Guest Bedroom Renovation

Here's a little video of me and the "husbear" renovating our Guest Bedroom. We found the GREATEST wood planks (running horizontally) on the walls in the closet in this room, so we figured it MUST be under the drywall in the bedroom itself too. A little dancing, a lot of dust and sho' nuff! We uncovered a wall of wood paneling in perfect condition! In addition to ripping out drywall, we also ripped out carpet, refinished the wood flooring that was under the carpet, added new trim, and painted. We're going for a very cozy, coastal vibe in this room.
Enjoy the show!
PS...The yellow flowers in the window sill were a birthday present. :-)

Kitchen Cabinet Hardware

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one in the world who would spend 8 months deciding which cabinet knobs and pulls to use on their kitchen cabinets.
First I thought I wanted to use glass knobs, so I bought a sample of each of these:



The one on the left is $9.00, the one in the middle is $3.76 and the one on the right is $3.76 (www.garbes.com). I went back and forth on oil rubbed bronze bases, or satin nickel, or polished chrome. Last week I finally decided on satin nickel. (Don't ask me why, or I'll start to doubt myself again) THEN, I changed my mind about the glass when I saw these on Ebay for 89 cents a piece:



So I ordered sixteen of them and I think they look pretty good, don't you? :-)
(This picture will give you a clue as to what color I painted my kitchen cabinets!)

Living Room - During

Okay....here are a couple of "During" photos of the Living Room.
Still no wood front door with windows in it, no travertine tile on the fireplace.
But you see where I'm going.


Notice, the opening between the Living and Dining room is bigger in the "during" photos. We decided to pull out the reciprocating saw (you know, the one that looks like a meaner version of the electric knife you'd carve a turkey on Thanksgiving with) and Kevin went to town on the wall one weekend. We crossed our fingers the ceiling wouldn't cave in. So far, so good.


The floor under the carpet we ripped up was mostly wood, but partly concrete.
You see, the previous owner added a Master Bedroom & Bath, Laundry Room and Kitchen on to the house before we bought it. So, unfortunately, we couldn't just refinish the hardwood flooring. :-(
We opted to go with laminate wood flooring by Shaw in a chocolate umber color.
It's super durable, cleans up in a snap AND cost 84 cents a square foot. I found it on Ebay and we road tripped to Georgia to pick it up. We are on a TIGHT budget people!



Anywho, let me know what you think of the progress....I LOVE hearing your comments. Makes my day!

The big 3-4

So I woke up this morning and the usual stream of thoughts started rushing through my head:

Which Pottery Barn bedding patterns do I want to get for our Master Bedroom?

Wonder if Max went to the bathroom on the Dining Room floor in the middle of the night?

Wonder if Kevin is still not feeling good? (He went to bed sick)

I need to get trim for the Living Room, but I'd LOVE to get the Pottery Barn bedding for our bedroom. Oh yeah, but which Pottery Barn bedding patterns do I want to get? Hmmmm.....well, it IS my birthday today- so maybe I should get BOTH the trim and the bedding.
Oh my gosh- it's my birthday.

I am 34 years old people! (:-O

I remember when I was younger and would think about being in my thirties, and it seemed SOOOO far away.

I specifically remember a day when I was about thirteen, or fourteen, and I was walking home from school. We lived on a private (dirt) road, so the school bus dropped my brother and I off about a 1/4 mile away from our house. We lived in a big old farm house on a 7-acre patch of land, complete with 5 barns, animals galore and lots of flower & vegetable gardens sprinkled around the property, thanks to my Mom. I was walking home that day (by myself, for some reason) and I just stopped.
Right in the middle of the road.
I stretched out my arms and took it all in.
The corn fields on either side of me, the blue sky above me and the S P A C E all around me. I told myself (outloud) to, "Always remember this moment. When you're older, remember this moment." I stood there for a few minutes, just soaking it up. It was very spiritual. It was a put-things-into-perspective-kind-of-moment. I'll never forget it.
Especially now that I'm "older". :-)

Thanks to those who sent me birthday wishes....I love you all,

Layla

PS...Max DID go to the bathroom on the Dining Room floor. > :-(

Dining Room & Kitchen - Before

Here are some "before" shots of our Kitchen and Dining Room.

This next one is looking from the Kitchen, across the Dining Room, back into the Living Room:



This one is of the little "mudroom" off the Dining Room. I'm going to use it as a "Paint/Tools/Pantry/Cat & Dog Food Station Room":



As you can kind of see in this next picture, the kitchen was added on to the house in 2003. The curtains the previous owner left us were added on to the house in bad taste.



Yes, I ripped them down within seconds of ownership. :-)