Blank Slate

You know that big, blank wall I was talking about? Yeah, it looks like this...

I'm stumped. Rather than making the room feel smaller, the dark walls make it feel really tall. The wall now looks huge and I'm at a loss of what to do with it. I don't want any furniture, it will make it feel too heavy. I was thinking some sort of big wall art or mirror? Or two rows of something? There is 5 feet of blue walls to work it, any ideas??

Also, the color we painted on the walls is really hard to photograph. It looks a lot lighter in these pictures than in person. But I love it. I can't stop walking in the room and just staring at it. It's called French Grey by Glidden, but we color matched to Behr.

A few other thoughts: we need a new light, that is a topic for another day. We are painting the lower tier of the ceiling a beige color. Can't wait to get'er done!

xo, Erin

Dark Blue Dining Room

It's done... well, kind of.

We finished painting the dining room last night, but we still have plans to paint the ceiling a different color. It was dark last night, so I don't have very good pictures yet. We also still need to do finishing touches like caulk along all the crown and chair rail (so no close-ups yet).

Now I need to decorate. Curtains, wall art, table runner, etc. I am going to need your help with ideas. I have a very large wall that is the focal point when you walk in the front door. I need something big. Something that makes a statement. I will share more pictures tomorrow.

xo, Erin

5!

This week was exhausting. Allergies were in full swing and I sat in way too many transition meetings for students moving on to Kindergarten. Looking forward to making more progress on the house this weekend and hopefully painting another room :)

Here's a peek into some fun things that happened this week:

1. Greg and I went to a Reds game this weekend. It could have been a little warmer, but the seats were great

2. Our first room in the house got a mini-makeover, the bonus bathroom

3. We booked our hotels for the Upper Peninsula and Mackinac Island.. one month until vacation!

4. It is so fun watching all the bushes and trees bloom. We didn't know what was in the gardens when we bought the house, so it's a fun surprise coming home from work and seeing what changed

5. Spring weather means busting out the spring wardrobe

xo, Erin

Bonus Bathroom, Almost Done

I picked the bonus bathroom upstairs to get the first makeover. I wanted to start small to feel accomplished and because I found a shower curtain I loved and it was easy to plan the room around it.

While I was on spring break and was spending my life packing, my mom and I squeezed some time in to do some shopping. We wandered around Kohl's, because of course, we had an extra 30% off. There was an extra tub in the new house so I was going to need a new shower curtain. I went to the bathroom department and found this:

I loved the West Elm vibe and all the colors. My plan was to do neutral (gray) walls and pops of the golden yellow color in accessories. I scored a bath mat on clearance and some hand towels that matched pretty darn close. I also picked up some wall art to go behind the toilet where we ripped the towel bar off. Everything in the room came from Kohl's, with the exception of the towel ring which we found at Home Goods. Thanks mom for buying all the goodies! Now for the transformation...

and the after...

I am loving the results so far! I think a new light, faucet and framed mirror would complete this room. Before we get into those projects, we have other rooms that need some painting love. This weekend?!?!

xo, Erin

Bathroom Teaser

Everything is all hung in the bathroom, but it was dark last night when we finished and the lighting was awful. You will have to wait one more day :)

xo, Erin

Weekend Recap

We were feeling pretty unproductive this weekend... until yesterday.

Friday night we met some friends for dinner and then invited them back to our house. After a quick house tour, a glass of wine and some chatting.. we went to bed fairly early.

Saturday, Greg and I went to the Reds game. He got free tickets from work and we had awesome seats. It was a little cold, but overall a good game. It went into extra innings, but we didn't stay for that. We met some friends at the bar after the game for a few drinks and to hang out. Our accomplishment of the day: ripping the towel bar off the wall in the bathroom and patching it (so I could paint on Sunday). Then we rented Life of Pi  from Redbox, and I fell asleep about 30 minutes in.

Yesterday we were up early for 8:00 am mass. After church, we went to Dunkin Donuts for some coffee and Meijer to get groceries for the week. We were home by 10 and we started preparing to paint the bathroom. We sanded the walls where we patched, taped everything off and had the first coat done before lunch. Greg made lunch while I put dinner in the crockpot. After lunch, Greg cut the grass while I weeded the gardens. The weeds weren't too bad, so when I finished, I went back inside for the second coat of paint. We had everything done and cleaned up around 2. We went to Home Depot to pick up a sample of paint for the dining room and ran to a few other stores. We stopped in the Ballard Designs outlet store that is about 5 minutes from our house and realized we need to stop in there more often! I finished getting dinner ready while Greg washed his car. After dinner, I helped him wash mine and then we went for a 2 mile walk. Once we got home, I closed myself upstairs for about an hour so I could take a quiz for class. Between everything, I managed to also do two loads of laundry and clean up the kitchen.

Wow, I am exhausted just thinking about yesterday! If every weekend day was like that, this house would be done in no time ;)

We are letting the bathroom walls cure, and hopefully will hang the shower curtain later tonight. In the meantime, here's a sneak peek of the color we chose:

Updates on the bathroom hopefully tomorrow!

xo, Erin

Summer is near

There are only 13 more days that the students are in school, and 27 work days until I am off for the summer!  This comes with 18 Kindergarten Transition meetings to sit through, end of year assessments and paperwork out the wazoo! I also have two weeks left in my Masters classes which means crunch time and big projects due. I am looking forward to time off and spending it on the house, whether it's painting walls or shopping for bargains. I will be nannying part time and am looking into possibly getting another job as well, for fun money :)

The warmer weather has been giving me vacation fever. We have been contemplating for a few months whether or not to take a vacation Memorial Day week. It's right after our anniversary and right before I am going to start summer work. I think we may have finally decided to take a trip to the U.P. and Mackinac Island. You don't have to go to the Caribbean to find views like this:

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Have you ever been to the Upper Peninsula? Any suggestions on places to see or trails to hike?

xo, Erin

Small projects

Painting didn't happen this weekend. Oh well. Greg told me that the little things need to get done first. There were lots of minor plumbing issues that needed to be attended to. Like a whistling toilet, a toilet that flushes by itself, a leaky shower faucet.... you get the point.

The previous owner was an engineer, and tried to repair pvc pipes under the kitchen sink with electrical tape. Really? Just when you thought you saw it all. Rather than fixing just one pipe, Greg re-did all the plumbing under the sink because the pipes were old, had build up in them and stunk.

Greg and I drink a lot of water, like that's all we ever drink. Woodgate had a refrigerator with a water dispenser on the front of the door. I didn't know how good we had it until we moved and our new fridge doesn't have this feature. It saved us tons of money because we weren't buying bottled water. The inspector suggested installing a whole house water filtration system. Greg did some research, ordered one off of Amazon and installed this bad boy in our basement. Once we get some carbon filters, drinking water from the faucet will be the same as bottled water. I'm all about saving money and the environment.

While Greg was busy in the basement working on the filtration system, I spent the morning outside pulling weeds. Definitely not a fun job, but it needs to be done. I hope now I can keep it under control.. we have so many garden beds and islands! I wish I took a before picture, but here is the view leading from our driveway to the back patio.

A few other things that got done this weekend were:

Organizing the family room -- need to figure out what kind of media stand we want

picking up some potential paint samples

buying a dresser off Craigslist for the living room (I want to paint or re-stain it)

Looking forward to getting some color on the walls in the near future!

xo, Erin

7 Highs

Two super awesome things happened this week. {1} Our floors got cleaned and {2} We close on Woodgate today! Besides that, spring is in the air and I am loving it!

I'm linking up with FMGD to share 5 other highlights:

1. The tops came off the Jeep for the first time this year 

2. Murphy has been loving his new home. He is constantly exploring and playing hide-and-seek with Greg. I caught him spying on me when I was sitting in the family room watching tv

3. Taco night this week with homemade guacamole. I'm going to need to make this a weekly occurrence. Taco Tuesday??

4. Did I mention we were having spring weather? It was more like summer this week

5. We bought a PAX wardrobe from IKEA for a spare bedroom. The master closet was cramped and I had no where to put my jewelry organizers and out-of-season clothes. I will share more once it's all built, of course we got some bargains ;)

Looking forward to this weekend and getting more organized. I am loving our plans so far and hoping to be very productive! Maybe even some painting?!

xo, Erin

House Tour: Second Floor

If you missed the first floor, go take a peek. If you are up to date, check out the rest of our house.

Master Bedroom (up the main stairs to the left)

Master Bathroom

This hallway leads you down to the other bedrooms and bonus room, then down the back staircase. Jack & Jill bedrooms to the left and other bedroom and bonus room to the right

same hallway, but taking the picture from downstairs in the family room

Jack & Jill Bedrooms (in the back of the house)

bedroom 1 (the bunny thing has already been removed!)

bedroom 2

Jack & Jill Bathroom

Guest Bedroom (in the front of the house)

Upstairs Hall Bath (connected to guest room also)

Bonus Room

That wraps things up. The basement is unfinished so there isn't much to show down there. I will take some outdoor pictures once everything is in bloom. There is A LOT of landscaping and we are discovering something new each day as things begin to open up and bud.

xo, Erin