build it yourself or an old charmer?

Almost everyday that I work, I drive past this home

I am in the love with every detail. 

My house is brick, but if I were going to paint the brick ... I think I'd choose this color scheme.

I was looking back in my phone the other day and I found the picture above. I've also watched the video of Edie's new home too many times.

The two combined have got me thinking.

I always felt pretty certain that my dream was to live in a big old house someday. 

I love the history and character that old homes carry ... like the one above.

A lot of the architectural details of an old home cannot be replicated.

However, after watching Edie's video ... I feel strangely drawn to the dream of building a new home.

(obviously neither of these are a reality for us anytime soon ... but I can dream right?)

I cannot even imagine getting the freedom of picking out every detail in a new home.

Everything from cabinets to countertops to doors to doorknobs, to how wide you want the hard wood flooring to be. 

Not to mention all the lighting options.

I don't know if I would love it, or if it would totally stress me out. 

But having EVERYTHING brand new would be AMAZING!

Everything would be so clean ... for a little while at least.

However, I think that it would feel cleaner for longer. New stuff just seems cleaner than old stuff.

What about you all ... for your dream home ... would you go with a built to yourself ... or an old charmer in need of personal touches?

a look into the past year {our home}

For two people that know practically nothing about remodeling or renovation, I think that we made a few major advances on this place we call home.

In the past year, we turned this ...

Into this ...

 

 

A spare bedroom that actually has function.

And we turned this ...

 

Into this ...

 We gutted everything! Our bathroom might be my favorite room in the house.

And lastly

 This...

 

Into this...

Since we turned the nasty, poor excuse for an office area into a spare bedroom, we used some of the laundry room space for office area.

It is truly amazing what a couple cans of paint (we've painted walls, furniture, chandelier, you name it!) and some homemade window treatments can do. That part we could do on our own, but when it came to the bathroom we were clueless! Thankfully we had an amazing couple from our church that helped us in unmeasurable ways.

I'll be back soon to share some of my plans for this years' changes. I bet you can guess ... our kitchen is DEFINITELY included in those plans!

an itty bitty baby

This is not a post about the American Girl doll I coveted in the 4th grade.

This is a post about the itty bitty baby that is growing in my friend Cory's belly!

Yesterday, Cory announced that her and Dusty are expecting their first child.

Here "he/she" is!

In her announcement, Cory said "the baby is mostly just a blob right now." I was going to name this post "an itty bitty blob," but I didn't want to make any sort of reference to my beliefs on when life begins. Whatever your beliefs are, Cory has a baby in her belly. Their baby is due on March 21st...only 5 days before my bday :) I like to think he/she is going to be born on my birthday!!


I don't know a lot about babies or being a mom, but I do know that if I have a baby one day I want to carry it in one of these...

Congratulations Cory and Dusty!
For today, I am going to continue parenting my wild puppy!

FYI: Tomorrow I have the honor of attending a "cat shower" for my office mate. I will let you know how it goes. I will be bringing yarn.
______________________________________________________
On another note, here are some pictures I did not add to my bathroom post.
These are truly "before" pictures.

Here is what the bathroom looked like before the demolition even began...

shower OR bath?

When we moved into our house about 1 year ago there was very little difference between taking a shower and taking a bath! Our plumbing was so bad that you would be standing in a bath tub full or water by the end of your shower. And the idea of someone taking a shower right after you- oh that was totally out of the question. It took what seemed like decades for the water to drain! I guess that is what you get when you move into a house with 55 year-old plumbing. We tried drain-o and everything else the stores had to offer, however, the water continued to rise. We lived with this shower/bath dilemma for almost a year. As the problem became worse and the water rose higher, my tolerance became lower. Finally E and I broke down and decided to take on a remolding project! Let me warn you E and I have no experience in "handy work." The tension in the room rises when we take on simple projects like hanging pictures together! haha Does anyone else experience this? Thankfully we were blessed with two great friends who flip houses. They were truly a God send. We totally gutted the entire bathroom! Take a look for yourself....

This is what it looked like in the beginning
The vanity literally took up the entire room.

The green "thing" is a window that went into our laundry room. Several years ago the previous owners added onto the house. In order to block the lovely view of the washer and dryer, they put up a hunter green shade. How gloomy and dark?

You've gotta love that wallpaper.


Here I am hard at work.
Don't let me fool you. I did very little hard labor. My duties involved the design creativity aka "buying stuff."

From gloomy and sad...
To bright and fun!
We used the wasted window space and created some built-ins...
I will share with you in a later post about what I did with the window


We used white subway tiles on the shower
The cut outs are one of my favorite parts
A little attention to the details

Fresh flowers: you might be thinking "how does Rachel afford fresh flowers every week?" Well, these lovely hydrangeas were picked right off UK's campus. Some may feel like that is stealing, but after being a UK student I'll take anything I can get. If you're also a UK alum, I know you can feel my pain! True story- I once heard of someone stealing toilet paper in protest of tuition rises! I haven't taken it that far yet!


I love apothecary jars
Once a cake topper- now a bathroom decoration


From my favorite bath store- LUSH

One word of advice, do not buy any of the bath bombs with confetti. The confetti pokes and OUCH it hurts!

Hope you enjoy. Feel free to comment if you have any questions on product information! Enjoy your weekend! I am planning on spending some much needed time with friends and family.