What We’ve Been Up To

November 23, 2021 by Christina

Well, to say the least, it has been a while since I have last done a blog post. Work, family and life tend to make things pretty busy. We’ve been continuing to navigate first time homeownership and it feels like we experienced one issue after another with the house. Some of those issues led to updates that had to be done a bit earlier than anticipated, however before I get into that, I should probably start with the most recent and most significant update for our family, and that is we are expecting baby number 2! We are having a little boy due in February and we are thrilled! Life is definitely going to be a lot more hectic than it is already – full of new adventures and challenges, but we can’t wait.

Now that I’ve shared the exciting news, let me rewind back to March 2021. Around this time, we’d been having an issue with the shower knobs in the master bathroom shower. One of them was not gripping the stem properly and so when we tried to turn the knob, instead of turning the water on, the knob continually twisted around. My husband attempted to fix this, which we initially thought he had, however we had a rude awakening the next day. While he was taking a shower, I happened to go downstairs just as water started dripping through the ceiling of our family room in a horizontal line that extended several feet. The water was coming from the pipes inside the master shower wall. The water travelled down the wall to the first level and then pooled over a spot on the ceiling and eventually soaked the drywall enough to drip through. Obviously, something had gone wrong and we learned the valuable lesson to just call a plumber when it comes to these kinds of issues. After calling some contractors out to assess and treat the damage, here is what we were left with.

We essentially had to remove the ceiling for half of the room and a large section of the wall where the water had soaked the drywall. The water also soaked the carpet and the wooden tiles underneath so the flooring had to be removed in the entire room. To say we were frustrated would be an understatement because we felt that if we had just called a plumber in the first place to fix the shower, we could have avoided destroying half the family room that in the end cost thousands of dollars to fix. Lesson learned.

So we removed the floor, had the contractors put up new drywall and then we repainted.

This left us with a decision about what to do about flooring in that room. When we first moved into the house, we knew we really wanted to have all new consistent flooring throughout the main level. The family room had carpet, the kitchen and entryway were ceramic tile, and the formal living room and dining room were laminate. We hadn’t planned on doing such a major project for a little while longer, but ultimately it didn’t make sense to us to spend the money to re-carpet the family room if we wanted to replace it eventually with the rest of the house anyway so we decided to pull the trigger and refloor the entire first level.

We removed the laminate in the living and dining rooms ourselves to save a bit on labor costs and worked with a local company to put in luxury vinyl plank (LVP). We went with LVP because I wanted a wood look for the floor but also something durable. LVP is scratch resistant, waterproof, and relatively affordable. While laminate might have been cheaper, it is not scratch resistant or waterproof and thus it couldn’t be used in the powder room or kitchen. And with a young child, we felt like the product would give us the look we were going for while having the durability to stand up to beating a young family could give it. The floors we picked out have texture to them, are beveled at the joints, and have some variation in color to give it dimension so they look really nice. It’s amazing the flooring products they have these days. I loved how they turned out and we are pretty happy with it so far.

After the floors were done, we were still in a bit of a limbo period with the living room because we were still waiting on furniture. The wait for furniture was a bit torturous because we’d already had to wait a year after moving in to order it. Once we did, we were promised a certain time frame and it kept getting pushed back. We understood that there were supply chain issues due to the pandemic, but there was also an element of shady sales tactics as well. We were unable to buy other furniture that we needed such as coffee and end tables, or decorate until we had these anchor pieces. Long story short, after several months of back and forth, an eventual order cancellation, then going to a different furniture store, in June we FINALLY received our couch and loveseat for the living room and the replacement sectional for the family room. We were then able to pick out our coffee and end tables for both rooms. It finally felt like we were making some progress. We still have more to do in the living room – lamps, plants, wall decor, shelving – but we are getting there.

It was around this time over the summer that we found out we were pregnant. With the new baby coming, we decided it was now time to replace the old, dated, brown shag carpeting that covered three quarters of the second level. This carpet was worn, torn and full of dog hair when we first moved in. While we had the carpet professionally cleaned, we were unfortunately unable to replace it right away due to financial constraints. I didn’t want to put it off any longer as I did not want the baby crawling around on that, not to mention it was a bit…ugly. So in October, we worked with the same company that put in the LVP to put in new lighter carpet on the whole second level.

So due to a series of events, we did several big projects this year and I love how they’ve updated the look of our home. We’ve now made enough progress that I was able to decorate a bit for Fall.

Next up are the nursery and a refresh for our toddler’s room. Then I think we’ll be taking time to adjust to life with a newborn and as a family of four.

Couch & Loveseat – La-Z-Boy

Coffee & End Tables – World Market

Rug – Boutique Rugs

Basket – At Home

Wicker Lantern – At Home

Round Basket Tray – Target

Coffee Table and Mantle Decor – Target, At Home, Michaels

Cheap and Easy Fireplace Insert Makeover

February 15, 2021 by Christina

One of the coolest features of our house is the wood burning fireplace in the living room. It has a brick hearth and traditional white mantle. The only problem was the outdated brass fireplace insert.

Ignore the chalk. Our toddler decided to do some “artwork” on the hearth.

I immediately knew that insert would need to go. I initially thought about buying a new one, but I came across the idea of spray painting the brass black and decided to experiment. Due to the high temperature the door comes into contact with, it’s really important to use a spray paint formulated to withstand high heat. Enter Rust-Oleum Speciality High Heat Spray Paint. You can find this product at Home Depot for about $5.

There a few other items needed for this project and you can find a complete list below:

Rust-Oleum Speciality High Heat Spray Paint
Steel Wool – Grade 0000
Painter’s Tape
Rag
Plastic drop cloth or large old cardboard boxes

Before painting, we removed the insert and cleaned it, making sure to get rid of all the dirt and soot. This is an important step so that when you go to spray paint you’re not painting over dirt or the spray doesn’t send soot flying everywhere. Next, I made sure to lightly sand the brass with grade 0000 steel wool rough up the surface a bit. Due to the brass being so smooth, roughing up the surface gives it some grip so the paint has something to adhere to. After sanding, I wiped the insert down, removing all dust to give me a nice clean surface ready for painting.

I used painter’s tape to tape off the glass panes then did three coats of the paint. A note about the finish of this spray paint. The can itself does not indicate a finish, however the Home Depot website lists the finish as Satin. I bought my can in-store not registering that I didn’t know the finish. It was not until after the spray paint dried that I noticed the finish was very, very flat. I would almost describe it as matte. This threw me off initially, but it grew on me and now I think it suits the space really well. Here is how it turned out:

I love how modern and updated it looks now. I’m thinking about white washing the brick to give the fireplace even more of a facelift.

Has anyone tried this with their fireplace? What do you think?

Painting The Living Room & Dining Room Repose Gray

February 3, 2021 by Christina 2 Comments

One of the things we loved about this house was the spacious and open living and dining room spaces. As with the rest of the house, the walls were that beige-ish tan color that we knew we were going to change.

When we toured the house prior to putting in an offer, it was nicely staged and decorated as many homes are when on the market. Part of this decor were what we thought to be two fairly large wood framed signs on the living room and dining room walls. Imagine our surprise during the final walk through, after all the staging was gone, that they were not “signs”, as in separate physical pieces that could be removed. Oh no – these were wooden boards cut into the shape of a frame and GLUED to the wall. The middle of the frame was actually the drywall painted a different color than the rest of the wall and the lettering was black vinyl decals.

We did not want these to stay so we went about removing them. The vinyl lettering was super easy, I just pulled it right off. The boards were adhered really well to the wall so unfortunately when I pried them off they took some layers of drywall with them. We were left with the below:

Now we were left with drywall that needed to be repaired, which neither of us had experience with. We did some research and the process seemed fairly simple – scrape, mud, sand, and prime. Hubby wanted to attempt the wall repair ourselves, but I chickened out and insisted on hiring a professional. Ultimately, I was afraid that we wouldn’t do it right and when we went to paint over it, it would bubble or some other catastrophe would happen. So, $600 later, the damaged drywall was fixed and we were left with large noticeable squares of white primer on the tan walls.

Shortly after the walls were fixed the pandemic hit and we needed to conserve finances, so we had to live with the walls like this for a few months. Then thanks to a gift card we received for signing up with our cable company, we were able to buy the paint we wanted and paint the entire first floor of the house. We went with the Sherwin Williams Duration paint in Repose Gray for the walls and the Sherwin Williams Urethane Trim Enamel for the trim and fireplace mantel. I really love the Repose Gray – it’s a light, neutral, but slightly warm gray. It instantly modernized the space, giving it a bright, fresh look.

For the window treatment for this room, we put up a black curtain rod with semi-transparent white curtains. We also took the opportunity to makeover the old brass fireplace door – stay tuned for a separate blog post on that! Here is how it turned out.

Love it! We have since replaced the dated chandelier and soon we’ll be furnishing the living room, which I’m patiently waiting for. Until then, I think this is a pretty good start.

If you’re interested in where I picked up these super affordable curtain rod and curtains, it was none other than Target!

Toddler Room Transformation

January 25, 2021 by Christina

One of our first priorities upon closing on the house was to revamp the bedroom that would be our then two year old’s room. We wanted to take care of her room first so she’d have a comfortable and familiar space immediately upon move in. We knew we wanted to paint it and since we wouldn’t be moving in for another month, we tackled that first so we didn’t have to worry about paint fumes and could set up her room on move-in day.

We weren’t planning to completely reinvent the wheel and planned to use all the existing furniture and decor we used for her nursery. But now that we owned this place and could paint, that was going to be the key difference for her room in the new house. We decided early on to paint the whole interior ourselves after getting a quote from a professional painter and realizing that we could save a lot of money by doing so.

We started with prepping: wiping down the walls to remove all dust and dirt, then spackling, sanding, and taping. We painted the ceiling, walls, and trim, including inside the closet. Painting got off to somewhat of a rough start with me accidentally spilling the ceiling paint onto the carpet, which was a bummer. That was frustrating but we managed to get a lot of it out and the carpet was professionally cleaned along with the rest of the house prior to move in.

The walls of this room, along with the rest of the house, was a beige-ish tan color. While nice, it was not going to work with the vision we had for her room. Here’s a before shot.

We used the Emerald Interior Acrylic Latex paint from Sherwin Williams in the color Embellished Blue, a gorgeous color and the perfect backdrop for the room’s palette of pink, gold, and turquoise. Again, borrowing the idea from her nursery, we made the wall on which her bed is against a statement wall, using her name banner (which I absolutely love) and gold dot decals. I eventually plan to buy more decals so that I can create the polka dot pattern all over her room. Here’s how it turned out.

It turned out super cute and the wall color really makes the room pop. At some point we will swap out that old brown ceiling fan and put in new carpet or flooring. What do you guys think of it so far?

I’ll note here that I like to save money and do things on a budget when I can. We bought the paint during one of Sherwin Williams frequent 30% off sales. All of the furniture and decor previously purchased for this room are very affordable, and honestly toddlers don’t need much so no need to drain your bank account. If you’re interested on where specific items in her room are from, see below:

Crib/Bed: Babyletto Moto 3-in-1 Convertible Crib (hers has been converted to a toddler bed).

Gold Dot Decals: Etsy

Dresser: Ikea

Bookshelf: Ikea

Name Banner: Etsy

Lamp: Target

Table: Amazon

Rocking Chair & Ottoman: Amazon. Similar here.

Curtains: Amazon

Welcome To The Blog – First Post!

January 16, 2021 by Christina

First post! I am very excited to be starting this blog. For many years I’ve desired putting one together to document my hobbies and all the things that interest me. I have made several attempts in the past but it never stuck. As tumultuous as last year was, it provided some opportunity to evaluate my goals and put some thought into how to execute them. After doing some research, I’m giving it a go!

My goal is to make this blog a chronicled amalgamation of the things I love: DIY, home decor, family and taking you on our journey of homeownership.

Speaking of homeownership…

Needless to say, 2020 was a hell of a year for most. While our family was impacted by the fallout of COVID-19, there was a major bright spot that occurred at the top of the year. We bought our first home! A three bedroom/two and a half bathroom place of our very own. The process of buying the house was both exciting and stressful, which is the case even under normal circumstances. But we’re crazy and I’m impatient so we put an offer in on the house during Christmastime in 2019, a week before going on a week long international cruise with limited internet access. I don’t recommend doing that. Maybe I’ll blog about that whole experience in more detail one day. But it all worked out and we moved in February of 2020.

Of course we have a mile long list of projects and things we want to do with the house. The pandemic has slowed our roll a bit so we haven’t been able to move full speed ahead with everything. I’ve recently realized that it’s a good thing as there is something to living in a space for a while to truly get a feel for whether your ideas will work and even if you really want to follow through with them.

We are excited to slowly tick things off our list and I look forward to sharing how we transform each space and turn the house into our home. I’ll also be sharing tidbits about our life and adventures along the way. With that said, thanks for dropping by and please read on! Feedback is most welcome so feel free to write me or comment on my posts.