a good day

You know, in home construction, there are good days and there are bad days.  Some days there are three guys there, working at once.  And some days no one shows up.  For days.

Well for some reason, yesterday, the stars aligned.

As soon as I got to the house, I could tell the painters had been there.  The kitchen had been painted!

And so THAT made me happy.

But THEN!  I was at the house, eating a picnic lunch on the floor with my son when my sweet friend Carol arrived.  She brought with her ideas galore and also a painting by the amazing Kristy Gammill.  YOU WILL SALIVATE when you get to see that art in a frame, people.  I feel like I just won the art lotto and I have The Unlikely Farmgirl to thank for it!  But more on that later.

After Carol left, I started on that project called: Ask the internet what color to paint your laundry room and then do it.  And boys and girls, I'm hear to tell you that Pottery Barn Naval is a SERIOUS navy.  Like CLOSE TO BLACK, people.

Do you remember how I told you that the mister has decorating opinions?  Oh, maybe not?  Well HE DOES.  And it took about 30 minutes of me explaining why he shouldn't hate this color for him to stop hating this color.  Now he doesn't HATE the color.  He just dislikes it.  But he (we) will get over it.  :)

The one thing that was great about him dropping by to visit is that he finally got it right and showed up with a (gasp) COLD beer in hand!  One!  But it's a start!  And that made things better, too!

If you haven't seen the house in person, I'll explain that this is the view from the living room into the hall and laundry room.  And this is where I sat while I watched THIS happening, which MADE MY ENTIRE DAY.

Oh yes.  A good day in the construction world, indeed.

the votes are in!

Good news!  For at least, well, half of you!  Turns out when you put a room color like kelly green and navy to a vote, there are only 2 people who like one more than the other.  Who knew!  So, Pottery Barn Navy it is!  Coming soon to a laundry room near you!

We spent the weekend over at the house, pulling weeds, cleaning windows, meeting new neighbors, and scraping stars off the ceiling.  My body is tired and my nails have gone to crap.  (insert sad face here.  they are the one good thing left on my body.  ugh.)

I took a few breaks, here and there, to watch in awe as my husband picked up the slack and did things like cleaning the doors.

Good job, honey! 

Do you spy the new white cabinetry?  Oh yes, friend.  It's taking shape!  The walls are also primed and ready to paint.  And speaking of paint, are you ready for the new living room color?  Here are a before and after.

 Isn't it wonderful??

Ahhhhhh, I'm loving this change.  And with my last picture, I give you the kitchen with it's new coat of paint.

before

during

I love the amount of light that the new colors bring into this space.  And at this point, I'm ready to be IN.  But there's SO much more to do.

And miles to go before we sleep.  Miles to go before we sleep.

welcome!

Wow!  Of all the votes I've received on the laundry room color, would you believe that the results so far are only ONE VOTE different??  This contest is coming down to the wire, people!  If you haven't voted yet, make it happen!  Voting closes tomorrow afternoon!

One color I feel good about is the one I chose for the front door.  It turned out a little lighter than I was thinking.  But it grew on me all day.  And now I'm in front door love.

Also, I regret to inform you that I neglected to take a "before" picture.  DANG.  Sorry.  This picture below is as good as it's gonna get.  The door was originally hunter green.  So 1990.

Meanwhile, as I painted the door and picked weeds in the front beds and hosted visitors, my son was scoring an over-the-fence HOMERUN at his baseball game!  ((cue the mommy guilt now))

But I will say I'm happy with the results!  This is called Watery by Sherwin-Williams.

The joy in this bright color makes me not HATE the brass in the leaded glass!  Hey!  That's somethin'!

And additionally, once I was pooped and the mister showed up, I sat back on that cute chair and watched him go!  Woot!  All I needed was a beer in my hand to make it perfect.  Which I kept hinting at.  And he kept ignoring.  I mean, seriously, there's a 7-11 right around the corner!  But okay, fine.  I guess it was lovely even without the beer.

Way to go Honey!  That's a great job transplanting the almost dead bush! Thank you for not throwing it away like you wanted to!  You're a good husband.  Now, where's my beer?

Oh THAT yaupon holly?  The one I hate?  Yes!  Take it out!  I want to see the window more clearly from the street!  But first!  Let me look inside there, I keep seeing a robin flying around here today!

OHHHHH!  Oops.  Okay, leave the tree.  I don't want to disturb that sweet little egg.  You know I love me some eggs.

YOU GET TO VOTE!

Guess what??  I am going to allow YOU, dear reader, to pick the color of my laundry room!  How fun is THAT??

I am sitting on the fence.  I have two great colors to choose from and no reason to jump off the fence.  So I had an idea!  Let the readers decide!  But we're going to need to make this snappy, so get ready.

Here's the current laundry room.  The tile has been laid, but not grouted.  And the cabinets are staying put, white.  I will be getting new little knobs, but only after YOU choose the wall color.  :)

And the light fixture will go from this ugly strip light:

To this fun copper pendant from antiquefarmhouse.com

And last, you should know that our washer and dryer are stainless.  SO!  Are you ready?  Now remember, laundry rooms are the perfect place for fun colors!  And I love them both.  Now you decide! Here are the inspiration colors: Perennial from Benjamin Moore

thank you hgtv magazine!

OR Pottery Barn navy!  

So, what say you, internet?  You can vote in one of two places: here in the comment section or on the facebook thread where I've posted this blog.  I will go with whichever one you decide and it will get painted early next week.  I'm not giving you long to decide!  Place your vote by Sunday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. CST and watch for the magic to happen!  Thank you for reading!

pin-worthy bedrooms

  I love Pinterest.  Don't you?

Now, let me say this: you have to use pinterest as an inspiration, not an obsession.  It's easy to look on there and compare your boring living room to the beautiful ones on the internet.  But what I say to you is: pin it!  And move on. Your pinterest boards should INSPIRE you, not make you feel worse about your life.  Okay?  Okay.

So I've been thinking of ways to make my daughter's room fun.

And then I came across these tidbits of inspiration from various sources.

THIS?  Is from Amycakes, here in little ol' Norman, Oklahoma.  They are not only delish, but OBVIOUSLY inspiring as well.

Cute, huh??  Well, I found these gold vinyl dots on Jane.com and when they came in the mail, I called up one of my favorite friends, who also has a beautiful home.  She's the real deal, y'all.  LOVE this lady.  She'll drop everything and come help you use the art side of your brain or just drink a cup of coffee.  Plus, she has a heart of gold.  Meet: Stephanie.

This was her "spotter" position.  She helped me find the blank spots and the crowded ones, too.  Plus, she helped me stick 'em all up.  She's versatile that way.  ;)

Now, are you ready for the fun?  I can't wait until I can show you a completed room in this house.  No literally.  CAN'T WAIT.

So just imagine here, the bed will be off center, closer to the right, while the nightstand will be to it's left.  This polka dotted space will be just that, a polka dotted space.  And the blank space will have a bed and art above!

But we couldn't just stop here!  I had more dots left!  I needed to scatter more gold love!  And that's when I ended up over here by her bathroom door, slappin' those girls up on the wall while Steph used her good decorating eyes.

ThankyouGodforfriendslikeStephanie. 

the fireplace begins

Well hello again!  Work is actually happening at our house today.  And when I use the term "today", I say it loosely.  Meaning: "tonight".  Have you ever heard of such a thing?  The contractors were MIA all day but TONIGHT, they showed up.  ThankyouJesustheycameatall.

I've got a fun wall treatment planned for Abby's room for tomorrow.  But tonight, since they are both painting (allegedly) AND hanging our wood beams in the living room, I thought it best to stay out.  Plus my trusty friend, Steph, was busy and couldn't help me.  So, tomorrow!  I will make fun and share.  Not to worry.

Now, I showed you the living room, yesterday, off the kitchen.  Did you see the fireplace?  Likely not.  The picture wasn't angled well for that.  So here it is.

This is the fireplace in it's pre-purchased glory.  There were dark curtains in the living room.  The walls (again) were mustard (a cute color several years back!).  And then there was that tile.  The one we can't escape.  

We purchased a stacked stone for the facing and travertine tiles for the floor.  Keep in mind that this is, like all things in the house, a work in progress.  We will seal the travertine to make it a more suitable color match with the stacked stone.  And the walls will soon be painted a light blue/gray.  WORK IN PROGRESS.

It seems so much brighter, right?  Well that's partly because the windows are now bare and open(!!) and the skylights have been opened as well!  Plus, the tile is lighter!  I'm loving where this is headed. You should also know that we plan to hang the tv above the fireplace.  I'm on the fence about whether I'm a fan of that concept yet or not.  But it WILL be visible from the kitchen, which keeps me from needing to put a tv in there, too.  And one less room with a tv in my house is a GOOD THING.

Can I get an amen?

coming soon to market!

Folks, I've got a house to sell.  It's not on the market officially, but you, dear reader, get a sneak peek at my humble abode here.  And if you're interested in learning more, then hey!  Give me a ring!

It's a darling house, on the corner of a cul-de-sac.  We have a park at the end of the street with a pond.  And in the summer, I frequently see boys and their dads walking down there with fishing poles.  It's very Norman Rockwell.

We have 1950 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 2 full baths.  There's a great living room and a large kitchen and breakfast room.  Plus, we have a large backyard that backs up to a creek!  It really is a great home.  I hope it will be yours soon.  :)

Here's the kitchen, from several angles.  It has a cute red divided light door that comes off the driveway.  It's our unofficial front door, since the people who know us well only come and go through that door.  Also, the door to the laundry room is a chalkboard door that's magnetic.  And that's just fun.  :)

this is the view from the dining room.

this is the view from the living room.

Our kitchen floor is a handscraped hardwood TILE.  The appliances are stainless and the counters are Corian (solid surface).  

And here's the breakfast room.  You can see it's large enough for a big table and a buffet!  Plus, it has a door to the backyard/patio.

And next: the laundry room!  It's behind that cute chalkboard door.  What you can't see is the pantry on the opposite wall of the laundry room.  It's big, too.  :)

And last, I offer you our living room.  It's missing the cross collection I used to have on the wall above the sofa, because I sold them in my online garage sale.  Super great idea I got from a friend, by the way.

We will be replacing the carpet here in our house before we sell, by the way.  So don't look at the shape of the floors.  They'll be better!  :)

that's the entry, by the way.

this is the view from the dining room.  the door on the left is to the master bedroom and the hallway on the right leads to the other 3 bedrooms.

So that's the bulk of it!  Our cute house.  Come buy me!

Ok, but first coffee.

When I was in New York City last week, my daughter was dying to find the Brandy Melville store.  All week long she asked.  PLEASE?? CAN WE GO TO SOHO TODAY??  I had no idea what all the hype was, but by our last afternoon, we found ourselves with some free time, so off to Soho we went.  And that, dear reader is where I found my personal mantra t-shirt.  I will be wearing this well, and often.  Be prepared.

Are there holes in that t-shirt, Kim?  Why yes, friend.  There are.  I paid for a torn t-shirt.  Which I'm certain has my big sister and my mom rolling their eyes.  I just COULDN'T leave it sitting there in Brandy Melville.

Trip. Made.

And so!  After coffee yesterday, I went to work on one of our exterior projects.  We are adding shutters to the front of the house, so I needed to paint!  I will save my complaints about how much my right arm hurts today and move on to the good stuff.

I love to make wood door signs.  But a carpenter, I am not.  Nor is the Mister.  So we needed to find a way to buy some wood shutters and that's when Mr. Mister got online and started surfing (he's good at that, you know).  He found a company called Architectural Depot.  This place sells shutters of all sizes and styles. And what he found was a less expensive alternative to wood.  They are composite shutters.  They have poured a composite material into a wood mold, so the look is a thick grainy wood texture.  All you have to do is paint them.  Or buy them already painted, whatever!

Well we bought the board and batten style.  They needed to be pretty tall, so this was a perfect solution for us.  And yesterday the Mister set up my horses and I got to work on the first coat of paint.

How do your arms hurt so much, Kim?  You ONLY PAINTED TWO SHUTTERS.  Well!  Let me tell YOU!  Those fake grooves are DEEP, people!  And it was hard work!  So I took 4 ibuprofen and called it done.

But the Mister doesn't like to leave projects half done, so when he saw that I was giving up early, he set out to work.  Work!  Who! Knew!  HE CAN PAINT!  Amazing.

see that hard work?  i love it.  and it's saving my arm.

the whole shabang.  looks like real wood to me!

a close up.  real-like! no?

And I leave you with a teaser.  It's the family room off the kitchen!  It's mustard yellow!  And it's turning Sherwin-Williams Seal Salt soon!  Very soon.

And for the record, don't think for a minute that this fireplace is staying the same.  The tile there on the face is the same tile on the kitchen floor.  And you know how much I love that tile.  So think bigger, dear reader.  Think travertine.  Think stacked stone.  Imagine the possibilities.