Do you ever notice those billboards with the beautiful juicy looking steak with perfect grill marks on them, yet when you get to the restaurant the item on your plate resembles a chewed up, flattened hamburger patty that an anorexic dog wouldn't touch?

Anyway...

I get these visions of projects to do in my head sometime.

Beautiful.

Perfect grill marks.

Them we dive in and hope we'll have a juicy steak at the end...

BEFORE

I love it when your steak comes out perfect.

Maybe even better than expected.

All thanks to Derek on this one.

I told him my vision and he made it happen.

We were able to do about 75% off the planks with the leftover cuts from our living room redo.

The wood on the shelf was from the dumpster when my sisters house was built.

The paint was also from the living room redo.

It's Alabaster (color from sw) in Behr paint from HD.

The corbels are from HD.

They were our biggest expense.

Bringing our total redo cost to around $35-$40 buckaroos.

I'm cool with redo prices like that.

That's my idea of doing it cheaper;-)

The shower curtain is a drop cloth.

I decided to raise the shower curtain bar and that was the only fabric I had that was long enough to do the job.

I'm kinda diggn' it.

Now if only we could actually keep the bathroom door open to enjoy the view.

That must wait until our 1 year old learns that the toilet is not his own oversize sippy cup.

If you're a goulash hater then moooove on out of here.

Me?

Eh, I could take it or leave it.

I find that having 3 little boys (or children in general) is keeping me a tad busy.

This one is growing so quickly and wow he keeps me hopping.

Most people think he's laid back, quiet and calm.

Hmmmm.

He loves me.

He doesn't want to leave my arms.

Ever.

I love him too, but for some reason I find cleaning, painting, washing and ironing (HA) difficult with my two hands working and his two hands grabbing everything in sight and flinging it hither and yon.

Love him to death.

I painted this sign for a customer recently.

It kicked me in proverbial tail end.

I painted it 3 times before I was halfway happy with it.

This picture is bad because it was taken with a bad camera.

I wish I had a better close-up photo because it has a porcelain crackle finish on it that gave me fits but looks puuurtty fine!

 

For those that are thinking of having a custom order done...

This was the sign designed on the computer before I painted it.

As you can tell, you can get a pretty good idea of what it will look like before I start on it.

In other news.

I'm working in this room a little and will be showing it to you soon.

A side note...

It's almost summer here.

I like summer.

Nope.

I LOVE SUMMER!

If you don't see me as much around these parts then you know where I'll be.

Visiting with my friend summer.

My kids are only young once.

Summer only comes once a year.

I must make sure I don't miss either.

I will be back this week with an Amazing giveaway!

Although we're going to do a bathroom reno in the new year we've recently made inexpensive improvements that have made a lot of difference to how our small bathroom functions. I've loved the changes so much that we'll carry through the ideas to the new washroom. First up - Hooks.

I'm not sure if people still install these towel bars [Image 2] but I find them so ackward. You can't just casually hang your towel on one - and if it's wet and you put it back on this bar, it likely won't dry. But for the past three years we've had no where to hang our towels. We could have installed hooks in the washroom iteself - for example, on the back of the washroom door, but it would have been a lot of visual clutter for a small bathroom.

Inspired by the Elmwood Spa, where in their shower stalls they have hooks for your robe, I had Aub install two hooks in our shower stall. There is something nice about showering, and having your towel right there waiting for you. When I'm done, I rehang it in the stall. The hooks are nice for a few reasons. 1. Hooks are easier to hang towels on, than the bars 2. The hooks are behind the shower curtain which means when you're in the washroom and the shower curtain is closed, they aren't seen. Less visual clutter. The hooks are high enough on the wall that they don't get sprayed while you're showering.

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My parents have a little powder room in the front hall that is absolutely stunning. What I simply love about this room is the sink and the gorgeous faucet. Now, since we're considering our bathroom reno, I'm debating whether this sink from Kohler is maybe what we should do. Afterall, we don't need a HUGE sink and this would allow more counter space for putting glasses, electric tooth brushes et. all. The debate is - bigger sink, or, bigger counter space? I mean, do you really need a BIG sink in a washroom?

Ps., My poor parents regularily see me snapping photos of what they have done in their house - I look like a spy. When in fact, I'm trying to replicate what they have done. :)

Last week I blogged for Style at Home Magazine about my mood board for our upcoming bathroom reno. The bathroom reno hasn't really been talked about a lot on my blog because I was really hoping to delay it as much as possible. The kitchen is really my dream, because I'm in it ALL the time with Oscar, so I was hoping to put our funds into that, vs. a bathroom.

But the reality is, is that the bathroom is showing signs of age and quickly getting worse. A lot of logistics are being factored - would we save money to have the trades for the kitchen and bathroom in all at the same time? Mentally is it better to get all of the mess done at once, so we can just be "done" with it? Really what it comes down to is money - Can we afford to do it all, a bathroom and kitchen at once? Probably not. But maybe.

We're in a lucky position (for budgeting) that our Master Bathroom is SMALL. Like uber small. So that cuts back on expenses right off the bat. Things with our bathroom that we know... 1. Since it is small we don't have much room for creativity of placement of things - so we're not moving plumbing 2. You have to go custom with certain things - like a vanity and 3.You have to really maximize your space well.

In the end, I'm actually excited for the bathroom, because I think it would come together really quickly and we could achieve a great look for not a lot of money if you work in the right pieces. :)

1. Classic White Subway Tile (photo via) 2. Restoration Hardware Medicine Cabinet 3. Lucite Knobs for the vanity 4. Vanity (as inspiration) from Sarah Richardson 5. Need a new tub badly 6. Marble floor much like in our basement bathroom

One room hasn't been shown, and that is our Master Bathroom. Let me show you what we started with.  It was yellow and pretty gross. The following photos were from when we walked through the house right after buying the house + are with the previous owners stuff. I honestly look back at these pictures and think we were pretty brave for taking this house on...

Awesome eh? But we had no room in our budget to replace anything. We were faced with a dilemma. What was a way that we could update the bathroom temporarily and inexpensively, to help us hold off on doing any renovations. I also wanted a nicer bath, as I love my baths. So, our fix was...you paint!

 We hired someone to come refinish our tub, and at the same time, paint the yellow tiles.

It was a temporary fix that cost us $1,000. It was money well spent as since them I've been able to enjoy baths and feel as though our bathroom is somewhat appealing. 

But here is the flip side. With any temporary fix, there is that word temporary. The bathtub is showing signs of wear and the paint is chipping in certain spots. We are doing everything in our power to extend the life of our little bathroom. The two rooms, our Kitchen, and Master Bath are the only 2 rooms we never touched, and, the two rooms that are showing MAJOR wear. Aubrey actually said to me "It would make sense to do the bathroom at the same time as the kitchen." to which I freaked out at the idea of TWO renos going on. (Not a good freak out, but panic freak out!) So we kind of have two renovations that we are researching now....Give me strengh.

So I find myself often between "dreaming" and coveting. For instance, this room is just a dream for me.


















Isn't amazing? I love how you get just a peek of that awesome bedroom through the door as well. I can only imagine how beautiful it must be. The shelving in this bathroom is so simple and great. So, from this picture I learn that I might be able to take aspects of this room and use them, but for me this bathroom is a dream. After all, you can't fit that into this:


















This is an idea I can really covet! I even tried to replicate it, but alas, the lack of funds and lack of lighting discouraged me a little.


So my point is, I love to dream, but I try to keep my dreams from making me discontent with what I have already been blessed with because then I beleive I have started to covet and not to dream. Ahhh, but the dreaming is great especially with pictures like this out there to make them come alive!