Fireplace Update

We have this gorgeous fireplace right off our kitchen in a small living room, but with our renovation we knew we wanted to update it. The brown and black brick didn't go with the light and airy -yet cozy- look we wanted, so we took on a project to white wash it. My mother in law and sis in law helped get it done on Labor Day! 

We loved the black mortar and wanted to keep it somehow, so essentially mixed 3 parts water + 1 part paint and lightly went over the mortar with a paintbrush. It was really runny and watery, but the mortar absorbed it and up close gave it a light white speckled look. 

I loved the character of the brick and wanted to keep it somehow. The challenge was making sure the fireplace didn't look like it was painted pure white. We made a mixture of 1 part water + 2 parts white paint. Then we used paint rags to soak and wipe over the brick. It definitely took awhile (about 5 hours start to finish), but it kept the character of the brick and kept it from looking "too perfect". 

Now we plan to repurpose the mantle and replace the gold glass doors with black.

I was so nervous to do this project because this fireplace is the main focal point in the kitchen/dining/living area so I knew if I messed it up then the whole room would be off. I'm so excited with how it turned out! 

Now I can just imagine snuggling a newborn by this fireplace this February.. :)

BEFORE:

SOLD!

We are so thrilled to have finally sold our Eldridge house! We're officially closing in July, and the house inspection went well.

A few photos of it right before we sold it. At our last showing all my peonies were in bloom which made me slightly mopey because we have zero landscaping at the new house (next spring's project). Regardless, we're super excited to hand over this home to new owners to make memories. It just feels really odd that it's no longer ours. Bittersweet for sure.

Kitchen + Living Room [Slow] Progress

The past few months have been crazy for Brice and I. Brice is in his busiest months of the year with his lawncare business while balancing working full time at the hospital. I've finished up the school year and completing my masters degree, while prepping for our biggest market we've done with etre. All great things to be thankful for, but all of them piled up. Which means that there was extremely little room left to work on our house so we've been in a bit of a lull.

To give a backstory on the kitchen:

As you'll see if the before photos, there's a wall dividing the family room and smaller living room. There's a larger family room on the opposite side of the house by the back deck, which is more formal. The smaller living room off the kitchen is where we would "hang out" the most just Brice and I. It's right by the hallway leading to all the bedrooms, so it's a high traffic area. 

Our goal is to open up the kitchen and small living room by knocking out the wall and moving the kitchen out farther to make it a bit bigger. We had a weekend we had free, and both our parents were free, too. They came out and helped demo alllllll of it. What started out as, "Oh, maybe we'll just tear out the carpet and pull the trim off the walls.." quickly turned into, "While we're all here, why don't we just bust through this wall and rip out all the ceiling lights and fans, too?"

BEFORE PHOTOS

kitchen + dining

small living room right off the kitchen

PROGRESS PHOTOS

..yikes! We tore up all the carpet but the tile proved to be more of a challenge. It took us a few nights, but we knocked it out! Definitely a less enjoyable project.

That wall that we wanted to take out is a supporting wall so before we could officially knock it all down, we have to put up a support beam. We needed Brice's dad's help with this one, so the kitchen project was at a standstill for awhile until we could line up a Saturday where Brice wasn't working at the hospital and Benj was free. 

MORE PROGRESS

The beam is up!!!! This means we can keep progress rolling! We envision having a bar with stools on this side 'dividing' the living room from the kitchen and a big wood exposed beam up above it. This will open it up far more than having a huge wall in between. 

They had to try out its strength. :)

I will say I never realized how much I actually enjoyed cooking until it was incredibly hard to do so. I love coming home and going into the kitchen by myself, turning on an audiobook, podcast, or music, and cooking for Brice and I. I always viewed it as something I had to do anyway, so I might as well find a way to enjoy it. Not having a kitchen has showed me how much I really actually do enjoy it. 

Master Bathroom Remodel | Work in Progress

Our first big project of the new house has begun!!! The majority of me starting this blog was to document our projects and before/afters of our space, so it's fun to dive into it.

Not going to lie, knowing we're going to be remodeling the kitchen, living room, family room, laundry room, every bedroom, every bathroom, every everything is pretty overwhelming. Makes me break out just thinking about it. HOWEVER having one of those million projects so close to being done is so exciting!!

This master bath is.. interesting. Like the whole house, pretty outdated. Everything was almond colored and needed a refresh. Here's the only pictures I could find of it pre-project. These pictures were taken right before we closed on the house.

Shower (my fishing-loving husband thought we could maybe save the curtain..HA!)

Toilet + Vanity area

Our plan was to essentially tear everything out and start anew. The vanity seemed like it had been recently replaced, but it didn't go with the look of how we wanted to remodel the bathroom, so we decided to scratch it, too. I've been making an inspo board for each room because it helps me see it all together and get my mind a little un-scattered. Plus it's fun. :)
Here's our master bath inspiration board of what we were imagining:

A LOT different than the original, right!? I struggle with remodeling because I want it to look timeless, but not plain and boring. I don't want it to be too trendy, but I do want it have character. We decided to go with white subway tile for all the shower walls + knee wall, then do a marbled white/gray hexagon tile for the floor and built-in shower shelves. We both liked the mosaic til as an accent behind the vanity + mirror, so we went with that. We were torn between going light and airy with the paint color, or dark and more dramatic with a really dark color. We figured since we had so much white and light colors in the tile, we'd contrast by going dark on the walls. In that decision we ended up changing our flooring from the dark brown/gray to a light gray so it didn't seem too dark. We like the idea of black shower heads and fixtures with gold (or copper?) hardware. That's still a work in progress.

Here are some pictures of what's is starting to look like!!

Goodbye almond colored shower! Hello white subway tile + marbled hexagon tile. Brice had never tiled before and thanks to YouTube videos the internet, he knocked it out. That man seriously amazes me. 

We'll be adding a glass door in front and glass above the kneewall.

The toilet will go in this corner with some thick wood shelving up above it. 

We switched to light flooring since we went dark on the walls. I love the texture of this light gray and how it almost has a concrete look to it! 

We added a little corner bench into it. There will soon be a granite top on it that will match the vanity top. 

I just love this dainty hexagon tile. So classic and pretty. We put this on the shower floor + behind the built in shelving in the shower.

Rain shower head + regular shower head will go here.

Built in shower shelving. They will have the granite cut to fit on each shelf, too.

Dark walls + white shower. I love a good contrast. 

My favorite part of the bathroom so far.. the accent tile behind where the vanity will be! We angled the corner here to make the vanity area have it's own "spot" and not just feel shoved in a corner like it was before.

We'll have a dark gray (almost black) floating vanity in front of it. Right now we're planning on an oval mirror in front.

I just love the character of this tile!

So that's our progress so far! It's so fun seeing our first project start to come together. Brice amazes me. The best part is just seeing him so excited to design and create each space in our home. I'm so thankful for his talent and creativity. He's one awesome guy and I know I married up, that's for sure.