New Chair SCORE!

Almost all the women in my family are interior design obsessed, artists and have no shame in trash pickin'. So, I was really lucky when my cousin found this awesome Mid Century Modern chair in the trash - and gave it to me!!

She wasn't in love with it enough to spend the money to reupholster it (she's got a chinoiserie meets French thing going on) but heck, I'll take it! 

This will be on the wayyyy back burner of projects but it'll look great once it's reupholstered. I'm thinking a blue or grey linen.

It'll add to my chair obsession nicely I think ;)

I plan on either putting it in our furnished rental or upstairs once our "master suite" is complete. That'll be in about 42 years...

The Never Ending Bricks... Phase 2 of Front Complete!

The never-ending saga of our bricks continues.... over the weekend we tackled another "zone" of bricks that needed to be cleared of weeds, leveled, laid back down in a herringbone pattern and then filled with concrete between the cracks. Whew!

Here's what went down this weekend:

This latest "zone" we tackled was maybe 10' x 10' of the sidewalk. We decided to not overwhelm ourselves and just do this job in sections. Below is a shot of the bricks getting laid back down...

Random shot of sweaty Hubs playing air guitar... yes, we had to have some tunes blaring to get motivated on this one!

Aaaand the after:

 yippeeeee!

Another after: 

Oh and that crazy vine you see to the left is Confederate Jasmine we planted to grow up the hideous utility pole smack in front of our house! blegh. 

In this pic below you can get a better view of Mr. Jasmine and the rest of the bricks we need to tackle!

And another shot. Look at all that grass we need to dig out! Whhaaaaa!! I think we will have either 2 or 3 more "zones" to tackle before we complete this mission. This process takes longer than you would think. (at least what I would think!)

Notice above that we got the matching topiaries for the other side of the house!! yay! They need a little trimming but they lookin' good! I also want to get nicer pots for the little yellow flowers that are in the awful plastic faux terra-cotta pots. Ahhhh... one day. 

This is a fun on-going project because it's something we can do ourselves (meaning it's FREE!) and it's very rewarding  to watch the houses curb appeal get purtier and purtier! 

Any weekend projects you're tackling?? Share! 

DIY Chalkboard Fridge...

I know this DIY has been floating around in the blogging world but I decided to share my little weekend project - I painted our stained, rusting rental fridge in chalkboard paint!!

I was looking into doing something really crazy at first.... maybe something like this:

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Or like this:

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I came to the conclusion the chalkboard would be more functional though - leaving notes for guests, guests even using it as a message board, etc. 

So here's the before:

Can you see the little rust spots all over?! Here look at this closeup:

ew.

Here she is after 1 coat of primer:

Aaaaand the AFTER:

This was SO EASY!! I just had a mini sponge roller, rolling pan, and a quart of chalkboard paint. It took 3 coats and about 24 hours of drying time before I wrote on it. 

It's obviously not completely finished, I plan on removing the handles to get full coverage and possibly paint the handles as well?? I was too lazy to get that ambitious this weekend :) 

It has definite cuteness possibilities!! The side is painted as well - I plan on writing famous New Orleans recipes or cocktail recipes like the Sazerac on there. CUTE! 

Is this for real!?....

Because I totally need this machine to finish our backyard! :)

A Possible Bath Reno is in the Works!!...

Our bathrooms are in dire need of a renovation... it has always been in the back of my mind to get this done someday but I think one reno may be happening sooner rather than later!

It all started last week when my cousin gave us his white pedestal sink because he got a larger one with storage. So then of course I started looking into a new toilet, tile, etc. etc. And the price of all this wasn't scaring me like I had feared it would. 

Let me share the funky bathroom that's needing some love:

Bleghhhh.... totally not my style! Good god, I don't think this is anyones style!? This is the bathroom in our rental so we won't even get any use out of it :( BUT I'm investing our money right now into the area of the house that makes us money. 

You can't really see all the grodiness (yeah that's a word) from this fancy picture of the bathroom but the tile is grimy, the walls are a hot mess from me taking down wallpaper, there's a gap of nastiness between the tile and baseboard that i guess was meant to be covered by shoe molding? and the toilet is hoisted up on shims because it wobbles! 

I want to do something classic and true to the architecture of the house - and nothing trendy that will look dated in 5 years. So here's my plan:

White hex tile with a medium grey grout:

Dual flush toilet:

(this guy has gotten excellent reviews - found here)

Bead board running along the walls 3/4 high:

This is the pedestal sink we're getting:

And I'll probably refinish the claw foot tub, I need to look into painting it myself. I hear it's not that bad. Any of you done that?

And here are some inspiration photos of what I'm thinking:

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I'm getting a price tonight from a contractor so I'm super excited! This won't be happening immediately (I need to save my pennies!) But at least once I have some prices I'll have a better idea of when this will happen. I'm thinking maybe 2 months? maybe sooner?

What do ya think of the changes we're planning? I think it'll make a HUGE difference!