Retro Ranch Reno

A Place to Call Home...

2012-03-12T14:04:00.001-04:00

This weekend was crazy busy for me! We made plans to have the hubby's family over on Sunday...so that meant I needed to cross quite a few things off my to-do list before then! {More on that later this week.}

One of the smallest projects we completed was finding a home for and hanging the sunburst mirror I discussed here.

I thought that we should hang it over the TV to give that side of our great room a little "ooomph". As you can see below, it was mega boring before...

Now, it's much better!

And yes, that is a newly painted console behind the sofa. I'll be showing that in more detail this week.

P.S. - I was lucky enough for Roeshel over at DIY Show Off to feature me on her amazing blog today! Head on over there to check it out! :)

Far From Over...

2012-03-07T17:05:00.000-05:00

For those of you who remember this post, you know our basement is quite dark and dreary...and well, retro. I never choose to spend more time down there than I need to. Basically, I quickly do my laundry, and I enter and exit our house through there...that's about it.

Since we first shared the space with you, we've had a new steel post installed to accommodate the removal of so many walls upstairs, the hubs and I ripped down the ceiling, we had new windows installed, we rearranged the laundry area {with new a new washer and dryer}, we moved in and now, thanks to a whole heck of a lot of hard work by my Dad, we lightened up the walls with a couple fresh coats of paint.

{Here's my typical apology...sorry for the awful pictures. I took them on my iPhone as I left for work in the morning. And seriously, we only have 3 lights in the whole basement. Its awful.}

We know this is NOT where our basement story ends. I mean, come on...it still screams HEEELP!!! But it is a lot better than where we started. :)

One day {when we hit the lotto} we will have this area re-done...so it'll be the perfect place for kids to hang out and play.

Anyone else dreaming of re-doing a specific area of their home?!?!? I'd be shocked if I heard a "no" to that! ;)

Smitten.

2012-03-06T13:52:00.000-05:00

Holy moly, I am so smitten with our new-to-us buffet! A couple months ago, I purchased a Thomasville beauty off of Craigslist, and sadly, it has sat idle in our basement, just collecting dust since then. But thanks to a recent visit from the World's Greatest Parents, I got the kick in the pants I needed to spiff this pretty lady up and get it set in our dining room. {Don't get me wrong...the cabinet was beautiful already...just not my style in it's original form.}

So here she is after I removed all of the original hardware and sanded the surface to roughen things up for the primer.

Then it was time to select the color I wanted to paint it. {And not only did we need to select a color for the buffet, but also for two nightstands, an armoire and a dresser-turned-console that I had bought off Craigslist during the Summer.} We used a very ~~scientific~~ random method of choosing our colors...aka we laid a million paint chips out all over our bar...honed in on the general color we were going for... and then took the "finalist" chips around the room to examine them against other objects, and to see how they looked in different types of light.

After all of that fun, I had my Dad assist me in carrying this light-as-a-feather piece {HA...sarcasm} from the garage to our living room, where my Mom was waiting to take over the priming and painting. Lucky me, I was exiled to our master bedroom, trying to take care of the disaster that is supposed to be our oasis to escape to.

After some perfect painting and several days of curing, I was finally able to re-attach the doors and the original hardware. The second I put the first piece back on, I was S-M-I-T-T-E-N. I absolutely loveeee this piece and I'm so happy with how it came out!!

{These photos make the color seem A LOT lighter than it really is. The very last picture, although not a good one since it was taken with my iPhone and has a glare across it, best depicts how the color appears in real life. Forgive me...I don't know how to change my camera settings to fix this!}

So there you have it...that's our new-to-us buffet that I can't get enough of. Anyone else take on some major furniture painting lately?!?!

P.S. - I have a couple more furniture makeovers to share with you guys. I'm just waiting on some hardware, and then I can hopefully reveal them to you guys later this week! :)

F-I-N-A-L-L-Y...A Reveal Post!

2012-03-02T16:42:00.000-05:00

For a while now, you guys have heard me talk about all this "progress" that was happening at our house, but I never posted any reveal pictures to back up all my jibber-jabber. Well I'm finally able to start showing off what my parents and I {mostly my parents :) haha} worked very hard on.

First...we started with the curtains. We rolled all 18 yards of our fabric out and made our cuts.

Then my Mom got down to pinning...of course, Perny wanted to help out.

And before I knew it, my Mom was able to crank out 4 panels. Yup, that's right, I'm still scared of my sewing machine...and my Mom is a total pro, so I left these up to her. I did not want to make any mistakes on my expensive-splurge fabric. So I stuck around and consulted on hem lengths and the look I was going for.

A couple days later it was time for me and the hubby to hang our off-the-shelf Home Depot blinds and put up our curtain rods. Instead of using the support brackets that came with our curtain rods, we chose to use Kwik-Hang brackets. My Mom found these online and had me look into them. They're great, and don't require any drilling into your walls. That is a huge plus because we didn't want to do any unnecessary drilling into our plaster...although, there was one downside to these brackets for me. I originally thought I'd hang our curtains from the very top of the wall, not the top of the windows. This would help to add height to our room..but after thinking it over, I decided to forgo the extra foot of curtain and use this nifty little invention. It comes out of it's mailing box looking like this....

And the brackets look like this....

You simply hammer the little teeth into the top of the window frame, and you're done!

So our windows have gone from dark black holes....

....to this!

And I'm sure you spotted two of my furniture projects in the room during those pictures. Last night I finally got the doors and hardware back onto the buffet in the living room, which means I'll be sharing it soon!

So, what do you think? Do you give the made-over windows a thumbs up or down?!?

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Happy Friday! :)

Thank You, Pinterest!!

2012-02-27T12:49:00.001-05:00

Ahhhh, thanks to my Pinterest obsession, I was able to finally purchase a sunburst {sunburst, starburst...whichever term you prefer} mirror! Woo-to-the-hoooo!!

These mirrors have been all the rage for quite some time now. I know some people may say the trend is dying, but for me, it's still going strong. It's like the chevron stripe, I just can't get sick of it!

Anywho, there are so many different sunburst mirrors out there, and a lot of them are quite pricey. To combat this, I've seen many bloggers get crafty and DIY their own. I was heavily considering that option, but my to-do list around the house is a mile long..and every item on it is wayyyy more important than crafting some decor to hang on the walls. That left me with no other choice besides drooling over the ones I'd come across in blogland, and hoping/praying that Joss and Main or One Kings Lane would have a super inexpensive mirror that didn't sell out within minutes.

That is until my trusty Pinterest iPhone app came in handy. You see, I am constantly perusing {or "exploring" if you want to get technical} "all" pins on my iPhone, and I happened to come across a sunburst mirror Saturday night. I clicked on it and read that it was a popular pin flying around the site, probably because it revealed a pretty 30" x 30" mirror available at Home Depot for only $35!!! H-E-L-L-O! That is about 1/3 of the price that the inexpensive mirrors usually are! I quickly clicked out of Pinterest, entered my Safari app and went to Home Depot's site. I searched for the mirror, saw there were 2 in stock at my local store and placed a "Pick Up At Store" order for this purty little lady...

Including tax, my sunburst mirror cost me $37.42! That low cost + zero minutes to make it = winning combo for me! Now, I just have to decide where to hang it. Living/dining room? Bedroom? Hmmm.

And on to more pressing matters...I realize that I am so far behind on posting the progress that we've made from my parent's visit. This is because of several things:

1) They are still here and leave tomorrow morning. So while they are here, I tend to spend every second I can with them, and therefore forget to take pictures of things we complete.

2) The things we finished can't be photographed without showing things that are not done...and I don't want to reveal stuff that isn't yet completed. For example...

- The basement has been painted for about a week, but I haven't finished purging and cleaning it out yet.
- Our Craigslisted furniture is finally painted {the last piece probably got it's final coat this morning...thanks Mom!!}, but none of it has any hardware installed. I wasn't planning on re-using the old stuff, and I have not been able to find suitable replacements yet. Apparently, the center-to-center spread on these pieces is uncommon, and it's making my search quite difficult!
- All of the blinds have been hung in our living/dining room, but we can't show those until we get our curtains up.
- Our curtains are done, but the company who sent us the curtain rod supports, messed up and didn't send 2 sets. They only sent one, and did not include the center support...which is crucial when you are trying to span a distance of over 120 inches. We have some major sag going on in the middle of our picture window right now. It is not cute, just like sagging in the 1990's wasn't cute either...

Hopefully my ridiculous babble gives you a little insight as to why I am so scatterbrained lately. I keep putting off my "reveal" posts in hopes that I can show you things when they are 100% complete...but because these projects are done in real time, progress isn't lightening fast. So please, bear with me. Fingers crossed for some reveal posts by the end of the week! :)

Meet and Greet

2012-02-24T15:51:00.000-05:00

I'd like to introduce you to some new things that now call our casa home.

First up, our Montego Fretwork rug for the dining room. I ordered it from Joss and Main when I saw I could score the 6'7" x 9'6" rug for about $100. I love the color and how it feels under foot. You'll also notice we rotated our dining room table 90 degrees. I love how the flow of the room feels since the switch-a-roo went down. {Please disregard the curtain sewing mess on the table, and the blinds waiting to be installed on the floor. Our house has been in disaster mode since we began working on a bunch of projects last weekend.}

And now for the guest of honor...meet Owen. I found this lil' guy at Home Goods for $9.99 and he is by far one of my favorite decorations in the house. I'm not sure which room he'll end up living in, but for now, he's had a front row seat to all the mayhem while hanging out on the dining room table.

This weekend I'm hopefully going to wrap up all the furniture painting we started last weekend...and my fingers are crossed we'll get our new curtains hung and hemmed. Perhaps I'll get a closet or two organized? My goals may be a bit lofty considering I'm driving to my sister's in CT on Saturday to see my adorable nephew celebrate his 2nd birthday party.

Oh, and I DO NOT know how I let this fantastic news go so long without sharing...my hubby and I were blessed with a second nephew when my sister-in-law gave birth to her bundle of joy on January 2nd. {Remember the baby shower I helped to throw back in October??} Here is my handsome hubby holding our too-cute-for-words nephew a couple weeks ago!

And here he is hanging out in his pack n play. {Sorry the picture is so dark and fuzzy. It was taken on my phone in a dark room...but I think his cuteness shines through anyway!!}

So what do you think? Is the new rug and layout working for the dining room? Does Owen warm your heart like he does mine?

Hope you all have a great weekend! :)

Busy Bees

2012-02-22T20:42:00.000-05:00

Lucky me! My uhhh-mazing parents arrived for a visit on Friday evening. Part of their visit, okay most of it, meant lots of productivity in our casa. With T-O-N-S of help from my parents {and two personal days off from work this week}, we were able to paint our basement walls, start operation purge, sand/prime/paint several pieces of furniture, re-arrange our washer and dryer set up, purchase blinds for our living/dining room and sew curtains for that same space.

I also had a couple purchases from Joss and Main and One Kings Lane arrive; and we played a small game of "let's re-arrange our furniture" in the dining room.

I can't wait to share all the deets with you guys! :)

Duck Duck Goose...

2012-02-22T20:14:00.000-05:00

{That's right, Brandi. I'm stealing your title. Hehe.}

So, as my bloggy friend Brandi at His Shabby Her Chic described, I've been tagged in a fun Internet game of "tag your it".

Here Are the Rules:

1. You must post the rules. (And link up who tagged you.)

2. Post eleven fun facts about yourself on the blog post.

3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged.

4. Tag eleven people and link them on your post.

5. Let them know you’ve tagged them!

11 "Fun Facts" About Myself:

{FYI...I really don't think there are even 3 "fun" facts about me. So here is what I came up with after a lot of brainstorming haha.}

1) I have a couple small tattoos. My favorite is a bow on my foot.

2) Up until a few years ago, my favorite color was purple. Now...it's aqua/turquoise. {Those of you who follow my blog probably could've guessed that by now. :) It's.all.over.my.house.}

3) I have naturally curly/wavy hair. I don't like how it looks curly, so when it's long, I always have it back in a braid or some sort of messy bun. When it's shorter or when I "go out", I always flat iron it. I'm a pretty low maintenance kind of gal, so I d-e-s-p-i-s-e doing my hair. That predicament led me to try out a Brazilian Blowout treatment at a salon a couple weeks ago, when I chopped 8 inches off of my hair. Now I am hooked!! I can do my hair in 1/3 of the time, and without a flat iron!!! Say whaaaaat?!?!

4) Speaking of low maintenance, I didn't start wearing makeup until about a year or two into working at my "big girl" job. I mean, I always wore mascara and chap stick/lip gloss, but that's about it. And I'm still horrible at the whole makeup thing. Grrrrrr.

5) Often, I'll bust out singing parts of whatever song I heard last. I'm a horrible singer, but it's fun and I crack myself up.

6) I also LOVEEE to dance. Whether I'm painting, cleaning, shopping or whatever...if there is music, I'm dancing!

7) Sometimes I really miss playing competitive sports. I played basketball, field hockey and softball.

8) I love sparkly things...not tacky sparkly, but pretty sparkly. My grandmother used to call me the Glitz and Glitter Girl.

9) I'm claustrophobic...which makes me hate flying. Do.not.like.to.be.trapped.in.tiny.cabins.with.no.leg.room.

10) I can't stand commuting. I "only" did it for 5 years, but it was 4 3/4 too many. {PS-thank gosh we moved close to work since gas prices are predicted to climb towards $5/gallon. AWFUL.}

11) I didn't believe in soul-mates until I met my husband. I truly believe we were made for each other.

Answers to Brandi's Questions:

1. What are your weird habits?

-I am like a little kid, and sit all curled up 90% of the time. I'm always in a little ball on the couch or on my chair. It's the most comfy for me.

2. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?

-Hawaii. I love the beach and warm weather. Plus, the pictures I have seen are PHENOMENAL! I would just need to be drugged to fly there and back. ;)

3. How would you define your style (pictures are fine)?

-In terms of my home...eclectic, contemporary country. I'm pretty sure I just made that style up, but I think it defines my taste pretty well.

4. What’s your favorite animal?

-My adorable fur baby, Perny!

5. Do you have any phobias? If so, what are they?

-I'm claustrophobic. I HATE being in confined spaces. And I hate all bugs, especially spiders, although I wouldn't consider it bad enough to be a phobia.

6. What would you do with 10 million dollars?

-Pay off our mortgage, our families' mortgages, landscape our yard, finish our basement, put a porch on the front of our home, make our screened in porch a lovely sun room and invest/save the rest for my kid's future and any family uncertainties.

7. What made you decide to start blogging?

-I wanted to document the transformation of our home and keep my parents involved in the process even though they are 12 hours away.

8. If you could offer one piece of advice, what would it be?

-Stop wishing for all the things you don't have, and appreciate what you do have!

9. If you had 3 wishes, what would you wish for?

-Health and happiness for my family, life-long financial security and the ability to keep my loved ones around me for as long as I live.

10. Where do you live (like state or city)?

-New Jersey {And no, we are nothing like the Jersey Shore cast members!!!!!!!}

11. What’s your favorite hobby?

-Spending QT with my hubby. :)

Questions for My Tagged Bloggers:

1) Where do you live?

2) Where is the furthest place you have traveled to?

3) Warm weather or cold weather, and why?

4) What is your day job?

5) If you hit the lottery, would you quit your day job?

6) What is your favorite food?

7) What are the 3 most played songs on your iPod right now?

8) If you could meet any celebrity, who would it be?

9) What is your favorite TV show? Or do you not watch TV at all?

10) If you could redo one area in your home, what would it be?

11) What is your go-to store for home decor?

Tag You're It:

Yes, yes...I'm aware this isn't 11 bloggers. I'm just not that cool, and my other peeps were already tagged by Brandi. :)

Amy @ Buffalo Roam

Ashley @ Attempts at Domestication {Don't feel like you have to post...I know you are B-U-S-Y!!}

Melissa @ Living Beautifully

Regan @ Renovating Rothenbergers

Kathryn @ Makin' It In Memphis

John @ Our Home from Scratch

Kristen @ Turning a House into a Home

Small Tweak

2012-02-17T14:32:00.000-05:00

It's been a couple months since I made a small tweak to a pair of bar stools I picked up off Craigslist for $20. They were in great shape, but the cushions were a boring shade of tan and the suede was slightly worn. I decided to give them a little facelift by switching out the suede for some aqua velvet. I love the combo of the espresso next to the soft blue. And as much as I adored the new stools, I forgot to give them their 15 minutes of fame because I was so distracted by the holidays and company that were just a day away. {Yup, I was watching TBS's marathon of A Christmas Story as I covered these babies.}

So here is their long awaited time to shine. Our drab stools went from this...{yup, totally forgot to take close-up before pictures, so bear with me and play Where's Waldo to find the stool in the pictures}...

To this!

Ahhhh, much better and way less expensive than buying something new!

PS - our rental dumpster was delivered! Time to clear out the house!!!!! Hope everyone has an awesome and productive weekend! :)

One Decision Down, A Bagillion To Go

2012-02-16T17:01:00.000-05:00

Well cross another thing off my list...I have finally selected a fabric to make our living/dining room curtains. And the funny part is, I have come full circle in doing so.

About a week before Christmas, my Mom and I went shopping at Calico Corners to check out some fabric for various things around the house. I needed something to re-cover the dining room chairs, to re-cover the bar stools, to make a shade for the kitchen window and to make curtains for the living/dining room area.

While at the store, we found all the perfect fabrics, but they weren't the most affordable options. One of the most expensive fabrics was the one we loved for the curtains, and after calculating how many yards we'd need times the cost per yard, I almost started crying. I realized that it just wasn't financially responsible to buy the fabric to make the curtains, so I skipped that project, and purchased the rest.

Fast forward a couple weeks, and I started getting antsy for curtains. I wanted touches that would make our space feel warm and cozy...aka rugs and curtains. And while that perfect/affordable rug still seems to escape me, I have finally decided on a curtain fabric! And it's the exact same one I wanted in the store, all those weeks ago.

I had been searching online for a fabric to go with my gray and aqua color scheme, but also with a punch of yellow or grellow. I was sending my Mom some fabric options I'd come across, and finally she brought up that the fabric in CC was exactly what I had been searching for this whole time. She was definitely right!

The only problem was, the price was still higher than I wanted to pay. I'm talking more than double what I was hoping to pay. So to offset the cost, I shopped around until I found the lowest price, plus I got a 15% off coupon code and free shipping! Then I decided to cut the width of the fabric in half, giving me two panels from the same length of fabric. FYI, we never plan on covering our windows with the curtains. For that purpose, we'll get the same light and airy, off-the-shelf blinds we purchased from Home Depot for our bathrooms and bedrooms. The curtains are strictly a decorative touch!

So here is the fabric...{I'm sure you've all seen it before on Target's slipper chair}...Thomas Paul's Dahlia in Aegean!

And it'll be hung by satin nickel curtain clips on Martha Stewart Living's Crystal Ball Drapery Rod. I got two of these from Home Decorators with a 10% off coupon and free shipping!

I can't wait to see how this project turns out. I am hoping that the curtains look as good as I am picturing in my head! :)

Rent-A-Dumpster

2012-02-15T16:55:00.000-05:00

{How's that for a feel good day-after-Valentine's Day title? Haha.}

If you couldn't guess by the headline of my post, I am shopping around for a dumpster. I am on mission organization...and a huge part of that organization is going to start with purging the stuff that we do not need. I am talking about clothing, paperwork, movies, furniture, boxes of stuff that I don't even know whats in it because we haven't opened it up since we moved, the first time. {Seriously...we still have boxes that we haven't opened since we moved from the townhouse to my in-laws, and then from my in-laws into our new house.} So my new motto...if we don't use it, we're gonna lose it!

I'm going to divide our stuff into keep, sell/donate and toss piles. And it'll make our lives that much easier if we have a dumpster to catch everything that goes into the toss pile.

This sudden need to purge is happening for a couple reasons. 1) My parents are coming up this weekend and we plan to paint our basement. That task will be SO much easier if we don't have mounds of boxes in the way. 2) I am a very neat and organized person. I like things to have a place and to be in their place. Right now, nothing has a place, and it's causing things to be so unorganized. When we moved in, we just shoved things into drawers and closets so we could start to live in our house. All of that mess has been causing me to slowly lose my mind haha. 3) If I do a spring cleaning of our house, maybeee I can will the Springtime to arrive that much sooner!!! Okay, clearly that's just wishful thinking...but a girl can dream, can't she?!?

So after some Internet browsing I managed to check out about 7 different dumpster rental services. I found the company with the lowest prices, and they shockingly had the best terms for our needs. They'll drop it off the size dumpster we want, leave it for up to two weeks and haul it away...all while letting me order online using PayPal {yay for not having to call and talk to strangers...I hate doing that, and get all awkward}. They can also deliver it same day you order in most situations. A couple stipulations...if we are over on the weight limit, we get charged an extra fee per ton that we go over, and if we keep the dumpster for longer than two weeks, we get charged extra per day that it stays in our driveway.

It all sounds pretty peachy to me! Now I just need to figure out what day I want our giant garbage can to arrive. Hmmmmmm.....

Sneak Peek! {Part Three}

2012-02-10T16:57:00.000-05:00

Welp, here is the third and final sneak peek at our bedrooms {since we purged one to create our master en suite}. I wish our master bedroom was more masterful, but like every other room in our house, we just haven’t gotten there yet.

A huge reason behind our blah bedroom has to do with my lack of effort to refinish the bedroom furniture I purchased off Craigslist. Since we splurged and got a new king-sized bed, I was determined to save money on the rest of the furniture for our room. I scored an awesome mid-century modern bedroom set {solid wood, dove-tailed drawers} for only $200!!! Not too shabby if I do say so myself! Included in that was an armoire, a long dresser and two nightstands.

And if there was any doubt as to how well this set was made, I surely found out while desperately trying to sand through all the layers and layers of protective varnish on it. My goal was to sand everything off, get down to the bare wood and stain the pieces a darker, more modern color that suits our tastes.

Well it took F-O-R-E-V-E-R just to get through the two nightstands {did that back in October-ish??}…so I have totally put off working on the two much larger pieces. Now I am thinking I may just paint the set {I know, I know…some people shudder at the thought of me painting real wood}, so I don’t need to spend days of my life sanding.

And because of the embarrassing laziness I just described, you can easily assume that we do not have any of that furniture in our room yet. In it’s place, we have pieces from our old bedroom set so the room could be functional for us until I get my booty in gear.

That darn furniture aside, we have come a long way from where we started.

Peeking into the room from the hallway...

Former master bath door...

Other side of the room...

View back towards the hallway and door to smaller closet #1 on the right...

We replaced all the doors and windows, closed off entrances and opened up others, installed pot lights and a fandelier, removed wallpaper and painted the walls, refinished the floors and got a new bed.

View in from the hallway...

And again...

One more time...

Our duvet cover was in the wash at this point...and our laundry basket is on the floor...keepin' it real haaa...

View towards the hallway and the master closets/bathroom...

Sorry...the lighting is messed up in this picture {I'm terrible with a camera...booo me}...

Still left on the to-do list for the master bedroom…refinish our craigslist furniture, put together my jewelry storage area {finally came up with a plan for that…can’t wait}, hang our mirror, get a rug, repaint our walls that were supposed to be grey-ish and instead look tan, possibly stencil our accent wall, and add lots of other decorative touches.

Happy Fridayyyyyy! :)

Sneak Peek! {Part Two}

2012-02-09T18:07:00.000-05:00

Today's post is a peek at guest bedroom #2. When you see this bedroom, you'll understand why I have kept it hidden {well, until now}. It is quite underwhelming and literally has NOTHING going on in it. On a daily basis, I hunt through Craigslist ads for the perfect nightstands to refinish for this room...but so far, I have had no luck.

So even though this may be the most boring reveal ever {are you on the edge of your seat}, I'm going through with it because I promised myself I'd show our progress in real time.

So here is what the room looked like when we moved in...

View of the little corner in the hallway...and into the bedroom...

Further into the room...

View from the other side of the room...

And here is how the space looks after the floors were refinished...the blinds were hung...the walls were painted...a ceiling fan/light was hung...doors and windows were replaced...and a new bed and bedding were put in place.

View from the hallway...

Further into the room...

Queen bed and bedding...

View from the other side...

And again...

View from the corner...

One day, this will be a serene little escape for our house guests...until then, at least they have a place to sleep, right?!?!? :)

Sneak Peek! {Part One}

2012-02-08T17:51:00.000-05:00

While I was cleaning our house over the weekend, I realized that I have not shared any of our bedrooms with you guys. Well, that is going to change this week...I'm going to give you guys a little peek into each space. Please keep in mind that the rooms are so very bare in all these pictures. I just want to share some real time updates of all the spaces in our casa.

Today I'm starting with guest bedroom #1 {better known as my parent's bedroom when they come visit}. I love the color combo of yellow and grey in this tiny 10 x 11 room. Okay, okay...maybe it's not "tiny", but it feels that way since we put a queen bed in there.

Here are a couple before pictures to refresh your memory as to what the space used to look like...

Entering the room from the hallway...

The big windows that let so much light in this room...

The surprisingly large closet {there's lots of space in both directions in that closet that you can't see from this picture}...

And here is the room today, after painting the room and the inside of the closet...replacing the doors, door hardware and windows...refinishing the hardwood floors...hanging blinds...putting a queen bed with new bedding in place...refinishing Craiglisted end tables to serve as nightstands...and buying some new lamps. Oh, and I wasn't sure I was going to keep the lamps, which is why the tags are still hanging on them. Please disregard. :)

Walking into the room from the hallway...

Stepping into the room {yup, our little fluff ball loves being the in pictures}...

The pretty duvet that inspired the paint color for my bedside tables....

From straight on...yes, it's not centered on the wall because of the space needed to swing open the closest door...

Standing by the windows...

From the corner of the room...

So that's the progress on guest bedroom #1 so far. I can't wait to add more finishing touches to this space over time!

Up tomorrow...guest bedroom #2! {Isn't the suspense killing you?!?!? Haaaaaaa. Totally joking.}

Q & A Quickie...

2012-02-07T17:18:00.000-05:00

A short while ago, I was lucky enough to be featured on Better After. This little appearance got our newly-made-over-kitchen some attention, and it also gave rise to a couple reader questions. I promised to answer them quickly…and I apologize for my slow response time. My blogging has been very poor as of late, and I feel awful about it. {Forgive me?!?!?!}

So back to the reason for this post…answers to the burning {yes, that was sarcasm} questions that my super amazing readers {I love each and every one of you} have!

Q) What is the aqua color on our kitchen walls?

A) Cool Jazz by Behr

I plan to paint a buffet that I scored on Craiglist {that will go in the dining room} Sweet Rhapsody, the color below Cool Jazz on the paint swatch. Yes, it might be obnoxious, but I’m hoping it reads as fun and pops nicely off our gray walls. I guess we’ll see! ;)

Q) What is the gray color on our living room/dining room/hallway walls?

A) Gentle Rain by Behr {Btw, LOVE this color on our walls.}

Q) Where did I get the chandelier that hangs over our dining room table?

A) I bought it from Overstock.com, with a coupon. It is the Linear 5-light 38” Bar Pendant Crystal Chandelier. {Side note, it’s even prettier in person.}

Q) Where did I get the aqua pendants over our island?

A) I bought the Colored Seeded Glass Pendants from from Shades of Light. They were a definite splurge {$159/each}, but I got 10% off initially and then I received another 5% off on top of that. They also come in clear and a beautiful green color.

FYI, they call for 60 watt bulbs, but we found they gave off the perfect light when we used 40 watt bulbs. The seeded glass creates an amazing pattern above the pendants on the ceiling. Definitely one of my favorite parts of our kitchen!!

Q) What type of hardwood floors do we have?

A) They are the original oak floors that were in the house when we bought it. The hardwood floors were everywhere {including the closets}, except for the kitchen and bathrooms. We decided to have unfinished oak laid in the kitchen {after we pulled up the old linoleum} while we were patching other areas of the floor. Then we had all the floors sanded and stained using Minwax’s Jacobean, with a Satin finish. I couldn’t love our floors anymore…they are just what I envisioned!

Q) Did I ever consider putting our cabinet pulls horizontally vs. vertically?

A) I did for a hot second, but then I realized I’m not the biggest fan of how it looks that way. I like the lines created by placing them up and down on our ceiling height cabinets. I’m a fan of anything that helps maintain the illusion of height in our house, since we only have 8 ft. ceilings.

Q) What process did we use to paint our kitchen cabinets?

A) Here is a quick recap…

-Used TSP to clean them, inside and outside.

-Primed the inside with an oil-based primer, then double coated the insides with two coats of latex

paint

-Removed the old knobs and filled in the holes with wood putty

-Numbered each door and took pictures of them with their numbers shown, so we knew

which doors went where

-Drilled holes for the new hardware {so this didn’t need to be done on newly painted doors but

I had to do it on a few doors anyway}

-Removed the hinges and screws, keeping them safely secured in zip lock bags

-Sanded the cabinet doors and used a liquid deglosser on the cabinet frames

-Spray primed and spray painted all cabinet hinges and screws since we were re-using them

-Primed the cabinet doors and frames {using Behr’s Enamel Undercoater Primer and Sealer}
-Painted two coats of white paint on the cabinet doors and frames

-Waited for everything to cure and harden

-Re-hung all doors

-Installed new hardware

It definitely wasn’t an easy process, but the results are SO.VERY.WORTH.IT. So be as patient as possible, and stick to it!!

Any other questions, comments etc?!? Just let me know! I'd love to fill you in! :)

Cross That Off The List!

2012-02-03T17:19:00.000-05:00

When it comes to buying the one million things I need {okay, mayyybe the word I’m looking for is “want”} for our home, I often run into the same problems over and over again. The first problem…a lack of money, and the second problem…the item never seems to be exactly what I had in mind.

This usually means that I spend a whole lot of time tracking down pieces for the house. I'm definitely not one to lose patience and buy something just to get the hunt over with. I love researching and dreaming up what to put into our home. And more than that, I love finding amazing deals and awesome pieces to re-purpose for our casa.

This brings me to one of the pieces I have been on a mad search for. I looked high and low and could NOT seem to find the right ottoman for our living room. I had several requirements for this piece. I wanted it to be:

-white, or white-ish

-leather {bonded or otherwise, so that I could easily wipe it off…this piece is going to double as a coffee table, so a drink or appetizer might drop/drip on it}

-round so people could easily move around it to the couch

-between 27” and 30” so it’d fit nicely in the nook our couch creates

-have storage capabilities

-within my budget

Yes, I had high expectations for this one piece of furniture. I hunted and hunted and nothing seemed to fit the bill, until I came across an ottoman on Overstock.com that met 4 out of the 6 requirements. I loved that it hit all the major items on my list, except for the storage. But when I take a step back, I realize that storage shouldn't be that high on my criteria list because we have plenty of it in our home. This little ottoman would not be making or breaking our storage solutions. Plus, I had just received an O.co 10% off coupon earlier in the week. I took it as a sign. I had to compromise {with myself haha} and I went ahead and bought it.

This guy went into my virtual shopping cart, and before I knew it, it had arrived on our door step.

I took it out of the box and saw that it had been neatly wrapped in a cloth bag that a more expensive purse might come in. I had to attach the legs myself, but they provided a wrench to do so. The legs were heavy and sturdy. They had plastic pegs on the bottom of the wood legs, to maybe help protect the floors? To me, they wouldn’t do. I took out my trusty “Whole Home Felt Pad” kit and tried to put them on the legs. I quickly saw that the thickness of the plastic pegs plus the thickness of the felt pads would make for an unstable ottoman. I used a butter knife and popped all the plastic pegs off the legs. Then I put the felt pads back on and they were perfect. {I had pictures of this whole process, but I managed to delete them off my iPhone. I totally thought I had copied them to a folder on my computer first, but I didn’t. Oooops! Here is the only picture I have of our newest addition to our living room. Yes, the tag for the ottoman is still attached and dangling in the left-hand corner. Please disregard hehe.}

I know it’s still INCREDIBLY bare in there. I’m working on it…as fast as I can while working a normal 8:30 – 5 job. Believe me...it's driving me nutso to not have a homey, decorated home already!!

The ottoman definitely hasn't been the only thing I'm struggling with. I am having a very tough time with rugs. I have a few that I love, but they have been out-of-stock for forever, or they are out of my price range.

On my to-do list is also refinishing a bunch of pieces I have in our garage and basement, putting together some art for the walls, purchasing the fabric I finallyyyyy settled on for our curtains, sewing those curtains, spray painting frames from Home Goods, painting the barn door, oh and the list goes on and on....

And I'm not sure when all of this will get done and revealed to you guys. Especially since I'm having some awesome friends over for dinner on Saturday and then on Sunday for the Super Bowl. I hope you guys all have a fun-filled weekend! GO GIANTS!!!!! :)

Shower Glass & Birthday Wishes...

2012-02-01T13:07:00.001-05:00

Our main bath wasn't the only place that received some special treatment over the past couple weeks! Several weeks ago our master bath finally became a true bathroom...when the shower glass was installed. And shame on me for not sharing the install pictures with you all!! I don't know how I let that slip!

So here we go. Our shower went from this...

To this! {Yes, the blue tape is from the installers. It needed to remain on the glass for 24 hours.}

L-O-V-E!!!! Even though our master bath isn't the biggest space, it feels so open and airy due to our frameless shower. When I designed our bathroom, I was quite nervous about how much our custom glass would cost, but it totally helps to make the space and was one of our smartest splurges!!

There is still so much to do for this space in the way of decor and personal touches. {Realistically, that needs to happen to every room in our entire house...so baby steps people haha.} I even want to add a piece of cabinetry in the corner next to the shower. I found one that goes with our vanity, but it's very pricey {between $489-$500...yikes}!

Most likely, I will be hunting around for a similar cabinet that costs MUCH less, but hopefully looks just as great.

And I can't end this post without announcing that it is someone special's birthday today! This little guy is the big 0-5 today!

I can't wait to treat this cute fluff ball to some kitty-like birthday cake {aka - tuna...his favorite}!

A Whole-Hearted Love Fest

2012-01-30T16:02:00.000-05:00

Okay, so two things have been on my mind lately.

The first is that I know I have been majorly absent from blogger land, and I truly apologize for that. After painting the stripes in our main bath, I wanted to take a little blogger break, and try and enjoy our house without worrying about the 4 million projects that need to be completed. I have been going, going, going since we bought the house…so it was nice to just sit back and enjoy how far we have come in just a few short {although they sometimes felt very long} months. Of course, this little breather didn’t come without the guilt that I was not posting…and the thoughts about what my fellow bloggers were up to. And let’s be serious, it’s not like I took a total break. I did quite a bit of shopping for some home décor and organization accessories. And I have all of the Home Goods and Target bags in the basement to prove it.

In those bags there are a bunch of different things...for a bunch of different rooms. And I think that is part of my problem lately. There is just so much I want to get done that I’ve been mentally jumping from room to room, closet to closet. What I need to do is just step back, re-group and pick ONE PLACE to work on.

But enough of my rambling...my point is, I’m back! And I really missed you all very much!!!

Now, on to the second thing I would like to address…just how friggin’ much I adore all of you and your kind words.

Last Friday I was lucky enough to have my kitchen featured on Lindsey’s blog Better After. I was totally humbled and blown away by the people who came over from there to check out our home and blog. It totally made my weekend!! {Btw, I received a bunch of questions regarding paint colors, where we got our fixtures, etc. I’m going to put together a post to answer everyone’s questions ASAP! My plan was to get on that this weekend, but on Saturday I had a marathon day at a hair salon...quite unexpected...definitely didn't think I'd be there for FOUR hours, and on Sunday I was busy grocery shopping, doing laundry and completing our tax return. What a wiiiiiild weekend, huh?}

And if that didn’t make my heart swell enough…I saw that some of my favorite bloggers listed “Retro Ranch Reno” under their “Blogs They Follow” section on their sites! :) Big huge hug to Lindsay at Me, Ed and Pea, Brandi at His Shabby Her Chic, Debbie at My Little Mess and Diana at Boy + Girl Design.

Yes, I admit it. This was quite the sappy post, but I couldn’t help it! I have tons of love for all of you and the awesome support you show me! :)

The Stripe Saga

2012-01-27T15:38:00.000-05:00

Aka...The Most Boring and Confusing Post EVERRRRRRR. {Still want to read on?!?!? Haha!}

I received a couple requests asking how I painted the stripes on the bathrooms walls, so here is my best effort to explain to you guys how it all went down. Believe me, this process was NOT an exact science like I thought it would be. Due to our wonky, old walls, my exact measuring went out the window the minute I started putting the tape up on the walls.

First things first…the paint colors. We had almost no time at all to pick out paint and get it up on the walls. The minute our spackling was done, the tile guys were scheduled to start…and then the minute they were done, the fixtures were ready to be set and installed. We had a very small window to paint the ceiling and get our base color on the walls.

I knew I wanted a tone-on-tone stripe for the bathroom…and I also knew I wanted to keep it neutral. I figured if I kept the stripes neutral, I could easily switch out accessories to change the color scheme in the bathroom. You know, so when I get antsy for some change, I wouldn’t have to paint over the stripes that I was about to tirelessly put up. ;)

And since grays dominate most of the house, I wanted to go for a creamy beige in the bathroom. I selected a few paint swatches and quickly narrowed it down to my favorite one...Behr’s 730C.

Out of the three colors on the swatch, I chose the two lightest, White Clay and Sandstone Cove. I wanted to keep the bathroom light and bright since it only has one tiny window.

Because of the major time crunch to paint the bathroom, we decided it’d be best to just get a solid base of primer {to seal the new walls} and two coats of the lighter color {White Clay} on the walls before fixtures got in our way. We had to put the stripe project off until we had the time {and motivation} for it.

A couple weekends went by and no stripes went up on the walls. First it was the holidays, and then I was fighting off a nasty sinus infection. When I was finally feeling better I decided that I had to get the stripes up at that moment or it’d never get done.

I began by using a measuring tape to see how thick I wanted my stripes to be. I originally thought I’d want them to be about 12 inches wide, but when I put that length of the measuring tape on the wall I realized it was too thick for the look I was going for. I decided 10 inches would be a good length. Since the measuring tape doesn't lay flush against the wall I knew I needed something else to mark off my measurements. Unfortunately, I don’t have a yard stick, and I couldn’t find a ruler {stupid unpacking and misplaced items}…so the wheels in my head started turning to see what else I could use. Suddenly, I came up with an idea and ran into the kitchen. I grabbed a note pad my mother-in-law got for me to jot down grocery lists. I measured it, and it was about 9 ¾ inches long…just short of 10 inches, but close enough for me!!

I ripped a sheet off and ran back to the bathroom. I hopped up onto my step stool and began marking off my stripes. I placed the paper flush with the ceiling and used a pencil to put a small mark at the bottom of the paper. This gave me a mark 9 ¾ inches down from the ceiling. {Here is an after-the-fact picture of what I did...hopefully it helps to show what I did better than my description haha.}

Then I took the piece of paper and put the top of it at the mark that I had just made, and used the pencil to place a new mark at the bottom of the paper. This gave me a mark 9 ¾ inches beneath the first mark I made. {One more after-the-fact picture to help illustrate...}

I continued this pattern, so I had evenly spaced marks, all the way down the wall. After I was done with my first column of marks, I moved over a couple feet and repeated the same process all over again. I continued this pattern over and over again until I had marked up all three walls I was putting stripes on.

After all my marks were made, I needed to decide which stripes would be which color. This was an important step because it determined the placement of the tape. If a stripe was going to stay the lighter color already on the wall, then the tape would go “into” that stripe, so that the new color being painted would be the full 9 ¾ inches wide. This makes the stripes that are staying the same color look more narrow when taped off because the painters tape is on the inside of that stripe, as opposed to how the painters tape is on the outside of the stripes that will be the new color. For example, the highest stripe in my bathroom was going to stay the lighter color, so I placed my tape above the first mark I made on the wall…and then I put the next line of tape below the second mark I made.

{I know this sounds super confusing, and I’m not doing a very good job describing it. Hopefully my marked up pictures somewhat help to illustrate what I mean. I wish I took more detailed pictures of this process, but I was so zoned into the project that I barely paused for pictures. My apologies everyone!!!}

So back to my taping…

When I started taping off my first stripe {the highest stripe on the wall}, on my first wall, I realized very quickly that if I tried to line the tape up with my marks that were all 9 ¾ inches from the ceiling, this process was NOT going to be pretty…or straight. What I totally forgot to take into account during measuring was the fact that our ceilings and walls are all wonky since we have an older home. So, while my measurements were all the same distance from the ceiling, the ceiling was not level. This lead to me taping, re-taping, stepping down off the stool, re-taping and shouting for my hubby to come see if it looked like a straight line when I thought I had it perfect, and on and on.

I came to the conclusion that my stripe next to the ceiling would never be even in thickness, but the line defining it at the bottom should be straight…so once I got the tape straight, I worked off of that line. {Yes, that meant I was not going to be using ALL OF THOSE FRIGGIN’ MARKS I JUST PUT UP ON THE WALL, but no one ever said making things pretty was easy, right?!?! I knew this process would be lots of trial and error, and I am totally admitting, there was quite a bit of error.}

So with a straight tape line on the wall, I used my handy-dandy little piece of paper and re-marked under the straight tape line. I started at the left side…marked 9 ¾ below the taped off line, then again halfway across the wall and then on the right side of the wall. I continued this process all the way down the wall until I was finished taping off wall numero uno.

After wall #1, I thought I had everything all figured out after. HAAA, yea right! I now had to continue the stripe from the first wall onto wall #2, keeping the correct stripe thickness in mind. The marks I had originally put on the wall did NOT line up…at all…even a little bit. So I started with the highest stripe again. I placed the beginning of my tape where wall #1’s tape left off, and continued the stripe from that left corner all the way to the right corner. {Lots of up and down step stool and standing on vanities in this process.} Oh, and using precise measurements did not work for this stripe…or any of the remaining stripes, for that matter. It was all about eyeballing and using my trusty little piece of paper like a spacer. As long as the width of the stripe seemed reasonably close to the length of the paper, then I knew I was good to go. A couple of times, I had to yell for my hubby to get a fresh set of eyes to check out my progress.

And of course, halfway through, I ran out of painters tape. The hubby and I made a quick trip to Home Depot to pick up more tape and to Moe’s {if you don’t have one by you, it’s a shame…LOVE their burritos and rice bowls haha} for some take-out. After dinner, I got a second wind and finished taping the remaining stripes.

After the tape was up, it was time to paint. I used the lighter paint color that was already on the wall to “seal” my tape where I’d be painting the new stripe color.

Unfortunately, for some odd reason, the tape started bubbling on me. I have never had this issue with painters tape before, but I was NOT a happy camper. I had spent so much time on the project and I thought it was all for nothing, and that my stripes would be ruined. Out of desperation, I quickly ran my finger over the edge of the tape and wet paint to sort of smooth out the ripples and mush it into place. Luckily, doing just that kept the tape pretty much sealed. But it definitely made me have a moment of panic and added a very messy step to the project.

Thankfully, by the time I got to the areas where the new painters tape was used, this step was unnecessary. The Scotch Blue Painter's Tape with Edge Lock worked like a charm. If only I had it from the beginning...but who would have known I would run into these issues with my tried and true Blue Painters Tape. Ehhh, you live and you learn. :)

Anywho, after I got the first wall painted with the original color, I started the process of rolling on the new stripe color. It went on very well, and only needed one coat {probably because the colors were so similar}. I used a 6inch foam roller for the process and it was the perfect size for the stripes I was doing. I worked one wall at a time...painted the original wall color onto the tape edges, from highest stripe to lowest stripe...then painted on the new stripe color, from highest stripe to lowest stripe...then peeled the tape off the wall WHILE STILL WET, from the highest stripe to the lowest stripe. {It is very important to peel the tape off while the paint is still wet. If you wait for it to dry, you run the risk of peeling paint off the wall.} After one wall was done, I moved on to the next. There were only a couple of areas where the paint slightly bled through on the regular painters tape. {I'm talking millimeters, people...but yes, I still had to touch them up because I'm a ~~freak~~ perfectionist like that.} With a steady hand and a good brush, I was able to fix the small flaws in just a few minutes.

I started the job around 2:30PM and {including my supply run, football game checks and dinner break} I finished up around 1:00AM.

So…there it is. The WHOLE process of my stripe saga. I really am sorry if this was the most boring post ever, and I’m even more sorry that I probably did a pretty bad job explaining things. {It’s tough to explain how you were just “winging” a project haha.}

Thank you soooo much for your patience…if you are still even reading this, HA!!!!

P.S. – Please feel free to ask any questions, because I’m almost positive that I mistakenly left out some details. :)

Labor of Love

2012-01-17T17:13:00.000-05:00

{Be prepared for a ton of pictures in this post!!}

Just like our kitchen, our main bathroom has gone through a major transformation. When I look at pictures, it’s hard to believe where we started.

Our cramped main/guest bath used to look like this…an awkward space…with way too deep of a vanity.

Soon…we busted through the walls and took over the too-small-to-be-functional master bath that backed up to the main bath…as well as a small part of the “large” master bedroom closet. {See our “Floor Plan” page for more clarification.}

Once we had the space we needed, it was time to put things back together, and create a bathroom where guests and future kiddos would all feel comfortable.

And the journey does not stop here. I know the main bath looks very boring as is, and there is a reason for that. I always planned to put thick horizontal stripes on the walls, but it just wasn’t a priority to get done. Other things were “must do’s”…and once those were completed, I got an awful sinus infection that set me back a of couple weeks. Well I finally got better, and I no longer had any excuse as to why I wasn’t tackling my stripe project {except for the fact that I knew it was going to be the biggest pain in the butt…so I was being a baby and dreading it.}

I finally manned up and got to work this past Saturday. I started at 2:30 in the afternoon and finished around 1:10 in the morning. I had to take a break halfway through taping the walls because I RAN OUT OF PAINTERS TAPE! Yes, those capital letters mean I'm yelling about it. I was uber annoyed, but it gave me an excuse to take a breather, go to Home Depot and pick up some dinner with the hubby. I think I told myself and my hubby “what was I thinking” and “I’ll never do this again” about a million times, but I know myself, and since I loveeee the results, I will most likely do it again…or some sort of variation of it. ;)

So here is my labor of love to punch up our former very-neutral-for-a-reason-because-the-base-stripe-color-was-the-only-thing-up-on-the-walls-bathroom.

And this bathroom is definitely not finished yet. I still need to add some pops of color, some décor, and the current bath accessories will be replaced with some fun ones that are being shipped to me, as I type, from West Elm.

Anyone else tackle major projects on their to-do list this weekend?!?!?!

Mailing Happiness

2012-01-12T17:37:00.000-05:00

Not only did my Mom and Dad help like caaaarazyyyyy while they were visiting us in December, they also found a way to help us out while they are 13 hours away, in a completely different state.

Let me back track for a second. Whenever I am out and about, I always keep an eye out for anything in the aqua/turquoise/teal family…especially if it’s something for the kitchen. I knew our kitchen would be mostly white, with stainless steel appliances, so I wanted to bring in pops of color with all kinds of accessories.

Well, clearly my Mom was on a mad search for all things aqua as well, and she struck gold! {Or should I say…turquoise haaaa!}

Last week, the hubby and I arrived home from work to see a couple boxes from UPS hanging out in front of our garage. I brought them inside and eagerly unpacked them to find an abundance of sea blues and greens.

Now, thanks to my wonderful Mom {and Dad}, I have all sorts of accents in my kitchen that help tie everything together!

And that definitely includes the super cute curtain my Mom made for me that you saw in Monday’s post. We both fell in love with that fabric the minute we saw it.

Seriously, parents are the best!

I Heart Our Barn Door!

2012-01-11T17:35:00.000-05:00

In an earlier post, I discussed that I wanted a barn door in our house to cover an awkward area where we have two doors side by side. The smaller door is for a coat closet, that will be closed 99.9% of the time. The larger door leads down the basement stairs, and it needs to be cracked open 100% of the time because of our little furbaby.

I was not a fan of how the doors looked, all cramped next to each other on such a long wall…and I definitely didn’t want to have a door that would be cracked open all the time, or opened up all the way showing our ugly basement stairway. Insert our barn door idea here to solve our problem.

After we gave a bunch of pictures and described many designs to our contractor, he was able to build our door! The track I ordered from here arrived several weeks ago, and was patiently waiting in our basement to be installed. Now, the unique request we made is one of my favorite things in our house {although I have a hard time narrowing down what things are NOT my favorites haha}.

To refresh your memory…this is what the area used to look like, pre-barn door.

View from the front door.

View from the hallway corner by the kitchen.

View from the living room area towards the awkward doors.

View from the dining area.

And again...after more progress.

And, yet again!

Last time.

And here is what it looks like now!!!

Yes, our coat closet is a serious disaster right now. Cleaning/organizing it is on my mile long to-do list!

I’m seriously in L-O-V-E! I think it’s perfect for that space and for our home. And believe me…I get that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I know many of you may be thinking “what the heck?!?!”, but to me and the hubby, it’s awesome.

Anyone else have any outside-of-the-box ideas that ended up working perfectly for your home???

JCPenney to the Rescue!

2012-01-10T17:15:00.000-05:00

Like most people, me and the hubby are on a major budget. This definitely makes buying certain pieces of furniture very difficult. I was convinced I would find a TV console for us on Craigslist, but nothing I came across seemed to fit the bill. This was probably due to the fact that I fell in love with this piece from Crate and Barrel.

The Pearson 72" Media Console

The console was everything I wanted...dark finish...mix of wood and metal...large enough to fit a big ole' TV for our great room...low, sleek and simple design. I was sold! Key word there being "was"...because a few seconds later I laid eyes on the hefty $1,399.00 price tag. Clearly that pretty thing was never coming home to our house...so my Internet search for the perfect TV console continued.

As luck would have it, I was hunting around Pinterest and happened upon a TV stand that looked somewhat similar to the C&B one I was obsessed with. I clicked on the picture and, surprisingly, I was taken to the JCPenney site. It turns out that the piece was originally $999.00, on sale for $199.80, plus I used a promo code to take an additional $39.96 off the price! Unfortunately, shipping the 165lb. box was a little pricey and cost almost $100, but it was well worth it...because overall, with shipping and tax included, I purchased an awesome console for just $274.81!!

Here is the proof is you don't believe me. {Don't mind my blacked out order number and addresses.}

I tried super hard to find the original pin on Pinterest so I could link back. I even tried to find the console on the jcp.com site, but it is no longer available and therefore, has disappeared from the web. That means that the only pictures I can share with you are the ones I took of our beloved console in our very own casa.

And if I do say so myself, I think I love this piece even more than the C&B one I originally fell for {and not just because of the uhhh-mazing price tag}!

When I pulled one of the drawers out to show that they extend all the way for easy access, Perny had to, of course, hop in it and investigate.

So what do you think? Was it worth the $274.81 price tag?!?!

She's Ready for Her Close-up!

2012-01-09T17:06:00.001-05:00

It has taken a while, but our kitchen is pretty much ready for her close-up {yup, our kitchen is a girl}! I have been dyingggg to put a post up showing off our kitchen overhaul, but while I was installing our new cabinet hardware, I realized that nine pieces of hardware magically disappeared from our house during our renovations. Talk about frustrating!! And since I am all about saving money, I found my hardware at a wholesale store online, so I couldn't just run out and pick up the remaining pieces, with the same savings.

Begrudgingly, I decided to head to Home Depot in hopes that they'd have matching hardware, and then the kitchen would be D-O-N-E and crossed off the list {even if it meant I'd be spending way more than I wanted}.

I was able to find bar handles that were very similar to the ones I purchased online {not surprised...it's a pretty generic and popular choice}, but of course they were special order only, and crazy expensive. The original 10.39" handles I bought online were $3.90 a piece, and at HD they were more than 4 times that price! I also found the small t-bar knobs off-the-shelf, but of course, those were obnoxiously expensive as well. Online, I paid $1.30 a piece, and in the store, they were basically $6.00 a piece. Such a ripoff, but of course, I was in a jam and so I spent $18 on three small knobs. {At this point, I didn't know what patience was. I just wanted to finish as many projects as possible, and not put things off for another day.}

After I got home, I installed the three small knobs and placed an order online for six more bar handles. Within a couple days they arrived, but unfortunately, I was under the weather with a nasty sinus infection. That meant that nothing house-related got accomplished for a few days. Instead, I happily broke in our new couch, and prayed my antibiotics would kick in and heal me ASAP.

Luckily, by the time this weekend rolled around I was feeling about 90% better and I tackled putting the final bar handles on the cabinets. Now I can finally reveal our kitchen’s transformation! Woo-to-the-hoooooo!!

Here is a little reminder of what we were dealing with before...

View from the living/dining room towards doorway #1 into the kitchen.

View from in the kitchen towards the door to the screened-in porch and doorway into the dining room.

View from the screened-in porch door towards doorway #2 that leads to the hallway.

Cabinetry that backed up to the "restaurant booth" seating.

Close up of the solid wood cabinetry in the kitchen. Worn and ugly!

Restaurant booth seating bolted down to the floor...must have been the hot ish at the time!

And again. Check out that linoleum!

View from the doorway to the hallway towards the dining room doorway.

View from the stove toward the dining room.

Yup that's right...our kitchen window used to have wallpapered shutters.

Our window, minus the shutters.

Old stove and hood.

Horrible backsplash tile...including tile on the sides of the cabinets.

View from the sink towards the doorway to the hallway.

View from in the hallway towards the kitchen.

View from in the doorway.

View of the ceiling...showing off the old exhaust fan and high hats.

And now, after lots of painting, demolition, new countertops, new floors, new appliances, new lighting, new sink, new faucet and new exterior door...

View from the living room, which was impossible before our reno.

View from the dining room, which was also impossible before our reno.

Another view from in the dining room.

So much more bright and airy!!

Shiny new appliances.

Re-purposed island cabinetry...no more restaurant booth seating.

View from the hallway...definitely not possible before our reno.

Brand new curtain made just for us by my wonderful Mom!

And here is one last picture to 1) remind you of the aqua color we painted on the inside of our cabinets and 2) remind you of just how high our contractor placed our microwave to begin with {discussed here}. Yes, that is my Mom standing underneath the microwave, with an inch or two to spare!

I hope you guys enjoyed our kitchen's transformation as much as we did! :)

Nightstands are New Again!

2012-01-05T17:17:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I needed, and wanted, to find some Craigslist deals to re-do for our home. I was on the hunt for nightstands for my guest bedrooms and I stumbled upon an ad for two solid wood nightstands for just $60. To make the deal even sweeter, the seller happened to be just two streets away from our new house!

So my project started out with the tables looking like this...a couple dings and a bit worn...

I tossed the old hardware {I couldn't even spray them a different color if I wanted to...the pulls were broken}...

I removed the old drawer paper...and sanded them up a bit {I forgot to take a picture of them all scuffed up...whoops!}...

Then I started priming and painting!!

My color inspiration for the tables came from the duvet I picked out for guest bedroom #1. I matched a couple of paint chips up to the Citron Garden Mini Duvet Cover Set by Urban and the rest is history.

Unfortunately, I could NOT find replacement hardware that fit the same holes left by the original pulls. And of course, I did not putty the existing holes before I sanded/primed/painted the tables {stupid rookie mistake}...so I decided to just put two glass knobs onto the drawer fronts. I think it looks cute and adds a bit of character. Overall, I absolutely love how they turned out and I can't wait to show them in the guest bedroom, with the duvet that inspired them.

This is the picture that best depicts the real color of the tables...

Perny, our little love bug, wanted to make an appearance in this post. He was very confused as to why I was giving so much attention to two end tables, instead of him. :)

Not too bad for $60, and a quart of paint!

What Were You Thinking?!?

2012-01-04T17:18:00.000-05:00

That was the exact question I got from my contractor when he saw the color I was happily rolling onto my front door. I know the color choice may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I love the punch it gives to the front of our straight-forward, little rancher.

The Evolution of Our Front Door

Here is how it looked when we bought the house...

Here is how it looked after we put on a new door and new door hardware {aka - still in need of door paint, caulk, trim paint and new lights}...

And, here is how it looks freshly caulked and painted...

I know we could use some prettier house numbers, a colorful door mat, and don't even get me started on our pitiful {lack of} landscaping...but let's just take a minute to remember what our house used to look like. Anything is better than the hot mess that it was!!

And honestly, I cannot get over how our front door looks when it's opened up into our living room. I am loving my "what were you thinking" decision!

What do you think? Too much? Would you go more subdued?

PS-The barn door I discussed in this post is installed!!! All I need to do is paint it and add a handle. I can't wait to share it with you!

Dining Chair Re-Do

2011-12-30T15:16:00.000-05:00

After the hubby and I found our house, I immediately began the hunt for some furniture to fill our home. Most of our old furniture from the townhouse stayed with the townhouse after the sale. The girl who purchased our old home was buying her very first place. She didn't have much money to furnish things, and since she loved how I decorated the home, we offered to include most of our furniture in the sale. {Plus, our townhouse was way smaller than the home we purchased, so the scale of the furniture would have been off.}

And I know it takes years to furnish a home. There is no way we could buy everything to fill our place up, but I wanted to, at least, have the basics when we moved in. We are definitely on a very tight budget, so I knew that what I did buy, couldn't all be new {nor did I want it to be...I really like re-purposing old stuff}.

I had a pretty clear idea of what my dining set would look like. I wanted a chunky, straight-leg harvest table...with a leaf...that was made from solid wood. I didn't mind spending some money on it because I look at it as an investment that will last through the years. I found one online, for a decent price, and even scored 10% off. Getting a solid wood table that opens to seat 10-12 people for under $1,000 was a major score for me.

And since I spent so much money on the table, I knew I'd be searching through Craigslist for the chairs to go with it. I came across these chairs...a set of 6 {with 2 captain's chairs}, for $100. Sold.

Craigslisted chairs

Then I found two more chairs in a separate listing, that don't completely match, but are very similar for an additional $20. Sold again!

Other type of chair I found on Craigslist...I already took the cushion off of this one.

So I ended up with 8 chairs for $120.

I did have to buy sand paper, primer, paint and fabric to transform them, but still...such a great deal for solid wood chairs in great shape! Similar dining chairs could cost $120 or more just a pair!

Cushions all removed and sanding done on the back two chairs.

And here are all the cushions.

So after lots of sanding/de-glossing, priming, painting, staple removing {me and my Mom's hands still aren't back to normal...aka we have perma-claw-hand} and re-covering...the chairs now look like this. Not too shabby!!

What do you think?!? I hope you enjoyed their transformation as much as I did!

Happy New Year!!

Freshened Up Fireplace

2011-12-29T19:56:00.000-05:00

After a couple coats of paint and some metallic spray paint, our fireplace has gone from majorly drab...

...to awesomely fab!! Okay, maybe it's not all the way there...yet. Once we can re-tile the hearth, I'll be 100% head-over-heels for our fireplace!

Let's Catch Up...

2011-12-28T12:00:00.000-05:00

I’m going to start off by saying I am so very sorry about being totally MIA for the past week-and-a-half-ish. The hubby and I took a “staycation” from work the week of the 19^th through the 23^rd so that we could pack up, move, unpack and complete as many house projects as possible. We needed to be ready for my sister, her husband, and my nephew to arrive on Christmas day. The days were long and exhausting. We started at 7 something each morning and went until after midnight most nights. {If I could sleep for a week straight, I probably would.} Between me, the hubby and my beyonddd amazing parents, we got a lot accomplished, and weirdly, had a ton of fun while doing it.

We packed up our stuff from the in-laws on the 17^th…and moved everything into the basement of our house that same morning. We had the help of Pete’s dad {who is a master at packing a moving truck}, my parents and some great friends {thanks Justin, Matt and Maria}. Without all of them, the day would have been much longer and more difficult.

Packing up our room at the in-laws.

Some of our stuff jammed into the basement...along with the hubby testing out his Christmas lights.

More of our stuff, and our awesome lawn chairs we used to relax on in the basement haha.

More of our stuff...and some of the dining chairs I needed to finish up.

Unfortunately, we had to keep all of our stuff in the basement until our floors were completed. They started sanding them on the 15^th and finished the last coat of sealer in the evening on the 19^th. That meant we couldn’t get on the floors until the after dinner on the 20^th.

Floors, before.

And again.

After the stain went down, buffing the floors.

He was clearly weirded out by me taking pictures of the process from the basement stairs haha.

Buffed and ready to be sealed.

And again.

Fresh coat of sealer.

Couldn't wait for them to be dry!

Finished product.

In love.

While the floors were being done, and with all of our stuff in the basement, and no access to our main living space...we were restricted to what we could accomplish around the house. Luckily, during that lull we were able to find a phenomenal garage door guy to replace the horrendous doors that were on our house. We called him on Saturday night to see if we could get an estimate…he met us early the next morning…and put the doors on all day Monday. He was $500 less than our contractor’s bid, and we couldn’t have asked for more from him. {I highly recommend him in case anyone needs garage doors in North Jersey!!}

Remember these??

View of the old garage doors from the outside.

And again.

View from the inside.

So awful.

Well now our garage looks a little more like this...thank gosh!

View from the inside.

Other door.

View from the outside...new key pad too.

Other door...and our pretty wreath.

Much better than the old, green doors!!

Once dinner was over on Tuesday, we rolled out the red ~~carpet~~ rosin paper, and started protecting our floors. Then it was time to clean the major dust that was covering every square inch of our house. The next days were filled with putting together our ~~baby~~ 55” LED TV {me and the hubby’s sort-of Christmas present to each other…we purchased it during a killer Black Friday deal, online…no we didn’t brave the crazy crowds out there}, 3 beds, a TV stand, dining room table, painting trim, caulking everywhere, refinishing dining room chairs, refinishing night stands, painting cabinets, installing cabinet hardware, painting the fireplace, recovering dining room chairs/bar stools, etc.

Around midnight on Christmas Eve I even managed to put up our little tree, stockings and a couple other decorations. I know it isn’t anything to brag about, but it wasn’t too awful considering I was half asleep, and I couldn’t even find everything I needed {aka - there is no tree skirt, I rigged up a tree topper, etc.}.

It's the best I could do for this year.

Strung ornaments up on our chandelier.

Playing with my camera's color setting a little bit.

Merry Christmas!

The hubby was also hard at work during the week trying to put some lights up outside. It was a major struggle since the electricians still haven't installed our exterior outlet and we have no bushes since we ripped everything out at the end of the summer. But hey, we worked with what we had…and I think it looks cute!

By Christmas the house was semi-in-order…and I stress semi! {We were even unpacking boxes as I heard my sister and her husband coming into the house. And there are still a ton of boxes to go through in the basement.} So we took a break from slaving away on the house to enjoy a nice holiday with my family. I mean, how could you not have a great holiday with this little guy around?!?!

And I promise, there are many more pictures and details of the house to come. Now that we are no longer spending every waking minute working on the house, and we have a functioning computer back, I’ll be able to catch you all up on the changes in our casa. I can’t wait to share it all. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! :)

One Last Look...

2011-12-15T22:37:00.000-05:00

Today is a big day. Our floors are getting some much needed TLC. I stopped at the house after work last night to make sure everything was moved off the hardwoods and to take a few “before” pictures...you know, so we could remember how awful our floors used to be. ;)

It was crazy to see how open our house looked {minus the fridge in the dining room} because we’ve had so many boxes, random furniture projects, supplies and tools all over our living area for months now.

{Warning: my camera flash was NOT cooperating with me during these pictures…so most of them are entirely too yellow and don’t show the true colors of the house. :( My apologies…and, I promise I’ll try harder next time.}

View from in the kitchen. {Yes, I know we need to paint all the drawers still.}

And again.

One last time.

View from the living room. {Yup, those are outdoor porch chairs that have served as seating in our house thus far. Hey, we gotta work with what we got haha.}

Another shot.

View from the dining room towards the kitchen.

And again.

One last time.

View from the fireplace down the hallway to the bedrooms.

And into the kitchen. {The bar counter supports are only primed...they need to be painted to match the wall color still.}

View from the hallway towards the living area.

Hallway corner towards guest bedroom #2 and the master bedroom.

Horrible lighting, but view into the master bedroom.

Our awesome new fandelier (chandelier + ceiling fan).

Such a pretty glow.

Another shot, with the high hat lights turned off.

Lighting is still not right in this picture.

This is the best depiction of the true wall color.

And back to bad lighting in my pictures. Grrrrrrrrr.

View from master bath towards the master bedroom.

Some master bath lovin'....just because I love how it's turning out.

Towel bars.

Master shower...just needs some glass!

All shower trim is now installed.

Our shiny, new faucets.

Guest bedroom #2 with fan/light installed and paint colors on the walls. {We taped off our vents for when the floors get sanded. We already had our air ducts cleaned, and we didn't want to have to do it again.}

The floor of my closet....old and new hardwoods.

I really can't wait to see what kind of impact the newly stained floors make in our home! I can't wait to share some "after" pictures!

C'mon Man!

2011-12-14T17:16:00.000-05:00

Yup, I just referenced one of my favorite segments on ESPN's Monday Night Countdown. I couldn't help but use that phrase when I saw how high my contractor installed our over-the-range microwave.

I didn't really get just how high it was until my Mom and Dad told me to walk over and try and open it. I swear, I could barely see into the microwave. I was having horrible images of dumping scalding hot soup down the front of myself and heaving a heavy casserole dish up there.

Our contractor said the instructions for installation called for the bottom of the microwave to be 30" from the top of the stove. Well my Mom and I looked at the instructions and it clearly shows an arrow displaying the distance from the TOP of the microwave to the stove should be 30". This would mean the BOTTOM of the microwave would be the standard 18 - 20" above the stove.

Luckily, our contractor said he'd fix the microwave placement so that we {and our future children} could have much easier access. Of course this will delay things because they now need to remove part of the backsplash, re-fit our old cabinets and run a longer duct to vent out the top of the microwave. Not to mention it took them quite some time to attach the appliance to the wall in the first place. I'm praying they can get this accomplished before our stove delivery on Tuesday, but I have to stay, I'm not very confident it'll work out.

Thank goodness I stopped in during lunch and saw the debacle before they got much further with it!

Other than that, it was business as usual at the house. Today should have been the day we could kiss the construction goodbye {minus the floor refinishing}, but that is definitely not happening. There are still a whole lot of little jobs to get done around the house. At least grouting the backsplash tile could be crossed off the list. {And we even managed to hang a few doors today to see how they are going to look in the end of all this.}

Yes...those drawers did not get primed and painted yet. They aren't even sanded. But we put them back into the island to get them off the floor to prep for the floor guy tomorrow.

Just a little preview of the cabinets with the freshly painted doors, new hardware and spray painted hinges.

Our awesome electricians were busy installing more lights today. I got to see our entryway light up, and my favoriteeeee dining room light, too! {The dining room pendant did not photograph too well. Try and believe me when I say it's gorg in person...and yes, the light bulbs are not yet installed.}

Unfortunately I'm going to be locked out of the house for a couple days because the floor refinisher is scheduled to arrive at 7AM tomorrow. Hopefully we'll be able to occupy our home just a few days after that!!! Many photos to come! I can't wait to share the results! :)

New Developments

2011-12-13T17:19:00.000-05:00

There have been quite a few new developments at our house since my post on Friday. {Don't worry...this post has wayyy more pictures to illustrate the changes, unlike my last post. :( Sorry about that rant...just trying to show you the good, bad and the very ugly of going through a major reno.}

But, back to the good stuff...

First up, we have our new countertop supports. They are nothing fancy to look at, but they get the job done without sacrificing leg room. This was important to us because I have a father who is 6'4 and a brother-in-law who is 6'5...I wanted to make sure that people could comfortably sit at our bar without bruising up their knees. Plus, these babies were just a couple dollars a piece from Home Depot, versus prettier corbels that are much more expensive. {One of my favorite DIY couples at Young House Love used the same supports for their solid surface countertop that had an overhang.} All that is left to do with the supports is: 1) sand the edges {so they are more rounded and less squared off...meaning less prone to jabbing people who bump into them} and 2) paint the upper part white to match the counters and the lower part grey to match the walls. This will help the supports to blend better since they are bar height and can be seen more than counter height supports.

Steel support brackets for the bar counter.

Next, we have some kitchen modifications. Our old cabinet above the range was retrofit so our shiny new microwave will fit in place. A bracket was also installed to help support the heavy appliance. If you look closely, you can also see that we finally painted the kitchen a shade of aqua and the island backsplash was tiled as well!

Modified cabinet, making way for our microwave!

New aqua color on the walls.

Tiled backsplash on the island...and a blurry picture of my Pops! :)

All the bedrooms have also been painted. If you remember from previous pictures, our larger guest bedroom had a chair rail installed about 2/3 of the way up the wall. I worked with that and painted the bedroom two different shades of beige...with the darker on the bottom. The master bedroom was also painted. We chose a green-blue accent wall, and a silvery grey for all of the other walls. The silver tends to read a little tan in some light, but it's a true silvery, grey. I love it with the punch of color on the main wall! I forgot to take a picture of the smallest guest bedroom, but that was painted a shade of grey called Dolphin Fin. It goes great with the duvet I pulled the color from.

Two-tone paint in the large guest bedroom...and partially installed ceiling fan.

Master bedroom...green-blue accent wall and silver main walls.

And again.

View towards the master bedroom entrance.

The hallway has also been painted...the same shade of grey that we put in our living/dining room area.

New grey hallway.

Our living room ceiling fan was installed, and I have to say...I love it!!

My favorite ceiling fan!

Better view.

Our gas line has been run and is all ready to go for when we become rich and can put in a gas insert.

Gas line!!

Close up.

My Mom has been busting her booty sanding and painting our cabinet doors. They look pretty great with two coats of paint on them! And you can also see my other painting project that I've been working on during the past couple weekends...my craigslisted dining room chairs.

Pretty white cabinets...so much better than their former condition.

Cabinets and chairs.

And now for the main event...the thing that we have all been waiting for...

THE BATHROOMS! WE FINALLY HAVE FUNCTION BATHROOMS! {Sorry, but it really is that exciting.}

Both bathrooms are still a work in progress. In the main bath there are holes near the light fixtures {they had to install them a smidge higher than they originally thought} that need to be spackled, the spackling and sanding around the shower unit needs to be finished, paint needs to be touched up, we need to add the horizontal stripes to the walls, I need a better/more permanent shower rod and curtain, outlet covers/switch plates need to be installed, a new register cover needs to be installed and other decorative accents need to go in.

But it still functions and looks light years better than it used to! Woohoo!

View into the main/family bath.

And again.

Love it.

Sorry for the dark picture...the electricity was turned off for the electrician to work. New shower with a temporary shower rod and curtain.

A different view.

The master bath is really getting there too. It still needs a light fixture installed above the mirror, new register cover, grout around the tiles near the marble thresholds, adjustable bar for the handheld shower unit needs to be installed, outlet covers/light switches need to be installed, glass walls/door for the shower need to be installed, door needs to be hung and other decorative accents need to go in. But here she is in all her glory for now!!

New double vanity and big ole' mirror! {Please excuse my image in the background.}

We now have marble thresholds on the shower.

Ready for the glass walls/door.

So what do you think? It's finally turning into a home, right?!?!?!

Holy Overwhelming!

2011-12-13T17:17:00.000-05:00

{BEWARE: LONGEST POST EVER...without any fun pictures to look at!}

That just about sums up the past couple days that we've been having. Since this week is "supposed" to be the final week until we move in, there has been a flurry of activity going on at our house....at all hours of the day/night. {Yup, my Mom was up until an absurd hour of the morning...sanding away on our cabinet doors. I don't know where she gets her drive!}

Our weekend was spent painting/sanding/drylocking/making a million Home Depot runs/shopping at Kohl's for uhhhhhh-mazing sales on bedding-bath necessities/having nervous breakdowns/getting super excited to finally move into our casa. We started out early in the morning and finished up late at night...and then had to drive out to the in-laws, which is about an hour away.

The original schedule was supposed to go something like this...plumbers show up Thursday, along with the electricians, and then our contractor does his thing and finishes our house up by this Wednesday so the floor refinishing guy has free reign...then we move in Monday, the 19th. Well the electricians showed Wednesday {props for coming a day early to work}, and the plumbers never showed Thursday...and then didn't show Friday...and we now know it was pretty much due to the fact that our contractor wasn't ready for them {shocker since he never showed up at our house to tackle his to-do list until Thursday}.

Finally, on Saturday, our contractor was ready for them and they showed up to hook up all of our bathrooms fixtures...and here is where things started going awry {or shall I say continued since our contractor wasn't around to tackle anything most of the week}.

First, the main bath faucets didn't fit into the vanities. No big deal. I had to run to Home Depot and pick up new ones. Luckily, they fit...phew!

Then our master bath faucets didn't fit. I told the plumbers they could just install the faucets that originally came with our vanity, and we'd replace them down the road when they wore out {they weren't the best quality since they came with the vanity...which is why I bought nicer ones in the first place}. Well turns out, the threading on the faucet that came with the vanity was bad, so those couldn't be installed either. At that point we didn't have time to run to Home Depot and get back in time so they could install it...so that was on our to-do list for Sunday.

And in the midst of all that...the plumbers FLOODED our master bathroom so bad that water was going up over the marble threshold and onto our hardwood floors in the master closets. Thank the good Lord for having a brand new wet vac at the house. Within a couple minutes, the water was cleaned up.

Then, our plumbers couldn't install the proper caps on the pipes for our master and main baths because our contractor had drywalled over the pipes they needed access to. They had to break through the drywall and were able to cap off at least one of the bathrooms so we could....{drum roll please}...finally have a working toilet and sink in the house!

On Sunday the hubby and I picked up new faucets {which we weren't a fan of, but H.D. had no other ones in stock that we liked} so that come Monday, the plumbers could install the faucets in the master bath.

We got home and immediately tried to dry fit them ourselves...THEY didn't fit either! Who knew faucets would be such a pain to deal with! Luckily my parents came to the rescue {for the millionth time} and went to a plumbing supply store early Monday morning and found a gorgeous faucet in stock, that fit the measurements we needed. Or so we thought. The faucet was 1/32 TOO BIG for the holes drilled in our vanity. The plumbers refused to drill larger holes our marble top because it's so fragile and they can't be held responsible for damaging it. Well my Dad worked his magic and got one of the plumbers to agree to try it out. For 30 minutes they drilled one hole and got the first faucet to fit. Then after 45 more minutes of drilling, my Dad got the second one to fit. CRISIS AVERTED. We finally had faucets in the master bath!!!

Then the plumbers confirmed that we had two, yes two, gas leaks in the house and fixed those. They also fixed our brand new Kohler toilet that they just installed on Saturday because it had a malfunctioning part and it would not stop filling and running.

Besides ALL of that nonsense, the plumbers installed a new hot water heater, frost-free spigots for our exterior, put a new p-trap drain thing for our kitchen sink {sorry, I might have used the wrong terms because I don't speak plumber} and installed a gas line to our fire place for when we hit the lottery and can convert our wood burning unit.

YOWZERS. That was a mouthful, {and if you are still even reading this post, I appreciate your patience and attention span.} Hopefully that helped to give you a glimpse into what caused much of our stress from this weekend. You know, aside from finding out that our contractor will not make his deadline of completing our house by tomorrow night. But come on, who is surprised by that? Anyone? Anyone? Yea...I didn't think so. ;-)

Luckily, we do have functioning bathrooms and our floor guy is still scheduled to come in on Thursday. So barring any major disasters, we are moving in next week! We just won't be able to get rid of our contractor for a little while longer.

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

2011-12-09T17:03:00.000-05:00

Thankfully, things are a changin' in our house! The fugly wall colors...the disgustingly gross backsplash residue...the dirty trim and ceiling...they are all being transformed to reflect me and my hubby's style.

A pretty grey replaced the golden yellow that was in the living/dining room area of our home. And now that I know I'm in love with the paint color, I'm going to continue it down the hallway, toward the bedrooms and bathrooms. {It's hard to capture the true color of the walls on my camera while we have weird lighting all over and it's so dark outside. Hopefully I'll have better pictures to come in the future. It's a warm, soothing grey....I'm obsessed!}

Two different beige-ish colors are going in the main/family bath. We are putting thick horizontal stripes across the walls. For now, we have the lighter of the two colors up on the wall. Hopefully the second color will go up soon!

The walls of our bath/shower unit are finally starting to go up!!

In our master bath I managed to match a light aqua color perfectly to the accent tile that runs through our shower. It's soft and watery, and will look awesome once we get our dark vanity and mirror in there.

And last, but not least...our subway tile backsplash is starting to go up in the kitchen! No more old, heinous glue to stare at! The small section on our island has not been tiled yet, and the grouting isn't done either, but it still looks a million times better than it used to!

Word on the street is that our microwave will be delivered tomorrow. That means our contractor can remove that old vent hood and retrofit the cabinet above it to fit our over-the-range microwave.

And although I was promised that the plumbers would be at our house on Thursday, they didn't come. Then they promised us they'd be there today...and that didn't happen. Now we are told that a "whole crew" will be showing up tomorrow to take care of everything. Keep your fingers crossed for us that I will have some bathroom pictures {complete with FUNCTIONING TOILETS...yes, I am that excited about having a toilet back in the house} to show you come Monday! ;-)

Happy Friday everyone!

Easy Peasy...

2011-12-08T17:20:00.000-05:00

I have more than enough clothes, shoes, jewelry and accessories to go around...and, the hubby has his fair share of a wardrobe too. This means that when it came to designing our bedroom closets, we needed to maximize all the space we had.

If you remember from this post {see the floor plans I created below}, we took over the third bedroom in our house to create our master ensuite. That former bedroom gave us approximately 165 sq. ft. of space to work with. Since Pete and I work at the same company, and often times even commute together, we had to make sure of two things: 1) that our bathroom was big enough to let us move around each other comfortably {but not waste space...say with a tub, since neither of us have taken a bath since we were children}, and 2) that our closets provided the proper amount of space and storage.

Because of the two main criteria we set, we ended up making our closet area almost equal to the bathroom area. Our bathroom is roughly 11' wide by 8' long...my closet is 7' wide by 4' deep...and hubby's is 7' wide by a little over 3' deep. {He's the best ever, letting me have the bigger closet!!} The additional space left over in the closet area is for our "hallway" that leads from the bedroom to the bathroom.

Once our closets were framed in and I knew the rough sizes they would be, I hopped on Google and looked for a custom closet site online, where I could create my own system. The first site I clicked on happened to be super user friendly, was priced reasonably, came with a lifetime guarantee and had uh-mazing shipping options {aka, FREE shipping, and if you place your order before 6pm, it ships out the next day}. So, with the help of EasyClosets.com I quickly had two closets designed and ordered.

It didn't hurt that I got a 10% off discount for having an order over $1,000 and then they also sent me an extra 5% off coupon through email for the holidays. Woohoooo for savings! {I have seriously not bought anything for our house that I didn't get some sort of discount on...either it was on sale, I had a coupon code, free shipping, etc. We need to watch every penny we can!}

So here is what I came up with. This picture shows the three walls of the closets in a single row.

This is my closet...

And this is the hubby's...

{Sorry for the slightly distorted images...it's the best I could do.}

And right on cue...in the same week that I placed the order for our systems, UPS arrived and started unloading the 19 boxes {yes, I said 19 boxes...thank gosh I'm not the one assembling them}!

Keepin' It Real

2011-12-07T17:18:00.000-05:00

Let's face it. Our house is a hot mess right now. We have about 73 different things going on...all with the goal of us moving in the week of the 19th {or at least that's what we are praying for}. And since I couldn't even hide the disaster if I wanted to, I decided to show more pictures of our uhhhh-mazing countertops, as they are...with stuff all over every square inch of them. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand that it makes it almost impossible to see the countertops themselves, but I want to keep it real here. There won't be any pretty staged pictures of them until all the subs are gone, and we can start to take over our home ~~with our own junk everywhere hehe~~.

Our pretty new, *FREE* stainless steel sink...and faucet.

Island/bar counter area.

And again, from a different angle. That fancy piece of wood will be replace by countertop supports when I find ones I want...I'm thinking heavy duty "L" shaped brackets, so leg room can be maximized.

View of the bar-height counter.

More countertop lovin'.

Gratuitous countertop close-up.

Besides being in countertop heaven...I'm loving lots of other things at our house. The electricians greeted my parents at the house this AM and got to work wrapping up their to-do list for our job. That means we'll finally have light switches and lights to turn on! It can't wait to see our house looking all warm and lit up...it's been dark for so long. After today, Phil and his crew need only one more day next week to complete all of our electrical work! Woo-to-the-hooooo for that!

My FANTASTIC {seriously, they are the best} parents have been hard at work priming, caulking and painting our casa the past couple days. I finally nailed down a couple paint colors for the house. I can't wait to stop at home tonight to see some of my walls looking more like us, and less like the old owners of the house {aka - everything the same shade of dirty yellow, with the old green poking through places where they didn't get great coverage}.

And now that my Mom finished the three-friggin'-day process of removing all the wallpaper glue on our master bedroom walls {she gets a ginormous gold star for taking care of that task}, my Pops could prime over the Smurf blue. It took two coats and the room already looks so much better with just primer on the walls. {Yup, that old toilet from the demo is still hanging out in the middle of everything. Kind of like our old fridge in the middle of the dining room. We are classy.}

Here is a before of our master walls...in all their Smurfy glory...

And some after shots of the primed walls...so much better, even without a paint color...

View into the master from the hallway...take note, we now have lights in there! :)

Master bedroom, again...towards the new small 3rd closet and entrance door.

View of the master bedroom from inside the doorway.

Master bedroom, towards the ensuite area.

Countertop Preview!!!

2011-12-06T17:02:00.000-05:00

WE HAVE COUNTERTOPS! Beautiful, clean, white countertops! And they look phenomenal.

Yesterday, my Mom and Dad were busy working at the house {shocker}, and thankfully, that meant they were there to supervise our countertop installation and our air duct cleaning while me and the hubby were at work.

My parents said the countertop installers were terrific to work with. Of course, our almost 60 year old kitchen walls were not straight...and that meant the installers had to make some corrections to the solid surface, but the end result looks perfect! I'm in L-O-V-E! {And our free stainless steel sink is pretty great if I do say so myself!}

Here is a quick preview...more pictures to come! :)

BEFORE.....

And, AFTER!!!

I also found a wonderful air duct cleaning company on Angie's List. If you remember from this post, our ducts were beyond nastyyyy. I really don't think they were ever cleaned in our house's 57 year history. And judging by the junk that came out of our ducts, the professionals agreed. They were never maintained. But now, thanks to the wonderful workers at Clean Air Technologies our air ducts are sparkling clean, and even sanitized. We can finally breathe easy!

Mom & Dad to the Rescue!

2011-12-05T17:14:00.000-05:00

This was a HUGE weekend at the house. So much was accomplished and we couldn't be happier about it.

There were several things that needed to be done ASAP. We had to get the priming, ceiling painting and wallpaper/wallpaper glue removal completed before the hardwoods get refinished and the tile floors went down.

To help with this massive task, my parents left their home in NC at 4am on Friday and were at our house by dinner time. After a quick stop at our favorite diner, we headed straight to Home Depot to pick up a bunch of supplies for the weekend.

After that, it was time to rest up. My parents {bless their hearts} are staying at an EconoLodge until our house has a working bathroom. So off they went to their ~~luxury suite~~ hotel-ish room, and me and the hubby trekked back to my in-laws.

Saturday morning quickly arrived, and by 7am my phone was ringing. We were informed to stop at Lowe's on our way to the house to pick up a couple things for my parents, and most importantly, a bunch of grout and two marble saddles for the tile crew that arrived at our house.

{The hubby and I were blindsided by a heinous joke while shopping in Lowe's. I made the mistake of asking where I could find a marble saddle...and I was told, "on a marble horse". The only one who laughed at the joke was the salesperson himself. Oh, and my Mom, when I told her the following day. In fact, she got a kick out of it...it was right up her alley.}

Anywho...we all worked diligently at the house...us and the tile crew. All day, each one of us would stop what we were doing and head to the bathrooms to check on the progress. It was great. Seeing our bathrooms take shape was an awesome experience. And the crew who worked on them was amazing!!

By the end of the day, the priming was done {we even put a coat on the kitchen cabinet frames}, my Mom had the wallpaper removed from the kitchen area and a good chunk of the master bedroom, Pete had removed the staples from the living room floor and the tile crew had both bathrooms mostly tiled.

On Sunday, we left my parents to fend for themselves. :( We already had plans to go with Pete's family to get their Christmas trees. It's a tradition...every year, we all go to a Christmas tree farm and then to this great little place for lunch. After lunch, we headed straight to the house. My parents were busy bees all day...along with the tile crew.

My Mom made some major headway on our master bedroom wallpaper glue...and my Dad painted all of the ceilings {except for the bathrooms since he couldn't get in there} and put a second coat of primer on our cabinet frames. The tile crew completed tiling and grouting everything. The bathrooms look terrific. We couldn't be happier with the job these hard working guys did!

Here is a bit of the progress in photo form. {The pictures don't show too well since we still don't have any lights...bear with me, please!}

New tile by the front door...no wet feet coming in onto the hardwood floor! :)

New tile in the main/family bath...also primed walls!

New tile in the master bath.

A little closer.

Master shower tile...marble floor, white subway tile walls, with a glass/marble accent tile! {We still need to install the marble thresholds around the shower.}

Master bath towards the vanity area.

No more ugly grellow {green + yellow} shag carpet! Woohooo!

Cabinet frames all primed.

Can't wait to put a new backsplash up!!!

Please take note of the crazy amounts of yellow-ish glue all over that blue wall.

Now look at the walls after my poor Mom scrubbed and scraped all the old glue off.

Can't wait to get rid of that smurf blue!

For such a long time, all of the design elements of our home have been floating around in my mind and on my computer screen. I have always been worried that I messed something up and that it wouldn't gel together to create the perfect place for us {and our families} to call home. I'm so very thankful to say that I didn't mess anything up in the tiling department! We are beyond ecstatic with how it looks! PHEWWW! :)

The 1990's Called...

2011-12-02T16:49:00.000-05:00

The hubby and I stopped at the house on the way home from work last night to take in some more progress at the casa. Nothing too crazy had changed since we had stopped in during our lunch hour. The only things big enough to report....the spackle crew is officially done, the basement window is complete, we had some light bulbs screwed into the hallway high hats {we have no light switch to turn them off yet...hmmmm}, and more doors were hung.

Basement window all done.

Let there be light! View from the master bedroom towards the living area.

View towards bedroom #2 and the master bedroom.

View from the living room area towards the bedrooms...we have hallway lights! :)

New family/main bathroom door. Much wider than before...woohooo!

We have closet and bathroom doors in the ensuite!

My closet doors.

Hubby's closet doors.

Hoorayyy for having some bathroom and closets doors! BOOOOO for the brass hinges on all of the doors. Ummm, the 1990's called, and they want all their brass back.

When doors were discussed with our contractor, I made sure that he knew we wanted brushed nickel finishes on all the doors. I picked out all brushed nickel for our exterior doors, and when he ordered our interior doors, I thought he knew. Luckily, when Pete asked how difficult it'd be to switch everything out to suit our preference, he said it'd be no big deal. He said he figured we'd be going for a more modern look and he just used the brass to get everything hung and in place. Hmmm, sounds like he just created twice the work for himself, but whatever floats his boat! As long as we don't end up with brass on our new doors, I'm good to go!

And don't get me wrong....I love lots of finishes! Chrome, brushed nickel, oil-rubbed bronze, gold {if done tastefully}....but I just can't get on board will brass. Yuck!!!

Interior Doors and Dirty Floors!

2011-12-01T17:01:00.000-05:00

I may be jinxing myself by saying this, but I think we are coming into the home stretch! By the 18th or 19th of this month, we may be able to, wait for it.....LIVE IN OUR HOUSE!!!!

Our contractor thinks he'll be able to have everything done by the 15th...and then the hardwood floor guy can come in and work his magic. He'll need a couple days, and then the house will be all ours.

I am crossing all my fingers {and toes} that we'll be able to put our Christmas tree up before the holiday comes and goes.

Yesterday the spackle guy, and his partner-in-crime, were able to make a lot of progress smoothing out the walls and patches. Our contractor built up our basement window so he could re-grade the dirt under our screened-in porch, started installing the last basement window and hung most of the interior doors. Our poor hardwoods have taken a beating through this reno. I can't wait to see them after they get some much needed TLC.

Our patched floors covered in spackle.

View into the kitchen...island moved to the middle of the kitchen so they could spackle the half wall.

View from kitchen toward the living room.

Patches by the dining room light box and fireplace.

Spackled areas on the kitchen ceiling...a total contrast to the shiny ceiling paint selected by the original homeowners.

Half wall

Other side.

Repaired areas towards the front door.

Repaired areas toward the back door.

New primed doors to linen closet #1 and bedroom #1.

New door to linen closet #2 and doorway to the main bath.

View into the main bath.

And again.

One more time.

View towards bedroom #2 and master bedroom.

In case you didn't see the green trim poking through in the picture above...here is it, up close...just for you. Enjoy! What were these homeowners thinking?!?!

View from master bedroom towards the ensuite.

Masater bedroom again.

And again. Yes...that toilet is still sitting in our room.

My closet.

View towards the bathroom.

Hubby's closet.

Master bath shower area.

Very blurry picture of the master bath vanity area.

Garage is finally spackled!

Another view.

One more time.

Basement window built up...almost done.