Sorry we’ve been M.I.A. lately, but with the holiday season it had been very hectic.  But, we’re back and ready to share some more of our home improvement projects!
 

Wouldn’t you love to live here for a while?

With this as your backyard?

Or here?

With your backyard looking like this?

And your bathroom like this?

We just loved our honeymoon to the French Polynesian islands (Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora)!  The sunsets were gorgeous and we wanted to display a few photos around the house so we decided to take this photo that we took of a sunset on the island of Moorea:

And split it into three separate photos (using the crop tool in shutterfly) to frame:

  

We used white frames from Target and hung them at the entrance of our master bedroom:

My inspiration for this was from This Young House.  They framed three sunset photos from a trip they took and hung them in their bedroom and we loved the idea.  Thanks TYH!

I have some old photos of the first apartment that we moved into together back in 2005 (and stayed in for two years) that I thought I would share.  It was a one bedroom/one bath apartment that we rented on Long Island (NY) with really nice hardwood floors, white walls that we couldn’t paint, a tiny galley kitchen and noisy neighbors that we could hear through the vents. 

Although the couch was a little big for the space (front door is right to the right of it), it worked out great for when people slept over.  It’s extremely comfortable and we actually still have it in our living room now.

I still remember what we went through to put those three Ikea shelves on the wall!  We actually painted the largest shelf white and put it up in the laundry room of our home now and plan on using the other two as well.

The galley kitchen was cute in the beginning, but after two years really started to get on our nerves.

This area served as a dining room, office and storage.  The table was from a family member and the desk and shelving was from Ikea.  Didn’t I tell you the wood floors were gorgeous?

Our only bathroom was… cozy.

Our bedroom was a really good size and we were able to buy a few substantial pieces of furniture, which we still have in our master bedroom now.

Hope you enjoyed the little tour of our first place!  A tour of our 2nd apartment (first in FL) coming soon…

We need a new light fixture with a fan for our master bedroom.  I found a few today while browsing the Lamps Plus website that I like and was hoping you could help us decide.  

 

This one is not in the running since it’s $650.00 (!!) but I thought it was pretty cool:

Let us know what you think!   Thanks.

A while ago (in our Grout Dilemma post) we asked for your opinions on what color grout to go with the white subway tile that we picked out for our kitchen backsplash.  The majority of you went with white grout, which is what we ended up choosing!  Thank you for all your input. 

We went to several different tile/kitchen places for the subway tile and most places wanted between $2.50 and $3.50 per tile (for 3×6 white subway tiles).  We finally decided to go check out Home Depot to see if they had them and they didn’t, but someone there told us to go check out Lowes.  We are so glad we did because we got the tiles for $0.22 cents each!  This entire project with all the supplies cost us less than $85.oo! 

Here are a few before/prep shots:

We spent one entire day installing the backsplash (about 7 hours), which was a little longer than expected.  Putting up each tile with the spacers and making all the cuts for the edges was really time consuming.  It’s a very messy DIY project too!

We waited a full 48 hours before grouting, but that was quick and painless and we are very happy we went with the white grout!

And finally everything is back in order and the only thing left to do now is the moulding on top of the cabinets.  Once that is done, a big kitchen reveal post will come!

We’re extremely happy with how it came out!  What do you think?

Choosing the granite was difficult because we were on a budget and knew we wanted a dark/black color.  Once we found the granite we loved we priced it out at three different places.  The last one we went to charged us over $600 less than the others AND included a stainless undermount sink.  Shopping around pays off again!

We ended up going with Verde Peacock, which is mostly black with green, silver, gold and gray bursts throughout the slab.  We are extremely happy with our decision:

We had a hard time deciding on an edge as well and at first we chose the bullnose edge, but after searching for pictures of edges online we found the bevel edge and quickly changed to that:

The only things left to do (before the big reveal) is install the subway tile backsplash and the crown moulding on top of the cabinets.  I’ll be updating again soon…

I just got an e-mail from Pottery Barn with a link to under $25 gift ideas and wanted to pass it on.

We’re planning on replacing the carpet in our master bedroom, the guest room and the foyer stairway in the near future and need help deciding on the type of carpet to get.  Of the many types of carpet we saw in Home Depot, there are a few that we liked: texture, twist and loop. 

   
             texture                                 twist                                 loop

Right now in those areas of the house we have the texture carpet (that was there when we moved in).  Out of the three types of carpet mentioned above I think loop is our least favorite only because it didn’t feel as comfy as the other two.

Color is another issue.  Do we go light (which looks the best) or keep it in the darker tan family to hide stains, etc. (especially on the stairway in the foyer)?

So, what do you think?  What type of carpet do you have?  Would you keep the same style of carpet throughout your home or is it okay to mix?  Have you used Home Depot for carpet installation?  Let us know!

I had posted recently (here and here) about storage under the stairs, but I wanted to share the wonderful idea my grandpa had for his home many years ago using space above the stairs.

They had a totally empty wall in their kitchen and needed more storage for pots and pans so my grandpa cut a hole in the wall and used the empty space above the basement stairs.  He built the entire thing himself… drawers, doors, shelves, frame… and also installed lighting inside:

Look at the storage he created!

Now if only I could get them to replace the wallpaper… no, I have to say though it goes with the rest of the house.  It’s the cutest little upstate NY house you’ll ever see!

Since today is my grandpa’s birthday, I thought this was the perfect time to showcase how handy and creative he was (and still is).

This is our second Christmas in Florida (we had lived in NY our entire lives), so it’s still hard to get into the holiday spirit when it’s 80 degrees and sunny everyday with palm trees everywhere!  But, after we put up our little tree and some holiday decor it started feeling more like Christmas.

Living Room

New stockings with monogram pins from Target

Stocking hooks from Target 

Small feather tree from Target

Living room couch (bad lighting)

Dining room table: feather tree from Target, added some silver & gold ornaments to vases we already had

Hallway:  Our little pre-lit tree and canisters filled with ornaments and starfish