Repurposing Project.

Probably the best benefit to doing my house in black and white with accent colors has been that you can repurposing things with ease. Moving decor from room to room as I've added to my collection has really saved my money and made it easy to keep the house fresh.

When my roommate moved in I had to quit hogging all the pantry shelves and under all the sinks with my entertainment ware. I have quite a collection of placemats, napkin rings, paper goods, etc because I love to have people over and I keep my table set every day (mostly because I never actually eat at it). So I bought a 9 cubie piece of furniture from Target and some red baskets for the dining room.

It served it's purpose but I've never really loved having it in there. Since starting in May I will be living alone again, I decided I could ditch that piece of furniture again. Then I thought, why not repurpose it? My roommate has had one exactly like it (in different colors) in her room while she's lived there and I thought, I could put mine up there in the guest bedroom and just change out the colors.

A few weeks ago I showed you a list of DIY projects I wanted to tackle that I'd found on Pinterest. So this weekend I took on this one. I had plenty going on this weekend but I had planned to layout for a few hours Saturday and then it wasn't particularly sunny. So I hit the dollar store after I got off work and bought 3 vases for $1 each. In the same shopping center as our Dollar Tree there's a Michaels, so I bought 2 things of paint in the color I needed and a paint brush. The grand total was less than $10.

I stuck in 'In Her Shoes' between work and going out for a bit with friends Saturday night and put the first coat on:



After the second coat I was so pleased I decided to go ahead and paint a vase I'd gotten free at a banquet my work did 2 years ago. It was the perfect size for one of the cubbies in my piece (I thought to check that before I painted it Kelly green, thankfully...

It turned out pretty swell as well.


Then I took the combo of the vases I'd made, a few things I had around the house, and a blogpost I saw a while back in which they'd used books of a certain color to decorate and came up with this:


Please excuse my towels on top. I just finished washing those for the guest bathroom and until I load everything upstairs after Haiti, I put them there. But I couldn't wait til I move them in to show you my weekend project! I've now committed to help a few friends paint vases they want to do so - painting party coming soon.


Love,
B

Condo Revamp - Getting Ready, Freebie, & Good News!

If my retail friends could see me now! Whew. So much has changed these past few years and I never would have guessed that at 26 I'd be putting off buying close in favor of buying guest bathroom towels and 15 gallons of paint. Oh adulthood, what have you done to the Coach purses buying Becca of the past? Ok fine, I still don't carry cheap purses I just buy them more infrequently...

Making my home upgrade dreams a reality is big deal for me. I've had to grow, stretch, and learn so much these past 4 years of being an 'adult' and taking on 2 big, expensive projects and planning in advance to pay cash for them was huge for me. I felt great about it and my parents have been proud and encouraging along the way. I was so proud when I went to buy the paint and I had perfectly budgeted every dollar needed in advance!

I should also share a few things I've learned along the way...

1. 5 gallon buckets of paint are heavy and you should accept the offer of help to get them in your car.

2. Everything related to a home is more expensive than you'd expect (faucets cost HOW much?)

3. Having a second job is a great way to save for projects faster, if your impatient like me

4. 'They' (as in super professional smart people) say you get back the money you spend on bathrooms and kitchens. I did some researched and that's what it says. So whoever buys the batch pad after me better be ready to fork over the big bucks for my upgraded bathrooms.

5. Haggling is a good thing, even if it's slightly mortifying and makes your hands sweat just thinking about it.

I've focused the last few weeks on getting ready for the upgrades which begin May the 1st. With being out of the country and out of touch the week before this all goes down, I've really had to be on my game. A few of you have been extra excited about these projects so I've been keeping a board of everything on Pinterest for you as well and thank you, by the way, for caring! : ]

If you follow my pinboard you already know I got this for the guest bath:

What you may NOT know is that One King's Lane really hooked me up! A few weeks ago they sent out a survey request and I tried to sign up. I didn't get into the survey and was totally bummed until...they STILL gave me the $50 giftcard code! For doing a whopping nothing. So I signed in on Friday and bought this shower curtain, a beach towel (I'm always working on my stash), and a set of canister for my kitchen and all I had to pay was the shipping and a little tax. Amazing, no?

I really want the guest bed and bathroom to be a place where people can find rest. I want it to be simple, luxurious, and elegant in a way that encourages the people who stay there to take a load off, like their own a-couple-blocks-from-the-water Florida retreat. So that's what I'm working towards...

Ok, back on task...

So far I've completed:

1. Picking out, hunting down, and purchases new faucets
2. Picking out new sinks
3. Picking out granite from a massive yard of it in the middle-of-no-where (Land O Lakes)
4. Unofficial and official measurings and quotes for the counters
5. Scheduling of the counter upgrades, sink and fixture installs
6. Picking out and purchasing 15 gallons of paint and 2 gallons of primer (goodbye Magenta wall, you've been a good friend)
7. Hiring a painter (because let's get real, I'm not doing it)
8. And researching plumbers out the wahzoo. Still working on nailing this down, however.

I've had a roommate living with me for about a year now and she will be moving out 2 days before this all begins. Did I mention I'm insane for planning this 2 days after returning to the country? Yeah, ok...thought so. Anywho, that gives me exactly one exhausting Sunday afternoon to get the guest bed, etc up there before the painting begins and I can't dink any of the walls ever again (at least without a major meltdown).

After 2 months of scrimping, saving, ebaying and craigslisting, working extra hours, bargain hunting, haggling, and maybe even buying a few clothing items and taking them back in leiu of this project, I feel blessed that it's about to begin!

So now for the good news! I found out last week my Mom is taking me up on my invitation/request to spend Memorial Day weekend with me! I can't wait to get some quality time with her just the two of us...and she's agreed to go on a little hunt with me for a lamp, bedside table, and accent chair or chaise for my reading corner. Whoo hoo. It's so nice to have company and an extra pair of hands/eyes. Best.news.ever.

Love,
B

Condo Revamp - The beginning.

Well I'm 2 weeks out from the beginning of the batch pad revamp. Being a homeowner has been the most fun adventure of my adult life. Trust me when I say I wouldn't trade it, it's been amazing. It's insane to think it's been 2.5 years since I signed those papers and gained a home of my very own! I can barely wrap my head around it.

So now, 2.5 years later I'm starting a few upgrades I've been thinking on, preparing for, and saving up the funds to complete. Those dreams start to become a reality May 1st of this year. From May 1st-May 15th my house may be in a bit of chaos but I'm so thrilled for the end result. If you follow me on pinterest you may have seen a new board pop up last week - this board will highlight all the upgrades and give you an idea of what will be happening, what I'm purchasing, etc.

Also I will be taking pictures along the way and giving you before and afters! I know this will excite some of you more than others. But for my fellow homeowners, my soon-to-be-homeowners, and my someday in the distance furture homeowners this may give you some ideas of how to do similar projects.

After quotes and measurements galore it was time to get down to business. I finally bought the new faucets which will be installed when they get rid of my boring while bathroom countertops and replace them with granite. It was an ORDEAL to get the ones I fell in love with online and then found out were an 'online special' which was also out of stock and back ordered! Ack! I spent weeks tracking them down and pricing them out. When I had almost given up because the least expensive price I could find them was $177 a PIECE plus $30 in shipping....Home depot came through for me:

Not only were they by far the best price but I was able to pick them up in person and I had a giftcard that helped cover the cost. I never would have imagined that plain old sink faucets were over 100 bucks a pop but like I've learned with many home projects, the differance between a $100 you can live with and a $134 faucet you love isn't so great in the grand scheme of things. I splurged for the ones I loved.

If you're looking for faucets you should try to only fall in love with ones that are available, though. That's my tip of the day.


So here is your very first 'before' picture of the bathroom. This is the master bath (aka my bathroom). This shows you the very basic white countertops as well as the very basic/very shiney silver faucet that is currently at home in my vanity. In less than a month there will be beautiful granite and a modern meets retro facet in 'brushed nickel'.

One more project I'm working on in advance of the 2 weeks of painting which will commence on May 1st as well, is what I'm going to do with my walls. One of the projects I want to start is a canvas print to represent the big cities I'm visiting. I determined last year to start visiting one big city a year. Last year was New York City and so I bought my first canvas (and began the project) with a groupon for this:

This year, after May, I will have to start searching for a DC canvas to represent my 2012 trip of the year. I've been to MANY places over the years including quite a few of the big cities but in my young adult like I determined I wanted to do some of them again. Still thinking through my 2013 destination so I can start saving and planning soon. Suggestions welcomed. Potentially a West Coast trip is in order.

Thanks for sharing in my excitement about the revamp - updates to come!

Love,
B