7 Things I Found on Pinterest

If you haven't heard of it, Pinterest is a website that lets you organize pictures on different "boards", and share them with people.  It's such a great place to get inspiration and share photos and images with other people.  These are 7 things I love on Pinterest today:

1. I love the combination of dark wood cabinets and lighter floors.  And you know I'm a sucker for bookshelves in the kitchen.




2. This is a great way to store snacks inside a pantry door. 

3. I love the aqua subway tile in this shower!  Just the perfect amount of color in a pristine white bathroom. 

4. This would be amazing storage for our office, once we get Matt's clothes out of there.  I need to find a way to be more organized!

5. I have no idea how, but I'm going to make these chocolate strawberry footballs this season.  They are so cute, and they look delicious.

6. I love Star Wars, and this poster is reall cool.

7. I've been to Dublin, but I need to go back to Ireland and see this some day.  Beautiful.

Living Room Update

So here's a peek at our living room as of now.  So far we've had the floors refinished, patched and painted the walls, put most of the trim up, installed curtains and installed a lighting fixture.  All of the furniture was what we had from our apartment except for a bench that we bought at Homegoods for $150.

 

We still need to buy a rug, paint the front door, finish the trim and install doors on the closet.  I also want to add something above the bench, but I'm not sure what yet.  Maybe the 3'x4' mirror from the full bathroom?  Or a painting?  I think something large would work best on that wall.  Maybe we'll pick something up on vacation next week (Matt and I have a tradition of buying art when we travel). 


We really like this rug from West Elm.

 In case you forgot, this is what the room looked like before. 

Here's the cost breakdown of our living room so far:

Floor Refinishing: $600ish (we had the whole house done for $3200)
Paint: $60
Trim: $150
Light Fixture: $35
Curtains/Curtain Rod: $100
Etched Glass Film: $30
Bench: $150
Rug: $40

Grand Total: $1165

Not too bad.  It could have been less if we had done the floor ourselves, but I really don't think it would look as nice as it does.  Plus it probably would have taken weeks for us to do our whole house, whereas the guy we hired was done in 3 days.  While we were at work.  Can't beat that!

It's the little things

We haven't made any major changes to the house in the past couple of weeks.  We have been making small changes, which are bringing our house further and further from "ugly".  Some of the small changes:

We installed a wine rack in the kitchen, above the table. 

We bought this pretty bench from Homegoods.  It was only $150, and it's exactly what we were looking for.  Now I just need to figure out what to put on the wall above it...

Matt cleaned out the band room.

 

Matt organized the pantry. 

I painted a small bookcase we got on Craigslist for $20 (another post on that later).

So we've been busy, even if there haven't been any huge changes.  Maybe we should plan another party to motivate us to work again...

The List

I think it's about time that we re-evaluate The List.  It's been almost 2 months since we've moved in, and while we've checked off some things, we've also added a lot.  Items in blue are new, and purple are my notes.  Here's where we are:

Exterior
remove front fence
trim bushes
new landscaping in front (possibly hydrangea)
new fence in back
repave driveway
power wash back deck (I've got about halfway through it)
refinish back deck
gutter guards on the upper roof gutters
remove concrete patio in back and add a new stone paver patio and path
remove dog house and build a new shed
paint shutters
remove paint from brick in front
paint house
remove antenna from chimney
add landscaping around back
get furniture for the deck
get furniture for the patio
landscaping around the deck
trim trees
clean gutters (I cleaned the lower ones, but I haven't gotten on the upper roof to clean them yet)

Interior
new moulding in living room, dining room, kitchen, master bd, guest bd, office, band room, bathrooms
paint living room, dining room, kitchen, master bd, guest bd, office, band room, family room, bathrooms
new curtains for the master bedroom, living room, dining room, office and guest room
re-paint all doors
paint stair railing (eventually replace the railing)
new vent covers (we replaced the ones in the rooms which are painted)
new outlet covers (we replaced the ones in the rooms which we painted)
family room furniture (sofa, chair, coffee table, end tables)
find rugs for the living room and master bedroom
add wainscoting in the dining room
build a wall partition in the dining room
find a pendant light for above dining room table
find a track light for above the kitchen table (we found it, we just haven't installed it)
move light from the master bathroom to the kitchen
install track light in the living room
straighten the kitchen cabinets
install new countertop in the kitchen
install new backsplash in the kitchen
build a lower cabinet in the kitchen
build shelves in the kitchen
build a bookcase in place of the pantry
find a pub table set for the kitchen
find undercabinet lighting for the kitchen
install new carpeting in the family room
install sound insulation in the band room
install new vanities in the master bathroom and full bathroom
find a linen shelf for the full bathroom
build a closet organizer in the master bedroom
find new furniture for the master bedroom
install new hardware in the master bathroom, full bathroom and powder room
replace showerhead in full bathroom
have the tub refinished
have the floors refinished
refinish and paint the stairs
find console table or bench for entry wall
put up artwork
refinish outdoor chairs
refinish desk
refinish guest room furniture
window treatments in the kitchen

So while we still have a lot to do, we are making some progress.  Anyone else have a gigantic to-do list for their house?  Does it ever end, or do you just keep adding onto it?

Bathroom Update

The bathroom was another pretty big project.  When we bought the house it was dirty and outdated.  It had a faded pink tub, a plastic sink with no storage and old hardware.  We ripped out the sink and trim, had the bathtub refinished and updated the hardware.  Here's our bathroom now:

Charmin bear says "hi!"

Do you like our rubber ducky picture?

We got this shelving unit for $50 at Ikea.

To give you an idea of how far we've come, here's what the bathroom looked like when we bought the house:

Dirty, faded, pink bathtub

Vanity top with a old TV stand underneath.

After ripping everything out and patching the holes, we had the tub refinished.  The pink just wasn't working for us, and we wanted a fresh start.  We chose to hire someone to finish it for us, because we were nervous about getting an even surface.  It was well worth the money, because it looks like a brand new tub.

After the walls were patched and sanded, we painted.  We used Valspar bath & kitchen enamel, which is meant to prevent mold and mildew.

After painting, we installed the vanity.  It was more complicated than it should have been, but afterward the space was finally usable.

 

After the vanity was installed, we put up the mirror. 

We're not exactly happy with how the mirror turned out.  Since the wall is uneven, the mirror is slightly bent in the middle which adds about 15lbs to anyone looking at themselves.  We're on the lookout for a new mirror, but for now this will do.

Cost Breakdown
bathtub refinishing: $415
paint: $30
vanity (lowes): $170
trim: $40
mirror: $90
shelves (ikea): $50
baskets (target): $25
hardware: $70
shower curtain/rod: $30

Total bathroom remodel: $920

That's about all we're going to do with the bathroom at this point.  Eventually I want to replace the plastic shower liner with tile, but there's a lot more to do before that point.  Right now we are focused on finding a new mirror that can be hung instead of screwed to the wall.  What do you think of our bathroom redo?  Do you know where we can find a cheap, decent mirror? 

Can I get some privacy, please? Part 2

So yesterday I wrote about my irrational annoyance of the front door window.  I also mentioned that we have yet to put up curtains in our front window.  Well as of tonight that has changed.  We finally installed the curtains (after living here over a month... yay).

You may remember our window looking like this:

Then a little later it looked like this:

Well, we finally got the trim up!  Here it is with the trim:

After I filled the nail holes, caulked and painted it was starting to look pretty good:

When the paint dried Matt installed the curtain rod :

Finally, we have a little bit of privacy!  I love how the blue curtains add some color to the gray walls.   

Hurray curtains!

Can I get some privacy, please?

For some reason, I am very annoyed by the window on our front door.  It makes me feel weird that people at the door can see through the kitchen (says the person who still hasn't installed curtains for her 9'x4' living room picture window).  I didn't say it was rational, but I'm not a fan of the door window. 

We are probably going to get a new front door sometime down the road, but while we have this one, we might as well do something about the window.  Here it is, in case you were wondering:

And believe me, I'm completely aware that there are other issues to address with the entrance, but for now, it's just the window. 

I bought a sheet of etched glass film from Home Depot and got to work.  It was relatively easy to install.  I measured the window and used a utility knife to cut the film to size.

I cleaned the window, and after making sure the film was the right size I sprayed a water/soap mixture on the window and stuck the film on.  I used a putty knife to make sure there were no bubbles under the film, and the result is a frosted glass window! 

It wasn't a huge difference, but I'm really pleased with the difference it makes.