Whoa! Wallpaper!

Alright, the pink bathroom has gone from bad, really really bad, to oh-so worse! Along with the lovely pink tile there is/was a wallpaper that looked like my granny's bedspread. I did a little research prior to removal but nothing could prepare me for this. (dunn dunn duuuuunnnnnee!)
Our wallpaper had a plastic feel to it, textured and shiny. The top layer of wall paper came right off, no problem, but I still had to remove the actual paper  from the wall.

Vinegar and hot water in a spray bottle was all the chemical I needed which was relieving because it is such a small space and I don't want to pass out during home renovation projects. I dug out a putty knife from my art junk and I was ready to roll. The process is not hard, it's just time consuming! Something I was not expecting was that under the paper there was a plaster applied to the existing textured wall. I'm guessing to smooth out the wall surface before you glue on the wallpaper? It makes sense but it started crumbling off as I was scraping the paper. Guess what color the walls were painted underneath? PINK! Can you believe that? Pink on pink!

I have some serious blisters!

Hard to see but it's pink under there!

Such a mess!

Along with scraping the walls I knocked off the old soap dish and tooth brush holder. There is no cleaner in the world to restore these nasty things. When we bought the house they were covered in foil. I didn't notice when we saw the house...probably because the pink tile was blinding. I hit them hard with a hammer not really knowing what would happen and they flew right off.

Mr. R calls this the Anne Frank bathroom....I don't think that's a good thing. I also think this would be a perfect room to film a gruesome horror movie, it just has that feeling. I have big plans for the little space though....big plans!

Yay for progress!

Front Room Frenzy

....not really. More like, Front Room, when we get around to it. Come on in to our front room! For awhile we called this the sitting room but Mr. R said that was too pretentious. It's not the den or really the living room....so front room it is. I can't tell you how nice it is to walk into a freshly painted room.
  
My mom came in from Glen Rose and spent a Saturday working in our little home. Lady has the most amazing work ethic I have ever seen. If my mom and sister ran the world....stuff would get done y'all! Lady came in and before I could finish filling nail holes she had spread the plastic and edged the ceiling. TRUE STORY!

We said goodbye to the sherbet green walls....there were no tears. 

 

This is Phase One of our front room renovation.

Oh hey Lady!

You can see how green it looks compared to the dining room walls. 

Sherwin Williams Silvermist.

Waverly curtains! 

This door is never closed but Mr. R was on the other side painting the hallway. 

The light was crappy but you can see the curtains!

This room has taken way too long but I think we are back on track. We have been working very hard and finally seeing some results.

What we have:
Ooooh, freshly painted walls and trim.
I have my two awesome hot pink chairs ( re-cover or keep??)
Pink round table (re-paint)
Awesome painting that I can't wait to hang
Curtains
Mirror
Lamps


What we need:
Rug
settee/love seat/tiny coach???
Entry table for mail
Lots of frames and goodies for an eclectic wall cluster
Lamp shades
A little money and a little time!

Happy Memorial Day!

Go Rangers

Mr. R reminds me he has been to more baseball games since we've been together than he has in his entire life. My family ends our dinner prayers with "Go Rangers" thanks to my nephew! 

And now Mr. R has turned into a monster. It's all baseball all the time now. I actually love to have a game on as background noise while I'm working around the house. It just reminds me of summer. Today we are headed out to our first game of the 2012 season. I wanted to share some fun pics from the past two years. These are some of my favorite memories of us dating. I wish I had a photo to document every game but sadly I don't.

Our first game together....sort of. Tailgating with friends in the pouring rain...we didn't even see the game. This was the first time we went out as an official couple with our work friends.

We got engaged two days after this game. Thank God it didn't happen at the ballpark. I had no idea the day before he had been ring shopping with my sis. I was so miserable sick but we had awesome seats so we went anyways! Love this pic!

This is one of my favorite pictures of all time. Three of my favorite boys and my favorite sister! Look at J's face....priceless! And of course for comic relief look at baby C.

Last game of the regular season with the entire family in 2011.

I think the best part of this picture is the people in the background!

Go Rangers!

Wishing and Hoping...

...and thinking and praying.

Planning and dreaming each niiiiiiiiiii -iiiiii -iiiiiiiight........about our front room!

I have our front room on my mind today. So many ideas, so little time and money. Wouldn't it be nice to have all these things just magically appear. I'd pull into the drive way from work and have it all waiting for me on the front porch. Or better, all put up in the room. Some little junk store fairy just dropped it off. I picture her in dirty overalls and hot pink mud boots, hands covered in dried paint:)

We have been working hard y'all! Mr.R has a new love....our lawn. If it were a child it would be the most spoiled on the block. Putting down new sod has made a huge difference to the front yard. I'm not even sure if I have a before picture??? Dang it! It was pretty patchy though. I know it sounds really stupid but I am proud of him. He did not grow up mowing the lawn or working in the yard. He has totally stepped up. I can't get him to come in the house even when the sun goes down. Last night he was looking for his head lamp...at 10:30pm!

I have been working inside the house.  It is very satisfying to rip something out of/off a wall. I've been frantically tearing out old telephone chords and patching holes in the walls and filling cracked trim. The amount of curtain hardware that has been installed, left, and painted over is disturbing. Who does that? I have also been scraping the wallpaper in the pink bathroom. Huge job!

We have been up late the past two nights working on our little house. I'll post a progress picture soon! Until then just wish with me. Wish for hanging curtains, rugs, vintage bar set for my bar cart, wish for frames with cool prints, and an awesome grey settee. Wish for trim to be white and an awesome re-purposed wood mantle installed. One day, one day!

Happy Wednesday Peeps! Keep Wishing!

Simple Life

The R's live a pretty simple life. We do not spend a ton of money on entertainment (we like to sit on the porch), or furniture (thanks to my flea market finds), or food (Aldi rocks), or gas (we carpool). Our weekends are usually filled with house painting/cleaning/hammering or getting together with friends and family. Pretty darn simple!

We were a couple, up until recently, that lived without cable! I know, talk about us...I went without cable for almost 2 years. I got so much done though, I was actually reading and sewing and not being a lazy ass! But once we got married we felt like being up to date on sports news was important....and so I caved we agreed. This also seems to shock people....wait for it.....we don't have a microwave! I know, we're freaks! We had every intention to buy one right after we moved in but we haven't really needed one. It might have been helpful when we were living out a a cooler and had no oven but we pushed through those two weeks.

We have been brainstorming/implementing ways to save, conserve, and reuse. Pretty basic stuff. Instead of running the AC at night we open our windows and turn on the fan. I know we are really progressive, no one has ever thought of this before. We actually cut our electric bill in half last month. I know this cannot last through a Texas summer but for right now we are rockin' it!

Now that we have our own little yard I have been thinking about ways to live a more simple life outside the house. It's not really about money at all, just getting back to basics. My parents live on a tiny farm and have a garden (free veggies) and chickens (free eggs). They have a huge compost pile which saves waste that can be used for fertilizer later. They even have a clothes line. Mr. R, why can't we have these things in our backyard?

 This is me brainstorming!

Mr.R is mostly on board with everything....well, the chickens are still up for debate. I can feed them and gather eggs but I draw the line at touching them, that would be his job! And then there is coop design. We want our chickens to feel safe and cozy. We actually have a perfect backyard for a small coop and two chickens.

Living Simple Goals: Phase 1
Compost Area
Clothes Line
Simple garden

Living Simple Goal (in a perfect world where I have lots of time and extra money): Phase 2
Chicken Coop + Chickens

What we have:
Dreams
What we need:
A LOT of research! 

What do y'all think?

Crazy Organized...

Or just crazy?
The house is a wreck, we've been in and out all week and weekend and the house projects are piling up (along with dishes, laundry, and yard work). To say we are out of our everyday routine is an understatement of a lifetime. When your life is out of control what do you do?

I organize closets!

Before

It got worse before it got better! Hi owls!

I was so lucky to have stumbled upon these plastic storage boxes, that are the exact color of my homemade owl wallpaper, in a stressed induced Target run last week. They were 5 for $5.99 so I couldn't pass them up. I have ten containers in total and I am affraid I will have to make another run this week for 5 more. I keep finding more stuff!

My everyday organization is not horrible. I just have too many things crammed together in one container. Which has been the case....my whole life! I make the biggest mess when I am trying to find something at the bottom of a box and before the project is even started there  is stuff everywhere. This is usually when I am trying to run out the door to a baby shower or birthday party and I leave a trail of tissue paper and bows behind me.

I have over 100 bottles of paint...now organized by color!

My main objective is to get things organized so I can grab and go AND so when Mr.R needs something I don't have to stop what I am doing and go find it. The closet that had no purpose is now the craft/winter clothes/stuff that doesn't have a home closet! Welcome to your new home "stuff"!

I used chalkboard paper, left over from a friends wedding, for my labels. The great thing about this is it really does erase and I can move things around as needed. They are like contact paper so they stick BUT can peel right off.

I wanted the "stuff" I used the most right in front. Probably scissors and tape....almost everyday. Next is probably gift cards. I try to pick up one or two from the Target dollar aisle every time I drop in. Isn't that 12x12 discount space dangerous! I do the same thing with gift bags and after going through and cleaning out I realized I have more gifts bags than Target...no really!

After-ish

Thank you for reading and keeping up with our little house adventure. The past week has been a living nightmare for my family. I am finding peace by working on our house. Mr.R says my go-to coping mechanism is tearing down wallpaper. Pink bathroom wallpaper down, hallway painted, front room trim painted, back yard flower bed weeded and mulched...it's coping or crazy...or both. If you are interested in knowing more please visit my brothers blog post as he can paint the picture far better than I can. My sister is asking for prayers on her blog as well. I am not ready to put it all out there yet. I am praying for a miracle.

Please pray for my family.

Always a Bridesmaid Part 2

Today I went to the cutest "Tiffany's" bridal shower for my bestest and bride-to-be. Everything down to the hostess outfits were Tiffany blue....so precious!  Sipping champagne and looking at beautiful dishes is not a bad way to spend a dreary Saturday.

The cake was so beautiful and tasted amazing, always a plus!

Shut your face it's powdered donuts!

Favors....which I forgot....shoot!

I cannot get over this gorgeous cake! LOVE!

There is nothing I love more than to walk into a strangers house and for them to offer me a mimosa....OK! And then it came with Tiffany blue sugar! Me in heaven!

A little peak at the beautiful couple!

Ok, so I am obsessed with this. You know I was all up on this trying to figure out how the hostess pulled that off. Wrapped the foam cone with white thick yarn, toothpicks, donuts....done! Love it, I thought it was such a cute touch since this is the brides favorite snack.

I was trying to think what other foods you could stick to a foam cone. Maybe I'll make one with bacon for Mr.R for his birthday....that is his favorite! I am totally stealing this idea for the next shower I throw....who will be next?

Happy Wedding!

Table for two....

...or four!

Two years ago my mom bought this sweet little wooden breakfast table down in Round Top on a girls trip. On that trip she was buying all kinds of goodies to furnish her B&B. I guess this little guy didn't make the cut because he lived in the dirty barn up until my wedding day, about a year later. As the barn "catch all" table it held a 1984 computer monitor, multiple tools, barn dirt, barn cat , and God only knows what else. We drug it out and dusted it off and threw the programs on it for the wedding. I love this table! I think it is a perfect size for a breakfast table. It is super sturdy and has just the right amount of scuffs and dents to make it special.

So pretty and perfect!

I put our engagement pictures in an old ledger and everyone wrote sweet messages around them. One of my most treasured things.

It is pretty cute white but I sanded it and it needs a fresh coat of paint. I also pulled 4 white chairs out of the BHR "big house" for seating. Grand total for this project? Free! Well, thanks to my Lady who gave me the table and chairs.

This breakfast table is not to be confused with the dining table which was an another weekend of sanding a staining. The R's eat about 95% of our meals at this little table and we love it. We make it a priority to sit down and eat dinner every night together. We are officially back into the swing of cooking balanced meals again. That whole cooler/no oven episode really threw us off our routine.

Happy Eating!


Wedding photos by Zenia Curiel