Mother's Day

When we wired the house we planned for two small light/fan combos on the back porch (but just installed lights for the meantime). There's not much space and the ceiling is angled. It turns out, that is a pricey combo... x2! I cashed in on some gift cards and Mother's Day to come away with a pretty sweet upgrade. :)

Before, during, and after:

Parlor Couch

Well this is technically not part of the house but it seemed appropriate to post the "rehab" of my newest sofa. We've only had two chairs in our parlor for almost the entire time we have lived here... until one day when I just couldn't stand it anymore and I bought this fine piece at a local consignment shop (Classic Treasures):

Oh yeah, I re-painted the parlor (so that's 3 colors in 5 years: peach, blue, and turquoise), lol, and chose new curtains. Anyways, I loved the lines of the sofa but knew I didn't want that dark brown/faded to orange fabric on such a large piece. My thought was that I could reupholster it and come out having spent half the price I would have on a new sofa. After pricing out upholsterers and realizing I was wrong about the cost of reupholstery I adjusted my fabric budget. I got some great deals but in the end it was basically a wash in terms of buying something new. But, I would not have been able to buy something this nice and I quite enjoyed the thrill of a new project:

Shout out to a couple of other local shops: Durham Upholstery and House of Fabrics. The sofa fabric is a textured cream (I don't have to worry about dirt/spots) and I chose a persimmon/cream herringbone fabric for the pillows. Allow me to give a public thank you to my husband who is always willing to help me wrangle new furniture into the house! ;)

Front Door Mail Slot

I've had this mail slot for 3 years. 3 YEARS. And I was too afraid to install it. I can't thank our friend Cam enough for installing it. It makes me smile every time I see the door and every time I hear the mail delivered!

right here! 

just cut a hole, right? ;)

tah-dah! Cam is awesome

The Boys' Room

I definitely thought I would have Will's room finished before there were two boys in there, but, you know... whatever! Here's the boys' room finally painted. I had to putty/caulk/sand/and prime again. Unfortunately no one told me that bare pine can bleed through latex primer so all the trim I've/others painted in the house will need to be painted again with an oil-based primer (ACK!)...

When we bought the house:

During renovation:

And the finished product:

Front Yard

I am very excited to post the transformation of our front yard. After receiving a COA (certificate of appropriateness) for the proposed work from the Historic Preservation Commission, we were able to address our failing/broken/crooked concrete retaining wall, build a fence, and put in new sod/landscaping! The fence will get painted after the pressure treated wood has plenty of time to dry. We have a double gate for the front but it also needs to dry (locked shut, so, not installed). Thanks to Owens Landscaping & Concrete for their work on the retaining wall and to Garden Environments for building the fence and making the yard new again!

The first few pics are ones I submitted in my COA application...

And the work begins!!

Ceiling

A while back I took a risk with some colors in the dining room, and then wasn't pleased. Well, the short term fix was to leave the ceiling yellow and re-paint the walls a light neutral that I love (navajo white). As time has passed, I've started to not love the yellow ceiling either. And because this is MY house and I can paint as many times as I please, I decided to paint the ceiling in the bay white. I like it much better. I'm just a light & bright, neturals kinda girl... I like color but not in the form of paint on my walls (or ceiling)....


This was such a small/quick project that I was easily able to do it with all 3 kids around:

And here's after cleanup:

I think the best part about this is that hubby won't know/notice until he reads it on this blog!! :) I plan to paint over the rest of the ceiling too but that will have to wait for another day(s).

Elana's room gets final paint

I wish these pictures weren't from my phone, but, whatever! :)