Our Londry Room

Jul 9, 2016

House Projects Take 2

We recently finished up a few small house projects that have made a big difference! First we added a "drop zone/beverage station" in the basement. We went back and forth on what to do with this space, but after living in our house for a few months realized this area is right off the garage where we constantly drop our keys, purses, sunglasses, etc. It is also in the basement where we watch movies and entertain a lot. We decided to make it multi functional to serve all our needs!

Here are some "during" pictures. Ryan wanted a beer and wine fridge and since the basement stays cool year round we thought this would be a great place for them.

After the frame was finished we added a granite top and custom white drawers in the middle. We have a lot of white and painted pieces in the basement so I decided to do some natural wood shelves above to warm the space up a bit.

The shelves turned out great! I may have loaded them up with a few too many accessories haha.

No more purses and keys laying on our stairs and having extra space to cool our favorite beverages makes me one happy mama!

Next project was to make our laundry room prettier and more functional. First it is not a laundry room...more like a closet! The cords and wall draining box were exposed which I wasn't a fan of. We had cheap open wire shelving and most annoyingly every time you ran the units they would move and force the doors open. We had our carpenter build a frame and secure the units so they would no longer move around. He made a large counter top so I can fold and organize clothes. He built us two cabinets that went all the way to the ceiling for storage of soaps, bleach, dryer clothes, light bulbs and stain removers.
During pic...

And final reveal! It is such a clean and happy laundry closet now!

I found these adorable clothes pin door handles to use in here.

I had him create this rustic looking drying bar for us.

Now I don't dread doing laundry as much. Most importantly I love that our laundry closet doors shut and stay that way!
Our last project we have completed is our shoe closet. We have two double door closets in our master bedroom and then a full walk in closet off our master bath. We use our walk in closet for clothing only. The two bedroom closets are used for shoes and jackets, but the space was not being used fully. We had the carpenter divide the shoe closet in two and then make angled shelves to store all our shoes.

Love how it is easy to see all my shoes and how uber organized this is!

I also realized I have a Tory Burch addiction.

And Ryan has a brown shoe addiction.

The worst part is this isn't even all our shoes. All the casual shoes, work out shoes, rain boots, snow boots and flip flops are in a shoe shelf in the garage! And before his recent purge and my resent shoe buying spree Ryan had more shoes than me!

We are slowly making this house our own and I am loving each and every step!!! Next project is a big one so stayed tuned!

Jun 27, 2016

last minute beach getaway!

Happy Monday! Last weekend we realized we had zero plans so we researched a last minute beach house and were lucky enough to find one on Ocean Isle! We left Thursday and got back late Sunday night. The house was nothing special, but perfect for a quick beach getaway. I just adore my family and crave quality time together. This past weekend at the beach was just what we needed! The first night we unpacked and played at the house and watched the sun set.

Friday morning we made a big breakfast and headed to the beach.

Graham insisted we wear hats at breakfast!

Ellie loves the water so we took turns playing with her in the water. She loves to jump the waves.

Ryan gets jealous during the week since I get so much time with the twins. I could tell he was loving having lots of time with them to himself.

When I was little I would stick out my tongue when I was concentrating....both my kids do this too!

We built sand castles, made countless meals with sand and made the kids into mermaids.

Here is Ariel and King Triton!

After a long day on the beach and naps back at the house we went to play putt putt!

Graham has gone with Ryan several times to play golf, but this was their first putt putt experience and they had a blast.

We took them out to eat and then to ice cream. Nothing like ice cream at the beach! This was Ellie's face when I said "smile for a pic and we can go get ice cream"

Under our house there were a few chairs, hammock and swing. We spent a lot of time down there. Surprisingly there was a cool breeze and no humidity! It was the perfect place to have a cup of coffee and read a magazine!

Every morning we made a big breakfast. For lunch we would eat chicken salad, Doritos and fruit and then went out for dinners. Each morning at breakfast we drank cantaloupe juice. We have been making cantaloupe juice a lot at house (just like we had in NYC) and the kids love it!

Day 2 on the beach was full of seashell hunts, digging big holes in the sand and riding waves.

When both kids want to go with dad to swim and you can't pick who to go first.....you take them both!

After dinner Saturday night we tried Sunset Slush....pure heaven! Seriously better than ice cream!

We paid the small fee to walk on the pier while we ate our dessert.

These three have my whole heart.

Our favorite pizza place in Charlotte has a few arcade games, but other than that we haven't been to an arcade so we spent some time having fun after our walk on the pier!

For the most part the twins get along, but there are times when they just play so well and giggle and their bond is so sweet. This was one of those days:)