Finally, a shower!

We are seeing progress, people!  Our 36x36 stall shower is being installed! 

This bathroom is by far the largest in our house, so that may be the reason why I'm sooo insanely excited for it.  The shower isn't huge, but I think that just having it will be good enough. Plus, I'll buy one of those curved shower curtain rods. That should help!

Next up...new windows!

xoxo
L

Bull.

Looking for the perfect over-the-fireplace accessory?

FOUND IT!

I noticed my bull friend whilst walking by their storefront and KNEW he had to be mine.  Unfortunately, they only had Bull in bubblegum pink, so I had to go ahead and special order a white one.  He came in a week later from Mexico and he's perfect!

I bought my bull at SHED in Maplewood, NJ (Go small business! Yay). You can find them here: http://shedhome.blogspot.com/   

xoxo
L

Home Grown - Dining Room Hutch Makeover

HOLY SMOKES! I officially know I'm an adult now because of how flipping proud I am of this project.  I love it. LOVE it. I may marry it.

So, we decided to paint ourselves a hutch.  A dining room hutch.  We have no experience with such things, but we also have no experience in restraint, so we went for it.

It was an old handmade piece that a friend of my Mom's gave to her years ago.  My Mom kept it in her basement, in pieces, so we decided to put it to use.  Also, there is a gaping hole/empty wall in our dining room that needs some covering.

Diving right in, we grabbed our little sanders and began to sand.  Every side, every shelf, every door, every...thing.

Then, we got to painting.  Martha Stewart Heavy Goose.  We had no clue where to start, so we just started everything. At once. 

Hardware - For this, I went to the seemingly massive spray paint selection at Home Depot.  They have about a million colors to choose from and they're all unbelievably boring aside from about 5 vibrant/cool ones.  I went with "Candy Apple"...which incidentally was a green, even though candy apple's are red.

After 2 coats of white on everything and newly greened hardware, we left the hutch to the garage and forgot about her for the past week.  Finally, it was Friday again and time to bring 'er in.  We thought working on touch ups from inside should be fine and not too hazardous.  We were sorta right.

One more coat of touch ups...

Then, it was time for...(wait for it)...ASSEMBLY!!!  Wooooooo!

Dog sitting and hutch assembling go very well together.

My stick-arms got a pretty good workout.

Of course, there were still a few paint fixes to be had.

But once that was done, we were finally, almost at the finish line.  We let it dry before drilling in our new little wine rack things from Bed Bath and Beyond ($9.99).

And then what do you know, VOILA...

We were done! Our dining room is complete!

Since the hutch was free, this whole project cost under a hundred bucks.  It was kind of a pain, especially since the doors didn't line up perfectly (please ignore the hair tie holding them shut for now) but it was completely worth it.  Our dining room feels so different/cozy/us/amazing.

The sky is falling!

That's what I thought, at least, when the wind blew earlier today and a branch the size of Hercules fell onto the roof right above the office I was working in (I could have died!!! Crap).  Not only did said Herculean branch knock a picture straight off of the wall, it also scared the bejeezus out of Remy and I! Obviously, Remy ran to the front door to yell at whoever dropped the gargantuan branch onto us so rudely while I went out back to survey the damage.  Yowza.  Living amongst my tree friends is a wee bit scary some days.  Anyone know a good arborist?

Now let's all say a cheer that this didn't happen to your house!  Weeee!

I did this for perspective, but I don't think it worked. Perspective fail.

  Where are we supposed to put this thing?  Chop it up and burn the wood in a fire pit? Great idea!   To do: buy a fire pit.

Quick Fix: Tiny Bathroom Shelf

Does anyone else have a room that is completely different than the rest of their house? A room that "jumped the shark," if you will.

Well, I do.  And it's the smallest room ever. 

Basically, someone converted a small food pantry into a bathroom at some point in my house's long life and it's a space I find myself constantly wondering about.  How do I make this room bigger?  Appear bigger, at least?

Upon moving in, I had the magnificent idea of painting the farthest wall bright yellow to "open" the space up.  I'm not sure if it worked, but it definitely gave the room a different vibe from the rest of my shabby chic casa because after the wall painting came random circle mirrors, a new toilet and a small modern looking shelf thing from Target (not pictured). 

I thought I was all done.  What else is there to do in a 3x3 bathroom?!  Well, I found a small something and I love it. Powder blue shelf arms! Wooooooo!  I recommend this quick fix to anyone looking to spruce up a nasty wrought iron something-or-other.

Love it. Love it. Love it.  Next up...that sink. Eeee!