INTRODUCING: RENTAL HOUSE #3!

Say hello to our new home (for now). At some point we’ll own OUR VERY OWN home, but here I am introducing you to rental house #3!

Let’s rewind a bit and start at the beginning. Here’s the story: while we were on the hunt for a house to buy in the Spring of 2020, I stumbled across this gorgeous home and although it was out of our price range (sigh…the Vancouver market), it was the kind of home I could imagine raising a family in. There’s a big back yard and a deck off of the kitchen (indoor / outdoor living please!), 4 bedrooms upstairs and truly, THAT is a near impossible find in this city.

Fast forward a few months and Covid restrictions meant that more and more people were working from home (and I was full-time homeschooling our 3 kids). I had completely forgotten about this house. I read an article saying that lots of families were moving out of the city and that was driving rental houses down in price. I quickly hopped online and did a brief search. Very surprisingly, I spotted this house straight away: the new owners had listed it for rent! Maybe it was meant to be.

While the timing seemed a bit off (I’d just finished refreshing our last rental house), this presented the opportunity for the kids to have their own rooms and all of us to have more indoor and outdoor space and with SO much more time spent at home than usual, we decided to go for it! I think in reality, we were all ready for something new to look at after a year of being inside the same space together. Imagine that?! ;)

So, come on in…let me give you a quick tour of a few spaces I’ll be sharing here on the blog!

THE BATHROOM:

This is the first major space that needs updating. I know some people think that we’re crazy updating bathrooms in our rental houses, but it is the most important room (in my opinion) to know is clean, so it’s worth it to me!

Aesthetics aside, can you see that the bathroom is barely functional with the door opening directly into the tub and shower? Yikes! I believe this is the reason that we ended up taking this house (knowing I could change this) and others might not have been so keen.

KIDS ROOMS:

The kids each have their own in this house!!! This is one of the main reasons we were interested in moving. Our twins (now 10 years old) have shared a room since birth and were starting to ask for more of their own space. Our youngest, 8 years old has been lucky to have his own room the whole way along and of course always wishes he shared. The rooms are all a good size and each has its’ own closet. Check.

Kids Room #1 - Noelle’s Room

Kids Room #2 - Kaia’s Room

Kids Room #3 - Xavier’s Room (we brought his light from the last room!)

Xavier’s room won't be much of a change from the last house, but I still think it would be helpful to show you how we can buy furniture for one home and use it in the next. Quality furniture lasts and looks great everywhere!

LIVING ROOM:

Good bones, good size, good light and a fireplace mantel, which means we can hang stockings at Christmas! This room feels easy to freshen up and worthy of many family game nights.

View from fireplace wall (below).

BASEMENT:

It’s a good thing we’ve been designing lots of basement playrooms because I will finally get to design somewhere fun to play for my own kids! I’m thinking TV lounge area and art space.

For those of you that have read this far, thank you for being interested in our new home! I can’t wait to share the updates alongside our kids’ room designs as we freshen up and decorate this rental house to create a new home for our family.

OUR FALL TRADITIONS...WHAT ARE YOURS?

With the official start of Autumn this week I have to say I am loving the crisp morning air, crunchy leaves and warm afternoons. While we’ve never really been a family with loads of traditions, as the kids get older I realize they live for special moments and eagerly await the months with holidays.

So, even though September and October are busy and full months with school starting and the change of weather, I have thought about ways to make these months special and the little things we’ve done over the years that have become traditions for our kids. They now ask and look forward to them.

Here are a few ways that we celebrate fall:

1. TAKE FALL PHOTOS

Every year we head to the same place with big trees and lots of leaves. While the photos are a lovely way to capture the kids growth each year, jumping in the leaves is a memory I hope they remember forever (I know I will!).

2017

2019

2. MAKE PLAYDOUGH

I don’t know about yours, but our kids STILL looooove play dough. Each fall, I make a fresh batch and get out the seasonal cookie cutters. I love these fall leaf and acorn ones for September and this Halloween set for October.

3. FALL DECOR

When it comes to seasonal home decor, I would say that I keep it light. I love to change things up by adding a few little white pumpkins on the table, some grasses in a vase and a fresh doormat at the front door. That’s it! Traditions can be as complicated or simple as you make them.

4. BAKING

After having the oven off for most of the summer, there is nothing better than warm fall baking. My go-to’s are breakfast crumble (dessert for breakfast basically!) and our favourite pumpkin muffins are a treat muffin that the kids honestly ask me to make them as soon as the temperature drops.

5. A GRATITUDE PUMPKIN

This is a brand new tradition for our family! I saw this idea online and loved its’ simplicity right away. Starting October 1st (or whenever you like!), you add new words of things you are grateful for to a pumpkin (or in our case, we’ll do a mini one each!) each day. Thanksgiving is in October in Canada so this is a great way to acknowledge all that we have to be thankful for, while steering at least some of the October attention away from the excitement of Halloween. ;) If you decide to start a gratitude pumpkin, I’d love to see! Tag #WDgratitudepumpkin on Instagram and I’ll share my favourites. Who wants to join the fun?

Do you have a special tradition in your home? I’d love to hear in the comments if you do!

SHOP THE POST…

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RENTAL HOUSE: OUR TWIN GIRLS' SHARED ROOM!

Well, here we are…the second room reveal of the rental house!!! If you caught the before photo in last week’s post of this space, you’ll remember that one twin wasn’t too thrilled about moving into that room. I’m happy to report that with a little re-decoration, both girls now love this space!

SHOP THE LOOK…

What started with a super basic room (and still is) has turned into a pretty and fresh space for my sweet girlies to make their own memories in. As with so many before and afters, a fresh coat of paint was a big help. I hesitated in sharing this room because the beds didn’t feel right. We have had these Ikea wood beds for a while now, waiting until we move into a permanent house where we could transition the girls into bigger, more substantial beds. It didn’t seem worth buying interim ones for this rental house, so we just painted them white and kept them as is. The pictures in the frames have been swapped out a few times, but the girls love these forest animals, so this is where we’ve landed for now.

After a full coat of paint, then adding a wall of wallpaper, the focus turned to finding enough space for a little storage. This dresser is more traditional than my typical style, but it was the exact fit for a functional side table and clothes keeper between the beds. I just love how the simple round mirror pulls the big wall together. The sweetest little lamb and bunny are from Cuddle + Kind, one of my favourite Canadian companies, who donate 10 meals to kids in need for every doll purchased.

You might have spotted these bookshelves before in the post about how to style your kids’ shelves. I still love the simplicity of these white metal shelves and recommend them for storing books and pretty things anywhere in your house.

In this next photo, you can see the window side of the room. This is South facing and lets in a lot of light! While I typically wouldn’t add custom shades to a rental, it was an absolute need to have blackout for this window. I just LOVE how these turned out and really feel that this fabric gives the space a little bit of a special feel. They are from Tonic Living, who were a joy to work with. You can also find the rug here.

The wood dollhouse is on my gift list each year and has been a firm favourite with our girls for a few years now. It is a big hit with play dates and I’m always amazed by how long our two girls play with it independently. The hooks are old from Anthropologie and the purses are from a trip to Australia. Above right are my sweet girls who I am so lucky to have been able to decorate this room for! Credit for this image goes to my patient husband who took the kids out of the house during quarantine so that I could shoot the room and then came back and snapped this photo for us.

In case anyone thought that their room looks like this all the time, please know that a styled shoot is just that! The second they walked in the door, the girls were up and jumping on their beds as usual and soon enough, the trinkets will be back on their dresser and shelves. After all, pretty spaces become even more beautiful when they are lived in and loved.

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INTRODUCING: OUR RENTAL HOUSE!

Big sigh. Okay. Sharing our rental house has been a looong time coming, mainly because, well…I don’t feel it’s ‘professional’ enough. It’s definitely not my usual type of work, but since last October, home has come to front of mind as an even more important place for our family. When my brother-in-law passed away, the only place we all wanted to be was at home; safe and comfortable with the people we love most and it reminded me of the real importance of our homes in good times and especially bad. That wherever we are, making it feel cosy and safe are truly all that matters.

Fast forward a few months and here we ALL are…spending more time (than we possibly ever wanted to!) at home amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. This feels like the perfect time to share what our rental house looks like, and the progress and transformation of this place we now call home.

Xavier’s Room

FACT: our rental house is hardly my dream house. That being said, I am IMMENSELY grateful, especially right now, that we have a house and a small yard to live in. We are insanely fortunate and I understand that. We were hopeful to be in this house for only a year (looking to buy) and I could see that with some simple changes, this house could become a place we call home for the time we spend here. We are now going to be here a little (or a lot longer)…

The extra time we are spending at home has really refreshed the ‘why’. Why I love to create special spaces, why I want to inspire organized, intentional living, why I love adventures (even creating them at home) with my family and why I want to continue building memories for our kiddos; whether it be through making our home happy or creating beautiful spaces for others and yes, of course, sharing everyday moments that I hope they will fondly remember. This is our life and we only have one shot to make it all we ever dreamed of!

So, in the spirit of sharing more of the real stuff this year…I’m starting with the before’s of this house and will gradually be sharing the afters along with some of the process along the way. The only room I’ve shared so far is Xavier’s bunk room (above) and it’s the only one in the house that is completely done (until now!).

So, here’s to sharing progress on this house (with you along for the ride!) because there is simply no time to wait for perfection. Now is the time to enjoy making memories wherever we are (#dontwait)!

Are you ready? The before’s are unlike anything you’ve seen here before.

Let’s start in the room that made me think there was possibility in this house…the living room! This living room has beautiful original windows and I was able to peel back the carpet to see that original hardwood sits right underneath. One tick in the right direction. That fireplace is a serious eyesore and the curtains make the ceilings appear so much lower than they need to. Hopefully this can all be changed.

Next up, the dining room. Good light (especially with the one working light bulb, ha!), a messy floor plan but liveable and will fit our dining table (we eat every meal at home at our table). Downside is that there are four (yes, 4!) entries to this room…which is obviously less than ideal, but we can deal with that. It will work.

The girls’ room (below left). You can visible see how optimistic one is and how deeply peeved the other one is. Eek. I kinda love this photo. None of us were super excited to move from our old house, but I know the end result will be worth the wait (next house a dream home I hope!) and in the meantime, we’ll make the very best of the basic room that this is. This is the next room that I’ll be sharing here on the blog, coming next week.

Okay…so, a few changes are in progress in the room pictured top right. I don’t even know what to call it. It is warped (floors, ceiling, walls) and just the most bizarre random extension but I can’t help to see its’ potential!!! It’s south facing (where that epic sailor wheel is) and east facing (where the other windows are) so gets a lot of morning light. This room has seen a lot of changes, from my happy office, to now the new school room (in an absolutely thrown together way) . Since the kids are all off school, we have had to transition this space into a room that they can be happy and productive in, especially in the mornings when they do the most of their school work.

I’m not going to lie, I really can’t believe I’m about to share these next rooms on my blog. I have NEVER shared spaces as rough as this, but hey…do you see what I see?

If you are new around here, you may not know that we had a kids’ art space in our last house and it was one of the most used rooms in the entire house. Our kids love to create art and I am determined to turn this basement space into something that resembles a fun art room.

On the right…the bathroom. Yup, this is it. When my husband saw this room, he simply declared, “we can’t live here”. But trust me with this - it won’t be a GREAT bathroom, but I am sure it can be clean and functional.

Below is ‘the laundry room’. Basically a basement dungeon, right? Stick with me. There is some odd film on the windows and I know paint will make this presentable, but still…not sure I can make this into blog material. Let’s see.

This little spot needed to become something. When we first moved in, we hung some hooks and it became a collection area for coats, shoes and generally everything! It was a mess. I can see it as a little book nook so will work on that!

Over the coming weeks, I will share how things are going and the updates to this house here on the blog. If you want to follow along with some of the behind the scenes, come follow me on Instagram under the hashtag #winterdaisyrentalhouse for even more fun!

XAVIER'S SUSTAINABLE 7TH BIRTHDAY PARTY

It’s been a LONG time since we’ve shared a birthday party here, but given we are all practicing social distancing amidst the COVID-19 pandemic right now, I thought it might be fun to share a happy moment from our last home gathering for, quite possible, a very long time.

Xavier (our youngest) turned 7 and we celebrated with a small gathering at home. I wanted to create a party that was memorable and used as much sustainable decor as possible and I think we achieved both!

These giant leaves were from Our Little Flower Company and provided huge impact for the table backdrop. The garland is made from a giant roll of brown kraft paper and is recyclable.

You may have seen our letter board before (here) and we love using it for so many occasions. Xavier really wanted a turtle cake and although cake making is definitely not a strong suit over here, we made one and he was thrilled.

Xavier’s friends joined for the party and we had Animal Safari Rescue Centre come with some of their rescue animals to show the kids. It was an absolute hit and the kids learned all sorts of facts about the animals.

At the end of the party, little bags with National Geographic readers went home with the kids as well as these super cute animal stickers. A great day before the social distancing started. Happy 7th Birthday Xavier!