Category Archives: home

Our Home Renovation Progress in Less than 30 Seconds

I got a new phone half-way through our renovation progress, so I haven’t kept up with recording our renovation progress via video, but I found my old phone last week and thought this was still worth the post. Watching this video is encouraging to see how far we’ve come. We still have a ton of detail things to do. Which in some ways, is the worst stuff. Our house is livable now, thank God, but we’ve got a ways to go before I’ll be ready to post those beautiful “after pictures.”

In case you are wondering, I created this video with One Second Everyday. It’s an app that you can use on your phone to journal the everyday. If you can keep up with it, it’s a really neat way to remember your everyday life.

– Melanie

 

 

Happy Friday and a Home Renovation Playlist!

Headboard/Accent wall in the bedroom

The unfinished headboard/accent wall in the bedroom

For the past few weeks, we’ve been keeping our heads down and attempting to grind out some much-needed home renovation projects. Right now, I don’t have much in the way of tutorials or pretty pictures, but I do have a renovation playlist that we’ve been jamming out to. It’s pretty random, I must admit. There’s a lot of ’90s alternative– George and I still live in that decade, musically. But there’s also some of my girl, Dolly and a little of the King, himself, on there.

Spotify is something I’ve only gotten into recently. I know, I know, I’m way behind on the times. But I’m having fun with it. You can also see my super embarrassing work out mix, if you follow me on Spotify.

Are you on Spotify? Do you have any new artists you are jamming out to? Chat with me in the comments and happy Friday!!!

 

Independence Day Home Deals

Independence Day Home DealsI’m all about buying vintage or used items whenever possible, but the reality is, sometimes it’s just not possible. Sometimes you have to invest in a new piece. And when that happens, you might as well get something while it’s on sale. Am I right?!

Here’s a few of the best home goods sales happening this Independence Day weekend.  Continue reading →

Enjoying the Process

Patience is not my forte. I’ve thrown my share of Veruca Salt-style fits during our 10-month-long home renovation. None of my fits have been quite as musical as Veruca’s, but I’ve definitely been frustrated that the renovation process has been so slow. And this week has been no exception. I’ve been feeling super stressed and irritated that this week we had to go back to the farm and the Airstream for work.

And I’m not going to pretend like when we got to the Airstream, all my stresses melted away. They didn’t. But looking back on how we renovated the Airstream five years ago, helps me to remember that we’ve been here before. I need to chillax, as the kid’s say. Our home renovation is going to happen. And I might even be a little bit sad when it’s over.

In the meantime, I’m doing what I can– like dusting off our old porch furniture, pouring myself a drink, and enjoying the moment.

While we’ve been back at the farm, I’ve enjoyed rediscovering some of our old things we had sitting in the barn– like our porch furniture. I’m also carefully choosing a few new items for our new home. I want to be very picky and chose items that are in it for the long haul.

One of those long-haul items is this beautiful baby Alpaca throw from Serena and Lily.* It’s a thin, beautiful, neutral blanket that’s perfect for cool, summer night breezes. You can tell Bambi has already claimed it as her own. Insert eye roll here.

Are y’all slowing down or speeding up this summer? How are you taking time to just enjoy the moment? Talk to me in the comments!!

*Blanket was c/o Serena and Lily. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Design Dilemmas: Putting a bed in front of a window

Design Dilemmas: Putting a bed in front of a window

I’ve been pretty confident in my design decisions up until now. I know what I like, and I’ll search the ends of the earth to find it. (Once a librarian, always a librarian.) But the predicament in our master bedroom has me stumped. There’s no other way to arrange it, the bed in our “master” bedroom has to go in front of a window. The room is fairly small and I think the best arrangement will be putting it under the window on the left side of the picture below.

A Small Home: Before Pictures: Back Bedroom

The “master” bedroom, before we tore it to shreds

Ok, so that’s settled, right? Well, yes and no. Truth is, we’re running low on funds (a huge post on budgeting is coming soon), so I’m not keen on spending even a couple hundo for a bed. I also want a bed that is low to the ground, as to not block all the natural light from the window, so we’re going to build something ourselves. I’d like a bit of storage underneath the bed for socks and undies– a simple box with drawers will do. (Similar to what we built in the Airstream.) Buuuuuut, here comes the hard part, what should we do for a headboard?

Here’s the options I’m thinking: Continue reading →

Our Home Remodel Progress Report: Part II

The living room and kitchen now. It’s getting there!

I left y’all hanging for a while there, huh? Well, I had a good excuse. For over two weeks, George and I have been on an epic road trip to Texas and back. We went to Texas to sell stuff at a motorcycle show and to buy stuff at Roundtop— an enormous flea market/antique festival. I’ll do a post on that soon. I’ve really got some catching up to do now! So let’s get to it!  Continue reading →

Our Home Remodel Progress Report: Part I

Insulation

No turning back now!

We’ve made so much progress on our home and I’m so proud of the work we’ve done. But if I’m being honest, it looks like we haven’t done much. In reality, we’ve done all the unsexy stuff that renovation shows just breeze right over, but has taken us almost six months. Let’s review, shall we? Continue reading →

A Video Tour of Our New Small Home

I finally got this video uploaded and posted on YouTube! YouTube coupled with country Internet makes me want to gouge my eyes out. It literally took a full day to upload. Oh well, it’s ready now! I thought it might be nice to have a little walkthrough tour of the “before” version of the house. Sometimes it’s hard to envision layout and spaces in photos.

I hope that I can now move on to our progress shots which are scary, but encouraging. Ya gotta tear it up before you build it back up, ya know what I’m saying?!

As always, let me know what you think in the comments!
– Melanie

New House Moodboard

I’m working on a video tour of our small home before we began renovating, but I forgot how much of a noob I am when it comes to video editing. Seriously, there has to be a better, easier product than iMovie. If you’ve got any apps or software that makes editing videos quick and easy I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Anywho, in the meantime, I thought it’d be fun to share some inspiration that I’m using for the new house. I won’t be using all the fixtures/furniture shown here because some of it is out of my price range, but it can be helpful to create a board with my vision to refer back to while shopping or when I just can’t see the end in sight!

I’m going for chic, minimalist, modern with an industrial twist. Is that a thing? 😉 The links to the products are below.

  1. Matte Black Delta Faucet
  2. Barnwood for cabinets via a local dealer
  3. Metal Pendant Light
  4. Hand-knotted Persian Llama Rug
  5. Axel Leather Loveseat
  6. Marble and Iron Console
  7. Rustic Subway Tile
  8. Acapulco Chair
  9. 2 Light Wall Sconce
  10. Black Matte Penny Tile

This weekend is full of cabinet making for us. What are y’all up to?

FYI: Some of the above links are affiliate, some are not!

A Small Home: Before Pictures of Our New House

A Small Home: Before Pictures: Living Room

Living room from the front door

Ok ya’ll, so this is it. The interior before pictures. In all their glory. Since the pictures are pretty low-quality phone pictures, I must admit, the house doesn’t look that bad. But let me assure you, this was and still is one fixer-upper. Let’s point out some of the fun issues going on, shall we?! Continue reading →