Weekend Updates

This past weekend was supposed to be Chris' weekend off from house projects, but we were able to squeeze in a couple of updates.

First up: towel hooks.

Our master bath had no towel bars or hooks by the time we received the keys to the house.  My guess is that the sellers had installed their own when they owned the house, and took them with them when they packed up.  I thought that all fixtures are supposed to stay with the house when you're selling, but we weren't big fans of what they had anyways so it was ok that they took them. You can see the hooks in this picture from our house hunt.

We picked up some brushed nickle hooks from Home Depot on Friday night and Chris got to work installing them as well as some hand towel rings by each of our sinks.  I also hung some art/decor to fill up some of the empty wall space in the bathroom.

In another oddity there was no towel bar in the guest bath upstairs either (only the one that comes in the actual shower), so we installed a oil rubbed bronze one to go with the color scheme in there.

In not so fun news we noticed that our garbage disposal has not been working and started to fill the sink back up with crud when we run the water.  I thought we would need to call a plumber, but Chris knew how to take apart our old one and replace it with a new one.  So glad he's got these house skills!

Our other weekend updates came courtesy of our handyman (the same one that was in charge of the changes at my parents house).  He was able to mount the family room tv above our fireplace and run the cords upstairs to a nook in the gameroom.  This way we're left with a clean look in our family room and with a point anywhere RF remote (which should be arriving any day now), we'll be able to use the remote downstairs to send a signal to the box upstairs.  For now we have to go upstairs if we want to change the channel or we just watch tv in the gameroom.

And last but not least, we finally got rid of the outside light that has been on constantly since the first day we came to see the house back in June.

Someone really smart got paint over the sensor so the light was always on.  Chris tried to look at it before, but when pulling it down he noticed that there was different hard wiring for the each of the lights so we left it up until our handyman could look at.  It turns out the left light is wired to the sensor while the right light is connected to the another 4 lights that we have going around our backyard which are all controlled by a switch in our master bedroom (something we only learned this weekend when trying every switch we could to figure out what the other light was wired to).

Have you made any updates to your house lately?

Not So Bare Walls

We decided to take a break from unpacking boxes and start hanging some of our framed art and pictures.

I've always wanted to have a gallery wall and could not wait to put one up!  Before finding this house, the plan was to use the staircase but that idea when out the window with our L shaped stairs.  Instead we decided to use the space between the coat closet and the kitchen opening.

We played around with the placement thanks to the ever popular trace method and ended up adding some more once the original set of frames were up.

I love that the gallery wall can be seen from the entryway.

We also hung some DIY projects like the chalkboard menu for the kitchen and a shadow box of the paper goods we made for our wedding that now resides in my office.

Speaking of my office, I have to give a huge thanks to my husband for mounting the tv in my office and putting together my desk (which we picked up at Ikea when we purchased our couch).

We're still waiting for Chris' diploma to come in so it can hang on the same wall as mine.  I guess my college was out of the norm, because we actually received ours at our graduation ceremony.  Other people I have talked to (including my brother and Chris) received theirs in the mail 6-8 weeks after the ceremony.

With so much bare wall space still left in this house, I can't wait to unpack some of our other frames and get them hung.

Do you feel like hanging pictures or art makes a place feel more lived in?

A Couch You've Probably Seen Before

Over Labor Day weekend, Chris and I made a trip to the mecca known as IKEA to pick up our new couch!

I'm pretty sure most of you have seen this couch before, and may even have it in your own home.  I first saw it on YHL and thought that it would be a very economical way to get the sectional we wanted.

Chris put the frame together while I was busy putting all of the cushions into their cases.  About an hour later and we finally had a couch to sit on and enjoy in our living room!

I couldn't wait to break out the pillowcases that I sewed last year.  Love how they pop against the darker fabric of the sofa!

We still have some work to do in this room like
- mount the tv above the fireplace
- buy a chair and side table
- figure out what to do in the corner next to the fireplace
- add some more lighting
- change out the curtain panels (red ones were left over from the sellers)
- hang art/frames
- a new rug?

Are you a fan of colorful accent pillows?