Home Tour

Debbie featured our Home Tour yesterday on her blog -
Debbiedoo's

I can't even begin to tell how great it felt to have been asked by Debbie.  She's been such an inspiration since I started blogging which was almost exactly one year ago.

I've added the tour as a permanent tab to my blog so please come by and visit anytime...you never know when I might change things around :)  As my girls say "mommy always makes the house look different".  They come home from school almost everyday to see what has been moved or changed.

Hi and welcome to Fern Avenue where you can tour our newly rebuilt custom home.  I enjoy blogging, decorating, creating, recreating, DIY, crafting and redoing furniture. 

I live in the Hudson Valley of New York with my husband of 6 years and our 2 little girls - Kaitlyn who just turned 5 and Shea who just turned 3.  Life is ever so busy with these 2 sweet girls keeping us on our toes (literally).  We are very fortunate to live in the Hudson Valley.  It has some of the greatest hiking trails and some really fascinating history.

We purchased our home last May 2012 that sits on a little over 3 acres.  We had started renovations on Mothers Day, and a month later our home caught on fire on June 15, 2012 (the night prior to our 5th anniversary).  We rebuilt our home, and fortunate for us that my husbands uncle builds homes...he did an amazing job.  Uncle Dave was a savior and I feel so blessed to have him in our lives.

With our family and friends by our side the rebuild of our house WAS bigger & better!!  This was our 5th anniversary present from our family the day after our fire....

We have only been in our home since February 2013.  I pretty much took on redoing most of our furniture that we have replaced, and still have many projects that I am working on...so stay tuned for future updates.  My journey led me going to auctions, flea markets, thrift stores, tag/yard sales, etc to find new/old furnishings.  I started Fern Avenue to keep track of our journey and it has taken me on a completely different ride than I ever imagined....and all for the better.

So, please grab a refreshing beverage, sit back, relax and enjoy!

With the first floor being an open concept, our living room, dining room and kitchen is all one big open area.  We have big windows throughout the house.  When you enter the home looking straight out to the right is floor to ceiling large corner windows with sliders that lead out to the deck.  We have an amazing view and partial view of the Hudson River.  Our wall color for downstairs is Basketry by Benjamin Moore.

I love to cook and we truly enjoy having lots of family and friends over.  We wanted our home to feel comfortable and inviting.  The kitchen is my space and I wanted it to be opened to the entire living area.

Looking directly into the kitchen from the dining area

Our pantry was originally going to be a downstairs half bath, but I didn't like where it was in the room for that.  The door would of course be on the side by the front door.  I had other plans...I wanted a walk-in pantry since we already were putting in 3 full bathrooms in the house...

And, our Nellie keeps a good eye on all that enter...

Some of my favorite things are.....

Pantry Door

It's first hanging!

Love this door.  When I brought this door home (it was blue and had about 16 layers of paint), Uncle Dave just shook his head.  I asked him if they could rework the entry into the pantry to be arched (it was originally a normal square door frame, and I knew he would say yes) :).  After the door was hung, and the house was near completion, Uncle Dave told me he had his doubts with the things I was bringing in, but when all said and done he was impressed.  This door caught the attention of many as the days went by and still does.

Kitchen Island

Kitchen Island makeover can be found here.  This island was a workbench and was a hunter green color.

Custom Built Table

You can read about the kitchen table in this blog post.

Hall Tree

I made this lovely hall tree from a door I got at Habitat for Humanity for $20 and the dresser at an estate sale for $5.  By far one of my favorite furniture rehab projects to date.  You can read about the hall tree in this blog post.


On the first floor we also have a guest suite with a large bathroom with stand up shower.  We still have work going on in the guest suite, but I promise to have an update with pictures very soon.

Heading upstairs you will find the girl's room, playroom, master suite and our upstairs living area..

Our common area (living room) is where the girls (and all the cousins & friends) watch TV and hang out.  The color is Shabby Chic by Benjamin Moore.

A little side table I purchased for $5 at Habitat for Humanity and just recently refinished

Bench made by my PaPa...look at how much paint is splattered! It originally had carpet on the top.  It was stapled and glued...guess his idea was not for anyone to remove it.

I can't even tell you how old the bench is, I know it is older than I am so it is close to 40 at least.  My PaPa built homes in Oklahoma and I can remember walking through some of the homes when they were first being framed and I had an instant love with the smell of cut wood!  I remember as our home was being built and after the first or second time I walked through the newly framed home, I had a dream and saw my grandpa and he hugged me tightly and nodded his head as he walked away...   I believe he was with me as our home was being rebuilt.

PaPa and me...1979

Both girls love ballet and ballerinas along with pink and purple.  This room was designed just for them with their very first ballet recital outfits hanging on the wall.  You will also find their first ballet shoes displayed on their shelf above the dresser.  There is also a pair of vintage pointe shoes.  Each of the girls bed sits in the slopes and in the dormer is a dresser I recently redid for them.  The color is Lily Lavender by Benjamin Moore.

With playroom rules and a room full of goodies, you will find the littles in the playroom almost all the time.  They are both book crazy (can you tell?).  Both the bookcase and the armoire are recent additions that I painted for the girls.  I did the armoire so they would have a place to hang up all of their dress-up clothes.  The color of the walls in here is called Baja by Behr.

This is the girls bathroom.  It also functions as the upstairs bathroom for guest.  I redid the vanity and it says "Hot Baths soap & towel extra....25 cents.  I used a reverse stencil effect by using my silhouette cutter.  The paint color is called Tea Time by Behr.

With over 500 square feet of space, our bedroom is our calm place with views of the Hudson Valley through a big picture window.  The curtains I made from fabric purchased at Hobby Lobby (no sew....just the way I like it :) ).  The headboard was an old window with broken glass that I purchased at Habitat for Humanity.  The jewelry armoire I redid in Collette from the Maison Blanche paint company - you can read about that on my blog here.  Our wall color is Mushroom Bisque by Behr.

I had a lot of fun when designing our bathroom.  I purchased this dresser and redid it to turn into a vanity.  I have always wanted a copper sink and so it was a match made here.  The color is Navajo White by Behr.

The long mirror was made by my dad over 15 years ago.  I love it and think it feels right at home here.  

Coming back down the stairs you will see our little cubby.  I redid this dresser that you can read about here. I used wrapping paper on the drawers.

We are in the midst of landscaping the yard.  Our land took quite a tearing up when we were starting the rebuild process.  You can see and read about where we are to date HERE.    I will be providing an updated Home Tour with the outside and the Guest Room Suite, so I hope you will return and visit us.

I will leave you with a snippet of our view.  The bridge you can see in the pictures is of the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge that crosses the Hudson River.

History

          The most traveled of the New York State Bridge Authority’s bridges, the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge carries more than 25 million crossings a year on Interstate 84. Preceding construction of the bridge, tradition has it that Native Americans regularly crossed the Hudson River at the point between what is now Beacon and Newburgh, long before Europeans arrived in America.
          In 1743, an “official” ferry was established when Alexander Colden received a royal charter from King George II to carry passengers and goods for profit. The American Revolution brought national importance to the ferry, making it possible to keep open communication between patriots in New England and the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
          George Washington and both John and Samuel Adams used the ferry to lead armies. By the nature of the territory, George Washington was convinced to set up headquarters in the area before the Battle of Yorktown and to use the site to oversee British withdrawal following Cornwallis’ surrender.

HOME is where is were your story begins... 

I hope you all enjoyed the tour of our home.  We love having guests come over, so feel free to stop in to visit anytime.

~ The Ferns 

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