly appreciate Doug and Milt for helping Justin hang that monster of a mirror.  It is almost 7 feet tall and just the thought of hanging it was causing Justin to have nightmares.  He was dreading it.  But all in the name of decorating, it’s done, looks great and hasn’t fallen off the wall.  I consider that a great success. 

My morning is over.  The special ed bus will be pulling up any minute.  Hope you enjoyed today’s tour and I will be back soon!

Christmas Wrap-Up

I have a lot of blogging to catch up on since our move, so here we go!

Christmas, frankly, was a blur this year.  We ended up moving our belongings into the new house just 3 days after Christmas.  I left the living room in tact for the holiday, but that’s all that was in tact.  It was kind of a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants year, but we pulled it off. 

Since Christmas was on a Sunday this year, and we had 9am church, we let the kids know in advance that they would have to wait to open presents until after church!  Ouch!  We are harsh!  The benefit to that is that our kids looked so lovely on Christmas morning and we began the day with the true spirit of Christmas.  I loved it.