Picket Fence

When we returned from Chicago, our yard (that someone was supposedly taking care of) was completely overgrown with weeds and was dead as dead can be.  Our new neighbor thought our house was abandoned, until she peeked in our windows and saw my curtains and wreath.  Then she just thought we must've died inside.  Embarrassing!  So we quickly sodded our lawn, which helped it's curb appeal tremendously.  Now, we've added a cute picket fence out front.  It's perfect in so many ways.  Now Sawyer (our dog) can run around freely in the front yard.  Plus it's great for us to play with Rilo with a little more privacy.  Last night we put up our porch swing too...I'll have to get an updated picture soon.

Here is a before picture I pulled from a real estate website.  I didn't take one of the yard when it was a mess.  I don't know that I could stand to look at the picture.

And now it looks like this:

House Tour: Bedroom

The bedroom is where the big changes have happened.  Not so much in terms of the decor, but in the function and layout of the room.  I'll refresh you with some before pictures:

Here you can see the door to the closet.  The closet actually extends to the right, along the wall where the dresser is, only it was about a foot and half deep.  So if you wanted to get to the end of the closet, you had to shimmy against the dresser wall.  It was a pain for Adam to try to get his clothes, so he ended up just using Rilo's room as a closet.  So not usable at all! You can also see the plain wood jewelry box from Ikea.  Boring!

Here you can see the window to the right of the bed that actually looks into a little storage area attached to the house.  Really pointless to have a window there...Unless you like checking out your lawn mower every morning.

And here is how it looks now!  A functional, amazing closet that I am thankful for every day! 

We added another dresser since Adam and I both have a ton of clothes.  Someday I will make up my mind about whether I want to restain the dresser or paint it.  I also hung the inflatable heart Adam got me for Valentine's day last year.  It makes me happy!

Jewelry holder made from a frame and a radiator screen.

My new pretty bedspread and a windowless wall on the right!  It makes the room feel so much larger without the window there.  I don't love the layout of the room, but we have a wall of windows, a closet wall and the entrance to our room has huge sliding doors.  We're left with one wall to put our bed on.  If we center the bed, then the flow of the room is interrupted.  So against the windows it is..

Well that about wraps up the house tour.  I'll wait to show our kitchen until September when we give it a major overhaul.  And if you want to check out Rilo Jane's room, click the link up on the top left!  Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!  We'll be packing up for our summer move to Chicago.  Don't forget to enter the giveaway!

Houe Tour: Office

*Sorry about all of the technical difficulties this morning!  First all of my photos disappeared on my blog and then this scheduled post never posted!  I think I've fixed it all now!*

It wasn't that long ago that I posted the Before/Afters of our office makeover, but in case you missed it, here are the pictures again!  I probably should've re-shot these images since I've downsized the amount of books in the shelf and rearranged (talk about way too cluttered in the photo) and have changed out the seasonal paper in the clock since it's not Thanksgiving anymore.  Oh well...

Don't forget to enter the giveaway below!

House Tour: Dining Room

I'm still in love with our dining room table.  It's an old farmhouse table, complete with all of the original chairs.  I don't know if I'll ever be able to get rid of it!  Since last year, the dining room has gained more plates on the plate wall and pillows on the bench. 

The next step is to have my friend Mary come out here and paint a big canvas for our large and very empty wall!  And someday I'll have Adam build me a little buffet table to go under the plates.

And speaking of plates, please stop by later today to enter another awesome giveaway!!

House Tour: Living Room

And here begins the house tour!  Our house was built in 1908.  I love old houses but they do not come without weird quirky things.  But I think that is precisely why I like them. So much character!

For the most part, the living room has stayed the same as a year ago when I last posted.  We did add the blue chair, the black lamp and a few things to the shelves.  On my list of things to do when come back from the summer is to add more pictures to the wall and to change the layout.  It's way too symmetrical and it's driving me nuts just looking at it!

We also had the hardest time figuring out what to do with the TV.  We have a fireplace in the room, but it doesn't even have a flue so we didn't want to use it.  We thought about hanging it above the fireplace, but then it would be too high...We thought about putting it on the wall where the bookshelf is, but then it would interrupt the flow of traffic to the kitchen.  We even thought about putting it in a corner in between our kitchen and bathroom on a corner TV stand, but that just wouldn't work either.  We finally decided to block the fireplace with the TV, and I like the placement for the most part.  I won't be showing it though because who really wants to see my TV?!

And yes, this coat rack is definitely the Leaning Tower of Pisa after removing the coats.  But just look how cool my front windows are!

*I know I just did a giveaway last week, but stay tuned because I have another fun giveaway coming up this week!*

Mini-Bathroom Redo

Our bathroom used to look like this





Then we decided we wanted it to look more like this:



And so now it looks like this. I apologize for the bad pictures. I just wasn't able to take any with good light/good angles/good editing, but oh well. Thus is the life of a new mom!

Nothing too fancy...there are a million things I would do to it if I knew we were staying here longer. But it is much better than it was! Brighter and way more functional! We can actually walk through the bathroom without bumping into the sink.






Maybe someday I'll take nicer pictures that actually show it a little better...but this is as good as it gets for now!

Bathroom Update #1

It's Monday...and still no baby! I can't say that I'm surprised. She has not been showing any signs of coming anytime soon. I'm still feeling great...antsy, but great. To keep myself busy, I have a bunch of little projects to do this week so I don't go crazy.

This weekend we tackled painting the bathroom. Remember this inspiration board?
After taking out the old sink, we discovered some really awesome 80's wallpaper. They apparently didn't care about removing it since the sink was going there.

I wanted to paint the top half of the bathroom white and the lower portion a darker greyish shade of the aqua color called "Aqua Smoke" by Behr. Home Depot happens to be having a paint sale where Glidden paint is only $14.97 for a gallon. So I had them color match the Behr color using the Glidden paint. Well, let's just say it DID NOT TURN OUT. You can see for yourself.


Oh well for color matching!! I am not going for a child's Caribbean themed bathroom thank you very much. I was going for a calm, serene color. So today, I'm headed back to Home Depot to get the right color this time.

How To: Gutter Bookshelves

This project was so easy, I don't even think a "how to" is necessary. But here is a quick version of what we did!

First, we measured the length under the window. Then Adam used his hand saw to cut the gutter to the right length.



Next, we put on the end caps and the special gutter brackets (you can find both these things with the gutters at Home Depot or Lowes). Then using our level, we marked the 2 holes for drilling and drilled.


Then we just screwed on the gutter! It was seriously that easy. I think it took us about 10 minutes total, including cleaning up the gutter after it had been sitting in the basement for a year.

Laundry Room Lifesaver

When you come through our back door, you walk into a little mud room/laundry area. Up until recently, I had NO counter space in there. I just had a small shelf and the tops of my appliances. Boo! Young House Love gave me the great idea of putting a board on top of our washer and dry to create a nice surface. They went a few steps further and put blinds to hide shelving and even put some art. Looks nice, doesn't it?



Now, I haven't done anything that drastic (yet), but let me tell you, having this new counter space has been AMAZING. Having a place to put the basket and place to fold clothes...Heavenly.

To begin this simple project, Adam and I stopped by Lowe's and found a piece of wood, with the top covered in white laminate. The bottom of the piece was chipped, so Adam asked for a discount. We got the whole laminate board for $8. He then cut the board to fit in our space. We laid down a non-slip mat meant for a rug on top of the washer/dryer. (This protects your appliances as well as keeps your board in place). And ta-da! You have a nice counter space! I bought 2 small baskets for $5 to keep laundry supplies and Sawyer's treats/daily walk supplies.

(Yes, that shelf is hung incorrectly. Some day we'll fix it!)

The bonus of this space? It's also great to work on larger scale projects. My craft desk isn't quite big enough for things like wrapping presents, so this space doubles as a craft area.
Next time we get out the white paint (hopefully when we start painting the bathroom, we'll paint that edge to give it a more finished look.

Have a happy weekend! I'll be posting our experience with the gutter shelves Monday!

The Nursery

After lots of broken promises, I am FINALLY posting these. It's not 100% finished, but close enough that I feel comfortable revealing it! I'll try to do a breakdown of the things in the room in case you're curious.

A few before pictures. As a disclaimer: We were using this as our "closet" because we were preparing to fix our closet. Hence the mess! Well, let's be honest, this was always our "junk room".


And now, here it is as a nursery:

A peek in from the doorway. I am SO glad we got the rug in a bigger size. The room was an addition at some point and they apparently didn't care about the wooden floor in there because it is the WORST flooring job in the world. Plus, it will be great for her to have carpet to play on since most of our house had wooden floors.


Here is a before of the smaller dresser. This picture actually makes it look better than it was. It was really chipped and those gold knobs had to go!
And here is the dresser now!


The bedding is completely done, except I need to bind the edges of the quilt. I loved making it and it was much easier than I expected!

The bookshelf before:

And after:
Most of the items on the bookshelf are from a box of my things from growing up that my Dad brought up to us. (My Mom is jealous right now reading this, because she has about 8 boxes of stuff she wishes she could bestow upon us!)

The closet Adam and my Dad built. I want to put little stuffed animals on the top with their legs dangling. I just have to actually get some little creatures first!


Next to the squirrel print I'll hang the cute wooden clock once I get around to ordering it.

Now for the details:

The $5 lamp before (well in progress anyway):
And after:



This cat came from our trip to Mexico and the plate was a gift from my Mom from The Children's Place.

LOVE the little boots from Peekaboo Monkey.

I printed various "r's" on cardstock and painted some wooden frames I had on hand.

Here is the vintage ebay light after it has been spray painted brown and given a new chain and wire. I love this light!

A cute little dress and my Snoopy apron from my own childhood. Hooks are from Pier One.

The art piece above the crib. I got this idea from this post on Design Sponge. It's made from toilet paper/paper towel rolls. There is always the worry about hanging something above the crib in case it falls...well this is perfect. I think a blanket would be heavier! I'm thinking I'm going to add even more to it. I love the look.

Wooden blocks I made that spell out her name.

My best friend Mary knitted this blanket as a wedding gift. I think it is one of the coolest presents I have ever gotten. I know it took her forever and I'm so happy that it has a perfect home in this room!

Print on the left from Heather and her husband's Etsy shop and the print on the right was actually part of my baby shower invite. My friend Melanie designed it. There will be 2 smaller prints underneath the brown frame that I have yet to put up.

Anthropologie knobs.

My friend Jess made this magnet board for me as a shower gift. She had asked me before the shower for my extra fabric and she surprised me by using it on the board. It looks great!

All but one of these books are from my childhood. Can you tell my favorite color was always green?

And a final breakdown with the costs (I always like to see the breakdown on sites like YoungHouseLove so I thought I would do the same). When I would see nurseries on OhDeeDoh, I couldn't believe how much some of them cost. Under $1000 was considered budget friendly...And now I know why! It really can be an expensive little room. It was my goal to spend under $1000 and we did it! We could've saved even more if we had gone with a used crib, but I fell in love with the one we got. Everything else I think was a pretty good deal. It just adds up so quickly!

Crib: Babyletto Modo Crib $300 (on sale + free shipping)
Dressers: Refinished KSL dresser set $100 (it also came with a cool standing mirror)
Rocker: Dorel Rocker w/ Slipcover $230
Dresser Knobs: Anthropologie $48 (total splurge, but I love them)
Lamp: Craigslist find $5
Ceiling Light: ebay $30
Pillows: Green, Tan and Brown $5 from Burlington Coat and Green Pattern from Target $5 (both on sale)
Rug: Pottery Barn $149 (after using gift cards)
Hooks: Pier One $12
Frames: All were frames we already owned.
Art: Kantan Designs Pray Print $5 (on sale), Owl Print by MMBurk (gift), Squirrel print from CacheCache $2.50
Curtains: Target $18 (I got one of the panels on sale because the packaging was ripped)
Paint: Glidden Celery Sticks $30
Fabric: $60 Various Etsy/Local Shops

Total: $999.50
Just barely under! And there you have it!