Something for Sunday

We didn't want to miss this moment in time, so we set an alarm a minute before so we could be ready. I told Butch we needed to do something! So we made a wish and kissed. Sort of like New Year's Eve, but not! Oh well, at least we didn't miss it. 

Steph and Nicky got this thank you note. 

Now lest you think there's something wrong with this, you need to know that her mean friend is really her BEST friend. They are inseparable. We thought it was hilarious! 

My sister, Jeanne with her little granddaughter, Rosalee (Rosie).

Grandma knows best!

Stephanie and Nicky recently remodeled their powder room with a Nashville theme.

The custom toile wallpaper contains scenes from around Nashville like the "batman" building, Loveless Cafe, Porter and Dolly, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Ryman Auditorium (mother church of country music) and more. Too bad I don't have a before picture. Too bad I don't have a before picture as it's quite a transformation. Luckily, we were able to use the "old" decorations and pictures in the condo we did a few weeks ago. 

That's it for this Sunday.

Friday Funnies

The Big Beach Reveal Part 2!

I am so tired, I can hardly write this!! It's a good tired. Bone weary tired. A tired of accomplishment. A satisfying tired. Still, I will get this post done and then collapse in to bed with my book that is oh so good (The Push by Ashley Audrain---thanks Connie--she gave it to me for my birthday). I'm looking forward to that!!

Along with putting everything back in place, there has been a lot of cleaning. A. Lot. There was a construction clean done prior to us getting here, but it wasn't to my standards. I can be a little fanatical about that (don't laugh Judy and Chrissy--they knew me when I was a mess!). I realized I might be a little over the top when I did this:

I washed all the rocks and also sea shells that are in my decorations. If you look close, you might see a tooth and a diamond. As for the tooth, I thought someone was messing with me. Then I realized that it was just a tooth shaped piece of wax! As for the diamond, there were two. The candles in the background have little rhinestones on them. I guess a few fell off in to the rocks. 

Without further ado, here are the final pictures. 

The hallway is really long and was also very dark. We added the white beadboard to help lighten it up. To put it in to perspective, those rug runners are 12 ft. long. I actually could have used another---the hall is that long. This is what you see when you walk through the front door.

This is the view from the other end. I do love my green door! Considering there are just two bedrooms, I managed to use 9 different paint colors! I want what I want!

This is the view when you step in to the living room. You can see the dining area in the background. Before:

The furnishings were inherited from when we bought the place. We did replace the couch and loveseat. There was a lot of rust color--not my favorite. But, since we've rented it out for a number of years, we lived with it. I wasn't invested in it at all. It was just a rental. All that has changed now!

After:

Lightened it up quite a bit. We added all new lights throughout because it was so dark.

Before:

This is the couch and loveseat that we bought. 

After:

I swapped out all the pillows to make the furniture seem "new." We kept the mirrored wall as it makes it look much bigger--we only have about 1100 sq.ft. You can see the shades in the half open position--my favorite. I picked a colorful polka dot rug for a little extra interest. 

This is looking back towards the hallway. We put shiplap on this little wall. As you may have noticed, I LOVE white! It looks so clean and crisp. Plus I feel like white gives the place a beachy vibe. 

The kitchen was awful. I never liked it. I was really happy to see it go!

I only remember to take a photo when we were disassembling everything. You have to picture there were New England lighthouses lining the tops of the cabinets. We're on the gulf---no lighthouses in sight!! I was really happy to see it go! 

Here's the kitchen. Butch loves those metal fish over the cabinets. They were all throughout the place. I don't really like them, but decided to make him happy by using them. I wanted them to appear to be swimming in the ocean amidst some plants. The plants were from before. I literally dunked and swished them in sudsy water, rinsed and let them dry outside. Okay, you really have to use your imagination to think it looks like "under the sea" but it looks pretty good in person!

I couldn't wait to do the kitchen---we did it last. 

You cannot tell from these pictures, but we cut 9" off the counter and eliminated the barstools. It's really opened up the dining area. Considering all the problems we've had with our appliances, we're just happy that it has all come together. 

We're exhausted--3 solid days of work--but such fun work. We're not sure we could do another day. Tomorrow I'm meeting with the drapery lady about the bedroom windows. Also, the neighbors next door asked if they could come over. And then, Christy (my designer in Nashville) is coming by. I've already told her that we missed using her on this project. ALL of those headaches would have been HERS!! 

It's over now. Given all the hassles and headaches, would we do it again? Absolutely. Only this time we'd know what we were in for. And we'd wait for the pandemic to be over! 

One last thing I need to mention. I cannot believe how much hard, physical labor that Butch can do to his body. There is no way that I could be down on my knees on stone tile. He was up and down so much that you might think he was a carousel horse!! In this photo, he was adjusting the levelers on the refrigerator that kept it from moving. The delivery guy said there weren't any on it. I guess he didn't want to have to get down on the floor. He was a much younger guy, but a big guy, so he probably couldn't do it. Butch didn't give it a second thought! He just does what needs to be done.

Truly, he's amazing! He's so good to let me order him around. We've come a long way in 49 years!!

Okeedokee, my book is calling me!! 

The Big Beach Reveal

Well, it's been difficult. It's been frustrating. It's been stressful. It's been a long road.It's been a bumpy road. There's been one snafu after another.

Things we ordered were back-ordered and no one bothered to tell us. 

Things became unavailable and no one bothered to tell us. Things were discontinued and we had to start all over. 

We didn't have enough tile--not once, but twice and had to order more--and wait and wait. 

Things arrived damaged or they didn't arrive at all. Things didn't arrive on the dates they said and were weeks late.

Things fell apart when they were removed from the box and had to be replaced. 

It's the timing of everything. Each thing builds on another. The plumber can't do this until this is done. The electrician can't do this until the plumber does his part. The tile man can't do his part when the tile is backordered. And on and on. Getting people to come out was another issue. 

Appliances! OMGosh who knew you would have to wait so long for appliances. I cannot begin to tell you the saga of getting a new refrigerator. It took 3 deliveries before "they" got it right. 

The shower doors shattered when they were taken out of the box. I think you get the picture. One. Thing. After. Another!

So what did we learn from all this? It's darn hard to do a project this big when you can't be there to oversee everything and meet deliveries that are always late or non-existent. Or maybe, the bigger reason it was so hard was that we did it during a pandemic when things were so crazy anyway. I'm sure that had a lot to do with it. 

Finally, we are here this week putting it all together. This is the fun and exciting part! We are exhausted. Everything hurts. In two days, we've gotten both bedrooms and bathrooms, the hallway, bunks and living room together. 

Anyway, it's been worth the wait! Without further ado...here we go! I'm dividing it in a couple posts.

Master bedroom before (most of this was inherited from when we bought the place:

After:

I had just replaced the bedding not too long ago, so knew I wanted to keep it. We shiplapped the back wall and had it painted the same color as the walls. We replaced lamps, ceiling fan, artwork and added a rug.

We had already replaced the floors a few years ago. They are called floating  floors. I don't really know what that means.

A lady from Artistry Home is coming on Thursday to talk to me about the window treatment. I know what I want. It will be white linen panels. As you already know about me, I love white. I already love the shades.

The "lady" suggested these. They were new to me, but I love them! Butch loved them too. You can't mess them up. They can be fully opened or only every other one opens so you can see out. These are on the front so I will probably leave them fully closed. They still allow a lot of light in. We got these for all the windows.

We put barn doors in both bedrooms to the bathroom to allow a little more room in small bathrooms. 

The master bath before:

You can see that towel bar over the toilet  that makes it impossible to decorate around.

After:

We gutted the bathrooms. It was one of those inserts before, now it's fully tiled.

Butch picked out this vanity because the one I had picked out wouldn't work. That lead to the faucets we bought didn't work. We had to replace those at the last minute too. You can't really see the tile in this picture. It's like little leaves. We did subway tile in the shower with an insert of the leaves. We used gray grout to make it stand out. I have this same mirror at home in our pool bath. It's just a plain beveled round mirror. I love the simplicity of it.

The guest room before:

Again, new bedding so I kept that. This place was full of these metal type sculptures. I don't particularly care for them, but I was outvoted. 

Where the chair is used to be a big wardrobe that housed the tv. I had the hutch part removed. Then I put the bottom, chest of drawers part in the little alcove. I moved the chair to the window and bought a new cushion. 

We don't have the tv hooked up yet. We might have to get someone out to do that. We bought a narrow table that Butch had to put together. He's getting pretty good at that!

The hall bath before:

Again, another darn towel rack. This bathroom was pretty blah.

After:

Again, we removed the insert and had it tiled with an arabesque clear glass and a wavy glass on the side walls. 

Stephanie and Mindy wanted us to keep the medicine chest so we did. Personally, I think it takes up too much room. But heck, if they want it they can have it!

The bunk area before:

After:

We shiplapped the entire area and changed the ladder to make it easier to get up there. It's a good thing we don't have small children because I don't think this would pass codes. Our "guy" put the bar too high (he's tall) to keep any child from falling out! Still, we love how it turned out.

I don't think we have a bone or muscle that doesn't ache. I don't know how Butch keeps getting down on his knees for so many reasons. Not me. I might get down there, but I'd have a hard time getting up! Still, my feet throb! Butch's do too. Unfortunately, I forgot my Fitbit, so I don't know how many miles I'm doing. I was just going to go by Butch's Fitbit, but his battery died and he forgot the charger for that. Oh well. I really would have liked to know.

Okay, that's it for today. Even though we finished the hall and living room, I'm going to wait until tomorrow to share them.

Until then...I hope you are having a great week!

Tuesday Thoughts about...

...organizing a big project. 

When it came to the beach condo remodel, I knew it was going to be a big job. I had to figure out how I was going to organize all the bits and details. 

My original thought was that I'd use a 3-ring binder and tabs. When I went up to my supply closet (yes, I have a huge supply closet with pens, paper, notebooks, binders, envelopes---every office supply you could ever want), instead of the binder, I saw this pocket folder thing that I've had for years. Knowing me, I bought it because I thought it was a good idea and then never had anything I needed it for. Now was the perfect time!

I had the urge to "decorate" it, but stopped myself. "Come on, Barb, it's just a little folder set! You just need practicality!" I wish the first one was any other color besides purple as that's my least favorite. But it doesn't really matter now, does it? No.

I labeled--I have tons of labels too-- each section to represent each room of the condo. 

I filled it with pictures of what I picked out, notes of what I wanted to do, receipts and business cards.

I included the paint swatches for each room.

It worked out perfectly and made it easy to find any information I needed. My plan is to put this in a file box along with the hundreds of warranty and instruction manuals and bits from all the appliances, furniture and each aspect of the "stuff" we bought. Most likely it will never be looked at again. But in case of any issues, at least I'll have everything in one place. 

Before iPhones and computers, I was a spiral notebook kind of gal. It was my life!! I used it for everything in my from the grocery list to travel plans. It was easy enough to flip through and find gift lists, menus, ideas, to do lists, recipes and any other info in my life at the time. Everything was in there. I used a notebook for each of my clients when I had my organizing business too. That worked out great. In fact, once, a full year after a project, I got a call from the client and had the info right there in her notebook.

I miss my notebooks. Now it's all on my phone or computer. It's not the same. It's not as rewarding. I've adjusted. I'm not even sure I could go back. 

Times have definitely changed. 

Tuesday Thoughts About...

... the Vaccine. There is so much talk about the vaccine. Who gets it, when do we get it, is it safe, should I get it and on and on and on.

All I know is that I got an email from Vanderbilt a couple weeks ago that I should be getting it around the first week of February. They said that they would contact me when it's time to come in. 

Okay, I'm fine with that. I'm fine with letting them tell me when to come. I'm not going to worry about going somewhere and waiting in long lines. I'll just wait until I hear something. 

In the meantime, Mindy got her first dose before Christmas.

Now you might be thinking, "Hmmm. Why does this young, healthy girl get it before us old folks?" She's gotten that a lot. But the truth of it is, she works for Vanderbilt and is considered essential to them (and me for that matter!). She's in their IT department. Everyone knows that the world cannot function without computers anymore. Especially in the hospital setting, they need to have their technology running at all times. 

She just got her second dose this week and the medal to prove it! Vanderbilt takes care of their own. 

Now it's my turn. They take care of their patients too! I'm ready!

Monday Mystery

This is more of a question than a mystery. But on the other hand, I guess every mystery is actually a question. 

For about 17 years, Margarita has cleaned for us once a week. We love her. She's willing to do anything--and does. Most things we don't ask her to do---she just does it---like, blowing the leaves off the patio and porch or shoveling out the ashes in the fireplace, or occasionally wiping out the refrigerator. She'll even do laundry. But, we learned very early on that we don't want her to do the laundry. She's just not good at it. She mixes up everything, no sorting involved. I definitely don't want cleaning cloths washed with my sheets! So, we do our own laundry. We do it on Sunday. Since there's just the two of us, it's only a load of dark and a load of whites. 

So, on Monday, when Margarita gets here, there might be a couple towels from that morning's showers. Right away, I noticed this. Now I understand that everyone folds towels differently, But don't most people have a preference and then fold them all the same way? Not Margarita. She just folds them any which way. 

Here's how she did these two towels this week. Exact same towels, just folded completely different. Of course, I had to re-fold them. I'm particular like that. I fold towels exactly like my mother did.

1. Fold in half.

2. Fold in half again.

3. Fold one side to the middle. Then fold the other side to the middle.

4. Presto! A beautifully folded towel. I've seen them done all different ways, but I think the way my mom did them look the best---especially when stacked up in the linen closet. 

What about you? How do you fold your towels?