Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Summer Must Haves

I always crave a bit more color in my life once summer arrives, don't you?  I like to switch out my regular purse for a cute and colorful summer tote, perfect for impromptu visits to the beach and weekend road trips.  I like to add a pop of color to my manicures and pedicures with a bright and cheerful summer pastel like this one from Nars.  And I like to pile on lots of colorful accessories to my otherwise netural wardrobe like these amazing wooden bangles or this super cute bohemian scarf

What are some of your summer must haves this year?  Do you tend to crave more color around this time of year?  For more of my favorite colorful accessories for summer, check out my current ideabook on houzz.



Tuesday, May 29, 2012

House Projects

Hey there!  Have you missed me?  I've been here, plotting home renovation projects and stumbling through this pregnancy (literally - I've become the biggest klutz)

We are getting ready to do some very big projects in our home to get ready for baby.  Of course there are a million things that need to be done but we had to sit down and decide what was absolutely necessary and could not be put off until the baby arrived.  The one project that was like the elephant in the room and the basis for everything else was the flooring.

Mike and I have debated options over the last three years.  We've discussed hard wood, tile, and concrete.  Over the holidays we had actually decided on a tile that we really liked and were about to move forward with it but the idea of concrete floors just would not get out of my head and every where I turned I was seeing images in design magazines or on Pinterest of these spaces with the most beautiful polished concrete floors.  I had to know if it was a possible choice for our home so we contacted a couple of companies, got bids, and actually found out it's the most affordable option by far over other things we were looking at.


The only caveat is that since we are having the floors installed in every room of our house with the exception of the bathrooms - everything in our house has to be moved out.  This is something I am absolutely dreading and the one thing that made me almost nix the whole idea.  This isn't exactly what I want to be doing at seven months pregnant but I know any flooring option we choose is going to come with headaches and this is what I really want so there's no turning back now.  We've ordered the storage unit and will slowly be moving things out over the next four weeks prior to installation day!

I'm so excited and this really has me anxious to work on other projects in our house.  In addition to the floors there were a couple of projects that have been on the list for a while and are now absolutely necessary to complete prior to the floors being put in.  We are finally getting doors installed from our dining room to our future patio (more on that later).  Right now we have a small screen porch on the side of our house and that is how we currently exit to our backyard but we have been wanting to take out two large picture windows and put doors in their place since we moved in to the house, it's the logical place for a backyard entrance and will make the flow so much better.    We are also finally taking down the wall between our kitchen and dining room (completed over the weekend!).  This will be considered phase 1 of our kitchen remodel (more on that later too).  So that's what I've been up to....organizing contractors, installation dates, and moving dates!