front bedroom redo.

I decided to work on our front guest room and do some painting!  

BEFORE

Sadly, this is the only before pic I've found.  It was a greyish bluish greenish color.

AFTER

We also hung a painting that Matthew really loves from his grandparent's house.

A new dresser my mom and I found at an antique store.  I love it!

new front door!

Matthew found a new storm door at Lowe's on clearance so we snatched that up quickly!  So one Saturday, we decided to go ahead and put on a new front door and the storm door.  Well we didn't get started until later in the day so we only got the front door on that night.  Turns out, we had to go back and take it completely off again and re-install it as it wasn't shutting correctly.  

The door is finally on and working correctly!  YAY!  Then we got to work putting on the new storm door.  This was relatively easy!

We really like it!

master bedroom makeover.

I made some new draperies and added fabric over some canvases for above the bed.
Things we're still adding:  ceiling fan, new lamps, faux wood blinds

outside.

Our grass is really coming in.  It's sparse in a few spots so we'll (actually, Matthew) overseed in the fall.  But we're so happy about grass!

Some peonies we transplanted are blooming!  They are so pretty.

This dude LOVES the outside.  He just wanders around the backyard, chases squirrels, and visits the neighbor dogs at the fence.

We also bought some cushions and pillows to go with our patio furniture we bought last summer.

We BBQ'ed and had dinner outside until the storms came.  But we can't wait to enjoy a lot more outside time!

tile find.

We found the tile for our bathroom remodel.  We putzed at Nebraska Furniture Mart for a while one night this week and saw some clearance tile.  Lo and behold, they had 55 cartons of this porcelain tile for $15/carton.  We only needed 3 cartons and were able to get them for $10/carton.

Next up...we're checking on remnant pieces for our countertop from a local granite supply company!

and so it begins...

We're beginning to look at things for our bathroom renovation we hope to do this summer.  Today, while we were at Lowe's picking up a few things, we swung through the vanity department to dream once more. When we spotted these vanities on clearance....

Matthew had actually seen this one a week or so ago there when he went to pick up something in the plumbing department.  But today there was this one, too...a 48" hickory vanity.

So we thought about the prices on them and if we'd like to have them in our house.  The larger one for our main bathroom upstairs and the smaller one for downstairs.

We've been reading and listening to Dave Ramsey for a while.  So Matthew knew what he needed to do.  He needed to get CASH to do any sort of negotiating with them for these two.  We hurriedly paid for our items (or so I say, I scurried us out of the store...I wanted them!) to go to the ATM to get cash. Then back to Lowe's. The funny thing is Matthew spoke to a salesman who said they were already on clearance ($194 for the large one and $130 for the smaller one), who got a manager who told him he'd sell both of them to him for $250, and Matthew said how about $230 (without pulling out his stack of $20's...ha!) and he told them he needed to call someone.  Well they couldn't reach that manager so they said they'd try another one (of which the salesman said he'd give away things in the store...jokingly).  And he did it!  He got them both for $230.  The small one (with its granite vanity top) was price originally at $348 and the large one at $388 (no top).  We saved $506!  The funny thing...I was too embarassed to go in with Matthew so he did it by himself....he really rocks!  

And in the end...we remember from Dave:
everything is negotiable!

it's done!

We really like it and think it turned out well!

Some details...

From before...

And during...

this is going to take more than a sunday afternoon...

Ever since Matthew's parents let us have this beautiful piece of furniture, Matthew has thought we should paint it.  After doing some research and antique browsing to make sure we wouldn't ruin its value by painting it, we decided to go for it!

 First, some sanding and priming...

It is mostly primed...just a few more spots to work on in the tiny crevices.

We picked out a lovely shade of blue-gray paint and hopefully will tackle the next step soon!

our plumbing issues.

We've had a few issues with our plumbing since moving in. We were aware of them but really didn't think too much about it being a problem to fix. Well, our handle in our shower was leaking, then come to find out it was leaking down into the basement. It wasn't too much but still not something you want to put off getting fixed. So Matthew, my handy-man did a little researching and asking questions at a local plumbing store and found what we needed! A new valve (or something like that...). He installed it and no more leaking on from our hot water handle! Now, we need to get one for the cold side...
Something else that has been a process is one of our toilets. I can't begin to count the number of trips made to the hardware store(s) for various pieces and parts and exchanges of ones that didn't quite work. But, Matthew's dad was helpful in getting it not leak anymore and making it so the handle flushes properly (and we no longer have to hold it down)!

some outside projects.

Our front door needed a fresh coat. There were about 5 layers of paint that were shades of teal, brown, white, and black. My mom was a fabulous help!!! We used a paint stripper and it was pretty amazing! The paint crumbled up, we scraped, and then sanded. Sadly, the paint color I picked out was way too purplish blue where we were wanting a deep blue/black so had to paint it not only a 2nd but 3rd time with different paint. Looks good now (which you can see in the very last picture)!
We also added new house numbers and a new mailbox to make our house have some more curb appeal. I love how it looks!