house Archives - Page 2 of 4 - The Sarcastic Blonde

:: Home Updates : Screened In Porch ::

October 3, 2017

Our back porch renovation is finally complete (enough)
to share some before and after photos with all of you!

Here is a shot of the porch before:

This was the listing photo, so we had some different furniture out there for 9 months, but this was the layout of the deck and we had the same string lights. The deck needed to be replaced no matter what, because the wood was starting to rot and the railings were a bit shaky, but we were hoping we would be able to build the porch we were dreaming about having.

(to just see the end pics, scroll a little further!)

Two bids and 8 months later, we had given up. The quotes we had gotten were twice the amount of what we had hoped and budgeted for, so we had settled for just a new deck to replicate the old one.
Then we gave it one more chance and got a quote we could work with!
The week we got back from Italy, they got to work – it was crazy how fast all of the woodwork and structure actually went up. There were pauses and days with no work in between while waiting on things, but the bulk of it was really fast.

A few things that delayed work : We came home to the black metal railings but we had wanted a
wood design, so that change paused work at one point.

We went with a whitewash type of brick and kept the ceiling beams
exposed instead of painting them white.

We also came home to the screens in black wth the border showing all around from the interior. In a way, I liked the way it looked with the black trim (kind of like the interior windows that are more popular now that look so pretty and crisp and fresh) but it looked wrong with all of the white. All you saw when you walked outside were the screens. It looked like a total accident, and turns out it was, and now with the correct screens they just blend in and you don’t even notice them.

And finally, a completed porch!
We still need to get things and decorate more (a high top table maybe, put out our big beverage holder, I’d love to make it really feel like an interior with some pictures or something) but it is fully in use and has been our go-to spot for everything from breakfast on weekends to dinner after work and everything else!

We had the two french doors already, so now we just keep them opened up and make it one big space.

sources : SOFA + PILLOWS from Costco // SIDE TABLES/GARDEN STOOLS // STRIPED RUG from Annie Selke

Kip helped out everywhere he could, from painting to digging out this area and hand laying all of these stones for the walkway out to the yard.

This other door below goes into our master bedroom, which was an addition made to the house from previous home owners. It’s great to have the option to walk straight out from our bedroom. There’s a ton of space on this side area of the porch that we need to make use of still.

I’d love suggestions for what to do with the the empty space (the area area by our bedroom door) to add more seating or make it more cozy!
This was just a quick set up to get it functioning,
and we added some plants and pumpkins from Lowe’s this weekend!

We are so excited to have it for all of these gorgeous upcoming fall weekends though!

fashion, home, home inspiration, house

:: Saturday Steals ::

September 16, 2017

Some home finds today, with a new-to-me brand at Tar-jay Target called A&B Home!

ONE // TWO // THREE // FOUR // FIVE // SIX
SEVEN // EIGHT // NINE // TEN // ELEVEN // TWELVE

my favorite is the quartrefoil tray – swoon!

Favorite, home, home inspiration, house

:: Home Update : Built in Bar ::

April 17, 2017

I am crazy lucky to have an extremely handy husband.
A man that can fix things and knows his way around a tool box is a real #ManCrushMonday

He can do and build pretty much anything. Just ask him. He built the house that they lived in in college (and he will happily tell you that). But seriously, it is amazing. He is loaned out to girlfriends and family on many occasions – so Atlanta ladies, let me know if you need help with anything. He prefers to be barefoot and shirtless outdoors, so if you have projects that allow that, he will be there in a heartbeat.

We turned the dining room off of our kitchen and living room into a den, because we don’t really have a need at this time for a dining room. (I posted in the past about the table I got that transforms into a dining table when needed when I shared our living room!)
We were dying to do a built in bar on the empty wall in there – similar to Ramona, I need my Pinot Grigio! – and thankfully my husband – who also loves himself some Friday Happy Hour – of course said to just leave it all to him.

We went to Ikea to get the cabinets, and to be honest, I had expected it to be a bit of a nightmare, but it wasn’t! We found these great grey cabinets that we loved, decided on the cabinet style, and then someone helped us design the whole thing on a computer once we knew what we were looking for. Right down to the built in wine rack!
It was a one stop shop – which was amazing. We went that day, picked it all out, loaded up the truck with a gazillion things, and headed home.
(oh…. we were there a long enough time to be starving…. do NOT get food whilst waiting for your parts to get wheeled out from the pick-up area. I don’t know what these rumors are about “good food”, but what we had was horrifying.)

Kip built the cabinets in no time. I was shocked how fast. There were some slight issues with height and width being off – it was Ikea after all – but ~~we were~~ he was able to finagle a few things and get it to work!

The hardest part was the lighting – he installed all of the lights inside the top cabinets and the under mount lighting, but we had to have an electrician add some things into the wall for us since the wall didn’t have what we needed (see how technical I am? I clearly have no idea what we didn’t have and needed, but it got fixed!)

Finding a countertop took a little thinking, because no one could work with us since we only needed such a tiny slab. I came across Stone Solutions in Marietta and was able to go to the warehouse and look through leftover pieces and have one cut and delivered and installed.

I am so obsessed with the bar – it completely transformed the room. We would have loved to have put a wine fridge in, but it is way too narrow . We actually had to use upper cabinets on the bottom because it is such a tiny space so no fridge would fit. We have a mini fridge hidden in the other corner of the room with a mirrored tray and accessories on top – so that works well for us! I’m still working on the rest of the room – it’s a compilation of pieces from Chicago like our leather couch from the basement, and pieces from my moms house and our old beach house all thrown together.

We got the cabinet knobs and draw pulls all from Lowes.
That’s actually what took me so long to share the bar since it’s technically been done for months! 🙂 We didn’t put the hardware on the drawers for a while because we couldn’t find the right finish – no stores had anything but silver or black – and then we stumbled across it finally in a completely wrong section of the store one day!

I am still working on styling the bar and adding more of my china and crystal and such, but we get so much use out of it! For now, I moved my ginger jars from the living room built-in-bookshelves over and some flowers, but I am on the hunt for pieces to put up there. A few things I snagged from my moms house don’t fit, so those went into the living room instead. As always, thanks mom for letting me “borrow” things every time I leave the house 🙂

also, I am obsessed with these Trader Joe’s Ginger Beers. Isn’t the bottle gorgeous?
I try to keep them stocked since they look so pretty on display!

We have lots of other home projects that we hope to complete, but this has definitely been my favorite so far. For this room we still need to get new rug, recover a chair, etc, but I don’t even care when that is done because this is the focal point of the room and luckily is immediately what everyone sees.

we are working on sprucing up the back deck now, and got an outdoor sofa yesterday! the deck still needs to be replaced, but until that gets done, we decided not to hold off anymore on outdoor furniture since it is already so gorgeous here and fully patio season!

Cheers to Happy Hour!!
ps. my absolute favorite Pinot Grigio,
arguably better than Santa Margherita and a much better price, is Kris!
and Total Wine sells it for a STEAL – always at least $5 less than Publix or the liquor stores!

Cheers to Handy Husbands!
Happy Hour starts promptly at 5 at Casa Richmond!

// ETSY WINE PRINT //

Hope you all have a great start to the week!

home, house, Lifestyle

:: home updates : living room ::

December 7, 2016

I’m finally sharing some living room photos of our new house in Atlanta.

Some of these I took before the Christmas decorations were put up and when things were still very plain and not much was on the walls.

Like any house it is still very much a work in progress.

As I keep reminding my husband, it always will be. He likes to have everything up on the walls the day you move in and I need to live in the space for awhile and think every single purchase and picture placement through for a century!

Because otherwise as ladies we are known to change our minds. Just every once in awhile…..

PLUS I’m trying to only spend money where needed and reuse as much of our things from Chicago and repurpose or borrow things from my mom and sister’s house!

Here are some pictures from October before it had a bit more going on……

the recent photos have awful light but we’ve had so much rain and gloom the past few days it was the best I can do!

We recovered our ottoman from West Elm in this blue printed fabric that I am obsessed with.

I have this huge tray from Pottery Barn that I used when it was the old fabric (to cover it up a bit since it was so big and red), but for now I’m using this smaller tray so that more of the print stands out.

The legs go so well with our big grey console table and I love that it’s on rollers.

The rug is from my mom – she moved into a new house in February so I hit the jackpot with “borrowing” things. You’ll sense a theme from where I get most of my things that are “new”.

This was my favorite piece in our place in Chicago that we got from Nadeau.

Chicago ladies – hit up Nadeau. The one there is so much better than the 2 here.

I was SO relieved when it made it through the move!!

There are cracks on the back of it but luckily you can’t see any of that.

Quatrefoil lamps are from HomeGoods – they still have them sometimes.

I’ve had the black and white chair for years and years (old chair of my parents) and haven’t decided what to recover it in yet….. so for now it’s the odd man out. Somehow it doesn’t bother me at all so who knows when I’ll actually get around to recovering it.

The sofa was one of my moms old formal living room sofas and we had it recovered. It is SO comfortable and I was very excited to get a new sofa.

This chair used to be in my dad’s office so I was really happy that I got to have it and recover it for our living room

This has ironically become Kip’s spot and he doesn’t sit anywhere else. It’s perfectly worn in and the new blue fabric looks great with the ottoman and rug.

…. but now we have more items and a lot more going on with the Christmas decorations all unpacked.

We turned what was originally the dining room into a den, because the two of us don’t really need a full dining room that we’ll only use a handful of times per year.

This way we got a whole other living space like we had in Chicago with our basement living area.

You know me…. the more places to veg on a couch and watch TV the better 🙂

We didn’t want to block the french doors with a round dining table, so instead I got this sideboard that turns into a dining table when you want!

I convinced Kip to hang my favorite mirrors above the console/dining table. {He hated them because in my old apartment I had him hang all 5 and it was IMPOSSIBLE to get them even. It always drove him nuts}
I’m trying to decide if I want 3 or 5 there?
For now I’m happy with just the 3 hanging.
I’m afraid 5 may be too much for the wall?

It had little arms that pull out, and then the top flips open, and it becomes a full dining set when needed. I love that we can repurpose it in the future when we actually do have a dining room.

The little red runner I grabbed from the dollar section in Target to make it more Christmasy but normally I have more pictures here.

// CONSOLE + DINING TABLE //

that’s our booze wreath on the closet door – it has mini bottles of liquor tied to it and was the best white elephant gift EVER. I’m making one for an upcoming white elephant gift exchange.

// LIGHT UP GARLAND //

giant light ornaments are from AtHome, the decor-crack store. enter at your own risk.

I had been on the hunt for a large piece to put at the entryway by the front door, but I decided it would compete with my favorite grey piece on the other wall.

So we hung one of my favorite prints that used to hang in my parents wet bar.

Now I just need to find a small entry table to put below it.

I’m also in love with all of the old AC vents in the house that you can see in this picture below.

The lighting in these is awful but hopefully you can see the little bartender mixing the drink and his hair and outfit all a mess at the end 🙂 I had hoped to put this in the den but it wasn’t right on the wall and I wanted it somewhere I would see it every day.

I’m past due for updating my days until St. Patrick’s Day sign from my dad’s old bar.

Now it’s only 102 🙂 I know those of you in Chicago are counting the days ’til one of the best days of the year!

// GINGER JARS //

two different sizes + a total steal! and they can illuminate with a timer

pillow from Stein Mart

There’s still a TON that I want and need to do,

but I figured I might as well share what we’ve done since we moved in!

And as always, you’re welcome for my killer photography skills.

Maybe Santa will bring me some photography lessons to help my 2017 posts.

I’ll be sharing photos of our den next week, but wanted to share this little corner of the room because I love it so much.

I love this coke cooler that I got from my mom’s house, and the little baby Christmas me tree on top is just too cute for words.

ALSO, Christmas trees are 5x cheaper here than in Chicago, so I told Kipper we deserved a second one for the den 🙂

home, home inspiration, house, Lifestyle

:: home updates : master closet ::

October 11, 2016

When we moved in to our new house,

I was super excited about having a walk in master closet.

Something I was not super excited about was painting it.

We did so much painting at our old place before putting it on the market that I never wanted to see a paint brush again.

My handy husband however insisted that we paint it a bright white instead of the ugly beigey-yellow color it was currently.

I dont admit this often, but he was definitely right.

It was also, as I’ve learned through every painting project thus far, a lot more work than I had expected.

BUT, very worth it.

once the white was against the existing color you could really tell how ugly it was

When we were about half way through he had suggested we paint the ceiling a color so that it all wasn’t just pure white.

Everything on Pinterest that I came across had a pretty grey or greyish-blue-green which I loved, but that is a common color throughout the rest of our house, so we thought we should go with something different.

Obviously navy was the first color that then came into my mind!

The first color that we picked out was turning purple (he didn’t see it…. all I saw was Barney Purple) so since we were having to do two coats anyway, I suggested getting a different color.

image from involving color

These were the three colors that seemed to be the most popular navy’s.

At my families old house we had the kitchen and living area Van Deusen Blue, so since I have seen that navy so many times before and knew that color well, I just went with that.

The navy looks so great. All we need now is a new light fixture.

Badly.

Which we definitely need not just for looks but for some more light.

The boob light in addition to whatever bulb is currently in there doesn’t make the closet bright enough.

We have lots more home projects to come but I’m glad that this one – and anything involving painting that we did – seems to over for now!

it’s hard to get a good idea for the navy color in these photos because the closet lighting is so bad, but I love the way the navy turned out the second time around!

I’m still working on getting everything into the closet for now!

if anyone has any light fixture ideas,

please send them my way!

I’ve found some good pins on Pinterest for some inexpensive lighting options but can’t decide.

We need a new light fixture for the den too and possibly one in the kitchen!

source

and some more affordable flush mounts from Elements of Style here

home, home inspiration, house, Lifestyle

:: new house listing photos ::

October 4, 2016

First of all,
if you didn’t see Laurie Hernandez dance on DWTS last night,
do yourself a favor and head on over to YouTube.

She. Is. Amazing.

It was SO GOOD.

We are settling in to our new house and loving every minute of it.
It’s a cute little ranch with 3 bedrooms, built in the 1950’s (I think?)

Luckily, there wasn’t much that we needed to do prior to moving in other than put in hardwood floors in one room.

We have plans for a few upcoming projects, such as a new back deck, but luckily it was all pretty much move in ready.

I even liked the paint colors, so that was a huge plus.

We still can’t believe we own an actual HOUSE.
It is so weird!!

We owned a condo in Chicago, but it had 2 other units in the building and we shared everything with them. We had a tiny shared little yard, but never once used it (and neither did our neighbors).

We barely had any responsibilities as owners there, so this has already been a huge difference.

For instance, with alley’s in Chicago we could just chuck all of our garbage back there, and if a bag or two wouldn’t fit into the trashcan, we would walk down to one of the dumpsters in the alley.

Now, trash is once a week, and we have SO MUCH garbage from unpacking everything that Kip keeps having to load up his car full of everything and drive it.

I also forgot how it takes time to get used to the noises of a house.
I slept amazing one night and so-so the other two, but being back in our King size Tuft + Needle Mattress that we are obsessed with has helped a ton.

When we first moved into our condo in Chicago, I could hear little noises from the neighbor above us or in front of us and it would sound exactly like someone was in our apartment. Truly. Even Kip would think someone was inside.

I’ve already caught myself several times thinking I’m hearing a sound and thinking “don’t worry its the neighbors” because I’m crazy, and then I remind myself there is no one above us or attached to us.

So then I freak myself out more that it is coming from inside the house 😀
insert Scream voice : “It’s coming from inside the house”

I’m such an adult.

Kip has done so much yard work already which is new for us.

I do not have a green thumb at all, so hopefully I’ll figure out how keep some plants alive in the coming months.

I wanted to share a few of the listing photos with you today!

This is how the house looked when we first saw it and fell in love with it.

Luckily the previous owners had good taste, so it was easy to imagine our own things inside the home.

One of my favorite things about the house is the white built-in’s that you see right when you walk in the front door. This is exactly the kind of thing I would have loved to have put into the house myself, so I am very excited to get our knick knacks and photos on the shelves and style them.

The dining room is off of the open kitchen/living room.

We don’t really have a need for a full dining room right now, so instead we are making this room into a den.

I found an old listing photo from previous owners who used this as a den as well.

Our furniture is set up in a similar way, but the walls are of course white now like the photo above.

We replaced the carpet in this room with hardwoods and I love them.

We did our best to match the hardwoods to the existing hardwoods that are in the rest of the home and they match up pretty well.

Our master bedroom was an addition that was added years ago off of the den/dining room. You can see the hallway off of the den in the above photo that leads into it. It has a long hallway with the laundry room, then the master bath, and then a large walk in closet and our bedroom. We love it so much. It’s so nice that it is on it’s own separate side of the house. It has tons of windows looking out onto the deck and backyard too so it’s super bright and sunny.

Kip is in love with the shed in the backyard for all of his tools.

and we think the deck will be the first project on the list.

We are hoping to extend it and add a screened in area as well.

Now that we aren’t in the bitter cold for months and months on end we want to try to be outside as much as possible and we know it would get so much use.

There are two other bedrooms, a guest bedroom and an office, that are still completely in shambles at the moment, but that looked very cute when we first saw the house.