Slate for Sheri and Taylor!

Sheri...maybe this will help the floor dilemma...maybe it will make it worse..but I hope not!
Look even slate with a yellow wall.....





This last one is my favorite slate application I think its so crisp and clean and modern:


In my opinion slate can go so many ways...because its a natural stone its a neutral in my book...rustic or modern....or mexcianish SantaFe...indoor out door with modern fixtures (or victorian if for some reason your home has both... ;))

Paint Yo!

So a few weeks ago we finally got to make some REAL progress on the exterior of our house...we had originally hoped to take our home BACK to its original colors with a red roof and all..BUT when you get a great deal on shingles...you base your colors on those instead and I am SUPER happy we did! I'm IN love with the colors S-Money pcked..(unlike most people we have told what our colors are!) Maybe you have to see it to love it or maybe I'm the only ONE who loves it...which works right?

BEFORE


Progress


We added the chimney and front porch along with moving the front door and adding side light windows to add character, dimension and texture (rocks will be on the chimney soon)! I think its coming along so nice and soon it will finally have the curb appeal it deserves! I'm so loving it!

Awesome right? So we still have a list of things to finish out there but those on our street are pretty happy we've got her all painted up!
Yet to finish:
Rock on chimney
Window box
pour front porch
repair planter wall
some sort of landscape (fingers crossed for a nice lawn!)
rock on pillars
door knocker and kick plate on door
paint gas lap
repair address numbers hanging from gas lamp
hang fixture on porch
there are probably at least a billion more but that's whats on this list for now!

Noooooooooooo!

As most of you may remember S-Money and I remodeled our first home.
Before:



During (yes it got worse before it got better!)



Almost after: (Why I cant find the final pic is a mystery to me dang it!) This will have to do:




We loved that tiny house. We put our whole hearts into it and learned a LOT in the process. We took a few risks (like our black kitchen and front door) and all in all fell in love and had a hard time leaving our little home. It was a wonderful time in our lives full of hard work and bumps in the road.

We were nicely rewarded for our work with an asking price cash offer the day we put our "For Sale by Owner" sign up followed by a waiting list of interested buyers. In the in end we had a very near 100% return on our hard work! It was an amazing blessing and a labor of love. Upon leaving our little home we experienced a tiny bit of sorrow knowing it was being purchased to use as a rental...ugggh renters in our cute house? Lame. But the time and the offer were right for us to leave.
So over the fourth we had some visitors stop in that said they looked for our cute house but had no luck finding it...I guess its because it looks like this now.....

Not my favorite. Its been painted white...the house the trim, the front door the trex decking...they spared the front steps or so I thought...but I drove by today they had put astro-turf on the front porch and down the front steps trailer park style.

Seriously...how sad. There is not much more to say.

WOW!

That's about all I know how to say...its been a LONG time since I've done any kind of house update! Don't worry we have been plenty busy around here.....then it finally got nice out...so we've been OUTSIDE!
Lets see what has S-Money gotten done around here:
Back yard leveled and fenced in

Kitchen painted and mostly completed
new roof and fascia
Hallway ceiling raised sheet rocked drywalled and painted
Master closet finished (minus flooring)
Dining room window trimmed out
Laundry room door moved and trimmed out
washer and dryer purchased and stacked neatly in new spot
master bath back to functional
year supply of firewood chopped and stacked
trees trimmed
A mini carnival planned and carried out...(not house related but totally post worthy!)


chimney stone picked up and ready to apply
swings up and functioning
and TONS and TONS and TONS more checked off our LONG to do list!

I'm so happy to report that although my posting on this blog has been minimal our work on our home has been CRAZY! I have so much to post and put with pictures that I do believe its been little over whelming to know where to start. But my guess that anywhere is fine. It feels so good (especially for Sean) that the large projects that include lots of demo and inconvenience are behind us now. I feel as though the rest is the FUN part of picking out the jewelry for our home like back splash materials, pendant light fixtures, flooring, cabinet hardware and other FUN projects that have more to do with decor then construction! And hopefully that means our life here at Casa Smith will return to more fun things like crafts and dirt bikes! In the mean time....I've gotta a LOT of catch up blogging to do! I have a head full of fun posts if I will just make the time to get them all on here!
Also...Sean is headed out of town this weekend..(no shock there is seems to be out of town A LOT lately) while he is away....I may just redecorate the family room....! Coolio!
Also I'm considering saying goodbye to my 1950s fridge. Although I've ALWAYS wanted a retro fridge and have LOVED looking at it...I would really LOVE a more organized fridge...try not using your door shelving for 20 seconds...(it doesn't have any) and see how you like it...its kind of a bummer!

One request....

Dear Sean,
Do you mind just changing this:


in to this:

Here is a slide show incase you need more details before you get started
Please and Thank you!
Love,
Your Wifey

A VERY permature reveal.....shoot me!

I cant hold it in any longer...I know there is a lot left to do to finish up...but seriously I LOVE this kitchen. I cannot keep it all to myself!

Although because I'm feeling the need to preface the whole post with....excuse the shims...the lack of cabinet trim...and back splash and hardware..ect ect...I'm feeling silly for posting! It is clearly NOT finished but people...I've had NADA for a kitchen for so long that I'm feeling SO spoiled with just this!
This weekend will consist of sealing our counter tops..trimming out the cabinets AND the window and possibly even getting rid of those shims you never know!

So....here goes....
BEFORE

And the same view AFTER:

and a few more....




I can't even begin to list all the things I LOVE about this kitchen...mostly because I'm wasting SUPER valuable nap time...I have to get the living room REPAINTED while OBizzy is snoozing...so I totally don't have time to explain EVERYTHING that is here and all that is to come...but that just means I'll have to update this silly blog again soon right? Off to paint!

Kitchen Part One!

We survived. Seven whole weeks without a kitchen...we are sick to death of chicken noodle soup (ok S-Money and I the kids were in heaven). It was a very long haul but our kitchen is so close to being finished. At this point we are totally functional...but still have a few important details to finish up!
So I figured I'd first need to start with before pictures....this tiny kitchen is in the center of the home...and when I say center I mean it. It sort of looked like a hallway with a giant stove in the middle. I kept telling Sean.."If we chose not to blow out the wall and just paint the cabinets I'm good with it...if we can get that stove out of the middle of the walkway its weird." It had a window and that was what won me over. The last house although a gorgeous custom home had no window and I missed having one.
So here goes...the Hoopty kitchen BEFORE

Thats it! Thats the whole kitchen. We call the house (among other colorful words) the house of built ins because they are everywhere. It must have been the thing to do in the late 40s and 50s. I had 4 count them people 4 useful cabinets. The others had really odd built in things in them that made them totally nonfunctional. Clearly that wasn't what sold me on the kitchen it was more this...

A large window (this one was even a crank window and although super cool....totally cold you might as well open it in the winter.)
And THIS window in the dinning room

These windows make this area they are so huge and so bright I fell in love instantly!
Its amazing what a little sunshine can do.
These pictures seem so foreign now...I bearly remember that odd space anymore. The new kitchen now has more cabinets then I have stuff for and more counter tops then I've ever enjoyed in a home! PLUS Sean and I poured our own concrete counter tops! They turned out darker then I wanted but SOOOOO awesome and it was pretty easy I'd do it again in a heartbeat! We opted to NOT pour them in place but pour them in forms in our living room...sounds insane...it was I will now have to start over in that room but it was worth it!
My good camera is visiting good friends right now....so I don't have new pictures BUT I cannot wait to reveal my kitchen its just what I have always wanted! Its white sunny and to me HUGE (but I had a glorified hallway before remember?)! I can't wait to show it off!
AND THEN.....well on to MORE projects my dinning room is going to be so awesome!