Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Labor Day Weekend

Can't wait to be here Friday...

Gatlinburg Tennessee Area Real Estate
Gatlinburg, TN (if only the leaves were already changing <3 ...)


It will be so nice to have this little weekend trip with some close friends. We had originally planned on going to Atlanta for the Braves vs. Phillies series but had some last minute changes in plans.


Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Picture Updates

First, here is a picture of how the Strawberry Banana cake turned out for the women's supper last week.  It was so much fun, and all of the food was delicious!
Strawberry Cake, Cream Cheese frosting (my fav!) and strawberry & banana slices



HUGE thank you to my parents for coming up and helping make this remodel happen!  Friday night, Jake and I painted with the help of April & Jeremy who stopped by to hang out and help paint.  Jeremy also helped Jake move all of the furniture out and rip up the carpet earlier in the day.  Saturday my parents got up here in the morning, and after taking some time to figure out the plan of attack and making a couple trips to Home Depot, we got started and got a good bit done before dinner. 

((Side note:  We also picked up some lunch from Bat's BBQ on one of those trips to Home Depot.  The food was really good and pretty well priced!  I also didn't know that they are a Christian company.  They give all of their tips, and I think part of their profit, to a local religious organization.  I can't remember the name but I think it's a Catholic church or charity.  We got the Small Bat Pack which was a pound of pulled pork with 2 pint-sized sides, plus sauces, and we bought 4 rolls to make them sandwiches.  All for $22.00--not bad for 4 people!  If you don't like pork they also have chicken or sausage.))

Around dinner we took a break, my friend Iris met up with us and we all went over to the new Giordana Velodrome for the National Championships.  If you don't know what I'm talking about---at the new Rock Hill Riverwalk, there is a state-of-the-art Velodrome which is where Cyclists compete.  It was different but really cool!  I think it will be a great thing for Rock Hill to have.  It was free this weekend, I'm not sure if they will charge in the future or not.  After stopping by there for about 30-45 minutes we continued on to Baxter Village and had dinner at CloudNine, which is a tapas bar.  I bought a Groupon deal that they had recently.  Their food is AMAZING, and they have great drink specials.  I've eaten there three times now, and literally every single item on their menu is good.  Definitely try it if you have never been!  They also have outdoor seating, like most places in Baxter, and the weather was nice so we sat out there.  After about 30 minutes Beef O'Brady's had live music, which I think they do every Saturday. 

Then, back to work on the room on Sunday. The boys got things started while I was at church and then I helped finish the flooring and finishing touches once I got back.  It took until about 8pm Sunday night to have everything done.  Also, be on the lookout for an upcoming post to give you an idea of the budget for a remodel like this.  We all know that I'm into couponing and deals, and there were some great ones here!  I hate how shows like the remodeling ones on TLC and HGTV give people unrealistic ideas of budgets because they get things donated or discounted for TV.

Here are some pictures.  I didn't get to take any on my camera but these are some that Jake got Sunday night after it was all back in place...

This one shows the new color pretty well...a beautiful green chosen to match the stripe in the new draperies and floor rug.  I love that the name of it is "Sanctuary"...so calming :)  We still need to get artwork up on the walls.  The green walls you see here are actually the only 2 green walls in the room--we did these accent walls and left the rest of them tan.


The color of this one turned out really funky on Jake's phone, but it shows the new layout of our dressers.  Jake wanted to switch some things up so this was the compromise, but they actually fit together pretty well and I think I like it.  ((Yes, that is a water bowl on the floor.  Yes, I know they're spoiled.))





The new light above the peninsula in the kitchen.  I love it so much already!  It's so much brighter and better for when I'm prepping food or baking.





Monday, August 13, 2012

Color Schemes

I found a great website the other day for if you are looking for some color ideas and inspiration...


http://design-seeds.com/index.php/search

I love the images that they pair with the color palettes, too.  For our bedroom remodel, the color scheme is ending up as sort of a combination of these:


seedling color
bonsai color
 mixture of the warmth of the first scheme, with the teal of this second scheme. The green won't be that bright, I promise!  The colors were adapted a bit because I found a great floor rug this weekend at the TJ Maxx in northeast Columbia.  An 8x10 Mohawk rug for only $59.99!  That is at least $200 less than everywhere else I've looked.  We haven't unrolled it yet so we're hoping there are no pulls in the pile, but it should be good to go!  The rug is what has some teal and a little bit of a golden color mixed in, which weren't a part of the original plan but I think I like it.


A combination of these two sort of embodies my vision in the living room/kitchen.  We already have most of these colors, but I want to paint the back wall of the house a lighter shade of gray/teal/blue-ish (I can't remember the exact name from Behr) similar to the first color on this "wish tone" palette.
wish tones
cultured tones


It's maybe a bit of a stretch to understand or explain, but with the accent walls downstairs it gives me the feeling of being like an art gallery.  The colored walls give just enough of an accent to the rest of the items in the space to compliment without seeming too over-bearing.  The two things I am obsessed with in the living room and kitchen are the area rug in the living room (pic is from before we moved in so it's a little bare):


and our granite, which I realized I don't have a good picture of :\



...and these two things have a lot of the same color tones.  Because of that, painting the back wall of the house will join those two rooms and make it a nice transition. I'm sure that's just me and other people who come into our house just see accent walls, but it's comforting in a way to me. I think I also like it because with my artsy mind always coming up with new ideas, having just accent walls makes it easier to change or alter.


I am soooo looking forward to this weekend and getting some of these big & little projects completed.  I'll post pictures Sunday if I can get around to it. 


Tomorrow night is the women's Salad Supper for our church, and Shanti and I are going to head over there together once I get home from work.  It's a pot-luck, and we are supposed to bring either some type of salad or dessert.  I didn't want to run the risk of bringing a repeat dish, so I'm baking Strawberry-Banana Cake (strawberry cake, light cream cheese frosting, and fresh strawberries & banana slices on top) YUM :)



Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Kitchen Update






Ohhh, our kitchen remodel.  Our kitchen has been about 80% complete since last November when we redid the cabinetry, granite countertops, sink & faucet.  I LOVE how all of that turned out, and I am just the type of person that wants to do something well the first time instead of skimping and then a couple years down the road you have to find replacements, etc.  Well, here is the next installment:






Isn't she beautiful?  I needed a small(ish) down-light fixture for above our peninsula because right now there is terrible lighting in that part of the kitchen.  Since it originally wasn't kitchen before we remodeled, there's just a small ceiling light that does pretty much nothing for me when I'm trying to do my baking there.  It's also where we typically put out food when we are entertaining so this will be a nice focal point and provide a LOT more lighting.  I got this for a steal, and love the shape, but I'm not in love with the globes.  I might try to find some that are slightly more contemporary and an opaque white instead of the alabaster. 

I'll post pictures in a couple weeks once we have it hung.