Shed Some Light

As promised, we have been busy with projects during this break time for Trey.  The first project we did this weekend was install recessed lighting in the kitchen.  We had always planned for this to be part of the kitchen, so we've been only using a small hanging light bulb to light up the whole kitchen.  We also took advantage of a visit from Trey's brother to help us with this project.  We decided to go with a 6" flush fluorescent clear light with white trim.  We put 10 of these lights in the kitchen and plan to put 2 above the fireplace later on.  But those are the logistics, now for the pictures!

Making holes for the lights above the bar.  Brother-in-law is stuck in the attic. 

Trey wiring the lights. 

Poor guy, he was there a long time.

Half-way done!

The finished product, cleaning up after the mess. 

We also installed a ceiling fan in the living room.  I chose an inverted frosted glass bowl with walnut blades and a rusted bronze finish.  The fan also comes with a remote, and the light dims into several levels.  It looks great! 

It looks great with the Christmas decorations. 

Things are starting to look a lot brighter around here . . .

Decking the Halls

 This past week we decorated Home Sweet PROJECT Home for Christmas.  It's such an exciting thing for us to decorate this house that means so much to us already.  I can't believe that this time last year we were in the 30-day timeline to close on the house.  

We began with the tree.  We actually bought our tree and ornaments last year, and I wanted to have an all white and silver tree.  So we got a pre-lit LED tree with a bulk of plastic silver ornaments (because Roscoe and Missy's tails like to to knock off the ornaments).  And we topped it off with a silver star and a white tree skirt.  

The cats keep trying to make the tree skirt their bed.  Better put some presents under there fast. 

We also got a new ornament this year to commemorate the first Christmas in our new home: 

And I was so excited to able to put our stockings on our fireplace mantle this year.  Our stockings are meant to coordinate, kind of match and kind of not.  And they look so great on the fireplace, which is being used a lot! 

I think next year I will need to get some type of garland decoration to go around the mantle. 

And then we have several small things throughout the house, so it feels like Christmas everywhere you look.  

Ceramic light-up nativity scene on the bookshelf with Christmas tree and snowman candles. 

Christmas tree floormat and towels on the oven handle. 

And thanks to a generous offer from Shutterfly in collaboration with Blogger, we were able to get our Christmas cards done for free!  I love the personalization and the beautiful design of their cards.  We took our picture in front of the Christmas tree and put it in a gorgeous lace-detailed template.  See below for our picture and more information about the offer from Shutterfly. 

Vintage Lace Frame Christmas Card

Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Merry Christmas from all of us here at Home Sweet PROJECT Home!  

Two Doors Down

Thanks to our busy jobs and Trey taking two classes in grad school this past semester, we haven't done much on the house since the summer.  Hence, there haven't been any blog posts. 

However, we have managed to complete one project this past month that looks great!  We took the two solid-wood doors from the entrance in the great room and transformed them into bedroom doors for our bedroom and the back bedroom. 

When Trey and I first started renovating the house, we decided to have as open a floor plan as we could (hence, the removal of a certain kitchen wall to create a bar).  So within our first week of renovating, I took off the double doors in the great room and set them aside.  Since they were solid-wood doors with a beautiful stain finish on them, we couldn't bring ourselves to throw them out. 

This is a picture from the inside of the great room when we first saw the house.  One of the double doors can be seen on the left. 

Due to some . . . conflicting style choices between us and the previous inhabitors of the house, we decided to toss two of the bedroom doors (one was painted a blood red--the same as the wall color in the master bedroom, and the other was baby pink with a matching hammer-head size hole).  So for the first 7 months that we lived in the house, we lived without a bedroom door.  This wasn't a big deal until we acquired a new addition to the family, Missy. 

Missy, the new addition, is the female lab/boxer on the right, not the slightly butchered stuffed monkey.

In training her to stay in the bedroom during the night (and to keep the cats out during the day), we needed a door.  So, we decided to start the process (i.e. "Trey, I have a project for you . . . ") of making two swing-open double doors into bedroom doors. 

You'd think making a door for one room into a door for another room would be simple, it's still a door.  However, the size and placement of the hinges made this project a little more complicated.  One of the doors was too wide to be a bedroom door, and it took several trips to the garage to shave off fractions of inches to get it fit.  Then, we needed to find a door knob template for inserting a hole that wasn't previously there (also, drilling through solid wood is a lot harder and takes more time than drilling through hollow wood.  who knew?!).  And, of course, switching the placement of the hinges. 

Trey switching the hinges on one of the doors in the back bedroom. 

But the final product is a beautiful, solid-wood door for the bedrooms.  The dense wood is also great at blocking the sound of the dishwaser churning away in the kitchen.  And I L-O-V-E the color combination of our bedroom walls (seal gray), white trim doorway, and dark wood door! 

The finished product.  Me likey! 

So that's what's been (not) happening here at Home Sweet PROJECT Home.  We've made great use of our fireplace over the past few chilly nights, so maybe a post coming up about that soon.  But we've got some projects on our TO DO list once Trey is done with school this semester, like putting recessed lighting in the kitchen and window coverings for our deck off of the master bedroom.  So stay tuned! 

A Very Berry Summer

This week we have found several berries along our back fence.  We definitely know that some are blackberries, but we're not quite sure what the blueberry/grape-type things are.  Here are some pictures of the black and red berries in our fence: 

We only picked the black ones.  

They are guarded by some nice foliage.  

They are also quite large, as referenced by the golf ball.  

Since these berry findings, we'd like to make the most of their produce next year by trimming up the plants where they grow and tend to them more.  This house and its yard is full of surprises. 

Lightning Strikes Tree in our Backyard

On June 1, 2010, a thunderstorm came through our city causing several lightning strikes, including one in our backyard (literally).  It split in several places, causing shards of wood to be thrown all over our yard.  

Big piece that broke off.  

Pieces all over our new landscaped area.  

Big piece right by the fence.  

Stuck in the fence.  

The beast itself.  

A piece that was held up in the ground by at least 3 inches. 

Perspective.  

Nice to know that Mother Nature like our house so much she wanted to make a visit.  =)

Setting Down Roots

This weekend Hubby's grandmother came down to help us plant some flowers in our front yard (because she is the green expert in the family).  First, we pulled up all the weeds and runners that had overgrown over the years.  Then, we went to Home Depot and walked all through their nursery and garden section, picking out which flowers we wanted to see. 

We put some red lilies in the rock section in front of the house. 

I love the color on these.  

We also got some deep purple delphiniums, assorted azalea bushes, and a butterfly bush (I'm excited about that one) along with some nandinas that were already here.  

Here's a picture of the whole area after we planted everything:  

And finally, we planted some dog seeds.  Think it will sprout some puppies?  

Home Additions

We're finally starting to make our house feel like a home, after it was formerly a construction site for a few months.  Some of the items that make our home include a dining table and chairs:

The set came from hubby's parents and it's a beautiful white set with a golden wood table top.  Looking into the dining room, it completes our antique white theme with our cabinets.  Our cat Elvis is making a cameo from the south chair.

The other piece of furniture we received was a white coffee table with wicker baskets for our living room.

I love how the white looks with our dark colored floors.  

The white theme makes a full circle from the kitchen to the living room, also.  

And to really complete the white theme:  

OK, he's not a piece of furniture, but he certainly makes it feel like home.  

He's king of the yard, or at least this part of it.

Spring is Here!

So, we apparently have a lot of random plants and flowers that are starting to bloom.  The first time we saw the house was back in the fall, and we didn't realize the greenery that was available to us.  One of the foliage we were blessed with was a pretty rose bush by our mailbox.

Our dog Roscoe wanted to have a smell, too.  He has been loving the new house and yard, by the way.  We've been leaving him outside during the day, and at night he collapses on the couch.  I suppose a day of chasing squirrels and digging holes is hard work.  Anyways, here he is with the same pretty flower.

I put the pretty rose in a wine glass we found displaying our last name.  We don't know the family who makes the wine, but they make a pretty bottle.

You can see the sunlight coming in on the west side of the house where the kitchen was.  Curtains or blinds are definitely in order because trying to make dinner before 5:30 PM is a tanning session.  B-)

Hubby Fixes a Lawnmower

Hubby found a slightly used (but not for awhile) lawnmower.  He bought the parts to fix it and now he got it working!  He truly is a Mr. Fixit.

Turns it on!

It also cuts the grass!

Catching Up

Wow! I can't believe it's been a month since my last post! But between taking some out of town trips (one for vacation, one for work) and being without internet connection at the new house (That's right! We're moved in!), this is the first chance I've had to post.

And oh, how much has happened this last month! First of all, hubby painted the kitchen the pale lemon color we selected:

And our cabinets were installed!  We actually decided to go with the antique white colored cabinets after all.  The cabinet shop doesn't have a showroom, so when we first saw the color in not-so-great lighting we were not very impressed.  But once we got to see them in a good light up next to some floor samples, we warmed up to the color.  We decided it would fit better with the contrasting color theme we were going with.  After we finally decided on cabinet color, we chose our counter top color which is called Labrador.  Hubby asked me if I picked that because I'm a dog lover.  LOL!  But it really was the perfect color with our cabinet and floor choices.  It was the perfect combination of blacks, greens, and creams.  We also decided to go with flat black knobs for our hardware, nothing crazy. 

We found a pretty sweet deal on a sink at a salvage store in Chattanooga, TN.  This lovely 4-hole, 8-inch deep dual sink was a pretty $60!  Compared to $110 at your big chain hardware store, I was quite pleased.  The faucet is a beautiful, high curved stainless steel with hot/cold taps with a side sprayer, with a nice tag of $98. 

We got all of our appliances from a huge sale at Sear's last weekend.  They were advertising 15% off of all appliances with an additional 10% off if you used your Sear's card.  Needless to say, we helped my parents gain some major points on their card while we saved 25% on our appliances.

And finally, the floors.  We also found these floors at the salvage store for less than a dollar a square foot.  We made the decision a while ago to go with laminate floors because of their durability and anti-dog/cat-claw-scratching abilities.  But I wanted to be sure that we got a nice, quality laminate that would be both appealing and enduring.  We found this plank, walnut laminate that had pretty grooves that went with the grains.  It comes with a 30-year warranty and is fairly easy to clean with a dust mop.  I really like the wide planks because it makes the rooms seem so much bigger.  The animals are still getting used to them, though, especially when they try to peel out.

P.S.  My sweet husband and my parents surprised me after I got back from my work trip with the bar stools that I wanted.  X-back, counter height, black stools from Target.  Until we find a new dining set, this is where hubby and I are having meals together (minus the cat).

That's it for now.  Now that we're living here and I have internet access, I'll try to post more frequently.  As long as the cats get out of my lap so I can use the computer.  *meow?*