The Lake House Renovation: New Mantel

Our new mantel was installed today.  By the way, I've been spelling mantel wrong my whole life.  Just discovered that about 2 minutes ago.

We used a company that is local, does beautiful work, and met our deadline.  (My friend's shower is this weekend.  Everything has to be finished tomorrow!)

I cannot say enough good things about Burrus and Company.

We met Wade Burrus at a home show back in February.  He is just a super friendly country guy who loves what he does.

We told him that we had this fire place with these weird knobs that we wanted covered rather than holding up the mantel.  It's hard to see in this picture, but the knobs are underneath the old mantel.

Old Mantel

Old Mantel

The main reason we needed them covered was due to us having to put our TV on our fireplace.  The mantel on top of the knobs would have made the TV have to be too high and cause neck strain when watching.

I will say, I've been a major skeptic of putting TVs on fireplaces, but with Wade creating the mantel we needed, I think ours has turned out pretty nice.

He made the mantel where it fits over the existing knobs.  We were able to drop the heigh of the mantel and put the TV where we wanted.

New Mantel

The new mantel is a grown up mantel.  It fits the fireplace so much better.  It also helps to cover the wires.  We are so happy with it.  Though, I'm not happy with watching this Bee Movie for the 18th time.

Have a great weekend!

The Lake House Renovation: Weekend Updates

Time for some more pictures of our latest weekend update!  These rooms are still in progress, but they are starting to come together.  

Guest Bathroom Before

Michael and I debated on what to do about this bathroom.  We considered just removing the wallpaper and painting the walls.  But, I begged and begged to at least consider taking out the tile. Then I begged and begged to at least take the vanity out so they could tile under it.  Then I begged and begged for us to get a new vanity.  Michael agreed, I sold a kidney, and we finally got a new vanity.

We just got it, and they did the tile in February, so for 2 months, we've had nothing in there.  So, guests have to use the bathroom in there and wash their hands in our kitchen.  Can't wait to get it working.  The plumber is coming this week.  Also, it has handles, but they are screwed in on the inside.  I've never seen that before, but seems like smart way to save space in packaging.

I also made a trip to Ikea today and got a shower curtain.  We removed the glass sliding shower door. Unfortunately, there is still damage to the tile bath tile from those, but at least it's covered by the curtain.  If you are ever at my house, you are not allowed to look behind the curtain.  Imagine a perfectly beautiful bathtub.

New Vanity!

Shower Curtain from Ikea

The vanity will not stick out this far.
The back of the vanity needs to be cut for a pipe, so we can't move it any further back right now.  

This was the second bedroom on the main floor.  Presley actually liked the color and was not super happy when she found out her room was changing to a gray color.  She just saw pink.  I saw a shade slightly dimmer than Pepto.  

The room was painted and floored several months ago, but we just now got her a new bed.  

My hope is to paint an old set of chest of drawers a beautiful color to give this room a pop.  Most of her toys are downstairs, so this is more of just the sleeping room.  

This is the color scheme I am thinking might work well.   Something along these lines.  Presley's room will be much more kid friendly, but I like the idea.    

The Lake House Renovation: Fresh Kitchen with Not So Fresh Fruit

I've been playing a little coy with the latest on our kitchen.  Last weekend, we cooked in it for the first time since we started this project, but it still wasn't quite finished.

I was going to wait to share pics until everything was done, but we had such dramatic changes this weekend, that I had to share.  

Here's what it looked like Saturday morning.  

The island is Presley's favorite new play spot.  

Window looking onto the street. 

We had a small issue with our bracket for our tv, so we are waiting for liquid nail to harden before putting it on the fireplace. 

Then, Saturday, around 2:00, the magical fairies from Great American Home Store made a beautiful delivery.  

No dogs on the new furniture, so Aaron and Julia picked up this doggie bed from Costco for us.  

Finally!  We have furniture.  I am so happy with it.  It looks amazing and is so functional.  We are still missing a couple of chairs.  

Also, we finally have a vent hood.  I cannot tell you the headache this thing was.  I really wanted one that just blended into the background, meaning, I wanted to hide it in a cabinet.  We had so much trouble finding one that would work.  To the rescue, Aaron found us the perfect model.  Which, once again, I hope you are following his Facebook page.  He has helped us solve so many problems.  

In addition to helping us find the vent hood, Aaron also helped us install it!
Follow his Facebook page! 

It looks great, and I love how it makes the backsplash look!

Woohoo!

There are still a few things left to do in the kitchen.  Michael's dad is helping us get our outlets finished up.  

Here's a few more pictures from this weekend...

Breaking in the card table!

Couldn't let the weekend pass without a boat ride.

My love for this guy is unhealthy.  If you get one, make sure you get an iRobot Roomba brand.
Yes, they are more expensive than off brands, but they are so worth it.  We had an off brand and it was crap.
This little guy works.

So, all of our dishes have been sitting in our storage area.  We were so frantic the day we moved all of our dishes out of the kitchen for demo, that apparently we missed a bowl of fruit.  This is what fruit looks like after 4 months.  Yep, that's a banana!  YUCK!

The Lake House Renovation: We have countertops!

This weekend, while standing over the Mississippi River, which divides the two great states of Tennessee and Arkansas, Michael and I made a decision that had deeply divided us.  Selection of granite.

Nelson, the owner of Stone City, called us about five minutes after this picture was taken to see if we wanted to stick with Colonial White for our granite.  

In fact, we had to bring in the big guns and get help from our Facebook family to make the choice.

We finally had to settle and decided to choose...

Colonial White!

I couldn't be happier with it.

Happy Tuesday!

The Lake House Renovation: Emptying the Garage

We had an incredibly productive day.  A great day.  

For the first time in three months, our home has a dining room table.

The table, mirror, and our chairs have been sitting in our garage since the end of November.

I remember the day we moved in how depressed I was that it was going to be sitting in the garage.  The long wait we would have while renovating seemed so daunting.  Now that we are almost done, the excitement for the future and the memories we will make in this house feels like a breath of fresh air.   

The table and mirror were so incredibly difficult to move, but we did it...and I don't think we scratched the floor.  We really couldn't have done it without the Super Sliders.  

Here's what's left...

We still have to purchase some furniture for our living room, bedroom, and Presley's, as our old stuff just won't work.  Most of it is being used downstairs right now anyway.  We are going from a two bedroom house to a four bedroom 2 living area house, so we are going to have to buy more.  

We need some sort of TV to go over our mantle.

The appliances need to be installed.

Granite goes on this week.  

Vanity for guest bathroom needs to be purchased and installed.  

My back is sore.  My eyes are heavy.  My heart is full.  

My partner in crime working with me to move our BAM.  You can guess what the initials mean.  

Ahh.  Finally, we have a dining room.  Light fixture will be changed soon.  

Here's another look at how it will look next to the kitchen.  

Our appliances are set up in the living room now.

Super Sliders saved the day again.  

We also moved this cabinet in.  Not sure if this will be the permanent placement. 

Presley has literally worn this all weekend.  She's been so entertaining and beautiful and perfect.
She could be the sweet little girl in a movie who acts as the comedic pause in a stressful movie.  

The Lake House Renovation: Ceiling Fan and Lighting

We made a couple of decisions regarding ceiling fans and lighting.

We got this fan from Lowe's.  Although, we just picked it out based on the look when we saw it in the store.  Now, I'm looking at reviews online, and I'm a little worried.  Oh well, it looks good.

We also picked out these lights for over our island.  I was a little worried that they looked a little too gimmicky or something, but I really love them over our island.  They achieve the look we wanted by tying in the floor, eventually our dining room table, and they break up the white in our kitchen.  We also purchased the matching chandelier for our dining room, but it is not hanging yet.  

Most of our furniture is in our garage.  It is a crazy mess that gives me anxiety every time I look at it.  We decided the easiest thing to do will be to move in a piece each day whenever we have a chance.

Last night, we decided to move in the heaviest piece.  It's this armoire.  I bought it a few years ago from a friend.  It's so cute, but it is HEAVY.  I'm hoping we can use it as a TV stand in our bedroom.  

We bought these Super Sliders to help us move it.  These things are awesome!  We were worried the whole time about scratching our floor, because if just one piece of grit gets underneath it, it can leave a little mark.  I'm going to have to get over that.  When we brought it in, we also worried about it possibly leaving a mark if it even touched the ground.  So, we threw some socks on it.  Maybe we should leave them on there?  

We are buying some furniture pads to put under all the furniture, because the flooring is scratching easily and it is stressing me out.  Until those pads arrive, the socks stay on the legs!

Look at the mess behind me.  Ughhhhh.

I have a question...

Do you feel like this armoire could go in the same bedroom as this bed?  They both have a square/rectangular pattern that helps them tie together.

Our bed is more brown (this picture doesn't show it well), and there is some brown in the armoire.  But the armoire is definitely more of a black color.  

If it can go in the same room, what color would you make the dresser or chest of drawers?  I really don't want everything to be the same color, but I do want everything to coordinate.