THE list

It's been over 2 months since the last list so it is definitely time for another update.

• tear out weeds in whole backyard and plant grass seed. hopefully grow grass. (we did tear out all the weeds, again, and they are slowly growing back, again, but we are rethinking doing grass. right now we are thinking of doing a fire pit area, mulch and plants...anyways that pretty much won't get started until next spring at this point)
• scrape and paint around windows and doors (all but the top two on the front)
• take out terrible broken chain link fence and replace with pretty wooden fence so we can't see into neighbor's yard (another next spring/summer/fall project)
• redo upstairs bathroom (can't wait to do this, but it's another big project)
• kitchen tile backsplash (also can't wait to do this. maybe a good winter project?)
• fix gutter in back so it slopes more 
• clean and organize basement (it's starting to look better, especially since we got the shed and moved all the tools out, but it definitely still needs a lot of work)
• clean and organize guest room (same as above)

• paint exposed brick wall inside white (still have that part of the wall at the top not painted...)
• tear out grass in between concrete strips of driveway and replace with gravel (still 2/3 done...but getting closer!)
• tear out grass strip to the left of driveway and replace with gravel/stepping stones (Jeff has this dug up we just have to put the stones in)
• make cute white flower boxes for windows
• paint back door white 
• make upstairs second bedroom closet into an office nook (can't wait to do this!!)
• replace bedroom closet doors with...something better than what's there (although i hung the curtains awhile ago, i finally hemmed them - also during sandy)
• replace baseboards and put in crown moulding in living room
• paint guest bedroom (i have the color all picked out but according to jeff, we are not allowed to start any new projects before we finish the other ones we have started...it's a good rule i guess) 
• make new house number sign for front
• paint shed (it has one coat now, but needs another)
• hang mailbox
• install carbon monoxide testers
• tear down terrible rotting shed and replace with new shed (we got a new shed!! and it survived superstorm sandy! post coming soon)
• curtains! mainly for the living room and bedroom. there is so much sunlight coming in this house, which is a good thing but also can make it kind of hot and hard to sit on the couch at times (blinds! jeff finished hanging the last ones while we were hunkered down waiting for sandy to blow through)
• paint kitchen
• install dimmer switches on kitchen lights (finally! my parents visited this weekend and my dad helped me install them. it wasn't as scary as i thought it was going to be, but i'm glad he was there just in case. thanks dad!)

that's pretty good! i mean, there are way more to do than are crossed off, but still makes us feel good to see some progress!

pumpkins & mums

Happy Halloween! As I'm writing this we are getting our first ever trick or treaters in our new house :) This has caused some discussion on whether or not you let the kids pick the candy themselves or just give it to them, how many pieces to give out, and whether or not anyone will trip over the pile of dirt in our still unfinished driveway...let's hope not. In the spirit of Halloween, I have a quick post about a quick project from a couple weeks ago.

This is how our front door has looked since the first day we moved in:

Pretty blah right? Eventually I got so sick of having the mailbox sitting on a cinderblock and all those tools hanging out that I had to do something about it. Hanging the mailbox has been on the to do list since the creation of the to do list, but it kept getting ignored because we didn't have a drill bit for concrete. I guess we just weren't really ready for that $2.75 purchase until now...

How much nicer is that?! I'm sure the mailman also appreciates not having to bend down every day also. You're welcome mailman! And I said this post was Halloween related: pumpkins & mums! The rows and rows of mums at Home Depot were taunting me every time we went there so I finally gave into the fall trend and got a few. I planted a couple in our new flower bed out front also:

i wish it still looked like this...no weeds or hurricane debris

 So just a couple more quick things that have helped the outside look a little prettier. We survived hurricane Sandy without any real damage, but I will tell you more about that tomorrow (or in a couple weeks if I keep up with my current posting pace).

curb appeal

BIG weekend. We did a little driveway makeover on what is apparently called a "ribbon driveway" where it is just two strips of concrete that you drive on and then grass inbetween. Well our grass wasn't looking too good and it was hard to mow and keep looking nice so we wanted something other than grass. If you walk around the neighborhood it's fun to see all the different ways people have filled in between the concrete. Most people just fill it in with concrete or some form of pavers. We decided we wanted gravel; I don't remember why but it is something we can do ourselves and I like the way it looks. Unfortunately I'm not the best blogger and didn't take any true before shots so all I could find is this one taken from the bathroom window during our home inspection:

So you can see the grass in between the concrete there, looking a little ragged. The next shots were taken Saturday morning and you can see all the digging Jeff had already done:

We had also already sprayed all the grass with Roundup so it has been a nice brown color for awhile. And by we I mean, Jeff's dad did it when he was here a few weeks ago. Thanks Bill! And now get ready for the after:

Oh and if you notice on the left of the picture you can see that we aren't actually done yet; there is still a whole strip left to dig up. But let's not think about that right now. This took us three trips to Home Depot and 53 bags of rocks. My favorite part is the slate stepping stones that we found while digging up the backyard and brought up to the front. There are still have 5 big ones left for the left side too.

And then because it was a perfect, beautiful fall weekend and I was so excited about how much better it was all looking, I kept digging. I (with Jeff's help) dug out all the grass under those front bushes so we could have a little bed to plant some flowers. Here's a closer shot:

Just imagine it with some flowers and mulch in there. We are pretty excited about it and can't wait to have it all done, but I'm not sure we will be able to walk or get out of bed tomorrow morning.

Oh and as an update to my week challenge: light dimmers are still not installed. I didn't get home from work until about 8:30 Thursday night so it just wasn't going to happen. This homeowner stuff is a lot of work and like Jeff said, it's a good thing we don't have a whole house!

day three

Wednesday's challenge: install kitchen light dimmer switches...FAIL.

But replaced with Thursday's task of installing the carbon monoxide testers! I had to work a little late today so by the time I got home and ready to do something it was dark out and it didn't seem like a good idea to turn the power off and then try to install switches in the dark. So there was that and the fact that, I'll admit, I'm scared to install them! Anything with electricity scares me so I've really been putting this one off. Maybe tomorrow?

To make up for my lack of electrical courage I busted out the white paint and finally painted the trim at the top of the stairs. It was another one of those little things that had been bothering me and is now done!

day two

Day two accomplished! Today's task was to finish painting the kitchen. This was just a little bit of a touch up, finishing the second coat above the refrigerator. Nothing exciting, but we finally got to take down the blue painters tape that had been up since Jeff's dad did the second coat back in early September. No pictures because it's really not worth photographing, but day two is done! Tomorrow: tackle the scary world of electricity and install dimmer switches on the kitchen lights.

In the world of outside home improvements, Jeff is busy digging up our driveway in order to give it a much needed makeover. I will get those pictures up this weekend after it's all done!

week challenge: day one

While at work today I decided to give myself a little homeowner DIY challenge this week. Everyday I have to accomplish one of the nagging tasks that has been bothering me, starting today. Here's the breakdown:

Monday: hang the rest of the blinds recently purchased and put them up in the bedroom & bathroom
Tuesday: finish painting the kitchen
Wednesday: install dimmer switches on the kitchen lights
Thursday: install carbon monoxide alarms
Friday: plan & shop for weekend yard work

And I am happy to report that Monday was a success! Last week we went to Home Depot and bought them out of 36 x 64 white faux wood blinds. They actually didn't have as many as we needed (14), but we bought what they had and installed the first one as soon as we got home. Then the other 9 sat in a pile in the middle of the living room and were really annoying to walk around all the time. But now the pile is gone and the blinds are up!

bedroom

kitchen

living room

This is a major improvement, especially in the living room, where anyone could look right into our house and the sun would come beaming into those windows above making it nearly impossible to sit on the couch during certain hours of the day. And it's much nicer than the sheet that Jeff duct taped over the window so he could watch football.

I think setting small goals like this is going to help us get a lot of these little tasks out of the way. I'll be back tomorrow to let you know if we met Tuesday's challenge!

a little blue

This past weekend Jeff's parents were in town visiting and they helped us get quite a few things done around the house (while still managing to relax, do some sightseeing and getting in some intense card games!) One of the big things we did was paint our bedroom a lovely shade of blue. "Rain Washed" blue to be exact. I wanted something light, tropical, breezy feeling so our room could be a relaxation spot. Well after actually painting it so it can have that feeling, I'm still a little unsure that I actually like it.

It is growing on me slowly, but it still feels a little too young/teenager/baby blue/bright.

I got that little teal pillow about 6 years ago at West Elm and was sad when it no longer went with my living room decor, but now it's back! Someday I think it would look good to refinish the dressers with a darker stain.

There's the closet and all of our clothes! I took the doors off almost immediately because they were ugly and hard to slide back and forth. We thought it would look nice to put curtains up instead of doors so when I went shopping on Monday to try and find things that would help bring this room together (retail therapy?) I found these:

Curtains! I am very excited about them and think the colors will go perfectly in the room. Unfortunately they are a little short since we want them to go all the way to the top to cover those ugly bins. I am going to sew some extra fabric I have, that just happens to match perfectly, to the bottom before putting them up. Add that project to the list!

And that's the wall across from the bed with the beginnings of some decorations. I like how the mirror kind of looks like a porthole. The bottom right picture is one of Jean Marie's beautiful photos from our islands trip this past winter. (She's awesome, check her out here) Eventually I want to keep adding to this wall photo/art collage adding some more random stuff on both sides.

So we now have a green room and a blue room, what could be next?? I'm thinking neutrals might be a good idea from here on out, but as soon as I get to that paint aisle I want to pick a fun color!