Some "after" shots

We are done! I can't believe it! The house looks amazing. I'll try and get out some this weekend if it stops raining and take lots of photos of the front and back of the house, but in the mean time, here are just a couple that I snagged from my stepdad who graciously took some lovely photos at the "wrap party" on Monday. We LOVE the house. Love love love it. The last photo is the "before." Just to remind you of the nastiness. I still have a soft spot for that pink brink, and just the character of the house, but now I love the modernity of the house. And the stoop is so big and roomy. I feel like I'm at a cool restaurant when I'm standing on it. Oh, that lovely lady watering the lawn is my sister. She looks like me but much much thinner. Thanks genetics.

Progress Photos! for some reason, my intro is at the end, and I can't move it. Sorry.

The concrete poured on the front steps, and the new door (hopefully not finished).
Apparently, the stoop and concrete, etc., went way over budget, so to save, they used a piece of plywood to cover our old door. It's not done yet (apparently) but the idea was that the lines in the door match up to the lines of the new brick. I'm hoping they will stain it to the color of the wood hand rails that will be put into the stoop. Or they could paint it, but I just love the wood grain with the lines in the door. Either way, it's going to be very clean and modern. Love that.
Can you see the new bricks? This is where they wrap from the carport to the front of the house. They will extend to the top of the windows across the front of the house. Pretty! John Gidding says that the design is supposed to mimic the wonderful mid-century "corner windows" that you see. I think once the house is painted and everything blends, it's going to be gorgeous. And make our house look a little different from all the ones around us.
More brick detail on the left side of the house. They couldn't do much more because the concrete was still wet on the stoop. These were all taken today. We are supposed to be done on Monday!
These steps lead down to the backyard (on the left side of the house). If you see the funny gap after the second step, it's for a step that will actually be a planter with some pavers in it. I totally didn't know that until today, and just thought that they had laid it out wrong. Oops. But, now that I get it, I think it's going to look amazing.
Detail of the left side of the house.
This new stoop is gorgeous. That front rectangle on the stoop is going to be a large concrete planter. It's so much more scaled to our house. It will help hide that immense mass of cinder block in our foundation.
Detail of the right side of the house (where it meets the driveway). You can see how big the stoop is, and how nice and big the planter is, too. They just poured all this concrete today. The urge to leave hand prints was strong, but I resisted.
Before the concrete was poured, this was the view out the front door.
View from the front door. Cinder block down, but no concrete, and no dirt filled in. But no awful bushes randomly placed around the front yard!
The new placement of the leyland cypresses is so much better. I actually like them now.
Roxanne about two seconds after I turned my back (after telling her she could play in the sand but not stand in it). She was pretty disappointed when the giant sand tower disappeared.
Cinder block invasion of our carport... Soon to be the stoop!
The dirty remains of our "landscaping." Um, we didn't do any of that though. Just to clarify...
No stoop, and the new cypress placement. Much nicer already!
Roxanne wears this dress a lot. But these were taken on day one. The sand ones were from last week. They got all these forms put up, and then left it alone for a few days. Roxanne just kept yelling "more dirt! yay! more dirt!"
Day one, the last time these stupid cypress trees would stand all in a row along the driveway. *sniff* Also, I want that Bobcat.
Filming the bush removal.
That man is standing up straight inside the hollow stoop. It actually had no support, so that giant slab of concrete on the top of our stoop was only supported underneath on three sides and could apparently have toppled at any point. Happily, it's all filled in now.
No more railings!

Finally, I'm posting some photos from the HGTV progress. The house looks like a wreck, but I'm sure it's all for the greater good... And at least it's not a mess we have to worry about cleaning up. It's amazing how little giant piles of dirt, sand, gravel and concrete (and the list goes on) in your front yard and driveway bother you when you know you don't have to deal with them. I mean seriously. It's like vacation. Justin and I are just interested spectators in a way... Very surreal. But everyone is so nice, and working hard, and the plans are a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Here are some photos. They are backwards, with the top photos being the newest, and the bottom ones being the first day of filming. As always, click to make the images bigger if you want.

Living/Dining Room photos...

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We had a brief shooting adventure for part of our HGTV thing (ohmygoodness the design plans are phenomenal. Can't wait for May when they get carried out) and we weren't sure if they would come inside. So we did our feeble attempt at gussying up the living/dining room. I took the opportunity to take some photos while there weren't random bits of Mr. Potato Head or Katie's ickle bickle dog bed in the frame. Yay for clean houses!

v-i-c-t-o-r-y

What does that spell? Hobo Camp. That's a nod to Jerry Blank; please disregard if you aren't a fan of Strangers with Candy. I couldn't help it. The whole time I was finishing up that last drawer pull in my kitchen, I kept hearing her in my head yelling "hobo camp!" as I was thinking about being victorious over those stupid drawer pulls. I still have one lower cabinet with paint on it, but that's it. Everything else in the kitchen is looking much better. I'll post photos soon. I'm just so excited that I got those stupid things out. It finally took me using pliers to turn the screws, and tearing up my fingertips as I loosened them by hand for the last half. But I promise, it's worth it. Now I just have to figure out how to hide stupid holes that are showing from where someone had drilled two sets of holes in the drawer fronts (only on four of them...only). I didn't know they were there until I had already bought and opened my new drawer pulls, so no chance of finding some that would just extend flush on the front to hide the pulls... Man, I'm boring myself. Sorry.

So last weekend I put some time in on our bedroom. I finally got the old ceiling fan down, and put up the IKEA fixture.

It's not as fancy as I'd love, but the shape is very fun, and it makes the room feel younger and more bright. But holy moly, it took a REALLY long time to get that bad boy up. The good news is that I learned to cut and strip wire, which was a new skill for me, and required new tools. Definitely worth it though. The light fixture makes a huge difference.

We also found a new duvet set, at IKEA of course, that we think will look pretty amazing in the bedroom.

The thing about IKEA is that it's cheaper to buy that duvet set (that includes two pillowcases) than to go buy special pillowcases. So eventually I'll venture out and get awesome graphic pillowcases, but I think this set is fine for now. And the yellow and white stripes look lovely with the grey walls. Some day I want to spring for this amazing IKEA blanket, but it's a bit pricey for me right now. And we needed the yellow. But look at it! Nice, right? I would link the IKEA stock photo for our set, but it's not on the website for some reason...

I found a $3 yellow clock at Target that I wanted to hang on the wall below my "air plants" print, but Justin vetoed it. He says it ticks too loud and he can't sleep through it. I know he's right, but I think I'd sacrifice sleep for that clock. It is adorable. And while I'm thinking about it, here's the air plants print. Justin and I picked it out a Indie Craft Experience a few years ago.
I also have this little plastic yellow candy dish that I found at the thrift store a couple of weeks ago. I had no idea what I'd do with it, but I couldn't leave it. It's perfect for my ridiculously mismatched and pitiful hair accessories (tied together hair rubber bands, bent bobby pins, etc.). I think it's adorable. In spite of the awful photo. Sorry. But yes, the photo in the background is one of our wedding photos.
Two of my other favorite pieces in our bedroom are my milk glass lamp and Rose. Both were given to me by my mom. I had Rose in my room on and off when I was little (as did my sister) but she always gave me nightmares. Not anymore! Now she just reminds me of how lovely it is to be clean, polished and thin. *ouch* The little milk glass lamp is so cute, and Justin found the perfect shade for it. I bought an awful one at Target, and we returned it and he picked this one out at Kudzu Antiques while I waited in the car with Roxanne. Babies and antique shops are kind of like bulls in china shops. But with more precise risky behavior. And thumbs.

Tweaking things

I'm so glad that no one got on and teased me for the title of my last post. New Directions is the name of the glee club on Glee. And yes, I loved that show. I watched it when we were living at my mom's house under the guise of "well, it was on so I watched it," but I admit that I love it. It's so cute! It makes me jealous that the tweens and teens today have awesome programming like that, and we were stuck with Dawson's Creek. Ick. Not that I didn't watch it, too, but you know.

Anyways, I've been trying to get some things done and tied up around here. I haven't made any new progress on my Eames chairs, but mainly because our dog keeps using the whole basement like a giant toilet, and it's not really all that fun to hang out down there. She's being a jerk. However, I have made some strides in the kitchen, and it's seeming less terrible. I mean, I still hate the 80's white laminate cabinets, but I bought new drawer pulls (there weren't any on them before) and they make a huge difference.
I also framed a print that I love and mounted it over the sink using command tape.

That covers the blurg-inducing white spot where we tried to paint over the ivy print on the tile. Tile paint doesn't work. FYI. It's expensive, too. At least we can use the rest of it at some point to repaint our tub. Some dingleberry painted the tub using regular paint at some point, so it's got that half-peeling thing going on and just looks dirty all the time. Nice.

I still have this one area of the kitchen that is the thorn in my side.
The cabinet that covers the sink is a nightmare. It's got the false drawers on it, which is fine, but the screws on the backs of the drawers are only about 3/4" away from the sink. So I can't get in there to get the screws off. The old drawer pulls are still on there and look SO SO SO SO bad. I bought a new tool on Monday night that is more low profile (yes, I've tried an offset screwdriver, and it was still too big) but it still is not working well. I spent about forty five minutes under the sink Tuesday night, and I got the screws loose, but I still have not able to take them off. And my arms are still sore from the weird angle. The Home Depot guy sold me a saw so that I could try and trim the back of the screwdriver off to make it even smaller, but the blade he gave me is not strong enough to saw through the bit. I should have checked the label after him, but Roxanne was going nuts and I didn't realize he didn't really know what he was talking about. Fortunately, the hand saw was only $5 and the blade was $2.50 for two, and I know that a saw is a good thing to have. But it's still annoying. He mentioned that I might be able to find some kind of special screwdriver at an auto parts store, but I'm really not sure if I feel like looking for it. Stupid drawer.... I guess I could, since we live off of Lawrenceville Highway, and have like three auto part stores within two square miles of our house.

I also hung curtains in our bedroom (finally). We've been torn about doing it, but between the cold air coming in through the old window above our head and my concern that maybe people really could see in inspired me to go ahead and put them up. We're pretty happy with the result, but we really need to finish that room. It's second only to the basement in terms of being a wreck. I want to get some fun solid white pillowcases with a bold graphic on them to match our white comforter. I think that would look awesome. They have some cute ones at Urban Outfitters, but they just might be too cute. I think there are some quirkier ones on Etsy. Here's two of my favorites from Etsy.

Or we could always go this route (also from Etsy):

And I've got my eye on these CB2 mirrors for over the dressers.

If we can get those (in five year when we aren't broke), and get rid of the clutter, and I put the light fixture up, it will look really nice and modern and clean in there. Ah clutter. My constant companion. Here are the curtains. Excuse the mess. I was going for realism.

Here's the end table I mentioned last post:
I love it. And it's cluttered. What a shock.