When did April happen?!

It's been a whirlwind of the past few weeks and our house is starting to look like... well, a home... finally :)

Ryan started priming the back room to get ready for the rest of the stripes.

Krispy Kreme Hat and all.

And we FINALLY got the back door in, squeal! It still needs to be painted and fitted but I'm loving all of the extra light. 

Of course this picture was taken in the dark ;)

I also did pick up paint for it and I'm going to go with a light bluish green. I was inspired by some photos I found on pinterest:

I just love the bluish green with the green and I think it will carry well through the rest of the house.

Ryan did some kitchen finishing and put in our toe kicks.

I'd show you a picture of the finished product but not long after this picture was taken we realized that you can't open the dishwasher all the way with the toe kick in... so, another problem to fix #whitegirlproblems.

Ryan's also getting ready to tile the rest of the floor in the back room now that we have the door in. I'm SO excited.

Goodbye ugly linoleum, hello rock tile! Speaking of rock tile, the grout is on the lighter side so I'm a little worried about keeping it clean, does anyone have a good grout cleaner they'd like to share?

And the last excitement of the past week or so was that our dining room rug came in and I loveeeeee it.

I need to decide on some curtains and a new table cloth. I'm SO over red.

I ended up getting the same entry way rug and I just love the texture of these rugs.

Here's the last picture of our family room slowly coming together. I'm dying to get some new couches and to update the coffee table but for now, I'm pretty happy to have some things on our walls and for our house to start feeling like an actual home.

#homewin

You Win Some, You Lose Some

Before I get in to our weekend's activities, I thought I'd share my ridiculous laundry mat experience bright and early Monday morning.  Over the past four months or so, since I've started going to the 24 hour laundry mat (after Ryan pretty much peer pressured me into it),  I've learned that apparently, the laundry mat is not only for doing laundry, it is also a market place of sorts. From socks to underwear to candy, I'm never quite sure what these entrepreneurial men will take out of their large black trash bag and try to sell to my fellow laundry mat goers. Usually, I'm not that surprised by what they have to offer and I often see ladies purchasing these items (although I should note that if you want to go in to this business, candy seems to be the most lucrative especially since the laundry mat also appears to be a playground of sorts), but Monday was a first when I saw a man walking around the laundry mat selling raw steaks.... and no, he didn't have a cooler if you were wondering. Oh, laundry mat, you sure do spice up an ordinary President's day. And no, that wasn't the win I was referring to ;)

This weekend our back room came a long way. Ryan started cementing down the rocks in the bathroom and learned that placing each rock isn't much worse than creating the tile sheets. I'd call that a partial loss and a partial win.

Placing the rocks

All placed in the bathroom

The prize winner of the weekend was my stripes. I'm still amazed that I actually made straight lines.... Here's a quick tutorial of how it went down after a few lessons via the Internet.

Wall after I had painted it white and before I started on the stripes.

I measured the wall, decided on my width of stripes, and used a leveler to draw my lines.

I put up my tape making sure to tape on the outside of where the beige stripes would go.

I sealed the tape with the white paint and let it dry.

On to the stripes! I used a semi gloss paint to give it a sheen.

Peeling off the tape before it drys.

Finished product!!!

I'm pretty much obsessed. I find myself making excuses to go in to the back room to see them, stare and pet them. Ryan may or may not have called out my ridiculousness considering he doesn't do that with the ENTIRE kitchen ;) I couldn't do the back hallway yet because we need to get our new door in (which my fantastic brother in law ordered for us) but we're on our way.

Another win, was that Ryan finished our transition and it looks pretty darn good.

Less of a win and more of housekeeping was that Ryan cleaned up the wires for the dishwasher, secured it and put in a transition piece between it and the cabinet.

Putting in the transition

Done!

We had a bunch of wins this weekend but our big loss came with the bathroom light that I had ordered a few weeks ago. First off, it was a NIGHTMARE to put up. It took up a good thirty minutes and once it was up, we were both kind of like eh, I want to like it but it's just too big.

Oh well, you can't win them all, right? But, of course, I won't leave you on a loss because we had one more win this weekend and that was when Ryan began to grout the laundry room. I pretty much picked the grout color just off of the fact that I didn't want it to look like it should be white when in reality I wanted it to be grey (and show less dirt). So, I told Ryan what I was thinking and he just came back with a color (that's terrifying if you know Ryan's color blind self) and it's pretty darn perfect if you ask me. 

It's still a little wet here so it did get a little lighter this morning but I would definitely call this a win. 

So, that's the story of our wins and losses of the weekend. Now if only I could find a new light for the bathroom....

Pay off

This weekend was a busy one. I think the frigid cold weather helped keep us indoors and I'll take it!

Ryan put up the molding on the other window in the kitchen. We still have to paint the trim but it's looking really good. Of course, now that means I'll have to pull the trigger on some fabric for the curtains which may or may not take another ten months....

Putting up the molding

Done! (Ignore the ladder)

While Ryan was working in the backroom, I had the task of finishing covering the front edge of the birch in the cabinets. The only negative of Ikea cabinets is that if they aren't perfectly aligned (or if they're a corner cabinet), you can see the birch through the cracks and it kind of drove me insane. Low and behold Google had the perfect solution, an Imperial Walnut veneer that was easy to install and matched almost spot on. A few weeks ago, my sister and I had started doing the upper cabinets but had run out of the veneer. I finally got around to ordering more and a few weeks later actually got around to finishing the cabinets.

Before

After I put on the veneer

After, you can't even see the birch!

So, not the best example, the corner cabinets would have been better but I forgot to take pictures of those :)

Ryan got the bathroom walls painted in grey (of course) and it's looking rather fancy. We had a little issue with the paint being too thin at first since it's been sitting in our basement for over a year but after much stirring, it covered quite nicely. It looks super dark but that's just because it was night.

After!

He didn't paint the bottom because we decided to do the bead board wallpaper on the bottom half. I just ordered a roll from Lowes so I'll let you know how it is. I've never tackled wallpaper before so it could be interesting.

Ryan also started staining the transition which has made huge difference and blends the two rooms together really nicely.

It needs one more coat. Luckily, we even already had the stain down the basement. Oh the jewels you find down there...

I also painted the laundry room white last night (which will soon be getting the stripes) and Ryan brought up some of the rock tiles so we could get an idea of how they will look.

Pretttty exciting if you ask me. So, we're making progress slowly but surely and it's crazy how different the mudroom/ bathroom is starting to look. It's been about a year (at the end of this month) since we started this project and boy is it starting to pay off....

Small Wins

Slowly but surely Ryan has been putting the rock tiles together #longestprocessever. Hopefully we'll be able to lay down those floors in the next couple of weeks especially since I'm starting to fear for my life at the laundry mat. Last night was a real trip, the mat was full of um, characters, for lack of better words. The cops came, I saw a lady going through withdrawl and I felt like I was at the Caribbean with a guy trying to sell me socks out of his bag (and not the nice part of the Caribbean). If I had any patience with the laundry mat, it has officially run out.

My sister and her family were visiting this weekend so Kevin helped Ryan put in a transition between the tiles and the floor. We had a mighty large step up since Travertine tiles are thicker than typical tiles so we Ryan had to be creative. He ended up buying wood and basically shaving it down with the help of Kevin.

There were a few trigonometry conversations trying to figure out the angles.

The wood needs to be sanded, stained and caulked but it makes a big difference having that finished. Plus, now we're handicap accessible #winwin. 

Ryan also started putting up molding around the windows. 

We have to paint the trim all around the window and I'm going to make some curtains... eventually, but it's starting to look a lot more finished.

My final excitement was that our counter stools came in and not only are they cute, they're super comfortable.

I'll probably buy another set so we have three at the counter but for now, they're perfect.

Because I didn't get out of my pajamas yesterday....

... I don't have many pictures of Ryan (and Clark's) hard work. We had an amazing time in Connecticut visiting our friends for the weekend so yesterday we were both at the grind. Ryan finished sanding down the drywall in the back room and him and Clark moved the door for the bathroom so that it opened to the outside instead of the inside. This will make life much easier in the smallest bathroom of all time.

Ryan also fixed the dishwasher (that the plumbers couldn't figure out even after my Mom READ them the directions #plumbersfail).

That's a holiday sweatshirt he's wearing that he tried to pass off on to me #nothanks

And changed the facet directions so that the hot water comes out of the red part and the cold out of the blue #wheredidweevenfindtheseplumbers. Exciting things, I tell you.

While Ryan was busy, I was studying (before school even starts #schoolfail) on the most uncomfortable ikea stool that were left behind by the previous owners (I wonder why?). I've been having a hard time pulling the trigger on a lot of the things I want to buy for the house but last night I finally bought us a pair of stools. I figure if I like them I'll buy a second pair since three should comfortably fit and we can use the fourth if we have company.

You like?

I have no idea what they say but I love the black words against the linen. I also think they should be rather comfortable which is a definite win. I want our couch to be a linen color so I thought this would be a perfect way to ensure the two rooms look cohesive. 

And here's a sneak peak of our tiles coming together. Ryan worked on the second sheet last night and they're looking pretttty good.

Don't mind the missing rocks, we'll have to glue them down separately.

Last night we were also looking in to a new door for out back which is proving to be a bit of an obstacle for our non modern 30 inch doorway but hopefully we'll be able to find one and install it within the week or so. Laundry mat, your days are numbered..... crap, have I said that before?! ;)

Bedazzled

In many ways. First, Ryan put on the hardware to our cabinets. I like to call it their jewelry and they sure do look fancy :)

Taking off the drawers

Putting in the holes

Coming together

All dolled up.

We also finally put up the right sized foyer light. Third time was certainly the charm :)

You like?

And I put my craftiness to use and finished up our save the dates.

Pre envelope printing where I almost offed myself

The house and wedding are really starting to come together. It's incredible how much time you have when you're not in school :)

New Year New Kitchen

The day has finally come (well last Wednesday technically) that we can cook in our kitchen... and it's glorious.

Last week my Mom came down to help me organize the kitchen and make it cook able. This involved unpacking many, MANY boxes that had lived in storage in our back room. Some of those boxes were packed over a year ago when we moved in to this house (where has this year gone!?) and some were engagement presents that had been stashed away for 5 months. It was like Christmas all over again!

Mom unpacking day 1

Unpacking day 2

We also finished up all of the painting that we hadn't been able to do before due to the appliances sitting in our family room for 10 months :)

AND we cooked the first meal in the new kitchen. We won't mention how my Mom and I also had to deal with FOUR plumbers trying to figure out how to work a dishwasher which ended in my Mom reading the instruction booklet to them.... but I guess you can't win them all ;)