A big surprise to me, this happened yesterday…. I’m SO excited!

Pardon the trim across the walk way. Can you guess what’s happening in our house today??

Andy used an edging tool that he bought from Lowes to better define our mulch beds. Then he filled them up with fresh mulch.

Here is the before picture from a few months ago. We hadn’t mulched since we had planned to dig up the old plants and the grass had become overgrown through the liriope. Our mulch was half mud and half grass/weeds. Lovely huh?

I’m psyched because this means even less money that we’ll have to pay to a landscaper, woohoo! We still need plants and bushes but this is a huge improvement (eeeee!). A BIG thanks to the Hubs and his parents for all of their hard work yesterday. You guys rock!

And this is what I came home to today… eeee!

I can’t say that I had anything to do with this project other than successfully keeping the kids away from the power tools for the better part of the day. Although, the second we got home Ellorie was half way up the ladder (big surprise!). A HUGE thanks to the Hubs and his Mom for all of their hard work this morning. We are moving much closer to having this area finally finished! Life is good

Happy Friday!

We have been crazy people lately! School started, we went to the beach (yay!), we have had tons of things going on…. and absolutely none of them have involved doing any kind of work in our house. Now to be fair, we’ve at least cleaned it, done laundry, trash, etc. You know, all of those required things. But our to-do list has just been sitting there collecting dust.

That all changes this week! The hubs has agreed to put up crown moulding in the dining room and kitchen area on Friday while I keep the kids out of the house and away from the power tools. I can’t wait for this because as you can see, we were lazy smart and only painted the part of the wall that we knew wouldn’t have crown covering it. And it’s been sitting like this for.a.month. Not my favorite but it’s being fixed Friday. Can’t wait!

And we have big plans for the kitchen as well. The hubs is going to continue the crown over the cabinets through the kitchen. And my most favorite part, we’re going to finally have a finished wall instead of this ugly mess that we’ve been living with for almost 2 years. Ok, so it was actually a big open hole for over a year and it’s been looking like this for about 6 months (pardon the dishes in the sink… remember, we’ve been lazy!).

Our plan is to take off the huge laminate backsplash and replace it with shiny white subway tile. Like this:

I think it will really brighten up our kitchen after losing the window that used to be over our sink prior to the addition. We will also put a mirror over the breakfast table to reflect a little more light into the space.

Two shelves like these over at Young House Love are next on the list to go over the kitchen sink. Ours will be a bit smaller but you get the idea.

And we can’t forget our awesome light from Ballard. The one we bought last year that’s been sitting in it’s box in the closet since? Yea, that one. It’s going above the sink as well.

I can’t wait for all of this to be done! I’m so excited to be a bit closer to finally having a finished kitchen.

In addition to keeping the little ones away from power tools, I will be on the phone calling landscapers this week as we’ve finally decided to just go ahead and let someone else take on that work. We had originally planned to do it all ourselves and I had this big plan to research everything that I wanted but we keep putting it off and putting it off and we really just need to get it over with. Here’s hoping we can find a good landscaper who doesn’t cost a fortune!

Have you got big plans for the weekend? Hope you have a good one!

Things are a changing ’round here! Two hours at a time at least

Goodbye “Dofflemyer Green” (guess it should be Meyers Green now?) and Hello Benjamin Moore Camouflage! It has really brightened up our space and will make it so much easier to decorate with color. Andy plans to put up crown molding as well. Can’t wait for it to be done!

I finally moved my night stand off of the kitchen island into it’s proper home yesterday. It has been sitting either on the kitchen island or in our office on my sewing table half finished for a few weeks. It was about time!

I painted it Annie Sloan Old White, two coats, and washed it with French Linen. I waxed it with clear wax and let it sit for 24 hours before moving it into our bedroom. I love how it turned out! I had planned to distress it but I’m not sure now that I will.

I think it goes well with our space and our bedding without being matchy matchy.

Although I’m going to have to rethink how I had my previous night stand styled. My mirror is way too big now! I’m thinking I’ll hang it on the wall partially below the nightstand to reduce some of it’s height. We’ll see what happens. As helpful as they are, I need more than just my two toddlers here with me to try out mirror heights

I’m hoping to wash my dresser in Duck Egg at some point today but it might not happen this afternoon since I have a sewing lesson (yay!) during nap time. I can’t wait! Surely my house needs some window treatments and pillows and table runners and…..

Happy Tuesday!

We needed a dresser for our master bedroom since I sold our other one and I really wanted something I could paint and make my own. This dresser had been sitting in my parents’ basement for  years because my 20-year-old self didn’t like it… I know, what was WRONG with me? It’s gorgeous! And free (woohoo!)… so here we are!

I sprayed Zinsser Bullseye Shellac all over it and inside since I wasn’t sure if it had ever been cleaned with Pledge or an old orange cleaner. Both can really ruin any kind of paint and the Shellac is an awesome trick that the girls at Studio Eleven taught me in class if you are in doubt.  It goes on really easily but make sure you open some windows, it stinks!

I let it dry and put it all back together because I forgot to take pictures of it in one piece. Gorgeous, huh? I love it!

My favorite part, the sassy little feet!

This detail is why my 20-year-old self didn’t like the dresser and why it sat unloved in the basement for so long. I had every intention of covering it up with wood filler before I took the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Class. It really is the perfect kind of detail to paint with chalk paint and I can’t wait to see how it turns out, especially after washing and waxing.

I actually really like the original hardware and I’m going to paint right over it per Annie’s Way.

I tried out two options before slapping paint on the dresser. Option 1 (left) is two coats of Duck Egg washed with French Linen and waxed with a little Old White mixed in. Option 2 (right) is two coats of French Linen washed with Duck Egg and waxed with a little Old White mixed in.

I love both and had a really hard time choosing. The Hubs and I discussed it and ended up going with Option 2 since we felt like Option 1 would have been better on a smaller piece of furniture. It’s beautiful but it would just be too much blue and would compete with our bed which we wanted to be the focal point of our bedroom. Plus, if we ever wanted to change our bedding there is a far greater chance of a gray dresser coordinating than a blue one.

I slapped on one coat of French Linen this afternoon while the girls slept. Here are the drawers…

It definitely needs a second coat but I’m loving it so far!

The details look so much better with Chalk Paint. Then again, doesn’t everything?

I’m hoping to have time for a second coat during nap tomorrow since I need daylight to paint well. So fun!

Did you paint anything this weekend?