The Last Five Years - HOUSE TOUR!

Last week marked the first day of yet another school year of teaching for Eric, it also marked the anniversary of when we moved into our house...FIVE YEARS AGO! Seems like yesterday though. Packing, hauling boxes, cleaning everything, countless trips back and forth from our tiny two-bedroom apartment to this "new"100-year-old house. Our Incredible family and friends helped the entire day, and I'll never forget the overwhelming sensation of looking around and seeing all of our possessions, and...well...crap, just thrown everywhere. For someone who thrives on organization, it still gives me a twinge of anxiety just thinking about it. 

But that crap was thrown everywhere in OUR house! WE bought a house! WE were homeowners and so beyond excited to start that next adventure. 

Five years later and I am still filled with absolute joy by simply walking from room to room. There has been so much love brought into this space, and it truly has transformed from just a house to our home. Click the links to check out how the house looked when we first moved in, as well as our one-year house tour. 

But today we're talking FIVE YEARS. So let's take a little trip down memory lane, shall we? I've gathered up pictures from when we first moved in and set up a little before-and-after with pics from this morning. 

Cue "Let's See How Far We've Come" by Matchbox Twenty! 

The biggest updates we made to the general exterior of the house are painting the front door, upgrading the address numbers, painting the light black, and getting a new roof. Filling the porch with potted flowers is one of my favorite things to do in the Summer. I can't get enough of how their color just spills down the steps. Unfortunately this year one of our big terracotta pots took a tumble, oh well, it's almost time for mums anyway.

Once you enter through the threshold, you'll find yourself in our charming little foyer. 

What was once dark and muddy is now bursting with color and personality! We painted the walls, trim, added a landing spot for keys and such, and even installed a funky yellow light. 

Moving through to the kitchen, we painted over yet another shade of brown and breathed fresh new life into the cabinets. 

The order of transformation for the kitchen went as follows; painting the cabinets, painting the walls, hanging some DIY curtains, and giving the fan a mini upgrade. We also swapped the microwave stand for some metal Ikea shelves, and glammed up the mini awkward bathroom. Future plans still include new appliances, cabinet hardware, and replacing the floors. 

Off of the kitchen is our dining room. 

This was one of the first rooms that really felt "complete". Of course, nothing is truly finished, and although we hardly ever actually dine in here it's still one of my favorite spaces. Because it gets the most sunlight, a majority of the plant babies live in here. Painting the ceiling had a major impact on how this room felt, and I love the addition of Eric's guitar and ukulele on the wall. We still want to paint the chairs white (you can see one in the background of the first pic) and reupholster the cushions. I've also been keeping my eye out for a sweet lighting option...but we'll see. 

The only room left on the first floor is the living room! 

I could NOT paint over that olive green fast enough. And painting all the trim white was one of the best decisions we ever made. Notable things I adore include the big-kid furniture we gifted ourselves one Christmas, Eric's old nesting tables I gave a facelift, that colorful shag rug, and thrifted sconces I scored for practically nothing. That coffee table also wins best purchase for under $90. 

Our floor plan is basically a circle, so once you've mozied through the living room you'll find yourself back in the foyer face to face with our gallery wall. 

Walking into your home should fill you with all of the feels, and that is how I react every time I come home from work and look at all of our pictures, knickknacks, and random elephants. That gallery wall is a reflection of our life, and watching it grow through these years has been way too much fun. 

So let's head upstairs! 

Right from day one, I knew I wanted a black and white banister. If you looked closely at the spindles, there was so much brown paint on them you could barely make out the curvature details and the handrail was anything but sexy. They needed some serious love, and we were ready for the job. And OMG what a job it was. The whole project took a lot of time, repetition, and yet again Eric showing off how incredible he is. He also tore off the brown carpet (are we sensing a color theme??) and replaced it with a beautiful geometric grey runner.

One of the reasons we bought this house is because it actually had a full second story. We were shown a lot of "cape cod" style homes where the second floor is one big room with slanted ceilings on both sides. Not so great when your husband is 6'8''. 

More brown walls, more brown trim, more brown doors. UUUGGG! PAINT PAINT PAINT! 

Oh, and replace the light with a lil something super cute. 

To the left, you'll find the master bedroom. 

We chose to paint the walls the same grey as the living room, and once the doors and trim were painted white everything really brightened up. The ceiling fan and headboard were recent additions, and our bed frame was build custom by Eric's grandpa. I also created a jewelry organizing out of an old mattress spring frame from a baby crib. Someday I'd like to get a rug, or at least two smaller rugs for each side of the bed, and hang a few more things on the walls. For now, I'm very pleased with the cozy state of our bedroom. 

At the end of the hall is our bathroom, or mermaid room as I've dubbed it. 

This room was pretty boring (tan, brown, darker brown) but I think the end result is just lovely. I actually did this makeover 98% by myself, so go me! 

Turning back down the hallway you'll find our two spare bedrooms. One of which we knew would need to be made for overnight guests. 

When deciding how to design this room, I knew I wanted to hide the sloping ceiling. That is why the color only goes halfway up the wall, not only is it bold (which I love) but it serves a legit purpose. Next steps for the guest room include an updated ceiling fan, more storage for guests to put their things, and more art on the walls. 

Last but not least we have our office space. 

Our office has been the most recent room we've worked on. Again, to hide the sloped ceiling we painted everything white except the one full wall. And I tell you what. That beautiful emerald GIVES ME LIFE! It's almost comparable to the high I get while styling those shelves. Having space to actually work and be productive at home has absolutely been a game changer. Plus sometimes I'm doing freelance, and Eric's working on school stuff, and we're like on a little computer date and IT'S SO CUTE! 

Ok, enough pictures from the inside, let's go out back! 

If you've read my blog for a while, you'll remember our GIANT backyard makeover we completed last summer. It literally was a couple years worth of work, but DANG was it worth it. The whole thing started with Eric and his dad building the pergola. Then the project took a little bit of a stand-still for a while, before really taking off when we got the concrete poured and the flower beds built. My favorite thing out here though is hands down the custom table Eric built and I painted.

Writing this post was an absolute blast. I had forgotten what each space looked like when we first moved in, and the change is incredible! I do find it funny how some areas have been completely revamped, and other little decorations and things haven't moved since I placed them down five years ago. 

I feel the winds of change a blowing though. Maybe it's about time we consider crafting up another crazy DIY in the near future. Hmmmm...



Check out all of our home improvements, by visiting the OUR NEST page.

Mini-Awkward-Bathroom REVEAL!

I am happy to announce that the mini-awkward-bathroom makeover is officially COMPLETE! Although the awkwardness isn't entirely gone, I mean there's still a shower in lieu of a sink, it's absolutely a BILLION times sexier. Which of course is what every bathroom strives to be during their little bathroom lifetime.

If you're new here, you can read from my original post I wanted something dark, but also high contrast, with a lot of gold accents. 

After the intense paint job, the space was about 75% there. Not to brag, but I'm pretty sure I nailed that last 25%. 
Warning, you're about to get bombarded with pictures. Enjoy! 

Above the toilet, I really wanted to take advantage of the space by installing shelves. To bring in more gold, I spray painted the brackets, and then Eric trimmed simple white shelves from Menards to fit snugly between the walls. 

Another detail I'm obsessed with is the new light fixture! It's like a glittery golden chandelier just twinkling above your head. It's totally unique, totally DIY, and I'm totally going to write about it next. Stay tuned. 

I am so SO happy with how this makeover turned out. For being such a small space, it's still jammed packed with personality, and LOTS of original details. 
Check out these wonderfully satisfying before and afters.

Again, I cannot reiterate how pleased I am with how this project came together. Yes it took about two months when I wanted it to take only a week, but some things are just worth waiting for. And a super gorgeous place to do your business in, happens to be one of those things. 

MAB Update - The Magical Powers of Paint

Last post I discussed the plan of attack to update our Mini-Awkward-Bathroom, or MAB for short. There really wasn't a whole lot going on in this space to begin with, so I kind of went into it with the attitude of "anything will be an improvement to this". 

With an entire weekend of nothing stretched out before me, I grabbed my paint brush, cranked some Pandora, had myself an adult beverage, and got to it! 

Friday: 

Hit up Menards after work to get paint for the bathroom. It was already past 7pm and I hadn't had dinner yet, felt super hungry, and accidentally walked into the men's restroom. 

Yup. That happened...let's blame low blood sugar. 

Got my paint though! We're going deep and dark with Dutch Boy's Crayola Black. 

First things first, the trim and door needed to be primed. Since I knew I wanted to paint the walls, I only needed to tape off the floor and shower so that saved me some time. 

Next up was the actual paint. We've been painting our trim and doors Simply White by Benjamin Moore, and since beginning the process of updating everything in the house white, we constantly have a gallon of this in the basement. A few coats later and I was in business. 

Saturday:
Let's get some color on those walls! 
Black paint is kind of crazy, you open the can and instantly think "WOW, that is a stunning shade of purple", and then pray to the decorating gods that it'll actually dry darker. 

Patience is key when painting a bathroom. 
That and a clean toilet. You'll find yourself lying on the ground, face pressed against the lid of your john, attempting to paint behind the tank, and that is NOT the moment to realize you haven't scrubbed it in a week. 

It was a pleasant surprise how well the black covered. I had heard horror stories about dark paint taking coat after coat, but this only took two, with the third just being for touch ups. 
As Saturday came to and end, this is where I left off: 

Not to shabby! The dark walls turned out to be such a beautiful contrast compared to the crisp white trim. A nice little burst of interesting when you open the door. 

OK, on to the exciting part.
Wednesday: 
I really REALLY wanted to have an accent wall in here. But as I stared at the space behind the toilet (the original location in my plan), I just wasn't sure. Is this really the most interesting wall in here? I stuck the shower curtain up for a sec, stepped out, opened the door once more, and took note to where my eye went first. 
Above the shower, right to the window. 
THAT is where my beautiful gold wall belongs. 

With the above inspiration in my head, and a couple Gold Sharpie paint pens in hand, I first did some practice doodles. Once I felt fairly confident, there was nothing left to do but hop up on the ladder and begin!

I broke the design down into three separate parts; big flowers, medium vines, tiny leaves, and lastly little dots. It took me maybe an hour-and-a-half to two hours from start to finish, you can see the sun going down in the pictures below. 

I am OBSESSED with how this turned out!!! It's seriously SO MUCH BETTER than anything I ever envisioned, and if I had the time (or it wouldn't be WAY too in your face) I'd do the entire bathroom. 

The gold and black are absolutely sick together! I love how it has all the beauty of wallpaper, but without the messy glue, and I can just paint over the design if I ever get tired of looking at it. 

Sooooo close to being done! All that's left is to finalize the light fixture, hang some shelves, and of course decorate. Then it's time for lots and LOTS of before and after shots! 

Bring it on!