Project House:: 2014

Well, here's the obligatory New Year's - how is this year going to be better than last year - post. My resolutions are probably no different than anyone else's: lose weight, be more organized, yada yada yada... but I do have several big house projects than have been hanging over my head for the last (ashamed to say it) ELEVEN MONTHS!

Remember those lovely before pictures I posted months ago?

• Breakfast Nook
• Living Room
• Dining Room 
• Buie's Office
• Guest Room/Guest Bath

It's SO nice to look back and have a sense of accomplishment knowing that none of these rooms look like this anymore. I actually left off a few rooms. So in the sense of being complete, I will finish showing y'all the before pictures and then throughout the next few weeks, months (or however long it takes me - I really have no plan!) I'll start showing y'all the AFTER pictures of our home. It has been so fun to take each room and decorate it according to our style knowing that we aren't leaving here for a long time. 

2013 was a year for our new-to-us house. This home was actually built about 20 years ago but sadly was not maintained properly. As soon as we moved in we knew we had our work cut out for us. With the help of trained professionals we were able to accomplish these - along with many smaller - home projects:

our new fence going up

• build a privacy fence
• paint interior walls and trim
• re-screen sunporch
• hang a front porch swing
• update lighting fixture in 2 bathrooms
• replace old mailbox
• landscape our front yard

And as any home owner knows, your work is never done. As far as resolutions go, the house is a big one: finish all house projects, including but not limited to:

• organize the garage
• organize my home office
• landscape the back yard
• spruce up the sunroom
• renovate our kitchen (not sure if this will happen in 2014 or 2015 - we shall see!)

The day I can park in our garage again will be a day worth celebrating! What resolutions are you making this year?

Before & After:: Front Yard

I have said more than once that a home to me is like a giant canvas, on the inside and the out. It's like a piece of art to personalize and continually improve upon. When we moved into this 20 year old gem, we knew a major landscaping over hall would be due soon. I put some serious thought into doing it myself but after spending several Saturdays pulling weeds, and getting rid of poison ivy, I quickly learned the value of a great landscaping company. 

Our friends Josh and Jeremy started their own landscaping business a little over a year ago and they have done some amazing work for my dad's business and at my parent's home. Take a look at how they transformed our front yard. 

BEFORE:: All the hedges are overgrown and are randomly placed.

AFTER:: So much better, right?

BEFORE:: My least favorite thing about the whole front yard was this huge ugly overgrown shrub. I believe it was a Hawthorn? It was a home for about a million spiders as well as a huge possum who liked to harass Lannie Cat. 

AFTER:: A million times better!! No more huge shrub or big ugly tree trunk. We hung a front porch swing and now it is one of my favorite spots to sit and watch the sunset.

BEFORE:: See how ugly that shrub and tree trunk are? And the weird thing is about this tree trunk is that it's NOT a real tree trunk. It's pieces of wood formed in the shape of a cylinder and filled with potting soil. Weird, right? When Josh & Jeremy removed it, they said it was housing the largest ant bed they had ever seen. Bye Bye, Ants!!

AFTER:: Now the focus is the front porch instead of that eye sore. Before when we would sit on our front porch, we couldn't see over the top of that huge spider infested bush. But now everything is so clean and the conversation azaleas won't grow very tall so we will always have a great view. They left me a few spots like this one in front to add in some seasonal color. I have big plans to plant some pansies and maybe even try out some tulip bulbs for the upcoming Spring.

BEFORE:: This area right outside the kitchen door was just a mess.

AFTER:: Now all of those overgrown hedges are gone and gardenias took their place. Josh & Jeremy even got the little fountain working for the time being. We are planning on putting a little more moolah into the fountain and sprucing it up a little bit more in the near future. But for now, this area is SO much better than it was!

This area where the grass barely grows and people always walk through, we decided to throw down some flagstone. I love the look of flagstone and I love how the little pebble river turned out. When it rains, the water naturally flows right into the big part of the fountain and then drains away from the house down through the pebble path.

BEFORE:: This front bed was filled with a variety of things and none of which was very pleasing the the eye, including the big dogwood tree that was dying. :( Sadly it had to go bye bye.

AFTER:: But we replaced it with a brand new dogwood tree and a spiffy new lamp post to help improve visibility. Since our home is settled off the road deep in the woods, it gets pretty dark at night. Josh & Jeremy hooked up our new lighting system and set us up on a timer so it comes on and goes off everyday automatically. Modern technology is simply amazing. And speaking of timers, all of our new flower beds have a soaker system that are completely on a timer. I highly recommend doing this if you are like me and forget to water until things start turning brown. ;)

BEFORE:: The other side of the house needed some attention as well. 

AFTER:: We didn't do much but just a small bed with a few azalea plants made a huge improvement! 

We are so pleased with our new beds. It really improves the way the house looks. If you are in the Ruston area, check out Cutting Edge and let them work their magic. :) I'm SO glad we decided to hire them. That's one more thing I can check off my to do list. 

Guest Room/ Guest Bathroom:: Before Pictures

I'm almost embarrassed to show you these pictures. Almost. I would be embarrassed if I would have chosen this paint color or put this wallpaper on the walls. Sorry was that harsh? I have to keep reminding myself that this house and this decor and paint colors were all chosen over two decades ago. Maybe they were like the cool kids back in the day. Is that possible?

The guest room is painted a purplish gray. At first glance you think "Oh that's not so bad" but then you realize it's not so much gray as it is purple. And yes I still have boxes from our move in our guest room. Don't judge. 

Now, moving on to the guest bathroom...Well, it just needs a total transformation: rip down the wallpaper, new flooring, new cabinets, new faucets, new lighting, the works!
But for now we're just starting with fresh paint and oh what a difference it makes. I can't wait to show y'all the after painting pics.

Buie's Office: Before Pics

Check out this wallpaper, y'all! I was NOT at all sad to see this room go. This room was a sad mix of nautical print, sad lighting and beige trim. My husband said he could "deal with it" but I, however, could not. 

This room needed an intervention and we gave it one. Stay tuned for the AFTER pics. :)

Dining Room: Before Pics

I went back and forth on whether to use the dining room as an actual dining room. In our old home in Arkansas we probably used our dining room a total of 5 times in the 4 years we lived there. We have a breakfast table that seats 8 so most of the time when we had company over, we would just sit at the breakfast table. If you'll remember I had plans to convert our dining room into a studio in our old home. I hate having a room that we don't utilize so we put some serious thought into making this into something else: a studio, a sitting room (which sounds silly and less useful than a dining room), my office... But when it came down to it, we thought with family living so close we will probably get more use out of our dining room. So our dining room is going to be a dining room but a much prettier one than the pictures you see below. 

Once again, I just wanted to document our home with BEFORE pictures so we could see the transformation that took place over the next few weeks, months and even years! We wanted to remember how our house looked when we moved in. So here it is. The dining room is painted a dark red, almost a burgundy color, but what makes it so unappealing is the WAY it was painted. Like our living room area, it was painted with some sort of sponge paint technique. It almost makes the walls look dirty. So we knew the red paint must go and soon. Like the yellow paint in the living room, breakfast room and kitchen, this red color was driving me mad. 

This room did come with some great built-ins which holds extra dishes, serving pieces and pitchers. These will be painted white and the rest of the room gray. The painters are finishing up things in this room today so stay tuned for the AFTER pictures! It's amazing what a couple coats of paint can do for a room!

Living Room Pictures: Before

Right now the painters are here and the house is CA-RAZY! I debated for weeks whether or not we should do our own painting. I really do love painting but after a few days my back starts hating me and I really start regretting my decision to be the DIY Queen. So yes, we are hiring out any and all painting and I'm trying not to regret this decision. I really do love painting. I like picking out colors, even though I am the most indecisive person I know.

I know I will be SO thankful when it is all said and done but for now I am a little jealous of the painters. I secretly want to paint...just a little bit. I don't think they would mind if I stole their paint rollers on their lunch break do you? ;) They might just look at me like I'm a total weirdo. 

So this is what our living room looks like these days: mismatched pillows, yellow walls, no rug and one really small looking DVD case on a huge ugly yellow wall. Did I mention the walls are ugly yellow? Blotchy. Yellow and blotchy are a deadly combination. It sounds like the symptoms of a bad rash and this is one rash I can't WAIT to get rid of!

After buying about a dozen color samples, I think we finally settled on a grey paint color we like. But you never know. I could change my mind again before tomorrow. 

I'll be back soon with more BEFORE pics of the house! Happy Wednesday!

One Room at a Time.

So for the most part we are moved in and getting settled. Is our garage still full of boxes? Well, yes but we're working on that. ;)  The fun part to me is decorating. I think it's the best job in the world...only I don't get paid to do it. Maybe I should have been an interior designer. The only problem I have with decorating is making decisions. I'm like a kid in a candy store when it comes to paint colors and home decor, so naturally Pinterest is like an extension of my right arm. I find it's the perfect place to organize all the craziness that's floating around in this head of mine. 

I wanted to document the way our home looks now, just as we are getting settled and calling this place our own. It is bare with nothing on the walls. The paint colors are not our own choices but we are so looking forward to the next phase - the making it our own phase. 

This little breakfast nook has much potential. When I look at it I see cafe curtains... 

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 a round wool rug maybe similar to one of these...

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Months ago I saw images of a coffee bar on Pinterest and loved the idea. We have less counter space in this home than in our previous home, so a little coffee nook has been the perfect solution for us! We just used our old dresser than was in our closet and put it right in our breakfast room. One day I plan to paint it a fun color, but for now it will work.

My inspiration for our coffee bar: I plan to put some shelves up and hang a few favorite pieces of artwork. So much to do!

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Hope you've enjoyed this brief tour around our little breakfast nook. Hopefully next time you stop by, it'll look quite different. We had a meeting with our painter guy today and he has big plans for our breakfast nook, as well as our living room, foyer, dining room, master bath....oh wow, there's a lot to paint in this house!

Stay tuned for another room soon! I'll try to share all the rooms as what they look like before they see the likes of a paint brush and of course after, so stick around! :) And if you're on Pinterest, be sure to follow me at cbbuie. See you there!

The House on Longhills

This past weekend was officially the end of our move. Our whole moving process has more or less been one big learning process. Having never moved before, we made some big mistakes that we will never do again, like trying to pack some things ourselves. We thought we'd just let a moving company take care of the heavy furniture and we would do the rest. I'm telling you, the money that you MIGHT save doing it this way is NOT WORTH the headache and the hassle in the end. Buie and I both are suffering from aches and pains, bumps and bruises. So after one moving company, one PODS, and two Uhaul trips later, I can finally say we are 99.9% moved out of our house in Benton. The .1% is for the few things in the garage that we honestly had no room for but I don't care if I never see them again. 

This weekend we loaded down a Uhaul and Buie's truck and said one last goodbye. We walked around the backyard sharing memories. We stood on the brand spanking new patio that we technically only used like 3 or 4 times. We never even had our friends over to enjoy it.

There were so many things we loved about this house and still do. Buie and I have sacrificed many things that we loved about this house in order to move to the house we are in now but we know in our hearts, it's the right move. And because we are king and queen of doing things backwards in this life, this house in Benton, AR is for sale. That's right, we bought a house in Louisiana before selling our former home. We didn't plan it that way but that's the way the cards fell on the table. So, it would be awesome if this house sold. We have a few renovation projects in mind for our current home that we can't wait to get started on... but until then, let's get this house SOLD!

To check out more about this property, please check out the listing. This house is listed by Cara Wilkerson at The Property Group. There is an Open House scheduled this coming Sunday, February 24th so be sure to drop on by and see the house!

House of Love!

Happy Anniversary to us! We have officially been in our house 2 years!

It was on Tax Day in 2009 that we closed on this gorgeous 3 bedroom/2.5 bath dreamer! We saw it online and fell in love. Even though this house is 20 minutes away from just about everything in our lives, we still love it. There are days I complain about the commute to Little Rock, though short, it's still annoying, especially when I have to make it more than once a day. But when I come home to our home, it's all worth it.

In the next days and weeks, we will be reminiscing about our home and the changes that we've made in this house and to this home in the last couple of years. Stay tuned!

Holiday House Tour

This weekend was spent finishing up some Christmas decorations and Christmas shopping! I'm so exhausted! I don't understand how decorating and shopping can be draining and satisfying all at the same time! I have come to the conclusion that four hours is my limit for both. Four hours of decorating or shopping is about all I can take in a day but when you do both in one day that's EIGHT hours of Christmas madness! Last year we were in a tiny condo and kept Christmas pretty simple. Everything was handed down to me from my great grandmother, my grandmother and my mom. I have been very blessed to have their Christmas hand-me-downs. And I am lucky I LOVE all things vintage! Like this handmade ornament (below) handed down from my great grandmother on my mother's side. She was a true artist! She painted Easter eggs in the Springs, made Christmas ornaments in the winter and painted ceramic dolls all year round. I like to think that I have some of her artistic genes in me.

Here is another ornaments hand painted by my "NaNa." She made one of these for everyone in the family one year. It is one of my favorite ornaments. It used to play a little Christmas song but I don't think it works anymore.

I love these old carolers that I got from my grandmother. I remember these would be displayed every year on her mantel with many more. When we cleaned out my grandparents house, we divided up the carolers among the girls in the family. I got six but I really want some more. I found some more at the Crown Shop so I will soon add more to my collection! Can't wait! They remind me of the Charles Dickens movie, "A Christmas Carol."

This banner was rolled up in an old trunk of my grandparents. Isn't it gorgeous!

And of course I had to drag back out the LSU/ARK ornaments that I picked up in New Orleans a couple of years ago. This year LSU hangs a little higher on the tree next to Arkansas. GEAUX TIGERS!

Even my kitchen is decked out in red and green with green whisks and red spatulas. :)

I like to keep my tree simple. I've never been a fan of piling on the ribbon and colored mesh. Although, those trees are super gorgeous, it's just not really my taste. I prefer simple. I fill the tree with my favorite ornaments from years past and maybe a couple of new ones I picked up this past year. I usually do white lights, although I've toyed with going multi colored in keeping with the vintage theme... maybe next year.

Of course, there are stockings. Four for the animals

And two for us, hung on the mantel with my new fleur de lis hangers.

Also, I tried something new this year and hung some ornaments in my dining room window. It just gives the room a little something extra, don't you think?

I had to hang them high enough so the cats won't play with them. :)

That's certainly not all of my decorations but that is just a little taste. I love looking at other people's decorations and getting ideas!