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!

finishing touches

About a month after the contractors finished the kitchen, we still had this hanging light pendant sitting in a box on the floor and wires hanging out of the ceiling. Well after a little reminder to the contractor they finally came and finished it and now we have this cute little dining area!

Notice that cute little white bowl with some "decorator balls" in it? I went out to Home Goods and tried to get some little accessories to make it feel more put together. Like this bird pillow for example:

It's just a couple little things that make the place feel more pulled together. Next up in here: hanging pictures!

THE list

In honor of a new month (August already?!) and since we have now owned this place about two months and lived here one month, I figured it was time to revisit THE list and see what can be crossed off and what should be added. The red is commentary and the blue is new stuff!

the must dos

• tear out weeds in whole backyard and plant grass seed. hopefully grow grass. (Jeff did tear out all the weeds and it looked amazing, but we didn't plant grass yet and in the meantime almost all the weeds have grown back. so that stays on the list)
• trim/cut down all branches/weeds and everything else that is overgrown throughout the yard (i'll cross it off because Jeff and his parents, while they were visiting, did an awesome job clearing everything out, but i do realize that this is a reoccurring task as a homeowner)
• scrape and paint around windows and doors (all but the top two on the front)
• hang mailbox
• install carbon monoxide testers
• tear down terrible rotting shed and replace with new shed (see post entitled "Seventh Wonder of the World")
• tear down terrible ugly metal awning on back of house (how do we do this?? with a giant crow bar. that's how you do it)
• take out terrible broken chain link fence and replace with pretty wooden fence so we can't see into neighbor's yard
• redo upstairs bathroom (that's pretty general and i'm sure will be a pretty easy one to check off...)
• kitchen and hardwood floors on main level are being redone by professionals
• paint kitchen
• kitchen tile backsplash
• fix gutter in back so it slopes more
• 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
• clean and organize basement
• clean and organize guest room (these two rooms have become collecting spotsfor stuff we don't know what to do with)

the want to dos

• paint exposed brick wall inside white (like 90% done. that other 10% is pretty high up there...even with an extension roller and a ladder precariously balanced on the stairs)
• tear out grass in between concrete strips of driveway and replace with gravel
• tear out grass strip to the left of driveway and replace with gravel/stepping stones
• somehow make it so car doesn't scrape on driveway every time you back out (turn car while backing out. only took me a month and a half to figure that out)
• make cute white flower boxes for windows
• paint back door white
• make upstairs second bedroom closet into an office nook
• replace bedroom closet doors with...something better than what's there (took off closet doors - that's progress!)
• replace baseboards and put in crown moulding in living room
• paint bedrooms
• make new house number sign for front

And right now as I'm writing this, 1-800-GOT-JUNK is outside hauling away all of our trash and I'm so excited. We have had piles of junk sitting around outside for months now and I can't wait for them to be gone! 

So clearly the list got longer, but I was expecting that. At least we are still having fun doing all this stuff!

(oh and found two more dead baby birds outside, in case anyone was keeping count)