Front landscaping

I finally got around to adding some flowers to my front yard. I don't exactly have the greenest thumbs when it comes to flowers so I am hoping that these make it through the summer. So far they are still alive so I count that as a step in the right direction.

Here is my front yard before. I have some tall bushes and then 2 rose bushes. I recently added the cute little solar lights that line my walkway. It is nice to have them on the nights I come home after dark.


So here are the plants I added. I think it is a nice touch. It isn't anything too exciting but I like that it makes my house stand out from the rest a little. I also added the same plants on the other side of the rose bushes.


And here is my cute little house :)

Home improvement: Foyer

So this wasn't specifically one of my home improvement goals but it is something I've been working on figuring out. I have very large walls and very tall ceilings in my house so I have been having trouble finding things for the walls that don't look absolutely ridiculous.

I was given a beautiful cherry blossom picture for Christmas and I wanted to highlight it appropriately but it looked so silly on the wall by itself. So, I added some photos of cherry blossoms that I had taken through my years of living in DC. I had quite a few to choose from.



Ta da! Highlights the cherry blossom theme and takes up a lot of space on the wall. Wahoo! Now I just need to get those walls painted but that is another project :)

Half bathroom project

I had some downtime this weekend so I thought I would tackle the towel racks in the half bathroom. The ones in place weren't my style so I thought I'd make some updates.

So, the before pictures:

Hand towel rack:
There was a full towel rack behind the toilet which seemed silly since 1. it is a half bath and 2. the rack wasn't high enough above the toilet to have a towel. So that had to go!



So here is the after - I replaced the hand towel and toilet paper holders and added a decoration behind the toilet.




I am pretty happy with the result and the best part - I paid cash!

Home Remodeling: Faucets, part 2

On the heels of my successful master bathroom faucet project, I decided to tackle the half bathroom. This bathroom has a pedestal sink and started with a chrome faucet and chrome drain.



Since the pedestal sink has very limited access to the plumbing components, I decided to go with a new chrome faucet so that I wouldn't have to touch the drain. I am very glad I decided to do this because it was definitely challenging to access everything.

Anyway, here is the finished product! I love how it turned out. I am not generally a huge fan of the chrome finish but in the half bath I think it works really well. I still need to replace the toilet paper and hand towel holders so I am thinking I will choose something with a chrome finish to compliment my new faucet!

Home Remodeling: Faucets, part 1

As you might recall, I've set some home remodeling goals. This is not one of them. One of my goals is to replace the kitchen faucet, but seeing as how I haven't done much plumbing, I decided to first work on the bathroom faucets. I have 3 bathrooms. If something went horribly wrong in one of them, at least I have a few spares to work with. If I messed up the kitchen faucet I'd be washing dishes in the bathtub...and that doesn't sound too appealing.

Anyway, so on with it!

I thought about showing a step by step process but it was just too difficult to get good photos. Plus it was a decent amount of work so I'll just show you the before and after.

Here is my master bathroom faucet before. Note that I had already started taking things apart which is why there is some junk in the sink. Anyway, the faucet was totally functional but not at all attractive. Also, I am not a huge fan of chrome. So for this sink I replaced both the drain and the faucet.


And here is the finished product! I like the brushed nickel A LOT more than the cheap chrome one. I think it looks a lot more finished and gives it a more complete finish to the whole bathroom.


This is the first time I have ever done something like this, which satisfies one of my other goals. This was a great learning experience. Replacing the actual faucet part wasn't a huge deal but replacing the drain was A PAIN! I learned a very valuable home improvement lesson. No matter how many times you check to make sure you have everything you need, you're wrong. You absolutely will need to make at least 1 additional trip to the hardware store for something. In my case, it was a wrench big enough to loosen the drain.

In the end, it all worked out. I love my new faucet and I am feeling confident about attempting more home improvement projects!

Home Remodeling: Master Bathroom Tour

Since I've 'finished' my master bathroom (it is finished for now, I would like to replace the light fixture at some point but that is not a 2011 goal), I wanted to give my faithful reader(s) a tour of the finished product!

So this is the view as you stand in the door from the master bedroom. I have a circle theme going on which is why I chose fixtures that also have a circular element.


Standing next to the toilet you can see the shower curtain and other corner. There really isn't anything exciting over here but I wanted to highlight more of the circle theme.

Finally this is the view of the other side of the door. You can see the hand towel rack that I replaced and the rest of the counter.

So that's my master bathroom! It is pretty hard to take pictures of this room because it isn't huge but hopefully this gives you a good idea!

Home Remodeling: Master Bathroom

One of my home remodeling goals was to change the towel racks in all bathrooms. The current towel racks are cheaply made and not my style.

The first project I wanted to tackle this year was to replace the master bathroom towel rack, hand towel rack, and toilet paper holder. To do this I used a gift card I received for Christmas so the total cost for this project was around $3.00 (what my gift card did not cover).

Here is the old towel rack. It is functional but because it is pretty flimsy you can see that the weight of a wet towel is starting to cause a bend in the middle. So, while it is functional now, it may not be functional for too long!


So for those of you who haven't ever changed out your bathroom fixtures before, I will walk you through the steps. First, remove the old hardware from the wall. Next repair the holes with spackle. I used a color changing spackle that goes on pink and changes to white when dry.

This is now a good time to make muffins because you have to wait for the spackle to dry in order to start the next step.

Once the spackle is dry, the next step is to touch up the paint. This is also a good time to touch up any other areas in the room.

When the paint is completely dry, drill holes to line up with the installation hardware. The hardware may vary depending on the product you buy but in general you have a bracket that you install on the wall and then attach the towel rack to this bracket.

It is all pretty simple if you ask me!

Here is the finished towel rack on the wall.



I also replaced the toilet paper holder and the hand towel rack so that they all match. I am loving this new look. It is a simple and relatively inexpensive way to change the look of a room.

Stay tuned for a tour of my 'finished' master bathroom!

Declutter - part 4

The decluttering continues! Another area I have trouble with is my under the sink storage. It isn't a huge space and there are some obvious things that need to be there and I struggle with finding a balance between what needs to be there and what can go somewhere else.

Here is where I started. I keep my cleaning supplies, garbage bags, dish detergent, light bulbs, and other misc. household/cleaning tools.


I started by taking everything out and quickly discovered why organization is a great tool. Remind me not to buy sponges, dish detergent, or dishwasher soap in 2011 - I think I have plenty. These items have since moved to another storage location because I am not using them at the moment and will be able to keep track of them easier from now on.


Anyway, after taking everything out, I assessed what needed to be there, what should be stored in other locations (laundry stain remover belongs in the laundry room!) and what could be tossed.

I ended up with this:

Everything I use often is within easy reach and I don't have to dig around to find dishwasher soap, etc. Overall this system has been working very well for me!

Stay tuned for more organization related updates

Declutter - part 3

I haven't been posting much, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy! I have been on a serious organization/decluttering kick recently. Here are some updates on my progress.

I tackled the linen closet recently. Basically everything in here is used so I wasn't able to get rid of much but I was able to get it all looking a little more put together.

Here is the before shot:



The linen closet is actually across from the stairs so it is hard to get a picture of it. This was taken from the staircase with my arms reaching over the wall. Yes, these are the efforts I go through for you my faithful blog reader(s)!

So one thing I have always struggled with is the dreaded fitted sheet. I can't fold it. I generally make a decent effort to fold and then about halfway through I give up and sort of roll it into as small a package as possible. As evidenced by the photo, it looks messy and takes up more space than is necessary.

So step 1 in linen closet was to figure out how to fold that darn sheet. So I turned to google/you tube and found this. I agree with the blogger that it may be a little dramatic to claim that "one of the biggest challenges you will face in your life is how to fold a fitted sheet," however, it is definitely up there in annoying/difficult household tasks.

So I watched the video and went to work. And believe it or not, I actually folded the fitted sheets. It felt like a huge accomplishment. I actually am looking forward to doing laundry again so that I can fold another sheet (is that weird?)

Anyway, with that accomplishment under my belt I went to work on organization and purging. I got rid of 1 blanket and 1 hand towel and went through my toiletry stash to find some items to include in my donation to the food bank.

Here is the end result:


Much better! I am committing to keep this closet in order because it really makes me feel put together when I open that closet and see everything ordered so neatly. If nothing else is clean in my house, this closet will be tidy!!!

Declutter - part 2

Another area where I seem to have trouble staying organized is my pantry. I like to stockpile to reduce my grocery budget but sometimes it results in having a little too much stuff and thats when stuff goes bad and is wasted. Getting something inexpensively is no deal if it goes bad before you can eat it!

So as part of my decluttering/organizing, I decided to tackle the pantry.

Before













After - much better


Please someone remind me the next time I buy pasta that I basically have enough to support Italy at the moment. All pasta deals must be donated or ignored until I can get through what I have.









The second motivation for cleaning out my stockpile is that I adopted a family for Christmas and wanted to include some groceries with my gifts. So after going through everything, this is what I set aside for this family. How exciting is this? This is why stockpiling is a good idea! All of these items I got for free or significantly reduced and so it isn't a huge deal for me to share. YAY!

Declutter - part 1

I've been trying to simplify my life and get rid of clutter and things that I am just not using. I'd much rather have less stuff to clean and know that the stuff I got rid of is getting used by someone else. No need to keep stuff hanging around when others can use it!

In conjunction with this decluttering, I've also been focusing on cleaning and organizing - 2 of my favorite activities! Yep, I'm a dork.

But seriously, I just love a clean and organized house.

This weekend I took on the task of cleaning out my shed. Since I moved into my house in April, the shed has been a dumping ground of misc. items that I didn't want to deal with or didn't know what to do with. This had to end.

Exhibits 1 and 2: The mess


Notice how the shed is so FULL of stuff that you actually cannot step foot in it. Now, it isn't a huge space but there is no need for this mess.




So I bought some shelves and got to organizing.





Exhibits 3 and 4: The Result



SO much better! Notice how you can see the floor. This is where my bike goes. Now I don't have to keep it in the dining room. Bonus.

Home Improvement Project!

I'm really tired of the 'everything in my house is the same color' scheme I have going on here. I am used to a little more color in my living space! So right now everything is sort of a neutral beige. I decided to start with the bathrooms since they are the smallest and probably the fastest rooms to finish up. Since they are small rooms, I am comfortable going with a pretty bold color. So here is a picture of my bathroom wall next to the shower curtain (which I LOVE). I thought I'd pull the blue color out of the curtain for the wall color.


So I went to Lowe's and tried to find a reasonable match. I only bought one of those sample containers because I am not positive about the color. It looks like a pretty good match but what this picture doesn't show is the intensity of the color. It is definitely a bold color! I think I like it but it might take some getting used to. I only painted a portion of the wall to test out the color. I think I'll see how it goes this week and make a decision about painting the rest or picking a new color.


What do you think? :)