{Floor}ed

As I left off in the "our new labor of love" post, we had purchased our house and I glazed over all of the stuff from then, until now.

The first night we owned our house, we ripped out the disgusting 70s orange carpet that was in the living room and dining room. Unfortunately, this color just didn't go with much that we had, so it had to come out! Nick came home from work that night, and picked up the utility knife, and started removing it, piece by piece. We have ripped out carpet before, in our condo, twice, so this was nothing new for us. We just had to make sure we followed the guidelines so that our new best friend, the garbage man, would take it away for us. Later that weekend, as we started taking the pieces to the curb, our neighbors said a "thank god" when they saw the orange was coming out.

We had a tight schedule to get everything done. We were having the counters being measured on the following Monday, and the new bamboo floors were going to be installed the following weekend. We had to make sure we had everything done and prepped for the work that was going to take place. That meant ripping out all of the flooring and getting the wallpaper down. Sounds easy enough...our Friends at Build Direct unloaded a pallet of bamboo for us, and that was just waiting to be installed. If you are installing floors, or having it done, it's recommended to move the wood into the area it is to be installed a couple of days prior to install so that the wood can acclimate to it's new environment.

Since we were using bamboo, on a cement slab, we had a few things we had to do differently, which added more time to the project. We had to use glue to adhere the planks to the slab. Typically some sort of underlayment is put down, but that can't be done with concrete. We also had to get a glue that had a moisture barrier to make sure the bamboo was safe from absorbing any moisture. This glue is quite thick and can be even more difficult to work with. Our guy was less than thrilled with one of the brands we bought because it was so thick it was like moving taffy.

After day one, the floors were starting to come along, the dining room was finished and we were moving into the the other half of the living room. The other major project was that the granite was installed that weekend too! We now had new counters to go with our new floors:





It took 4 days to complete the entire project. We had the floors put in the living room, dining room, kitchen, and foyer. When it was finished, it looks beautiful and such an improvement to the ugly carpet and Pergo that was there before. We now had shiny new floors to transform our main floor into a beautiful place to live.

from the front entry into the living room

Dining room looking into living room



Our kitchen {almost} finished product!

BONUS:

We had gross, white carpet in our master bedroom. The rest of the floor had the original hardwood floors, which we absoulutely adore! We were hoping that when we ripped up the carpet, we would find a treasure, but we couldn't get out hopes up.

This house is Jefferson's so he likes to get in a pic whenever he can!

One night we decided to risk it, and start tearing out the carpet (we seem to really like this task). Underneath, to our delight, was the same beautiful, thin, planks that were on the rest of the floor. Because they had carpet down, there were some imperfections due to nails, staples, and glue. Some people might be sad by the imperfections, but I actually love them. I think it give the flooring so much more character and gives it a more rustic feel. We will evetually have them refinished to make sure that they are treated properly and keep their beauty. For now, we are enjoying them, just the way they are!







{bench}ing an old cushion

As I do projects, I need to remember to do all the appropriate before pictures to make sure I really give the full effect. So since there is nothing to show let's start with the finished product:

 ta-da!

The story behind this bench is that is had a blah colored cushion which had managed to get watermarks on it somehow. As a piece that is at the entry to our house, it's not the best impression of what else is inside. 

I got the idea to reupholster it, but hadn't given it much thought until yesterday. I was browsing through Walmart of all places, and was curious about their fabrics. I was instantly drawn to this cream and blue print. 

The print was subtle and pretty, and blue is a theme on our main floor. It was the perfect voice. Price tag: $0.84/yard!! 

I debated about how to accomplish this job since the cushion is all foam. I decided to get a piece of particle board to make sure I could a staple gun. This would give me the bet look so that I could ensure the fabric was tight against the cushion. 

I headed to Home Depot, our home away from home. Today's experience was less than helpful since no one wanted to help me or offer suggestions. I guess that's what I get for going during thebeginning of   the summer when everyone is trying to put in gardens and build decks. I almost left the store when I finally found the section I had been searching for. All the way in the back corner of the store were 2ft x4ft pieces of plywood and hardboard. For price sake, I chose the hardboard because I knew it would hold the staple just as we'll as the plywood that was $2 more. $5.50 and I was out of there. 

Now started the fun part. Here we go:

 This was the blah colored cushion. I first laid the fabric down and made sure the cushion was straight along the pattern. 

I placed the hardboard down on top of the cushion. I had cut this piece to be slightly smaller than my cushion so that I wouldn't see the edges when it was finished. 

 I ultimately don't want to see the hardboard when I'm finished so I stapled the fabric to the hardboard so that it mostly covered the cushion. However you want it to look, at least get the fabric stapled, in a straight line, to the hardboard. 

From here you want to cover the cushion like you are wrapping a gift. How I wrap is much different than how my husband wraps, so the next steps are open to interpretation. I made the fabric look like a paper airplane and staple the edge to the hardboard. I then cut off the excess so that my cushion lays flat on the bench.  

I repeated this on the other side. 

When I completed that step I was ready to "finish wrapping". I cut off about 6 inches of fabrics to that my fabric finished in the center of the cushion. I folded the insides at a 45 degree angle and started stapling to the hardboard. 

Make sure that the fabric is taut. It will make the finished product look more professional. Once complete you can flip over and make sure all looks good and finished. 

I was very pleased with how this turned out after only 30 minutes. A quick transformation! 

I even had some extra fabric left over and decided to attach it to a canvas for a quick piece of art! 

just in time for summer

As I try to organize my life and what I've been doing, it makes sense to jut keep progressing from the wedding until now. This post is perfect since the temp today in the metro Detroit area will be in the 80s. Raining, but 80s. We take what we can get around here 😊

After our wedding we were fortunate enough to be able to take a honeymoon. Our destination: Costa Rica 🌞🍹🍍

It was simply the most amazing country. If you have not had the opportunity, make it your next tropical vacation! 

We enjoyed lots of time relaxing by the pool, drinking fruity drinks, eating and watching the animals peruse the complex. We did some adventurous things and went horseback riding, zip lining, and kayaking. Such beauty to be seen in that country. Just talking about it makes me want to return! 

Here are some of our pics.. I wouldn't dare bore you with the 180 I took while there 😊

Our resort - Occidental Grand Papagayo

A night out on the town - Playa del Coco

Natutal Hot springs & mud bath - Borinquen Mountain Spa & Retreat

Ziplining!! So fun - never again!

Horseback riding along the Rincon de la Vieja countryside!

Papagayo Bay - so beautiful! 

Our favorite activity - laying poolside! 

Black sand beaches and volcanic rock - beauty at its best!

Writing this post makes me want to slather on some SPF and get outside! Maybe ill settle for a Crystal Light mocktail since I'm working and it's raining 😬

 

let's start from the beginning {of January}

it has been soooooo long since my last blog post. it would seem that i'm the kind of girl who blogged during her wedding planning, and then stopped. sadly, it's true. this post starts it back up again, so here we go!

i loved blogging about all of my ideas during the wedding, and things i stumbled upon along the way. there were so many ideas flowing all the way, that I could not even begin to share all of them. planning my wedding was actually one of the hardest, most challenging, and incredibily fulfilling things I have done. it was so nice to be able to dream a dream, and then see it all come together. we could finally see the fruits of my labors on January 19th. on a cold, wintery day, i became a wife.

i think everyone says it about their wedding, but the day was absolutely perfect. i thought that i would be a ball of nerves, and a crying mess all day. i spent so much time fussing over details that i think i finally let it all go the day of, and truly enjoyed the day!

our pictures before the ceremony, but we couldn't see each other

all photo courtesy of pure amour photography

what I also realized (and what you hear so much of, but never really believe) is that all of the details can go unnoticed, even by you. there were so many things that i spent hours agonizing over that I never even saw myself. i spent hours and hours thinking about the branches and hanging votives, probably even days. unless someone has a picture of these, i never saw them, and unfortunately, my photographer didn't capture them. i am sure that they turned out great considering all the time I took to get those together. i hope that they added to the decor, but i'm not sad that i missed them.

while i may not have saw the final product of the branches, there were so many things that I talked about in my posts that did make it into the wedding and reception. here are some highlights:

Our unity candle during the ceremony - blogpost: falling

Our new labor of love: Thorncroft Ct.

I always like how Jeff on Bravo's Flipping Out refers to houses by their street name. "Valley Oak", "Gramercy", "Spring Oak" all sound much fancier than jut their street address. I refer to our new house as "Thorncroft Ct" in Jeff Lewis style. 

After the wedding, we started to look for a new house. We had pretty simple expectations: 3+ bedrooms, 1.5+ bathrooms, 1500+ sq ft, nice floor plan, yard, good neighborhood, master bathroom attached to mater bedroom, attached garage, basement, old wood floors with only a little work needed and in our budget. I mean that isn't asking to much, right?! ;)

We spent most of the winter weekends looking at every house in town that went on the market. We left no stone unturned. Thank god for the Real Estate One, and the ability to have access to listings as soon as they come online. Nick and I would check it as much as we checked Facebook and Twitter. Even with all of these viewings we really were underwhelmed with the inventory. We found one house that we spent some time considering and almost put an offer on twice. But something didn't click with us. After a while the fun wore off, and frustration started to kick in. I was fraud we would never find something that we would love. I didn't want to settle, but t felt like we would have to. Good houses were getting snatched up as soon as they hit the market. 

One day, a house came up on our app, but it had no pictures. The description sounded nice, but we had seen that before. Some pictures came up and we immediately called our real estate agent and made them come out the next day. 

As soon as I walked into this house, I had a different feeling. What would you think?

 

Floral wallpaper everywhere, orange carpet from the 70s, what isn't to love?! 

I think some homebuyers would go running for the hills, but not us! This was our perfect house. 2200 sq ft, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, attached garage, nice yard, old wood floors, renovated bathroom off of the master, and 3 blocks from our condo!! We loved it but had other houses to see. I felt giddy leaving that house, I think I knew it was the one. We went back to another house that we had been debating about. We sat in that kitchen for an hour debating on what we should do. We went home that night still not sure of what to do. 

We woke up the next day and we decided to make an offer on all of the wallpaper in that house! The next day we were under contract and on our way to a closing date in April! We were ecstatic to finally find something that met both of our wish lists and was in our budget!

We had 45 days to get all the paperwork complete and plans made for our new house. We had wallpaper to remove, floors to rip out, floors to put in, painting, counters to rip out, cabinets to paint, counters to install. We had so much to decide on, and we worked quickly. We closed and started our first demo April 12th. Our first mortgage payment is due tomorrow and we are all moved in with no wallpaper!

Prepare to have many DIY posts on our many redo projects!