Whew it's dusty in here!

Why hello blog friends! I am here. Still. I see you all visiting everyday (ummm 300+ views a day??!!). Sorry to be absent the last 2 months (wow, where did all that time go???). I've been prioritizing my life this summer, and Steve/kids/photography had to be in the top 3. Then keeping the house clean. Then sleep. Then blog. Sooooo as you can see, the blog has been left in the dust! I envision more time this Fall though, as we aren't outside as much, and I turn down the dial on photography for a while. So keep checking in every now and then!

Here are a couple quick shots of some of the many projects we have managed to accomplish this summer.

See you soon, tata for now!

The beautiful deck, which made my life so much easier/more enjoyable this summer!

A peek of the project we are finishing up now. Well, this is the before. Purdy eh? You should have seen it with the glass shades!

Our shed that we painted. The color looks beige-ish here, but it is a gray-green. Testing out colors for the house next year! (We'll be going with a darker tone of this)

Little Steps.

I thought I would take a few minutes and talk about a couple of the little things we've managed to cross off our list this week. Baby steps right? And actually, I shouldn't even say it like that because they aren't baby steps at all really! If *I* were doing them, it would take me the next year to figure out! On that note, here we go.

First off, deck. This past week Steve completed all the deck boards on BOTH decks (WOOHOO!), finished the stairs, and completed the fascia boards on the entire upper deck. YAY! So all that remains of the entire deck project, is the fascia on the lower deck, which only involves two sides. We also are thinking of adding a privacy panel to the one side of the lower deck, but that will come later if we do. Looks pretty darn schnazzy huh?

 

Don't mind the AC unit in the window, we have central air that we added, it's just not 100% ready yet (next project!). We also have the new sliding door to install still. Also, seeing these photos makes me anxious to paint all the trim white, that's for sure! The white railings look so lovely....

 

Up next is the light fixtures. These are the ones that were installed on the front porch (two) and on the deck (one). YIKES. Rusted, corroded brass torches. 

 

My handsome worker bee husband.

Just beautiful right?

ANNNNNND here is the replacement fixture:



Such an improvement. There were a couple of other funky ones that I liked, but seeing as we needed 4 of these (two for next to the garage that we want to install still), I went with a classic set that was less expensive.

Here is another shot of our super low maintenance (read: hard to kill, for when you can barely manage to keep your children watered so your plants take a VERY backseat) flowers.

Oh, I can't wait until all that trim is a nice bright white! Not to mention the porch floor and siding being painted/replaced as well. But let's not get too ahead of ourselves here people.

 Ah and the deck light we replaced as well. I chose a more industrial modern piece that I thought was perfect for the deck. I also think these would be so cool as lighting in the boy's bedroom. At $25 it was super reasonable too. It casts a nice bright light, directing downward, which is perfect. These are all iphone pics too, just cuz I'm lazy like that.
























OK. Onward. Inside we go for a brief moment.

Although we have been totally focusing our time/money/effort on the exterior of our property, I decided to get crazy and make a mark on the dining room. I call it a dining room because a)it has a table in it and b)that is the technical term, BUT we have yet to eat in it even one time AND it has been our storage area for items without a home yet and craft supplies/ongoing projects (talk about run-on sentence!). Oh and it was a greenhouse/jungle for a couple of months with all of my brother's house plants while he was buying a home of his own. So yeah. It has been a wreck. It is in our plans for the future to open the room up and expand our kitchen, seeing as it is so seldom used/needed, but for now, I needed a clean space. I am a super clean freak and it was making me beyond nervous.

Here is the before.

I can't even call these a true before, because these photos were taken a couple of months ago, when I only had a couple of plants (soon the entire table and dresser were covered) and didn't have the console table in there. But you get the idea.

 

GAH! That was a lot of junk.

So, I cleared that sucker out and tossed a bunch of crud, put things away, and also carried the unused wall hangings and furniture to the basement. Here it is all cleaned out! (phone shots again)

Today we moved that HUGE dresser out of the room and back to my dad's too. So now it looks ever better!

YAY! So much better. Here it is RIGHT NOW (I just took this photo two seconds ago on my phone), without the dresser. What a difference, it seems so much larger now.

See those ice cubes on the floor? Yeah those are to remove the indents in the carpet. I moved the table over and the dents were annoying me. Free tip right there for you. Once the ice is melted, just swoosh the carpet with your hand and VOILA, dent is gone.

So there you go friends. The lowdown on things going on around here. The dining room will soon sport a new chandelier (well, revamp), artwork, window treatments, and minor changes until we decide how we will be remodeling. At that point we'll paint, remove carpet, add crown.....etc etc. For now it is just marvelous being cleaned out!

Where Did May GO??

Ahhhhh....I'm here! After a lovely beach vacation, and a week to recooperate & catch up from that, I'm back. It was a refreshing breather, and Steve and I are officially back on the home improvement bandwagon!

Lots of little randoms going on, but the main thing is the deck. This little devil has been quite the project! I think I mentioned that Steve had to dig four more 4 feet deep holes, bringing the total to TWELVE. Yes. That is a depth of 48 feet that he dug! I think he needs to get a prize for that. Thankfully though, it is behind "us" and this past holiday weekend he finished up just about all of the framing. PHEW! He is such a work horse. Here is where we stand.

You can see the upper deck, which will have a railing around it, and the lower ground level deck. Crazy stuff. It is MUCH larger than I was anticipating and we are super thrilled to see it coming together. Decking should be going up within a week or so. YAY!

So, I have a bunch of little things to show you and I'll be back tomorrow with some fun, unique, & inexpensive wall art!

Things ARE Coming Along.

Fun times here in crazy land! I say that because we are constantly in the midst of multiple projects at one time. We try to devote ourselves to one at a time, but that just never happens. What can I say, we just LOVE to punish ourselves and stretch our sanity to the edge! Well, so it seems these days.

Right now we are knee deep (er, waist deep) in digging the holes for the deck posts. Wow. That is all I can say to describe it. They have to be 4 feet deep and Steve is digging them all by hand. Yes, by hand. Our soil here is very very rocky and clay, so an auger would be difficult to use. Hence the shovels and post hole diggers (and wonderful friends!!). It took Steve over a week to dig the eight holes (nights mostly). Then we had our inspection of the holes, which he did wonderfully and they passed with no problem, butttttttt....it turns out he has to dig FOUR MORE holes. Yeah. That was not good news. Because our house is cantilevered, we need to have more posts closer. They didn't catch it when we initially applied for the permit. BUMMER. We were hoping to have framing started this weekend, but instead we are digging again. Oh well. We keep on keepin' on!

Here is Steve sledgehammering a humongous rock that stood in our way of digging. That poor poor man.

The other project we are working on is the family room. Now that the shelving is done, and we painted the wall behind it, we were itching to paint the rest. Because we both have full time jobs, painting has to happen in the evening after the kiddos go to bed, or on the weekends. So that means it usually takes a few nights of painting in sections to get a room completed. So far we have 3 out of 4 walls checked off the list! Woohoo!

I am really really enjoying this color. Grayish by Sherwin Williams, if you recall. It is not even a tiny bit dungeon-like, but rather bright and cheery and sophisticated. It lends a modern feel to the room, which is filled with a blend of traditional furnishings and modern/industrial accessories. So cool. I am loving this room more everyday!

Here is one corner of the room while we were in the midst of painting. So a partial before. Look at that masking tape yellow/beige. Buh bye drabby!

Here is the same view just a few minutes later. If you notice, pretty much everything else is the same, but already SOOO much better.

Annnd here is the same angle the next day after I hung the window treatments back up and put everything back together.

It never ceases to amaze me how much paint can transform a room. I mean, seriously, what an improvement!

I took some more photos on my real camera (these are all courtesy of my iPhone), and Lightroom is officially back up and running, so early this week you'll get to see more. FINALLY! Sorry for the slow goings this last week or two. When you don't have a computer or software, it really makes things difficult. Lots more to come. Love you all for hanging around during technical glitches!

Outdoor Shenanagins

Now that the weather here has begun improving (ok, aside from the SNOWSTORM today!), we scribbled down our outdoor to do list. It is long. It is extensive. BUT, it is doable. I think. I hope! Here is a shot of what we have to do for this year.



The decking gets delivered tomorrow and we'll be getting the permit this week so that we can break ground on that next weekend. That is super exciting for me!! We didn't have a deck at our first house either, so it is going to be new and fun for us. May is a busy month for us, so hopefully we can finish it before June.

I did manage to accomplish a small task last week. Mulch! Steve picked it up during lunch one day and dropped it off for me. I spent nap time with the monitor on my hip and got to work! I managed to finish most of the front "garden" and it made a big improvement. It is always amazing the difference mulch can make. Gives everything a fresh, clean, polished look. Very affordable too. Lowes has mulch on sale for $10 for four bags. Cheap cheap. We used 10 bags for the front.

Here are some before shots. I only managed to use my iPhone that day. Notice the rock edging we did last month. We dug out all the red scalloped brick edging they had previously.

And the afters (again, sorry about the iphone pics. Nap time hurries!)

Look at our purdy flower blossoms! (I don't know if this is a cherry or crab apple or what. Do you??)

We stuck with the dark brown mulch and I like how it looks like nice freshly tilled sod. Or dirt. I don't really know the difference. (Can you tell I am not a landscaping expert??)

These are some of the bushes we will be ripping out. Yuck! All the greenery you see are Black-Eyed Susans.

Ahhhh improvement already! All it took was $25 in mulch and an hour during naptime. Plus I scored a free arm workout (dragging those bags around) annnnnd a teeny sun tan. SCORE.

A Random Smattering of Goods.

After yesterday's post, both writing it all out like that, and hearing people's opinions/thoughts, we decided to go ahead with the mahogany. It will contrast nicely with the green when we replace the siding next year, and I think the dark, rich color will be perfect. As much as it will be hot, I remembered that the back of the house is facing north and doesn't get much sun until the evening. So that's good. I know it will show dry dirt and dust a lot, but I think overall, it's an alright trade off. One decision DONE.

Last week I also picked up some new lamps for our master bedroom. The lamps we were using were about a foot too short for our VERY tall bed and just were a pain in the neck to use. I was waiting for a sale at Target (where else), and finally I lucked out with a buy one, get one half off promo! Score. So I snatched up two of these babies (and lampshades of course).

I was trying to find lamps that were feminine & sparkly, yet not TOO in your face girly. I think they add the perfect touch of luxury and girl to the room.

 

Not to mention, they are tall enough for us to actually be able to read at night. Imagine that!

So pretty. I just love 'em. At under $35 a piece for the base and shade, they were a good price and make a big impact in the room.

Here is what the old lamps looked like.

annnnnnd the new! I love the height.

In other news (I'm all over the joint today), one of the next projects up is the dining room. Currently it is our staging room for things that haven't found a home since we've moved in/we won't be using anymore, as well as other random junk. Here is what it looks like right now.

Oh man, why am I showing this?? My brothers plants, random wall art that hasn't found a home, furniture we're not using, an old hideous chandelier, miscellaneous items for the new bookcase. Just craziness.

Yup. Craft supplies. Stuff to return to Target. Stuff to take to Goodwill. Baby carrier.

 I have a long to do list for this room, but mostly it is all quick and easy things that I can do myself. Or with just a little help. Here's the plan:

-Redo the chandelier (I can't wait to show you what I have up my sleeve!)

-Add crown molding (ok so Steve will be doing this one)

-Remove top part of white china cabinet and use it as a buffet instead

-Hang large mirror above buffet (again, that's a project you'll see later)

-Return huge antique dresser to my parents (it was perfect in our last home, but too big for here)

-Remove alll the junk of course (that's #1 on the list)

-Find a home for the bench in front of the window

-Add curtain and shades to the space

-Add wall art to the big blank wall where the dresser is now (again, another project you'll see)

All in all, it's not too bad! Down the line we also want to rip up the carpet and replace the flooring, as well as open up the wall into the entry way. But for now, just a few little things will make a HUGE difference!

The paint color is actually the ONLY color in the house I don't mind. It is a nice light gray. The color scheme for the room is going to be white/gray/black/silver. Very traditional yet with a modern, sophisticated twist.

You'll have to keep comin' back to see how things end up...

Have a great Easter weekend!

It's Summertime & The Livins' Easy....

Well that's a bit of a stretch, wishful thinking maybe? It is Spring time though and Steve and I have a lot on our plates with the exterior of the house this year. First things first, building a deck. I find it hard to believe that this house didn't already have a deck, but they spent the money on a humongous front porch, so it's alright. We want to get it done nice and early in the season so that we can have lots of time to enjoy it. Plus, without a deck in the back, it is hard to really spend time back there. There isn't really anywhere for the babies to crawl around (since the yard is still a bit muddy) and there aren't any chairs or places to sit. So instead we spend most of our time in the front. Seeing as we have a nice playset and clubhouse for the kiddos, we want to be able to fully maximize our time in the back!

So this week we are ordering our decking and I just can't decide between two. Let me talk you through it a bit and then you can help me pick.

Here is our house now. Front and part of the back. It is a light cream color.

 

The deck will be two levels. The first level, with the railing, will go from the edge of the sliding door, to the bump out of the family room. The lower, ground level deck, will span the entire length of the family room.



(this photo was from the previous owners)



Our plans for the house include re-siding it next year and painting all the trim and shutters this year (hopefully). This is the color scheme we are going with.

An olive-ish, gray-green with nice bright white trim. That trim is slightly beige, ours will be white. I haven't decided 100% on shutters yet.

So the trouble is, picking a decking that will look alright with the cream we have now, but ultimately look best with the new colors coming in the future.

Here are our two choices. Sage & mahogany. The sage is more like a slight greenish tan. We will be going with a white railing, no matter the decking choice. We are using CorrectDeck composite decking.

This photo makes it look a smidge more tan than it is.

Sorry the photos aren't GREAT, but I wanted to make sure to use photos of the actual product, so there wasn't much of a selection.

Here are my thoughts. The green/lighter color will not get as hot, but it will also show dirt and scuff marks. The mahogany/dark color will get scorching hot, won't show mud, but will show dust and dry dirt.

Unlike the photos, our railing will be solid white, identical to this one.

So, with this color scheme, which decking do you think would be better, sage or mahogany??

The more I talk about it, the more I am thinking the mahogany...