back online

After three months of having to drive 20 miles to my mom's for internet or wait on this small town's library to open, they keep weird hours, I am finally back online! As penance for my sporadic and lax posting as of late, tomorrow I will do a super post :) Here's everything I plan on showing you.

• the finished floors
• the living room curtains
• the living room make over (unfinished, but still looks better)
• recycled mid-century teak hutch turned bookshelf
• new furniture (and by new, I mean a classic vintage piece)
  
• and if I have time my floor plan for the dining room

Just because I haven't been posting doesn't mean I haven't been working... I have I swear!

Today I went a thrifting...

I've been a big fat slacker for a week (vacationing in GA will do that to ya). Justin and I were able to finish the floor before we left, but i didn't take pictures. I know, fail.

BUT, today my mama and I went thrifting and to World Market. (I loves me some World Market.) I got a little hot chocolate pitcher which looks exactly like this, but

without the top plastic thing and the stirrer. It's pretty cute and will be great for my special Kahlua and hot chocolates come winter. :)

I fell in love tonight at World Market. They have an oversized Indonesian bench. I have been dreaming about get a chaise lounge or daybed for a while now, and this might be the one for me.
It is cute and comfy, bonus! Plus it is big enough for my hubby, or future puppy or kids to crawl up on with me while I crochet or read. Fabulous.

I also bought some curtains for my huge window. They are reversible cream and chocolate brown, and they were clearence priced at $7 each. I think I am going to add a stripe of some mod blue fabric I have to them. (Don't worry there will be pictures) Note to self: buy a huge curtain rod for the huge window and so you can take some good pictures.

Well, pictures of the floor when I stop slacking, and until then Happy July!

Sneak Peak

Well, my lovely readers the floor is soooo close to being done! I've tried hard to keep back the unfinished pictures to do a nice long progress/reveal post, but I can't stand it any longer. I've got to show you a little of what we've been working on so hard over the last few weeks. So with out further ado...

This little strip and

this little patch by the front door is all that remains to be done!
(that and putting in four more reducers...)

Justin did this hallway last night, and I think it looks awesome... we are sooo close!

While my hubby is working, I thought it would be fun to finish up the little patch by the front door to surprise him. This is what it looked like this morning.

I measured and cut two pieces of the laminate and laid them, but I wasn't sure if I needed to stagger the next pieces or if I should just lay long pieces to the doorway... so I had to call Justin and ask. He wasn't too excited about me using the jigsaw while I was home alone (and unsupervised), so I am going to finish this up tomorrow (supervised). I think I did a good job though... and I know I could have handled it on my own just fine, lol, but it's fine if he wants to baby me a bit :)

My next big inside project is going to be to remove all the nails from the trim (kick board), paint it, and replace it. I did a really clean job removing all the trim pieces, and yes I said and meant I did it. I'm pretty handy with a hammer and crowbar :)

And then I will be painting all my interior doors because they looked fine with the former reddish colored floor, but they are this awful goldish orange color with this new floor. It's not too pretty...

I don't know when I will be able to post new pictures, but I am determined to do so before I leave for vacation. (Georgia here I come!)

$38 saved and I didn't hurt the environment!

My mama and I have been itching to check out our local Habitat for Humanity Restore, so today we went. I found the exact sconces I've been ooo-ing and ahhhh-ing for my bathroom. (new from store)They are technically outdoor lights, but I love the vintage look they have. I have a 1920's boat house thing going on in my bathroom (you know minus the finished tile and walls and floors... so I have the accessories) The best part was the price. I picked these bad boys up at a dollar a piece! They are $20 new, so I saved $38. Oh yeah, I'm good!
Here they are with my mermaid soap dish, who is 1920's reproduction cast iron. (The soap is Chamomile scented olive oil soap I bought in a Greek community in Florida... best soap ever!)Here are my seahorse hooks, which my loving husband hung up for me a week or so ago. As you can see they will get a lot of use!

This is the "classy" tube lighting my fabulous new sconces will be replacing eventually. (The sconces aren't actually new... I think they were outside before because they are a little weathered, but all the better for it. I couldn't have given them such a natural patina if I tried!)

Also, I had mentioned we have the roof redone. They did an awesome job. Greg even came by on the 4th of July because our tar paper was coming up a bit, and he was worried it would rain. I was really suprised by his dedication. The roof is beautiful. This picture does no do it justice.

...but such it is with cell phone pictures... They put in a ridge vent as well, which is already keeping the house cooler. The a.c. is running about half as much (YAY!)

However, I really do not like the gray I was painting the house with the new tan roof. I am thinking of painting a color like yellow or blue. Any thoughts? Maybe a light buttery yellow with a blue door? *ponders*

And also, I told you Justin was going to start laying the floor we ordered... Here's what it looks like after one day of work.
He pulled up what he did before and put an under-lament down. I can't wait to have one continuous floor!!! It is going to be so beautiful when it's done, and it shouldn't take him much longer. Also it will be wonderful to set up our living and dining rooms and actually be able to use them :) It makes me giddy! I want to get to the fun part already.

That's what we have going on right now... it's kind of a lot all at once, but it's going to be so worth it. I can see the big picture, and our house is gonna be amazing! Hope you enjoyed my thrifty score. Check out your local Restore! You never know what you might find :)

Scary, scary bathroom

As we are getting more projects done, we approach the scariest of them all... my bathroom...

It is a total mess! We pulled the tile, wallpaper, and the mirror down. And now it's a disgusting war zone. My sweet, sweet husband cleaned the bath tub for me, so I can still take a bubble bath every now and then... but this atmosphere doesn't exactly de-stress.

We still need to

1. Do the roof and guttering. (Which should be started as early as tomorrow, yay!)
2. Finish the laminate flooring (We ordered the rest of the materials, which we will have by Tuesday! also yay!)
3. Replace our oil burning furnace with an electric furnace. (Oil, as in what you put in your car... it costs like $500 a MONTH to keep the thing running when it's really cold out. No way Jose!)
4. I need to paint the exterior of our house... bring on the skimpy cloths and half-***ed tanning opportunity, lol.
5. um, I'm sure I'm forgetting something
6. and probably something else...

all before we can start on my bathroom. :( I really want a nice bathroom again!

BUT! It could be worse! I could be stuck with THIS...
Thank you Better After and Laura of Studio Orange for some much needed perspective! (Follow the link to see Laura's inspiring "after")

roof, closets, floor and more!

We have been working hard lately, mostly organizing. I'm one of those people who enjoys organizing, but I won't torture you with details or pictures... at least not yet anyway.

GOOD NEWS!!! We finally have enough money to finish the flooring in the living room, dining room, and hall ways. That will be Justin and I's next big project.

We also are going to have a new roof put on, thank you governmental new home-buyer's grant. That should also be here in the next week or so.

As soon as those two projects are done, we are going to start on my bathroom... I am toying around with the idea of doing some stenciling above the bead-board... any thoughts?

I really love this stencil, but do you think it would be too much against bead board?
Also, I think I would do my steciling at a lower contrast than they did. Like a very light yellow and a very light blue? I donno... It's just pretty :)

I played around a bit on google to get inspired and I found these pictures...

I donno... There will be damask somewhere though. I like it a lot. I just don't think it will look right against bead board... hmmm...

My pretty new floor!

This morning, I woke up and walked barefooted onto my brand new kitchen floor. The hubs and I have been working very hard on the floor for the last week, and I'm happy to report I have finished photos!

Here is Justin laying the last bit of flooring down... and...Here she is!!! This is while the sealant was still a bit shiny. It's a light gray commercial tile. We chose it because it's

• pretty cheap
• easy to install
• looks nice
• easy to maintain and clean
• and because it is going to wrap down our basement steps and into the basement

The only things left to do in the kitchen are

• put up baseboard trim
• paint the tiles (good-bye yellow!)
• paint the accent wall
• replace the stupid desk thing with a stock cabinet with dish washer housing
• make built-in for accent wall
• hang some art

Seems like a lot, but the floor was a major milestone that we are glad to have finished!