When we were looking at houses, it was not all that important to me that we have a dining room.  We are not entertainers, and if people do come over, they are welcome to eat on the furniture just like we do.  When Davis is a little older, we can all sit at the kitchen table.  In spite of all that, the house we found (and love) has a dining room.  It opens to the kitchen and the living room.
     We knew we wouldn’t use this for dining all that often (although we have occasionally), so I was envisioning more of a dining/office/workroom (you know for all my crafting lesson planning).  That is not what we moved into.  In my haste to get some paint on the walls, I did not take a single before picture, so these are from the listing photos.

     That’s all I’ve got, folks.  The previous owners left the window treatments and the light fixture.  We promptly removed both.  I knew going in that we wanted to rotate the layout (just like we did in the living room), so that everything was facing the front of the house.  We used the same paint in here as we did in the kitchen, and it really helps the navy living room not feel quite so dark.
     We had no dining room furniture when we moved, but rather than buying a whole suite, we found some pieces here and there to make this space more functional.  I’ve been doing my blogging, lesson planning, and the occasional craft in here.  It’s like I’m a supermom…   I’m still on the hunt for some more chairs, but I will be back soon(ish) with an after(ish) post.

     Oh Davis…Mama is late with this one, but you have been so busy being nine months old!  You are everywhere this month.  No walking yet, but you go anywhere you want – fast.  You are still so wild, but you are such a good baby!

     There was no slowing down this month!  You are still so fast and busy and wild.  Your crawl is almost a little aggressive…you stomp your hands and knees.  Sometimes, you even “run;” you put your head down and do a fast power crawl, and it is so funny!  You can pull up on absolutely anything and cruise around with no problems.  You haven’t been climbing in the shelves as much this month, but you can pull things off when you want (even the heavy book basket).
     Because you’re such a mover, you want everybody else to be a mover too.  If you’re playing and I’m sitting (or Heaven forbid, eating a snack), you make it known that you are displeased.  Your absolute favorite is when your daddy or I lay in the floor, and you can crawl all over us like a jungle gym.  You are learning how to mind…or not, and it is really fun to watch.  You know what “no” means, but you don’t always mind.  You know what I mean when I tell you to close the cabinets…but you don’t always do it.  Every day you are becoming more of your own person, and you love to make your own decisions!

I did not realize how blurry this picture was, but you and Della and Suzanne had the best time wagonning all over the neighborhood!

Loves
Going
Following Daddy
Food
Opening cabinets
Pulling up
Cruising
Bathtime

This was one of the rare moments you wanted to be in my lap…sort of.

Stats
Length: 28 1/4 in. (50th percentile)
Weight: 20 lb. (50th percentile)
Head: 46 3/4 cm. (90th percentile)
Eating: 8 oz. at 6 a.m., 10 a.m., 2 p.m., and 6 p.m. You still take 3 meals a day and a snack.  You pretty much never have baby food unless we’re out somewhere or in a big hurry.  You love bananas, applesauce, beans of any kind, chicken, sweet potatoes, saltines… You ate an entire can of sweet potatoes for dinner the other night. Oink.
Sleeping: 7:00ish to 6:00ish and one or two naps (one at school, two at home)

 
You have mastered object permanence…when something is gone, you want it back.  In this case, it was me.  I walked away for a literal second, and you were too overcome to finish dinner.  Getting those two bottom teeth has made you a little dramatic.
You also love to sit at the front door and look at the neighbors!  You are very social.

We like to visit Daddy at work, but that long hallway is a beast when I’m carrying you!  You are excited to see Daddy no matter where we are or what time it is.  When we both go in to wake you up, you get so excited and bounce back and forth between the two of us.  You know who your people are.

       
You have so much to do…pictures are low on your list of priorities.  It took Daddy and me to get these pictures, and it was still a circus!

             
Davis Malcolm, I didn’t realize how big you look until these pictures were all next to each other!

     Today is the day!  I actually took pictures of our fancy new living room and am so excited to share them!  We’re not exactly done with this room, but we are 99% closer than we were.  Before I start, how about a big, fat round of applause for Keith, my DIY, painting hero.

     We love it.  My sister is the one who starting this navy train rolling.  Her living room is a fun green-ish gold (that sounds ugly, but it is soooo fun), and I needed a bold living room too…because I’m a little sister, and that’s what we do.  I obviously didn’t want the same color, and I couldn’t wrap my head around a bright blue.  We couldn’t do kelly green because of my favorite chair, and yellow was a no because 1. no and 2. yellow looks bad on me.  I was very scared of navy, and the fear didn’t go away until the entire room was done, but I’m in love.  After approximately 568,746,351 paint chips and four samples, we went with Rogue Blue by Valspar. 

     Like any sane person, I was worried that the blue would be too dark (especially since this room only has one window), but it’s much brighter than I expected.  The vaulted ceiling keeps things from feeling too gloomy, and looking from the front of the room, you can see into the kitchen and dining room which are both very light.  Looking from the other angle, you see the window with light colored curtains.

     The window isn’t huge, but we cheated its size by hanging the curtains at the edge of the window, so you’re getting the full amount of light through it.  We keep the door open a lot during the day when it’s nice, and the really helps out too. 

     This is not a true representation of the color; it’s way too dark! The first and second picture are much better, but I wanted to show all angles.  At some point we would love to rip up the carpet and do wood floors in here, the dining room, and down the hall.

     Making this crazy bold choice has really made this feel like our house.  I like things that are a little different, and my decorating style is definitely my own (I’m not beige.), and this room came together just how I wanted it to.  I’m left to assume that Keith feels just as passionately, because he would not have climbed these walls otherwise.
     Next on my list to blog about is the dining room…another favorite!  You can see it in some of these pictures, but I’ll be back with alllllll the details…sometime.  In the meantime, I’ll be cozied up in my favorite room in the house.

     Now that we’ve been here for six months and have painted nearly every wall, it’s high time that I actually take pictures and share them. Our living room is pretty much done, but it wouldn’t be a reveal if I didn’t show you the extremely gold befores. Please know that when I say “gold,” I do not mean in the fabulous Olympics way…I mean in the harvest gold horror kind of way.

If you’re in the math business, calculate that we have 12 shelves that are 6 feet wide by 1 foot deep. We have 72 square feet of shelf. Just reading that makes me feel like I need to dust. This picture is taken in the corner by the front door.

This is the same wall as above but in the other corner with my back to the front window.

     Let’s discuss the carpet. It may look unassuming and neutral. It’s not. It is white interwoven with red and green specks. I do not love it…we’re going to look at some other options very soon. We want to do a dark hardwood in the living room, dining room, and down the hall.

The top is taken with my back to the dining room. The bottom is taken with my back to the kitchen. The spots on the wall are not avant garde art choices. They’re spackle and paint samples. We’re going bold.

     We love our new house, and I love my husband for climbing these tall, tall walls to paint. The new living room feels like ours (which is great since it is…). I almost chickened out on the paint color, but once it was done and I took a few breaths…it was love. Give me some time to pick up Davis’s toys, and I’ll get some pictures of the finished product!