Honey, I just ripped down the wall :-)

So while Nick is away on a job, I decided to tackle a bunch of home improvement projects.  One of my biggest problems is that I don’t finish one before i start another one.  But oh well…it had to be done.   The previous owner had covered the old plaster with some sort of weird 60′s homosote.  I couldn’t take it (obviously), so I began ripping it down tonight.  Here’s the progress.

I think Nick is going to be surprised when he gets home and see my handiwork.  Oops!

I don’t think you know how badly I “need” this…

Terrain at Styers has just started selling their wares online.  I’m pretty fortunate to live close enough to the store to just drive down there and go shopping, and yet I never do…and therefore I look through their website and lust after some of their items.  One in particular is this vintage Texas Glider.

It would look so perfect on my new back deck.  Once it’s finished of course.

The weekend comes to a close at last

And it’s clear that these two are ready for bed. Don’t they look menacing sitting there waiting for me?

They finally gave up and just got ready to snooze whether I decided to join them or not.

Man, this is precisely the thing I love about the weekend…even when it’s ending.  I hope everyone else out there had a great one as well.

Backyard Update

So last year I posted about our backyard “situation.”

See what I mean?  It’s a hot mess.  This shot is from last summer (before we seeded the lawn) so at least there’s more grass now, but I didn’t even bother taking a new photo b/c it basically looks the exact same otherwise.   When we first bought the house there was a huge rotten wood deck that filled the entire backyard space.    We had a deck demolition party to tear it out, but after that our progress has sort of sputtered.  We couldn’t figure out what to do with it that maximized space while keeping to a budget we could afford.

However, a neighbor gave me this sage advice, “Sit down and doodle.  You’ll figure it out.”  And you know what?  We did!  Here’s our plan.

We decided to dress up the old porch slab with a combination of wood and recycled brick.  The top and hand rails will be wood, and the sides and front will be cement block covered with recycled brick.  Then we’ll put little hedges into the new planters to give some privacy to the deck.  I’m so excited to begin that I can’t stand it.

Here are some inspiration images I found to help get us there.

We’re hoping to get started on it soon so that we can actually begin to enjoy the space rather than HATE going back there.  But of course, I still have to finish dealing with the mess I made in the powder room and laundry.  hah!   The joys of homeownership…

I have a blog crush…

on Layla and Kevin from The Lettered Cottage.  Apparently many of you already know them considering they have over 2000 followers, but I just discovered them from their house tour on Apartment Therapy.   So late to the game I am!  (Wait?  Why am I speaking like Yoda today?)

Anyways…this video of their recent ceiling demolition cemented my new love for this Alabama couple.  Ch-ch-check it out!

Cute idea for a dog bed

via Magnus Agnesund photo

Another idea to makeover the mantle?

Thankfully I know the person who built this.  Maybe I can convince her to show me just how to re-work it for my own mantle…  Hmm. 

photo via YoungHouseLove.

New ideas for wallpaper

At least once a month someone asks me to come up with a new way to show wallpaper.  You’d think that it’s main purpose (ie. on a wall) would be the ideal scenario, but I find that “new and exciting” is what I’m often asked to come up with.  So it was with great pleasure that I came across the book Wallpaper Projects by Derek Fagerstrom and Lauren Smith.

Their book features so many creative ways to use wallpaper that I got tingly all over!  (And the best part is the majority of their projects aren’t inventive for the sake of being filler to get to a certain page count for their book.  No!  In fact, many of these you might actually consider doing in your home!)   Here are a couple of my favorites:

Wallpapering the stair treads?  I love it!  Just a single roll would give you maximum impact!

I don’t think you know how much I love this.  I can never seem to commit to a bed frame that I love for for my master bedroom and therefore haven’t had one for years.  (It’s like the cobbler whose children have no shoes, right?)  Anyways…I think this could be an interesting solution for me.

These look simple to make and the effect is undeniably great.

I know, I know…we’ve seen silhouettes a dozen times already.  Everyone is doing them now.  But this one is particularly cute, so I had to post.  It’s a great use for those wallpaper scraps & samples that you never seem to know what to do with.  (At least, I never know what to do with.  I must have four random rolls of wallpaper sitting in my closet right now that I love, but didn’t have enough to do a big project with.)

Anyways…there are a ton of other great ideas as well as all the instructions on how-to in this book, so I definitely recommend it.