Side Yard: Before and During

This year is the second in a row that around February we think to ourselves, "Well, we have some money saved and endless projects....what should we use it on?"

And this is the second February in a row where the answer was a lame... "Fix a structural problem and use up 2/3rds of our savings."

Last year we had a foundation company take a look at our living room, which is the room where the chimney is, for some cracking and separating we noticed. The whole house has piers around it but also has some random issues- like all of the decks that were built around it that cause drainage issues.

The salesman at that company recommended we get a plumbing test done to make sure it wasn't just settling due to a plumbing leak somewhere that could resolve the issue. Lo and behold, there was a plumbing leak that spanned from our powder bath all the way to the other outside wall under our laundry room. We got that repaired and then waited to see if anything would change with the foundation.

Now here we are a year later and called the same company out and we now have a plan to put in 11 new piers (replacing the old ones), plus add a root barrier to the giant live oak that sits too close to the house on this side, and improve the drainage all around. It's got a hefty price tag. 

Plus we have a lot of work to do. The deck just holds water and the bushes are wild. We already had the front landscaping pulled out in anticipation of putting in something new in the spring. We are hoping the bushes will be ripped out for free when they do the foundation work. 

Three weekends after he started, Bean has the entire deck and fence ripped out! 

 

He could have easily done it in 1-2 weekends but he chose to take breaks and rest and hang out with us instead of working straight through.

The foundation work is starting soon and then we can get some simple landscaping in!

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Great Weekend and Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

We decided to make pink heart pancakes with chocolate chips for breakfast. These were Francie's first pancakes ever. Hers were an X and an O, no chocolate chips or syrup. She gobbled them up along with the red pouch we were saving for a time when she had no clothes on so we wouldn't have stains to deal with.

Big sister was very excited about the pancakes!

We had a great weekend.

The weather was perfect and we were outside for every single meal starting with Lunch on Saturday. We moved the high chair outside and everything.

Saturday morning Bean started working on ripping out a deck in our side yard (future post on that project coming up). We are having foundation work done in that area so there is a time constraint on getting the deck out.

While the baby took a nap, Abigail and I trimmed bushes and swept up the leaves from the back patio and she used some glass cleaner and paper towels to wipe down everything from the table to the benches to her car to her tricycle to her wagon. Four full yard bags later, we all felt very accomplished.

After showers and a rest for everyone, we decided to keep hanging out and made the Plated dinner we hadn't done yet- steak fajitas. Bean and I decided to try a recipe for homemade margaritas so he went to get the ingredients.

Before Francie was born, we were gifted a couple of weeks of Plated, the meal subscription. We loved it so much we haven't canceled it, or even skipped a week. We just worked it into our budget each week.

We get 2 meals a week that easily feed all of us- the baby mostly tastes stuff and big sister tries a bite or two. We love that you can choose each week's menu from several options. I'm not eating dairy while nursing because I noticed that Francie gets eczema when I do and it goes away when I don't; there are so many options I can always find something with zero or minimal dairy that I can leave out of my dish but put in everyone else's.

I'd love to do some reviews of recipes we make. It's a blast and it's made me a better cook all around.

The margarita came out amazing.

Sunday morning while the baby napped the rest of us worked in the garage, just sweeping, throwing out old boxes, etc. Abigail used her glass cleaner on some other items. Then the girls and I went to music class and Bean stayed back to enjoy a movie alone!

Lunch outside, a rest / SNL watching, and dinner at Fish Shack, and we wrapped up a nice relaxing but accomplished weekend at home.

Here are some photos from playing in the yard every chance we get!

Looking forward to another great weekend!

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Office: Before

Here's the latest project in progress... the Office. 

Since I work from home, I spend a good amount of time in this room. I was ok with it but I couldn't stand the cluttered bookshelf, the lack of organization, and the items always cluttering up the desktop. 

Bean has had it in his mind that he wanted an old tanker desk from the 50's for a long time, and it took awhile for him to convince me to get on board, but the more I thought about the plans for this room, the more excited I got. 

Before we get too far, let's look back at where it started. 

I have my models helping out on this one again. The paint actually wasn't too bad, and they re-textured the walls, so we were fine with this room staying the same for awhile. But since we were doing the adjoining Entry, we decided to go ahead and do this room as well.

The Before pictures really aren't bad since the previous owners had done a decent job updating it.

I love how my desk faced the windows so I could look out at the trees or people walking by while I worked. We love the plaster molding and the tray ceiling, and I especially love the plaster medallion around the light fixture.

SO MANY ITEMS. I got rid of some of it already.

There's a picture with a little less clutter!

I love these diamond windowpane windows. I don't know if it's because they remind me of the house I grew up in or what, but I don't ever plan to get rid of them!

This is the only piece of artwork that's staying. It fits so well on this wall and coordinates with our travel theme. Oops! I gave you a hint. I can't wait to show you the awesome details.

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Flashback Friday: Guest Room: After!

As I mentioned before, this is the room we did on a whim. We had carpet going in and figured we might as well get the ceiling and crown molding installed, which turned into painting the walls, installing and painting crown and door trim, and the new ceiling fan. 

In a week and a half. 

And I was 6 months pregnant. 

It took us a month and a half to do the same amount of work in Abby's big girl room. 

Oh my!

It's now one of our favorite rooms in the house. We love the wall color, how calming it feels (even when the bed is not made at all! ha!), and the Banksy canvas print. The furniture is from Bean's first house before we moved in together and got engaged.

I'm having a patterned curtain with woven shade moment. I have it in almost all of my rooms. Thanks World Market!

By the way, World Market is one of my favorite stores to just go look around. I don't have to buy anything, except maybe some wine (because that's fun).

I feel relaxed just looking at this room.

Bean installed the door trim around the hall door and the closet door. I wonder if there are updated intercom systems you can purchase to retrofit your house. I always wanted to live in a house with an intercom but I have no idea how to use it, and the panels are really really really freaking ugly. (That's the panel- the ugly yellow/orange thing in the middle of the wall if you aren't familiar).

At some point in the future, when Francie is ready for a big girl room, this will be hers. If we do anything, all we have to do is paint the walls and it's hers. Same with Abby's current room. All we have to do is paint the walls to change it up. We did all the heavy lifting up front. And I'm so glad we did.

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Throwback Thursday: Guest Room: Before

This is another room that's been sitting, just waiting to be cleaned up. It looks kind of cute here in the photo they used to sell the house. 

Remove the beds and the shelf, and you are left with weird painted squares floating on a wall, giant anchors still in the walls, popcorn ceilings, an old fan, and dated carpet. The closet, like all of the other closets in the house came with built in shoe racks.

 

 

 

 

We updated this room on a whim because we had new carpet going in and we knew my mom would be staying with us for awhile before and after the birth of our second baby. I can't wait to show you the outcome!

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Flashback Friday: Master Bathroom and Bedroom: After!

Our first attempt at remodeling the Master Bathroom of any house was this one. It went ok, but we had never worked with a general contractor before. We are really controlling and like to have our hands in at every step of the process, plus I was painting everything and felt like I was getting better deals on almost everything when I sourced it myself. 

I was happy with the tile work they did, which was the bulk of the project. They tried to convince us to gut the entire place but we really liked the layout and we knew if we just updated the finishes it would make a big difference. 

We painted the middle cabinets a dark color to ground the room since everything else is so light. We replaced all of the hinges, drawer pulls, countertops (it's silestone), sinks, faucets, and accessories.

I've always wanted a chandelier above the tub, and this is a capiz one. I wish it were bigger but we were afraid the ceiling couldn't support a bigger one. The only drawback is that I can't turn off all of the lights in the bathroom and leave this one on- that's my real dream. But it's ok because I don't take baths that often and when I do, I don't mind having the lights on so I can read.

The contractor suggested curved niches flanking the tub but I felt like with so many other hard angles, we needed to keep the theme and have the niches echo the window shape. We added the glass tile to the back because originally I wanted the whole area above the tub done in glass tile but they convinced me away from it because of the cost. I'm still not 100% convinced it was the right decision, but we can always go back and add tile later.

My helper model is back!

The mirror is only half the width of the counter now, so the room feels much more open. It's also frameless and mounted top and bottom so it's more secure.

We had a situation with another mirror idea where we special ordered some wire hanging brackets and had a heavy mirror affixed to a sheet of frosted glass. Then we had to sign all kinds of paperwork to have the liability taken off the mirror manufacturer so that we could hang it.

It cracked the very first night, and when we talked to the mirror people directly, they suggested the brackets we ended up with. I would have been fine with them from the beginning, but going through the contractor, we had her opinion to deal with as well.

Still no door on the toilet area, but we are planning to install a sliding barn door with a white frame and frosted glass insert. We are just on the lookout for the right door and the brushed nickel hardware. This is the only room in the house we used brushed nickel for all the fixtures and hardware.

We kept the shower the same size but opened up the wall with more glass. We kept the half wall so that we would have a place for the towel bar.

I love the stripe of glass tile we did. The floor tile is the same as the tile we used on the floor in the rest of the bathroom and around the tub, it's just in a smaller size. The wall tile is a little darker for contrast. We painted the walls neutral so it would feel open and simple but we could always darken them and get some real drama in this room. I'm already ready to repaint the center cabinets in a darker brown or an awesome dark teal.

Bean did all of the baseboards and door trim in this room as well as the Master Bedroom. Speaking of which... without further ado...

It has looked this way since we finished it way back in early 2014, save for a few minor decor changes. This is our summer quilt because it's 70 degrees here in January. We used our winter quilt for about a week but haven't felt like we needed it since then.

As part of my minimalist journey, I'm debating on whether we really need this huge mirror or not. Leaning toward not. I just got rid of 5 throw pillows that I bought for our bed that were always just piled up in the corner because even though I make the bed like this everyday (yes, with hospital corners), I never put the throw pillows on.

This is something I struggled with because I had some crazy belief that 'good' wives had throw pillows. Like I still believe that a 'good' wife always has homemade iced tea available for guests. Don't ask where I came up with these hairbrained ideas, because they definitely weren't explicitly taught! ha!

I don't care about throw pillows, and I like how simple it is without them. I'm not good at making homemade tea and until I think that it's very important to learn how, I will just continue to make sure I have a great drink fridge instead. And I actually enjoy organizing it and fronting everything, just to relive my glory days in retail.

I love the chandelier we put in, and of course the medallion. Bean struggled with this because he really prefers a ceiling fan in the bedrooms but I just think ceiling fans are so ugly. They are in all of the other bedrooms and we compromised by keeping the air a little lower in this area.

There's a perfect little space for artwork in between the bathroom doors.

I enjoyed the tediousness that came with installing frosted contact paper over each pane of the french door leading to the patio. It's simple, and nobody can see in!

Please note the woven shade and patterned curtain. It all started here, folks!

Also, please notice the very expensive chair and matching ottoman that I have used less than 10 times. It is not very comfortable, but it looks cute. I'd love to get rid of it but I also always fantasized about a reading nook in my bedroom. So I'm at a crossroads. Also the gray shade doesn't quite match the rest of the room. It's a little pink.

I framed some of our favorite vacation photos and hung them with a Banksy print called 'There Is Always Hope'. It struck a nerve with us during the time between the two kids in dealing with the miscarriages.

I love this easy print I made of our wedding date- super simple with giant stencils borrowed from a friend. It took 5 minutes. The other piece sat undone for a couple of years, and then was completed in less than 2 hours. Bean started the lettering and I cleaned it up (he was loving the extra swirls) and filled it in with marker.

Above the bed I was inspired by pinterest with the branches surrounding a mirror. This is a great example of the importance of being a can-do woman. I'd been pestering Bean to hang these up for several months- even before Francie was born. The project seemed so complicated- searching for a stud, what fasteners to use, etc.

I decided I needed to get these photos taken to share the room, so I went out to the garage, grabbed some small finish nails and my trusty hammer given to me my a great friend's dad when we graduated high school, and nailed those silly branches to the wall. Bean sure was surprised when he came home!

The funny part was his first question, "Did you glue those to the wall?!"

Seriously?! hahahaha

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Throwback Thursday: Master Bathroom and Bedroom: Before

I realized I have never posted photos of the Master Bathroom and Bedroom remodel. It's been simple and loved since we finished it the first year we moved in. We haven't changed much since that very first makeover.

Before we get to that, let's reminisce about how ugly it was on the day we moved in. I pulled these from Zillow because I was so excited to start ripping things out I forgot to take Before pictures.

The room was divided by a large heavy framed mirror hanging from the ceiling on hooks. The layout was great and it had separate sinks and a sitting area for me.

Two matching closets flank the tub, which was a great size, but just boring. We love the three windows above the tub area.

This is the view if you are standing in the tub looking at the rest of the room. Notice the shower on the left framed by travertine and the saloon doors on the right for the toilet area. The shower is much larger than it appears- it reaches all the way to the wall with the doorways but you can't tell from here. This room really has all of it. Tons of storage also including drawers, shelves, and a built in laundry hamper.

I knew if we did the Master Bath, we would just have to carry the project into the Master Bedroom. It's a great room, but it needed new carpet, paint (and new wall texture) and a new light fixture.

Do you really think we kept things that simple? (wink wink)

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Updated: Baby Nursery

We didn't change very much in this room, just dealt with some things that were annoying.

The rug was always dirty and wouldn't stay down. I had a sticky pad underneath but it didn't help at all. So we sold it in a garage sale.

The bookcase was too tall and I was afraid the new baby would be a climber (and she still might be- it remains to be seen!) and the thing would fall down.

And we moved the old changing table into the Entryway.

I was also tired of the large letters so we updated the artwork to something more simple. We didn't know if we were getting a girl or a boy, so we stayed gender neutral.

The carpet was replaced and we put in the ceiling fan to match the others in the bedrooms upstairs.

I took the crib skirt off because it just annoyed me every time I had to change the sheets. It would never stay straight or even. I love the crib even more without it! The artwork feels very minimal, which I love.

This is almost all the same, except for the smaller and lower bookcase that almost blends in with the wainscot.

Can we pause a minute and admire the minimal toys here? Yes, there are a ton of books, but we aren't sure which ones Francie is interested in just yet. And some of them have special messages from Aunt Liz and other important people. I love how simple this is and easy to clean up. Even if we tear all of it apart (which we haven't yet), it takes less than 5 minutes to clean up. More time for dance parties!

I'm obsessed with this Alphabet by Jenn Ski. I saw a poster version of this at our library and love the animals, the colors of the art, and how they use different animals. These are actually flash cards with fun facts on the back and its unfortunate how expensive they were.

$85.

I'm not even ashamed, even though it is pretty embarassing. This is why we have a separate budget for home improvements. Plus if I can get really really cute and high quality decor, it's better than a million cheap things cluttering up the space.

This area is exactly the same except for the old entry table is here. This is much more functional and cute in this space. It holds diapers much more easily. And the large section is empty. Again, with the minimalism thing!

 We set the clock to her birth time (12:30 am) and added the arrow artwork from McKinney trade days. There's also a dream catcher from her House Party hanging there.

I'm not crazy about the curtains but the room will be changing in the next couple of years so I'm not that stressed about changing them right now. They're blackout anyway and all the patterned curtains I like are not.

Wink wink!

I'm as in love with this crib as I've ever been. I don't know if we will ever have another infant sleeping in it, but I'm so glad we have it and can pass it down to either of our girls if they want it. This room is very calming to me because it's so simple and functional.

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