project: guest bath

We started tackling our guest bathroom this weekend. We decided to start with this bath so that we had something nice for guests (and us) to use since the master bath will be a total gut project that we'll hopefully start in late summer/early fall. From far away this bathroom may not look terrible, but the tile was cracking, there was mold all along the grout lines and behind the tile, and it was also incredibly dirty and gross.

We're changing out the vanity, adding an additional sink, updating lighting, tiling, hardware, and venting, adding a new, deeper tub, and removing (hopefully) the bulkhead above the shower, toilet, and vanity. We haven't opened it up yet, but I'm hoping there isn't anything in there and it should be an easy removal.

Dirty, dirty tub, cracked tiles, and cheapo toilet. This is all going!

Don't even get me started on this texture. I hate, hate it. The previous owner also textured the ceilings with a completely different sponge texture, so it's a total mess. I purchased a drywall sander and (hopefully) will be sanding down these walls. I really hope it goes well, because I would love to sand down the rest of the house, too.

Chipping these tiles off the wall was surprisingly satisfying. I did most of the shower while Charlie tackled the vanity demo.

I'm going back and forth on whether or not I want to keep this privacy wall. I'm leaning towards yes, only because the toilet and tub area of this bathroom are about an inch and a half higher than the vanity portion (you can see the previous owners remedied this by stacking two transition strips on top of each other, ha!), and I'm not ready to commit to having someone come in and fix that so I'll probably just work with it.

source: Apartment Therapy

Here is a photo of the tiles we will be using. I love how classic and clean this combination is. We're going with gray grout so the contrast won't be as severe as it is in this photo, but it will still highlight the shape of the tiles, which a I really want. You can see the rest of the fixtures that we picked out on my home board!

Our goal is to have the bathroom completed in three weeks, but I'm optimistic that we'll be finished in two. We're also making major progress on our backyard. We're trying to get someone to come out and lay sod this week, and all we'll have left are flowers and furniture. After all of our hard work I can hardly wait to see it come together!

project: backyard

This weekend we got a little taste of what the next few months will be like while we renovate the heck out of our new house. We started with the backyard because we wanted to get all of the work done and the grass planted before the Texas heat sets in. While the backyard didn't look too bad from far away, once you got up close it was a mess. I'm pretty sure the previous owners hadn't raked or done any sort of maintenance for years. There was also an old, warped deck that was very poorly put together, but at the same time terribly difficult to remove. It was full of crappy diy concrete work that we weren't expecting, and when they cut the boards, they just left the extra pieces under the deck along with a huge amount of rock that we had to clean up. There was a good 3-4 inches of dead leaves and weeds in all of the flower beds, along with a bunch of dead, diseased, and overgrown bushes on top of it. It was so far gone we decided to just take most of it out and put grass in its place. We want a place for Tobias to play and we just want it to be clean. Currently it is a breeding ground for snakes, spiders, lizards, and many angry ants, and we want to spend our time lounging by the pool, not worrying about whether or not we're going to be bit by ants and spiders.

(Sorry these pictures are blurry. Charlie changed the settings on my camera, and I didn't notice it as I was quickly taking these pics!)

This is how it is currently... I have to keep telling myself that it will get worse before it gets better, right? This is after ten 30 gallon bags full of yard debris had been cleaned up. We're hiring someone to haul away the old deck boards as well as the red brick trim along the pool and the various other random stones that were littering the yard. We're also cutting down the bush blocking the sidewalk by the house, the bush behind the diving board, and removing the diving board. After this is done we're getting pest control out to get rid of the critters, planting grass, and power-washing the concrete. Then I can finally get around to the fun stuff and order all of our patio furniture. I expect we'll be finished in the next week, and the grass will hopefully have filled in over the next six weeks before we move in.

 I'll make sure to share the after once the project is complete!

forest green + a new "man cave"

I've been brainstorming ideas for Charlie's "man room" and I keep finding myself drawn to deep, forest green walls. This color is totally different than what I normally gravitate towards, but I'm up for the challenge. Last week I shared where I'm incorporating this color into the upholstery of a project I'm working on, and I'm totally ready to try it in my own home!

 Via Bailey McCarthy | Peppermint Bliss

via Design Sponge

via Apartment Therapy

Choosing the right color for the walls is going to be difficult, because this green can go wrong so quickly. I've been looking at Shamrock and Evergreens by Sherwin-Willams and Chopped Chive and Painted Turtle from Behr. These are all totally different from each other, and the furniture we decide on is what is going to help make the final decision. I'm almost 100% sold on this sofa for the room.

via Horchow

There will definitely be some Eames Lounge Chair action, along with a wall of his guitars, lots of wood, and major pops of gold.

I also found this fab photography on Society 6 (my new obsession) to add with our other Marfa prints.

Photography by Universal Invisibility

I can. not. wait. to see how it turns out. Who knew I'd get so excited for a man room!