The last time I shared a laundry room update, we had just installed the new black slate tile, and the room was officially ready for paint and cabinets! You may remember from when I introduced the house, but the original laundry room was actually just a little section in the garage. There wasn't a room, or barely even a designated space. With the tiny fourth bedroom downstairs that was hardly big enough for a twin sized bed, and a serious lack of storage in this house, we decided to move the laundry downstairs and put the fourth bedroom to good use. I shared our original design plan here, but as things normally do when you're knee deep in fixing up a fixer upper, the plan will often ... Read more
How We Painted Our Exterior
Admittedly, I'm late in sharing all the details on how we painted our exterior. When we bought the house almost a year ago, there were several areas with peeling paint, and for the purpose of our loan, we had to repaint those areas in order to close on the house. We both thought it would be pointless to just slap some paint up without just painting the entire exterior... especially since it was so ugly to start. Let's flash back to last summer. This is how the house looked the day we closed... Let's just say, we couldn't wait to give the house a complete paint job. A new roof, soffit and facia were all things we knew we'd be replacing quickly as well, but ... Read more
My Amazon Prime Day Picks
Who else loves Amazon Prime? In our house, we order from Amazon Prime at least weekly... some of the items we love the most we've found on Amazon, and I'm thinking we're probably not alone. I'm sharing my Amazon Prime Day picks, specifically for home decor. We have so many rooms in the house that need a few things, so I set out and searched to see what was on sale. Here's all of the items that either caught my eye, or that we're considering buying! I hope you enjoy, and maybe even find something you love for your own home! Affiliate links are provided below. Full disclosure here. Glass Lamp: Classic, but with a slightly modern design that would look ... Read more
Saying Goodbye To The Original Wood Grain Cottage
With all of the changes that happened over the last few years, one of the hardest parts of it was letting go and moving out of my home. I dreaded that day. Often though, the thing we don't want to do the most, is exactly what we need to do... and what leads us on a new journey. Today, I wanted to say goodbye to the original Wood Grain Cottage... the house that not only built this blog... but built me. As many of you may know, it can be incredibly hard and emotional to sell a home you've so lovingly cared for. When I first built the original Wood Grain Cottage, I had no idea what would happen, but I certainly didn't expect for it to change my entire path. Without even knowing it, the ... Read more
TGI-Friday & The Last 5 House Things I’ve Purchased
Friday... Isn't it one of the best days of the week?! In today's TGI-Friday post, I thought it would be fun to share the last 5 house things I've purchased... minus groceries! Even though I haven't been posting on the blog, that doesn't mean I haven't been buying the house some goodies here and there! (Can't stop, won't stop!) But first, let's take a good look at some of the big highlight things we've been up to the past few months... Have I ever told you about my love for scones? If I haven't, I'm not sure what I've been doing. I love scones! I've always been obsessed with them, and I've now, happily, passed that love onto Todd. I couldn't believe he hadn't ever had a scone before ... Read more
Back To Blogging!
It's been no secret that I've had a hard time keeping the blog updated and current with all of our house projects these last few months. It feels like I blinked, and the last blog post I published is now over two months old! That honestly wasn't my intention, and I've been trying to make my way back to blogging. Remodeling the house has come to a pretty slow roll as we've both been overwhelmed with a very busy and demanding work schedule. When I moved out of my home last year, the blog was forced to take a back seat, and I started a full time job that left little to no time for writing new blog posts. Like anything, blogging takes time, energy and creativity. All of those things ... Read more
TGI-Friday
Remember when I shared TGI-Friday in the past? I know it's been a little while, but I really like the idea of sharing some behind the scenes peeks, as well as new things I find and love. It's a random post, but it's real and full of good stuff! In house news, we've been spending our weekends working on the yard. If you're following my Instagram stories, you've got a good glimpse at what we've been working on. Just like the rest of the house, it has been severely neglected. The grass that was once there is long gone and we have a ridiculous amount of sticks and tree saplings everywhere. Todd brought his skid steer from work and we've been doing demo on the landscaping. We've scooped up ... Read more
The Kitchen Design Plan
The kitchen design plan has been one of the harder rooms to really nail down. Overall, I've known what I wanted to do, but there were still a few key elements that I just couldn't decide on. Elements, that I felt really needed to be picked before moving forward with the final plan for our kitchen. Since we have so much work to do with the entire house, we've really tried to do a healthy dose of "high and low" finishes all blended together. We've splurged a little in some areas, while staying budget focused with other things. It's been exciting to see it all come together in such a beautiful way. The kitchen is going to be a very happy balance of budget friendly items, with a few ... Read more
Replacing The Kitchen Sub Flooring
If you ask either one of us what our least favorite project has been to date, we'd both probably answer with replacing the kitchen sub flooring. Don't get me wrong, we were thrilled to get the nasty, rotted sub flooring up and out, but the process of actually doing it left a lot to be desired... Remember when I shared all about demo'ing the kitchen? And when we found mold around the sink? The previous people obviously didn't care about the leak, because not only did they let it start growing mold, but it also rotted the main layer of sub flooring. (Palm to the forehead...) When we broke up the kitchen tile, and pulled up the thin layer of wood underneath, we could ... Read more
How We Quickly Painted The Interior of Our Home
Last week I shared all about our process of choosing the right paint color to paint throughout our home. We really wanted to pick a main color that would look great in the natural light, but also enhance all the custom touches we'll be adding over time. After a week or so of looking at the paint samples in different lighting, we landed on Gray Mist by Benjamin Moore. It's a lovely creamy color that has a light green undertone. It looks amazing with white, black and wood tones... all of my favorite things. We couldn't wait to see the instant transformation this would bring, so I'm sharing how we quickly painted the interior of our home. Nearly every single surface of this house has a ... Read more
Our First Home Tour
I'm here sharing our first home tour in the Willow House! I've always loved looking back on past home tours. It's fun to see the progress that's made and all the changes that happen year after year. This tour will be one we'll really enjoy looking back on. We have so many projects in the works, and so many unfinished projects, but even through the chaos, we are loving living in this home. We love going through the house, piece by piece, making it ours and really putting our stamp on things. As we've been living in the house, we keep coming up with new ideas and plans for the future. And I'm sure it will change 100 times over, but actually living in the house always brings a ... Read more
Picking Our Interior Paint Colors
When it came to picking our interior paint colors, I knew I wanted to keep a clean, bright interior. So many of the fun and custom touches we'll be adding to the house will come over time, and not knowing exactly what we'll want to do down the road, I wanted to give the house a blank slate that would encourage some creativity. As you might know, picking interior paint colors can be tricky. I've learned over time, through trial and error, that nearly every single paint color looks different in different lighting. Depending on how much natural or artificial light a room has, will change (or highlight) the undertone of the paint color. I have my tried and true colors that I tend to turn to ... Read more
A House Update: We Moved In!
I figured since I've been MIA lately, a house update was definitely due. All I can say, is time sure does fly by when you're having fun, doesn't it? I feel like I blinked and the month of February is over and we're already into March. It's been busy. Really busy. Needless to say, we didn't move into the Willow House on February 1st. We could have, but there were so many different things that had us hesitating. We really didn't want to move in having so many major projects still left to finish... the floors being one of them. Ultimately, we both knew we didn't have to move in by February 1st, but it sure would have been nice. Instead, we decided to pay an extra month of rent and ... Read more
Demo’ing The Kitchen
If you've ever bought a fixer upper home that had really gross rooms, you know the thrill of demo'ing the space and taking it down to bare bones. Demo'ing the kitchen was just like that... it was so refreshing to get everything out and to have a blank canvas. Remember the kitchen? The picture makes it look about 100 times better than what it actually was. The cabinets were falling apart and most of the drawers were broken, not to mention loads of mice droppings everywhere. There was also a big water leak underneath the sink that had gone on for so long, it caused mold on the wall and all over in the base cabinet. The stove had burners that didn't work, and the room was just ... Read more
Black Tile In The Laundry Room
When Todd and I were dreaming up the design plan, the one thing we were both really excited about, was the installation of black tile in the laundry room. We both loved the look and the texture it would bring into the room. I mentioned before that with the push to move in at the end of the month, we had several things we were hiring out to speed up the process. Since neither of us have tiling experience, we really didn't want to try and attempt it with such a time crunch in place... not to mention, the upstairs bathroom still needed tiled as well. With so many things to do, we decided to let a professional handle the job... and we're so glad we did because this "simple" ... Read more
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