Saturday, May 26, 2012

Remodel & Summer Begins!

Once again I find it has been months since I last posted. School is out, summer activities with 2 little people will take precedence, my belly will keep growing with lil "Burrito" inside (as we have labeled him until we decide a name), and the remodel continues.

I thought I would post a few before pictures of the house so we can see what the place looked like to begin with. The bones were good, as they say. I loved some little details about this house--the finnial tip door hinges (weird, I know--who luuuuvs hinges?), a couple of dutch doors in the laundry and garage, the beautiful random width wood floors, the "vintage" calacutta gold marble in the master and powder bathrooms, the fairly simple and classic floorplan and facade, the HUGE backyard and location, location, location of course!

I'll start with the living room/kitchen area which is where the bulk of the work is being done.

Here are the BEFORE pictures: Family Room/Den - On the other side of that wall of built-ins is the breakfast room. We decided to take down that wall and put the kitchen there with a big island visually separating the family room and new kitchen. Basically flip-flopping the old breakfast room and kitchen areas. Kind of a big deal but we think it will have the flow of a more updated open family living space with that change
Photobucket Those big windows on either side of the fireplace will turn into french doors leading to the patio outside Photobucket Here is the old kitchen. It was redone about 10 years ago but wasn't going to fit the vision for an open floorplan concept. Take a good look at that kitchen.... Photobucket My sister in law attempted to salvage the kitchen cabinets and granite counters for her house. Sooooo....a few weeks later, her kitchen looked like this...Photobucket ...amazing, huh? The refrigerator was hers to begin with but all the cabinets, other appliances, and light fixtures are from our "new" house. One girl's demo pile is another girl's new kitchen... .

What you can't see in those pictures is we are bumping out the wall where the existing laundry room used to be to make room for the new kitchen and create a larger laundry/mud room. Kind of hard to explain so I'll just show you that in the pictures of the build back later.

We are also remodeling the master bathroom, seen here in it's original 1950s glory: Photobucket ....but take note of that marble. I'm going to use it somewhere!

And this little study/office room that used to sit next to the master bath will be converted to the master closet. The shelves were removed and a pocket door leading to the master bath will be located about where that computer screen is on those shelves.Photobucket So there you go! Before pictures of the house and I can't wait to see how the transformation takes shape. I always love a good before and after story!!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Many Kinds of Busy

Well, hello there, friends and followers! I can't believe it's nearing the end of March 2012?!
I suppose I have temporarily dropped off the face of the earth....I'd like to tell you I've spent all this time basking in the sun in the Caribbean, drinking fruity drinks, and swimming in the crystal blue ocean.....but I digress....

I'll give you some excuses that October/November became overwhelmingly busy as we started negotiations and finally ended up purchasing a new home!

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Very exciting but my days were filled dealing with all the home buying minutia. December we were busy with Christmas activity and January we discovered we were going to welcome Baby #3 to our family. It has been quite an exciting few months!

I kinda dropped doing projects around our current house because we are going to sell it soon and I'd rather start over and put all my creativity in the new house. I love painting/redoing furniture but my current house is so crammed full of furniture there isn't space (or time with 2 small kiddos) to do any of that.

There is a lot of remodeling we (um, our contractor is) doing to the new house so I hope to be able to share that project with you as we move forward.

I would love to post some inspiration pictures but there are so many so I'll just send you to my Pinterest account for now.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Pillows: The More the Merrier

Well, this is a lame first post after disappearing for almost 2 months but I have to start somewhere!

I've done some little projects here and there. I have forgotten or been working too fast to take pictures of most. The kids are starting MDO this week so maybe I'll have more time to blog!

We recently took a summer holiday to visit my inlaws in California. They have lived in Northern California for the past 8 years or so. I always hear about and see what my thrift-consignment-store-garage-sale-loving mother in law scores at these places and I am convinced California is the best market for resale goods.

She went to a garage sale the other day and picked up a surprise for my daughter's room:
Two soft pink boudoir pillows with a white embroidered edge she thought were "just perfect" for her big girl room.

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Indeed, the details are beautiful and the colors match her room perfectly.


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And the woman selling them made sure Debbie knew these were not just any boudoir pillows, they are made by Frette, a 150 year old European luxury linen company.

And can you guess how much these pillows were? $5 each....HOMERUN!

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Thanks to Debbie for keeping an eye out for us. Wish I could hit more garage sales in California!

Friday, July 15, 2011

Gray and Gold: An Elegant Pairing

There is something I am really loving about the combination of gold with gray.

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citified.blogspot.com
Peaceful.......

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aperfectgray.com

Luxurious.......

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Elegant.....

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My obsession with this color combo started when I was looking for a new paint color for my living room/kitchen/breakfast/entry in search of the perfect warm gray or "greige", as some call it. I needed just the right tone since I have a lot of warm tones in the wood, furniture, accessories in my house. Pairing gray (generally perceived as a cool color) with gold (a warm tone) seems strange at first but when it's the right combination.....ah, serenity now!
In my paint search, I stumbled upon a blog called A Perfect Gray (ha!) with some beautiful images....it seems I'm not the only one in search of the *perfect* gray



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I particularly love the sunburst mirror or a gilded antique mirror against a soft pale gray. Even this china and serveware against gray beadboard are delightfully yummy....
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Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Inspiration and Dreams....

Taking a breather...took the kids to this place in San Antonio, Texas and we had a great time. I would recommend it for sure if you are in the area. Lots of activities to keep the kiddos interested.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a few blogs I read recently that inspired me.

Being in a stage of possible transition and itching for a little more space, this post at A Soft Place to Land spoke to me. Aren't we all wanting more? But if we get it will we be satisfied or will we just want a little more after that? I remember moving into the house we live in now 4 years ago, when I was pregnant with our firstborn. I had no idea what we would do with THREE bedrooms and a laundry room! (We had just moved from a 900 SF, 1 bedroom apartment in Philadelphia). Now, with 2 kids and all the stuff that goes with them, I feel a little cramped....but am I really? We probably live better than 90% of the world. Am I grateful for where the Lord has put me now? Am I really thankful? A work in progress...I can relate to Kimba's post.

Another story I loved is from Erin at Rare and Beautiful Treasures. I have been stalking reading Erin's blog for a while and have followed her family's journey from selling their "dream home" in order to really live the life of their dreams. And interwined with it all, the story of their beautiful baby boy. I love this story because this family was living just like everyone else does but then dramatically changed their path and are starting to live purposefully with a vision. I'm just so inspired to really sit down and think about what we really want as a family for the next 10 years instead of just letting the next 10 years happen to us, ya know?

Well, I love dreaming and looking at beautfiul things as much as the next person...since I was too lazy to post any pictures, here's my Pinterest account. Feel free to follow me! I'd love to look at your dreamy pins and pictures too!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Dressers Be Done

Ok, have I bored y'all to tears with these dressers? Mercy!
I'm sure you are thinking: "enough with the dressers and the gray/white combo already? let's move on, lady"

I promise this is the last post. I finally finished up the short dresser that matches this chest of drawers and moved it into my daughter's room. Also,set up her matching nightstand featured in this post. I won't kill you with more words but I am really loving the final product. Just a reminder of the before....

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and after.....

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across from the dresser is this:
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Luuuvin it. One of these days lil mama is gonna have opinions on her bedroom so I'm going to enjoy this while I can! :)

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Side Table Redo

This Craigslist chest of drawers/dresser combo has turned our house upside down as I squeeze the absolute final pieces of furniture I could possibly fit into our house. Until I have final pictures of the dresser that match this chest of drawers. I will show you a quickie I painted.

Said dresser will go in my daughter's room which I just finished putting together.
The changes never end.....

Since the dresser is gray I decided to paint her little bedside table to match. It's been sitting there without hardware looking sad. This little table and it's twin belonged to my grandmother. My mom painted them years ago and they sat happily in my bedroom when I lived at home. Before painting every thing in sight was a fad, my mom was a beast with a brush and latex paint.
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I decided to freshen one up for my little girl....

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(Paris Gray & Old White)

In true Lori fashion, I had to embellish the top (I have an embellishment addiction)....

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Such beautiful details were begging to be celebrated!

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I am amazed the original skeleton keys have not been lost after at least 70+ years! They are so pretty....

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Furniture Feature Fridays
The Shabby Nest