Moms Always Finish Last

As moms, we are constantly putting other needs above ourselves--whether it's our children, our husband, or family and friends, we put ourselves utterly and completely last.

And while most the time, I am ok with this because it's just something I have learned to accept.

However this past weekend, my husband coordinated with my mother-in-law to watch BOTH boys overnight. (Conley has only had one night away from me while my husband watched him at the house.)

He did this so I finally could get my master bedroom makeover that I have wanted for so long. Every room in the house had been updated before ours.  So I was so excited to see the transformation.  While he painted the ceiling and prepped the walls, I went shopping for new curtains, bedding, and accessories.

I found some curtains at World Market that I absolutely LOVED and knew they were the ones. We also have an arch window which is weird about curtain lengths.  We decided to make the jump to putting the curtain rod above the window, and I am so glad we did.  It really lengthens the wall and makes the room seem larger.  We painted the walls a gray/brown (Frappe if we are getting technical), and I couldn't be more in love.  We also rearranged our furniture, and I just love the openness it created.  I also finally have canvases of my babies on the wall!

I took these with my phone, so please excuse the lighting.  Once we completely accessorize I will take photos with my real camera.  We are doing new bedding, more of a gray/brown color once I find it.  But loving the orange accent pillow I found!

Is your bedroom styled the way you want it?

Natalie

A Little Update...

Thanks for everyone's well wishes on my week getting better.  And I am happy to say the rest of the week has been a major improvement!  Let's hope the rest of the week continues to be...especially since we're on our way to Charlotte this weekend so I can attend Bloggy Boot Camp.  If you're going, please find me.  I will also be the girl with the breast pump as a purse...yes I am that stylish.

Anyhow, I realized that I never showed you photos of our updates on our exterior and landscaping improvements.  Due to a hail storm, we had to get another new roof and siding for the back of the house.  We decided to go ahead and change all the siding since we hated it from day one.

Here's the before:

An ugly yellow siding with an even uglier green accent color.  Also the bushes near the house were taking over!

Here's the after:

We changed the color to a light gray with black accents.  We painted the entry door red, and purchased a new storm door outlined in black.  We also took out the porch railing that was rotting, and poured a new concrete walkway.  Now the entrance is in front of the door instead of coming from the side by the garage.  We still have to cover the new posts and add the composite railing to the two sides...but  I think it's a major improvement!  We also got rid of all the huge bushes and totally changed up the landscaping.  We've still got a few plants to add, but they are looking bright and colorful this spring.  Oh and don't mind the huge cable/electric pole in the middle of the yard by the mailbox.  Gotta love utilities, right?  We're still working on the back landscaping, so once we're finished there I will share.

I'm off to do some packing for the trip.  Wish me luck!

Natalie

The Before and After

It has been completely crazy around these parts lately.  We've been on home renovation overload for the past few weeks.  We now have new siding---which looks AWESOME and 10 times better than what we had before.  Last weekend my husband painted the foundation gray to match since it was previously brown, and he also painted our whole shed that was also the same colors as the house.  We had new gutters put on (yes that part is a little less glamorous but much needed after the storm damage last year), and we now have trees!  We literally had like 2 trees on our property...now we have like 20!  So now it's time for some before and after pics.  I'll wait to take some pics of the trees to give them time to bloom and grow.  Anyways, without further ado:

Our house BEFORE:

(Light yellow siding with green shutters and accents)

Our house AFTER:

(Grey siding, black shutters, pewter cedar shakes in the gables, and white gable vents)

Please ignore the huge laurel and boxwoods.  They have all been removed and will be replaced with smaller plants that don't try to take over the house.  We are also changing our front porch/entrance so stay tuned!

(Sidenote: These pics are without the new gutters, they came after I snapped these!)

A Rant on Home Improvements

My husband and I have completed a lot of home improvement while living in our house for the past 6 years.  We first redid the kitchen---new tile floor to replace the linoleum, new honey maple cabinets to replace the white stock ones, new back splash, and of course new paint to replace the hideous green color that once covered the walls.  We built a huge deck to replace our relatively small square one.  We redid our guest bathroom that was almost painted white, ugly floors, and a pedestal sink.  We painted it a green/grey color, put in a new vanity with a new mirror, and replaced it with a really neat green and brown earthy tile.  Now we did all these ourselves, but we've also hired people to do jobs as well.

And here's where my rant comes in...I know you were just wanting to know!  We paid to have our cathedral ceiling and living room painted.  That went pretty well with no issues.  We replaced our roof the first time (we had hail damage and had to do it again a year later) and that went pretty smoothly.  But when it came to getting our hardwood floors refinished, we ran into some issues...and there are definitely some spots that I was unhappy with at completion.  But at that time I was 8 months pregnant and ready for it to just be done.  Then we had our deck painted after we finished building it.  We had to call the crew to come back to fix several spots they just missed painting.  They also almost didn't start the job due to the fact we had asked for them to sand out some rough spots.  Seriously?  It was pretty crazy, and the day they were supposed to start they didn't because of this issue.  I was probably almost 9 months pregnant at this time.  I kept thinking can't we catch a break? 

Now we are having new siding put on our house.  And here we go again!  We went through Lowe's and then of course they contract it out to someone they use.  This is where the fun begins.  Some of our materials are missing and some are the wrong color.  We told the contractor...we told the Lowe's guy...we've told the crew.  Guess what they put up yesterday?  The wrong color!  The contractor blames Lowe's, Lowe's guy says he didn't know we didn't get the right color and that the contractor never told him, and the crew says that the contractor actually told them to go ahead and use the wrong color.  Does the contractor think we are going to drop this kind of cash and not say anything?  Um, no!  We want it done right, and they are the professionals.  Why is it always a struggle to have someone take responsibility of the job instead of playing the blame game on everyone involved?  So at this point it looks like the contractor is lying since the crew and the Lowe's guy are telling the same story.  So at this moment they are still putting up the wrong color---and we can't get a hold of the contractor.  But we did talk to the Lowe's guy, and he says he is going to take care of it. 

Is it to much to ask to have someone to do their job?  It would be like when I was working in the finance industry and someone thought they had a certain financial product but instead it was totally different.  Of course you can't do that!  So why can't it be the same with home improvements?  Why does it seem more stressful to hire someone to do the work than when you actually do it yourself?  You would think if you were doing the hard work yourself that it would be more stressful, but actually I have found it worse when we are hiring someone else.

Do you have the same problem?  Is it to much to ask for someone to do the job right the first time?

Could It Be?

Is it possible that my brown thumb is finally green? After many tries at my square foot garden, I finally FINALLY have vegetables to harvest. My lovely husband built my cedar box last year, and we started planting a little late...like a lot late in 90 degree weather. What can I say...I was pregnant and had other priorities. So when I moved my precious little seedlings to the box the poor things didn't stand a chance against that sun. Flash forward to this year where I planned ahead and started my seeds early. However much to my dismay, a hail storm and a late freeze nearly killed all of my plants. Yet my resilient bush green beans have prevailed. They have beat the odds, and I will be picking green beans in the next few days! I am very close to also harvesting broccoli, green onions, and arugula. Tomatoes, peppers, and carrots will be a little later. My perseverance has finally paid off!