The plan is...

I haven't done much around the house in awhile but I've WANTED to do a whole lot.

Here are the crazy ideas running through my head at the moment. I wish I knew how to make a mood board, but you'll just have to take it in this hodge podge way.

First up is the basement bathroom. I hate this bathroom. It's the most awkward, tight little bathroom and I would love to tear it out and restart. But it just doesn't seem worth the cost. The bathroom has become a storage, unusable mess. So our two bathroom house has been one bathroom for the longest time. Chance put in a new toilet a while back, that helped a little. But the tile and tub were just ugly and gross. A few weekends ago we (by we I mean I suggested the idea and my amazing husband did all the work, love that guy)...epoxy spray painted the tile/tub white. This won't be our main bathroom and we didn't want to waste the money replacing the tile and tub for a shower that will rarely be used. But the tub, as much as we scrubbed, was a mess. And the tile was this speckly blue with random floral tiles mixed in. Gross. The spray paint worked great and now I'm excited to do this bathroom. But first there are some dry wall patches to do in the ceiling and behind the toilet.

Bathroom awkwardness:


This is after we scrubbed it like crazy! Yuck.


Blue speckles and floral tile. No.


Ahhhh, it looks so pretty and clean now.


Here's the plan for this bathroom after that's done:

Paint the walls - thinking Hale Navy by Benjamin Moore (I've been looking for a good navy color after I pinned this on pinterest months ago).

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We have to paint the ceiling, I'm thinking a light gray would work well.

New mirror....the little mirror that's there now might be the only storage in the bathroom, but it's ugly and it has to go. I really want to DIY a mirror with stained wood around it. Like this:

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Decor. I'm thinking light green (like the curtain in the navy picture) would be a great accent color. I love the bathroom below, LOVE. I'm thinking a light like that would be awesome. We also need to add all new towel bars, toilet paper holders, shower rod (bathroom has nothing). I also wanted to spray paint some Bath letters like the picture below.

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We also want to get this bathroom done because next year we want to tackle re-doing our upstairs main bath. The upstairs bathroom might appear ok but it's not. They didn't fully grout the floor tile, it's a mess. And they did a terrible job tiling the shower. The window has to be replaced in the bathroom, it's rotting and we need to figure out a way to keep it from getting that way again after we replace it. We also need an exhaust fan, the room gets way too much moisture and I worry about the drywall.

We won't change it much, I actually like it but it needs to be cleaned up!

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Second up is my craft room. I have to get this room done. I don't even know what I'm doing anymore. I can't ever figure this room out. I've started by mostly painting the ceiling white (it was an off white/tan before). And I was in process of painting the trim before I ran out of paint.

Next thing I need is a new light, the little boob light in this room makes it really dark and that's probably why I've already painted it THREE times. The 2nd and 3rd times were at least oops cans so I didn't have to pay much! lol I know, it's crazy. 4th time will be the charm though.

Take #1 : Nope.


Take #2: Nope.


Take #3: Nopeeeee.


Here's what I was kind of thinking.

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Except I want to paint the room light grey.

I want to get a desk from a thrift store and paint it coral.

I want a black and white striped (or chevron) rug.

I want to bring a big armoire that we have upstairs down and paint it to use for storage. Not sure what color yet though.


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Lastly (well not lastly, but last of the room I actually know what I want to do with) I want to do the guest room. I painted it and got some things really quickly when my sister came to visit last year. I hate those curtains. Yuck. But I do love grey. :)


Here is the color scheme I want to go with:

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I'm going to leave the walls the same color.

I'm going to get a new light. On a mission to replace all boob lights in this house! Except for maybe the hall ones.

I have this great dresser (I got for FREE, woo) that I'm either going to paint the yellow or teal. I'm not sure what yet.



And I need to get an actual bed in here, that or get the world's best mattress pad (because this thing is super uncomfortable). But I really want the bed so I can get a cute nightstand and bedding.


Lots to do, lots. I still want to paint the kitchen and do about 1,000 other things around this house! But hopefully I'll get started on one of these rooms soon! :)

         

Dining Room Light

When we moved in to the house, we only had a little boob light over the dining room area. So of course I switched it out asap with a cheap little light I got from Lowes. I couldn't have taken my time and picked out something I loved, for some reason (per usual) I always feel the need to just jump and get something. And like most things, I eventually want to switch it out with something I like more. This light wasn't any different....I ended up hating it after awhile and wanted a new light. I didn't really want to spend the money because there's a zillion other things I want to do around this house too.

A few months ago (I'm trying to catch up on things I've done and post about them!) we went to Lowes to see if we could find shades instead of buying a whole new light. Unfortunately they only had one option, but I kind of liked them so we bought them. I think they were $7 a piece, so $21 for all three. Which is much cheaper than spending over $100 for a new light. I think this light originally cost something like $69...it was super cheap. I think it looks much better, I like it a lot. Though, it does contribute to the too much tan thing going on in this room. And the light is way off center. Recently I ended up moving the table to where I want it (so it's not so close to the door). The light is no where near the middle of the table. I'm thinking eventually we'll need to move it, or get a hook and hang it so it's more centered (but I don't really love that look).

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Before:

After:

Sorry for the major laziness with the cell phone pics.

  

Color Run

I did the Color Run almost two months ago! But it still deserves a post! I've been trying to work out, and run...I'm still so slow and now that it's getting colder, it's getting harder. Can't wait for the spring! This was my first 5k and it was perfect. I didn't run the whole thing, and that was ok. No pressure, lots of crazy fun, I loved it!

I went with my friend Christina and ran into my friends Kristina & Russell. This was so crazy and silly and it made it much more fun to do with friends!

My little "tips" (since I know I was looking for these before I went!)

• Sign up ASAP when they open the registration, it sells out really fast (I think it sold out in three days for the Sept. DC one).
• We gave ourselves time to get there an hour early...which was foolish because we spent that entire hour early in traffic and trying to park, we barely made it on time. So get there really crazy early.
• Since this was my first 5k, I had no idea what I was going to do with my keys, cell phone, etc. When we went to get our race packets the day before, they were selling tshirts, etc. and I was able to buy a little swooshie bag (haha I have no idea what you call them) for $5. They also had fanny packs but I wanted the bag. It was comfortable, and it didn't bother me while running. And I brought plastic sandwich bags for my cell phone.
• Close your mouth when you run through the color zones. I did it just because I didn't want gunk on my teeth, but I ended up getting hit right in the corner of my mouth with blue! Glad I had my mouth closed.
• Don't forget towels, baby wipes to clean up before you get in the car.

So if you are thinking about doing it, do it!!

    

DIY Key Holder

 

I'm determined to do this blog thing! Even if you don't believe me. :)

Awhile ago I had been thinking about DIY'ing a new key holder, ours was old and not cute.

This is the best picture I can find, I was also lol'ing as I went through old pictures of my living room....it looks much better than when we first moved in, but still a lot to do! And what an awful picture below, I still want a new shade for that lamp.

But before I could give much thought about what I wanted, my key thing broke! But luckily a trip to Hobby Lobby was already in the works. :) I only ended up spending a whopping $3 on this project, which is about what that original 'Keys' key holder cost me at walmart!

My MIL was nice enough to give me a scrap piece of wood that she had, it was perfect!

I decided to stain the wood with some stain we already had from the big dresser in the living room.

I went to Hobby Lobby and got two hooks ($3 a piece, 50% off, so $3 for both!). I wanted three but they only had two. I was so disappointed but then I realized that we only use two hooks anyway so I would just need to find something for the middle.

I wasn't sure about painting the hooks, they are heavy and cast iron but I wanted some color. I ended up just painting the tops a teal color (something I already had) and leaving the hook part unpainted (figured the paint would get scratched off by keys anyway).

I had this little decorative piece that was supposed to go behind a handle on our big dresser we got from craigslist. But it was missing the piece on the other side and it looked fine without it so I took it off and kept it. I ended up using that piece on the middle. Not too flashy, just right!

Then I had some picture hangers that I attached to the back.

I love it, like really, really love it. I love it even more because I made it and it barely cost me a thing.

       

Backyard

Last month we decided to do a floating/platform deck. I love it so much!!! We never really sat outside...we had a couple of chairs but never bought a table or anything because I didn't want to just plop it in our empty backyard in the grass. My husbands dad came over and helped him build most of it and then he finished it up! The following weekend he put a rail on the other side so we would have something to lean the grill and the smoker up against. The whole thing is about 16' x 20' and cost just a little under $1000. We didn't think we'd have to add a step but it was just a little too high at the end so last weekend my husband added a step. I was scouring the internet trying to figure out how to do it since we only needed one step but he was able to figure it out on his own and mostly using just leftover wood from the deck! We only had go and buy one other piece which was about $15. We used pressure treated wood on the whole thing and I can't wait to stain it in a few months. And we also added little gardens on either side of the step. I love it, it's perfect! We had a smoker and a fire pit that we hadn't even used yet so we finally used both of those. We plan to do some gravel around the firepit area and then maybe some slate/stepping stones leading from the deck to the firepit area. It's not ideal that we have the chain link fence but we are ok with it for now. I love our backyard....we really need a new shed though! And soon I'm either going to build or buy a little potting bench to put up against the house. Sorry for the bad cell phone pictures but I'm really bad about using our actual cameras lately!

Our Backyard last year:

Starting on the deck this year:

We got this table for $79 and the chairs for $19! 

But we had to have a table big enough for 6 and patio sets are expensive! It was a good deal.

 Don't you love the little solar caps on the railing?? I do! 

They were less than $5 each at Home Depot.

My little veggie garden, which is much bigger now

 We finally cut down this random basketball pole. We've spent almost two years trying to figure out what to do with it! Turns out it was filled top to bottom with concrete! Who does that??? We cut it from the bottom and got rid of it....now I think we'll have to use the jack hammer to break up some of the concrete in the ground and cover it with dirt and grass seed!

 Love our backyard! We recently picked up an umbrella for our table, which was a gift from my mother in law for our upcoming 3rd anniversary!

 My little garden in the back which is starting to fill with flowers that came back this year and will continue to come back!

 Mmm smores.