We're In!

Late this evening our agent handed us the keys to our home. We are 3 days over our closing date and are so very ready to get started on our projects!

Levi immediately took the crow bar to the parquet floor and discovered a nasty linoleum and old adhesive beneath it. This will add a few days to our floor removal project. Jen blemished every wall in the house with at least one paint sample before heading to bed. We are elated to finally be home owners and novice renovators! Today is a great day.

Photos: Jen in our family room with the welcome basket of wine, wafers, crackers and cheese from our agent & a photo from the front porch of our home.

Kitchen vision:

Espresso brown cabinets, light latte Silestone counter tops, and the backsplash shown here. The backsplash is my favorite, it's mixed tile of both glass and stone a few metalic light gold accents. I think our cabinent and countertop choices will mesh beautifully with the backsplash but I'm having a difficult time choosing wall colors for our open concept kitchen, dining and living room. Originally I planned a pale gray-ish teal for the wall color but with my samples up on the wall I'm not so sure. More on the color dilemma later.

Family Room/Dining Area

I'm loving this chandelier. It's different than most and will work well with the pale teal, dark brown, light gold color scheme I'm going for.

Master Bedroom

****Update, I found this quilted bed spread spread. I'm hoping my plan to make everything fairly neutral with clean lines and accents of green will look modern, relaxing and not too boring. We will see.



The color scheme in the photo above (minus the pillows) paired with our wedding photos below are our inspiration for our master bedroom.

We've been waiting nearly 3 years to have a place to properly display our wedding photos. We plan to chose just three and have them nicely framed above our bed's headboard.

Color scheme - brownish gray, cream, dark brown furniture with accents of our yellow green from our wedding.

Master bath

There is not a door between the master bath and the master bedroom therefore the bathroom has to complement the master bedroom. The floor is staying, its exactly like the main bathroom. I'm thinking about doing an antique cream color on the walls, dark vanity, double sinks (possibly the same wading pools as the main bath) two dark individual mirrors. I love the modern/rustic shower curtain below.

Meet Yuma

Skipping ahead

To Levi's distress I've skipped into phase 2 for just a brief moment this evening. Pottery barn has the most exquisite outdoor furniture collections with a price large enough to choke on, I've found a way to achieve the same look for a fraction of the price.

Pottery Barn online is have a big sale on it's patio cushions. The ottoman cushion is the same size as the sofa cushions but for less and even less on sale! I've purchased a few of these in the natural stone color and intend on building a bench with a slightly angled back to complete the look. I have grand plans to make the top of the bench hinged to double as throw blanket and pool toy storage. I'm also hoping to make my own throw pillows and outdoor curtains. We are trying to decide between reds and oranges for our accent colors or greens and blues for our accent colors.

Cushions are ordered but we'll have to wait a good month before we can proceed with Phase 2 - outdoor furniture and landscaping.

Score!

Today we ventured out for appliance shopping, estimates on new counters, new floors and popcorn scraping supplies. We spent hours in home depot wheeling and dealing with much success! Here's what we learned!

Pay attention to the details! We stumbled upon, not one, not two but THREE mis-marked price tags, and when we pressed the issue awkwardly the manager on three different occasions signed off on the lower price tag - yay! Our largest discount was over $100 off on our undermount stainless sink!

Price check items and then compare to their online sales! On our stainless fridge we saved $400.

Milk the military discount for all it's worth. 5% off all our home depot sales!

Ask about future promos - which is how we learned about how to buy our kenmore washer and dryer at 20% off.

It was a grueling day pounding the aisles of HD, Lowes, and Sears but somehow it didn't wear down the high of buying our first sink - yay!

Quartz Silestone counters - check!
Allure flooring - check!
Undermount sink - check!
Supplies for popcorn ceiling removal - check!
Fridge, Dishwasher, Microhood, Washer, Dryer - check!
Back Splash - check!
Showerheads - check!

Next on the agenda - paints, demolition supplies, cabinet refinishing supplies, pulls, wine insert project, kitchen floors, tract replacements, pendant lighting, island stools, blind paint, buy the clearance rug, bathroom vanities, bathroom mirrors, faucets, lumber for mantle/fireplace project, shelves, shower curtains, bathroom lighting, and crown.

Main Bathroom

Current bathroom - everything goes but the floor, toilet and bath.































Bathroom inspiration - gray walls, dark wood vanity, accent of burnt orange to incorporate the floors. Clean white shower curtain and towels.





























I'm in love with the Kohler Demi Lav Wading Pool Sink - so beautiful. However I do not love the faucet shown here.

Formal Living room/Entry

The room above is my inspiration for our formal living room, which is also the first room you enter into through our front door. When I was trying to decide from a narrowed list of color schemes Levi saw this one and said - go bold or go home - so bold it is!

Below is a couch we've selected and a possible rug selection. The colors on the rug fit the room but I'm not certain about the style of the pattern.

Larger Spare Bedroom

The larger spare bedroom will be light teal blues, white and possibly othere colors. I'm drawn to dark brown wood so it's likely I will use a dark brown platform bed, and other dark brown furniture. I'm most challenged by this room. We have a nice duvet that looks similar to the photo to the right (however the leaves are more leafy and less bulbous) that we hope to use here. This room is a challenge because I believe monochromatic is the only way to go. I'm cautious about mixing paterns or other colors.

Any suggestions?

Addressing the larger room color scheme challenge I have listed a few teal wallpaper choices. Pattern is difficult, not sure if many of these work. I'm considering painting the walls a darker shade of teal than the duvet or perhaps something in the grey palette.

I welcome input, see the questions below for the smaller bedroom for wallpaper.

Smallest Spare Bedroom

In just 4 short days we begin our big remodel project! The big decisions have been made but still I need to decide on a few color schemes for all of the bedrooms and the hallway as it is going to be the 2nd thing we do after removing the popcorn ceilings.

I have purchased a solid red quilted coverlet for the smallest spare bedroom which has since dictated the partial color scheme of this room - red. The backside of the quilt is a deep burnt rust color which I have the option of displaying or not. The dressed bed will be sitting upon a very dark brown clean lined platform bed.

I'm nutty about wallpaper these days and have strong intentions to use it in all 3 bedrooms and possibly the office. Feel free to weigh in on the prints below. If it's a large bold print I will simply do one accent wall plus the interior of the closet. If it's monochromatic and mostly textured I may do the entire room. I like the idea of having gold accents in the room but it's not necessary.

Here are the questions I'm trying to decide:
1) Which one to choose?
2) What accent color should I pair it with?
3) Full wall or accent wall?
4) If only one wall what complementing color would you suggest?
5) What style does the selected wallpaper indicate for the room - modern, whimsy, subtle asian, etc.

See wallpaper options in the post below: