One Year in 01760

Well we just hit the one year mark (we moved 9/30/15) on our life in Natick Massachusetts. It's gone by fast and slow at the same time hahaha. True to form, we did not let much time pass before launching into our projects. Our major ones included the mudroom and kitchen, as well as some updates to our downstairs bathroom. But, you know how some things stay the same for so long and you just live with them to the point where you don't even notice them anymore? It doesn't make it any less awful, just that you're immune to the sight of it.  For example, we had a mind to paint our guest room right around this time last year. We put some samples up but beyond that? Nada. The squares are still there.

Oh, and our foyer remains completely unfurnished. Not only that, the shelves next to the fireplace have looked like this since, well, we moved in.

There are tools and contact paper and a picture hanging thing and a shoebox full of Jason's random paperwork and a camera...this room will eventually be a piano room even though no one in our house plays the piano but a baby grand would fit perfectly along with two chairs so, it's a natural choice for decoration. Utility is secondary here. I just want a pretty room :) But wahhhhhh pianos and rugs and furniture and the lamp I want and all that is so expensive so, it's kinda empty and I'll probably be whining about it next year too. People that come in the front door DO ask, hesitantly, if we are moving. I don't blame them, it is an odd way to enter a house.

But basically, we love it. Here, exactly, are all the things I love.
1) There aren't too many neighborhoods like ours - you aren't driving back there unless you live there, really. So it's quiet, there's no traffic, no cut through streets, no shortcuts. And it is all perfectly flat, which makes bike riding super enjoyable. The outer perimeter is over a mile, and zig zagging through all the little streets makes for some pretty long rides! I put Alex in the toddler seat on the back of my bike and off we go.

2) Our neighborhood has a pond! A great destination for when we are out walking and feel the need to go see if there are turtles or frogs (there never are, but I up-sell the possibility to the boys to get them excited about leaving the house) or throw some pebbles.

3) On the other side, we also have a little playground, with tennis courts and a big field to run in.

Also a good destination. We frequently need to get out of the house. 

4a) We have a great front door. In Watertown, we painted our door a fun yellow except it didn't face the street, so it's like, why bother to hang a wreath or something when no one will enjoy it? It's a small thing, but I particularly love how visible our front door is and how much it lends itself to good decorations.

4b) Speaking of decorations, we had two Christmas trees last year!! One in the front foyer window seen above, and one in the back in the family room. Dizzy with happiness, I tell you. I love Christmas trees.

5) I also love Wayland Town Beach. This gem is about 6 minutes from our house.

I've already written about that. But it was my zen spot all summer.

There are so many other things too, truly! The boys have their own bathroom. The trees are beautiful. We are within 10 minutes of any shopping experience you could ever want. We have met so many new people and our neighborhood even has its own Facebook group. Jason has plenty of projects to keep him busy. We are living the dream in all its suburban glory. The only con is that everyone else is too. We live in a pretty trafficky, busy area in general, and my commute to Waltham can be a little nightmarish. If Jason were here he would jump in and tell you that it's because I leave too late (7:30 am), but I wish it were a quick zip to work no matter what time it was and it's not. There are a lot of turns, waiting, lights, stop signs, cut throughs, etc. It's 30 minutes on average of not-the-easiest driving and I'm still working on accepting it.

When we were looking at houses last year, I was looking for a place where the kids could ride their bikes and with top notch trick-or-treating. The latter is not so much about collecting candy of course, it's symbolic of the type of community I wanted to be in. And our neighborhood is a party on Halloween. It is fast approaching, the boys have their costumes and can not, will not be stopped! Start guessing...

Davis Farmland Love

If you have a child/children under the age of 12, and live near enough to Sterling MA, sweet christmas go to Davis Farmland straight away. This place, this nirvana, is not just kid-friendly, it is actually designed for them. Like, you wouldn't even come here if you didn't have kids. I simply don't know where to begin regarding the completely awesome wonderful time we had there yesterday. There is so much to do and see, but somehow it is a manageable, easy, and relaxed environment. We stayed all day and it was not hard to do!

So Davis Farmland is a great place to take your little animals to see other little animals. They sell $3 feed cups at admission, which you quickly realize is the best $3 you will ever spend. There are animals everywhere. Most are in little pens but you can freely enter and exit them, get as close as you would like to and touch and feed almost all of them. The ones that aren't in enclosures just roam freely, basking in the sun and not even thinking about what life would be like on the other side of the fence. It's the only explanation for how peaceful they all were. 

Actually, we were told that the one animal who ever made an escape was this guy:

The slowest of them all, isn't that funny? They found him a half mile down the road. Allegedly.

The goats and sheep, for their part, were very eager to eat. There was no evidence whatsoever that they are tired of the same feed being shoved down their throats by the gallon every day.  They see someone coming who is under 4 feet tall and holding a red cup? They know what's next and they line right up.

The boys held a TON of different things: baby goats, lizards, kittens, chicks, mice...

That mouse right there did a huge (by mouse standards) #2 in Ashton's palm. Which brings me to: just as you are thinking that your kids' hands have been slobbered all over by these animals and you are looking around for a place to wash them or for some Purell...voila. There are sinks and hand sanitizer dispensers all over this place. The sinks and toilets are even kid height! I'm telling you, Davis Farmland FTW.

After all the animals, we hopped on a hayride. This was the last picture Jason was in charge of.

Can you see any four-legged animals? Any hay bales or a tractor or anything that would indicate this is a hay ride? Or the other half of Jason's face for that matter? No, you cannot. I love him but his pictures are terrible (he knows).

After that, we sat at one of the zillion covered picnic tables (that had complimentary wipes on them!) and had lunch, which I had brought, but there was an awesome BBQ stand as well as an indoor cafe. We didn't sit long because the boys were itching to sift for some treasure (which, obviously, they "found"):

They fished:

Slid:

Posed:

And raced.

Not pictured is the Halloween parade and candy hunt they participated in, as well as learning how to milk a faux cow, the pony ride, and all the playgrounds. There were play structures all over the place - plus little interactive and pretend areas, plus a bounce house, PLUS in the summer they have a huge spray park. I just can't even describe how much there was to do here.

At this point you may be thinking this all sounds busy and nightmarish. It was not! There was no sensory overload in any way, for kids or their parents. I would not have objected to a beer tent, but other than that, I literally have no recommendations for improvement. It was perfect.

On our way out we noticed that the orchard across the parking lot was still open for apple picking. We were like, well, we're here, so...$7 bought a half peck and off we went!

Well I've done it. I've overposted for no reason. But I couldn't help myself. Our day at Davis Farmland was a 10 so if you meet my initial criteria, go. You are guaranteed to have fun AND get naps on the car ride home! What else is there to want ;)

Project Preview: Dining Area

Our house has kind of a strange floorplan, having been converted from a cape to a colonial about 12 years ago. The original living room is now just a pass through from the new main living area to the guest room/bathroom and staircase. It is an empty space still (and we just passed our 1 year mark in the house) and oh how I wish I could borrow from it to make a proper dining room.

Alas.

So the "new main living area" is one big open space that includes the kitchen, family room and dining area, which is off to the side that looks out over the top of the driveway. It is framed by two doors - one leading outside (left one) and one leading out to the screened in porch (right one):

There are two walls to contend with. One big one:

And one smaller one.

We really want to warm up this space to make it cozier and a more welcoming part of the room. My go-to idea when it comes to making things feel customized...built-ins! You may recall the ones Jason constructed at our old house. Those were pre-built Home Depot cabinets that he raised and built shelves on. They worked for that living room but...I wanted fancier this time. Glass! Lights! And we went back and forth a lot on how to do this. Should we make the cabinets a color to offset the kitchen? Maybe a dark gray like our old fireplace? Should they be off to one side, using that one big wall?

But the more pictures I looked at, the more I knew something like this would be my inspiration photo:

And because the space is shared with the kitchen and living room, keeping the cabinets consistent was probably the safest. We turned to our trusty Martha Stewart catalog, picked out a few options, sat down with our designer at Home Depot and came up with a rough rendering.

Here is the space pretty much straight on.

 We are going to put floor to ceiling cabinets on either side of the windows and connect them with a bench seat that runs the entire length under the windows. Akin to:

Except with glass cabinets on top, three little drawers and then a box at the bottom.

The built-ins should add some much needed height and character to the space.

NOW for the fun part...design elements! I created this mood board for my ideal choices. You know, if there was no such thing as money.

It's a hard thing because our whole room so far is white/gray/blue/tan. It's very muted, so I can't go out of the box and introduce a crazy new color in the area. The whole room has to flow so I fear my choices for the bench cushion and the roman shades on the windows might end up being a little safe.

So that's where we are at! We actually did order the farmhouse pedestal table you see above - it's from Ethan Allen and we are in the middle of our 7-9 week wait time for it. Hopefully only another couple of weeks before the cabinets are in as well, We are hosting Thanksgiving this year so Jason needs to get a-buildin'!