A Little Of This and A Little Of That

 Normally I like my things to be original, or at the very least just a little bit different. I think that is why I enjoy vintage things so much. Back in the day, things weren't cookie cutter. Plus, things were way more sturdy. 

If you follow me on Instagram then you have already heard about my $2 table, so I am sorry if it is a repeat for some.

I almost passed up this table. It thought that it could work in the spare room but I wasn't positive and with the finish the way it was, I wasn't prepared to spend the $10 they were asking for it.

So I sent in the big guns....AKA Blake.

He talked them down to $2

He is amazing. My hero.

With this table I wanted instant gratification. No rolling on paint for this bad boy. I was far to impatient, and I wanted it to be shiny. Spray paint to the rescue. Blake had the idea to paint the drawer the same color as the beds. Smart boy.

I went to Hobby Lobby to pick out some knobs, and ended up settling on the blue. I was so close to buying the green ones but decided they would be too big. I am glad I stuck with the blue.

I am really happy with it! It makes for a good buffer in between the beds and it has a drawer to hold stuff. Actually, Blake and I keep joking that we are going to put a Bible in the drawer for visitors.

Also, for anyone that remembers...

I was having a hard time finding quilts for the bedroom downstairs. I wanted white ones but hadn't found any that I loved and I had looked everywhere, numerous times. I happened to find some at Target on sale and then I had an extra coupon, so I picked them up.

Imagine my surprise when a couple days after buying the ones from Target I made a trip to HomeGoods and found these....

all lined up and laughing at me.

I am sure most of you are familiar with Pinterest. Sometimes when I see a cleaning tip I like to click through to see what the comments say about it. You know, to check if it is legit. Turns out, Pinterest was right when they said that you can clean old wood with vinegar and oil.

I have a vintage cedar chest that is in pretty good condition, but has a couple of "spots."

The vinegar and oil made it pretty. Shiny and pretty.

I even used it on my desk.

In other news, I have been finally hanging things on the walls.

I didn't at first because rooms weren't completely done and I wasn't really sure where I wanted things to go, but little by little things have found a home and I have even found a few new things....

My exit sign. 

My finger complete with Beatles lyrics.

"Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friends."

And the most recent addition of our Instagram pictures in the hallway.

Our kids love looking at all of the pictures and pointing our their favorites.

I love having pictures of our family and of our everyday life around our house to remind me that life is....

well...

pretty great.

Turns Out I May Be A Decorating Schizophrenic

Months ago (which feels like years ago) when we decided to redo the bathroom I went to go scope out tile at Home Depot. They didn't have a ton that I loved so it was Lowes to the rescue. I knew that I wanted it to be darker then our upstairs bathroom. Even though I love love our tile upstairs it looks dirty fast. Since this was going to be an extra bathroom, and probably not get as much use, I wanted it to not show if I hadn't wiped it down in a day. 

I was mostly drawn to the grey colors since that is the other main color in our house.

This one has a cool linen look to it that I really liked.

This one, was simple but I thought it would be a classic look.

I like the tile that resembles the shape of hardwood floors instead of being the classic square shape.

This one has the same hardwood floor shape but is more of a greige color and a little lighter then I wanted, but that didn't stop me from really liking it.

Along with flooring, I have been taking screen shots of bathrooms that I like so that I could decide how to decorate ours.

Turns out...I have a lot of pictures, and I still am just as confused as ever.

Behold the polar opposites of my decorating style

Fun and colorful

versus Serene and lacking color.

White walls and light mirror

versus colorful walls and bright mirror.

Black and white polka dots that are big

versus ones that are small.

Colorful dots

versus dots in one color.

Walls with a pattern

versus walls with out...but rocking a flamingo.

Is it weird that I really really want a flamingo in our bathroom?!

Pattern on the ceiling?

Dots?

Birds?

See? 

I just don't know. It seems like I am having the hardest time deciding if I want the bathroom to be serene for guests, or fun for our kids, since it is by the toy room.

I would like to pretend that I didn't have this hard of a time deciding on a vanity. But you all know that I did.

I really liked the idea of doing a dresser or buffet and turning it into a vanity. The biggest problem was finding one that was tall enough, deep enough, not too expensive, and one that both Blake and I liked. 

It was interesting.

I really liked this one.

It was a little spendy, but I loved the Mid Century Modern feel that it had. It also would work well for putting in a sink because of the cabinet on the left.

Blake didn't like it. 

He specified that he did want legs on it, just not ones like that.

After a little debating he decided that he could "live" with it. So I managed to talk the guy that was selling it down a little, so that we were more comfortable with the price (although it still was more then we wanted to spend).

Then right when I was going to tell him that I was going to come and get it...

the clouds parted and this gem came up on KSL.

For 1/3 the price.

I called the guy and he said he already had had 3 calls, so I offered him $10 more then his asking price. 

And that, my friends, is how you buy something right out from underneath 3 other people. Money talks...right? After buying a sink, we were still less then half the price of the other one.

It was in sad shape, but it was priced right and was the size and shape we wanted. I also couldn't help but notice that it looked a lot like one of the pictures that I liked.

I won't even begin to bore you with the turmoil that I experienced about whether to center the sink or offset it. It was a couple day internal debate. I even had to phone a friend just to settle it.

But it is coming along well...which is another post all by itself.

You've Got To Move It, Move It

I referred to the stack that used to be in the center of our bathroom the other day as a stripper pole. Blake chuckled and said "that's exactly what it was."

Maybe that could have been used as a selling point if we decided that we wanted to move. 

"Nice house in nice neighborhood with downstairs bathroom stripper pole."

Too bad that we moved the pole.

It went from this--

to this--

to this--

to this--

Can I get an amen?!

Blake keeps joking that everything that you think is going to take you an hour or two takes you a couple of days.

Word.

Blake was hoping to be done soffiting in the ceiling and shower by last Friday and have it sheet rocked by Saturday. Uh...

He got the soffiting done, and it looks awesome!

But, what he thought was going to be a couple of hours ended up being 2 days.

On Monday night he rewired the lights that are going to be in the bathroom and put a light in the ceiling in the shower. Blake is pretty excited about that.

Word at the Unguren house is that sheet rock should have gone up by Tuesday night.
Turns out Tuesday night we had this much sheet rocked. 

Just goes to show you that what you think you can accomplish in a couple of hours, and what you actually do accomplish, are two very different things.
Family is coming in a week.

Nothing like cutting it close. Good thing we work well under pressure.

Oh What A Feeling, We're Painting On The Ceiling

My Mom and I were talking about our house today. During the course of the conversation I mentioned that people have complimented my "skills". 

(Thank you all, by the way, you are all very very sweet and make great cheerleaders!)

 I told her that it wasn't necessarily that I had "skills" but that when you start with something old and ugly the only way to go is up.

Speaking of up...

Bad segway? Maybe. But I am still going to roll with it.

I painted another ceiling.

Technically this one was painted before the toy room ceiling, I just forgot to mention it. Actually....if we are being honest, all of the ceilings have been painted in the house now, the only difference is that I painted this one a color.

Yeah!

 Before it was just a regular ceiling. It has some spots on it that were a brownish yellow color. (Where do those come from, by the way? Is it like air born dirt from taking a shower? Gross.)

Anywho...

I had read somewhere that in small rooms it is good to paint the ceiling the same color as the walls because it makes the room appear bigger because your eyes don't stop at the line between ceiling and walls. Make sense?

I figured why not give it a try. The ceiling was due for a coat of paint, and I had some left from painting the walls.

I put it off for a while. No one likes to paint ceilings. Ain't nobody got time for that. But I finally did it. And...it wasn't that bad.

Before:

After:

The interesting thing is that it isn't that noticeable. But I guess that is kind of the point, huh? But the brown spots are gone so I am calling it a win.

Blake has been busy working on the bathroom (don't worry, another bathroom post is coming....That sounds odd. Correction. Another post about remodeling the bathroom is coming.) So I have been busying myself with odd jobs.

One of them was painting the laundry room cabinets.

Our free cabinets from KSL have been lovely. I always knew I was going to paint them it just took me a month to do it.

From brown:

To white:

You may also notice that our water shut offs and tube got moved.

It is nice to have them all in one box.

Only problem is now we have to patch the giant holes that were left in the wall.

I suppose it is a small price to pay.