Thursday, February 27, 2014

Wine and Weddings

Justin and I were married 01/28/2013 in the court house with his parents and my mom.  We when got engaged we put in an offer on our home the very next morning.  We had agreed we would never live together until we were married, so we had a conversation and agreed that we would be married in the courthouse and have a vow renewal in the church in the fall.  Now we had originally decided we would be married in February, but as fate would have it, my mom was coming up to visit for my birthday.  So 9 days after he ask and I said yes, we both said 'I do'.  Best decision of my life.

At our vow renewal I didn't want to have a standard guest book for everyone to sign.  I wanted to incorporate our love for each other, wine, and our friends and family together.  In came the wine bottles.  Justin and I chose 4 bottles that we wanted to save for years.  We had sealed our favorite bottle in a box with love letters during our ceremony so we used the other three bottles as our guest book.  We had one bottle for our first anniversary already and it was so much fun to read everyone's signatures and little notes on the bottle.  Our next bottle is 5 years, then 10 years.  Our sealed box is for 15 years.

We wanted our bottles to have a beautiful home so we can keep them on display for years and years to come.  And Target came to the rescue!  This beautiful wine rack is the prefect addition to our dining room.



Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Painting Update

Announcing......Our chosen Color!
Behr Fashion Gray

We painted over the weekend, but I didn't tell you the color.  We chose one color, debated it a day later, bought 4 color samples from 3 different store and finally chose the winning color.  It has brown undertones and will look amazing when we put in the new trim and floors.

Also?  It snowed again last night.  Now we haven't had much, really, not any, snow here in Montana this winter.  I've been longing for some beautiful deep snow for months and mother nature finally delivered!  I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture, but J blew the driveway the night before and this is how deep it was at lunch yesterday.

Poor dirty Jeep.  It needs a bath, stat!
Busy at work again this morning

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Monday, February 24, 2014

Funday Monday ~a link up~

This weekend it snowed.  Almost every minute of the day, every day, starting Friday.
My current view at work.

J blew the driveway twice yesterday and it was mid shin deep this morning.  I'm loving it!

Friday night, the in-laws came over for Pinochle and steaks.  I'm doggy sitting for a neighbor/co-worker, so my mornings were SUPER early this weekend (and I'm not a morning person).  Saturday we napped, ran to Home Depot, Macy's and Target, napped some more and read.  Snow makes us lazy.  Sunday after church we rallied together and started painting.
The beginning.....

We agreed to only paint one gallon at a time.  First time we painted the house we bought a five gallon bucket and we had WAY to much left over.  This time one gallon covered the hallway, entryway, most of the dining room and a good portion of the trim work in the family room.  Since we are replacing all of the trim, doors and flooring we didn't feel the need to tape.  The trim work is beat to crap with many paint splotches from the previous owner.  Lots of the trim is cracked or missing too.

Only good thing about the weekend being over?  Tonight is laundry and relaxing!  Happy Monday!!

Linking up with Molly @ still being [molly] & Carly @ Lipgloss & Crayons


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Friday, February 21, 2014

Added to Bloglovin!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

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Five on Friday

Linking up today.

~ONE~
I've rocked leggings almost every day for the past three months.  These from Loft are the best.  


~TWO~
We picked a paint color for the house.  But now I want nothing more than to purge my closets and clean. 

~THREE~
It snowed 5 inches last night and I'm loving it.  Sorry I'm not sorry.

~FOUR~
Iced Coffee is my weakness.  Or addiction.  Whatever ;)
Especially this.  Less than $5 for a weeks worth of morning pick me ups?  Thank you!

~FIVE~
Half day Fridays are the best.  I get more done between noon and 5 every Friday than I do any other day of the week.


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Wednesday, February 19, 2014

And next, we paint!

The color of the main part of our house has been less than thrilling for me.  I really wanted a nice warm gray/beige - or greige - and we ended up with a light gray with a hint of blue.  Not quite the look I was going for.  I've been scouring Pinterst and home improvement stores for the perfect color to repaint our home.

My inspiration:



Let's hope we can pick a color by this weekend.  I want to have it painted by the end of March.  Fingers crossed!

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Thursday, February 13, 2014

Care for a drink?

One of the biggest projects Justin wanted to conquer in our home was building our bar.  The dining room had the Perfect spot that was just a touch deeper than standard cabinets.

Before
painting Behr Silver Sateen
TL: new light fixture and furniture, pre cabinets
TM: Verifying Cabinets fit in the space
TR: Staining - Red Mahogany
Middle Row: Installing Cabinets and counter tops
Bottom Row: Finishing the product
All materials from Lowe's

Uppers went in!

Side Splash and Counter tops

All materials from Lowe's

Justin is a beast.  He did 90% of the work (I helped stain, measure, cut and clean.) and even built the inserts in the upper cabinets for our wine!  

After

The final product!
excuse the mess.  I didn't think I would put this one here before I took the photo.  :/

I've never been so impressed with how hard of a worker Justin is.  I know he is dedicated and focused at work, but to watch him build this with his own two hands was impressive.  I helped where I could, but he had the vision to build the inserts and shelves all on his own.


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Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Fireplace Makeover

Yesterday I showed off the updates to the living room.  Painting our fireplace was a spur of the moment decision that took us less than 24 hours to decide to start and finish, and it makes a HUGE difference in the living room.  I'd  like to note that the fireplace remodel is temporary.  Since it was already painted, repainting it was a quick and easy fix that will tide us over until we are able to reface it with stacked stone.
We are updating our entry way to something similar, so we needed the fireplace to balance out the front door and tie the rooms together.
Entryway Inspiration




The white from the entry way balances out the white from the fireplace and makes the room look taller and more cohesive.

Fireplace Before:
It's a bit far away - but you can see the cream brick, gold fireplace finish and beige walls

Fireplace During:
Here's a nice comparison of the colors.  Walls are Behr Silver Sateen and the Bricks are Behr Base Ultra White

Mid Project

Fireplace After:

We spray painted the brass a Matte Black (it's actually for grills and bbq's, so it's rated for high heat and looks great).  Rug is from Target.


I promise the curtains will be fixed soon.

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Monday, February 10, 2014

Living Room Progress

Our living room is the heart of our house.  It's a sunken living room directly across from the entry way and next to our dining room.  I do not want a TV in this room, I want the focus to be friends and family.  I use this room the most to read, relax and where all of our guests hangout.

The Before's





Please excuse the blurry blackberry photos

We painted the main house a light gray (honestly, I'm not a super fan.  I want less blue gray and a darker gray.  I think repainting the main area will be a spring project - before the new trim goes in), took out the baseboard heaters and added a ceiling fan.
We had a horrible brown and white chevron rug that refused to lay flat.  I've never been so happy to get rid of something in my life!  

The After's

Also on the agenda - refinishing the coffee table and building the end tables.


In the previous photo you could see the plain white curtains.  I painted the curtains with a tan color to add some depth to the windows, as well as tie in the space between the fireplace and couches.
Here is our current 'After'.  Notice the mismatched striped curtains in the back?  Yup, not quite sure how I mangled that so badly.  We put in a ceiling fan, painted the fireplace white and added some fun lamps!!
Here's a close up of the lamps.  We love geometric patterns and plan to use another pattern in our entry way bench.


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Thursday, February 6, 2014