It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year!

And we all desperately need something positive to focus on right now!

It has been a tough year. I can’t believe we have all spent almost an entire year “social distancing” and wearing masks in public. We even cancelled Thanksgiving this year…now that was a stinger!

For me, it has been a fairly stressful year. First, I sold the apartments and bought rental houses…a major “career change.” I bought this house and waded through the treacherous process of “remodeling.” I sold my home of 20 years and went through the whole purging, boxing, moving struggle.

My mom died and we had to clear out and sell our “family home” of 50 years.

It has been a stressful year.

So I am clinging to every single “happy” “positive” “joyful” thing I can possibly find….as I shared before, some days it is really hard to find the positives when life seems to be throwing you one negative after another…but it is sooooo important to find and focus on any little positive thing you can find!

So today I am super focused on all the wonderful changes we have made to this house to make it our home!

Welcome to our home!!!!

I shared our front porch several months ago HERE. I absolutely love it…and last month they FINALLY got our yard sodded…looks amazing!

The porch lanterns are beautifully decked out for the holidays!

I love the few changes I have made to the entry,…

The “before.”

You can see my attempts to “detraditionalize” the house by changing out the transoms and removing the crown above the windows and cased openings. A new front door.

One of the first things I did in this house was paint all the interior doors black. It is something I had done in my last house and I loved it…and it was something that made this house feel like “home” from day one.

I changed out the light fixture in the entry…nothing major but I like the “big lantern” look. Inexpensive light fixtures are a good way to bring in current decor trends without breaking the bank. I found this style for over $800…but this particular fixture was under $100 at Lowes.

One of the HUGE expenses in the little makeover was the flooring. The house had REAL hardwood flooring but carpet in the living room, dining room, master bedroom and office. Again, I am not a big oak fan but I decided to work with what was there. We removed all the carpet, laced in new wood flooring, sanded it all down and just added a clear coat…no stain. I love them!

My office is to the right of the entry….nothing drastic in there yet…just cozy and functional.

Eventually I want to do something with this entry…maybe some board and batten…maybe a long runner…who knows. Something. Someday.

The dining room…this was one room I couldn’t wait to get decorated for the holiday.

Again, the before….

Again, the look of a more expensive chandelier but for MUCH less…I got it HERE. Elegant but simple.

I absolutely adore this room! I have never had a formal dining room and while I’m not sure how often we will use it, it is a beautiful space!

I had originally planned on using a round table because the room is “square” and smallish. After cruising the blogosphere and Pinterest I decided I did not like round tables. James and James makes beautiful custom furniture so I was able have a 6’ table with a 24” insert made…it is GORGEOUS!!

(The door in the dining room goes up to what we refer to as the “bunk” room. A HUGE room over the garage. We have every thing from our attic PLUS all the seasonal decor we had in a storage unit stored on one side…the other side has a full size bed and a twin bed and a gaming TV for the grands…hence the “bunk” room! It is AWESOME but not really show worthy!)

You may notice I went a bit “bow batty” this year…I found an amazing tutorial on youtube for lantern swags and funky bows. LOVE! Again, I could do a tutorial but find one that works for YOU. This tutorial worked for me!

Next week I will share some cute door decor I created with funky bows and wood signs…just too cute!!!!

James and James make benches but I decided to construct one…

I applied the same stain I used on THIS cabinet top. On raw pine it has more of a “pinkish/whitish” color.

I really like the bench and I bought a sheep skin rug to mimic an “inspiration photo” I found on Pinterest.

I love the bench…I love the rug on the bench…but I absolutely love this table and I can’t being myself to “hide it” behind a simple bench. So for now the bench sits behind the couch where it will be easy to pull in when we need the additional seating.

The living room…super excited about this room as well. In our other home we had two living areas…both were about the same size, neither big enough for “large gatherings.” As our family has grown, a large gathering room is essential.

The before….

(Wait til you see what I did with that wall between the living room and kitchen!!)

The minute I saw this space I knew what I wanted to do with it.

Even though we first toured the house in July, I immediately zeroed in on the perfect spot for a Christmas tree (don’t ask me what I think I will do with the space the other 11 months out of the year…lol!)

I still want to reface the fireplace and replace the paddle fan…all in good time!

The “den” is a cozy space for two…this room will fit the entire family Christmas morning!!! Something fun to look forward too!

For now I am going to save the kitchen and den area. It has, by far, the most dramatic changes and is the “cream on the top” of this house. It deserves a spotlight all it’s own! Maybe next week I can find time to get it all staged and ready for it’s debut.

Until then…find the positive, focus on it and be grateful!

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The master bath reveal....

This room, like almost every room in this house, is still “a work in progress.” I still have some decorating I want to do and I made one HUGE mistake during the remodel that I hope one day to rectify. Not today, or this week or this month, but SOMEDAY!

The room isn’t finished, but the “bones” are done…

This is the “before.”

(The lighter appearance of the “before” of this room was a result of “camera tricks”…..it wasn’t REALLY lighter and brighter. Example, the shower and fixtures look stainless…they weren’t, they were gold. The cabinets look white…they aren’t they are “cream.”)

It has only been two years since I remodeled the master bath at my last house. I really tried to change up the tile a bit but in the end I went with the exact same wall and floor tile!

Right down to the “live edge” tile backsplash I shared HERE!

I love what I love.

So, all new tile, quartz vanity tops, new fixtures, sinks and lighting, paint and mirrors.

This week I FINALLY got the base trim done and painted all the trim my “new white.”

The master bath is awesome…two separate vanities with tons of cabinet and drawer space, a large storage closet, high ceilings, a potty room and now a large walk in shower. Extremely functional and slowly evolving into a very pretty space.

(You may notice there are no photos in the black frames…that’s just how I roll! Someday I may figure out what I want in them!)

I LOVE the large walk in closet…this is my half…it is actually L shaped so it is twice this size!

Still on my “to-do” list…paint the vanities and change out the hardware. And of course decorate. Someday.

As I have mentioned before, I am not a huge fan of shower doors…so for now I have a simple curtain. I am debating on a glass door. Just don’t know. I like that I can take a curtain down and bleach it…keeping a glass door spotless just seems like a real pain in the rear.

This past week I had to deal with this whole “issue.”

I have three cats….I love my cats…but the whole litter box thing was really getting on my nerves. The look, the smell, the stupid litter all over the floor.

So I decided to find a piece of furniture that would fit this space that could be modified into a “litter box cabinet.”

My son brought me this piece they have no room for in their new house. Not my style and again I’m not a big fan of oak but it was a perfect fit and I knew I could fix it up!

I set it in place for a few days to make sure the cats would use their new “potty room.” Yep…so off to the shop it went for a little makeover! (Wait til you see the shop transformation…man oh man!)

Now before you purist scream at me for “destroying a beautiful antique” let me remind you that this piece was unwanted and unloved in its current state. I did my research and it had no real “value.” For my purpose it needed to be modified and painted. Now it is useful and wanted and loved.

I wanted to try something new with the top so I picked up this “semi=transparent” stain.

Evidently this “restoration hardware finish” look is all the rage. While cruising Pinterest for Christmas decor ideas I saw all kinds of tutorials to get this look. Somehow I subconsciously picked up the”inspiration!”

After stripping and sanding the top I applied two coats of the stain then sealed it with polycrylic. The top needed some repairs and again, I always do repairs AFTER stain and initial sealant. Why? Because if you get glue on raw wood the stain will not take…so stain THEN repair!

I removed the little fancy doo-dads on the front of the doors.

The big change…the cut-out on the side for access to the kitty box. I just cut a big hole using my jig saw and trimmed it with L molding. Primer, sand, paint!

The hardware is a little different but was pretty cruddy…

I could have changed it out entirely but I am kind of into brass these days so I shined it up with a little Brasso and A LOT of elbow grease. Love.

For now it serves a purpose…hides the kitty box.

So what was the HUGE mistake I made during the remodel?

Operable windows.

The room has upper fixed windows and they let in a ton of natural light.

I snapped this picture when the leaves were turning…so pretty.

But there are no operable windows to let in fresh air…and for me, that is a must.

My “plan” is to add two casement windows on either side of my vanity mirror…similar to the one I added in my last bathroom.

That will entail some structural modifications, brick work and a big mess…and after months of “mess” I’m kind of over it right now! But I know me and I know in the spring when it is time to open up the house I will want operable windows in the bathroom. So it is on my “to do” list….

Seems the more work I do, the longer the list gets!

Until next week…OH MY GOSH…that will be thanksgiving! Hum, maybe I will have a few words of “grateful” wisdom. Guess we will see!

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Oldie but goodie!

So much going on around here but still nothing finished enough to share so thought I would revisit one of my favorite fall/Christmas froo-froos!

I love the versatility of this little box and the only real change I’ve made in last 6 years was the addition of some Aspen picks I got in Colorado.

Looking back at this post REALLY made me miss our Colorado trip this year. With the whole “pandemic” thing we decided to forgo a vacation.

I have so much to share if I can get something completed and get a few pictures taken. This week I am working on the shop doors…hopefully those will be done. My couch finally came in but I want to wait until I get the Christmas decor up before I share that….the day after Thanksgiving and not one day before! My kitchen is done and someday I might get around to taking some pictures. I have a “hidden litter box” project I want to share but that’s another project that will be done SOMEDAY!

See, I have stuff in the works but my OCD is clashing with my ADD…so it just feels like nothing is “just right.”

But you know what…THAT IS LIFE! It will never be perfect and at some point I need to just bite the bullet and take the pictures and share. The whole house really is looking good, but there is always something that makes me stop and say “hum, no just yet.”

It is a “work in progress”…as is every single home. Maybe next week I’ll start sharing the “progress.”

Until then….

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The guest bath....

It dawned on me this week that I do actually have ONE room in the house that is completely finished.

One.

Out of 13.

I must celebrate the small victories!

The walls and trim are painted.. The cabinet and counter are done. The lighting is done. The flooring is done. The plumbing is done.

Yippeee!!!

The hall bath now….

The hall bath before…..

A tiny room hardly worth a passing picture during our initial walk thru!

Gold goddy mirror. Broken pedestal sink. The 90s overhead cabinet decorated with cleaning supplies.

Pretty ick.

The bad thing is you see it the minute you walk in the front door so it needs to be pretty.

I know I shared my laundry room and breakfast room last week…and they may APPEAR to be finished. But I am repainting all the trim in the house and I haven’t painted the trim in those rooms…so TECHNICALLY they aren’t finished. I also want to eventually change the tile in the laundry room and possibly paint the cabinets….sooooo….

But the little hall bath is finished. New custom vanity, new lighting, new sink and faucet, new paint….

Done!

Again, I had just completed a mini makeover on my hall bath in the other house so the wall paint color and quartz top was a no brainer.

First thing i did was remove that super awesome wall cabinet above the toilet…gago! Just removing that cabinet opened up the space and made the room FEEL larger!!!

I discovered why a pedestal sink was necessary in this bathroom….

It is so tiny that the door would not clear a standard vanity depth. So I had my cabinet guy custom make a simple and small “floating” vanity. I painted it with white lacquer and added “modern” pulls.

Then I had to find a sink that would fit on a small vanity…not an easy task considering I wanted one similar to the sink at my old house…a glass vessel. I found a small one on Overstock…HERE.

The mirror was a fluke. I originally wanted a round mirror, but stumbled on this one at At Home. I love it because it has a “white lacquer” look and I knew I was going to paint the vanity with white lacquer.

The light fixture is from Lowe’s. Simple but fun!

Small guest bath…check!

Again, celebrate the SMALL victories.

The kitchen and den are ALMOST done…this week my goal is to finish painting all the trim and then those two rooms will be finished.

Not a huge difference but it is. While painting the trim I again realized just how much trim and how many interior doors and windows this house has! Dang!

The kitchen is SOOOO awesome. I can’t wait to share it!

The living room SHOULD be done if the couch is delivered this week…figures and toes crossed.

The dining room is months away from being “done.” The table I ordered will take four months and I am just now looking at chairs…and then there is the whole rug thing…and wall decor…and…you get the picture.

The master bath is coming along…the walk in shower is done and I have a little bit of trim work and paint i want to do before I share it. It is one of those rooms that will still need “decorating” but getting the “foundation” (trim, paint, tile, etc) is taking time.

We have rain EVERY day this week so my yard has been pushed back again…such is life. It will get done eventually!!!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…creating a “home” is a process. And it never seems to be “finished.”

Thank God I enjoy this process.

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The laundry room...

As you can see, I basically moved my old dining room into our new breakfast room…

…no drastic changes. I even ordered the exact same light fixture I had at the other house!

(Can you tell I discovered my wide angle lens on my Iphone…lol!)

This house has a formal dining room, but we really aren’t formal dining kinda people so I have not been in a hurry to do anything in that room just yet. This week I finally ordered a “formal” dining table. It will take about 4 months to deliver so at some point I will figure out what I want to do in the way of chairs. No hurry…we have the breakfast room and 4 bar stools.

One of my absolute favorite changes I made to this house was in the laundry room, which is adjacent to the breakfast room….

The laundry room in this house is amazing…good sized with lots of storage and a utility sink! Even a cute little built in ironing board!

Originally the laundry room had a full wall of upper cabinets above the counter.

Nice storage, but something I can live without. So I decided to add something I have always wanted…a huge window in my laundry room!

The window opens to the side screened porch, but it still provides a ton of natural light and fresh air. I absolutely fricking LOVE it!!!

(This house has lots of windows in each room, but it also has a screened porch, an “all-season” room and a covered front porch…so all the natural light is a bit “defused.” Great for keeping the house cool in the summer and cozy in the winter, but it does make the house a tad “darkish.” )

Adding a window is not for the faint of heart…the cabinets had to all be removed, new framing, new sheetrock, removal of the old brick and then new brick around the new window.

But it was worth the effort and cost.

I had new quartz counters installed, new tile backsplash, a new stainless sink, new LED lighting and of course new paint…same color as my last laundry room makeover in the last house. The nice thing about having just completed makeovers in my guest bath and laundry room in the last house is I spent NO time deciding on counter top and wall colors…I knew what I wanted!

Eventually I will change the flooring…this tile floor is pretty dated. I may eventually paint the cabinets. In all honesty I am so in love with the window I don’t even notice the floor or the cabinet color!

There were a few changes I made to this house that were spot on…this was definitely one of them!

The kitchen is finally complete. Our tile shower is finally done! And this week I started painting all the trim “whiter.” Hopefully next week the landscaper will start the yard.

It is coming together nicely!

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The "all-season" room...

There is one space in this house I wasn’t really sure I would like. I really thought I would eventually remove the “glass wall” and just open it back up as a covered patio.

Now, it is one of my favorite spaces.

The “all-season” room.

I call it that because it is basically a glassed in covered patio…floor to ceiling operable windows and a glass door. Concrete floor…brick walls.

I really thought it would be a “sauna” on hot, humid days, but no. Even on the hottest days this summer it stayed comfortable. Very pleasant.

I suspect it will stay relatively warm in the winter and will make for comfortable bird watching.

(In this picture you get a peak at a few of the transom windows I replaced…they were arched and to “de-tradionalize” this house I changed all the transoms to rectangular windows…LOVE!)

You might remember this little vintage chair from its “makeover feature.” Matt is moving this week so we have rehomed it!

I brought my bar stools from the last house but they are too tall for my counter-height bar here…so I wanted to use them in this room. The big problem was finding a good bar-height table. I looked on line but everything I found that would work was super expensive. While cruising through Hobby Lobby one day I found the perfect iron base table…only problem was the top was a tad too small. No biggy…I bought a bigger round pine top at Lowes, stained it and sealed it, removed the small top (four screws) and added the larger top.

Presto, bingo! Perfect “bar table” for my bar stools and perfect for evening dining!

The rug…a leftover from our old “guest room.” The new guest room has carpet and it isn’t terribly offensive so I decided not to use the rug in there. It is perfect for this space since it is really an “indoor/outdoor” rug.

The two most important elements…heirloom pieces that have humungous sentimental value.

The first…the stained glass. This is a piece my mom and dad made together YEARS ago…he has been gone 25 years so it has to be 26+ years. Dad had built a frame for it and it hung over their dining room window.

This past week my mom passed away and I inherited this piece. I really have no windows it would fit without some serious modifications so I decided to build a frame for it, line it with LED lights and hang it in this room. (Yes, I still need to paint the frame! And the ceiling. They are on my very long list of things to do!)

I love it…it is seriously one of the prettiest elements in this home. Maybe because it has such a profound sentimental value…but beautiful in its own right.

This table….

You may remember my post about “Visiting History” last year. These boards came from the building my dad worked in during my childhood. They sat in my yard for over a year because I just wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with them.

This week I hand sanded them just enough to get the gunk off…

…sealed them with poly…

…and attached iron hairpin legs (you can buy them here). Perfect little side table for this room! I love that you can still see all the mill marks and nail holes!

So a room I wasn’t quite sure would make the cut has now become one of my favorite spaces in this house and is home to a few of the most “valuable” things I possess.

Beautiful….

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Why?

Again, it has been a crazy few weeks.

I can only say, “Hey, I am here.” Hang in there and little by little I will start sharing the new house.

Changes…that is what this house desperately needed…someone who had a vision and was willing to make a few changes.

I will share the changes I made, explain the decisions I made and show you the “before and after.”

First up, the front porch. When I first viewed this house it had the McDonald arch thing going on, arched transom windows and some questionable plant placements.

These are pictures from the listing and they were taken in the spring. I can’t wait to see what spring flowers pop up next year!

Just removing the arches, changing out the transom windows, new light fixtures, replacing the front door, relocating the overgrown azalea bushes and cleaning up the front flower beds made a HUGE difference.

The door is suppose to have grids on the glass insert…it is back ordered but I am really kind of digging it without the grids…hum…

I have lived in a home without a front porch for twenty plus years…I am LOVING this!!!

Next up is new soil and sod for the entire front and side yard. That should happen in the next few weeks when fescue becomes available. That is one of the problems with sharing this house renovation…is seems like nothing is really complete.

I want to share my beautiful kitchen but we haven’t installed the venthood and I still have cabinet doors to paint. I want to share my amazing master bath but the tile shower is still not finished. I want to share my awesome shop but I haven’t finished the doors or set new posts. I want to share my cozy living room but the new couch has not yet arrived. I want to share the gorgeous “all season” room but I want to add a very special detail and don’t have time right now.

But in all honesty, that is the way ALL houses are…even “custom built, brand new.” You THINK everything is exactly the way you want it, but inevitably there are a few things you want to change or build or add. In our case we KNEW there would be a lot of “incomplete” changes when we moved in…now it is just a matter of working “the plan.”

The good news is I closed my last rent house this week and all are rented…queue sigh of relief! So I am finally generating an income and I can concentrate on this house…at least until someone moves,

Until next week when I HOPE I have something complete to share….

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I swear I'm alive....

When last I reported in “The new house is progressing nicely. As normal, there have been a few hiccups along the way but everything eventually gets worked out and we keep moving forward.”

Oh how the tides turn on a dime. It has been a brutal few weeks.

First, the painter ROYALLY screwed up my gorgeous custom cabinets. Not a “little mess up” but a life shattering major screw up. That was over three weeks ago and they had to completely strip and repaint every door and drawer front and they came this week to strip and repaint the island and uppers. Fortunately I put the finish on the walnut cabinets (OMG they are amazing!) so those didn’t get destroyed.

The upside to this colossal screw up is I realized that the “off-white” trim color, the same color I painted the island, was waaaaay to yellow against the white quartz counters so I was able to switch gears on a color choice. Of course that means I have to repaint ALL the trim in the house, but that will happen in time.

Silver lining.

Oh, and no I did not paint the island a different color as I thought I might. I did as I usually do…bought sample colors and painted big swatches to see if I would like the. Turns out I like white. The piece is such a focal point of the entire living area I just didn’t like it painted a dark and different color. I like my “big stuff” (couches, walls, islands, etc) to be neutral and bring color in with accent pieces. When you see this island you will understand why it is NOT just a little accent piece!

Second, the tile I picked out for the master shower was back ordered. That’s okay, I would rather wait than settle for a tile I am not in love with so we knew we would be moving in without the master shower…no problem since we can use the guest bath.

The yard can not be landscaped because they can’t get our fescue sod for a few more weeks…soooooo…..

The extension for the exhaust hood over the stove is back ordered.

Because of the cabinet screw up all the painters time and energy has to go into the cabinets so the trim didn’t get painted.

So when moving day arrived we had no master shower, unpainted trim, no sod, no range hood or doors or drawers in the kitchen. Deep breath…we can do this.

What is done…the wood floors. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I got my interior doors painted black…LOVE! The new front door is in, but the insert with grids is not…. that is something that will eventually be changed out! Even though we don’t have a master bath shower, the vanities are done so we can use those areas.

So the house is not “complete,” and there are a ton of things that have to be completed and then a laundry list of “projects” but it is livable!

Two days….it took TWO days to move!!! That was with four guys busting it! We made a total of four trips back and forth and that was in a big truck. Then I had to unpack about 843 boxes (okay I exaggerate)!

The BIGGEST screw was on the closing of the house we sold.

The buyer had two co-signers…both out of state. The title company, Washington County Title (yes I am naming names) over-nighted all the docs to the co-signers…no biggy but it did delay the funding from Friday, the day we closed, to Monday. Okay, again no biggy. We signed the deed, the buyer signed her loan papers and we all walked away from closing believing a transfer of ownership had transpired.

The lender (Highlands Mortgage) decided they didn’t like the fact that all the borrows signed one particular document separately…even though they did all sign. So the lender refused to fund the loan…basically the lender and the closing company screwed up (or as I was told “there was a miscommunication) but I was the only one who paid the price because I didn’t get paid for a house I had already moved out of and the buyer had already taken possession of.

When you close on a house you sign an indemnity form that specifically states that if the closing company fails to have you sign a document, or something is signed wrong, you will come back in and sign properly. No where did I sign anything that said if the closing company and lender had a “miscommunication” I wouldn’t get paid.

Also, if somewhere along the line the lender has a “loss” due to a title glitch or closing screw up they have a mortgagee insurance policy issued by the title company to indemnify them for their losses. As the seller, I do not have that safety net if the closing company and lender have a “miscommunication” resulting in a loss on my end.

This made for a VERY unpleasant four way call Monday.

I try to keep this blog positive and informative…so, I am informing you I am positive I will never use Highlands Mortgage or Washington County Title.

Unfortunately for the buyer she had to go back in Tuesday and completely redo her end of the closing. Fortunately my title company refused to make me resign all my documents…the loan was funded and I was paid…it only took them 5 days to correct the issue.

Little by little I will start sharing the new house and all the little projects I have completed…and trust me, there are A LOT of little projects to complete. I have already completed a few, like painting my doors black and installing the shelf system in the hall pantry….little things to make this house more like my home.

I wanted to post at least one picture but when I looked around there seemed to be NOTHING complete…no sod in the yard, no drawers and doors in the kitchen, no shower in the master bath, no couch in the living room (oh yeah, I ordered a new couch!). Hopefully I will have something completely done next week I can share…hopefully!

And of course it is fall and I could not wait to get the fall decor out of storage and scattered about the new house!!!!

IT’S FALL YA’LL!!!!

*This is from one of our fall trips out west…we didn’t go this year and I sure miss the beauty of the mountains and vibrant Aspens!*

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New house update and little about choosing paint...

The new house is progressing nicely. As normal, there have been a few hiccups along the way but everything eventually gets worked out and we keep moving forward.

My current home is finally under contract and we have a September 18th closing date so timing is critical at this point. I printed off a calendar , penciled in when everyone must complete their tasks….Paint, cabinets, tops, plumbing, floor refinish, etc….and I shared that schedule with all the subs. Funny things about subs….they sometimes think they work in a vacuum…they forget that 5 other people have to come in AFTER them and if they are one day late it creates a domino affect. And sadly they don’t seem to care! Unfortunately because of our moving schedule I don’t have a day to spare so I am just hoping and praying everyone follows my schedule….guess we will find out! What is the old saying about making plans and God laughs…..

On to my paint choices…. I am not one to anguish over paint choices. I usually find what is all the rage and go with it.

This past month I did learn a valuable lesson about paint though. NEVER have paint mixed at a big box store. I picked a very popular grey for a rent house ….it was a Sherwin Williams color but I had it mixed at a big box store that carries SW…no harm, right. Wrong.
It is blue. I mean like nursery blue. I suspect the person who mixed it put a tad too much of some color in the formula and so it has a “blue” tint so on the wall it is BLUE! If it where a house I was going to live in I would have had to repaint the entire house.

So lesson learned ….have custom paints mixed at a paint store….not that they don’t make mistakes, but that is what they do….they don’t float to every department in a store… they just do paint.

Anywho, in the new house the walls were Accessible Beige…. but I’m not really a “beige” kind of person. I have read a lot of great things about Agreeable Grey, which is very close to Accessible Beige but more on the warm grey spectrum.
So I bought a sample pot, painted a big swatch on the wall, and went with it!
I love it. It really is a great color. And two days after the paint was complete, I found THIS article …. https://theflooringgirl.com/painting/agreeable-gray-neutral-gray-paint-color/ (MY COMPUTER IS AT THE ACCOUNTANTS AND I AM USING AN IPad…clearly there are things I do not know how to do on this thing…like post links and phots!)

The laundry room and guest baths are the exact same color as the last makeovers in this house! ( search it in this site….I can’t post links on this stupid thing!)

The only paint choice I am agonizing over is the big kitchen island… I am leaning towards a warm charcoal grayish color but just don’t know…. at some point inspiration will strike me and I’ll know exactly what I want!

Based on my printed in stone schedule cabinets are due to be delivered and painted Monday….so I guess I better get inspired real quick!

My little signature graphic is on my other computer so until next week…

LIVE THE LIFE YOU LOVE1

BECK

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Designing a room....

Everything seems to progressing nicely at the new house…knock on wood! Wood floors are going in, walk in shower is being built, sheetrock repair is being done.

Today I want to talk about “design features.”

As I mentioned before, I kind of “wing it” when it comes to design. Some people need a visual like a design board that shows all the elements of a room.

Me…I find one thing I absolutely love and then go from there.

In the new kitchen, it was this tile….

I can not tell you how much I LOVE this tile. (It was delivered this week…even more beautiful in person!)

I have one space in the kitchen that is about 8’ long…it is the perfect “cubby” for a cooking center…cook top, oven and microwave. My vision is walnut lowers with two painted uppers to the ceiling, walnut floating shelves, white quartz tops, stainless vent hood and this tile.

This tile has a “brushed gold” accent in it so to tie in the gold with the rest of the kitchen I have decided to go with these simple pendant lights above the island….

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They kind of coordinate with the light fixture I have in my dining room…the exact same one I have ordered for the breakfast room in the new house.

What can I say, I love what I love!!!

Some really funky gold hardware.

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A touch of “whimsy.” I’m not a big “cabinet hardware” person…I don’t even have them on my cabinets here…but I am going with shaker style cabinets and they will need hardware. I just thought these were fun and different.

The appliances are all stainless. I LOVE my black stainless appliances, but I fear that will be one of those “fad” things. I think in the long run I will be happy with stainless. Also, there is Carrara marble accents in the tile backsplash and greyish veining in the quartz tops…I think the stainless will blend right in.

I have a two door/two drawer refrigerator. I went with a side-by-side.

First, I will NEVER buy another Samsung product. Love the other appliances but the ice maker on the fridge hasn’t worked right since the second year… I actually have to go buy ice every week. Evidently it is a “design flaw” not covered by their warranty. Rampant problem and no real fix. Not cool Samsung.

Second, while I love the drawers, I am just getting too old to bend down and dig through a big ole’ drawer for a frozen chicken. I know side-by-sides are not nearly as energy efficient and they aren’t the “in thing” right now, but I loved the one I had years ago so I am going back with one!

I read reviews and decided to go with either Kitchen Aide or Whirlpool. Considering the price difference, I went with Whirlpool.

The bar stools…I have struggled with that one because I have had mine for 20 years and I still love them especially after this little “makeover”…truth is if I needed “bar height” vs “counter height” I would just take them with me.

Unfortunately they are not counter height and they are iron so cutting them down is not feasible… so I had to find new counter height bar stools. The minute I saw these I knew they were exactly what I want….

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Super simple and I think the walnut color will tie in beautifully with the walnut base cabinets and floating shelves!

This is my “design board”….I drop pictures of what I like into a computer file…each has at least one element I like. I may not like everything in the picture, but there is one thing in each I am drawn to…

I know I am drawn to walnut cabinets…but I don’t want ALL of them walnut so I am going to have walnut lowers in the “cooking center” and painted uppers. The entire island will be painted. The tops are white quartz with greyish/taupish veining. I was able to go to the quartz place and actually pick out the slabs of quartz I wanted.

Some people HAVE to have a design or “mood” board….

…something that allows them to see every element of their design (This is not my design board, just one I plucked off Pinterest.)

I get it…and it isn’t hard to make…just find what you want on line and drop it into a file, then create a “board” on a program like Photoshop. You are able to see all your elements and determine if they coordinate.

Personally, I can see every detail in my “minds eye.” I wake up at 3 a.m. every morning and visualize every single element. Probably drives my subs nuts because if I “see” something I like, I will text or email them at 4 a.m. with my idea. (Hopefully they mute their phones at night or the “ding” of my text will wake them at this unGodly hour!)

My motto…YOU DO YOU! If you need a design or mood board, go for it. Do what works for YOU! Probably would have been a lot easier on my cabinet guy had I had a design board rather than 30 random pictures of cabinets and kitchens and having to go through each one to show him the one element in each pictures I love. I only hope and pray he has the same vision as I do!

Guess we’ll see in a few weeks. In the meantime I will continue to micro-manage the poor guys who have to work at the house every day…lol!