Sneak peak at paint

 

S's room - a little more neon than I expected, but maybe it will settle into a nice honeydew?

My office



The living room

Desperately in need of advice as to how I should furnish this long, narrow living room space, so leave a comment if you have some ideas.  In any event, it's nice to see the blue carpet gone!

Diamonds are a girl's best friend

I'm so excited to see our guest bathroom complete because we found my dream flooring at Porcelanosa and picked it up this week.  It's going to be AMAZING.  And inspiration for it came from the Disney store, of all places.  Incidentally I was at the mall today and stopped by the store to lust over the flooring in there once more until I have my own to look at every day.  Ours won't be the same color, but check it out -

I must have our flooring on my mind, because look at what I found at lunchtime - more beautiful quartz tiles, this time in red -

The banishment of the retro pink wallpaper

Check out some of the progress we've been making on the guest bathroom:

13 days and counting

It's been a busy few weeks around The Ranch and we have pushed back our move in date to two weeks from yesterday.  Gutting the bathrooms and tearing out concrete walls in there was an unexpected project, as was replastering the entire interior of the house, but in the long run, the delay is worth it.  My FIL used a great technique to smooth all of the walls and they look amazing!  Everything is really starting to come together and we can't wait to see the end result.  Even if it is going to take a little bit longer than initially expected. :)

13 days until move-in

It suddenly occurred to me today that we are moving in 13 days.  Why I thought we had three weeks, I'm not sure, but in any event, an overwhelming rush of adrenaline (or dread. whichever.), came over me when I wrestled D away from his tools for a minute to look at a calendar with me and start planning the next few weeks.  13 days.  Yikes!  I can't wait to see the transformation of the Ranch that is going to occur by August 1.  Thankfully The Big Bear (AKA my FIL), will be flying in on Tuesday to kick things up a notch. 

Stand by for BEFORE/AFTER pictures!

Goodbye Kitty?

While D was busy stripping wallpaper and tile off of the bathroom walls, S and I were in full on decorating mode and finally found an inspiration piece for her room - a cute little upholstered rocking chair.  After that, everything started to come together and I think we are on the right track now.  Unfortunately, Hello Kitty may have been sacrificed in the process of the making of this room.  I am hoping I might still be able to add a few Kitty touches, though.  I'll keep you posted.

Here's a sneak peak:

The ballerina sheets won't be her main set but I couldn't resist them :) 

That retro wallpaper is going, going GONE!

D has been busy all week stripping that pink and blue retro floral wallpaper from the walls at the Ranch.  My iPhone died at the most inopportune moment but I managed to get a few shots for you -

The Before:

The After:

He also uncovered this paper under the pink floral wallpaper in the bathroom -

Vanities Galore

Vanity is my favourite sin.” Al Pacino

I was informed this week that I have not one, but two bathrooms to figure out a game plan for and so it's been a fun-filled week of vanity, flooring and tile shopping.  Both bathrooms are being gutted from floor to ceiling so it's been a little overwhelming, but I think we finally figured it out today. 

We are super excited with what we've come up with for the guest bathroom and are putting our dream floor in there.  I'll give you a hint and tell you that it is Disney-inspired. It has been difficult to find the tile that we needed, but we have an awesome source for tile via Porcelanosa  which is located in Doral and Pompano Beach.  The main store is in Doral so I would recommend you head there, if possible. Otherwise the Pompano Beach location will have to order the product from Doral.  Plus the showroom in Doral is much bigger. 

Here are some BEFORE pictures of our lovely bathrooms :):

Some of the vanities and tile options we liked this week:

These last three pictures are from the Bathroom Place in Pompano.  They had a great selection of vanities! 





Mini-Me's Room

We're moving in in less than a month and I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do with S's room.  She alternates between wanting Hello Kitty and a "princess room" (sigh).  I've actually seen a Hello Kitty princess line but haven't located accessories for a room yet except for these wall decals.  I did find some sites selling fabric from Liberty of London, which I LOVE, but it's a cotton lawn, apparently.  I had no idea what that meant, but apparently it's a very sheer fabric.  We need a headboard so I was thinking about making one out of the fabric, but I'm not sure if it will hold up. 

Cool fabric, right?

or this one -

Retro Wallpaper

Wallpaper is making a comeback but I don't think we'll be keeping the wallpaper in the entryway, hallway, and the guest bathroom.  I'm pretty sure it was installed in the 1960's - i.e. when the previous owners bought the home.  Yikes!

Tackling the Overgrown Island

With less than 12 hours under our belt as new homeowners, D started tackling the overgrown landscaping around the house.



I have a lot of research to do before we start landscaping the island but we'll definitely be installing a flag pole, so I took note of this great island when I drove by it yesterday.



A Plug for our Realtor

We were lucky to have a great realtor who was there for us every step of the process of buying a home. Esther Templin of Keller Williams is first rate and I would highly recommend her to anyone looking to buy or sell in the South Florida area.

With inventory so low right now, it wasn't a surprise when we found out the house we wanted had several other offers pending when we made ours.  Esther made sure our offer was competitive and we beat out the other potential buyers. 

Give Esther a call if you are looking for a great realtor! 

Esther Templin

Phone: 954-665-5202
Mobile: 954-665-5202
Fax: 800-660-8034
http://www.esthersellsflorida.com/Home_Page.html

"Welcome to Home Ownership"

After what seemed like an eternity (but was actually only 6 weeks), we finally closed on our new house a few days ago.  Now it's time to roll up our sleeves and get to work on renovating and decorating it!  Join us on what will no doubt be an adventure back to the 1960s to bring our "time capsule" house into the 21st Century.

(from my bestie)