New Project

Adam has been telling me that I need more storage for my clothes, and he is right! I have so many but have gone through them and can't get rid of any of them. When I saw this dresser I fell in love!

image via isuwanee.com

How cute are the sayings on each drawer and the fun cursive handwriting.
I am going to try to find a little dresser to recreate this project, but I will probably paint a few different words on it.

Updates

Adam and I resumed work on the bathroom and had to revert back to the stone age to do so. The vanity tops come "pre-drilled" with three partially drilled holes. You pick the holes (or in our case, just hole) that you need and have to chisel it out to make it big enough for the faucet to fit into. (If that even makes sense?)

Here is a shot of Adam practicing the trade of our distant ancestors:



Our not-so-perfect hole:



Toilet. Check.



We chose the high-efficiency toilet that has two separate flushes; one for liquids and one for solids. It also has a pretty cool button on top of the toilet seat :)



We have also made a lot of progress on the wood floors. We have one bedroom completely done, a bedroom halfway done, the dining room and hall are seeing major progess and the kitchen has been started.





Miss Ellie has been helping a lot and is worn out! She even has a sticker from the vanity on her paw...

Wood Floor/Bathroom Update

We finally started today! They got most of the carpet/tile ripped up and laid a lot of the planks for the two guest bedrooms. Here is a picture of one of the guest bedrooms with the carpet still in it:



And the after with most of the flooring down! I absolutely love it! (we will eventually be painting the trim white/painting the room, etc.)



The dining room is still in a state of disarray after having the carpet ripped up. It looks a little scary...



We had another milestone today; the bathroom vanity tops are in! We went with the carrera marble this time and they are gorgeous. I am much happier with these tops than either of the other two. Hopefully we will be able to knock out most of what we have left in the bathroom this weekend.

Soooo Close...

I know I said we were going to start working on wood floors a few days ago, but it got pushed back (imagine that). So we are officially starting Wednesday, which might feel a little bit like Christmas morning to me! In the meantime, here are a few pictures of what's already happened and what's in store.

This is the load of wood Adam and I had to lug into the house last week. It might not look that intimidating but maybe it will if I tell you that each of those boxes weighs around 60 pounds each and we had around 55 boxes! I could barely get out of bed the next day!



Here is what or living room (or should I say construction zone) looks like right now. The wood had to acclimate to it's environment so we couldn't leave it in the shed.



I can't believe I am showing the disgusting carpet this close up, but here it is in full force. It will make the end result look that much better. I honestly can't believe we have made it this long without ripping the stuff out.



This last picture is just a reminder of what's to come! I get a little giddy thinking about it!

Dreaming...

...of walking down the pier in Cozumel again.



Back to reality.



Is winter ever going to end?

Ultimate DIY

I found this great blog that offers so many plans to build your own furniture! She (yes, she) takes a piece of furniture from somewhere like West Elm or Pottery Barn and finds/makes plans on how to build it at home yourself for a fraction of the cost. Pretty cool, huh?

I really want Adam to make me the this West Elm modern farmhouse dining table with the plan from Knock Off Wood, which you can find here.



The table costs about $600 at West Elm but can be made for about $30 in supplies! It would be even cooler if we could find some reclaimed wood to use. Maybe once the floors are down and the bathroom is finished, I can convince him to make this table for me...

Mirror Inspiration

Now that we have most of the big purchases out of the way in the bathroom, it is time to start looking for mirrors to hang above the vanities. Once we have mirrors picked out, it will be a lot easier to make the final decision on the light (I have narrowed it down to my favorite two). Ballard Designs has so many cool mirrors to choose from but are a little more than I want to spend, especially since we have to buy two!









All of these mirrors are gorgeous! Now the trick is to find something similar at a much lower cost... wish me luck!

Craigslist Find

While browsing through Craigslist, I stumbled on these dining room chair beauties! I didn't love the table that came with them, but these antique chairs would be perfect with a more modern table. The best part: they are only $125!!



Of course they would need to be painted and recovered in a chic fabric. There are so many good choices...

All images via Quadrillefabrics.com

And the vanity saga continues...

We picked up the vanities from Lowe's and opened the tops first. We ordered creamy-yellow travertine, but opened taupe marble. Like we have already learned, you don't always get what you order. At this point I am telling myself I can live with the taupe just to be done with the project. Well as it turns out, they are way to small for the vanities as well. Here is a picture of the sink sitting on the vanity... or should I say hanging off of the vanity.




Now I am a little annoyed. I load up the two vanity tops and head to Lowe's so I can return/buy what I need. They can't find what goes with the vanities we ordered. They take my information and "claim" they will call me back the next day once they get to the bottom of the issue.

I decide to head to Home Depot to see if they have something that will work for us. I take a peek at the special order book and what to my wondering eyes should appear? The exact vanity top from the same company we are looking for with a product number (which they couldn't even find at Lowe's). Now I am a little excited. I call they hotline to make sure the dimensions are correct because according to the catalog, they are. He tells me the dimensions are the same size as the too-small ones we had already received. I tell him that is wrong and he looks closer. It turns out... THE TOP HAS BEEN DISCONTINUED. Um.....

So apparently someone at corporate thinks its kosher to send me a vanity top that is not only the wrong color and stone, but also entirely too small to fit the vanity that it is supposed to go with just because they decided to discontinue a product. Awesome.

We ended up ordering a white marble top from Home Depot that fits for right around the same price we had spent on the smaller ones, which I like much better. So I guess everything happens for a reason (that is if everything comes in right this time, I am beginning to think we are cursed).

Oh I can't forget to mention that Lowe's never even called us back.

On a lighter note, we bought the wood floors today!!! We ended up going with the Virginia Mill Works handscraped floors in Knob Hill Birch Natural.



Instillation is supposed to start Thursday. I can't wait!

Bathroom Update

I had this great idea that we were going to take off the door in the linen closet in the bathroom because it would be pretty simple to take of the little door jamb piece, sand and repaint. Well... like everything else with this bathroom remodel, it wasn't that easy.

This is what I wanted to happen:

image via younghouselove.com

This is what happened:



Good thing my amazing husband was there to save the day. While I was having a mini panic attack, he was at Home Depot buying the supplies required to do this:



All we need is a little paint and our new, doorless linen closet will be up and running!

**I have to share a picture of Ellie sleeping... it is too cute not to! The baseball hat is to show you how big she is.

Proud New Parents!!!

Ever since Adam's parents bought a yorkie poo, we have been wanting to add a new dog to the family because Sassy (our chocolate lab) and Bella (the yorkie poo) were so cute when they played. Well, we pulled the trigger on a cute little morkie (half maltese, half yorkie), which was my V-day present. We picked her up yesterday morning and her name is Ellie. Here are few pics of our new pride and joy:





We took Ellie with us to Land of Paws and PetSmart yesterday to pick up a collar, some food etc. We could hardly walk two steps before someone stopped us to pet her or ask what breed she was. I must admit, I ate it up!

Here is a pic of the cute, new collar we picked up for her at Land of Paws. She doesn't exactly enjoy wearing it yet. When she is playing, she stops every 30 seconds to scratch at it.

Bathroom Lighting

Our bathroom only had/has one light setup for an above the mirror lighting fixture. When we demoed the bathroom, we should have added a second and even third light setup so we could use sconces in between the mirrors and on the outsides. (Biggest regret=lesson learned for bathroom #2 and #3) Anyway, we are going to have to work with what we have. Since we are going from one long, single-sinked vanity to two vanities with two mirrors, I want to put the mirrors on either side of the light setup and put a sconce in between. I have been searching online for the sconce I want and have found a few good contenders. I still have an idea in my head of the exact sconce I want, but haven't been able to find it. These might just have to do.

Option 1:
Burlington Two Light Wall Sconce
This one has a perfect price tag. Only $77! I love the swoopy arms and the rustic, yet modern, wrought iron.



Option 2:
Jamesport Two Light Wall Sconce
This option is more expensive at $179, but I love the fabric shades on it. (I am envisioning a fabric shade so I can trim out the top and bottom in red grosgrain trim to bring in more of that accent color) This one doesn't have quite the clean lines as the first one.


Option 3:
Brushed Nickel Two Light Wall Sconce
I love the fabric shade and modern lines but can't decide if I want to give up the two shades even though this one still has two lights. The price tag on this one is $100 even.


Option 4:
Curve Appeal Wall Sconce
I love this light! The design on the fabric shade is super cool and the lines of the metal are perfect. The concern on this one is that it isn't timeless and it is a little expensive at $163.



Thoughts, anyone? What would you want to see if you were walking into a bathroom of a home you were looking to purchase? (We are trying to flip this house and make a little profit off of it) Leave me a comment and let me know your choice!

Brilliant, I Tell You!

Just got home from work and was catching up on my blog reading when I came across this simple, yet amazing product for "cord management" on makingitlovely.com. It is Ikea's Signum Cable Management.

This is a shot from the Ikea Web site, which leaves me wondering exactly how it works?



This is the shot from makingitlovely.com that tells me exactly how it works!



Of course this product is only sold in Ikea stores (not online) along with everything else I want from that store. Maybe I can find one on Ebay? I really have got to make it to one sometime in the near future.

Love.

I stumbled across this Etsy shop today while looking for some chevron goodies. It is called pixelimpress and she makes adorable paper goods. I have developed an affection for anything chevron lately so these valentine's day gift tags definitely caught my eye!



Not only are there seasonal goodies, but also year-round staples like these personalized green chevron cards.



And these awesome business cards. I wish I needed some.

Say hello to my new friend...

..the mitre box and saw!



This guy little guy helped me do this... (still needs caulk to make the joint seamless, but I would say it is pretty good for my first time)



I haven't ever even cut anything but decided today to try my hand at making the mitre cuts required to put baseboard down in the bathroom. After using the hand saw for a while, I must say I am considering splurging on the electric version to make the job a little easier. Or I guess I could just assign Adam to this task in the future. Still, it was fun conquering a new "skill."

**Color Update: I know you must have been a little worried about my design ability after the glow in the dark paint I chose for the bathroom, but those fears should be eradicated after seeing the new color on the walls. I love it! Here is a sneak peak: