I’ve been without phone and internet since Monday so I am sorry that I’ve been slow to respond to emails….and have neglected my blog other than the couple of posts I’d prepared ahead of time.  I logged on tonight and was greeted to a huge spike in traffic this week.  Of course, I was curious to see what was up.  Much to my surprise, I was nominated for a “Best Home Design Blog” Homies award via Apartment Therapy.

First off, thanks so much to whomever took the time to nominate me.  Two plus years into my blog, I still get excited when you take the time to comment and email me….even if I am slow these days to respond.  So, thanks so much for whomever took the time to nominate me!  Voting is open until tomorrow night.  Lots of great blogs in the running!

In my house news, the backsplash tile is here….and being installed starting tomorrow AM.  My sister is coming into town to help me dig out over here….the house looks like a WAR zone.  She is a saint to come help!  So, I’ll most likely be back Monday with more before and after images.

Do you remember what the “before” of our foyer looked like?

Periodic remodels in the circa 1920′s home’s history resulted in a choppy and circuitous layout.  Lack of light and flow really were the main reasons we started down the path towards remodeling.  Here is the foyer today….I cannot even begin to tell you how happy we are with the end result.  (It was SO worth this…..)

As you can see, we re-oriented the stairway to create a center hall plan.  We also moved the entrance to our living room (on the right) by widening it and centering it on the room.   Night and day, right? 

Today is the day…..we are moving home.  I thought I would use this week to post the before and afters of the house…….before decorating, of course.  First up, the exterior front of the house.

Before image below (in summer months…..leaves on the trees make such a difference, by the way.)

After shots, as of yesterday….. 

We are meeting with the landscapers to review their proposal for the front yard tomorrow.  We are also working towards replacing the concrete front path with stone.  We are also waiting on front door hardware as I changed my mind on style after our builder had ordered.  Hopefully it will only be only a couple more weeks. Finally, we are waiting on the house numbers which have to be mounted to the house, per code.  They are in the works.

I’ll admit my yellow door has taken some getting used to.  But, I love it.  And I love that we’ll always be “the house with the yellow door.”  And if I tire of it…..it is a cheap change.  All in all, I couldn’t be happier!

All is well that ends well.

The paper is up in Maddie’s room….

Essentially, we didn’t have enough wallpaper to do her vanity area.  Our builder had the great idea to put the leftover paper on the ceiling in there and to paint the walls.  To be completely honest, I think I like this BETTER than if I’d papered the whole space.  (This photo is awful and I had to adjust the fill light so you could see….but….it is better than nothing I suppose.)

 The walls will be painted Benjamin Moore’s Palladian Blue.

I am happy.

But, more important…..

Maddie is happy!

Have a great weekend!

My husband was telling me about an article he recently read about how facebook is so detrimental to young girls.  The author asserts that people only post positive updates about themselves and young girls constantly are comparing themselves against these unrealistic snippets of life.  When you read blogs, can you ever relate?  Perfect house, perfect looking kids, bloggers who look like they could be ready for a magazine shoot at a moments notice, women who can take an Ikea steal….whip out their power tools and end up with a magazine worthy masterpiece?

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Well, in the spirit of keeping it real around here…

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My kitchen chairs arrived…..and look like they fell off the truck on the way in.  En route to get an estimate to re-finish them…..I got a ticket in which the police officer stopped me in the middle lane of a busy road….cars roared by honking….I still don’t really know what I did wrong…..and still am not sure why we couldn’t pull off the road.

The wallpaper for Maddie’s room…..9 rolls short.  Really?  Seriously?  How does this happen?  I had the room measured twice…..

Backsplash for kitchen shipping today…or so the folks at Ann Sacks say….we move back in on Monday.  Not going to happen in time.  And packing for the move back home…..haven’t even thought about it.

Husband went to work with Maddie’s carseat one day this week.  Kindof negated the fact that he was kind enough to take her to soccer practice the night before.  Thank goodness he works 10 minutes from our house….and is a super great guy who ran home after I triggered our “it’s an emergency leave your meeting and take my call alert!”

The last time I bought new make-up (other than the obvious like lipstick, powder and mascara) was the night before the Texas State Society’s inagural ball when Obama was inaugurated.  TOO long.  So I went to Neimans and let them do their magic last week.  Only thing…they convinced me to pre-order so I could get all of these gifts that were part of a promotion.  They lured me in with promises of some big gift they only had 18 of…..all while I was watching my watch knowing I needed to get to carpool pick-up.  Now, I want my make-up……but the thought of going to the mall to get it…..pretty low on my list.  I must admit….I don’t like the mall.  What was I thinking walking out of the store without my loot?!?

So, with that…I think I am going to take the day off.  An activity at Maddie’s school, maybe a jog with Harry in tow (or a brisk walk is more my speed these days—I desperately need to find my way back to the gym) and an afternoon trip to the park.    I am going to the house to meet with my workroom about my dining room drapes.  I hope I am greeted to my yellow door……that would really make me smile!  Oh yeah, and I know the look on Maddie’s face when her Daddy and I are in the back of chapel watching her class lead the service…..will make the day perfect….at least in our world!  And I wouldn’t trade it for a thing!

See you back here tomorrow.

Do you remember the “Before” exterior shot of our house?

Well, here is what it looked like over the weekend.

Since this photo, the roof over the porch has been replaced with a metal roof.  I forgot to bring my camera when I was over at the house yesterday.  The last thing we need to do before we move in next week is have the front door painted.  We’ve sortof gone back and forth.  We want high gloss….and feel we need contrast to the shutters…..since we are doing the gloss.  Well, we decided to take a risk and go…..yellow.  Look at the front door of a local Dallas Antiques store….which I took with my iPhone out the window of my car with traffic barreling down upon me!

Nick Brock Antiques 

The color is Benjamin Moore’s “Yellow Rain Coat.”  Our front door is set back and I think this color is going to give us a nice (and maybe unexpected….pop).  And after all, it is just paint, right?  Here are some more yellow door images.

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Are you feeling this?

Think I am crazy?

Would love to hear your thoughts.