This and That

How about we all take a moment of silence and rejoice in the fact that's its THURSDAY!

I actually wrote this blog post earlier but good ole blogger failed me and didn't save. Awesome.

Lets get to business though. House progress - not a ton this week but some. Its absolutely amazing what some sheet rock work can do. Those guys work miracles in the form of mud and tape. The hole in the ceiling - gone. What once was a window now looks like a true wall. The seams have all been patched up and now all the walls need are some fresh paint.

Friday night is the night for ceiling paint in the kitchen and dining room - you're jealous of my fancy Friday night aren't you? The exciting side of this whole shindig comes on Saturday when the cabinets are "set" - a construction word for screwing the cabinets in the wall.


I also managed to have a DIY fail this week. Wah Wah. I would rate myself fairly high on the DIYer scale but this little incident knocked me back a bit. When we took the cabinet out of the bathroom this past weekend we also removed the mirror that hung above it. The new vanity spans 48" but the original bathroom mirror is a whopping 63". Initially I had all intentions of framing out the old mirror and replacing it in the bathroom but I have this sinking feeling that the large magnitude of the mirror would make the bathroom look off balanced. So, my mother had this brilliant idea. Take an old framed mirror from my grandparents house that is 44" long, spice it up with new paint, and use it over the new vanity in the bathroom. 

I stopped at Lowes and picked up spray paint and what I thought to be primer. Come to find out I bought white glossy paint instead of white primer. awesome. I figured I wouldn't worry about it and instead move forward with the paint project sans primer. Bad Move. The paint wasn't showing up like I was hoping so I sprayed and sprayed and sprayed. Enter drippy painty mess. What's a DIYer to do but grab paper towels and dab the heck outta the drippy painty mess. 

Good news - I think this DIY fail is recoverable. After some sand paper and actual primer - this frame will be ready  for a yellow face lift!

Lots coming up in the next couple days so check back and see the progress!

0

Major Purchases

Hi my name is Sarah and I have severe buyers remorse.

Any purchase over $30(ish) makes my heart beat a little faster - and not in a good way.

Prime example: On Cyber Monday, Ann Taylor - Loft had all their items at 50% off. My initial thought was "Perfect work pants on the cheap" seeing as they are really the only pants that seem to fit right in the waist and bum, but that is neither here nor there. I browsed through all the pretty things on the website and even put three pairs of pants in my "cart" but when it came time to check out I just couldn't go through with it. I might have done the same with a pair of super cute boots from Piperlime. I am just not very good at buying big dollar items - and by "big dollar" I mean these were $115 and $45 respectively

During the process of buying this house I think I tried to give up and back out about 3 separate times. To be completely honest - there are still days I wonder what I got myself into. However, at the end of the day I know this is what God wants in my life right now. I am sure of it. How you ask? Because he keeps providing!

Now that I have done and got all off subject lets reign it back in.

I pulled the trigger and made some very large purchases lately.

Lets start with the family of stainless beauties.

These gorgeous little diddys came at a steal of a deal and I might cry the day they are delivered and installed (two-ish weeks).

Everyone take a moment and swoon over that fridge. Maybe this will help in that process:

Next up - the TV. I still use the only TV I have ever had, as in the one I got for Christmas in 4th grade. She's been great to me but lets just say "baby's got back".

This new one though - this new little girl is sleek and thin - think Victoria Secret model two days before the big fashion show. She was a steal also, duh!, on Black Friday but wasn't actually on "sale". My brother, the TV expert, narrowed down my choices and ultimately I came home with this 42" Vizio.

And lastly - my most favorite purchase BY FAR. If you follow me on pinterest you know how much I luuurve "tufted" items. My goal is to make a stellar tufted headboard in the not to distant future but I thought I would kick start my addiction with this couch.

Since its a "special order" - as in I got a color that they don't sell regularly - I have to wait until mid-January to bring her home. It will be hard but I think I can muster up the stamina to wait out her arrival.

Now that my savings account is at close to zero the buyers remorse has set in but not like it did with those dang pants from LOFT - at least I pulled the trigger on these purchases.

3

Thankful {family}

The amount of work my family has done on this little massive renovation is unmeasurable.

Just my dads handy work alone saved me THOUSANDS of dollars.

We had a huge list for this past holiday weekend including (but not limited to) moving all my stuff into the garage, pulling up carpet, trimming a massive tree, bathroom work, and grouting. Somehow we managed to do all that and a bit more!

My mom and I spent the good part of Friday pulling up carpet, tack strips, and staples from the floor in two bedrooms and the hall while my brother trimmed the tree outside that was hanging on my roof. My handy man dad somehow managed (with the help of my brother) to cut down my existing vanity into a smaller higher version of itself to suit the steal of a deal I got on a piece of granite.

All in all it was a successful couple of days.

If you are anything like me pictures speak a thousand words and before and pictures are the icing on the cake.

Hopefully this helps you picture all the progress that was made

That last little project was a surprise and definitely not scheduled but after much little discussion we decided it would be easier to recreate than to use what we had in this situation. So long shelf paper!

0

Scenes from a remodel

Picture this: dust everywhere, little walking room, dirty grimy wall tile, and nails strewn through out the floor.

Stressful? Yes!

Sign of progress? For Sure!

I feel so blessed to be able to transform this house into exactly what I want. Make it my own but boy is this process stressful.

This week (fingers crossed) the sheet rock guys will come do their thang and I should be getting a patio not to mention the bathroom tile is going to get a face lift.

I have been promising pictures for a good week or so, sorry its taken so long to deliver on my promises.




the window that once housed a window unit is getting walled up



new fans in all the bedrooms

expanded closet awaiting the last bit of sheet rock

tiles replaced from where there used to be a soap rack, toothbrush holder, and towel rack... all in the tile

clothes line that will soon be no more :(

lunch on the go. no rest for the weary

all of my belongings are now housed in the garage

Tomorrow I will fill you in on all the fantastic work my family got done this holiday weekend when they were in town.

What am I thankful for? An AWESOME family of hard workers!

1

Houston we have cabinets

Check back tomorrow for much more details and maybe some new (non Iphone) pictures!

0

Progress

I have been out of town this weekend so the only progress pictures I have to show are via my phone.

Recently a french door got added where the dinning room windows once were and the kitchen has been officially cleaned out with the selling of the fridge.

This week the cabinets come in and the sheet rock guys will be over to do all their handy work.

I found that since my house is older I am coming into all sorts of little snags that I wasn't quite thinking about. The walls - case and point. There was once wall paper in, alllllllmost, the entire house. Said paper has been since painted over but the lines where each sheet meets are visible under the paint. There are also some nice and noticeable lines from old sheet rock that need to be covered up. Enter the sheet rock guys who will "tape and bed" over these little diddy's and get them all covered up and concealed.

My goal is to head over to the house tomorrow and get some rocking pictures so that the progress is much more noticeable.

Fingers crossed its looking like move in date might be around the first of December :)

0

Bath Beginning

I wish I could say I had huge plans for the bathroom. Unfortunately, I don't.

The tile is super retro and definitely going to stay - other than that I am not really sure about anything - oh except the wall color.

My mom is a big believer in the "live in it first" idea, where you live there before really tearing anything up to get a feel for how you use certain items. For the bathroom, I am 100% on board with this idea. I really cant say if I like the long cabinet/counter top space, if I want one sink or two, or what kind of mirror/light fixture combo I am imagining.

Since I plan to occupy the bathroom as is and not do any major remodel just yet I figured why not at least give it a face lift.

First on the list: paint the cabinets WHITE! Though they aren't painted yet, they have been sanded down and are awaiting their fresh coat of liquid love.

Next up: Spray enamel on the bathroom tile. Have you heard of this? Its a process where the existing tile is sprayed with new enamel and comes out looks good as new! I plan on hiring a professional for this - because lets get real, I should never paint tile. That has disaster written all over it. That blue strip of tile you see will soon be white!

The lovely blue valance curtain thing has since been removed. RIP grandma curtains.

I plan on taking the doors off of my over the toilet cabinets to have exposed shelving. Currently I am envisioning cute baskets and rolled towels. You with me? However, this shelf paper is haunting my dreams.

Lastly, I am thinking a curved shower rod in hopes of adding a little room in the tub. Confession: It really grosses me out when a shower curtain touches me while I am showering - even if it is my own. Sick.

 

I cant claim that huge mountains have been moved in the bathroom thus far but I did recycle some of the kitchen cabinet pulls for the bathroom. The ones that were on the bathroom cabinets before were some sort of beaten copper. They are the same pulls my grandparents have on their cabinets if that says anything...



Previous



current before paint session



A can of Satin Nickel spray paint later and we are in business!

Wham bam thank you ma'am!

Any of you done a big bathroom remodel before? Ideas? Suggestions?

3