House update...exterior is done!!

Well, ALMOST done. We just have one more coat of paint to put on the front door...but I had the time to take pictures today so this is as close to done as we are going to get for the moment. Man that sounds good...D-O-N-E!

Here are a few of the before pictures I took last year as things were in progress:

And the afters:

Wow wow Wubbzy right?! I am SO proud of us...this transformation was a lot of work. We painted the entire house, hung the gutters, tore out and replaced all the landscaping...mostly by ourselves. We had some help from my Grandpa along the way (THANK YOU!).

There are 2 things that I'm looking forward to next year- the door being done and the "right color" (it looks brighter here than it will be without the second coat), our landscaping becoming more "full" and to not do a SINGLE thing outside besides fill in the mulch this spring and then mow the yard.

I can't even express how good it feels to not have the ugly house in the neighborhood anymore. We have worked so freaking hard, and it is so nice to have a house that feels brighter and more like us. :)

Now we move on to Jack's room! It is almost done so stay tuned!

Fablous Foyer here we come!

I have a problem, I can not finish a project before I start another one. It is TERRIBLE. My focus right now should be on L's room redo but I can't control myself, our foyer was just begging to be started. I blame this on a steal of a deal table that I found at Marshall's.

I found the table for less than $90 (there's a scratch on the back but who cares?!) and had to get it. But now I had a great table, crappy lamp and NOTHING else. Pretty impressive front entrance, right? So after looking at this for a week I decided it was time to get stuff done. One Sunday I just jumped up and started measuring. We were doing faux wainscoting!

I started with where I wanted the chair rail to be. We already have one in our dining room (we also plan on doing wainscoting in there) so I used that as my guide. Measuring from the floor, my first tape line was to determine where the chair rail would be- about 30 inches from the floor. After taping the "chair rail" around the foyer, I started on the boxes. I decided how many boxes I wanted on each wall, then determined how far away I wanted them from the chair rail, baseboard and each other. I decided after looking at several other blogger's tutorials that 4 inches was a good number...and just went with it! 

Taping- DONE! Just having things taped looked better than before...maybe we should have just left up that beautiful blue stuff. Ha!

Now it was time for a trip to Home Depot. We needed a Miter saw and trim! Thankfully we were able to find the same chair rail material that's in the dining room and then just used piece of flat wood trim that we liked for the boxes. Neither of these were primed so we saved some dough there (plus I am a freak and LOVE priming and painting). Here's a quick pic of our materials:

Time to get down to business. Bryan took over from here because I don't go near machinery. He took all the measurements he needed (SO easy since he just had to measure the tape) and went to his work room to cut the materials. He made all cuts at a 45 degree angle and fitted them on the floor of his work room before brining them up to make sure they all had nice clean fits.

Next up- putting the trim on the walls! Now stop. Hammer time. Haha...I crack myself up. Using my tape as a guide, Bryan used 2 1/2 inch trim nails and hammered the trim to the walls making sure to hit the studs for maximum "stayness". Yep, I just invented a word. Also...a nail gun would be easier but we like to do things the hard way. Here was our first completed wall:

Eeek! Such a huge difference. The corner to the left is the start of our living room. Eventually we will continue the "wainscoting" there and into the dining room. For now, that chair rail is just cut at a 45 degree angle and will hang out as is.

We ran into a bit of a problem when we started to do the next wall:  

First issue with pocket door: we have a wall with no studs. Second issue with a pocket door: there's a pocket door. I have a feeling it would be no longer in use after using 2 1/2 inch nails to attach a chair rail to that side of the wall. And this is why I have my husband...because you better believe I would have just nailed those suckers up, caulked and painted the whole thing and one day realize "hey, I can't pull out the pocket door!".

So we decided to use some Power Grab adhesive ($8 at Home Depot) to "glue" the trim to the wall then the 2 1/2 inch nails further along the wall where the studs started back up. We had to "tape" the trim to the walls for 24 hours while the adhesive set, but I think this turned out to be a pretty good solution.

 Then we ran into problem #2 on the other end of the foyer. We are not continuing the chair rail down the hallway so we have another dead end.

Again, my genius husband crafted this cute little teeny tiny piece to fit snugly into the crack for a nice finished look. Pretty good right?!

 

After using a nail punch to get the nail heads further in the trim, we used wood putty to fill in the holes and lightly sanded down any excess after it dried. Then it was time to caulk along the edges of all wood and fill in any gaps. This helps things look nice and crisp after the trim is painted (aka- no gaps or cracks along the wall).  

 

We used a tube of Alex Plus and it went on very easily. Just applied at a 45 degree angle with the caulking gun doing a "line" at a time...caulking then pressing the white stuff into the cracks with a wet finger. Have LOTS of wet and dry paper towels with you so you aren't running back and forth to the sink. We also used a wet paper towel to wipe up any spills and "oopses". 

Finally we can prime and paint! Using a latex primer (because that's what we had) I primed all the trim. I used painters tape so I wouldn't get any on the existing trim and baseboard...but I didn't bother with the walls since they are getting a fresh coat of paint as well. 

Bryan didn't trust me to keep paint off the wood floors so he used masking tape to secure a drop cloth. Instead of taping the floor...he taped the baseboard. Guess I didn't need that blue painters tape...baseboard will now need to be sanded, primed and repainted. Me to Bryan after discovering this: "I'm going to KILL YOU". Bryan to me "At least there's no paint on the FLOOR". 

In his defense, all of the trim in this entire house needs redone. The trim itself is in great shape, even after 30 years! But the contractor that updated the house before we bought it painted right on the wood...no primer. So we get the job of sanding, priming and painting ALL of the doors, closet doors, trim and baseboards in the entire house. We'll be doing this room by room as we go. Talk about a lot of work! 

After 2 coats of primer and 1 coat of paint on the trim, and 2 coats of paint on the walls, our faux wainscoting is finished! We couldn't be happier with the way it turned out!

I think the first thing you notice in the before/afters is the wainscoting...second thing is my crooked lampshade. Ha! That lamp and the candle sticks will be getting a fresh coat of paint...along with the top part of the walls. I'm really thinking a light gray will look gorgeous in this room but I'm waiting to find a rug that I fall in love with to coordinate. 

Although I'd love to cross a line through this room on our to do list, I'm not going to rush the paint color decision. For now, I'll just sit back and enjoy the faux wainscoting transformation!

 

I need ideas...desperately

Layla and I went to Marshall's today and I can't step in there without wanting to buy one of the funky chairs, $200 mirrored jewelry boxes (even though I couldn't even fill 1 drawer) or a bright purple ceramic elephant that I have NO use for. But I could not pass this up today:

I promised myself I wouldn't by another dark or black piece of furniture. I just didn't resist and it can always be painted right?! This baby was on sale for $119 because of a few dings in the back and I had a few gift cards so this all makes it OK that I didn't tell Bryan about it until I got it home (he is going to make me get a job if I keep this up LOL). I even took it out of the car and carried it in by myself. Thank GOD none of our neighbors were out to witness that.

So now, to my dilemma. I just purchased another black piece of furniture for the purpose of putting it in our entry way and now it looks like this:

Impressive right? Ha! One crappy 6 year old lamp from Pier 1 that's lamp shade is lopsided and nothing else. I don't even have an entry rug. Here are my thoughts...paint the lamp white (and possibly the table), redo the shade and fix the lopsidedness (I can't believe that's actually a word), paint the walls a light grayish/bluish color to keep it light (even lighter than my terrible Photoshop work below...L is waking up and I need to hurry!!), add a mirror and some pics of Layla, accessories on the table, an umbrella stand and shoe tray and call this finished. Oh yeah, and a rug. I really don't want to cover these beautiful floors though :(

Any other ideas? Paint colors? Paint is a big decision because it has to be neutral enough to flow with the kitchen (thinking of gray), living and dining rooms (thinking of gray or blue to possibly match the foyer) and hallway (gray again...what is wrong with me?!).

Oh well, I shouldn't worry too much. Bryan will be home soon and will probably make me return it LOL. Just kidding...but I bet he is reading this right now and my phone will ring in 3, 2, 1... ;o) Love you BB!

Layla's room...making progress

I am freaking out about all the stuff we want to do to our house...inside and out. We have already done so much and we haven't even lived here 7 months. See here for a refresher. I know that when the house is done, I will wish I hadn't rushed things. But I just have so many ideas and want to get started!

The first room I want 100% D.O.N.E. is L's room. My initial inspiration (mostly for color) was this room:

I just love the idea of putting blue on a little girl's wall. And it is SO Layla.

My Grandma worked her tail off to do Layla's big girl quilt and a few pillows (she threw those in as a surprise!) and gave them to us at Christmas. It made my day! :) You can find the tutorial for the quilt here and pillows here.

After getting the quilt, looking for accessories and making sure I'm 100% OK with this paint color and pallet...I started to hesitate. Let's take a look at the paint chips (all Benj Moore) below and you guess why I'm a little freaked.  

How in the WORLD did that red get in there?! This was not my intention...I don't want my 2 year old having a red, white and blue room (Oh say can you see, By the dawn's early light! ugh...). So in an effort to make me feel better about this, I have spent hours...and I mean hours on Pinterest. Now I'll be honest, I get side tracked and if I would have just focused, I could have found this in 2 minutes. But in my effort to make myself feel better, I found this gem:

Those pics are a little yellow, but I believe the reds she used are more of a super dark pinkish orangish color (these are all very technical terms of course). Now I feel better about the red and I have redesigned L's alphabet art work to reflect and incorporate the red to make it look like I did this on purpose. Take a look:

 

I'm feeling better about things now. Whew! I was scared my Grandma was going to have to make another quilt (LOL...just kidding Grandma!). Now for our "to do" list to finish L's room:

1. Paint (the thought of holding a paintbrush for even 5 minutes after painting the entire house this summer makes me shudder)

2. Figure out shelves for and where to put her reading nook (the pillows in this post are going on the floor in that corner)

3. Order and hang artwork (picture above, pictures from this blog and frames, maybe more shelves for accessories?!)

4. Figure out window treatments...which will be the death of me

5. Hang mirror, wall hooks and find a cute basket for her dress up area

6. Hang chandler in front of closet 

7. Maybe find rug if we have any money left...doubtful LOL

I'm feeling pretty accomplished now that I've written this post. That's why I love writing blogs...I get great ideas from people, can put my to-do list out there and HAVE to stick to it, and this is really the only way Bryan and I communicate ideas. Haha, hope you are reading this at work BB...you have some shelves to build! :)

House update and sneak peek!

Since buying this house I have done nothing but try to save money on improvements. So far we've saved a ton by using coupons and rebates on the exterior paint job and gutter supplies. We did the painting ourselves, Grandpa did the gutters (talk about cheap labor...that just cost us a root beer float) and Bryan and I have torn out all our landscaping. We've made a huge impact on the outside but it now that it's cold...it's time to move the renovations indoors!

Our first indoor project was tearing out the drop ceiling and carpet in the basement bedroom. Free demo- check! And now it is time to move on to Layla's bedroom. I can't even describe how tickled with myself I am about my latest savings. Layla's room will, again, be done with lots of love (aka...hours of sewing) from her Grandmas. Her bedding, pillows, window treatments and most likely lampshades will all be custom made just for her. All at the cost of just materials, Layla gets away with paying her wonderful Grandma's in kisses and hugs. Can someone say spoiled?!I wonder if that will work for me when I need curtains in the office... ;o)

I have ideas for all of those things and the fabric has been purchases...but I hit a rough patch this week when it comes to her artwork. I have been searching Pinterest, Etsy, Google...everything for ideas on how to fill her walls. After finding a ton of inspiration, I created these:

 

Pretty cool huh? I used all free fonts I found from the web, the flower template was free via theinknest.com and put my own twist on borders and colors. I'll print them as 11x14s and 8x10s (haven't decided size or placement yet) on fine art paper, pop them into a mounted frame, stick those babies on the walls and bask in the glory that is DIY. Total cost savings should be almost $100 depending on what size I decide to print them.

I'd like to do one more to use as a smaller print but I need to find some inspiration. ;o) Sounds like a nap time project for next week!

Layla's Nursery - revisited

I have been spending a lot of time looking at ideas for Layla's big girl room lately. I feel like I have some kind of standard to live up to since her nursery was absolutely to die for. I give a ton of credit to my Mom-in Law, Janet. She did all the bedding, curtains, lamp shades...basically everything that made the room.

Anyway, the reason for this random post is that while looking at ideas for Layla's big girl room I ran across this and my heart just skipped a beat. It is something I haven't seen since right after we found out we were having a girl:

This was the inspiration for her baby room. What are the odds that I would run across this while looking for ideas on the next room?! Her new color scheme is completely different...how in the world did this end up in my search results?! It was fate. I've decided this means that I need to say "good bye" to the nursery/baby stuff and "hello" to a big girl room. I've been waiting for a sign and this is it.

Now, before I sit in the corner and sob quietly for 30 minutes I wanted to repost her "old" room pictures just ooooooone more time because I can't help myself.

My only regret is not being able to paint the room because we wanted to make it easier to sell (rolling my eyes at this now). But never fear...we don't have to hold back this time. I just can't wait to get started and after my crazy/frenzied internet searches today for new ideas, I think I know what we are getting Layla for Christmas. Is a 2 year old too young for a vanity in their room? LOL

The big reveal!

It is finally time folks! That's right...the painting is DONE. I never thought this day would come, my hands, back and legs are killing me from a summer of up and down ladders, back and forth with brushes and painting faster than the speed of light to get as much as possible done during naps. This is our first big project to check off our list and it feels SO. FREAKIN. GOOD.

Let me just take you back to a time where our house looked like this:

And now lets all bask in the glory that is Caribbean Sunrise by Behr:

EEEEEKKKKKK...doesn't it just make you want to scream with excitement?! It is such a great feeling to take on a huge project and see the end results. As you can see we have removed practically every piece of landscaping that we possibly could (I guess we'll let the grass stay LOL). We aren't planting this year and I'm sure our neighbors are all scratching their heads wondering why we prefer dirt over overgrown shrubs. We just wanted to be ready for planting next year and not having to worry about tearing everything out (which was a very time consuming and hard core physical job...poor BB).

And here are some more before and after pictures:

At the beginning of the summer when this ALL started...here Bryan is on our first day of working on the house.

And the after! We took out all the bushes and painted. New gutters compliments of Grandpa Lucky :)

This was our project today...tear out the hedges. These babies were at least 5 feet tall. 

And after...you can actually see our front door!

This was taken during Grandma and Grandpa's first trip when the painting began. 

And here we are today! What a HUGE difference!

So next on the list for outdoors will be painting the front door (but what color?!), landscaping in the spring (front yard only) and we HAVE to figure out what to do with that basketball hoop. Who in the world decided to put that right smack in front of the house?As you can see, Bryan lowered it today so Layla could play LOL. We are taking off the backboard tomorrow so we'll just be left with the pole for now.

Here is Bryan getting ready to lower the backboard (I love that Oscar sits under the ladder)

And here is Bryan taking out a tree stump with nothing but a shovel and hand saw. The fastest way? No. The easiest way? Of course not. But did he get it done? YES!  And PS- that is SAND, not dirt. I had no idea that Michigan soil was basically sand...so bizarre.

Now that we are pretty much done working outside for the year, we decided to play outside a bit after nap. Here is Bryan helping Layla make a basket.

And here is a short video of Layla and how she acts on a normal basis. WARNING- she takes a nasty spill at the end that I know will be very hard for Grandma Mudd to watch. LOL. But she is fine! She had a little mark on her knee and that was it. But I love that she falls and we both just hold our breaths and stand their until she cries. LOL