Simple, Pretty Rooms

I was looking online today for some cottage inspiration and came across some rooms that I like.

I like the white cabinets and the farmhouse sink in this one. The three white pitchers are so pretty.

Again, I love the white cabinets and white accessories. I'm not sure if I like the blue shade though.

This room looks so cozy and inviting. Love everything about this one.

I like mix of textures and materials in kitchen. It isn't fancy at all but I think it's beautiful in its simplicity.

The only thing I would change about this bedroom is the small side table. I like the size and the height of the table but I would prefer wood weathered to a soft taupe/gray, or with white, chippy paint ( and a lamp for reading at night.)

This bedroom is simple, sparse, and very clean looking to me. I love the light color palette and the bedding.

Hubby is still working on taking weekend. up the rest of the hardwood flooring next door. Tomorrow will be the last day because the owners will be demolishing what's left of the foundation this weekend.

Goodnight all.

Eva

White and Distressed!

I am becoming seriously obsessed with the color white. Below is a picture of my mantle that I took today-the picture looks a little wonky. I painted the
candlesticks white and lightly distressed them. I found the cute little bird on the right at a thrift store. It was an orange-y color and I painted it white and distressed it as well. Please forgive the picture quality.

I found these at Goodwill today.

They were sage green with a black glaze and probably would have been fine as they were. But I decided to (you guessed it) paint them white and distress them!


Another pic of them.

There was a house next door to us that was at least 50 years old. You can see it in the pic above, behind Jenna and Ian. This was taken about a couple of weeks ago.

This is what's left of the house. The owners are going to build an A-frame cabin toward the back, behind where the dumpster is sitting. The house itself couldn't be salvaged due to a crumbling foundation and extensive termite damage.

The whole house, aside from the bathroom, had tongue-in-groove oak hardwood floors throughout. One of the owners, who is a friend of ours, told us we could have whatever we could salvage of the hardwood floors so we are going to try to get enough to do our bedroom.

This is what we have so far. Still a lot more floor to take up!



A couple of pics of some of the floor boards. I am so excited to be able to use this in our bedroom!

Happy Monday everyone!

Eva

Makeover

My mom and I went to get our hair cut Monday. My hair has always been short but I wanted to go even SHORTER!

BEFORE

AFTER

I love it! My husband loves it, too. My 6-year-old son said, "Don't worry Mama, it'll grow back."

Eva

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Part II

Welcome to my second installment of "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly". Below are a couple of closeups of my kitchen cabinets. These are a laminate finish over particle board which, in my opinion and experience, are not the sturdiest of surfaces for a kitchen or bathroom.

Notice the wear around the edges of the cabinet door. Most of the doors in my kitchen look like this.

See the worn area behind the knob? Again, most of my cabinet doors look like this. I'm not sure if it is from my scrubbing them or what I use to clean them with, which is Mr. Clean or Pine Sol mixed with water.

This is the second bathroom. I've removed the trim from around the doors and tub and put up paintable wallpaper. I don't think I like the blue though. I am going to paint it a neutral color. This is just a temporary fix until we get around to remodeling this room. The door you see in this picture opens to the laundry room.

The door to the hallway is to the left and the door to the laundry room is to my right. The tub is behind me.

The "chrome finish" plastic faucet is cracked and the plastic sink is scratched, stained, and basically horrible-looking!

This is the master bedroom. Right now it is the master of horror! The size is good though and it gets good light.

Another pic. The door you see opens to the master bath and there is another door beside it, to the left, that opens to our closet.

This picture was taken in my room as well. I took one of the strips down and you can see how wide and deep the gaps between the wall panels are. Some are even wider! It is almost impossible to fill these gaps and sand them in order to paint the walls and get great results.

Our room again. The carpet in here was awful! After 3 years of living here all the carpet in the house looked like it was 20 years old. I ripped out the carpet in our room about 2 years ago and just put a coat of porch paint on the subfloor to make do until we redo this room.

The batteries in my camera ran out before I could take pictures of my bathroom and the boys' room. I will have to take those and post them tomorrow. So I guess that means there will be a part III!
Until tomorrow-good night all!

Eva

"The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" Part I

I love where I live and I like the floor plan of my house. The interior leaves a lot to be desired and I wish that we had an extra bedroom and an office. The main thing though is LOCATION. The rest can be changed.
I took a few pictures of my house today. About a year after we moved in, I decided that I was going to take down the vertical strips that cover the gaps where the wallboard panels meet, fill the gaps in with drywall mud, and prime and paint the walls. I have done that in the rooms you are about to see. I am not very satisfied with the results though. Some of the seams that I did were up to an inch wide and very hard to get filled and sanded evenly with the rest of the wallboard. Some of the walls have a "wavy" appearance. So we are going to be installing drywall in every room now. We also installed laminate flooring in the living room, dining room, and family room.

Kitchen pic I. This room will be totally gutted. I hate the laminate cabinets! The flourescent light fixture above the island has got to go!

Kitchen pic II. I like the windows here. I usually keep some plants here but my 2-year-old likes to play in the potting soil.

Excuse the panel of sheetrock leaning against the wall. We are going to replace the window with a set of French doors.

Living room pic I. I see something under the couch.

Living room pic II. There is nothing cottage about this room.

Living room pic III. The china cabinet I have yet to paint.

Family room. My plants are on top of the entertainment center. I think the big TV and entertainment center will go when we remodel and be replaced with built-in bookshelves. I like the wainscotting in this room but when we redo this room I will probably allow hubby to put in the unfinished tongue-in-groove paneling he wants. As long as I can give it a nice whitewash!

This concludes part I of "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly". It will get worse I promise. Come back for more pictures tomorrow-if you dare!

Eva

An Award from JoAnne

Sweet JoAnne from Sunflower Meadows has presented to me, along with four others, the Arte y Pico award for our blogs. I was very surprised and extremely honored that she would choose my blog for an award. As I mentioned to her, I honestly didn't think anyone would ever read my blog or take an interest in it so this award means a lot to me. Thank you JoAnne for the award and for your very kind words about my blog. The other bloggers to receive this award are as follows:

Susie from Bienvenue, Joy from Joys of Home, Kimba from A Soft Place to Land, and Penny from Lavender Hill Studio.

I have visited each of these blogs this evening and each one was wonderful. I love that there are so many blogs out there to draw inspiration from and potential friends to be made. Thanks again JoAnne! Goodnight all.

Eva

Jenna's Room & Thrift Store Treasures

As I promised yesterday, here are some pictures of Jenna's room and the little bit of progress that we have made so far. There isn't much to see yet but hang in there with me guys!

We have the drywall up and one coat of mud on. Two more coats to go. I need to rip out the carpet and padding and pull up the staples. Probably should have done that first, huh?

This chandelier came in our dining room when we bought our home. I am going to paint it white and put a pearl finish over it.

I scraped the popcorn texture off the ceiling. You really can't tell much from this picture I don't think.

We are going to install some type of wainscotting around the room as well, which will be painted white. Her walls will be pink since that is her favorite color. I am thinking a pale, muted pink-not too bright. I have a pine hutch that will go in her room to hold books and toys, and a pine daybed. I am going to paint the daybed because the finish is too orange.

My mom and I went to a couple of our local thrift stores today and I found some cute things.

A cute mini pitcher & bowl.

Four picture frames.

Another pitcher. I love cream or white pitchers.

A pedestal bowl which I filled with pine cones. Shells would be pretty, too.

This rooster was painted gold and silver! I decided to paint it antique white.

Tomorrow I will post some pictures of the pine hutch I have for Jenna's room and some of the things I have bought for her room, as well as some ideas I have for her room. Warning-I will be seeking some advice so come back tomorrow and help me! Thanks everyone & goodnight.

Eva