making it pretty {staging a home}.

Two years ago, almost exactly, I was getting our previous house ready to sell. I put away all personal pictures, hung up some extra mirrors to reflect more light, and packed away "extra" stuff around the house. I didn't want it to look empty, but I also didn't want any clutter, I figured buyers wanted to be able to picture themselves in the house not see how cute my kids are (even though, I firmly believe they could help sell the place. Ha!) We ended up selling that house in less than two months and had 15 showings in a month and a half.

Here I am, doing it again, to our second home. Except this time I have two kids and a part-time job. Which makes things a whee bit more challenging, but we are doing it. Or at least attempting it [in a housing-market recession, no less].

We bought this house two years ago, knowing that in two years, we would put it on the market. It was like a long-term flip house for us. I absolutely love the style of this little 1930's bungalow we live in. It is charming, has a good yard (for being in the city), and about five-ten minutes to everything. If it wasn't an investment property, I could see ourselves here. But, we trust God has a different house for us. [In fact, we found one we love, so we are praying this one sells quickly so we can put an offer in on it.]

I thought it would be fun to share the pictures I have been taking, that the realtor will be using. I took down a lot of decor to simplify things, so this isn't exactly what my home looks like on a daily basis. [Especially this clean!] Keep in mind, this is two years into the making. It used to be dirty, gross, with practically no kitchen or bathroom. We have done so.so.so.very.much to this place.

And now, my very favorite room of the house-- the kitchen and dining area!

 So there it is, our sweet little home we are trying to sell. There has been a lot of love and hardwork poured into this place! Tomorrow I will share some outside pictures, as they saying goes, first impressions can make it or break it!

diy dining room table.

A couple of months ago I randomly decided I didn't like our dining room table anymore and I sold it on Craigslist that night. [I even made a little bit off of it-score.]

This is what our dining area used to look like. [Picture taken in fall 2010.]

I didn't have a real plan for the next table, I just knew I wanted something more modern. For about five weeks we didn't have a table to eat from. Our meals consisted of picnics on the floor and sitting at the two barstools we own. I didn't want to just settle on a table because we needed one. But I also didn't want to spend a lot because we don't plan on living here but for maybe another year.

Then I saw this table and was inspired. A DIY table. Sure!

source

Mother's Day weekend we made a trip to Ikea and bought the chairs I wanted. And that same weekend I just happened to find a frame on Craigslist (that was originally from Ikea)  for a table that was a perfect match in my eyes. [It actually came with a top, but it was lame-o, so we tossed it.] The handy-dandy husband bought some Birch wood from Lowe's for the top. He measured, cut, sanded, rounded the corners, stained with a really really light white-wash, and then polyurethaned a couple of times. [Happy Mother's Day to me.]

And now this is my new dining room table and chairs that I looooooove. [Along with new wall color, new windows, patched holes, and trim since the before picture above.]

One of my favorite parts about the table is the industrial-looking bolts. I should just throw a wrench on the top and call it a day.

Wanna see what our kitchen looked like before we got a hold of it? Check it out here, it was a doozy!

P.S. I love sharing home stuff and hopefully I will be doing that more often. I think it's fun to sneak a peek in other homes and get inspired, or be like oh good, they have a messy house like me. shew. And just for the record, I totally cleaned the dining room table off for you, it very rarely looks like that. Keeping it real.

come on in. {the kitchen}.

It's here--another house post! And this one is a doozy. It's our kitchen/dining room area. I'm even shocked looking at these before and after pictures.

Since I have a lot of pictures to share, I figured the less words the better. So here it goes.

When we bought our 1930's bungalow in August 2009, this is what our lovely (using this term very loosely) kitchen looked like. [Brace yourself, folks. We really did take on this challenge all ourselves.]

So what type of remodeling did we actually do in the kitchen? Alright here's the list: remove cabinets, flooring (which had a couple of layers), appliances, remove washer/dryer hookup (who has this in their kitchen, in the open, for real?), all new electrical (done by my dad), remove drywall due to mold, redo plumbing, one new window installed (still need to replace four), new back door installed, install new cabinets and counter top (we had the counter top hired out because our house is so not square and it had to be custom made), installed new appliances, new sink with a garbage disposal, the ceiling fixed in spots, laid new floor, and painted (which isn't just painting, that means cleaning the walls and priming).

Did I mention for about two months of living here I did not have a working sink or counter tops? Imagine me carrying loads of dirty dishes in a box outside in the freezing cold to my dad's house to use his dishwasher, or don't think about it, because I am trying to forget that I actually did that.

After all that hard work, it did finally pay off. Here are the after pictures:

There you have it folks, my kitchen. Is it my dream kitchen? Nah. But I do enjoy being in it. I especially love all the natural light that comes in. And keep in mind, it's not finished yet. Notice there isn't trim up yet, and we have to figure what to do about a space that doesn't have room for a cabinet, and see those cute vintage aprons hanging up by the dining room table? Yeah, those are covering the old electrical box that still needs to be removed. We also need those really cool windows replaced--- I wanted to keep them because I love the originality of them, but they are so not efficient.

Our house is always a work in progress and never will be perfect, and that's okay with me.

Wanna see other parts of our remodel? Check it out here, here and here.

come on in. {naomi's nursery}

Almost exactly a year ago we were in this room ripping down a drop-ceiling, scraping old plaster off the ceiling, putting up drywall all around the border of the room because there wasn' t any (seriously, the drop-ceiling was hiding the missing drywall), installing a new ceiling, new electrical, new windows, new carpet, new door and painting.

This is what we started with:

At the time, we didn't know this room was going to be "Naomi's nursery" but I did paint it a light mint green with hopes that one day a little baby would be using it. And a year later, we will be welcoming her very soon.

Come on in to Naomi's nursery.

(Notice- we still need trim up-ha. I also plan on expanding the wall of picture frames, as I continue to collect them. And that recliner, kind of an eye sore, but I went for comfy and practical after buying a trendy cute chair when pregnant with Audrey that ended up not being comfortable at all. I will conquer all those late nights with the help from that ugly Lazyboy found on Craigslist.)

(I made those pom-poms for a baby shower and now using them above the crib.)

(One of my best buys when pregnant with Audrey- $25 changing table that was originally $225. I think buying a dresser is a practical way to go, but I couldn't pass up such a deal. And now I'm getting more use out of it. The pictures above the table were all gifts- the blue and white plate on top was Andrew's when he was little, it has his name and year he was born on it.)

(Vintage picture frame with a preggo picture of me came from my MIL and the teacup was also a gift.)

(The vintage dress was a gift, I sewed the burp clothes, and the other items came from garage sales. The mason jar is actually filled with vintage pink Christmas ornaments.)

(That picture? It's my mama and me when I was little. I smile every time I see it. The basket is filled with headbands, and the vintage train art came from a garage sale.)

I'm really happy with how her nursery turned out. It isn't anything crazy or super nice, but so much of the room was created with really memorable items that have meaning to me. I'm so not a theme girl or matchy-match. I didn't even go with a color scheme really. I just did what felt right and took on the vintage style approach (no surprise, that's how I roll). I think I spent a total of about $65 dollars this time around. I tried to use a lot of what I already had (crib, changing table, Lazyboy recliner, vintage child's desk (which was Andrew's when he was little), white shelves, curtains that I made years ago when I was pregnant with Audrey, and I already had the bedding too). The only thing I really splurged on was the wallpaper behind the crib, which was about $40. The Shabby Chic chandelier came from Goodwill for $10 (that my sister-in-law found for me), and then a couple of other vintage items from garage sales. Everything else was gifted to me.

Of course, I love decorating, so making a nursery for my little girl was just part of the experience and preparation for me. But, in no way, is a nursery necessary. The most important part is welcoming your little one with love. And I just can't wait to do that.

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Wanna see the other parts of our house I have revealed so far? Check out the front porch here and the living room here.

come on in. {our living room}

I'm finally doing another home remodeling post. Slowly but surely, I plan on sharing with you our progress.

Here is a little background info on our place: In August 2009 we purchased a 1150 square feet fixer-upper for uh, dirt cheap. Really, cheap. We knew we had to put a lot of work into it. But my husband is a handy-man and I love to decorate and design and stuff, so we knew we could do it. For the past year we have spent crazy hours fixing it up, and the project list still isn't done. But, we have come along way- it's actually very livable, which it wasn't at the time of purchase. The majority of the work we have done ourselves, with hiring out only a few things here and there.

And even though our home isn't big, I truly love it. It was built in the 1930's and has such charm and character. We plan on living here only for a short while (bought it as an investment), but right now, I'm really happy with where we are at.

Okay, on to the good stuff. Pictures.

I already shared with your our front porch make-over here. Time for the living room.

Here are some before shots:

Don't be deceived by this picture. It makes it look not too bad. The flooring appears to be nice, right? That is what we thought- ooooh, we could just sand it down and refinish the original floors. But once we realized all the spots that needed replaced, the crazy air that came up from the floor in the winter, and how unlevel the floor was, we decided that in the end we would have to cover it up. [Don't hate me for covering original wood floors, trust me, we wanted to save them.]

This is what it looked like after I primed the walls and trim.

 Getting closer. Painted it a hotel vintage blue. But that door had to go. Ewwww. Along with the windows.

So, once we cleaned the walls, primed, painted, fixed parts of the ceiling, had new electrical installed (thanks to my dad), installed new windows and front door (hired this out), installed new flooring ourselves (which this just happened over the weekend), this is what our living room now looks like.

Uh, ignore those empty frames. I plan on hanging fall plates in them, eventually. Oh, and that's a string to a balloon hanging down to the left, that's Audrey's decorating touch.

So there it is folks, our living room. Is it exactly how I want it? Of course, not. I'm always changing things around and it is never a finished decorated room. But, when I sit in that room, it makes me happy. Most everything in there was purchased from a second-hand store, garage sale, or was on major clearance. I want a home that is inviting and relaxing. Not cluttered, but filled with things my family loves.

[I really appreciate lovely comments on my blog. I don't get a lot of them (and that is totally okay with me), but each one makes me smile. So thank you. And if you have any happy words to share or even questions for me about remodeling or home stuff, please feel free to leave a note. You make my day, friends.]

come on in. {our front porch}

[I've been sayin' over and over that I would share pictures of our house and all the remodeling we have done. Finally, here is the start of it...Enjoy. Or not. And just think about how ridiculous we must be to want to take on such a project.]
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You might step on a dried cranberry. Or trip over a baby stroller if you aren't careful. There may be a couple of fruit flies around. Because gosh darn it, I can't seem to get rid of them [I have a jar of wine sitting out because that is suppose to work. And we know, I can't drink it right now, so it might as well be the flies.] But you are always invited over.

Come on in.

This is what you will see when you come to our 1200 square foot bungalow that we bought for what some people pay for a really, really nice car.

Of course, it didn't always look that way. On the front of our house we landscaped, had new windows and two new doors put in, and painted the limestone. [I'm going to give myself a little bit of credit, I did all the painting and landscaping myself- this pregnancy. In which I give credit to my crazy nesting stage. And just so you know, I know nothing about landscaping, hence the basic perennials I planted.]

You know that cheer u-g-l-y you ain't got no alibi, you ugly. Yeah, yeah you ugly. Or maybe you don't know it, and I'm the only dork awesome person here. Anyway, that cheer reminds me of what our house used to look like. Check out the before picture.

And here are some more after and before shots.

(Excuse that blurry picture, I cropped it too much and now I'm too lazy to change it again.)

And here are two more after shots. We are planning on getting a wooden front porch swing. But until then, my two {free} chairs will have to do.  Oh, I also want a pretty outdoor rug.

One of my favorite things about my front porch is my front porch rug that we purchased a couple of weeks ago while we were away on a mini-vacation for our 5 year anniversary.

In case it is difficult to read, the rug states "Delight in the simple things." I love this reminder everytime I step into our home.

Monday Rambles.

• It always amaze me at how quickly a week(end) can pass. It's already Monday again. Geesh. But, the good news--we had another productive weekend in the house of always fixing up. I would practically call this past weekend monumental because (drumroll please), Andrew and I installed the kitchen floor. (Fine, Andrew pretty much installed the whole thing himself, but I did help a tiny bit). This means I don't have a grungy, paint spotted, always dirty looking, non-existing floor to look at anymore. Wondering what we installed? Nothing fancy. Just laminate. But I LOVE it. And I realize that I haven't hardly shared any pictures of the progress on our house. So photos will be coming soon!
• Also? Our kitchen table has been a black folding table and four chairs for the last six months. But today? I bought a farm table with six chairs (at a super duper good deal).
• In case your wondering. Last Thursday was beautiful. See picture below.

(We call my mom "Mimi" that is what she wanted as her "grandma" name. And in case you didn't know, Audrey's middle name Rose, is after my mom's first name, Rosemary.)
• I made a goal for myself this week to go to the grocery store one time. Last week I went at least three, and if you count Target, you could say four times. Seriously, someone needs to plan better, ahem. Tomorrow we have small group coming over, Wednesday we have friends coming for dinner, and Sunday I am hosting a baby shower. One trip to the grocery store? At least I have a list this time. (And we will just ignore the trip that my husband is taking tonight to pick up juice and milk so we can make it through the morning).
• Two weeks from tomorrow we get to find out the gender. So excited. And right now I'm loving feeling the baby move on the inside. I think God carefully orchestrated this time for a mother to bond with her child in a such a special way because she is the only one that can feel those flutters until the baby gets big enough for the outside to start to rumble.
• We got rid of our cable last week. It's been really nice. The tv hasn't been on at all, except for the couple of movies we have watched. The one show that I will continue to watch online is Parenthood.
• Audrey had her 18 month check up today. Omgosh. I have an 18 month old baby toddler. She is scaling in at 24 lbs and 32.5 inches long. This past week she has managed to perfect the whine, which I am now having to somehow revert. Her obsessions still include babies and dogs. But mostly babies. Naked babies. And my new favorite word that I like her to say over and over- "o-tay, o-tay."

Alright enough rambling. I hope you all had a lovely weekend and a start to a great week. Happy Monday!

Real Life.

This is what an evening looks like in my (unfinished) kitchen.