Ranchwood

Many long awaited pictures!

The Foyer now painted...

 

     Before & After

And the living room.

I wasn't going to show you the other side of this room aka. our dining room because it is full of paint supplies and tools. You can see though! you can just look past it...

Also the chunky new coffee table. Ignore the accessories on top, they have already changed :)

The large garage sale find we call our dining table is huge and beautiful. However whoever stained it did a bad job because they didn't seal it and its sticky. very weird if you ask me. So I am sanding it down right now but its taking for-ev-er!

Brandon and some handy friends did the trim this week. They did around the front door on the outside and on the inside. Also around a kitchen doorway.Its too cold for me to go out and take a picture, so here is the interior trim they did.

Brandon picked up the trim but he didn't just buy trim. He got square corner pieces. I think he did a great job choosing them. They look great. They had an expensive feel without being expensive :) We like that around here.

Kitchen is next to be painted.

Completed back splash. Makes a huge difference!

Awhile ago I mentioned a dresser I got. Solid wood, ugly molding decals and perfect for our room. I have removed the decorative pieces but the process stopped there since I got busy. I haven't forgotten about the chunky thing and will paint it a antique yellow, eventually.

On a side note...

                       How cute is she wearing my shades!

Hernia

No I don't have a Hernia, thankfully. My mom always told me I was going to get a hernia because I move everything myself, pick up things that are way to heavy. I actually am surprised I haven't had one yet.

Last night I could just picture my mom watching me and saying "are you crazy! your going to get a hernia!"
I painted the livingroom & dining room last night while Brandon was out. In order to paint a room, you all know furniture has to be moved. Well I moved our large dining table, all 8 chairs, a very heavy hutch (decided to leave all glass/fancy dishes in it and nothing broke), 2 couches, a few side/coffe tables and another small but heavy dining table, which is in our front room waiting to be picked up off of kijiji.

I then proceeded to paint the rooms in the beautiful Ranchwood by Benjamin Moore. Then, taking the opportunity of the floor being empy, I vaccumed and scrubbed the floors. Then I (by myself again) moved all the furniture back. I know your thinking "HERNIA LADY!" or "where does she hide those muscles?"

I dont have an answer but I do have beautifully painted rooms that I will have to show you. Brandon came home just when I finished (good timing young sir!) He was surprised that I finished all the painting and more surprised I moved everything myself.

Also, we picked up a new coffee table last night that I am almost done refinishing. Its an octagon and its chunky, love it!

Christmas!

I know its not Christmas yet but if you want to do custom Christmas cards you gotta get on that sooner then later. I came across an amazing deal from Shutterfly (http://www.shutterfly.com/) Its for all bloggers out there, wherever you may be... The deal is to mention them in one of your posts and receive 50 free holiday cards! Yes I said 50. Pretty cool right?
I think its a perfect deal for us because we haven't done Christmas cards yet together. So this will be our first Christmas with cards, custom cards at that from Shutterfly.
There are so many to choose from but here are a few of my favorite...

I will have a very hard time choosing since there are so many choices. They also have some pretty cool calendars, photo albums etc. I have used them before and have family members who have used them. They ship quick and the picture quality is great. They are a great site to visit :)

Check up

We are not done any of the various projects we have on the go. Did I mention all the things we are trying to complete at once? Well let me tell ya!

Painting the majority of the house one room at a time -only have 1 done...5 to go. We are painting the main rooms all in Ranchwood by Benjamin Moore.. Its a grey taupe and its lovely :)

Brandon & Paul worked on the back splash last night. We did this back splash maybe a year ago? maybe longer ha. Never finished a few pieces and we never grouted it. Well the grout makes a HUGE difference. It looks amazing now.
Picture to come

We picked up new railings for our stairs since the ones we have are just a thin piece of wood on a few non-matching brackets. So I have to paint the new railings and then we will install them. I am sure it will make a huge difference to the stairs.

I am also painting the 2 ugly chairs. Remember from the last post? I always tell Brandon how much paint can make things beautiful. It is definitely true with these chairs.
pictures to come

We have the contractor coming today to finish every touch up in the house except the family room ceiling (that's a full day job)
Once he is done all the touch ups I can go around and paint the completed rooms with the paint listed above.

I am still working on Andy's mirror, I am so close I can taste it. Don't worry, that's just a figure of speech, I wont actually taste the mirror...
pictures to come

* I am sitting here trying to think of more projects we have on the go. Its sad we try to finish so many things at once. We need to work on that habit*

Oh right the dresser I got. I haven't even shared a picture of it. I will be painting it an antique yellow. I know it sounds scary but don't worry I have a vision.

That reminds me of every time I bring something home or pick a colour... Brandon's face makes a  I don't know about that? are you sure that will look ok? He then says to me "are you sure?" I speak my decor lingo about complimentary/analogous colour schemes and room balance etc. He then says "Ok, I guess. We will see" Happens all the time. He wants me to reassure him I have picked the right choice. He always ends up loving it, which is good because it would be a waste of money if we had to change things all the time. I found out he asks me these things because he cant envision things.
Show him a chip of paint..he doesn't know.
Show him a few spots on the wall... he doesn't know.
Paint the whole room... he now loves it!

Even though he is like this he seems to pick some pretty good furnishings. For example; our kitchen tap, our upper bathroom light fixture, the new railings.
I would say our mix of choices make a pretty good team and a beautiful house.

ok enough with the rambling! Bye!

A little bit of this...

a little bit of that...

Its saturday at 12pm and I have done alot today. Besides laundry & dishes I have painted some dining chairs, got some more chairs to redo, worked on Andys door...

Oh and I made the cookies!

They are SO good! thank you Connie :)











I completed 4 chairs for our dining room... Need to find and paint 4 more.

 

Here are two more (ugly) chairs that I got. I am going to give them TLC to make them beautiful.

 

Stay Tuned...

Goodbye Green

Oh the lovely green bathtub and sink, Not! I was so glad to see that go. Not only was it ugly, it just felt like it was never clean. You clean to get the end result of nice shiny white. Well you don't get even close to shiny when you have an old green tub.

 

I originally got a huge soaker tub and was going to rearrange the bathroom to make it fit.

We were smart to check before hand what was hiding in the wall I wanted to remove. There was pipes running up the wall, so I left the layout as is and we went to work. We planned it accordingly so we would insert the new tub first because we do need to clean ourselves. HA

All the tiling was done next.

 

Next the toilet was put in. There were a few scraps on this one because I bought a "roman" style toilet. The difference with this toilet was that it had no screws, indents or caps on the side, it was all hidden inside and the outside of the toilet was all straight and smooth. As soon as I saw this I immediately thought "oh thank you toilet designer, no more indented sides that collect dust, dirt, urine etc. *quivers* makes me sick thinking about how gross those areas get. ANYWAYS back to the point, the screws on the inside are very hard to install properly. I would like you to all notice I put very hard, I really would like to put stress on the "very". Our regular downstairs toilet took maybe 20min to install, we were trying for hours to get this one in. We went out that night and bought longer bolts and we finally got the nut on and got it to tighten and then POP... the screw head had popped out of the black washer thing. Can you tell I am not a professional. Anyways by this point Brandon was really mad at my choice of toilet but with patience we finally got it.

Couple weeks later the toilet starts leaking! haha (that's a fake laugh by the way) you should have seen the look on our faces. We found the leak, hairline crack in the bowl, after all that! the toilet was no good. We had to get rid of it and buy another toilet.

A few things left to do in this bathroom but all in all, its better right? I think my good buy pottery barn shower curtain trumps this bathroom for me :)

The few things left are: New window, Fan fitted properly & trim around the closet. These things should be done before Christmas.

* I should mention we had help with the tub and tiles from mom, dad & Paul. We appreciate all the help we got from you on this bathroom and elsewhere in our house.

Contractor Day 1

He was here! I can tell because a lot of the holes in my house walls are patched, hehe. He may not be done but I am already thrilled.

 

 

I got a "cookie jar" from my sister the other day. Had to take a picture because its so pretty. I will mix it all together this week and make delicious cookies. Anyone up for coming over for a snack?

This is Ryder watching me write this, too cute.



Almost Done!

That huge list of house projects has dropped considerable. I say this with a huge smile on my face! We have hired a contractor to start on our house today. He won't be doing large repairs as they are all done. He will be completing all small jobs that we have yet to get too and that I hate looking at everyday. Once he is done all those small repairs, we will be painting the entire house. *does a happy dance*

I cant wait for everything to be done! I am so excited :)

I will post pictures once he is done, which should be within the next two weeks.

P.s the pictures of our renovations to date aren't loading properly on my computer. Once I figure out how to make the process faster, those posts will be up.
P.s.s Are people even reading my posts?

Busy Body

I have been so busy lately with decorating and painting. I am SO excited to show you my latest pieces. I am finished the large tv cabinet, Dining Table, Bench and a few chairs. Half is staying in our home and the other half I want out, so hopefully they sell soon because I need more room in our house.

Yesterday I painted a chair for our foyer and all I am going to say is Green Envy :)

I am currently taking apart an upholstered chair to re-upholster it. It is so hard to get staples out that have been in there for longer then I can imagine. It will be one of my hardest pieces and I cant wait for the day I can show you the finished product.

I also picked up a beautiful dresser last night. Its super heavy so I brought my muscles to come pick it up..thats Brandon by the way. I have modified it a bit, took off the handles and hope to paint it tonight. Its going to be red. yes I said red! cant wait.. I will post pictures soon, promise, pinky promise.

P.S. my mind wont stop thinking about how I am going to decorate for Christmas.
P.S.S I am working on a beautiful Door turned mirror for Andy. Cant wait till its done! I might have a hard time giving it back. :)