Deck

That's what a free deck looks like. And my father in law lol.

Gotta hand it to Ryan for making us happy and making this disaster patio situation right!  Excited to have my husband work his magic and put a cover over it so we can actually enjoy it out here.

Guest room

We are working towards being foster parents and just love this adorable room we just finished!

Stenciled wall

So I decided to tackle this last weekend and forgot to post!  I got this stencil for $39 on Amazon.  I laid it out flat for a few weeks until I had the time to do this.  I bought cheap paint from Walmart which was probably the only mistake.

The key was a smooth roller VERY DRY.  Like dip it and then roll it until it looks dry before putting on the wall.  This was the key!!

Because of my cheap paint choice you can see where I had to overlap.  Had I bought better paint it wouldn't show.  But that being said...I am obsessed.  It adds brightness to this otherwise dull wall.

Deck update

So the deck estimate is done.

10x19 deck which will cover our patio is free by Ryan since they do not want to re-do the patio and we were planning to deck over it anyway.

We had them quote to make it 12x21 and that measly two feet on either end was not worth the price to us and I think we are doing to do some kind of flagstone or some other way to extend it later on.  The patio as it is, is already a great size.

We had them quote a pergola and again that was not worth the price. We are DIY'ers so it is very hard to pay triple what it would cost us to do it ourselves and my husband is handy!  Plus we get a 10% military discount at Lowes.  So we are going to figure that one out too.

All in all I'm just happy to have this made right and I strongly advise anyone who has issues anywhere in their house to make it known before your one year and if it poses a problem later on they have to make it right!

Hoping to schedule next week!  This weekend we are getting our guest bedroom ready and that furniture is on its way on Tuesday!  Things are moving right along!

Curtains

Here are my pretty new curtains!  They have a sheen to them and they are super pretty.  I hate that I can't center my couch on that wall tho :/ it is centered on the tv across the room which is on a short little wall.  Not to mention the big love seat wouldn't fit if we did center it.  So now I'm toying with what to do on the wall.  Leave pics?  I'm afraid if I take them down it will look bare, and if I make it smaller what do I center on?  Everything I have read says to keep the whole wall decorated so it doesn't look funny.

Also got a pretty boxwood wreath for over the fireplace on the mirror.

I'm just at a place where I just totally love my house!!  I mean more room would be nice but it is so cozy and I'm happy.  Was thinking of doing some mantel lighting?  Would brighten it but not sure with cords and all that.

patio estimate

We are waiting on the patio estimate.  We had him quote bigger than our 10x19 patio and then a covered pergola.  We have a budget we are willing to spend if it will look great and be done in a day lol.  I'll keep you updated on this, I'm excited!

So...I'm going to try out something new and I am hoping it's not going to be a colossal mess lol.  I bought this wall stencil thru amazon.  We have a small wall in our formal living that I am going to try it on...  if I can muster up the courage and be very very very patient!  The wall is gray and I'm planning to paint white over it to brighten up that room.  So it will essentially be the reverse of this.

Wish me luck ;)

Loft

I don't think I posted the finished product up here.  I love that little fireplace, it's so cozy up here!  Can be used with or without heat.

curtains and patio update

So my living room looks darker than it is in real life, but it still needed some more color to break up all that brown.

You can find them here

I found them at walmart online and I love them.  They just came in yesterday but the longest they had was 95" and currently in there I have 108".  So it's going to take me a minute to hang them because I need to move the rods down and patch and paint.  But stay tuned, I am so excited about these!!  Can't be beat for $19.97 a panel!  They have a pretty sheen and they are lined!!  By Better Homes and Garden.

**Patio Update**

The contractor is coming Friday at 2 to estimate it out.  I think we can get the boards laid on a diagonal which is cool.  Just hoping that the roof part isn't like some extreme number, because if so my husband can just do it himself at some other time.  He's handy!

patio

We are progressing on our patio issue.  They have agreed to go ahead and pay to have it decked.  I'm sure this is much cheaper expense than ripping out the pad and re-pouring but since we wanted to do this anyway, we are thrilled.

We are also going to have them quote us on either some kind of pergola or roof over it.  I'm tired of everything under there getting wrecked from the weather and I would love to be able to enjoy the fall mornings without dew everywhere.  A little nervous as to how much that could be but we will see.  Hoping to get that estimate this week, hoping to have it installed by Thanksgiving. Wishful thinking I'm sure!

New cabinet

Well I gotta high five target on this. I found this online on Friday.  I ordered it.  And by Saturday at noon I had it.  I didn't pay for expedited shipping or anything!

Now I had to put the whole thing together from scratch

But they had a 72 hour sale and an extra 15% off plus my red card and this adorable cabinet was a steal!  I think it takes up that extra wasted space and I put all my scentsy bars in the drawer and extra blankets in the cabinet.

Living room furniture

It's still a work in progress but I have some blue/green curtains coming too.  It's dark but I found those cute pillow covers from H&M online for $5 and that was full price!  Can't beat it.  The lamps are my favorite.  Walmart!

Formal living room!

So we finally go around to putting this room together!  I painted it today.  The same color as the loft, sherwin Williams stamped concrete.  A 5 gal bucket was way too much so thankfully I like the color.  We are putting it in our bedroom next and hoping that uses it up lol!

So I had always wanted to do a two tone room and the chair rail made this one easy.  Let me tell you though, BIG difference between cheap off the shelf Walmart paint and sherwin Williams!  I am a believer now after this white paint soaked into the wall and splattered everywhere.  Nightmare.

But here's the reveal!!

The only thing new in here is that turquoise cabinet.  Everything else was taken from other parts of the house!  I love it and now I can be excited coming into my house into such a cute space.

Stay tuned for more updates soon!

New furniture

Patio is still under discussion so hopefully we will have that resolved shortly!  Trying to get them to just deck it instead, and they are acting like they might go for it!

So this weekend was our long awaited spending spree 😂😂 we finally were able to get some furniture that we have been putting off.

We actually only went for a couch.  Really.  😳😳😳

Our IKEA couch is awesome but it is not a comfy movie watching cozy up couch.  We plan to move it along with everything else in our current living room into our formal living room.

We purchased this couch and oversized chair.  It looks shinier and browner than it does in person.  From this pic I never would have looked at it twice.  But in person it is glorious.  And electric.  The couch fits 4 people and the chair fits 2. It is called Ashley Exhilaration.

We got this rug which is a blue/gray color.  Looks different in person and lighter.

Then we went with this coffee table and matching end tables:

The coffee table is huge!  I love it!

This table was a bit of a splurge but it's so cute and I love the mirrors.  Putting this in our entry way somewhere.

For our loft we ended up getting this that was returned so it was a great deal!  Super comfy too, and I would know.  I fell asleep in it last night lol.

We got this piece for our loft too. Just the entertainment stand.  The fireplace was so inexpensive and I love it!  It's LED and can be used with or without heat.  

We got this set for our middle bedroom.  Everything but the tall dresser.  

I had gone to the Ashley store and didn't like anything but yet went to this other store and everything I ended up with was Ashley lol!  I like a modern look!

Also got a couple night stands for our room.  We brought home the turquoise cabinet and loft couch but everything else will be 2-4 weeks.  

I will do a big reveal but of everything I am most stoked about our loft!!  We bought a few new light fixtures and what a difference!!  I hate those boob lights!!

We are thrifty bargain do it yourself-ers so we are always on a hunt to get the look for less!  I honestly must say I don't think we could have gotten all of this at IKEA for less.  Even if we did we would spend the difference in gas getting up there and back 10 times and countless hours of labor in putting it all together.  Thankfully they are delivering and putting everything together at no extra cost!!

So if you live in the upstate I highly recommend Unclaimed Furniture in Duncan, SC!

Loft is finished!

We weren't happy with the chairs we had in there.  I quickly stopped into an overstocks place and found these 3 memory foam gaming chairs at Costco:

They were so comfy and the perfect chill out chairs, easy to move around and hang out.  I bought all 3 and he gave me 20% off!

My son has claimed this one as his :)

I put some pillows out so people can lay on the floor too and the cute lights make it so fun!

It's just such a cozy spot!  It feels like a cool little coffee shop or something!  I think we plan to mount a tv in here but this one we snagged from our room in the meantime.  With everY room we make nice, another room pays the price!!  :)

But last night we laid on the floor and played games and we have already enjoyed this space more than we have in 2 years!  It's awesome!

We are now working on finding a sectional for our living room.  And getting our guest bedroom set up cute.  We are going through the process to be a foster/adoptive family which is what sparked all this change!  We are so excited!

Loft transformation

We are about 85% done.  We want to replace the chair with 2 recliners or a reclining love seat  so we can chill out and watch movies up here.  It's cozy and warm and I see us using this space so much!  It went completely unused for almost 2 years!

Desk area which I know I will use so much more than my downstairs formal living space.  

Will replace this out with something else

Love the curtains so much.  It has a feminine touch but I left some of the man cave elements :)

Like my proud husband's elk antlers :). Below there is a play area full of toys.  My son already loves it!  Now he can play, I can be on the computer and we can watch a movie all in the same space!

Loft style

So our loft was previously an unused "man cave"/"man office".  Well I was over it.  Remember the hammock he hung up?  #bye

We still haven't completely finished painting and I have been looking for the right curtains to lighten it back up because it does seem dark in here!  I found these beautiful Nicole miller panels at TJ maxx for $30 for a pair!  So $60 total for these gorgeous thick beautiful curtains!

They were 96" which I knew was too long but I was excited to mount the rods up high like I did downstairs.  Makes such a difference!

Old on the left.  Gray/black stripe.

Also got this big R to hang up in there, the blue matches the curtains exactly!

I'm so excited to start using this space!  We are planning a sophisticated play area (read: everything put in its place and out of sight!).  Maybe considering a homework area.  

Painting finally

Well we are finally getting around to painting our upstairs!  Thanks to a 40% off sale at Sherwin-Williams we went with 3 separate colors to get started upstairs.  

We got this color in a 5 gal bucket because we had a lot to cover.  We spent the extra for the super paint and it is worth it.  One coat and done!

This is our main color that we are using in the main areas both up and downstairs

SW Stamped Concrete

I think it's a good medium gray.  It is a statement but not super dark.

The other two colors we chose are for our son's room and our guest bedroom.  In our son's room we chose SW storm cloud

 And in our guest room SW oyster bay

We definitely lean toward a cool color palate and grayed out versions of them.  Since this stuff covers so great I'm hoping we have enough to do some accent walls downstairs to tie it all in, or bathrooms.

Stay tuned for some of the room makeovers!  Bye bye man loft :) it never gets used and is ugly anyway ;)

As far as the patio, this is where we ended up:

They put a layer of something on it but guess what, still have 3 low spots so now they are going to rip it up completely.  We are rethinking decking over it and instead doing a flagstone or something to extend it so we want it done right.  I am waiting on a response but they did warn us that tearing it up would jack up our yard pretty bad.  Husband doesn't care he just wants a legit usable patio which we do not have.