Friend Makin' Mondays: Inside Your Home

Ah Monday...it came way too quickly this week!  I felt like I was barely home this weekend...maybe because I wasn't.  Mike and I went downtown for ArtPrize on Friday after he got out of work.  Then Saturday I spent the day shopping in Michigan City with our cousins and aunts.  Saturday night we went to a late dinner at my parents because my Aunt and Uncle were visiting.  Then Sunday consisted of church, family lunch, a small amount of relaxation, and then youth group.  Busy busy busy!  Hopefully this coming weekend will be a little slower!

But, Mondays mean it's time for Friend Makin' Monday.  It's been a while since I linked up...I hope you'll play along too!

From Kenlie's blog: If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

Inside Your Home

1. Do you live in an apartment/condo, townhouse or house? A house

 

2. What is your home’s coolest feature? I love the bay window in our dining room.

 3. Do you enjoy DIY projects? If so, what are you working on now? I do enjoy DIY projects.  However, I've been so busy that I haven't had much time to do much.  The last thing I did was paint some wine glasses for my friend who got married on Saturday.

 4. When using the dishwasher do you use powder detergent or liquid?  Neither...we use the powerballs, which might be powder, but they're hard.

 5. Do you have a TV in your bedroom?  No we don't.  We only have 1 TV in our house and that's in the living room.

6. Is your range gas or electric? Electric. I grew up using gas and the transition was difficult...we had a few burned dinners...

 

7. How often do you sweep/mop/vacuum?  We try to vacuum every Monday night.  If the dog hair gets overwhelming, we vacuum as needed.

 8. What is your favorite place to shop for home furniture and accents?  I haven't done much of that type of shopping since we moved in 2 years ago.  Then we hit up Art Van and Bed Bath & Beyond.

 9. Do you decorate for holidays?  I love decorating for Christmas and I put a few things out for fall.  I have a spring wreath but that's about it.

 10. If you could have HGTV come in and redo one room in your home which room would you choose?  Good question...I'd love to have my kitchen redone, except I just want it bigger, everything is only 2 years old.  I think it would be fun to have them decorate our master bedroom!

Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s questions! Don’t forget to come back and link up in the comments. Happy Monday, friends!

Making Improvements

When we bought our house, we had an enormous deck that covered the majority of our back yard.  The raised part of the deck was actually built over an above-ground pool.  Kind of ridiculous, right?  The plywood you see is a covering a big hole in the deck--our realtor had to cover it so our house would pass inspection.   

This is what Mike and I have seen every day in our backyard since buying our house in 2010.  Really pretty, huh?

This spring we decide that enough was enough and the pool and deck were coming down!  I don't know where my pool demolition pictures are, but here you can see that the pool is gone.

Champ wishes he could go out and play on the deck, but I was too afraid he would fall/jump off!

One of Mike's former co-workers  has started a handyman business, so we hired him to finish our deck for us.

In progress...

The finished product!!!!  Champ loves being able to play outside!

Our next project is to get the big sandbox filled in, we're hoping to have that done this fall.

Our other backyard addition is our new firepit.  I built it on Memorial Day and we've enjoyed a few bonfires with our friends!

We are loving having a great deck and firepit for entertaining!!!

Working around the house

When we moved into our house, the only lighting in the kitchen was a set of 3 tracklights (and a dim little light over the sink).  I was constantly frustrated by the poor lighting because it made for really bad food pictures, and it was difficult to see anything in the evenings because the lights created so many shadows in the kitchen--I could barely read a recipe!  About a month into our marriage, Mike's dad rigged up the little contraption you see on the far left light bulb.  Have a bare bulb helped the light situation a little bit, but it certainly wasn't a good long-term solution!

Can you guess what my amazing husband and awesome father-in-law are planning to do?  Oh yes...I know they love me!  (Or they got sick of me complaining about the lack of lighting in our kitchen!)

After a few hours of hard work (I did help!), this was the result...

Beautiful can lights in my kitchen!  It really is incredible what a difference these lights make!  My kitchen is nice and bright now, I can take decent food pictures inside, and I can read recipes without turning every light in the vicinity on!  Thank you Mike and Pops! :)

Today, I'm thankful for...

1.  A quiet and productive evening at home.
2.  An awesome spin class, with an instructor who knows how to kick my butt!
3.  My nice warm house!

4.  My husband and father-in-law who make a great fix-it team!

Working Hard...or Hardly Working?

The weather was quite nice last Saturday afternoon.  I had to make a dessert for Easter dinner, so Mike decided to do some work in our yard.  See that tree stump?  Really, how random is that?  Anyway, it had to go!

The original plan was to pull the stump with Brett's truck, but they decided to chop it down instead. 

Yay, no more stump!

The next project was to get rid of the overgrown bushes.  We liked them, but they were planted to close to the sidewalk, so if we wanted to walk on the sidewalk, we'd have to prune the bushes back so far they wouldn't even look like bushes.  We decided to pull them up and we'll plant new ones later this spring.  This time, the guys got to use the truck :)

Art Around the House

I love to decorate.  When we bought our house (actually, before we bought it!) I knew what colors I wanted to paint most of the rooms.  I wanted a bold and modern look.  I think my color scheme definitely achieved that!  After we moved in, I really started to be able to decorate how I pictured things.

I recently purchased and received more art and I think my dining room and kitchen are pretty much completed.  I do want to put some wall words up in the kitchen, but I'll do that after my wall words party in March.

Here's some of my favorite pieces.  Actually, they're all my favorite, so here's all the art in my kitchen and dining room :)

Mike and I saw this sign one day at my favorite store, The Seasoned Home.  We both loved it, but knew it was a bit out of our price range.  We figured we'd save for it and get it when we had the money.  But then for Christmas, I received 2 gift certificates (from my MIL and Grandma) to The Seasoned Home.  They totaled to the amount I needed for the sign!

These are one of my two newest sets.  I saw these on clearance at Meijer and I loved them!  I asked Mike if I could get them and he said yes; I went back the next day and they were still there.  I love how the group turned out!

These chefs are my second new set.  I went back to buy the wine bottle set and I saw these too.  They were just so perfect for my kitchen.  I couldn't decide between the wine bottles or the chefs so I bought both, figuring I could return one set if Mike didn't like them.  He thought they were cute too, and said I could keep both.  I'm so glad he did!

I picked this up at the dollar store before we moved into our house.  I wanted my kitchen to have a cooking and wine theme so this was perfect!  Funny thing though, I really don't care for the taste of wine!  Anyway, right now it's just sitting on my back-splash; I haven't decided where I want it so I keep moving it around.

This is a painting by someone in Haiti.  I bought from some people who went to Haiti.  It goes perfectly with the colors in my kitchen!

Mike and I have been wanting a kitchen mat/rug for a while now.  Last time we were at Bed Bath and Beyond I found this.  I bought this before my Chef pictures, but they go so perfectly together!

I bought this set probably 3 years again at an auction at my church.  I loved the European countryside.  I had it hanging in my blue bedroom~ I think it goes much better in my dining room!

My sister-in-law got me this for Christmas this year.  It goes perfectly with the set I received last Christmas (hanging on the opposite side of my dining room)

I'd been eying this piece at Bed Bath and Beyond for a long time!  I was thrilled to receive it for Christmas this year!

My mom bought this wall word kit for me for Christmas 2009.  I waited until I had my own house to hang it up as it's not reusable.  I had the perfect spot for it above my bay window in the dining room!

The rest of my house is still a work in progress.  Some rooms are more complete than others.

I know I promised a full tour of the "after" pictures of our house.  I still am working on that!  I just need to get each room clean for long enough to get a few pictures, but I promise it is coming!

Post 400

So this is my 400th post. I told Mike today that I need to do better at posting more often. It's been like 20-some days since I last posted!

We're well on our way to getting settled in our house! Our office still has a few things that need unpacked, and our guest room has become a "catch-all" for the time being. If only I had 1 extra day each week to get stuff done!!!


Life has been crazy since the wedding (and we actually thought it would slow down--silly us!) I got back from the honeymoon to find out that the office I work at had about 1 month to find a new building, move, and get back up and running. Turns out our main water supply was getting shut off, leaving us with no water, and of course you can't run a business without flushing toilets! So that has been crazy! We just found out that we got a building we bid on. It needs a bit of work, but we're hoping to move in the week of Thanksgiving! So that has added quite a bit of stress!


Yesterday, my best friend got married! You might remember a few posts ago I told the story of Alecia and Ovi...well, yesterday their dreams came true! The wedding was gorgeous, and I am so happy for them! Here is a picture of the bride and myself!

Getting closer!

Before
After
I think it looks so much better now that it is black!!! (Actually the before picture is our garage door, the after picture is our front door...I forgot to take a before first!)

And here is a sneak-peak of our kitchen...more to come later!

Completely painted!

I really feel accomplished now! Our whole house is painted!!! And yes, in this picture, I really was painting, not just posing! All of our walls needed a second coat, so I had Mike take a picture of me finishing the last section of this wall!

Mike and Brett ripped out the sink so I could paint behind it!

We have flooring!!!

We finally have flooring in our bathrooms! Last weekend, my friend Brenda's parents came and helped Mike lay tile and grout. It was hard work, but they had fun and it looks great!

Mike learned how to use the saw and cut the tiles

Mary laying the tile after Mike cut it

Mike putting in the grout

Yay! The grout is in! After this picture was taken, it had to dry a bit so that we could scrape off the excess grout. After that, we had to clean off the tiles. This Saturday I will seal the grout and then it will officially be done!

Making progress!

Our house is coming along quite nicely. My goal is to have it all painted by the last Saturday of August. Then we hope to be able to move things in by October 2, if not before!!!

2 weeks ago, our friends Dan and Jodi volunteered to come help us with painting and doing "man jobs". Mike and Dan installed new a new dead bolt on our front door and new locks on the front house and garage doors.

They actually got work done! (Not that you can tell by their goofy picture!)

Jodi worked in the (previously) pink and purple room, edging in the walls.

And I painted in the bathroom.

We had some overhanging tree branches that were a little worrisome, so Dan jumped at the chance to use his saw zaw and cut down a bunch for us.

On another note...we are exactly 2 months away from our wedding day!!!