Sunday, November 16, 2014

Gentrification and security...

When we were house hunting we looked all over Fayetteville. We looked in beautiful, safe, well-established neighborhoods. We looked in quiet streets. We looked in cookie-cutter neighborhoods. We looked all over town. None of them drew me in like the south side of Fayetteville.

Ten years ago you'd be hard pressed to get me to drive through our neighborhood. If you would have told me then that I would buy a home in south Fayetteville (Can we make SoFay a thing?) I would have laughed in your face, and told you to lay off whatever it was you were smoking.

Something has been happening in our neighborhood, and it's made the appeal of this place hard to deny. Not only are we within walking distance to the heart of town, but people are buying these old homes, and bringing them back to life. Investors are buying properties and putting in beautiful modern row homes, and detached homes, and the value of this area is on the up and up.



Seeing all the great things happening in this area made us excited to find a home in this neighborhood. And while it's exciting to see these new homes, and old homes finally seeing some love, that doesn't change the fact that there is still a fair bit of this around... 


We came in on the earlier end of the gentrification of this neighborhood. I'm not really trying to discuss the moral ramifications of gentrification. That is another conversation for another time. We were a young family, looking for a property that we could make a good return on investment, nothing more, nothing less. We love our home. We love the location. We love that we can put high-end finishes in our home and see a return. And we love that other families see the potential this area has to offer.

Despite all that, we've had some security issues since moving in. I'm positive our issues have less to do with our neighborhood, and more to do with who we bought the house from, but some fishy things have happened that have led us to believe that some less-than-kosher operations were happening from our home. 

We've had people show up in our driveway at 3am leading with "you probably don't remember me, but..." Our nanny has had a guy show up looking for "Billy Bobcat." Most recently I've had a women pull all the way back in our driveway, get out of her car, walk around my vehicle several times looking in the car. When I walked outside with my dog, and greeted her with a "Can I help you?" she very quickly got back in her vehicle and left. After that occurred I called my husband crying, and told him we had to do something. Patrick called to get a top of the line security system installed immediately. 

I don't think a security system will be necessary forever. I don't feel unsafe in our neighborhood, and if we had bought our home from different people this probably wouldn't be an issue. (Side note: unscrupulous activity was not in our seller's disclosure.) Until all of the previous owner's homies get the memo that they no longer live here, the security system is a must. 

I know this isn't a fun, pretty part of the home renovation journey, but I never promised you'd only get to see the good parts. This is real life, and this is really what we've been dealing with. There's not really a manual on how to deal with situations like ours, but we're rolling with the punches and it'll be okay.

Until next time!

XOXO,
Victoria


Friday, October 31, 2014

Guerrilla Walls

Happy Halloween!

I've been a tad bit busy lately undergoing a major change in our living room. I'm not quite ready to show the whole living room reveal mostly because I've still got half a wall to finish, but hold your horses... It's coming!

Up until a few weeks ago (yes this project has taken weeks. Give me a break. I have a two-year-old.) Our living room looked a lot like this...















A few things...

First of all the walls are wood paneling... You know how I hate popcorn ceilings? (of which we have no shortage of.) Wood paneling is right up there in the running for "most loathsome design choice."

Second, I don't know how well you can see it, but the seam in the corner is covered by corner bead... which I also despise. 

Third the "buttercream" walls were in HORRIBLE condition... Not to mention the fact that I am not really a "buttercream" kind of girl.

So something had to be done. I wanted to drywall, but decided to do that down the line around the time we install built-ins on the wall with the chimney.

Knowing that our walls days were numbered, but not wanting to live with the look of paneling anymore, I decided to camouflage the walls.

Being rather handy with spackle and a putty knife at this point in my life I went to Lowes and bought the biggest can (tub?) of Dap brand spackle I could get. I love Dap spackle for a couple of reasons. It's a nice consistency to work with, and it goes on pink and dries white so you always know when it's dry. 

I got home, armed with spackle and a determination to fill every line in the paneling to give us a smooth even surface to work with. 

After getting one coat down on one wall it became abundantly clear that I was going to have to fill every single line twice. Spackle does this things sometimes when it dries... it shrinks. (Insert sad face.) 


































Post realization that this long, tedious work was about to get even more long, and tedious I sat down and ate a lot of ice cream. Then I got up, and decided I can't leave the job half finished, so I continued on.


Also I made my husband take down that horrible corner bead, which revealed a lovely gap where there should have been a seam. I filled that baby with a layer of paintable caulk, and trekked on. 

Two layers of spackle proved to be sufficient enough to get the surface flush, and not be so much that I was left with a ton of dust when I sanded it down.  

After using a fine grit sanding block I was left with a fairly flush surface which made my heart sing. I say "fairly flush" because our house is nearly 100 years old... nothing is flush.

After prepping my walls I was able to put down a gorgeous shade of blue on my walls a la Vaspar's Pacific Coast


Seriously swooning over my own space right now.

So let's get down to brass tacks, shall we? This is not an ideal solution for everyone. Anytime you have two different materials on a wall they are going to settle at different rates, which will cause cracking like plaster and drywall, or panelling and spackle. Why did I knowing this ahead of time still choose to go down this route? I am very much a visual person. I am most happy, inspired, and at ease when I am surrounded by beautiful spaces. That being said the paneling was driving me bonkers, and while the spackle was a temporary solution it was still a solution. Second we bought a nearly century old home with some piers that needed to be jacked up. We were told that this process would cause lots of cracking in our walls so keep extra paint and spackle around. I was already going to be repairing cracks anyway so the thought of cracking wasn't at all a deterrent. (In fact in our barely four months here, I've already had to repair a crack that showed up in our freshly painted bedroom. It's seriously not that big of a deal.) Third, These walls are temporary. Knowing that we would eventually drywall made choosing a $20 temporary fix that much easier.

There are definitely things to consider with choosing to camouflage your walls. I definitely wouldn't use this as a permanent solution, but it works for now, and my living room is finally a space that makes me happy... Your home should do that.

Until next time!

Hugs and kisses, and a Happy Halloween!

-Victoria

Monday, October 20, 2014

Grow.

Hey ya'll! Fall is most definitely here, and this girl couldn't be any happier. Last weekend we had a home full of family, some of whom were seeing our home for the first time. Comments ranged from "this looks just like a Pinterest house" (which I'll admit made me smile) to "I can't believe how much you've accomplished in such a short amount of time." (To be fair, I can't believe it either, but I have the blisters to prove I did the work!) I loved having a home full of family. It was warm, and loud, and full of love... Just the way I like it! 

This weekend, my parents took our son Sunday giving my husband and I some much needed time to ourselves. We slept in, went to go eat wings and watch football, and then went antiquing! (Can you tell who picked what activity?) After heading to some of our favorite shops we went to Lowes to get some insulation for the pipes in preparation for colder weather. Little did we know we would stumble upon Lowes fall sale in the lawn and garden department. All the trees, shrubs, and perennials were 50% off, and decorative grasses were 75% off! I snagged 6 little boxwoods a week earlier at Westwood Garden that I had yet to plant, so grabbing some other plants for our front beds seemed like a good idea.

While we were there we grabbed mulch, potting mix, some Mint Julep Junipers, two varieties of Russian sage, some daylillies, and some landscaping lights, all while completely forgetting why we came to Lowes in the first place... Maybe next weekend???

When we moved in the front looked like this


The "beds" were predominately overgrown weeds, along with an over abundance of poison ivy and poison oak. We had a friend of ours come out and clean all the growth off the house and cut down any branches growing on the roof. That pretty much left us with a blank slate to work with. I did manage to save some lillies bordering the left bed, but everything else was gutted.

Once everything was tilled, and we arranged everything where we wanted it we got to planting... Which was no easy task in this rocky Ozark soil. When all was said and done we had two beautiful beds that we can hopefully keep alive.


Neither of us exactly have a green thumb... In fact, I'm ashamed to admit it, but I have somehow managed to kill mint before. We'll see how this goes. 



I absolutely understand why people garden though. There is something downright therapeutic and satisfying about getting your hands dirty... I just don't like summer which is when most of those gardening tasks seem to need to happen, soooo we'll see what happens. 

In the meantime, grow baby grow.

Until next time!

XOXO,

Victoria

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Cabinet reveal- Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Makeover

Those of you follow me on Facebook or Instagram have already been privy to sneak peeks here and there, but the rest of the world has yet to see the splendor that is our new kitchen.

To put it mildly I am thrilled. For a little bit of money, and a whole lotta sweat equity I was able to completely transform my kitchen.
So I won’t delay any longer…


It’s so good.

This is just phase 1. Phase 2 will involve new counters and a new farmhouse sink, but I’m trying to focus on the fact that a home is not a sprint it is a marathon… Either way I’m thrilled to have my kitchen back. The cabinet reno was making me fat, literally. I think I gained 7lbs during the month I worked on the cabinets from not being able to cook and eating crap, but I digress. It’s green juice and salmon for a while…

So how did we get here? I’ll tell you. To start we pulled the cabinet doors off, and built up the builder grade cabinets with molding. You can read about that here.

















I knew I’d be working with Annie Sloan Chalk paint for several reasons. Number one being I did not want to have to sand down my cabinets with a two-year old in the house. The beauty of chalk paint is prep is really not needed. The second reason was aesthetic. I love love LOVE traditional finishes, and Annie Sloan Chalk paint has a gorgeous buttery finish that makes my heart flutter. It’s not matte, and definitely not gloss. It’s like the most perfect satiny finish you have ever laid eyes on. The wax finish is perfect for a rambunctious toddler. If my son scratches the finish I don’t have to strip it down and redo it like I would with a poly. I literally can fill the ding, and buff it out. I’m not entirely sure why people stopped using wax finishes, but I’m bringing wax back.

If you live in Northwest Arkansas the ladies of Red Hill Home were immensely helpful with helping me narrow down my chalk paint choices, and helping with finishes. They helped me narrow down a color that covered well, and gave helpful tips when it came to finishing applications. Not only do they carry Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, but they also carry Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint and offer workshops on both products.

I decided to go with Old Ochre after seeing a finished piece at Red Hill that read more cream than beige. I was assured that Old Ochre would cover in two or three coats whereas Old White would take more along the lines of three or four. Less Work? Yes please!

After filling the old hardware holes, sanding them flush, and giving them a light scrub with soap and water it was time to paint.

I went with thin coats and lightly sanded between coats to really give a smooth, buttery finish. You can see the difference between one and two coats was pretty substantial.















































After painting I was able to put on a thick coat of clear wax, with the wax brush by Annie Sloan. You don’t have to use the wax brush. I actually already owned the wax brush that I used on other projects. It is pricy, but it gets in every little nook and cranny. It really is a great tool to work with. After applying the wax, I buffed it out with an old t-shirt and let it dry. I then mixed some of the dark wax with the clear wax to create an antique finish. I applied the mixture predominately in the nooks and crannies where the cabinets would naturally age over time. After it was applied I used my old t-shirt to buff it out again. If you are working with the dark wax you want to be pretty sparing with it. A very little bit goes a long way, and too much can create a dirty looking finish, not a pretty aged look.
Once the wax dried and I was happy with the finish I installed the hardware and hung those babies up.


I can’t even believe what an immense difference painting the cabinets has made.
The kitchen feels SO much bigger, and we are thrilled! It’s really insane to me that we’ve only been here for 3 ½ months! It’s so vastly different from the house we started with. This little bungalow is really shaping up to be home.

Until next time!

XOXO,

Victoria

Monday, September 29, 2014

Master Blaster

I may be the only one to get the Stevie Wonder title...

Our master bedroom was the first room we tackled in the home reno, and I am pleased to say it is all but done.


















We still have a few things to do in here. Down the line I want to install a tin ceiling, and once that is in we will install crown molding. We also will be painting the trim in the near future, and installing closet doors, but after that this room is done!

I did slide our dresser down in front of the door that we will frame in to actually lay our room out the way it's supposed to be.

 By sliding the dresser down this allowed us to create a functional reading nook that I LOVE!

Chair- vintage find, Table- Homegoods, Ottoman- Target,
Pillow- Homegoods Tray- Target, Blanket- Target


 This is my favorite little spot to cozy up to with a cup of coffee...

To be honest, my absolute favorite little vignette in the entire house has to be on my nightstand. I love each and everything on it.

Lamp- TJ Maxx,, Topiary- Homegoods, Ampersand- Barnes and Noble



I love our bedroom. It is the calm in the midst of the proverbial storm. When my house is chaos (which it is most of the time) I can close the door, take a deep breath, and know that eventually we'll break on through to the other side. (I seem to be on a roll with the music references today)

Medallion- Homegoods Headboard- DIY 





















































All in all, this room is full of things that make my heart happy. It's a place where Patrick and I can escape. It's a place our son's toys aren't allowed. It's a place that is uniquely ours, and at the end of the day that is what design is all about.

Until next time, find a cozy little spot and snuggle up with a good cup of coffee... That's what life's all about!




















XOXO,

Victoria


Sunday, September 28, 2014

Build me up buttercup

When we bought this house the kitchen wasn't exactly oozing charm and character. 

The cabinets for one were dark and boring...


Oak. Basic. Builder grade.

I'm a firm believer that the kitchen is the heart of the home, and the heart of our home was not a place that was making me happy.

Since a full kitchen overhaul was not in the cards due to those pesky budget constraints, I decided to make the best of what we had.

The cabinets are getting a bit of a facelift in the form of paint, new hardware, and moulding.

We started the renovation by taking the doors off, and taking all the hardware off.

Then we decided to build up the cabinets a bit, so we added crown moulding.


Sorry for my messy kitchen... We live here, and I wasn't about to clean mid reno.

Anyways, if you were looking for a tutorial on how to install crown molding then you have found the wrong blog. If that's what you're looking for there is this thing called "YouTube" and you can search for things like "crown molding inside corner" and "crown molding outside corner."

After I cut and installed the crown molding I decided to add a bit more moulding on the side panels of the cabinets


To do this I simply cut 45 degree meters on all sides of the four pieces of moulding to frame out the end panel, and nailed them on with finishing nails. After all of the molding pieces were installed it was time to fill in all the crevices, gaps in the joints, and nail holes with paintable caulk... Which was the best time ever! (Slight sarcasm)  

You might be wondering why I didn't sand everything down in preparation for painting. Well my friends behold...


I decided to go with Annie Sloan chalk paint because I'm lazy. If you've never used or heard of chalk paint it is amazing for so many reasons. The coverage is amazing, and the paint adheres to EVERYTHING! You don't have to strip and sand, because the paint will stick. Period. And rather than finish with a poly,  I am finishing with a soft wax, which I love for a multitude of reasons. If the finish ever  gets dings in it I don't have to strip it and re poly, I can literally just fill the dings with wax and buff it out. Perfect for my crazy life!

Stay tuned for the finished product... It is SOOO good!

Until next time!

XOXO,

Victoria





Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Let there be light!

Hey ya'll!

Fall is officially upon us, and I for one am beyond ready! I'm not a huge fan of summer. I wasn't blessed being one of those girls who "glisten" when the temperatures spike. My makeup starts running. My hairspray isn't holding. I'm standing in front of my freezer trying not to die. I'll blame it on my Scandanavian roots... 


When the weather starts cooling down I want to put an apron on and bake, but my kitchen isn't exactly the happiest of places. Knowing I plan on spending more time in the kitchen I decided it was time to start working on the heart of our home, starting with changing out this crummy ol' fluorescent fixture that was driving me CRAZY. 


There is a special place in hell for fluorescent lighting. I hate it. It's unflattering. It's cold. It's sterile. It doesn't belong in my kitchen. So I went off to Lowes in search of something with a bit more charm. 

If I could have my way I would have had the wall mount removed in favor of a pendant, but due to the placement of the skylight in the kitchen an electrician would have to shrink himself down to the size of my two-year old to fit in the spot where I wanted the pendant so I decided to stick with a wall sconce. 

When I went to Lowes I didn't really see anything in the wall sconces section. Everything seemed to be a little too small, or the wrong finish. (I needed oil rubbed bronze to match the cabinet hardware.) I was starting to feel a little disheartened when I thought I'd check the outdoor lighting, just for kicks. Lo and behold, I saw this baby...

An oil-rubbed bronze wall sconce with a vintage inspired shape, and it was the perfect size. I couldn't stop thinking about how cute this would be over my kitchen sink with an Edison bulb in it. So for just under forty bucks this little guy was on his way home with me!

I got home and made Patrick switch off the power in the kitchen. (Safety first!) We then proceeded to remove the old, ugly fixture, which revealed several layers of old, ugly wallpaper. 


Yay!

After the fixture was down Patrick got to installing the new fixture. 


It's like night and day difference!

tried to remove the wallpaper, and ended up having to spackle a lot of the area due to random holes/ missing bits of plaster. So out came the ol' trusty Dap spackle. I LOVE this spackle. You put it on pink, it dries white. It has a great consistency to work with, and is an overall great product. 

I like to let the spackle dry for 24 hours before I sand it, but that's because I'm an overachiever. Actually, it's because we have plaster walls and I want to give it the chance to fully dry so I don't end up sanding off our plaster walls too. 

With all that being said my kitchen is going to have to get a fresh coat of paint, and I am so over the tan/brown/gross color on the walls.

Prepare yourself for 


Benjamin Moore's Nimbus Gray. It's a little bit blue, a little bit gray, and a whole lotta amazing!

Big stuff's coming... 

Until next time, hugs, kisses, and warm fuzzies from me to you!

-Victoria













Monday, September 15, 2014

Where We're Headed...

I feel like people often look at me like I'm crazy when I see pieces or spaces because I don't see things as they are. When I look at a piece or a space I can almost instantly tell you what I would do with it. I almost always see potential. My husband has a hard time with this. When we were house hunting Patrick gravitated towards more turn-key homes. I wanted a fixer upper. I wanted something that I could make uniquely ours. 
 
I realize that not everyone can do this. Different people have different gifts. My husband has one of the sharpest memories of anyone I know, but putting together a room is not one of his strong suits. He is however, excellent at helping me execute my vision. (I love you, sweetheart!)

When we were house hunting, Patrick took some convincing on more than one occasion of the potential of homes. I would have to get out my iPad and plug in the home's floor plan and render up design options for him to see that these homes had all the potential in the world. The nice thing about My husband is he has the ability to reel me in when my vision is over our heads. (I've been known to bite off more than I can chew from time to time.) We really do balance each other out well. 

So when we saw our home I could see past the awkward layout, and the smell, and the filth. I saw character. I saw potential. I saw what could be. 

I want to help give you guys an idea of what I see when I look at a space, and let you in on what my vision is for this little house we call home.

When we saw this


I saw this


Navy blue walls. Bright built-ins. Cozy, and clean. 

We plan on filling in the doorway to our bedroom, because there is an entrance around the corner that is more functional, and by having the door in the living room you lose valuable wall space in both the living room and the master... Something I am not willing to lose. Filling in the doorway is going to be challenging because in the master bedroom the wall is plaster, and we've been told plaster and drywall together can cause some issues down the line because they settle in different ways... Yippee!

The walls are actually painted panelling on the living room which is also going to be a blast. We can either Sheetrock, (which I feel is wasteful, because the panelling is in perfectly good condition.) or I've seen people use spackle to fill in the spaces in the panelling to give the look of Sheetrock. I seem to be gravitating toward option two. 

I never thought of myself as very traditional when it came to my design aesthetic, but more and more I seem to gravitate toward classic pieces. 

Moving on...

When we looked at the kitchen I hated everything...


The oak cabinets, the painted Formica, the glass tiles... None of it worked for me... Also, you can't see it but to the right the kitchen has a bar that has yet to be used. It's open to the dining room, but not really working at all. 

When I look at this kitchen I see this...


White cabinets, closed off from the dining room adding valuable usable wall space. Right now all of our appliances are completely cluttered in the corner because we don't have enough USABLE space. By closing the kitchen off to the dining room it solves problems that we need solved. 

The butcher block counters, and tin tile backsplash are non-negotiable for me. When I think of what I want in a kitchen it always includes those two things... And a porcelain farmhouse sink. That wasn't an option for the rendering or you would have seen it in the design.

One of the reasons I don't mind closing off the kitchen is because it's still very much open to the living room. Not only that but we also will be gaining valuable wall space in the dining room... Which leads me to...


This room was a mess... Literally. Those curtains are hiding French doors that are begging to be open.

We are heading somewhere in this neighborhood...



This view would be from the French doors. By closing off the kitchen we have wall space to put our hutch. (Which currently resides in the closet in the dining room. The closet will be converted to a much needed pantry. And the washer and dryer hookups will be moved out to the sunroom leaving us with a true dining space.

I hope you guys understand a little bit better why we fell in love with this dirty, old house. Underneath the grime and funky layout there is a home. If you know me at all, you know I have every intention of making this house beautiful.

Until next time!

XOXO,

Victoria



Saturday, September 13, 2014

Switch it, change it...

Hey ya'll!

It's been a while since I've had a chance to blog. To say life's been a bit crazy is an understatement. Between my job, my toddler, and my husband being back in school there hasn't a whole lot of time for anything.

We're sneaking in improvements whenever we get a chance, but there haven't been a lot of chances lately... Don't give up on us! We're still fixing up this little bungalow!

Last time you saw the front of the house it looked something like this...


So bad.

First of all, the tiffany blue drove me crazy. Why you would paint sections of the door rather than the whole thing is beyond me. All I know was it had to go! I had been dreaming of a bright red door with navy accents. I was dreaming of Classic Americana. 

Next, the house numbers were laughable. Literally stickers peeling off the house. I can't even...

Also, we have a mailbox on the house that the previous homeowners used as an apparent ashtray... That baby had to go!

And last, there is an alarm system sticker on the window that has bugged me from the get-go!

Big plans baby! Big plans!

I went to Lowes with a vision in mind, and cash in hand... A dangerous combo.

I got a gallon of navy, a quart of red, and fresh numbers for the house.

We ended up with something a bit like this...


So how'd we get here...

I started off by removing the alarm sticker, the mailbox, and the house numbers. After removing the mailbox I had to take bleach cleaner to clean the siding. I'm not entirely sure how long the mailbox had been on there, but judging from the grime left behind it was quite a while. 

After the gross was removed it was time to get to work. I started by painting the front door red. I started by using a brush for the crevices with the intent of using a small roller for the bigger areas, but the roller was leaving behind a terrible texture so I ended up using a brush for the entire door. I decided to paint with the door on the hinges for the simple reason that we live close to downtown, and it's not the quietest street. I didn't want someone walking into our house. While it was drying I left the door slightly open. 

After one coat it wasn't looking great. 


Super streaky... I knew I was in for several coats.

While the first coat was drying I washed my brush and got started on the trim. The navy seemed to cover a bit better, but still looked like it needed multiple coats.

After I got the first coat on the trim, the first coat on the door was dry enough that I could rinse my brush and put a second coat on the door. This method seemed to work well and I was able to get everything done in a few hours. 

I have four coats on the door, and three on the trim. Totally worth it to get rid of that two-toned door!

Installing the numbers plaque was super easy. It drilled right in to the siding with no problems whatsoever. So much better than those stupid stickers!


We still have big plans for the front. We plan on building a porch so we will actually have a landing, installing some window boxes for those big window boxes. Something like this...


But in navy...

We also plan on putting in some landscaping. The previous homeowner just had a lot of overgrown weeds... And lots of poison ivy.

Here's a side by side to see the difference...


So much better!

Since it will be a while befor we can build a porch we need to paint or stain the stairs to protect them... I'm stumped... Ideas? Any help is welcome!

Until next time...

XOXO,

Victoria







Monday, July 28, 2014

One month

Hey y'all!

I can't even believe it's been a month since we moved in. How did that even happen?! Time flies when you're turning a house into a home!

In honor of our first month in this home, I thought I'd give you guys a brief "where are we now" tour.

To start off the front room pretty much looks the same as last time you saw it...



This room has seen the biggest transformation this month. Every paintable surface has been painted. Popcorn has been scraped. Lighting has been updated. This room was a lot of work, but worth all the sweat.

Next we have Lukas' bedroom. We haven't done anything to this room other than move furniture in.


 We have to frame out a wall to create a hall and make this room a private bedroom, rather than a weird walk through room lacking major function. When we're done it will look like this...


Moving on...

The master bedroom has had a pretty major makeover this past month... 

It went from this:


To this:




 I scraped that hideous wallpaper off, spackled the ever-loving hell out of those (plaster) walls, painted the walls (Porpoise by Behr), changed out the lighting, and updated all the outlets, covers, switches. There is still a ton to be done in this room, but progress has been made.

The bathroom lost some friends... Specifically an octopus and a dolphin (mural). 

We painted the bathroom the same color as the bedroom, because I had it on hand, and I couldn't stand those stupid murals anymore. 



We also changed out the hardware on the sink, and that's been about it. This bathroom will get a gut job at some point. The previous homeowners thought laminate wood flooring was a good idea in a bathroom... We are going to be tiling... Specifically, basketweave tiling.. Kinda like this bit of amazing...


Swooning...

The living room has just been another case of moving our stuff in...



We need to paint... Scratch that. We need to take down paneling, then Sheetrock, then paint. I'm dreaming of a sexy, moody space for this room. Somewhere I can snuggle up with a latte, and read a book. These spaces are kind of where I think I'm heading...



I LOVE them... So much.

The kitchen looks pretty much the same except it's been cleaned to high heaven. Every square inch of that kitchen has been bleached. It was DISGUSTING. 


A few minor changes have been made. The cabinet that was above our broken hood was raised to make room for the microwave vent hood. I also took out this weird connector piece in the cabinets over the sink... It was blocking off sunlight and made no sense at all.

The dining room is also another case of "we just moved our stuff in."


I lied. We took out the ceiling fan, and put in a chandelier. Why people put fans over tables is beyond me? I don't want my food getting cold any faster... Thanks.

When we get the laundry moved out to the sunroom that table and chairs will go out with it. I'm heading towards a space similar to this one:



I got some china that has also served as inspiration for the new dining space... I'm super excited.

Well... That's pretty much all that's been done in our month here. It feels like a lot, and yet it doesn't... Probably because we still have so much more to do...

Until next time!

XOXO,
Victoria