Foundation & an Ugly Couch!

We swung by the house this past Saturday to see what the progress was. My boyfriend hadn't been there in weeks and I hadn't been there since we initially broke ground. We brought the dogs (which wasn't the brightest idea) and all of us sunk into the mud. My poor car is still muddy :(

As of Saturday they had the main foundation poured (basement walls). Apparently, today they will be water proofing the foundation, then there will be two county inspections, and then they'll pour our basement floor. There is some PVC pipes under the ground so I'm guessing the county wants to make sure those look okay before they seal them under concrete. According to our PM, our county has a LOT of inspections .. way more than average, which is definitely good for us, but I'm thinking it may make our process slightly longer than average since they always have to stop working while waiting for inspections.

Anyways, here are some pictures. I'm going to take a picture of the house each week from the same spots. I know Frank C is also planning on doing something like this with his home.

 

 

In other news, I bought an ugly couch this past weekend for $60. I know... what am I going to do with 3 couches? Don't worry! I got this all planned out! I love Ryan Homes furniture planner on their online interactive floor plan. I just measure out my furniture and place it where I want so now I know where everything is going to fit! I love it, because I know if they didn't have something like this, I would have drawn out an exact floor plan on graph paper, because I'm weird like that. This girl used to draw out house floor plans to map out the route for my sister and myself for Christmas morning. Wake-up, get mom and dad, go downstairs, stockings first, and then the Christmas tree! I really should have been an architect .. or maybe a pirate ..

 

I saw this couch at the Habitat store a few weeks ago and everyone talked me out of it. I fell in love with it right away but I knew it had to reupholstered. The shape is awesome, it's in good condition, buuut it's pretty darn ugly with the current old, stained, pink velvet upholstery. I have NEVER reupholstered anything and I'm not great on a sewing machine. People with common sense told me to just forget about it and maybe start with a chair at some point in the future. Well, I didn't listen (shocker), and I kept thinking about it and how much I would love a bright teal couch and this would be perfect sooooo I bought it.

 

Here it is, in all of it's ugly & stained glory...

 

 

 

This is what I hope to do with it (excuse the screenshot from my phone - this photo was not cooperating when I tried saving it so I just had to take a screenshot). I found this picture on pinterest.

I'm pretty excited to try this! I have never reupholstered so I'm hoping it's easier than it sounds. I've heard mixed things about it. Some say it's way easier than you would think while others say it was an awful and difficult process. We'll see, I guess! Now, I just have to get some fabric.

 

Quick note: We still haven't really done much about them telling us our deck was Trex but it's really not. Apparently the brand we are getting GeoDeck. We have had an AWFUL time finding stuff on this brand other than a few bad reviews and reports of lawsuits in the past. We can't find anything on price though. We want to gather as much information on it as possible so we can argue that it isn't worth as much as the Trex material deck we were originally told we were getting. Our PM kept arguing that it's a good product and the SR should never have told us they use Trex, blah blah blah. I understand that the SR mispoke but that's really not my problem. This is a business deal. If I did this with a customer or other company at my job do you think they'd be like "Oh, you mis-spoke?? No problem! Don't even worry about it! We'll take the cheaper product! I'm sure they're the same quality anyways!"? No, they wouldn't. I'll keep things updated on what ends up happening with that. I'm hoping they can at least put some pendant lighting rough-ins for us. I mean, how much would that even cost them really?? A couple hundred bucks?

 

We have a hole! (and a new puppy...)

The last week has been kind of crazy. My sister flew in from California on the 19th and we picked up our new puppy, Bear, on the 20th. Since then life has been busy! I've been spending a lot of time with my sister, and I've been on potty training duty. I was able to take off three days from work so I camped out at my parents house for the past 5 days which made things easier.

Since I only see my sister once a year, and she won't see our house until a year after it's done, I wanted to take her to see our homesite. We decided the family would head down there on Wednesday and coincidentally my boyfriend got the call that they started excavating the property that day! We got there and we had a hole for our house! They definitely hadn't finished digging at that point so it was more like a shallow hole in the shape of our house haha! Our PM, Mr. Roof, said we should have a foundation poured by Friday. I'm not sure if he meant Friday as in July 25th or this upcoming Friday.. But regardless, I've never been so happy to see a hole in the ground! We ran into another guy while we were there and he was really friendly. I think he's the second man in command around there. He humored my mom and let her walk around the development, even though there was construction going on everywhere, and even let us into the model home (which isn't quite finished yet). The model has white cabinets, and I LOVED them so once again I'm so happy I picked white cabinets!

Our Lot all excavated and ready to go!

I also ended up buying a couch! In my last post I mentioned that we were getting a red couch from family friends. We're still going to take that couch, but I think we'll put it in the dining/living room instead. My boyfriend has designated that room the place for our Christmas tree so the red couch will compliment that nicely! haha!

I ended up getting this couch from the Habitat for Humanity Re-store (I know.. that's all I talk about anymore! I have a problem!). The one I go to the most is the Wilmington, DE store and they recently partnered up with the La-Z-Boy warehouse in Newark, DE. Every Tuesday they will be going down to the warehouse, and La-Z-Boy is donating furniture that either has a few things wrong with it (a small rip, scratch, stain, etc) that would prevent them from selling it new for full price or was just order incorrectly or by mistake. Every piece I have seen from there so far looks perfect .. I can't even find what may/may not be wrong with them. We ended up getting this sectional for $1000. Right now it's on sale for about $2300 and retails for around $2700 so it was a great deal and its exactly what I wanted! I wanted a tan sectional with deep comfy cushions and that's exactly what I got! So excited!

Here's La-Z-Boy's picture on their website ..

I've been officially banned by my family from going to this store for awhile. Everyone in my family agreed the couch was a great deal but now I have no money so I can't go back! haha! Oh well. I love my couch and I have plenty of other stuff to keep me occupied! Once we have money again I'll definitely go back and look for a recliner chair. They had two leather recliners there that were so nice! They were being sold for $400 and $500 and they retail anywhere from $700-$1000 so not a bad deal! I don't know if I could stomache buying a chair for $500 though.

 

I also did a few more DIY projects. I seriously love Chalk Paint. I painted some Mason Jars to use as containers in the bathroom for cotton balls, q-tips, and my make-up brushes. I LOVE how they turned out. So cute. I also painted this old media chest I had in my room growing up. I forgot to take a before picture but it was all black. It will be perfect to put a TV on in our bedroom though especially since there are blues and greys in our quilt.

 

 

Mason Jars - Using them for cotton balls, q-tips, and make-up brushes in the bathroom

Media cabinet - Used to be all black

 

 

Here are some pictures of my puppy Bear (and Loki), because he's too cute not to share!

 

Loki and Bear - We had a photo-shoot, because I'm obsessed with them both, and they run my life

Bear snoozing away - Loki loves this sleeping position too

Bear in the car on the way home! He's so freakin' cute!



Hope everything is going smoothly with everyone else!
 

Okay .. I really need to stop shopping!

I can't stop! It's like a sickness! haha I just can't stop shopping. If I see a deal on something we could use for the house I just get it! lol! I need to be saving money, buuut that's not going too well.....

Anyways, I thought I would share what I have been spending my money on and some other things that will be in our home while we wait to break ground on our home!

So the first thing I'll share is the couch we are getting. We're saving some money by not buying a couch right away. Currently, all we have are these black leather theater recliner chairs. If it were up to my boyfriend that is all we would have/need for the rest of our lives .. obviously, that's not really an option, so a family friend is giving us their couch and a matching chair. The only part I'm a little scared of is that it's red ... I probably never would have picked out a red couch, because I tend to go with neutrals since I change my mind all the time, but free is free. Plus, I'm starting to like the idea of one big pop of color. I'm just not sure my interior decorating skills are up for that challenge, BUT I am going to try, and I think I'm starting to get a vision!


Couch

I want to see if we can maybe purchase a small love seat in a neutral color like a soft tan/linen color too. I think this would soften the boldness of the red couch. I probably won't put the matching chair in the same room either. I also know I need to incorporate little bits of red here and there in the rooms so that the couch doesn't look completely out of place, so I started to look around for some throw pillows I could work with. I then found these beauties!! The pillows from Homes Goods are reversable (Red side & White/Grey/Blue slide — Blue Stripes side & Teal diamond side)

 

White Pillow- TJ Maxx / Others- Home Goods

I think the white pillow will pull in the trim and cabinets, the pillow with the red colors will pull the couch into the space, and the blues go with the bits of blue in the the other pillows. I'm considering using blues in the space somewhere else too (maybe in the curtains?) because I love blues and blue-greys). Hopefully, I'll be able to pull everything I want together in the end. I like the idea of contrasting patterns and colors, but I just don't want them to compete TOO much and end up looking clashy (or like the American flag ...).

 

I also got another wonderful piece of furniture at the Habitat for Humanity re-store (I have a problem .. I'm obsessed with that store). It's an old Ethan Allen piece. It was a little bit pricier than I would typically spend ($150), but I love the shape and it's really well made. Plus, I looked up prices of Ethan Allen pieces on their website and all of their buffet tables were priced at $600 minimum!! This piece is pretty scratched up so I'm going to have to do something to make it work. I think I may sand the top and restain it. The scratches on this piece are pretty deap so sanding down the entire thing sounds like a nightmare so I may paint some of it instead of sanding, staining, and sealing the entire piece. I'll figure it out, but I'm pretty excited about it, because I love the piece overall.

 

Ethan Allen buffet table

In other news .. we still haven't heard back from our PM so I kind of don't think we'll break ground this week :( .. In brighter news we pick our puppy up this Sunday! We also got his fancy shmancy new dog tag delivered! I love it, AND my sister is coming home from California this week! Pretty pumped! I haven't seen her in almost a year so I can't wait!

 

 

I hope everyone else's homes, lives, and shopping ventures are going well too!

 

 

 

Living on a Budget Successfully

This weekend I was on a mission. A mission to be productive! I bought (or already had) a bunch of old furniture that I was determined to refinish and bring back to life, but I had to find a place to do this.

Currently, we live in an apartment, and by apartment, I mean we live in cracker jack box. It is TINY. This is a bachelor pad for two dudes and a dog turned into an apartment with two dudes, a girlfriend, and two dogs (soon to be three). The kitchen is so small cooking a decent meal in it should be part of the cirque du soleil show, because it's basically impossible. Anyways, this lack of space gives me nowhere to do my craft projects, so my parents home has become my storage unit/craft area. They have a large house with a large basement, and my dad has pretty much everything you could ever need for refinishing furniture, and my mom has the craft supply closet stocked. This was my destination this weekend so I left the dog with the boyfriend and headed up to my parents house, and got productive!

First, here is the mirror and end table I blogged about last week, so here are some before and after pictures of those.

 

Mirror ($50) - Painted in Duck Egg Annie Sloan chalk paint (a little lighter in person and gold specs showing through)

 

 End Table ($10) - French Linen/Old White/Duck Egg Annie Sloan chalk paint

Now, here are some other things I found on Saturday morning (Habitat for Humanity re-stores). This end table was about $40 so I almost didn't buy it, but I really like it and it's still cheaper than buying one new! It was this ugly yellowish brown color when I got it.

End Table ($40) - French Linen/Old White 

 

This is a mirror I found on Saturday - It was only $15! It looks like it was a door of something and it's really old and REALLY heavy. I love it. It's one of those things that looks worthless at first glance, but when you really look you realize it has so much character! I'm just going to leave it as-is. I'm going to put it in our bedroom for a full length mirror! The price was unbeatable... I think my dorm room mirror from Target with the plastic frame that always broke was around the same price haha!

 

Mirror ($15)

 

Metal Trash Can (Home Depot - $25) - Painted in Chalkboard spray paint (I'll decorate it with chalk once we move in) - using as a cute/cheap dog food container

 

 

And here is an updated picture of our future puppy (just because puppies are adorable)! He's 6 weeks old! Can't wait to meet this handsome boy! We pick him up on July 20th. We're naming him Bear.

 

From Trash to Treasures (and other awesome purchases)

So while we await our pre-construction meeting, we have been making some future home purchases, and by we, I mean I have been making home purchases.

Two I am most excited about are my purchases from the Habitat to Humanity Re-store. My total bill was $60 for a really big old mirror and a side table. They definitely need some work, but the table is sturdy and well made and has a good shape, and the mirror is really big and detailed!

 

Here is the mirror - It was $50 - It sounds expensive but it is really big and well made! After looking at mirrors online I know I couldn't get anything this size/quality even close to that price. I scrubbed it a ton (it looks like it accumulated dirt for about 1,000 years), but I really like the size and the detail. I'm debating if I want to paint it or not. I'd either do something antiquey with chalk paint or paint it a bold color like bright blue or black. The gold is growing on me though .. decisions ..

Here is the side table. It looks really old which I kind of love. I'm have some ideas for this baby. Definitely will be painting it. I may sand and restain the top and then paint the rest of it white or an antique gray.

 

We also bought some other stuff as well. I bought a rug for the foyer, a big clock for over the fireplace, a shower curtain for the hall bath, new dog bowls, and we bought two ceiling fans (we took a fellow blogger's idea (Marissa Gordon - Rome of our Own) of picking up ceiling fans gradually until the house is built, so thanks Marissa!!). We also got our new floors!!! Yayyyy! I mentioned earlier in this blog that we got standard vinyl flooring in our foyer, mudroom, kitchen, and morning room with Ryan Homes, but we plan on replacing this immediately with different floors. We did this because Ryan's flooring upgrades were just too overpriced for what we would want. We ended up purchasing a really pretty laminate. I know there are a lot of people with strong feelings against laminate but honestly, it is beautiful and textured and looks like wood, plus it is scratch resistant. Hardwood floors would have been much more expensive (about 3x) and would have been destroyed with two large dogs and future children, so laminate just makes sense!

 

Rug for our foyer - Love it! Simple yet unique - On sale from West Elm ($79 for 3'x5')

Clock for over the Mantel - (Fun Fact - the 4 roman numeral looks wrong but in history both IIII and IV were used interchangeably in ancient Rome, and IIII is common to use on clocks instead of IV) - Wayfair for $58 (30" clock)

 

Shower Curtain for hall bath - Got this from Anthropologie on sale - Love it! I think it will go well with our grey ceramic floors too!

 

 Fan for Great Room - It's a dark black/brown color in person. We wanted a fan with lights because otherwise the Great Room is really dark (our friend has a Ryan Home and he just has a couple table lamps and it's still so dark!). Got this guy from Home Depot.

This is our fan for our bedroom. We didn't really think we needed a light on this one. This is a bigger fan and was more expensive, but my boyfriend LOVES fans and has to have on a million while he's sleeping. We basically sleep in a wind tunnel. Also from Home Depot.

 

 We got these bowls from Etsy. They're handmade by two artists (I think they're a couple). The guy makes the bowls by hand on a pottery wheel and the woman decorates them by hand, glazes them, and fires them. We're getting one in grey and turquoise blue that says Loki and the second in grey and bright green that says Bear. They're a little pricey but they're adorable and I love supporting artists like this. Here's a link to their website if you're interested. They also make mugs and cookie jars and stuff like that too. (Just FYI - They take a while to make personalized items since they have a good amount of orders to fill and they're all handmade).

 

Here are our floors! They're darker in real life (the pictures makes them look about 2-3 shades lighter than in person). Love them! So excited we got them and have them ready to put down right away! Obsessed!



 

I also finished my painting of Loki for our Mudroom. I may work on it some more because I'm not 100% happy with it (I'm pretty new to painting - Pencil drawing is my thing and I'm used to my work looking a lot more realistic), but overall, I think it's cute.

 

 

That's pretty much it. I also got a metal trash can that I'm going to spray paint and use as a dog food container. I may tackle that this weekend. Hope everyone has a great holiday!