Family Day

Just checking in.  I'll be spending the whole day with my loves....we have a surprise 80th birthday for my husband's grandmother tonight.  We are just enjoying the sunshine and being together!  Hope everyone is having a great weekend!  Look at these cutie pie vases I found in the Target dollar spot!  LOVE them! Please ignore how dirty the window is!  It is IN BETWEEN the panes and I have no clue how to clean them!!!

Our unFINISHED master bath

So....I kinda lied to you guys.  I told you I would show you our finished master bathroom and well, I can't. I wish I could...TRUST ME, I really wish I could.  But, it's not finished.  Our bathroom is one of two rooms in our house that I am not happy with.  There are things I love about it, but overall, I'm not thrilled with it.  I love the feel and look of it, but it's just not perfect to me yet.  That being said, here are the pictures of our bathroom the way it looks right now.

Here is what you see when you walk in.  The trim is not all painted and the bead board still needs a molding across the top.   I love the exposed pipes on the tub!  Ben has good taste!

$5 to the first person to point out what's missing in this next picture....

Yup, that's right-we STILL don't have mirrors!!  See the little round mirror on my vanity?  Ben and I take turns with that in the mornings! HAHAHAHA!  not kidding.  (I WAS, however, kidding about the $5.) LOL.  The reason we don't have mirrors yet is simple-I can't find any I like.  I have searched high and low, and can't find the perfect mirrors.  I want dark wood frames, and it's amazing how difficult it has been to find them!

Here is the massive shower that Ben HAD to have! Haha.  I got my tub, so he insisted that we not skimp on the shower.  He is very tall, so we had to have more glass than the average shower.  All of the fixtures and the frame are oil rubbed bronze.  The shower walls are just white on white cultured marble and I LOVE them!  SOOOOO much easier to keep clean than tile and grout!!  See the painter's tape on the ceiling? Hahaha....that's where the light is supposed to go.  We just haven't picked out a shower globe yet! 

Here's another view.  This is my vanity and you can see the doors into our hideously messy and small closet, and the bedroom.

We have a separate potty room.

 This house has verrrrry little storage space, so I don't have any linen closets.  This is how we store the towels, wash cloths, bath stuff, etc.  Not the prettiest, but it works for now.

Here's my pretty chandelier I mentioned in the last post.  Nothing SUPER fancy, but it's perfect for the space and exactly what I wanted!  Thank you Lowes!

And all lit up.  It's so pretty at night when it's dark!

Here's a close up of the lights over our vanities.  I love how the globes have the lacey etchings on them!! Very antique looking...but in a brand new light!

This is all you get to see of our closet right now.  I've got to get some cute baskets to organize all that junk on top.  Oh-and I have 2 words for small spaces....pocket doors.  We did one here, going into our bedroom from the bathroom, and in Audrey's bathroom as well.

There you have it!  That's our master bathroom as it sits right now.  So what's on the to-do list in here?  

-finish painting all trim

-find MIRRORS!!!

-finish molding on bead board

-find and install shower globe

-new blinds and curtain for the tub window.  It does have blinds by the way.  I just put them up for the pictures! I wouldn't want to scare the neighbors! ;)

Master Bathroom Beginnings

It turns out the hubs took a couple pictures of our master bathroom in the works that I didn't know he had.  They were all on his phone, so let me go ahead and apologize for the terrible quality!!  Remember that first night we walked through the house and that little concrete room that Ben told me would be the master bathroom??  In case you missed it, this is how it started.

The neighbors told us that the previous owner used this as her TV room.  This isn't a great picture to really understand the layout of the space.  The wall you see to the very far left is the wall that now separates our closet from the bathroom.  We ripped out the wood paneling and sheet rocked over the doorway you see on the far right.  

Now, think back to the kitchen/dining room area.  We took down a wall in the dining room, and it was then "hooked" to this concrete room.  So, in order to frame in our bathroom, we had to build a new wall.   Have I confused you yet? :)  Here's a picture to help.  Again, these were taken on a phone.

At this stage, the dining room wall had just come down, and we had ripped out the wood and sheet rock separating the closet from the "concrete room."  See waaaayyy back there in the back?  That little room with the spots on the walls used to be the owner's bathroom.  It is now our closet.

Here's a close up of the old bathroom that is now our closet.  All of the walls were tiled, and when we ripped it out, it left black spots everywhere.  Old glue or mortar maybe?

This picture shows the dining room after we had the new wall built.  See the studs back there?  The "concrete room" is on the other side of those studs.  Once it was all sheet rocked and finished, it separated the bathroom, and created a little hallway right off the dining room.

Here it is with the sheet rock.  The stud you see is a column we had to add for support.  There is another one across the dining room as well.

Ok, so how much have I confused you?  I realize how hard this must be to follow, and it's equally as difficult to explain!  The concrete was VERY unlevel, so my dad mixed some kind of concrete stuff he poured on the floors.  It settles into the low parts and makes it more level.  It doesn't work perfectly, but it helps a lot!  I knew I wanted a large tile, and you CANNOT lay big tiles on uneven floor!

There were 3 things I wanted in our master bath.  One was a claw foot tub, and hubby delivered!  The second was a gorgeous crystal light over the tub, and I found the perfect one at Lowes!  (I'll show you later!)  The third was bead board!  Ahhhh...bead board, how do I love thee?

I chose a huge tile (I believe they are 20x20).  We got enough to continue into the closet, simply because I didn't want to break up the floor so much.  Because of the layout of the house, you have to walk through our bathroom to get to our closet.  We have hardwood in the bedroom, and I knew there would be tile in the bathroom.  We hate carpet, and don't have a single piece in the entire house.  So, tile for the closet as well!  Dad and I laid the tile together.  It was a lot harder to do than Audrey's shower because the tiles were so much bigger.  Plus, they weighed 20 pounds a piece.  I'm not kidding.  Each box was 100 pounds and there were only 5 tile per box!  They are some kind of marble....I didn't pay much attention...I just knew they were purrrrrrdy! :)  I picked two dark wood vanities from Lowes; one 36 inch and one 48 inch.  The shower is in the corner between them.  So....here is what you get to see of our bathroom right now!

This was before bead board, paint, shower, etc.  We had just finished grouting the tile, so we basically just set the tub and vanities in there to get a feel for things!

The shower pan is installed here, but the glass was yet to come!

So do you understand the layout of our bathroom or have I completely thrown you for a loop?? :0)  Stay with me!  

 

An October Christmas

If you know me well, you know that I hate surprises.  Well, let me clarify.  I hate "surprises" that you know are coming.  Like Christmas presents.  You KNOW they are coming....and you still have to wait for them.  Maybe that's what I don't like-just waiting in general.  I peaked at my presents every year when I was a kid.  One year I even unwrapped things under the tree while no one was home and rewrapped them! Hahaha!!! I know, I know, I'm awful.  Everyone tells me.  But I just can't stand the suspense!! The only kind of surprise I like is an ACTUAL surprise-one that you have no clue is coming!!  Well, back in October of 2009, my husband delivered an actual surprise! (It's hard to do with me! I always know!)  He called home from work and said I was not allowed to come outside when he got home.  (My daughter and I would always run out to the driveway when we heard his truck coming down the road.)  Apparently, my Christmas present was in the back of his truck, and I was getting it that night!!  Woohoo! My kind of Christmas! :)  Later that night, we all went out to the farmhouse, and this is how it all went down....

I was greeted by Santa!

Even his reindeer came to help.  (This is our Papa John-Ben's dad!)  They are removing the GIANT wooden box that covered the present.

This was written on the box. <3

Here we are waiting to see what's underneath the box!  Doesn't she look excited  scared?!

I know what it is!!!!

A gorgeous claw foot tub for our master bathroom! Ahhhh...he does listen! :)

We were so excited!!  There is nothing like a hot bubble bath after a long day!

It's huge!!!!  We love it!

I think she was wondering where the water was....

Merry Early Christmas to ME!!!  (and Audrey Grace!)

The "kid's" bathroom

I'm back!  We had a crazy weekend full of birthday goodness, and it has taken me a couple of days to get things back together!  Now onto the next house project!  I mentioned before that the house originally had 2 bathrooms.  They were both pretty desperate for some attention!!  I honestly didn't even take pictures of them because I didn't want to go in them. (I really regret this now!)  So, I have nothing to show for how far they have come.  BUT-I can tell you they were bad.  And very cavelike!  We decided to start with what would be our daughter's bathroom.  There was going to be a lot more involved for the master bath, and we really needed to get at least one bathroom set up.  It wasn't SUCH a huge deal until we found a surprise in the toilet we had ripped out and put in the shed.  YES, one of the men working out here during the day used a toilet that was not hooked up to anything and sitting by itself out in the shed.  Gross me out the door.  So, we started by ripping everything else out of the bathroom and hanging new sheetrock.  Things needed to be framed a little differently because the opposite side of the wall is our den, and we needed to frame out the "TV hole" as we call it.  The guys took out all of the old flooring that was pretty much rotting away.  We turned things around a bit to make room for a half bath underneath the stairs.  As far as decorating, I wanted to keep things very neutral since it won't ALWAYS be a little girl's bathroom.  All of our kids will use this bathroom, and one day waaaaaayyy far down the road, it will be our guest bath.

I spoke about my hatred for plumbing once before, and I will just leave it at that.  Once we F.I.N.A.L.L.Y had things plumbed correctly, we got to purchase all the new goodies!  All of our fixtures in the entire house are oil rubbed bronze.  Or venetian bronze.  Different stores call it different names, but they are pretty much the same.  I love how the darkness of it wears off over time.  It looks very old and antiquey!  (Is that a word?)  For my daughter's bathroom, we went with a white acrylic tub and shower combo and a simple white vanity from Lowes.  Nothing fancy.  We went back and forth about what to do for countertops in the bathrooms.  I didn't want to spend a ton of money on granite, but Ben really wanted them.  We both lucked out because the place we bought our kitchen granite from was running a special where they would do any size vanity for $150 installed!!! That is an awesome price for granite!! It even included an under mounted sink!  Perfect!  We chose a neutral granite called Giallo Ornamental for both bathrooms. Here's a close up.

The next step was just finding tile to match!  Of course we went to Lowes first!  They have a great selection of tile in multiple sizes!  Again, we kept things very neutral.  My dear ol' dad laid the tile for us, teaching me how in the process!

Y'all know by now that we did most of the work ourselves, with the help of my dad and other family and friends.  One of the things I REALLY wanted to learn how to do was tile!  My dad is great at it and has done it for a lot of people, so he taught me and set me up for my first project:  the shower walls!  

Turns out it's not so hard!  Just VERY time consuming!!!

Sorry for the horrible picture!  I think I was on hour 3288459 here, and thinking to myself, "WHY did I say I wanted to do this??"

 And just in case you were wondering if I had help with this job, here is what my "help" did while I tiled.




And the finished product!!!

Luckily, my dad was able to hook everything up once the initial plumbing was done.  Only with help from his helping buddy, of course!

Sorry this is blurry.  I just love how they are looking at each other! <3

After all of the "dirty work" was done, dad painted and I brought it lots of girly color with the shower curtain!  We used the same green as her bedroom-Sherwin William's Cucumber.  It's nice and bright but still soft enough so it doesn't look like a highlighter.  The shower curtain actually came from my bathroom from my parent's house! My sister and I had it for a little while and then when I moved out, she decided to redo her bathroom.  Did I mention I love FREE stuff?!

Look at that fat pregnant woman in the mirror! :)

Hope you enjoyed!  I'll get to the master bathroom soon!!

Party Break

Sorry about the lack of posts recently! We've been partying it up!  More to come after I come down off my sugar high!

Our kitchen

Ok, can I just say how stoked I am that I actually have people sending me messages saying I have to post finished pictures because they "NEED" to see how our kitchen looks now?  I'm so happy to know you guys are actually enjoying my chatter!  So without further adieu (I had to google that one!), here is our finished kitchen!!  (Minus window treatments!! Don't get me started...)  And to all you photographers out there-please don't hate me for the lighting and all that.  It was already getting dark outside, and I didn't want to use the flash, so every light in my house is on. :)

Before

After!

Before

After!

Before

After!

I told you our to-do list included adding an island...and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the way ours turned out!  We designed it ourselves!

Isn't it beautiful!??!  And my 2 favorite things about it...

1. Pull out double trash can.  Best invention ever!

2. Cabinets on the back!  The Home Depot lady tried to get me to put a cheaper panel across the back because kids would sit at the stools and kick the island.  This is true.  BUT-we needed all the storage we could get in this house!  So I did this.

I'm not lovin the white stools with the oak tops, but they were free.  And after all our renovations, I like free.  So, until we can get some prettier ones, they work!

Another favorite thing about my kitchen that was a must for me was the white porcelain farm sink!  I saw pictures of them online before we started the kitchen, and I had to have one!!  So, I gave up some other small things I wanted to justify spending the money on my dream sink.  LOVE <3

One of the ways I cut back to afford my sink, was in the backsplash.  We originally planned to do tile.  I searched and searched and couldn't find anything I loved.  Then one day while Ben was at work and my dad was over working at the house, I suggested sticking up a piece of bead board to see what it looked like.  Have I mentioned my obsession with bead board yet?  You will see it a lot in my house!  I think it is absolutely perfect for a farm house back splash! And it used less than 1 sheet of bead board, so the whole back splash was less than $20 bucks!  My talented daddy just nailed it up with the easy little finishing nails, but I've heard of people using liquid nails and that works too!  I painted it Sherwin William's "Rain" like the rest of my kitchen.

Granite countertops is another thing we really wanted!!  We looked at tons and tons of samples, and went to the granite places several different times to look at the slabs.  We ended up driving to Charlotte, NC (about an hour from us) to choose our exact piece.  I LOVE it.  It's called Sapphire Blue.  It matches the cabinets perfectly and has just the right amount of blue to play off my walls.

This is something I just did recently.  We got 4 inches of snow in January, and everything was closed for a week!  So, I got stir crazy and did this.

I think it adds some personality to the kitchen, and as you can see, my daughter enjoys it too!  I just taped off the area I wanted painted and did two five nine coats of magnetic paint.  Then once it was completely dry, I put two coats of chalkboard paint on top of it.  Word of advice if you are going to use magnetic paint:  save yourself some aching triceps, and just take the can to the hardware store and let them shake it up on their little machine thingy.  That stuff has to be shaken like Cuh-RAZY!!!  I shook it for about 30 minutes straight and felt like I did 100 push ups the next day.  I should have listened to the Thrifty Decor Chick!!

And just to prove what us women are capable of-here is my mom the day we decided we wanted my microwave to come OUT of the box where it had been sitting for 3 weeks, and actually get hung.  My dad and Ben were busy with something else that day and we were tired of waiting.  So here is "Grandma!"

So there it is!  That's our kitchen!  All that is left is window treatments!  And they are coming soon...

Linking up with The Thrifty Decor Chick