Front Door Makeover

Our 1958 home has these darling front doors. Yep, 2 of them. They have their drawbacks, we only open one and its not as wide as the average door. But they are uber charming and one of the historic features that I love about owning a home that is over 50 years old. They are solid wood, have beautiful detail and they don't look just like the neighbors next door. Swoon!

Despite all of their current pros I still wanted to take them up a notch. Lets paint them! Colored front doors are something I have always wanted and an easy/inexpensive way to add some pop to the entry to your home. That is all the convincing I needed and I put it on our Home Project List.

I had been admiring a blue/teal color on a house along a neighborhood street nearby for years. This was my chance to take that admiration to another level. So the decided color was blue/teal.

My mom was in town about a month ago and since Molly had Mother's Day Out while she was here we made that our project day (see playroom art).

Some people leave the doors on to paint but with the narrow space they are housed in and the detail of the doors we opted to take them off. Once we got them off we laid them down in the garage and got to work.

In total it took us 3 coats of an exterior primer and paint in one. We let them dry for about 4 hours before putting them back on (we could have waited longer but it was getting dark).

Voila! Painted doors!



And because a before and after is always necessary.

Before:



After:



And a night shot for good measure.




I can't wait to have all our planting and yard work done for Spring. Then its really going to pop!

I would also like to replace our light fixtures and do something different with the mailbox. In time.

Quick DIY Playroom Art

With the start of the new year I have been on a bit of a DIY kick. There are lots of things on our list and we are slowly crossing them off. I also seem to have added a few as well, darn it Pinterest!

I shared our table makeover for Molly, which she continues to absolutely LOVE. But we also did another small project to add a little more fun to Molly's playroom.

I found my inspiration on Pinterest (I have no original ideas. ha!) and then got to work.

Source: google.com via hallie on Pinterest

I decided I wanted to spell out the word PLAY to put above her toy area and really add a fun way to dictate what this space is for.

The Process-

Step 1: Purchase canvas. In my case I wanted 12 x 12 square canvas. You can find them at your local hobby store or order them online at Amazon. I bought a 4-pack at Michaels.

Step 2: Create print outs for your letters so you can trace them onto your canvas. I used PrinterProjects.com

Step 3: Print out your chosen letters, cut them out and trace them onto your canvas.

Step 4: Pick out your paint colors. I used paints I already had on hand from a previous project. The best paint is basic acrylic paint you can find at Hobby Lobby, Wal-Mart etc.

Step 5: Paint away! Make sure to stay inside the lines. : )

The entire process took me (and my Mom) about 10 minutes. Easy and turned out so cute!

The finished product. Voila!





Total cost for this project was around $10. I had most of the supplies and I used a 40% off coupon at Michaels for the canvas.

Not too shabby.

Home Projects: Quarter One

I have a long list in Evernote of all the things I want to do to my house. Some are very realistic and others are very not. And we are constantly playing the game of "is this worth it for this house?" Since this is not our forever home or even our 10 year home we don't want to do too much. But I also think its silly when people spend money upgrading their house right before they sell when they could have done it years earlier and actually enjoyed it. (constant argument over and over in my head when trying to rationalize things)

After all this back and forth there are a few projects/design things etc. that we are going to attempt to tackle in the first quarter of this year. Some depend on budget, some depend on time but all are things that I definitely want in this house.

In an attempt to make it more real and not just a tidy list in my Evernote account I thought I would share it. This also might keep us accountable. Of course, as we do these things, I will post about them.

Without further ado, THE LIST:

1. Paint front doors
2. Paint kitchen cabinets white
1. Inside large pantry door chalkboard paint
2. New kitchen hardware
3. Re-cover mid century chairs
4. New house numbers
5. Better lighting in guest bath
6. Drywall laundry room and garage
7. Sod front area (early Spring)
8. New buffet/bar
9. New bookcase
10. Sleeper sofa/love seat
11. Chandelier light in entryway

I know, long list right! I am being very optimistic about what we want to do but gotta set the bar high right.

The first thing up is painting our front doors. We have gone back and forth on replacing them or painting them, finally landing on painting. Our house was built in 1958 and it has many charming elements, one being our double front doors. The width of each door is super tiny but they definitely add character. So instead of spending upwards of $700 to replace we are going to give them new life with a fun color.

I have had my eye on a soft teal blue color. Just the pop of color I want. And a nod to my mid century style. Hoping to get the project started this weekend while we have an extra day.

So what do you think? My project list too long? Am I crazy for picking such a bright color for the doors? 

the nursery: prints

When it comes to the nursery we want our overall style to still be present in the room.  We didn't want to jump ship into something all gooey and baby or more traditional.  We wanted to stick with our mid-century modern aesthetic.  So when it comes to the artwork on the walls we wanted something simple and minimilist that didn't necessarily scream baby but still had a youthful feel to it.

I scoured Etsy for days looking for the perfect prints.  I had already bought the white frames from Ikea so I knew what the overall finished look was going to be.  Now it was just about finding the balance of what we like but also what makes sense for our lil bean Molly.

Voila!  Two perfect prints for our baby girl's room.



We really wanted to incorporate our love for our home state Oklahoma somehow and the print seemed like the perfect way.  Even though our lil girls birth certificate will say Texas, she will grow up an Oklahoman and proud of it.  We also wanted to include something that both Chase and I enjoy, bicycling.  The print is an ideal mix of part of Chase and I, but also a bit whimsical and youthful.

Next up...we just have to hang them (extremely securely).  Don't even get me started on the horrific images I have had in my head of those things falling on my baby's head. I will leave that part up to Chase.

the nursery: step one-paint

As soon as we found out that we are having a little girl I was ready to start shopping and decorating.  I knew prior to finding out the gender a few of the neutral things I wanted to do and instantly started filling in the gaps in my head with girl tailored ideas after our reveal party.

But to start things off we had to paint.  Lucky for me my Mom volunteered herself (not sure why) to come stay with us for a week and help with the painting.  Or really more do all of the painting with a little bit of my help.

Our house was painted all the same brown/beige color before we moved in so we had a blank canvas to work with.  I knew long ago that regardless of boy or girl the walls were going to be a fun green color.  Its a great base for either gender and goes well with blue or pink accessories.  After we found out I also decided I wanted to paint the inside of the closet pink for a pop of girl fun and to add an additional layer to the room.  We chose Olympic zero voc Lettuce Alone for the walls and Pink Persuasion for the closet that we picked up at the local Lowe's.



We also tackled the ceiling, painting it white to keep the room feeling bright and airy.

We are extremely happy with the painting project and the way the colors turned out.  Can't wait to continue making the nursery the perfect home for our little girl.

Stay tuned for the nursery mood board post.

bathroom upgrade

Since our big backyard project and our living room paint mishap Chase and I haven't been tackling too many house projects so I decided I needed to change something, anything. When we bought our house it had been updated...some of the things we like and some of the things we really don't.  One of those things is the bathroom mirrors and light fixtures.  First step in upgrading these spaces, new mirror for the master bath.

During one of our married couple Sunday errand running adventures Chase and I came across a mirror we really liked at Crate&Barrel.  It was exactly what I was wanting- modern, clean lines, minimal.  And BONUS, floor sample sale!  So we snatched it up and did a little mirror swapping.

Before (confession-we forgot to take a before so this is the guest bath but they look exactly the same):

After:


As you can see we need to update the light fixture now, it doesn't quite match.  Hopefully we can hit up Home Depot this weekend and find something we like.

In the meantime I am loving the new mirror!

backyard project update

It has been awhile since I posted about our backyard project.  Mostly because after all the extremely hard work and money we put into it I wanted to just enjoy it and enjoy not having to think about "our ugly backyard."  Well, as of late, I am having to give it some thought again.

You see, we have been scorched down here in Texas

Our yard was beautiful, it was fantastic and green and beautiful. Our plants and flowers were blooming and had pops of color.  It was perfect.  That was in May/June, that was when the Texas summer was enjoyable and temperatures were topping out in the low 90s.  Well, that time has passed.  

Come July and into August the weekly forecast was all days in the triple digits.  Our newly planted grass in the backyard started turning brown and our plants started suffering from the hot heat and intense sun. 

The tomatoes have pretty much stopped producing anything.  The grass in the corner parts of our yard is pretty much dead.  We have awful brown remnants of plants in the beds.  Sad but true.

At this point, we aren't really sure what to do.  We got a ton of rain the past couple days, finally.  Hopefully that will help.

Here's to replanting and top-seeding in the early spring.

For now, lets look at the backyard from a few months back and remember.

veggie and yard update

A few days ago I posted about our first veggie garden.  Well its growing and growing!  Here are a couple shots of the progress.  We are starting to see a few buds on the tomato plants, hopefully those will continue to grow into something we can eat!  The only issue we are having is with some bugs...its been very humid here and not quite hot enough = breeding ground for plant eating bugs.  Going to hit the local nursery today to see if they have some knowledge to impart.



Our yard and plants are also looking great!  We went out of town the week after we put the grass down but our fantastic neighbor watered for us so its looking healthy and green.

its official

I am now an official 'Garden Blogger' for Burpee Home Gardens.  My very first blog was posted on their site today along with my bio and my Twitter introduction!!  How cool is that?

Here is my Burpee bio.

And my Burpee tweet.

Read my first post at Burpee's blog!

I can't believe it actually happened...I still feel like somehow its a scam and all the money just got transferred out of my account and to some exotic island somewhere.

laying sod

Continuing with our backyard makeover, a couple days ago we had 3 flats (1700 sq ft) of St. Augustine grass delivered to our house.

I described the overall process a few posts back, you can check that out here.  It came down to a lot of hard intensive work over 2 days time.

First things first, prepping the yard. This consisted of mostly tilling up the existing grass (what little we had) and working the soil to be flat and ready for sod. We rented a rototiller and a roller from Home Depot, total cost $65.





We ordered the sod from Miller Grass, a local sod farm.  The sod is harvested fresh daily and the people there were super knowledgeable.  The sod was in fantastic shape.  The total cost was $611 delivered.





Once the sod was at the house the next 5 to 6 hours was carrying sod out to the yard and placing it. We had to make sure the pieces fit snug up next to each other and got patted down into the soil. We also had to do quite a bit of cutting around the trees and edges of the yard.





After all the sod was placed the backyard had instant grass! The next step is making sure to soak the yard with water for the next month to insure that the sod takes root to the soil. No walking on the grass for awhile and our water bill is going to be huge!!




Our new grass backyard:



We have a few more small projects in the back but its starting to look really good!

and the trees came down

One of the bigger investments we made in our backyard project was paying for tree limb removal and general tree cleanup.  We have 5 trees in our backyard that have pretty much been left alone to grow wild all over the place.  We knew we needed to trim off a lot of dead limbs but after having a few arborists or "tree whisperers" (self proclaimed nickname) out to the house we realized we might need to make a bigger investment and really clean and shape up our trees.







One of the biggest advantages of the tree work is getting a lot more sun into our backyard.  Previously it was pretty much entirely shade for 70% of the day...this caused problems when it came to planting flowers and veggies that need sunlight.  Now we have a lot more sun coming in which means better growth and an all around happier back yard.

Now that the trees are cleaned up, let the sod work begin!!

backyard project status

This past weekend was the kick-off of the big backyard makeover. It was a very long weekend with lots of hard labor but not really any results to show for it yet.

We did make some progress. The weekend was mostly spent cleaning up debris, leaves, tree roots etc. out of the yard. We also created a brick edge around the back of the yard to separate the line of trees from the main yard area. That project was a lot harder than what we anticipated.


Before



During




After


 All in all, three trips to Home Depot including two truck fulls of supplies. Two trips to the dump to get rid of truck loads of bushes, branches etc. And two small projects to check off the list.


Trip one to Home Depot


In the coming days we will be having a tree company come and clean up all the dead limbs in our trees, rent and rototill the backyard, purchase and lay sod.

Stay tuned.

backyard makeover

Our backyard is in a bit of disarray. It has pretty much been neglected for several years and needs some love.

This weekend we are kicking off this HUGE project with step one in the makeover...sod the backyard. Right now our backyard is mostly dirt with a little bit of grass here and there but after next week we should have a nice new yard full of St. Augustine grass.



Here is a breakdown of the project:
Step one- create a map of the backyard and decide where all we are going to put the grass
Step Two- Pull up any small bushes or trees we are going to get rid of
Step Three- Spray all existing grass with farmer grade grass killer
Step Four- Rent a rototiller and till the soil making it softer and ready to accept the new grass
Step Five- Measure the square footage of the yard to determine how much grass we need
Step Six- Mark off the areas where we will be putting pavers for a walkway and trim for the back beds
Step Seven- Purchase and load/deliver the sod to the house
Step Eight- Put down the fresh sod onto the yard starting with the perimeter and working in
Step Nine- Roll the sod to establish root contact
Step Ten- Water, water, water



Wow, that sounds so exhausting. Luckily my dad, who has done this before, is coming in town to help out and make sure we do everything right.

More posts to show the progress will be coming.

My plants are here

My plants from Burpee Home Gardens arrived on my doorstep today.

They are so beautiful and green. I can't wait to plant them this weekend. We are still trying to figure out exactly where in the backyard to plant them so more details on that to come.

Getting excited about having tomatoes right in my own backyard!

A Unique Opportunity

Yesterday I got a very interesting email in my inbox. It was a representative from Burpee Home Gardens, a company that has been producing products for the home gardener since 1885.

Burpee Home Gardens is starting a new line of products as part of a campaign called I Can Grow designed to help the next generation of gardeners succeed with their vegetable and herb plants. They were searching for novice gardeners (me) to blog about their own gardening experiences. The people at Burpee had come across my blog and offered me the opportunity to guest blog on the Burpee Home Gardens website and talk about my experience in gardening. Wow! Seriously? I thought for sure it wasn't the real deal. Well it turns out it was!

Burpee Home Gardens is sending me some of their latest vegetable and herb plants along with a new book they developed to help Chase and I get our very own home garden started. How exciting!

I will be posting at http://www.burpeehomegardens.com/blog so go check it out! I will keep everyone here updated and be sure to link to my posts when they are published.

Also check out the Burpee Home Garden website, it has great tips and advice on home gardening.  A great resource.

spring planting

This past weekend I decided to take full advantage of having my mom, an avid gardener, and my brother, a landscape designer, in town.  We had a long bed in the front of our house, a bed in the back and some shrubbery to work on.  Lucky for me they were all in!

They arrived in town on Saturday morning and after they settled in we went outside to assess the situation, discuss our options (based on the way the house faces, the sun/shade exposure, the grade of the ground etc.), make notes and so on. After we had a game plan we headed out to a few local nursery shops.

We piled flowers and plants into the back of my car, got some mulch and a new pot for the front porch and made our way back to the house to begin the dirt-y work. ha! It took us, in total, about 4 hours (including removal of old shrubbery, ground prep, shopping, planting, clean up, dumping).

Front:

Combination of Mums, Impatients and Calanbais.


potted Geranium on newly transformed pot stand



Back:

combination of Green Potato vine (which will fill in as ground cover), Caladiums and Gardenias.




We are pleased!