You'll want to click on the photos to enlarge... They are too little in the post

This June has been a big giant sweaty mess in Georgia. I mean seriously. And the bugs are bad. But in spite of these handicaps, we've been doing our best to get out and water the new plants at least five days a week. But it's a losing battle for the annuals. I'm kind of OK with it. As long as the rose bushes and the regular bushes pull through, I'm happy.

For the inside of our house, I randomly decided to rearrange the living room over the weekend. I just couldn't take it in it's layout any more. I'm not really in love with the new layout either but I think it uses the totally weird dimensions of our living room better. It just makes it more obvious that we need different/new furniture. I figure if we live with the weird inadaquacies for a few months, we'll know better what we really want. Which is convenient, since we don't have any budget for anything. It's nice having a classed up exterior, but it definitely makes me way more intolerant of the inside. Like we are not doing it justice.


I realize these chairs AND the shelf are too little for this wall, but it's nice to be able to stand and look at the map without having to kneel on the couch. And I really love having my books out. You guys, I was an English major. These are like my babies. I attempted to color code them, but I know it's weak. The shelf was thrifted by my mom (have I paid you back for that yet?) and it's such a charming little piece. I think it could work in lots of places.
The credenza as it is now. The radio does work. I paid a little more than I wanted to for it, but it was $20 at Last Chance Thrift in Decatur. They have a few pseudo hipsters working there who know to mark up anything that looks mid-century. Jerks. The plant on the far right was on our back deck, but I wanted something for a little color. It's an asparagus fern, planted in a planter my friend Ariel made. It's lovely.
The rug is a flokati that my step-mom gave us. I thought it was vintage, but then I saw the Pier One tag underneath. Oh well. It's still extremely comfy on the feet. Over the weekend, I washed it with Woolite and brushed it with the cat brush for like an hour. A little ridiculous, but it made a big difference. We had it down in here for a while a few months back, and the dog puked on it in four places. She's so spiteful. She loves the rug. In the mornings, she is laying on the middle of it with the sides all rumpled up like she's been digging and rolling in it all night.
Ideally, I'd like to get upholstered chairs for this spot. Something low profile and small, but colorful. I'm loving this chair from CB2, but the price is pretty high. And it's a little big. I'd go for a loveseat, too, but again, it would have to be little. I'm always hesitant to get a loveseat that doesn't match a couch. Risky. I could go for this loveseat from Urban Outfitters, but I'm not digging the colors. It's a moot point because of budget constraints, but a girl can dream. In the lower left, you can see my darling little $3 thrifted magazine rack. I'd been wanting one for a while, and I love the shape and details of this one.
I changed out the dining room art from the vintage cook book/entertaining images to some Charlie Harper collages. My sister gave Roxanne this amazing flashcard/floor puzzle Charlie Harper set for her birthday, but her first time playing with them, they cut her finger pretty badly. After wiping the blood off, I decided to find another use for them. I fashioned these collages, which still look a little more holly hobby than I would love, but on a budget, I think they are cute. And the images are certainly fabulous.
I was trying to get the full room in here. What do you think? Did the couch work better in it's old home? I think this new formation is growing on me. It's nice to lay on the couch and look out the window. From here, I can see the house across from us that got the "mini-makeover" from Curb Appeal, and it's lovely.
With my mom's help on layout, and Justin and my step-dad's helpful moving abilities, we pulled the table out of the closet, and put in Roxanne's little table and Heyward Wakefield chairs. I think it's adorable in there. I just want to put a little light in.
Again, the kid closet. This is a thrifted table, but I think it's charming.
Slight close up of the radio. I can't figure out what year it was made. On the one hand, it looks sixties, but maybe it was a later model made to look vintage? I haven't had any luck searching it online. It's by Commodore. And it let's me lay around and listen to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me on NPR on Saturdays.
And here's the Charlie Harper collage as it relates to the rest of the room. This room is so hard to arrange you guys. But I like changing things up. This is normally the time in my living situation where I start looking for a new place to rent, and it's such a nice feeling to not be stir crazy and hating millions of things about our home. There's work to do, but I feel so much more settled here, and like I actually want to invest the time to get things right. The longest place we've lived in since getting married was about a year and a half. I hope to be here much longer...

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.