What a difference a year makes!!!

It is crazy to think that a year ago I was obsessing about frost laws and the piles of rain we were getting!! Ryan and I (and all of our friends and family) spent weeks babysitting the sump pumps and digging trenches to dry out the water that was sitting in our footers.  Wow, it was stressful coming out every night and fighting the elements.....and it seems like yesterday.

However here I am sitting in our great room all nice and toasty and loving every minute of it.  I have to admit that I still wake up every single morning and smile when I look around.  I try to tell Ryan everyday how thankful I am for all of his hard work.  I think he gets tired of hearing it but guess what?  Don't care ;)

So the point of this???  I have a ton of pictures to share with you and I would have shared a ton of them tonight.  But guess what?  I dropped my beloved iPhone (I really mean that....I loved my phone) in the shitter yesterday along with all of my pictures.  Sooooooooo that being said I really don't have any pictures to share with you right this moment ;)

Instead of sharing some of my pictures I am going to show you what I bought on Saturday from Pier 1.  It is going to be part of a little collage on our wall with some of our family pictures.

 Sunburst Mirror

Yep so I went and scooped it up over the weekend.  I know this is going to be a big shocker, but I painted it.  Gold really isn't my thang but I looovvveeedd it.  So, I will share my after pictures as soon as I get Ryan to hang it all up this weekend.....oh and as soon as I get something to actually use to take a picture :-)

Another Project!

We have plenty of furniture projects in the works as we speak.  We are *this* close to having our dining room table finished (I will share pictures as soon as we are done) when my mom sent me this picture.....

Ballard Designs

I have a curio cabinet in our basement that Ryan got me MANY years ago.  It is a very light wood color and just not my decorating style these days!  So, when mom sent me this, I quickly added another project to our furniture to-do list.  Man oh man I might need to buy some stock in Benjamin Moore paint along with Rustoleum ;)
Next up on the list is Emma's desk, then time to dig my curio cabinet out of the basement!

DIY: Dining Room Buffet Makeover!

I shared a few pictures a while back but wanted to give you the details on how I made over our old bedroom dresser!  The dresser actually used to be my grandma and grandpa's buffet.  However, when we added on to our old house, my dad re-finished the buffet, put on new handles and voila we had a new dresser.

We got new bedroom furniture for the house and I thought using our old dresser for its original purpose was the way to go!  Sooooo I headed for the interweb to find out how to re-finish furniture.  That was when I found what is now my FAVORITE blog.  Chris over at JustAGirl had some great advice and that was where I got all the information I needed (seriously though she is a genius, you have to check everything out....and she is a fellow Michigander)! 

I didn't get any before pictures but I am beyond thrilled with my AFTER pictures.....   

 I had to get another view so you could see my awesome light fixture from Joss and Main!

These handles used to be gold and obviously didn't match all of my silver accessories in the dining room.  My plan was to just buy new handles until I found this magical can.....

Seriously I freaking looovvveeee this stuff!!!!  Not only have I spray painted the handles on the buffet but I have painted the base of the table in our breakfast nook and TONS of odds and ends that I will share in another post.  I could totally be their spokesperson....did I mention I love this paint?

A little sneak peak!!

I have lots to update you on....that is the understatement of the century.  Anywho, let's get down to business.  We got our certificate of occupancy on FRIDAY (December) THE 13TH!!!!  That had to be the luckiest Friday the 13th that I have ever had.  However, Saturday the 14th looked like this....

Not sure if you can really tell but it was snowing like a mother trucker that day, and we didn't even care.  Yep, part of the exterior isn't done yet.  We can't close on our loan until the outside is done so I am getting a wee bit stressed out as interest rates are NOT moving in a direction that I like.  We will remain in the construction loan phase until the exterior is done as well.  

Now here are a few shots of the inside.  I still have sooooooo much decorating to do but things are getting done slowly but surely.  More on that after I share some pictures!

Here is the breakfast nook and a little mistletoe :-)

This is the great room and the 12 ft tree that almost killed me!!

The dining room and the dresser that I refinished into our buffet!!

Another shot showing the light I got from Joss and Main!!  Loves it!!!

Annnnddddd the glorious fireplace that our plumber, HVAC guy, friend wood worker and Ryan made!!

There is a little tiny sneak peak at what we've had going on.  Like I said, I have TONS of decorating to do yet.  But I am taking it week by week.  There are so many things that I want to do but it will come with time.
I've not gotten into a lot of the details along the way because, well, we've just been so busy!  We have taken some big hits along the way.   I guess that is why most people say they'd never do it again.   We had a local builder rough in the house and he gets his material from a local lumber company.  Now hold onto your shorts, but they were 30% over the bid (that we had received 8 months earlier) for materials.  That was also the largest budget line in our budget.  That my friends was a hard pill to swallow!!  A very bitter pill, but "it is what it is" (this is one phrase that I am REALLY tired of people saying to us).  Sooooo we have had to pay everything out of pocket for the last 12 weeks in order to finish this project.  Needless to say it was a little stressful sliding into Christmas this way.  However I am glad to be done bleeding money and ready to get back to some normalcy.   Between that huge overage and the need for a sh*t ton of dirt I am sooooooooooo happy to be done.  Do you know how painful it is to pay for DIRT???  Yeah, you'd be surprised :-)
Ok, ok enough of the harsh reality of it all!!!!  I have to say that I wake up every morning and look out our bedroom window into the woods and smile.  It was one helluva a ride but sooooooo worth it in the end.  The kids love it just as much as we do.  Now that I have a little more free time I will really keep ya'll in the loop on the fun stuff that's happenin'......like decorating!!!

Guess what got done at the house today???

We are oh so close...aka circling the drain!!!!  Believe me if you've been one of the poor suckers lucky ones that have been able to spend a full weekend of labor, paid in beer and food, then you know what I mean by circling the drain.  Wow is all I can say.  LOTS of work every weekend.  THANKS AGAIN to those of you that have stuck it out with us <3

Yeah, yeah per usual I am WAAAAYYYY behind on my status update.  I really think about updating ya'll every day.  But then it is time to finally sit down for a minute at night and I pass out ;)

I am going to go to the house tonight and take pictures.  Not just crappy phone pictures but GOOD PICTURES.  I mean, come on,  all of the flooring is almost done.  By the end of the weekend all of the flooring will be done except for the slate floor in our bathroom.  Oh and the carpet in our master bedroom but that is something we are NOT doing ourselves so that doesn't count.  We are oh sooooo close.  We gotta get this show on the road cuz this girl is having December bunco.  HOLLER!!!

Oh yeah back to what was accomplished today.

Yep, the granite dudes came to measure for my countertops!!  Wooohhhoooo!!  I go tomorrow to pick out my slabs and it will be installed by next Friday at the latest.  Which is a good thing according to Ryan and Jarod.  That way they can climb up on my new barstools onto the new countertops to hang my pendants ;)  I've got my eye on them.......