Screened Porch Face Lift!

The screened porch face lift project that I briefly mentioned about a month ago is complete! It was actually complete by our goal date of Mother's Day, but I just got around to taking a picture of it and posting it. 

The picture below is from the day that Cameron closed on the house 5 and a half years ago! Other than replacing the screened door, installing a fan, and adding some hand-me-down furniture, not much had been done to it until recently. 

AFTER

We painted all of the wood and replaced the screens, then Cameron laid the tile down over the old concrete floor. Following that, we added all new furniture. We love how much brighter and more comfortable it is, and find ourselves eating outside more often than inside! 

Sources:

7 Piece Dining Set - Target // 5 Piece Chat Set - Target

Outdoor Pillows - Target // Rug - Old // Tile - Palmetto Tile

Renovated Guest Bathroom.

Cameron and I are always looking around to see if there are any houses on the market that we love and unfortunately, there aren't any out there in the area that we want to be in. We debated on building, but decided to hold off on that for now, as we couldn't find any lots that we loved either. So plan C was to renovate more of our house since we plan to be there for another 4-5 years. The first stop was the bathroom. We originally got a bid from a contractor, but decided we could save a lot of money by doing most of the work ourselves. I'm very lucky to have a handy husband! The only person we had to hire was a plumber because we were adding an additional sink. 

Some photos that I used for inspiration...

The first picture stood out to me because the wall color was very similar to what was already in the bathroom, it had a glass front linen cabinet

The second picture I just loved the glass front linen cabinet that seems to have been re-purposed from a china cabinet or a similar type of furniture. 

Before
(see the real before here)

During

Cameron tearing out the old cabinets

Cabinets and old (huge) mirror gone)

Drywall removed for new plumbing and electrical to be installed. New tile and toilet installed. 

After

Sources:
Floor tile - Paletto Tile Distributors // Vanity - Wayfair// Faucets - Overstock // 
Mirrors - Target // Lighting - One Kings Lane // Runner - World Market //
Paint color - Sherwin Williams Sea Salt lightened by 25% // Cabinet - Nadeau

I still need to order art for the walls, decide if I want to hang anything on the window, and eventually change out the hardware on the vanity. 

I'm so happy with how it turned out though! Big shoutout to Cameron for installing all of the electrical, replacing the toilet, and laying the tile! And also dealing with my indecisiveness. 

On to the next project! 

Very Belated Home Updates.

This post is only, oh, 6 months belated. 

I had been wanting to repaint our living room for quite a while and what better time than Winter, when you're stuck inside bored out of your mind? The hardest part of the whole project was deciding on a paint color. Isn't that always the case?? I wanted a warm white color light enough to not look tan, but dark enough to contrast with the white trim and baseboards. After buying 6 or so samples, I wound up using the color in our master bathroom, but lightning it up quite a bit. Very happy with the results! But apologize that I still do not have a quality camera, thus have to rely on my Iphone. 

A little side by side comparison of the two colors. Bye bye beige!

Want to see something really funny? Check out this post where I showed the transition of the living room, starting from the day we closed on the house. 

Next up was to bring our master bedroom from college material to grown up material. Before, we had no headboard and mismatched end tables, both that we've had since college. Prettttty embarrassing. Now, I'm not nervous if anyone glances in our bedroom (unless I haven't picked up my pile of discarded clothes from when I can't decide what to wear). 

Originally I mentioned that I wanted a navy blue headboard, but I was too nervous to pull the trigger. Scared that it would be a little too bold and I would eventually get tired of it. I'm no interior designer, and a lot of times what I see in my head does not translate to real life. Ideally I'd like all white bedding, but I'm happy with what we have for now! The lamps are probably slightly too big for the end tables, but I don't care, I love them! And the end tables themselves are probably my favorite piece of the whole "makeover." It took me so long to find the right color, height, width, and style. Very happy with how it all came together! 

Headboard - Wayfair

Duvet cover - Pottery Barn (old)

End tables - Joss & Main

Lamps - Lamps Plus

Ring dish - Anthropologie (old)

Mirror - Lowe's (old)

Mother's Day + Landscape Updates.

Oh, hello. Is there anyone still out there reading? I've been slack lately, but honestly, it's been kind of nice to step away from the blog for about a month. I was thinking about giving the blog up completely, but just this morning decided against it. I probably won't be posting as frequently as I used to, but hey, something is better than nothing, right? Right. On to Mother's Day...

This was our third year in a row hosting a Mother's Day brunch at our house (2014 / 2013). We love hosting get-togethers at our house. It lights a fire under our you-know-what to get projects done and we get to hang out with people we love! A winning combination. 

I decided to go a little fancier this year and broke out our special china. I used cloth napkins and our gold silverware, which were both given to us as wedding presents. Peonies were ridiculously inexpensive (3 stems for $4!) at Harris Teeter over the weekend so I scattered them around the house. All beverages and glassware were set up on the bar, which I failed to snap a photo of. 

On the menu:

Fresh Fruit

Rosemary and Pecan Encrusted Bacon

French Toast Casserole

Shrimp and Grits Pie

Mimosas

Bloody Mary's

Cucumber + Mint Infused Water

Coffee

I'm definitely framing this pic.

Everyone left around 4:30pm and I immediately changed into my comfy clothes. Exhausted doesn't even begin to describe it after a weekend of non-stop activity. I poured myself another mimosa, plopped on the couch, painted my nails, caught up on my tv, and didn't move until bed time. 


Going back to house projects, this year prior to our brunch we focused on our landscaping. Cameron is pretty obsessed with our yard (there could be much worse things for him to be obsessed with!), even to the point where he looks up #yardwork on Instagram. He's going to kill me for saying that, but I think it's cute. 

The first thing we did was rake all of the old pinestraw out of the beds. In the backyard (first picture below), we installed gardenias, hydrangeas, geraniums, and impatiens. The two tall skinny trees (crepe myrtles) were already there. 

Up front we installed boxwoods, "purple pixie" loropetalum, white lantana, and plumbago. It will look really awesome once they start to grow!

Now I'm banning any kind of yard work for atleast a month. You hear that, Cameron??

How To Make Your Grout Look Brand New.

After living in our house for three years and trying every option under the sun to try to clean the grout in the hallway bathroom, I stumbled across this blog post from Young House Love and boy, am I glad I did!  

I spread this project out over a few days so I didn't get totally burnt out on it. It was super easy - just clean your grout with a rag/brush and soap, let it dry, then paint on the grout renew with a paintbrush that you probably already have lying around your house! Have a cloth or tissue handy to quickly wipe up any mistakes (there will be). 

This Grout Renew can be found at your local Home Depot for $11.97 and is available in a large amount of colors.

Over halfway done!

This was also the day that I discovered (by hearing running water) that we had a pipe burst under the house. 

Fun. 

 BEFORE / AFTER

Enjoy your sparkling, new grout! 

Just Some Stuff.

-Tonight is the NFL draft! 

South Caroline's very own, Jadeveon Clowney, is predicted to be the #1 pick, which the Houston Texans have. The last time South Carolina had a #1 draft pick was in 1981 when South Carolina's only Heisman winner, George Rogers, was picked by the New Orleans Saints. There's your history lesson for the day. It's also very exciting that another football player from the state of South Carolina is predicted to be a top 5, maybe even top 3 pick. Sammy Watkins from Clemson! There will be two very happy fans in our house tonight, and lots of happy people in the state of South Carolina.  

Clowney was actually on Jimmy Fallon last night! I tried my best to stay up to watch it, but just couldn't hang. Watched the clip this morning, and I just think Clowney is the cutest thing! He seems so laid back and like he may be a jokester. 

-I've paid off two more credit cards!! 

That brings me down to only ONE left, which should be paid off by July! 

-I had the day off today and got SO much done. 

Gym, Harris Teeter, Costco, pulled weeds (in my bathing suit top. extra points for multi-tasking), laundry, and got a head start on cleaning the house for Mother's Day brunch on Sunday. 

-Back in November, I did a re-cap of where our living room started when we bought the house, and what all we've done to it in the 3 years that we've been here. I mentioned that I wanted a larger console table for the area under our map/guest book and scones, and a sweet reader, Emily, mentioned that I should just move the black table that was behind the couch, to the wall. Looks so much better and more balanced. 

Friday Five {Exciting News, Garden, Target Finds, New Front Porch Pretties, + Weekend Plans}

Happy Friday, everyone! 

Very glad this day is here and am hoping the work day flies by!

{one}

Cameron got a new job!

After working 7 years at his previous job, the only one he's had since college, he made the decision to move on to the next step in his career. He started on Monday and seems to like it so far! Other than the fact that his drive to work went from 5 minutes to 30 minutes. Proud of him for taking a chance on this great opportunity!

{two}

Garden is planted!

Last Thursday I finally got the rest of the soil spread in my raised garden bed, and all of the seeds planted. I planted just a few plants because I knew the seeds will take a while before any of the veggies will be big enough to eat. I've become crazy garden lady though - checking on it every single day, and even creating a spreadsheet of what we planted and when it sprouts...and a layout so that when things DO start to grow, I will be able to remember what was planted where!

 I planted these about 2 weeks before I planted anything in the raised bed. That's why they are so much further along. We've had the kale plant since the Fall.

{three}

Wednesday after the gym I made a quick stop in Target. I actually made it out with only the items on my list! That rarely happens. I picked up a 1 1/2" curling iron that I've been meaning to purchase for a while now, Olay Fresh Effects face wipes that are perfect to stash in your car and use after a nice sweaty session at the gym (they smell so good!), and a Sonia Kashuk kabuki brush that I'm pretty obsessed with.

{four}

Last week during a Costco haul, they had potted hydrangeas and beautiful hanging baskets by the front entrance that immediately caught my eye (like they are supposed to do). I held off on the hydrangeas, but thought that the hanging basket ($15.99) was way too pretty to pass up. I especially love it because it doesn't have the ugly plastic bottom.

{five}

Unfortunately, it looks like it's going to rain cats and dogs tonight and tomorrow, so we don't have any concrete plans until Sunday. For Easter, we'll be going to church with Cameron's family, then heading to my grandma's house for an early dinner. After that, I'll hop in the car with Emily, David, and Baby Lane and head to Greenville for the annual BrightLife golf tournament fundraiser on Monday! SO excited, as this is my first year attending! If you've ever noticed the BrightLife picture on the right hand column of my blog, this is what it's all about! You can learn more about our good friend Tim (and his pretty awesome wife, Jenny) and BrightLife here.

Hope everyone has a great Easter weekend!

Free printable

Sunday Not-So-FunDay.

Saturday night everyone was talking about and getting pumped up for the first Sandbar Sunday of 2014. Come Sunday around noon and the skies are super overcast, and it's not as warm as we all expected. On to plan B. House work. Yay. Just playing, I actually enjoy a low key day of housework every now and then. Feels so good when everything you set out to do is complete. 

We started out by taking the hallway doors off of their hinges so that we could paint them. After making a Lowe's list and eating lunch (French dips - yum!), Cameron went to go grab a quick shower. Well, that didn't happen because there was no hot water. Awesome.  So he goes to investigate and I go work on my hallway bathroom grout project that desperately needs to get finished.

I finished and can't wait to show you the final result!

 While I'm in there, I notice that I hear the sound of running water. Is the dishwasher running? No. Is there a load of laundry in the washing machine? No. So I mention it to Cameron. He doesn't really think much of it. He winds up calling plumber #1 to come take a look at our hot water heater. Plumber says heating element is fine and leaves. I mention to Cameron that the running water sound is still going on so he investigates. Thinks we may have a busted pipe. Awesome.  Calls another plumber to come out because our hot water heater still isn't working, and if we have a busted pipe, that would suck. 

Well guess what? We have a busted pipe under the office.

Awesome. 

So that was our Sunday! 

But, the fact that we spent it together and this homemade pizza for dinner made it all better!

 

Crossing a Chore off of the House Checklist! (+TB Revas for Sale!)

We slept in until about 10am on Saturday, but once we were up, we immediately got to work cleaning out the junk room. With it being on our to-do list always (we'll clean it out and then it will magically accumulate more junk) + us being given a barely slept on bed, made it time to clean it out completely. 

This is what we started with..

(Keepin' it real, people.)

Then a little progress was made and you could finally see the floor!

 

  

This is the Goodwill pile..

FYI - Goodwill does not take tv's any longer because, according to one of their employees, a woman bought a 40 something inch flatscreen for $15, used it for 9 months before it stopped working, and then she wanted her money back! They, for a good reason, refused to take the tv back and give her a refund, so she took it to corporate and made a big stink about it. 

That big tv in the picture above was taken to the dump (which is even more disgusting than I imagined), but a smaller tv that still worked, we put on the street in front of our house and it was picked up by someone the next morning. Easy peasy. 

So after our trip to Goodwill and the dump (ick), we picked up the bed and turned the junk room into guest room #2!

Yes, we've got a long way to go with it, but we already had a complete bedding set that will work for now and I got to keep my chaise lounge! I refuse to get rid of it.  Will post more pictures of the room once I get the last few remaining random items stored under the bed. 

-------

On a random note, I've listed my Tory Burch Revas on Ebay if anyone is interested in them! They are used, and the price reflects that.

You can view them here.