Our Front yard Garden

     What's made this journey so rewarding is all the family time it's invited. I've loved working in our yard and on our house with our families. We've gained so many memories that I'll be sharing with my kids one day. The love, support, and wisdom of our families has made this such a special season for us. :-)

(Yikes! This is what our front garden looked like when we first moved in. We pulled out almost everything but the bushes. We also trimmed the trees so they are no longer on our roof yay!)

 (My parents helping us with our Esperanza the right way lol. My parents are pro gardeners, seriously! They need to own their own nursery.) 

 (My mom showing me how to trim the bushes. We are about to plant the Pentas!)

 (My mother-in-law and my mom pulling out the old ugly bushes. Talk about a strong root system. Love this picture! *good memories*)

 (Our freshly planted flowers. My mom insisting on water our garden *her therapy*. She said we have to saturate the newbies since they don't have a root system yet.)

 (My dad fertilizing our grass and teaching us how to have a green yard like his :-) And He was right. Our grass has never looked better according to our neighbor.)

(Fresh mulch! We planted Pentas and Caladiums!)

 (In the beginning)

(As you can see this is before my office had any blinds.)

 (The grass has come a long way. Hubby and I have done a great job maintaining the flowers! Nothings died yet! haha)

 (Our baby Esperanza in the corner. I can't wait till it fills out and hangs over our fence)

 (This picture was taken today (7-21-13). Garden is super full. The garden to the far right is still empty. We were trying to grow hydrangeas but they are so dramatic lol. We are gonna pull them out and do the same thing we did with the other garden and plant Pentas and Caladiums. They are really low maintenance. )

 (We aren't sure if we're keeping the middle bushes, they came with the house lol. I saw one flower bloom on it, so I'm hoping with a little tlc it will fully bloom sometime this summer or next.)

 (Our baby Crape Myrtles in royal purple. They are stunning! You can see our Esperanza in the far corner. Look at our GREEN grass! Hubby and I have been working hard and watering like crazy. )

 (My mom has helped us so much. She has a green thumb!)

 (Baby CM)

(Progress is exciting!)

(It's all coming together nicely)

 (I love our front patio. I'm thinking about painting our front door teal.)

(Home sweet home. Thank you Jesus for your many blessings)

Final decision on paint colors

Our final decisions on paint colors so far are as such:

Living room, hallways, entryway and dining room - Behr's Pebble Path and Behr's Peacock Tail for the accent wall.

Pebble Path is a nice warm color but shows up super yellow in EVERY picture and in the evenings against our house lights. During the day when the sun is shining in it's fine. So, we are going to repaint the hallways in whatever color we choose to repaint the dinning room. 

 (Pebble path in the entry way and living room while the sun is blazing through the windows! Love it)

 (I love Behr's Pebble Path while the sun is shining)

 (Behr's Pebble Path in the evenings...yuck! Yes, the dinning room is getting repainted. Can you believe it's the same color!?!?)

 (Behr's Peacock Tail blue. We love this color. Unfortunately, it looks navy blue in almost every picture. In person it's more teal. I have no idea why the green tint doesn't come through in pictures. (Again, Pebble Path looking very yellow...total bust) My dad thought we were nuts painting an accent wall this color, but now that he sees the full picture he really loves it. I can't wait for you to see it decorated!)

Master bedroom - Behr's Zen (accent wall) and Behr's Burnt Almond for the other three walls

We first painted the other three walls in Pebble Path..yuck! The yellow in Pebble Path pulled out all the yellows in Zen and made it look almost slimmer green. Hubs and I quickly back Burnt Almond and spent all night repainting the walls the painters just painted. We are crazy! But we are now VERY happy. It was worth the extra work.

 (Behr's Pebble Path next to Behr's Zen...yuck! They bring out the worst in each other.) 

(We love Behr's Zen now that the other walls are Behr's Burnt Almond. Also this is a great picture of our base boards and refinished floors)

My office - Behr's Gray Morning

 

I love it. It's calming yet creative. Perfect for my work space. Lots of natural light in this room as well.

Master Bathroom - Behr's Ice Cube

Everyone loves the color we painted our bathroom. It's very feminine. We added shimmery glass accessories and eventually want to change the mirror frames and cabinet nobs, along with the shower trim.

 (the master bathroom wasn't bad to begin with, just boring for us)

 (Master bathroom in Behr's Ice Cube. It gives a fresh and clean feel. We still have to paint the white areas to make them crisp.)

Rooms we have yet to paint :

-Guest bed room (future nursery)
-Kitchen
-Guest bathroom (repaint)
-Dinning room (repaint)
-Laundry room

    I would like to do something fresh and crazy in the laundry room. Something like sea foam green. You only live once, live in color! What's the worst that could happen? If you hate it buy another $40 gallon of paint and burn some calories repainting...no big deal! :-) Have fun with your space. Being happy is the most important thing.
     Paint colors are very tricky. Look at my experience with Pebble Path. I spent days searching other people's pictures online, I tried tons of samples and yet I still have to repaint. It's part of the process. :-)

Replacing the Quarter Round Molding

       When we first moved in the previous owner had ripped out the base boards when laying the wood floors, and replaced them with a quarter round molding. My father-in-law offered to help us install real base boards.

Here are a few pics of my dad helping me as I purchase our base boards:

My Father-in-law hard at work:

 Hubby painting the new base boards:

Choosing Paint Colors

    Choosing paint colors was one of the hardest tasks. As you can see we bought tons of paint samples, this picture only shows half of what we purchased. Eventually our sample paint collection filled the entire shelf space.

     Even after all my research and trial of all the paint colors, there are some rooms I'm going to repaint. The way a color looks depends on it's surroundings. Don't assume the color of your dreams is the right color until you've looked at it next to other colors and in different lighting. Also, ask the paint department what colors and the amounts they are mixing to make the color you want. Those are the colors that will be pulled out the most. Many people ask how much yellow or green is in a color because they don't want their walls looking yellow or green (muddy). It's all about personal preference.

 

My office

     I love my office. It's such a cozy little space that hubby let me do up anyway I wanted. The only things it's missing is beautiful curtains.

 

 

(Our nephew checking out the room)

(I spent all day painting this room)

(Wet paint)

(My little cozy space)

 

A bigger Master bedroom

      My major prayer request when we started house hunting was for God to bless me with a huge master bedroom. My husband brought a large framed king size bed, matching night stands and a huge dresser into our marriage. While living in the apartment we barely had room to walk, and the dresser stayed with his parents. A small master bedroom was a deal breaker. I wouldn't even look at a house until I saw the master's measurements.  

      We looked at this houses several times before putting an offer. After much prayer we moved forward. But one thing was for sure, that over-sized storage unit had to GO!

 

(In this picture you can see how obnoxious the shelving unit was. It's also a good picture of the floors before we refinished them. You can also see the quarter round molding before we installed real base boards.)

 (Our nephew helping us pick paint colors )

 (Our nephew explaining why his color choice is the right one)

 (My dad being silly and my mom holding our nephew)

 (Yes! It's gone! The painters we hired had to re-texture the walls.)

Would you like to see what our master bedroom looks like now? I will reveal more in future posts. :-)

***CLICK HERE FOR UPDATED PICTURES***

First Project: Refinishing our wood floors

     Wow! Anyone out there? It's been awhile! Hubs and I have been super busy making our new house liveable. I must say, we have succeeded! When we first moved in the thick red oak floors were all natural. We had to stain them, paint the tan/green walls, and do a number or repairs. The house still needs lots of work before it's perfect but we are finally in a place where the necessary work is finished. We can take our time with the rest of our list and do a little something here or there for the joy of it.
      Here are a few before and after pictures of  our first project when we first moved in (October 2012).

   Refinishing the wood floors:

 (My handsome hubby standing in our living room. I was tempted to paint our mantel but knowing I was going to paint the walls Behr's "peacock tail" blue I didn't want a white mantel and blue walls to give off a crisp, preppy or nautical look. )

 

(Hubs standing toward the back of the living room, near the dining room on his right)

 (Hubs learning how to refinish hard wood floors, thanks to his coworker who helped us for free! Talk about an amazing house warming gift!)

 

 (Let the staining begin)

 

 (They started straight after work, and worked throughout the night for several days.)

(Wow! Talk about dedication)

 

 (Gorgeous!)

(I was so happy when it was finished! The house smell horrid for days.)

I wish I could show you how our house looks now. Stay tuned and I'll take you through our beautiful transformation!