Anything I Say

I realize that anything I say today might be construed as a joke seeing as it is the first of April.  I was originally going to post an actual joke, tell you I went to the doctor and it’s actually a boy, but then I realized that’s not really all that funny!  So instead I thought I’d post some pictures of the lawn work that my parents and Andrew did while they were in town.  I wish I had some great before pictures, but I really don’t.  Just imagine basically a disgusting un-lanscaped yard.  We are in the process of growing grass, so ignore the patchy dirt!

Well That was Frustrating

I’ve been trying my hardest to embed a picture of our couch that will be arriving on December 10th, but after an hour of watching it attempt to load I have officially given up.  So if you want to see the beauty that we agonized over getting you can CLICK HERE.  I cannot wait to have this piece in my house.  For one thing we can watch a movie lounging instead of sitting awkwardly in chairs and also because this marks the end of our need for furniture…well almost, Andrew stills needs a desk chair.  December 10th cannot come soon enough!

Crossing Our Fingers

This my friends, is the vanity we purchased labor day weekend at the outlets….

Isn't it a thing of beauty?

No we didn’t strike it rich, we got a crazy good deal on it.  The outlet had it for 66% off and there was nothing wrong with it so we decided we couldn’t pass it up.  There WAS nothing wrong with it until they went to load it in the crate so we could take it home and they snapped the top, oopsies.  Well no biggie they said they would refund our money or order us a new one, we of course asked them to order a new one so they did.  It came in last week and wouldn’t you know, the top came to the store already snapped.  SO we are hoping third times a charm and that we will find out today that we can go pick up our vanity and top all in one piece.  Then we will PRAY that we don’t snap the top during transport and installation!

House Updates

Andrew’s parents will be here in 4 days!  We are SO excited for them to come down, see our new home, celebrate Andrew’s birthday and check out our new city.  Their impending visit has been a great excuse to get in gear and knock out some house projects.  This weekend we did the following things:

1.  Stenciled…ok Andrew was a trooper and did all the stenciling this weekend, unfortunately we ran out of paint and couldn’t finish, but we did enough that we could hang our headboard and pictures above our bed.

2.  Hung our family room curtains.  My mom made them and sent them down.  They look very dramatic and I LOVE them!

3.  Painted, glazed and sealed the bead board around our kitchen island, then we hung our towel bar up on our island…this signaled the completion of our kitchen project.  Our kitchen looks gorgeous if I do say so myself.  It looks completely different than it did when we first moved down here.

4.  Hung pictures and sconces in hearthroom

5.  Unpacked a  bunch of boxes from our office.  This is the very last place that has clutter and we’re hoping to finish it all before they arrive.

6.  We took several trips to BB&Beyond to get some of the last minute items we’ve been procrastinating on.

7.  Organized my junk drawer, something my friend Pam has and I’ve always enjoyed.  It’s a “junk drawer” where everything has a specific place.

Here are a couple pictures.  Mum & Dad Campbell if you want to be surprised when you arrived don’t look at the pictures.  There aren’t very many, but here are a couple.

This is a ROUGH draft, there are a lot of things I have to tweak, but you get the idea!

This and the next photo are literally the only things in the room, there is no rug or furniture, it's a great place for a dance party I guess!

Picture my momma gave me with Jeremiah 29:11 on it

Hoping to organize every nook and cranny in our house like this!

Bright Side

So last night our refrigerator in the garage crapped out.  Andrew brought me a soda for dinner and it was soaking wet on the outside and not very cold.  He checked later that night, it was running, but not cold at all.  I’m a little bummed that we have to get rid of the refrigerator, but I’m looking on the bright side of things.  1.  We no longer will be paying for a second refrigerator on our utility bill (which we’ve been told is pretty costly).  2.  We luckily didn’t drag our feet on getting that counter depth refrigerator that we wanted, but at the time didn’t need.  If we hadn’t gotten it in March we would be in a bit of a predicament now!  Thankful we saw it and bought it when we did.  Now we just have to figure out how to dispose of this giant appliance!

Front yard wonders

We finally bit the bullet and paid for someone to trim our trees today. We had some ridiculously high quotes, despite thinking that Texas would have cheaper labor. I’m glad we waited. Two days after we cancelled one of those high quotes, another tree company bid less for ALL our trees than the last guy bid for ONE tree. Wow.

I know what you are thinking if you happen to be a certified arborist: this company clearly wasn’t certified. Well, we’re thrilled with the job. We were both away from the house when the crew started, but when Laura got home they were strapped up in the trees getting really involved. They fully treated every cut and were able to raise the canopy in the front tree enough that we can actually see the house from the street. The back yard trees did provide a lot of shade before, and now the sun shines right through. I suppose it’s a small sacrifice to make. I think women have some phrase for this sort of thing…

Here is a picture of the front. Unfortunately, the facade still looks pretty worn…now more than ever we need to get the trim painted and landscaping done. Hopefully we’ll get some mulch and plantings this weekend.

Kitchen Remodel

Hello friends the following post contains PICTURES.  I thought I’d go room by room and really drag the house reveal out as long as possible.  Mostly so I have time to finish the rooms to my liking.  The kitchen is ALMOST done, but I chose pictures where you can’t really see the undone parts.  So without further adieu welcome to our kitchen!  The whole remodel was done for under $1000 and I would say it was worth EVERY PENNY!  I tell you this not to brag, but to tell you that if you need to spruce up your kitchen you don’t have to spend a fortune.

The before shot: notice the ugly refrigerator, scratched and stained white counter tops and slightly dated cabinets. I didn't mind the footprint of the kitchen, so I decided we'd work with what we had!

We were so lucky that the bank gave us a new black stove and microwave!

My painted counter tops. Everyone who has seen them has told me they would have never guessed that they were painted. If you are looking to spruce up your old laminate go to Gianigranite.com and choose the color you want. It's an easy 3 step process and can be done in a weekend. I chose Sicilian Sand.

We found a refurbished appliance store and got this counter depth black refrigerator that gave us extra walking space and made the kitchen feel more open. So far I love this appliance.

This was the hardest decision of the whole kitchen. I just did not know what I really wanted and I felt like once you drilled holes you were stuck with that size handle for good. I'm happy with the choice. The cabinet color is federal gray and it's the Rustoleum Transformation kit from Home Depot. My mom did a great job on these. There are many different colors and you can put a glaze on if you would like. I chose to do the glaze finish and we love it!

The two things I'd like to change someday, but that day feels far away. I like having this bar to use as a buffet, but I would like it extended out so we can put barstools under it. The second thing is the SINK! It's ugly and dirty and I clean it everyday and still feel like it's gross. In time I'll get this fixed, but for now it works so I'm leaving it.

And there you have it.  This is my favorite room in the house and it made such a difference in the house as a whole considering all the rooms are connected to the kitchen.  Thanks to Jenna for the great pictures.  Sorry it has taken me so long to show you pictures of our house, it’s been quite the process!

Loving

So we’ve been in our house for two weeks now and here are some things I’m loving about our humble abode.  Some of these are Andrew’s likes as well.

1.  Our dishwasher.  Haven’t ever lived somewhere (besides with family) that has had one of these!  My kitchen feels so clean all the time and my dishes feel much more sanitary.

2.  Two bathrooms.  Andrew and I no longer race each other when we pull in the driveway.

3.  Our GIGANTIC master bathroom.  Seriously so much bigger than it needs to be, but it’s nice to have 2 closets, 2 sinks, and a separate toilet room.  I’m in love with this space.

4.  The piano.  Yeah this isn’t technically part of the house, but there is room for a piano here and I sit down at least every other day to play for a while and boy did I miss having a piano in my living space.

5.  The pantry. This will shock some of you…I’ve actually bought multiple cans of vegetables and multiple boxes of cereal so I don’t run out as quickly.  I can actually fit them in my pantry so I feel like it’s ok to have more than we need for one meal.

I know what you’re thinking…WHERE ARE THE PICTURES????  Soon friends, very soon.  I want to wait until Jenna gets here and then I’ll have some beautiful pictures to share with you!  I promise before April I’ll post a lot more pictures!

GREAT VISIT

Well Stephanie is on a plane back to Urbana and let me just say we had a fantastic visit.  The boys kept asking what we did each day or where I was taking her and we would just look at each other and chuckle because a lot of our time was spent sitting around and chatting.  We had a lot to catch up on and it felt like an extended slumber party.  We stayed up late, slept in and ate way too much.  Here is a little break down of what we did this weekend.

Thursday: I picked her up from the airport, we came straight to the house and I showed her around.  We ate some lunch and put our list together for our IKEA shopping trip.  We  spent the afternoon piddling around the IKEA and picking up some much needed pieces to warm up the house.  We came home and got started building er I mean asking Andrew to build our finds for the day and ate some tacos with fresh tortillas (one of the amazing things about Texas…specifically HEB grocery stores.  They make fresh tortillas daily).

Friday:  We got up and spent the morning gabbing at the kitchen table.  We finally decided around 11:30 to throw some clothes on and head out in search of some goodwill/salvation army type stores to look for some furniture to re-purpose.  We struck out big time…the places we found were over priced and had nothing we wanted.  We ate a delicious lunch at the best burger place in Austin (Well 2nd best to Phil’s) Moonie’s.  Then we came home and got primped for our night out.  We stopped by Bryan and Amanda’s so I could show Stephanie the beautiful drive and their house…well and I wanted to see Hudson of course!  We then headed downtown to eat at Hula Hut with Andrew and Kevin.  After dinner,  Kevin suggested we go to this little coffee place called Mozart’s down the way on the water.  We sat outside for a couple hours and laughed a lot.  It was a beautiful night and I was so glad we got to spend some quality time together.  We then made the crazy decision to begin painting the master bathroom at around midnight.  We painted until 2:o0 in the morning.  Believe me, you could definitely tell which wall we did last.

Saturday:  We slept in late, made ourselves breakfast and watched an episode of Bones while sprawled out on the sofa bed.  We got a late start to our projects, but then we got going on finishing the bathroom, moving the boxes around, breaking down the empty boxes and cleaning the house.  We also attempted for an hour or so to hang up a pesky curtain rod and it was not a success.  We decided late afternoon to head downtown to visit West Elm and Antropologie.  I hadn’t been down there yet and the stores were AMAZING.  I really enjoyed West Elm and have plans to purchase a light there for our entry way.  We came home, ate pizza and skillet cookies and then….we lost our minds  We started in stenciling our bedroom walls and we set our goal of 100 hexagons.  I think it took us somewhere around 2 hours and believe me I have a LONG WAY to go.  SO here are a few sneak peeks…Jenna and Dad if you want to wait until March for the big reveal stop reading!

Purposely not showing you a whole lot...it is one of my favorite things I've picked so far. Can't wait to put the room together and show you the whole thing!

This was horrible to install, but I'm pleased with the end result. It casts some neat shadows on the walls at night and makes the house feel more "homey"

The beginning of the entry makeover, I found this rug at IKEA and I love it! Also we found this table for half off at IKEA as well. It is the perfect size for the space.

Did You Miss Me?

Wow that visit with mom went WAY too fast!  It feels like she just got here and I put her on a plane this morning.  We got a lot done, but when she left I had the overwhelming realization that there is still so much that needs to be done!  How is it that I blinked and it was over?  Definitely looking forward to her coming when there isn’t as much work to do.  She finished my kitchen cabinets and can I just say they look incredible.  My kitchen has been totally transformed and we did it on a shoe string budget.  Against everyone’s recommendation I painted my counter tops and let me tell you they look MUCH better than they did.  Do they look like granite like the box says?  Well no, but I had no hope that they would, I just wanted them to look like new laminate and that’s exactly what they look like.  Alright so I’m killing you with talking about these things and not showing you pictures.  It pains me to show you anything when it isn’t done, but since you’ve waited patiently this long I’ll show you one before and after of the kitchen, just know that it’s not “decorated” yet and there will be a whole breakdown post later.

This is the only picture I have, sorry it's not a direct comparison

The cabinets look much more blue in the pictures than in person. The color is Federal Grey and there is a brownish glaze on them. I'll get better pictures soon!