{tHrIfTy FiNds}

I've been slowly changing out the decor in my kitchen and re-doing the accessories.

I'm wanting to go for a more mod country look instead of a retro country look. The color scheme I'm aiming for is green, white, black, and browns- very earthy and clean looking.

Since I tend to have this desire to want to re-do things around my home often, I'm all about thrifty finds.

MOPS in Brenham had a garage sale last weekend and I hit the jackpot! I even found a few gifts for people. I love a cute gift for $3!!!

There was a box full of old kitchen gadgets that were green and metal.

In the photo below, the white flower pot is filled with the cute gadgets that I purchased. I also got those biscuit cutters and metal measuring cups.

I had the jars and metal tray already so I re-purposed all of this to go with my new look.


I also purchased these metal measuring scoops and this white little pot below.


Here are the photos of my shelves by my sink that I have redone. I had all of this around the house except the apple topiaries ($5 at TJ Max) and frames.



I still need fabric for valances above the windows so if you have any cute ideas, send them my way! I don't know if I should go with brown, black, white or green.

My sister sent a blog my way last week that you should go check out! I love her style over at The Old Painted Cottage. This was my inspiration for my kitchen. A lot of our bones are the same. Her kitchen is beyond beautiful.

I have my computer back at my house, so I'm going to be posting regularly again!

Andy G. and Almost There

We are in the final week of remodeling. This whole process has taught me more than I could possibly even touch on in this post. I would definitely have some snoozers on that one.

I am grateful, humbled, exhausted, and still trying to learn patience. What is it about myself that makes me lose self control during the 'patience exams'? I flunk every time. I am sick of flunking.

There has been a lot done in the kitchen over the last few weeks. Here is a glimpse of the new paint job to the cabinets and the island in the center. The rest of the house just needs the finishing touches (oh, and countertops) and we are moving in.







So what does all of this have to do with Andy Griffith? Nothing.

But, I would like to share a newly acquired love of Kaylyn's.

It is no mystery that my husband is old fashioned......for a 27 year old. At least once a day, he daydreams of living life in the pioneer days. This is where I usually say 'Peace Out'.

He has a strong love for the Andy Griffith show. LOVE. He watches it on t.v. and laughs hysterically at the hillbilly jokes that Andy G. throws down. He also has this phenomenon on CD so that he can listen to it in the car.

We have been driving 'his' (formerly 'hers' circa high school) car around because gas is redonkulous for us diesel drivers. Our non-green friendly Excursion is non-wallet friendly right now. Which is another reason why my genius husband is researching how to make his own diesel!

We have been driving his car around instead. With his car comes the Andy G. CD. It is a package deal. Kaylyn not only loves listening to ole' Andy now, she is requesting him the minute she gets in the car. She asks 'Dada, turn on Andy please.' How funny is that? Jason beams from ear to ear every time she asks. Oh, the glow of a proud father. Our DVD player in the Excursion has NOTHING on Andy. She is a different child in the car. She is actually quiet, calm, and attentive.

I wish they had Andy G. reading bible verses for Cubbies. Or Andy G. and 'Everything you need to know before you get to kindergarten' on CD. That would be terrific. I would have a genius on my hands. For sure.

Home Stretch

We are on the home stretch in the remodeling process.

This week they made great strides in getting the exterior completely finished, painted, and a new deck on the side of the house. The outside looks brand new. I had no idea that a new coat of paint with different colors and some things here and there would make it look this good.





On the interior, the kitchen and bathrooms received cabinets! Woooohoooo! Now you can really see things taking shape.

We went with shaker style cabinets in the kitchen to achieve the farmhouse feel. There is also an island in the kitchen (black thing in the center). We are painting the cabinets white so that is why these are unfinished.







In the bathrooms, we went with a thicker shaker-type cabinet. Ours has a laundry hamper at the bottom of it which I'm very excited about.





The girl's cabinets has some apothocary drawers in the upper cabinet to organize bows and hair dillies. You can never have too much storage in a girl's bathroom. The drawers under the sinks slide out and are step stools which will make my life much easier! When the girls no longer need stools, they flip around and will serve as regular drawers.





We are thrilled with how the cabinets turned out!

The side of the house has a new deck that will get lots of use. The slab that is just in front of the deck will be painted with hop scotches, four square, and roads, and have a picket fence around it for the girls to have another play area outside.





They should be done with everything in a little less than two weeks. We can't wait! I doing a jig right now in my computer chair!

Farmhouse Facelift, Part II

It is hard to believe that we've been in the process of remodeling for almost exactly 3 months. We started the second week of July.

A lot of the nuts and bolts of the house needed to be redone, rewired, and repaired. The lack of updates was primarily because there wasn't a lot that could be visibly seen that was being done like new wiring, new plumbing, and CHA.

When everything is said and done, the house will pretty much be a brand new house within its cute farmhouse shell. We kept the original wood ceiling and doors.

And although this is taking a lot longer than we anticipated, we are already thrilled with the way things look. You can see in some of the pictures of the exterior the new color that we chose.

The front porch still needs some repairs and some paint.

On the inside, we are waiting on cabinets, flooring, and all of the finishing touches (light fixtures and plumbing fixtures). We don't have an exact move in date, but we are thinking that by the end of October (THIS MONTH!!!!) we should be in our home. It all depends on how fast we get our cabinets and how fast they get the bathrooms and kitchen completed after

Here is how the house looked last week.

Farmhouse Facelift

We are in the process of remodeling the farmhouse that we live in. It was built in the early 1900s but has had several different eras of add-ons as the years have passed by. We love old houses! They are our favorite.

As the crew has been tearing down sheetrock and pulling out fixtures, we have been able to see a small glimpse of what the original house might have looked like. Underneath the layers was the old cloth wallpaper, wooden walls, holes where the wood burning stove used to connect, and the old fireplace just to name a few. You can really see how sturdy this house really is. It is make of solid wood from floor to ceiling.

The house was 2 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, but we are in the process of re-configuring the space to be 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms with a good size utility room and a new kitchen. We need some place to put all of these babies we are going to have! The exterior will have a new paint color along with a revamped porch.

We are trying to stay with the farmhouse look and keep as many original things as possible including the old doors and hardware, original hardwood ceilings, and all of the charm. It looks very scary right now all torn up, but I can't wait until the end result. They have estimated it taking around 3 months to do everything.

Here is a preview of last weeks progress. I will try and update periodically so you can watch the remodel with us.