Big Plans for the Exterior

Ok so the house is a 1994 Cookie Cutter. It is in decent shape but is full of brass, oak, and berber! I am hoping to give the place a big dose of character starting with the outside.

Front of the House Now

Using the Sherwin-Williams  Color Visualizer I was able to test a bunch of different colors and finally settled on deep blue grey. 

Next, I want to white wash the brick which I could potentially DIY but I am really afraid of heights so probably not. A mix of lime, salt, water and concrete is applied unevenly to the brick and left to dry. The more paste you put on the whiter it will be, the less paste the more brick will show through.  I like this house, but I would want a little bit more brick showing through. 

I also want to add a portico over the door. The way the door is just kind of sitting there really bothers me. Plus it would be nice to have a covering over the door because it is particularly hard to open which has proved to be a problem during those GA afternoon storms. I saw this one and thought the style would work. 

Currently the back of the house is like 5 different colors. Maybe they couldn't decide, then couldn't find a ladder, then didn't care. I don't know. But here is what it looks like now. 

And with the help of the Sherwin Williams Color Visualizer, here is what it would look like after. I chose a lighter grey for the fireplace to give the back some architectural interest. Would love to add wood shingles to the fireplace stack but that is definitely not going to happen.

 I also want to add some detail to the garage which I don't have a picture of at the moment. You can kind of see part of it on the left behind the fence. Oh, and in case you are wondering where those tiny stairs lead to... its a doggy door with a ramp on the other side. Jack will never ever ever figure out how to use it, so I am thinking a door would be really nice there. 

Here is a picture of the garage arbor that I think would look oh so charming. Might be able to DIY this part of the project. 

And last but not least the landscaping. Here I have no idea what to do. This is definitely not my area of expertise at all.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Sorry for the crappy pic ... it is from google maps. 

Steve, of course, thinks the house is fine the way it is, but I certainly am trying to get him to see the light as we plan to live here for a while. We are currently leasing to purchase, so any big changes wont be until after we buy it in 6months. I was thinking if I could go ahead and get the quotes, we could get the extra money with the mortgage so that it will actually get done. Fingers crossed this plan does not get completely vetoed! 

Peace. Love. and Ginger ale 

New House

Sorry for the extended blogging vacation. Things have been all upside down in my life. We left our Louisville house around July 1st and moved in with Steve's Parents. We spent July visiting family and friends and going to the beach while looking for a job for Steve, but the whole living by the beach thing so did not work out at all.  The end of July brought a lot of good things though. We got an offer on our condo and the inspection went great! We, or I should say Steve's parents, close in September. 

Steve got offered a job the last week in July at North Macon Dental (yay times a million!)  but they wanted him to start August 1st which was awesome BUT we were thinking it would be more like September 1st. So we had a week to find a house to rent/buy in Macon and move from Louisville. We found a perfect house, and we thought even though the had a no dog policy, we that they might make an exception for tiny Jack. Nope! The second house we found was great, but then somehow somebody else got the application in before us. Steve then started stalking our real estate agent and called her like 45 times, but it finally paid off. A house came on the market Wednesday and we jumped on it. Thursday we drove to Louisville not knowing if we got the house. Friday the pod got delivered and we got a humongous Penske truck and hired the guys from two men and a truck. 

Back in July we brought just the essentials with us, and everything else was in boxes in the basement except for the kitchen stuff which for some terribly awful reason I put off to the last minute. Things were going pretty well but then one of the movers nearly sliced his finger off, and there was blood everywhere. He was deathly afraid of spiders and had screamed several times before, but this time his scream was followed by it got me! I thought on my gosh he got bit by a spider, but instead he had filleted his finger and it was flapped open. AHHHH! But right after that we found out we got the house so yay!

2 movers and 3 hours later, we finally had completely filled the truck, but I had missed a few cabinets and a few things in the basement got left behind. By the time we headed back to GA, my seat was the only open space in my car. It was crammed packed! Turns out that wasn't such a good thing because I (uh-oh) cracked the big screen TV! Whoops!

Unfortunately I haven't made serious progress on the house because a nasty summer cold put me out of commission for a solid week, but I am back at it and going strong. Going strong has actually translated to somehow making it look worse, but it needs to get better before Steve's patience wears out. He doesn't tolerate complete disorder very well! Plus I end up having to get him every little thing like I have a special map to which box the corkscrew is in. Yeah! Ok. Turns out KITCHEN is not a very helpful label.

Hopefully pictures of progress are coming soon starting with the plans for the Exterior. If you are curious about the house it is still up on Trulia.

Peace. Love. and Boxes.

Jail Break

Good news! I am getting out! Well for a few days anyway. Steve and I are headed to Brunswick later this week to check out two practices for sale there. I cannot tell you how excited I am about this prospect. Living near the beach... a total dream! Everybody cross your fingers that steve falls in love with one of them! After, we are headed with friends to Coco beach for the weekend! I need to get my pasty self into the sunshine asap!

We just got a call from our realtor Bruce who reported lots of activity on the condo front! No offers, but lots of interest is still a good thing.

Caught the in-laws holding hands in bed while watching tv... precious! But they also did their fair share of yelling accompanied by absolutely non-linear logic. Apparently Steve and I should get rid of his childhood bed in favor of 2 twins pushed together they currently have in a guest room. This launched a very big discussion which basically ended with plans to redo an entire side of the house. To keep the peace we held firm in our decision to keep steve's current and uncomfortable bed!

I have to say though, my MIL is currently my hero. Yesterday I hid in my closet for 10 minutes while Steve's mom attempted to kill the biggest wasps I have ever seen. They would not let me leave the bathroom! Steve informed me afterwards that they were in fact non-stinging mud-dobbers but I maintain that they looked very menacing.

Going to try to convince Steve to rearrange his bedroom. I'm almost positive he will say no, but I am still going to try!

Peace. Love. and Apple Rice Cakes.

I am famous!

Not! But I am in this video from Neocon this past month in Chicago. Note to self, find a mirror before going on camera. Oh well, it had been a long 3 days, and at least I didn't have mascara streaking down my face. Of course I would have had to at least attempted rocking some make up for that to happen. Nonetheless here is my five seconds of fame.

Watch the video

Peace. Love. and Air Conditioning.

I have an addiction.

I admit it. I am an addict. But I am so not ready to give it up. Have y'all discovered www.pinterest.com the most amazing website ever? If not check it out asap, but be prepared. It could become a marital problem. Just saying.

Was it always so hot in Georgia?

Graduation... everything I always dreamed it would be. Moving from a small town to a big city, getting a cute little house, making lots of friends. Oh wait, the exact opposite happened. We moved back in with Steve's parents in Haynesville. Where is that you ask? It is a non-existent town between Perry and Hawkinsville that consists of the R&K gas station. Fun stuff. It has been pretty comical so far. Steve's family is an acquired taste. They have a unique way of communicating which basically consists of yelling at or about something, mostly steve's brother Chris.

I have big plans for this month which consist of very intellectual pursuits including working on my tan, losing weight, eating healthy, and bleaching my teeth. I shared my plans for healthy eating with Steve's mom, and she vowed to help me. This plan started out with some seriously cheesy squash casserole, steak and potatoes for dinner, grits with queso for breakfast, and chicken salad on white bread for lunch. Im thinking, this part of my plan is not going so well.

I spent most of my first day here cleaning out and overtaking a guest bathroom. I was pretty pleased with the progress, but then looked around to notice that I packed absolutely nothing to cute up the place. I also discovered why steve had 1/8 the stuff I had when we were packing up the house. All his sentimental things are in his old room. After a mini panic attack, I decided if I have one room as my girly sanctuary, I could deal and promptly planned a trip to target. After that was settled I decided to try out my new bathtub. I turned it on then went to put some clothes in the wash. I got back, got undressed, opened the shower door to find a blood red bath. AHHH. Ok not blood just rust. That I can deal with. After take three on the bath thing, I finally got in the clear water to find it was a little cold. Adding more hot water....  seriously a bad idea. Oh well, surely one rusty bath won't kill me.

Tried to lay out only to find out that Georgia is freaking ridiculously hot. The concrete burned my feet. The chair burned my arms. And the pool was on its way to being warmer than my bath. Side note: Steve's dad is a do-it-yourself man. I have a feeling he goes by mostly a wing it and hope it works philosophy. So he has decided to make his pool salt water. Im no expert, but surely it takes more than just throwing in a couple bags of salt and hoping the algae will stop growing (which it hasn't btw). But maybe an super salty algae swim will counteract my luxurious rust bath or maybe I am getting all sorts of spa treatments at a hillbilly price?

Peace, Love, and Cheese Grits

Nick and Nikki's Kitchen Design

My fabulous friend Nikki and her husband Nick just bought a new house. We had them over a couple days before they moved to brainstorm some ideas for how to decorate on a budget. The kitchen needs the most work so we got started on a plan for that. Here is what we came up with! 

The Kitchen

The cabinets are in pretty good shape so there is really no need to replace them at his point. However, Nick has plans to take down the overhead cabinets to open it up a bit! All they need is a fresh coat of white paint and these adorable knobs from anthropologie. 

They will need 38 knobs @ $2.95 for a total of $112.10. All Nick will have to do is remove the old knobs fill in the holes and the top hole on the cabinets and drill new holes in the center of the drawers. So simple to do, and already the kitchen is going to feel bright and crisp. Next we talked about the backsplash. Glass tile is very expensive but if you notice the backsplash area is quite small. So it is the perfect place to add a bit of luxury. We picked out this glass tile from www.glasstilestore.com 

It is called Tao Bliss Glass tile and is great because it is a mix of clear and frosted glass which will add a nice dimension to the backsplash. I haven't taken measurements but I guess it would take about 12 to finish it because they will have to cut the sheet leaving extra that can be pieced together. At $14.95, 12 tiles would be $179.40. Because the wall is red, they will need to put at least 2 coats of white primer to be sure that the pretty sea foam blue green shows up. The web site allows you to load pictures of your own projects and I think this one shows it off nicely. 

Nick wants to remove the four upper cabinets and replace them with pendant lights and I think two of these very simple and very affordable lights would look just perfect. 

Hampton Bay 1 light 78 inch hanging brushed nickel pendant $29.97 each from Home Depot. The brushed nickel will perfectly complement the white and sea foam color palette. The floors and countertops are a beautiful blonde maple and they have a cherry dining room table and chairs from world market that will go in the eat-in part of the kitchen. To really bring out these colors, we thought this blue from Sherwin Williams would complement/contrast both nicely. 

SW6770 Bubble

The soffit above the cabinets would be painted white to keep the room from feeling too squat, but the rest of the walls would get the gorgeous Bubble color. 

Accessories and Art: the fun part! 

This green rug from West Elm comes in a bunch of different sizes but a 2x3 is $49 and perfect next to the stove or sink. Love it! And I love this big bowl from Z gallerie. A few big accessories really make a big difference and keep your kitchen from feeling cluttered. This bowl is perfect for the top of their cherry dining room table. Although it's almost $80, its big, beautiful and will make great impact.

Organic capiz Bowl from Z gallerie $79.95

This canisters, also from Z gallerie are huge and are perfect for what will become an island of sorts after the top cabinets are removed. Placed against the wall they will echo the cabinets and create a crisp look. Plus they are so versatile that when she gets tired of them in the kitchen, they can go virtually anywhere (on the fireplace, coffee table, sofa table, in the bathroom, etc) But you can definitely achieve this look by spray painting anything you have that is somewhat similar a high gloss white. 

Nikki claims she isn't creative at all but I think if she and Nick team up they can definitely tackle this project featured on crapivemade.com

It is just dollar store silverware spray painted and hot glued to the fabric wrapped frame backing. It would be oh so pretty to do the silverware and frame in white with a bright pattern. I think you could even get away with decoupaging a coordinating scrapbook paper to the back of the frame. It would even be cute to do 3 frames each showcasing different styles of spoons, different styles of forks, etc. Lots of possibilities with this easy fun diy. http://www.crapivemade.com/2010/06/kitchen-art.html

So this is somewhat the plan depending on how far their budget goes and how much nick can accomplish before he starts work as a dentist. Both Nick and Nikki just graduated (Nikki from dental hygiene) and I am so proud of them both. They are so excited to make their first house a home, and I will try to upload photos when they finish.

Peace. Love. and Raspberry Mambas.