Hello! Today, I’m sharing a quick home improvement project that we recently did.
I’ve been wanting to add shiplap to two walls in our living room. I knew it would be an added touch that would make the house feel cozier and brighten up the walls a bit.
It’s been a minute since we’ve done a home improvement project, and I was excited that this all fell into place pretty easily.
Once I saw Sarah share her shiplap update with links to where she bought the shiplap (Home Depot), I shared the idea with Travis. This way, I knew that what we were buying would look great because I was able to see the finished product on someone else’s walls.
As per most projects, I had the vision, our neighbor did the handywork, and Travis did the painting! #teamworkmakesthedreamwork
Before:
Well, I’ve shared these photos before when I did the Tuesday Transformation series, but here is the living room listing photo when we bought the house over seven years ago.
After we moved in, we had most of our walls painted a gray color.
Finally, after seven years, I purchased a mirror back in the fall. Remember when we were home for two weeks on quarantine? I finally took the time to purchase a mirror! The wood tones on the mirror really made the chest (a family heirloom) stand out instead of being an after thought in the room.
During:
We purchased the shiplap, and our neighbor measured and cut the boards before nailing them to the wall.
It took him a couple days to do both walls, but the difference was amazing!
Here’s the other side of the room before the shiplap. Also, the built-ins were in need of a fresh coat of paint.
…with the shiplap installed but not yet painted:
After:
Once all the shiplap was installed, Travis painted it white. He kept it simple and used Behr Ultra Pure White Satin.
Close up: (of some of my favorite things: shiplap, cotton stems, books, and a candle)
Before photo
Of course, it helps that my Christmas decor is *finally* put away, but the room looks so bright and airy.
…with my “regular” decor put back in place:
Another close up:
I’ve still left a few winter touches out for the next month or so. This was my view on one of the snow day mornings last week:
And…one more close up of the finished product:
I swear sometimes I think our house will never be 100% finished, but it’s been a fun process through the years. #foreverfixerupper
Technically, the only major project we have left is to update the hall bathroom. That being said, we still think about an addition of some sorts in the future to give us a bigger master bedroom. We’ll see. For now, we are happy completing little tasks along the way.
Per usual, I have to thank Travis (and neighbor Bob) for making my dreams come true!
Hello! Long time, no talk! How’s it going? My blogging break has been much needed, but I sure have missed posting!
Today, I’m linking up with Andrea and Erika for Friday Favorites.
Here’s what we’ve been up to the past couple of weeks along with some of our favorites.
These bracelets are one of my favorite things to wear lately.
My friend, Amy, sent these to me. She hand makes these custom bracelets. She has so many cute and fun options. Check her out on Instagram (@soulshine.kc)! I know you’ll love anything she makes!
Hadley went to sleep away camp and had the best time! She was so sad last summer when camp was canceled, so she was so excited to go back this year! We were one of the first in line for drop off, and she had a great time with friends, old and new. Camp was definitely a favorite for Hadley this summer.
I loved seeing the photos on Facebook. I missed her, so it was nice to get daily updates and see her smiling face!
Hadley at camp was one of Hayden’s favorite parts of summer (haha!). He also went to golf camp for the first time, and he loved it!
One things that wasn’t a favorite…poison oak! It’s never good when your kid wakes you up at 3 am to tell you he’s itching all over! We aren’t sure where he picked it up, but it sure did spread quickly. Thankfully, we got into the doctor the next day and the steroid meds helped immensely.
We’ve also continued to have lots of baseball this summer. It’s always a favorite watching Hayden and his team play. They have lots of fun together.
Another favorite…we FINALLY got our new basement floors. I shared that our master bath shower leaked down to the basement bathroom and living space in early May, so the floors had to be ripped up. What we had put down when we updated the basement a few years ago was no longer being made, so we found something pretty similar and are really pleased.
The original floors after Travis ripped up the damaged flooring vs the new finished product:
Then, I found this pretty rug at Home Goods to replace our previous area rug. It’s super soft and I love the gray tones.
Another favorite is my new messenger bag. I’ve been wanting one for quite some time. I stopped in a favorite boutique that I hadn’t been to since before the pandemic, and saw this gold toned bag. It was my summer gift to myself for teaching summer school 😉 They had some fun straps and I liked the one it came with, but I got this one (in pic below) from Amazon!
Another favorite is dinner al fresco! The kids were having too much fun playing with friends, so Travis and I ended up having dinner on our back patio by ourselves on Sunday night. Steak and asparagus by Travis…and microwave Bob Evans mashed potatoes by me!
Once July hits, I start thinking about school. I always feel better after I get my room unpacked (which will maybe happen next week?…they are still cleaning my area of the school), buy my desk calendar and lesson plan book.
I decided to try the Happy Planner teacher planner. If you know any teacher, you know we are picky about our planners. I’ve used a variety through the years, and I just thought I’d give this one a try. I was close to ordering one online and then realized Michael’s has some and they were 30 (or 40?)% off…+ my teacher’s discount at Michael’s! I love a good deal.
We are soaking up these last days of summer. We’ve had a couple pool days this week after a three week hiatus. June is our big pool month, then we had vacay, camps, and lots of rainy days that took the pool off our fun list for a bit. The kids have had lots of fun with their friends this summer at the pool. It’s definitely a favorite part of our summer.
Favorite Mom Meme:
Me…all summer long trying to keep up with my kids…vs. my parents in the 80’s (Although, the Major was pretty strict about knowing our whereabouts!)
BonusFave: Flashback Friday
One of my favorite vacation photos popped up in my Facebook memories recently. Siesta Key in 2017…sunset and the kids playing in the ocean.
I still hope to post intermittently over the next few weeks while continuing a little break.
I will share my Sentence a Day for July and what I’ve been reading this month as well once we get to the end of July.
I hope everyone has been enjoying their summer! See you back here soon.
Hello! How was your weekend? Ours was filled with a few errands, baseball and basketball on Saturday (baseball was rained out on Sunday), some family time and more!
It’s already the second Monday of the month (sigh!), so I’m co-hosting with these ladies for our Not Just a Mom series.
This month’s topic is Home Tour.
Well, I’ve written blog posts sharing our home improvements, so I will link back to those during this post. I did a Transformation Tuesday series during the pandemic sharing our house updates through the years.They include before and after photos of our fixer upper home that we purchased all most seven years ago. Wow! That’s hard to believe.
I shared in the first post of that series that I didn’t even want to look at our house because I knew it needed so much work. Travis convinced me to look, and we stopped by the house a few times before making an offer (at the same time that another offer was being made too!) The inside of the house we could update. We couldn’t beat the location, the yard, the schools, and more.
So here we go….
Living Room:
I love our living room and how bright it is. The only thing I wish is that we could change up the seating configuration. All the main seating is up against the wall with the windows. There were hardwood floors under the carpet in the living and office (dining) room. They were untreated which actually worked well for us when we tackled this and the kitchen area.
I’ve been thinking about adding “shiplap” to the walls on either side of the fireplace and add a mirror above the chest. That’s on our project “to do” list.
Office:
So, our office is what would be the formal dining room. Our first couple of years here, we did have formal dining room furniture that we had in our previous home. We then decided to make this space more functional for us and brought up the desk that was in the basement, ordered this cute cabinet, and moved these chairs in from the kitchen for additional living room seating when needed.
The kitchen is one of my favorite parts of our home. When we moved in, there was carpet in the kitchen! A few quick fixes we did pretty immediately included, pulling up the carpet, laying hardwood and then staining the kitchen, living room/office, and hall floors all the same finish. Travis painted the lower paneling white and eventually painted the fire place. We had the island installed within the first month of living here. We had the cabinets (they are great quality…just not our color preference) painted after living here about six months.
Since I wrote the kitchen post, we have made a few more dream list item updates with a gas stove and updated (as close to farm house style as I could get) sink. Here’s that post and the kitchen post:
The sun room was a perplexing space for some time. Travis painted the wall paneling gray almost immediately, and then we also changed out the flooring within the first six months of living here. Until April of 2020, we didn’t really use this room much, and it housed our leftover furniture. Then, the pandemic motivated us to figure out this space. We purchased some new furniture, brought up the tv cabinet form the basement that I had painted, and made this area more inviting. We now spend lots of time in here!
**Sun room part 2 is at the end of the Life Lately post.
Master Bedroom:
Our master was not a space I put forth a lot of effort. I always had bedding that I loved and wanted to feel cozy, but we hadn’t done much else to our room. Randomly, in December 2019, I had the idea to move our bed how it is in this photo (it used to on the wall where the pictures are). This created more space when you walk into the room which I immediately loved.
In April/May 2020, we purchased new bedding, Travis and Hadley painted the walls, we hung a little gallery wall, and Travis and I put up Wall Pops wall paper on the wall where our tv is located. (You can see that in the master bedroom post). Now, this room is the definitely more cozy. I do wish our room was bigger (as well as my closet), but the room definitely is more functional now and a space I enjoy.
Like our bedroom, the master bathroom is also small. I can’t believe we waited as long as we did to update it, but the finished product was definitely worth the wait.
The kids’ rooms both show their personality. We kept them as is for about nine months before painting them and adding some personal touches in the summer of 2015. Like the master, I do wish their rooms were bigger, and, of course, I wish they were tidier, but I kind of let them do what they want with their rooms, and ask them to pick up every couple of days. Hadley is asking for a bit of a refresh, but we just haven’t had time this summer. I can understand wanting a bit more of a “sophisticated” middle school look ;), but I do think her room has stayed pretty age appropriate which was my hope when making color choices a few years ago.
Hayden’s room is still pretty much the same, but he now has a desk in his room.
The basement is still a space that is a work in progress. Like most basements, it’s not our most put together part of the home, but we have tried to make it inviting and have updated it with new floors, Travis (and I) painted the wood paneling and we’ve made color choices that tie into the rest of the house to at least make things as cohesive as possible.
Travis also painted these bookshelves white, added the wooden planks and mounted the tv. This was definitely a labor of love, but a cheap update with lots of bang for your buck!
I don’t think I’ve shared this but almost two months ago, our master shower leaked down into the basement bathroom and seeped on to the basement floors. So, our basement and basement floors currently look like a disaster area! I think the new floors will finally arrive this week, and then hopefully we can get the basement put back together.
The basement bathroom was my very first Transformation Tuesday post! It’s still one of my favorite before and afters. Travis now uses this bathroom, and the closet in the basement is where he keeps his clothes.
Thankfully, with the master shower leak, this area was spared except for a few wet walls (The insurance company brought out fans) and a hole in the ceiling to repair the pipe. That hole is finally getting fixed this week, but thankfully, this bathroom is still in great condition!
We still have a few more updates both major and minor. The hall bath still needs updated and the basement needs to be put back together. Then, we are doing little things like plantation shutters in the kids’ room, a shade for the front door and basement windows, and probably making a few tweaks in the kids’ rooms to prep for middle school.
So that’s a look at our home sweet home! I love looking at houses, so I can wait to see what others share! House Hunters and Fixer Upper (and similar shows) are my favorites to watch. House Hunters is permission to be nosy, and I love a good before and after on remodeling shows!
Next month’s topic is Daily Must Haves. The first thing that comes to mind is coffee! 😆
Make sure to check out the other ladies’ posts, and I hope you have a great week!
Hello! I have a few house updates to share with you today.
So….as I’ve mentioned before, our house is an ongoing process. We’ve lived here six years (which I can’t believe) and continue to chip away at projects. Some projects have been major and others have been minor, but I do (usually) appreciate that we’ve taken our time to make decisions while living in our home.
Here are a few things we’ve accomplished lately…
Living Room:
Starting with the smallest update…I purchased some new pillows from TJ Maxx.
I actually got these pillows back in mid-September. I’m all about neutral pillows on the couch…
…especially this time of the year when I add in seasonal pillows.
Another new recent purchase was a pair of ottomans for our two living room chairs. We purchased two of these high back swivel chairs about a year and a half ago. At the time, we’d discussed getting ottomans, but just didn’t want to spend the extra money at the time.
After a while, we did decide it would be nice to have somewhere to prop our feet! Well, when I went back to the store (again, it’s been a year and a half), the same gray (“concrete” color) fabric of the chair was no longer an option. So, I brought home a few samples and settled on these two options and put a poll on Instagram…
While, the poll didn’t help much…actually, it made me feel like I couldn’t go wrong with either choice…🙂…I went with:
The striped option! It took almost two months for both ottomans to come in, but I’m so pleased with them.
And…here’s the other one:
Kitchen:
Moving on to the kitchen…
I’ve previously shared that I picked up these bar stools at the At Home store. This wasn’t necessarily on our list, but our previous ones had lasted over five years, were on the smaller side, and I wanted taller, sturdier ones.
These have been working perfectly for us so far.
Now…moving on to the more substantial updates.
It has been my dream to have a gas cook top. I watch cooking shows, I make dinner most nights, and I thoroughly enjoy cooking. Getting a gas cook top has been at the top of the wish list for quite some time, but we’ve always focused on other areas…and, to be honest, we didn’t know who to call for a gas line hookup. 😂
Anyway, we found a very affordable and reliable plumber (we’ve had issues with our previous plumber) who said a gas line hook up would be no problem.
Right before my surgery, we went to Home Depot and chose our cook top. While there, we decided to go ahead and switch out our microwave to one in the same “gallery” as the new gas cook top. I do hate to get rid of a working appliance, but the microwave wasn’t that expensive, and it definitely completes the look for this part of the kitchen.
Our handy man neighbor installed the microwave after the plumbers left. Travis sent me this pic once everything was installed.
I can’t get over how much more efficient the gas range is…and it looks beautiful! I’ve enjoyed cooking on it over the past week.
**I didn’t take a “before” picture of our old range and microwave, but you can see the white appliances in the picture above with the two new stools. I took that pic about a month ago.
Lastly, we purchased a new sink and faucet for the kitchen.
Besides a gas stove top, a farm house sink has always been a dream of mine. That being said, the apron style sink would mean needing different cabinets, and that kind of project obviously doesn’t make sense since we are pleased with our cabinet situation.
So, we went with this single basin drop in kitchen sink. I always assumed we’d get a white sink after having a standard stainless steel double bowl sink. But…Travis found this one on build.com.
The sink and faucet decisions were being made after my surgery, so Travis ventured out on his own to a local store, Ferguson Bath, Kitchen, and Lighting Gallery, to look at the color options for the sink. He sent me pics of the concrete gray and metallic gray colors. We decided on metallic gray because I liked that it was darker and would be a good contrast with our light gray cabinets.
Travis picked out the faucet on his own. He knows my style by now! haha…and he even made sure to choose a “spot resistant” faucet which was a genius move!
Like the gas stove top, I love this sink so much. I’m glad we waited, looked around, and made a decision that was perfect for the space when the time was right.
And…
Well, you know how it goes…We made all of these decisions, and then…our washer went kaput.
Pretty new front loading washer and dryer appliances came with our house when we bought it in 2014. The owner before us used them pretty minimally, so we kept them when we moved in. That being said, the front loading washer has been nothing but trouble. So, when it started giving us issues…again…we decided it was time to get something more efficient and reliable than try to get the front loader fixed again.
I was still out of commission, so I told Travis I trusted him with whatever he picked out. I also made it easier on him because I said to only look at top loader washers! 😂
This washer arrived last week as well, and, again, I can’t get over how efficient it is to use. I was able to do three loads of laundry in the amount of time it would have taken me to do one with the old washer.
While we are certainly crossing off items on our house “to do” list, we always just try to prioritize, save money, and complete as we can. Technically, the dishwasher is the only appliance that doesn’t match the kitchen, but we’ll live with it for now.
The hall bathroom is the only other room that hasn’t had a face lift. I’m not sure when we’ll get to it, but we will some day.
We have other future projects in mind that are smaller, but I continue to be pleased with all of the updates and all that we’ve accomplished so far. Our house definitely feels more like home with each decision we make.
I hope you are having a great week. See you tomorrow for Friday Favorites!
Well, this is the last stop (for now) for my Home Updates series. To be honest, I feel like I’m ending this tour in a slightly underwhelming way, but I still thought I’d share.
Also, real talk: sometimes my kids’ rooms make me cringe! They tend to be full of clutter which drives me crazy, but I like to keep it real over here…and I make all of the rest of the house look “my kind of pretty,” so they should have their space.
Even though the kids aren’t babies anymore, they still tend to have lots of stuff…so I try to provide them with as many organizational options as possible to keep Legos, baseball cards, art supplies, hair ties (Why does Hadley have 100 scrunchies?!), etc. Also, I’ve given up…they’ve cluttered their walls with whatever the want, and I’m just going to have to deal with it 😉 Anyway, here’s a peek at their spaces.
Before:
These are the only pics I found on the listing photos, and I think both of these photos are of Hayden’s current bedroom.
Summer of 2015, after we’d lived here a few months, the kids spent the night at their grandma’s house, and Travis and I painted both of their bedrooms in about 24 hours. So, this is a pic of his freshly painted bedroom in June 2015. He’s had this bedding for years! The other side of that quilt has cars on it, and we bought it when each kid moved into their own room when they were three. I’d say we’ve gotten plenty of use out of that quilt. We bought the plaid comforter after painting the bedroom.
Hayden’s bedroom now! All the sports signs a boy could ever want! haha
We bought the hat rack from Pottery Barn Teen, and it’s been perfect for his wall and keeping everything organized.
I made this canvas for Hayden we he got his own room in our former house. It’s from one of my favorite scenes in To Kill a Mockingbird. When Dill first meets Jem and Scout, he says, “I’m little but I’m old.” Dill had such a cute little personality that I thought the quote was perfect for Hayden.
This magnetic frame was a little DIY that Travis and I completed together. Well, I found the frame years ago, and then we finally purchased a piece of sheet metal and nailed it to the back. Then, it became a place for Hayden to use magnets to hang photos and his drawings.
I don’t have any before pictures of Hadley’s room, but here’s her freshly painted room in June 2015. Since then, she’s gotten a new bedspread and new bedside table. Her bedroom furniture was the furniture my parents bought me when I was in the seventh grade. When the kids got their own rooms in our former house, we painted the bed, the desk, and then dresser white. Honestly, that was before I knew about chalk paint, so that project was definitely a labor of love. I bet if I’d used chalk paint, it would have taken half of the time.
Here’s her current room. Hadley’s not super girly, so I love that she chose a light lavender for her paint color, and I found the hanging poms for her window at Hobby Lobby. The wooden monogram came from an Etsy shop, and I painted it white. We found her side table at Ikea.
My grandma gave me two wooden chairs that are many many years old, and Hadley uses one at her desk.
I love the “Girl Boss” sign that Hadley found while we were at Home Goods one day. Also, this summer, she really wanted a little plant for her room, so I picked her up a succulent at Trader Joe’s since they are hard to kill! 😉
I love the artwork on her wall. She painted the unicorn at a painting class we took. I found the pineapple at Hobby Lobby, and have a “thing” for pineapples as they are an expression of “Welcome” in a home. Lastly, I found the “In a field of roses, she is a wildflower” print on Etsy and then bought the frame. If that doesn’t sum up Hadley, then I don’t know what does!
So, that’s a little look at the kids’ bedrooms! We obviously didn’t have to do much in those rooms besides fresh paint, our own decor, and some updated blinds. I had a little control with their spaces, but wanted to give them the freedom to make choices…and then I just shut the doors when I can’t take the clutter!
Hallway Bathroom
The last major space for us to update is the smallest space in our house….the hall bath. I’m not sure when that will happen, but thought I’d go ahead and share those pictures.
Our current setup. I at least tried to make it cute 😉 This is the kids’ bathroom and what guests use if we have people over. First world problems, but the space is so small that it’s a recipe for a daily fight while the kids get ready in the morning.
Thanks for following along on this Home Update series I put together. We’ve worked hard making our house feel like home. We just keep checking off projects one at a time.
Well, the next stop (and almost the last!) on my Home Updates series, is the master bedroom. We definitely didn’t do anything to this room—not even a fresh coat of paint, in the five years we’ve lived here, until recently.
About two years ago, we met with a contractor about an addition for the back of the house. Essentially, the current master would become half a closet and half a bigger bathroom. The addition would be the master bedroom living space. While I’d love a bigger bedroom, the “need” was more for a bigger closet (#firstworldproblems) and then the kids would each have their own bathroom. Right now, they share the world’s smallest bathroom which is also the guest bathroom when we have people over. (Remember when having people over was a thing?!) Travis currently uses the basement bathroom and closet as his. To be honest, with an addition, I don’t even know if that would change 😉 We’ve made do with the space we have.
Also, as I’ve mentioned, I’m a home body. I’d love nothing more than a bedroom that’s more than a bedroom…I’d love space for a chair, so I could read a book, or a place where we could comfortably watch a movie, etc.
That being said, especially in these uncertain times, it’s difficult to think about spending such a large amount of money, so we’ve just decided to sit tight for now with those bigger decisions.
So, step one in our master update was when I finally ordered the wallpaper from Wallpops. Then, Travis and Hadley painted the bedroom Repose Gray which is what we have in our family room and office areas. I found a quilt and bedspread I loved at Target, but after a few weeks, I realized the quilt wasn’t going to work in the long term as far as being dog and kid proof, so I moved it to the basement guest bed and purchased a quilt from Wayfair that I’d saved a long time ago. Also, we finally hung the kids’ artwork up that I’d framed at least a year and a half ago! Lastly, it was fun to “shop my own home,” and I moved a few decorations into the bedroom that were in other parts of our house.
Before:
As I’ve been doing, these are just the listing photos from when we bought the home. But…I’m also sharing how our room looked before painting, new bedding, etc.
Of note, for the first five years, our bed was positioned with the headboard against the other wall…like how the previous owners had their bed. In December, we moved it how it currently is to make more space when you enter the bedroom, and to make it easier to watch tv!
We used Repose Gray in the bedroom since we knew we liked the color and didn’t have to worry about multiple trips to Lowes or Home Depot for paint samples during this time.
Travis did the edging while Hadley was a big help rolling the paint on the main parts of the wall.
After:
After painting, we took some time to lay out the pictures. Any time I do a gallery wall, I trace the frames on paper, and tape the paper up on the walls to move around and get proper placement. The frames are from Michaels and then for a pop of color, I added the 11 inch boxwood wreaths that I ordered off Amazon.
New bedding + my weighted blanket 😉
I searched Target online before going to one of the Targets in town. I didn’t want to be in Target too long, so I did my research beforehand. I saw Magnolia’s Hearth and Hand comforter and knew that’s what I wanted for our bedding.
I loved the raw edges on the shams, and I wanted a solid comforter that was heavy but not too heavy.
While at Target, I saw the matching quilt, and it’s what I originally bought to go with the comforter.
While Travis liked the original quilt, he did ask me if I thought we should have more color. (How dare him question my taste?) 😂 and then after only a week or so, the kids + Homer started to snag the stitching on the quilt.
So–I remembered a quilt I had saved, seriously over a year ago, on Wayfair. They had it in stock and on sale, so I ordered it. It did add the pop of color we needed, and it’s a quilt that will hold up like the one we used to have on our bed.
I get some grief for sticking with my gray/cream/teal color palette, but it makes it easy to rearrange, use things in other rooms, swap bedding, etc. The basement bedding comforter is gray and teal, and the original quilt works perfectly on the guest bed.
I was able to keep my striped Euro decorative pillows, but added in the Hearth and Hand lumbar pillow as well. Travis really understands my need for so many cozy pillows. #nohedoesnt
The kids’ artwork and some of my favorite family pics from when the kids were 10 months old.
With the pictures gone from the dresser, I moved the wooden trivet that I had in the kitchen to the dresser along with a lantern that I had been using on our chest of drawers. Also, I moved some of my favorite books with Hobby Lobby corbels to the left side of the dresser. Those used to be on top of the cabinet in our office.
It felt good to shop my home for what I needed for the space.
So, that’s a look on our master bedroom refresh. Maybe one day it will be a whole renovation, but for now, this will do.
If we decide tomorrow to go for the addition, we’ve only spent about $250 updating this space. It’s amazing what fresh paint, some new bedding, and a focal wall will do to make a space feel more at home.
Here are the links to my previous house update posts. We’ve sure come a long way!
Hello! Well, I only have a few more rooms to share on my home renovation tour and while I’m afraid each reveal is less dramatic, it’s amazing what a fresh coat of paint and a few accessories can do for a room.
I think you can see through my little home tour that I’m committed to a color palette (gray/beige/pops of teal) and a theme (“If Joanna Gaines stopped by, she’d be proud of me but I don’t want to live in the middle of Texas!”) which honestly helps in the decision making process…
So on to the sunroom…
After only living here a few months, Travis painted the paneling in the the sunroom. After about a year, the parquet flooring was not holding up with two active kids and two dogs. The sunroom has two doors which is how we get to our backyard, so there’s lots of coming and going activity. When we were ready, our neighbor put down the waterproof flooring.
After the paint and flooring, the sunroom has kind of just remained as is. It’s an area that I wish we used more, but we don’t. Our old house had a screened in porch, and I know we would use this room more if it was a screened in porch. I miss the screened in porch! That being said, I realize most may prefer a sunroom…it’s added square footage with a heat/cooling unit, so it can be used mostly year round.
We’ve had this neutral sectional couch for almost ten years. It was in our basement in our previous house and didn’t fit quite right in our current basement due to the structural pole that I’m guessing holds up the house 😉 So, the neutral sectional takes up most of the sunroom, but it’s still a good spot to take a nap, read a book, or the kids’ have used this space to work on school work recently.
This is a pic of the emptied out sunroom with the new flooring—I believe we did that in spring of 2016, and it’s held up so nicely.
That rug is long gone—because of kids and dogs 😉
Before:
*Side note–I’m looking at this before (house listing) pic–and see blinds. I don’t remember those being there or taking them down. Travis may remember differently 😉
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
We removed the heavy sliding glass doors and replaced them with French doors.
The doors are great to open on a nice day or if we have people over.
After I took all of these pics (above) right before Easter, the kids requested that we dye Easter eggs outside. Well, it was a bit windy, so I moved our coffee table that goes with our back porch furniture inside for them to do that activity. Well, the table combined with good weather and lots of at home time, has now provided a place for us to circle up and eat dinner or play a game. We’ve done that quite a few times in the past couple of weeks.
So, we’ve been using the space a bit more which makes me happy. If only I could get Homer to quit running in from the outside and taking a lap on the couch! 😂
Our future plans…
I don’t know if it’s the quarantine talking or not, but we have started brainstorming how to furnish this area to provide a space that we could use more. I knew all along the sectional was limiting, but we’ve worked with what we have for more than five years. I guess step one will be to sell the sectional. Then, thanks to a few recommendations, I’ve had my eye on this set . We need to measure and check to see if everything will fit. We may just get a couch and smaller chairs. A few friends have a swing in their sunrooms/screened in porches, so we may look into one of those.
After we figure out the furniture, we hope to make room and move the tv stand I painted and tv. That has been a hold up as well. The only wall space (we’d thought about mounting a tv) we have is where the back doors open up…so inevitably, the door will bang into the tv. Also, the French doors take up most of that wall anyway.
I just know for us to hang out there, we have to be able to split up to sit, have a place to eat, play game, put our feet up, and then possibly watch tv too.
So, that’s how we updated the sunroom. Definitely one of our cheaper projects just costing us paint and reasonable priced flooring.
See you back here tomorrow for this month’s What’s Up Wednesday with Sheaffer and Shay.
So, our master bedroom has been the one room in the house that we’ve neglected. I’d kind of been holding off making decisions until I knew what we may do about an addition to the master bedroom. I think we are putting a “pin” in that for now, so I decided to move forward with a refresh to our bedroom.
This past weekend, Travis and I spent about three hours Friday night wallpapering a wall in our bedroom. Y’all, we’ve lived in our house for five years and only over this past Christmas break, we moved the furniture around a bit. We moved the bed and took off the mirror of our dresser to allow space for the television. Now we can see the tv from our bed easier and there’s more floor space when you enter our bedroom.
I follow Michelle (@ellerydesigns) on Instagram, and she’s often talking about Wall Pops. Wall Pops has peel and stick floor tiles and wallpaper. She updates her mantle seasonly with the NuWallpaper, and she’s used the floor tiles in various spaces in her home. So, I felt comfortable purchasing and attempting the wallpaper. (Also, she often has a Wall Pops code that she shares with her followers!)
I purchased three rolls of the Shiplap NuWallpaper which is exactly what we needed for this wall. Each roll was $35 on sale (usually $50), so that was a good deal. Along with the wallpaper, I did purchase the smoother and utility knife (less than $5 total) to make sure we had what we needed.
First and foremost, we are novice (very novice) wallpaper hangers…even the peel and stick kind of wallpaper. 😂I’ve seen Michelle post her videos, and I watched a You Tube video of a woman hanging her wallpaper, so I did think it would be easier than it was. Travis thought it would be a one person job. At least in our case, it was definitely a two person job. Honestly, the trickiest part was matching up (the best that we could) the lines. For example, after hanging the first strip, we realized the lines that matched up best were at the end of the roll. So, we unrolled the entire roll to find what would match best. Smoothing it out wasn’t a problem…and we can attest to the fact that the strips can be removed easily because we had to do so many times! haha.
Once we got the hang of it, we kind of got in a groove, but it definitely took longer than we thought. I think we worked on it for about three hours stopping for a few minutes here and there. Besides matching up the lines, the end piece where the walls meet was rather difficult (for us) as well.
All I know is the lady in the You Tube video wasn’t sweating and saying the occasional cuss word! 😉 When I shared the before and after pics on Facebook this weekend, I joked that we are apparently at the phase of quarantine where we decide to test our almost fifteen year marriage by hanging wallpaper on ONE wall! haha
FYI one roll provided about two strips with maybe a bit extra.
Overall, we were very pleased with the outcome, and it was a very cost effective transformation.
Before:
The entire house was painted this tan/yellow color, but, like I said, our room was the only room that hadn’t been painted.
After:
The next morning, the daylight, confirmed how much I loved the final outcome. Also, we had thought about putting the wallpaper on a longer wall in our room, but I am glad we went with the smaller wall. The final outcome added just enough “pop” in the room for our refresh.
Close up
Then, on Sunday, Travis (and Hadley!) painted our other three walls Repose Gray which is what we used in most of our main living spaces in our house. I also found some new bedding for us from Chip and Joanna’s Hearth and Home line at Target. Lastly, I hope to hang a few pics of the kids’ artwork in our room for a gallery wall…and then this refresh will be finished!
Even though the project took a bit longer than I thought it would, I would still do it again. I was thinking of maybe letting Hadley pick out a design she’d like on ONE wall in her room 😉
The home renovation posts continue with how we updated our Master Bathroom. This is the bathroom right off our bedroom (obviously!) It’s very small. Travis and I have lived in three houses together and never shared a bathroom until this one (as far as for getting ready purposes). Once we updated the basement bathroom, he did move down there as he moved his clothes to the closet down there as well. So that freed up some space and is a time saver in the mornings!
Anyway, as I’ve mentioned before, we have plans for an addition. If/when that happens, this would become Hayden’s bathroom. So, the updates are quite nice, but we did keep in mind that some day teenager Hayden may have this bathroom, so we didn’t totally bust the budget with super fancy upgrades.
Before:
The pics from the listing aren’t the best, but you can see there’s a small linen closet with a closed in shower, and then toilet and vanity are to the bottom right of the photo.
Also, random note—I don’t think I mentioned it in previous posts but all of our interior doors were very dated. We lived with them that way for quite some time because, as we learned, hanging and painting doors is tedious and somewhat expensive work. A couple of years ago, we finally had that project completed with new doors and handles. (Older doors that we had throughout our house pictured above…updated doors in the demo pic below)
As with most of our previous updates, Travis did the demo, we both made design decisions, and then our handyman neighbor completed the detailed work.
Here’s where the pieces of the puzzle started to get put back together…
We went with gray and white tile and gray vanity to keep the same color scheme throughout the house.
I had forgotten all the decisions that have to be made in these renovation projects until I looked at this floor pic…We even had to choose the grout color! (And at one point, we had to decide which way the tiles looked best–vertical or horizontal)
After:
As with most of the work we’ve had done, we purchased most everything (lights, tile, vanity, shower, etc.) from Lowes or Home Depot. I was trying to shake my gray colored trend and truly thought we’d get a white vanity, but saw this one and loved the counter top. Again, I love the mix of grays and whites.
This curved shower door was such a vast improvement. The bathroom looks so much bigger! Our neighbor, who did the work, pointed out that we could get the plastic insert with detailing to look like tile, and I’m glad we went that route. It elevates the look a bit.
I wish I could remember the wall color but I wanted a light color for the bathroom but also a cool toned color. All of our other walls in our house (besides the kids’ rooms) are Repose Gray or Pavilion Beige.
The two drawers of the vanity have been so helpful as I’m able to store so many more items that I used to have to put in bins and other shelves. The vanity (and the linen closet) provide all the storage I need as well as storage for towels, medicine, and other necessities for the family.
The whole project took a few weeks and we were very pleased with the outcome.
As far as major updates, we only have our hall bath left to complete. It’s the world’s smallest bathroom with a less than ideal set up as both kids use it to get ready in the morning! haha
Hello and Happy Tuesday! For this TransformationTuesday, I thought I’d share about how we updated our basement. I’ve also shared posts about the basement bathroom, our living room/office area, and our kitchen space as well.
So, even with the updates, to me, the basement is still the basement. I just mean it’s still the space where clothes stay until they are folded, school work goes until I have time to sort it, Christmas decorations still pile up until we have time to deal with them, etc. That being said, by painting the paneling, changing out the flooring, and adding some recessed lighting, the space is certainly brighter.
After living in our house for a few months, Travis and I (mostly Travis) painted the paneling one of our shades of gray.
The original beige carpet on the stairs had seen better days. So, we had it ripped up and we hired someone to sand and stain the stairs. They were beautiful, and we left them as is for awhile. The problem was that we come and go from the basement as we have a raised ranch home. So, the stairs were pretty noisy. So, Travis painted the backs of the steps (and the walls leading down to the basement), and then we chose carpet for a runner. It’s definitely quieter as we go up and and down the stairs daily, and I love the pattern of the carpet that we chose from a local carpet store.
Then, a few months later, we had the flooring changed out. Our neighbors (who are our friends!) had the same flooring. It’s difficult for me to make decisions sometimes, so I love when I just see something I like that will work. The flooring is from Lowes, and it is Allen+Roth Weathered Oak.We went with the laminate flooring in case the basement ever floods, and it’s a high traffic area; we come and go through the basement multiple times a day.
The basement bathroom that we had remodeled is to the left off the basement stairs landing
About two years ago, Travis decided to paint the bookshelves, and we rearranged the furniture (and got rid of our tv stand) to make the space work even better for us. Travis loves (or at least really doesn’t mind) painting. This was quite a project while sanding the shelves, painting multiple coats of white, mounting the tv, hiding the wires, etc. He did have a “vision” though and even chose the Weathered Hardwood Planks for the backdrop of the tv.
sanding, painting, wooden planks
Here are some before and afters of the actual space. I only had two basement pics from the listing.
Before:
After:
FYI: the pole from the picture above is still there; it’s to the left of the couch and just not pictured. Also, real talk: I tidied up for y’all. 😉
Before:
I’m not sure what, if anything, the previous owners used in the space where we put the tv. I always felt like a pull down map would have gone there. haha
After:
We really do hang out down here often whether it’s watching a movie, Hayden playing Xbox or Hadley perfecting a dance routine. In our old house, we barely used the finished basement. We may have used it more as the kids got older, but in this house, we are kind of “forced” to use the basement as it’s where our secondary tv is and we’ve made it as cozy as possible. One aspect of our house I continue to like is that we don’t have any unwasted space. (Of course, at times, I wish we had a few extra square inches though!)
view from behind the couch
This is the area behind the couch. After we had our farmhouse table built for the kitchen, we put our previous kitchen table down here. We actually do use it a bit. If we have friends and family over, the kids come eat down here, I use the table space to wrap gifts, and the kids even do projects and crafts at the table.
We keep games and art supplies in this area. Also, Kristy Wicks shared this very affordable indoor/outdoor rug in her Insta Stories about a year ago. I wanted to break up the floor space, and I ordered it. I love it; it’s been perfect for this area.
The rug is the 8×11 in the ivory color
On the other side of the basement, we have a bedroom area set up. Since my family lives out of town, we usually have visitors at least six times a year.
We (I) kind of struggle with this space. I feel like it is warm and inviting…it’s just that we’ve toyed with a few ideas and are unsure of what to do. To the left of the bed is the door to the garage. So we’ve thought about putting a wall up where you enter from the garage as there’s another door that can lead to the stairs to go upstairs. Also, we’ve thought about putting up two walls (on either side of the bed) as there’s a vent, a ceiling light, a closet, and electrical outlets, so it could be a small bedroom. I just always worry it would make the basement feel too small if we put walls up.
I honestly think the best option is to purchase a Murphy bed, so we can just pull it down when needed. Anyway, we haven’t made that kind of investment a priority. And, the space does work…that part is just a bit awkward, in my opinion.
This is the view from the garage as you enter the basement.
So, that’s the basement space. We’ve chipped away at updates down there along the way. I am glad we’ve made it a homey and cozy space as we do have guests somewhat often, and we do spend time down there more than I ever thought we would!
showmeandsweettea.com 