Hope you guys all had an awesome holiday weekend. We had some fun with our family (more on that later in the week) and are still sort of building up the ol’ momentum again (after our big paneling project from last week) – but we did manage to squeeze in a tiny porch upgrade. See, when we were house hunting in the late fall of last year we snapped these two terrible shots of the porch: Then on moving day we plopped down the wooden bench (from Home Depot a few years back) which used to live on our first house’s front porch… and that was the extent of the update. Blah. Pretty bleak huh?
Fab Freebie: The (Not) Wedding Week
***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!*** Thanks to random.org’s very arbitrary matchmaking skills, our winner is… Lawren (whose favorite wedding moment was when her cousin’s pocketed dress stored tissues to hand the groom when he teared up during the vows). Congrats! Hope everyone’s having an awesome Fourth of July. We’re enjoying some family time but wanted to drop in with this week’s giveaway, so here ya go. Thursday marks our 4th wedding anniversary, which typically would make this “Wedding Week” around here. But since there’s not much left of that dead horse to beat (we’ve already shared every last detail about our wedding, honeymoon, traditions, how we met, how
June Superlatives
Note: This is a retroactive post that I cobbled together in December of 2011 so I could make this page full of monthly recaps for the entire year (our first in our new house!). Yup, I’m just a bit type A. So here’s what we tackled throughout the month of June – high school yearbook style. Most Improved: Finally painting our kitchen paneling Most Annoying: Priming the paneling (which took more than a few tries) Most Destructive: Removing a few cabinets & patching the floor (to make way for our impending paneling makeover) Most Goal Oriented: Announced a new initiative to clear the kitchen table of miscellaneous clutter every night before bed (we’re still hit
Is A Single Sink Better Than A Double Sink?
As our arms continue to recover from our recent kitchen priming and painting marathon (shared here this morning) we thought we’d take it down a notch or two with a post about sinks. That’s right, it’s like a slow jam following a spirited chicken dance or an energetic Macarena. One thing’s that been fascinating about owning our second home is comparing its features to our first home and noting pros and cons (especially as we think about what improvements we want to make). There are many things that we prefer over our previous digs – like the larger rooms, opens hallways, en suite master bath, etc. And of course some things that make us miss
How We Painted Our Wood Paneling
About a week ago (after we painted our brick fireplace) our kitchen looked like this: Then we removed the desk and upper cabinet (that will be in the way of our big future doorway to the dining room) and after one coat of not-covering-at-all primer it looked like this: Then we finally got the primer thing right after dealing with maddening bleed-through issues thanks to two days of applying coat after coat and three different types of primer (more on that here): And now it looks like this, although it reads a bit more yellow in these photos than in person (it’s a smidge greener in real life). It’s definitely a warm golden green tone
Priming Our Wood Paneling
And now, for the dang paneling update. Hold on to your hats ladies and gents. This post = wild ride. As you probably know, we’re no strangers to priming and painting paneling. Sure we could remove the paneling, but it would mean removing and rehanging all the cabinets since they’re hung in front of it – and revealing goodness knows how many scary issues behind it (they’re old plaster walls so that just felt like a big ol’ can o’ worms). And we could attempt to drywall over it (but it would mean drywalling around the existing cabinets and a lot more expense/trouble than just painting it). So we decided early on that we’d once
Tips For Hosting A House Party
Paneling = oy. Update tomorrow. But while we’re here… Can you believe that Clara’s b-day bash was the largest party (weighing in at 25 attendees) that we’ve thrown since our backyard wedding almost four years ago? How lame of us. And I know, it’s been over a month – enough already about the party. But since a lot of our posts are actually just notes to self (how else would we remember what color we painted our old bedroom?) we figured we better record what we lizz-earned now (or forever hold our peace forget it all). 1. Keep the focus on a few carefully selected rooms (and don’t put stuff for guests to peruse in
A Beautiful Office Full Of Inspiration
The bleeping paneling is taking a wee bit longer than we expected. Le sigh. Hopefully we’ll have an update for you soon. In the meantime… Every once in a while a shop or office inspires us so much that we decide to crash it (just like we did when it came to this fun kids consignment shop). And we weaseled our way into this office space for Towne & Reese (a jewelry company named after two Charlotte ladies’ kids) thanks to a house crashing adventure from a few years back. You have to remember this one, right? Here are a few shots to jog your memory: And here’s a pic of the cute couple with
Removing Cabinets & Patching A Vinyl Floor Tile
Sherry’s junk drawer switcheroo was actually just the beginning… the beginning of our kitchen makeover. At least the first phase of it. With our self-imposed six month waiting period running out earlier this month, we finally started putting some plans into action last week (we like to force ourselves to live with things for a while before doing anything drastic – you know, so we’re sure to remove/demo/open the right things after some thought). The plan: to do sort of a “Phase 1” kitchen makeover where we work with as much of the existing kitchen as possible first (aka, keep the cabinets, the countertops, the vinyl floor, the paneling, the beams, etc). Then down the
Live From Our House, It’s Saturday Night
Yup, it’s another random weekend post about stuff on tables (remember this one from a few weeks back?). I have a new mission in life: to keep our kitchen table clear of junk. Okay, maybe “mission in life” is a bit strong. This goal ranks far below real life missions like to be a good husband and father, put food on the table, and avoid aspartame (I’m mildly allergic). But just like my resolution last fall to make the bed everyday for a month, I recently decided I was fed up with how our kitchen table was increasingly becoming a not-so-temporary landing pad for shopping bags, unread mail, sewing supplies (notnaminganynamessherry) and other clutter. Meaning
Planting Leyland Cypress Trees For Added Privacy
Have we mentioned that our house has something lacking in the privacy department in certain areas? If not, consider this the first of several mentions. It’s nothing crazy, but coming from a home where we could practically strut around naked in the backyard (not that we did) to one where we can hardly go birthday suiting inside (not that we do) – let’s just say that we feel a bit exposed sometimes. Case in point – our lovely “alley” (first mentioned here) which is a straight shot to our neighbor’s back deck (see their umbrella in the distance?). The pic above is a bit old (from this post) and as you can see from the
A Custom House Portrait And A New Stroller
Ah yes, the much awaited Father’s Day post. First off, thanks to all of those who wished me a Happy Father’s Day on Sunday. Here’s a belated one back to all my fellow man-parents out there. I had a wonderful weekend with my girls and my main man Burger. I learned from my own dad to think of celebrating these holidays not with things, but by doing things… together (like the trail run I took him on Sunday morning). That’s what fatherhood is all about, right? And this year Clara was old enough to participate in the weekend’s activities a bit more, which made it even more enjoyable. Not that she wasn’t fun to be
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