I’ve mentioned the handywork of the Lazies (you can catch up here and here).  I hate to say it, but they had their way with the powder room too.  Up until my nesting instincts took over, this room had been a low priority project for us.  But, when you’re 6 months pregnant and you’re cooped up in the house with the windows closed because it’s hotter than the breath of Satan outside, then you turn to things like buying and organizing school supplies and dreaming of remodeling the powder room.  And Doug, patient and kind, humored me.

Here is the before shot:

You may be thinking that this isn’t so bad, and maybe I need more than air-conditioning.  But, listen, see the molding at the top?  That’s a mark of the Lazies.  First, it’s not wood.  Don’t be surprised.  We never are anymore.  It’s more like military-grade styrofoam.  Very classy.  And true to Lazy form, the styrofoam was not nailed, but glued.  So, drywall came down and retexturing was required.  And as a double bonus, which you can’t see here, rather than planning for the light fixture, they just cut a square out of that molding to put around the rounded-cornered light fixture.  And and and, rather than molding on all four walls, how about just three?  Yep, it seems as though the Lazies didn’t do the math quite right.  So, why bother going back to the styrofoam molding vendor and get more?  It’s like Picasso of home decorating, molding on 75% of the room.  Perfect.  Secondly, the paint color(s) made me depressed and the paint job was even worse.  Something had to be done.

And a gallon of plum-colored paint was just the ticket.  The results have left this room to be my favorite in the house so far.  Here are a few shots:

The goods:
Pewter Frames: Hobby Lobby (on clearance) $4.20/each
Wall Vase: CB2 (bought with giftcard) $4.95
Tealight Holders: CB2 (bought with giftcard) $1.95/each
Silhouette: homemade…easy!
Silhouette frame, ‘Renew’ and Wall Cross: already owned
Basket: Hobby Lobby (bought with coupon) $8ish
Vase: Ross (already owned)
Mirror: Hobby Lobby (already owned)
Hand Towel: World Market $9.99

I threw myself a dinner party last night.  I’ve never really had much shame about throwing parties for myself.  Turns out that not everyone does that. A friend of my mom’s said “That just means she’s confident and loves herself.”  Well, okay.  I’ll take that.  Bottom line is that life is too short to not throw parties for yourself.

Last night’s dinner party had a black and white theme.  And because it was my birthday, I wanted everyone to wear black and white.  And they did.  Even the peanut belonging to our neighbors.   I loved it.  You can get away with asking just about anything from your friends on your birthday, except asking everyone to tell you what they love about you or to throw you a party.

This was my first time to host a dinner party.  I’m already planning the next one.  I had so much fun planning, cooking and decorating.  A few things I learned: eight people seems like the perfect number of folks – small enough that everyone can feel included and large enough that you feel like you have a crowd.  Namecards on the table take away the awkward “where should I sit?” dance around the table.  Next time, I should learn how to set silverware.  A few bites in, I realized everyone was eating their lasagna with their dessert forks.

On the menu, bruschetta, mista salad, lasagna (recipe from the Pioneer Woman) and banana cake.

The table

The bruschetta (Doug calls them fancy bagel bites)

The eating

Ross saved the day by reminding everyone that they should sing to me.  I, of course, didn’t mind the attention.

The partiers, in all their black and white goodness.

Remember my square foot garden?

If we measure success in the ungodly number of cherry tomatoes we’ve eaten this summer, my thumb is all kinds of green.

Honestly, the garden (though just 4′ x 4′) has been a bit overwhelming.   The tomato plant is literally 7 feet tall and heavy as sin.  Forget tomato cages.  I have the thing strapped to the trellis which is secure in the ground with rebar.   I picked these tomatoes today.  106 of them.  Not kidding.

And I pick this many tomatoes at least once a week, sometimes twice.

We’ve had two lemon cucumbers…which are delicious, by the way.  They are so much like your normal cucumbers, but a little less bitter.  We have two bell peppers growing.  And we have a beautiful basil plant (which I take special care of, since Doug and I had a basil plant when we first got married that we named “Love Basil” and it died several days later).  The beans didn’t make it.  Neither did the tomatillo (because the dang tomato plant crushed it).  And we have oregano and jalapeno plants just waiting on someone to tell them to grow.

So, turns out the heat (high of 104 degrees today) is good for growing tomatoes.  Not so good for my attitude or my complaining problem.  But great for growing tomatoes.

And while I’m at it, and my tongue might be disintegrating due to the amount of tomato acid I have consumed…anybody know of any great recipes for cherry tomatoes?  Salsas?  Spaghetti sauce?

Because I started blogging after Rhett was born, I never did a post on his room transformation. So, here ya go. Eat your hearts out.

We’ve told you about The Lazies.  Turns out that several of you have had your own Lazies destroy your house before you swooped in to save the place.  My deepest sympathies.  Really.  We’re amazed at The Lazies and often make up stories about their unhealthy relationship with HGTV and their lack of willpower to see a project to completion.  Oh, I could go on.  Point is, The Lazies had their way with Rhett’s room too.  They had used the room as a nursery for a little girl as well.  See pictures below.

They had put up a “chair rail” using 1x’s.  Rather than nailing them to the wall like any Good Samaritan would, they glued them to the wall.  So, when we came in to try to undo their handywork, we soon learned that there was no way around this job without pulling drywall down.

Please excuse the double-chin.  I was 8 months pregnant.  Which is why I look a little less “worn” than Doug.  I was downstairs eating bon-bons and drinking de-caff.  Which may, in fact, be the reason for the double-chin.  Dangit.

Anyways, it was heartbreaking.  But, Doug, my hunk of a handyman saved the day.  He learned very quickly how to patch a wall and re-texture.  Pretty sexy, I’d say.

The finished product:

The crib was a Craigslist steal for $60.  The bedding and valance was all made by my good friend Christi over at Sleepytime Rags.  She is unbelievably talented.  I picked out the fabric and told her what I had imagined in my dream world and she made it happen.  If you’re looking for baby goods, head on over there.  She’s great.

The pictures over the crib are Doug’s handywork.  We found the images of the airplanes online and just laid them out in a way to make them a little vintage looking.  And wrote the name of each plane at the bottom of the print.

I made the mobile using two metal coat hangers, some fishing line and some wood cut-outs from this Etsy store.  I painted them with the exact same colors as the wall and trim (except the red was a random find).  So easy and so much cheaper than you can find at most stores.

This picture on the top left was the inspiration for the whole room.  Doug and I were on a walk soon after we found out that I was pregnant.  We walked by a house that had its trash out at the street and this was laying on top.  We were sure we were having a girl, but picked this up as inspiration just in case we had a boy.  And look at us now.

The shoes hanging there is how I told Doug I was pregnant.  I put those little peanut shoes out on the front porch with Doug’s matching shoes.  He was thrilled.  One of the best days of my life.

The armoire, my Pepaw made for me several years ago.  I sent him a design of what I wanted and bada-bing.  I somehow managed to have two Pepaw’s (due to my lack of creativity in naming my grandparents as a child) who are both amazing woodworkers.

The jars on top were $5 each from Round Top.  I filled them with paper airplanes made from a road map, an idea that I snagged from strolling through Anthropologie last year.

And finally, a “changing table” from Ikea.  They definitely don’t sell it as a changing table, but we thought we’d get more use out of chest of drawers in the long run, over a changing table.

All in all, we’ll call it an improvement.  And Rhett doesn’t seem to mind it.

If you’d like to snag some prints for yourself, please leave us a comment. We’re opening a store soon to sell hip, but affordable art.

If you don’t do anything else today, start following Young House Love’s blog.  Really.  You won’t regret it.  They are youngsters.  Super cute.  New baby.  Bought a house.  Made it their own with some fantastic renovations and decorating.  And they are DIY experts.  We refer to their site regularly for our projects and for ideas on decorating.  Get on over there and follow them.

One of my favorite parts of their blog is their mood board service.  You pay them a small chunk of change and send them a picture of your space (bedroom, living room, office, whatever), tell them a little bit about what you like, don’t like and they send you back a “mood board” full of ideas on decorating the space.

Last year, they gave someone a living room mood board that included some wall art from Crate and Barrel.  See photo below.I’ve been loving these prints for a while now, but when I clicked on the link, I realized (barring the death of a wealthy relative) this was not a purchase that would receive Doug’s blessing.  369 smackers for those prints.  Not a chance.

Doug and I decided that we would put our Photoshop/Illustrator skills to the test and see if we could recreate these images at a lower cost.  The results – better than I could have dreamed.

Here’s an example of the actual art file:

Here are the details:
6 10 ” espresso frames from Michael’s (on sale) $38.22
6 prints from Kinkos  $16.11
several hours on Photoshop/Illustrator $0
TOTAL $54.33

We’re working on setting up at Etsy shop where we’ll be selling some of our art.  Be sure to head on over there.  Or shoot us an email at bugandbutler@gmail.com.

Rhett got his first guitar lesson last night.  If we measured success by how much he wanted to put the guitar in his mouth, he was a pro.  And the handsome hunk on the left…if you want me to make me weak in the knees, just put a guitar in his hands.  Unbelievable.

So far today…

We turned the house upside down to find Doug’s keys, so he could get to work at a godly hour.  After resolving there was no way they were in the house and deciding to keep an eye on Bagby’s post-digestion matter, we sent Doug to work in my car.

About an hour later, I started transferring laundry from the washer to the dryer.  Turns out that I had laundered Doug’s keys.  I can’t be held responsible for things left in pockets.  Even if they jingle.

This was moments before I realized I had just done a load of laundry without putting detergent in it.  Awesome.  Who’s really paying attention to our water bill anyways?

And all this was after learning that Doug and I both had dreams about tornadoes last night.  And if that’s not a sign of the times, I don’t know what is.

Working from home isn’t so bad, when this is your view.

Note: Yes, that’s a WiiFit board under Rhett.  No, I’m not projecting my self-image issues on my son.  He just needed a couple more inches.

In October 2009, we bought our first home.  We consider ourselves Texans to the core, but then realized we didn’t own a single square inch of land in this great state.  So, we had to make a change.  No more rent, no more eviction notices (kidding…kinda), no more security deposits…and sadly, no more calls to the leasing office when something needs repair.

We’re now on our own, which means we can claim Texas with a clear conscience, but it also means we’re still learning how ungrateful we were for our landlords.

This was especially evident when I pulled out our air filter today.  Homeowner fail.  It’s only by the grace of a good God that we’re not all suffering from the black lung.

If you’re a homeowner, do yourself a favor and check your air quality.   If you’re a renter, count your many blessings and send your landlord a thank you note.

At the Browns’, we like to do everything twice.  It’s just a little something that we’re not proud of.  Take our accent wall in our living room, for example.  We wanted something light and airy and wonderful.  We chose a light blue.  And before the paint was even dry, we decided we weren’t wild about our living room looking like a daycare.  We repainted the next day with a fantastic darker, kinda royaly blue.  (Behr Southern Evening)

Here’s what sets us apart from other DIYers (namely the previous owners of our house – whom we affectionately refer to as “The Lazies”), when we do things, we do them well.  We are perfectionists in almost everything except picking the right paint color the first time.  And if you’re thinking “why didn’t you just buy the paint sample that you just linked to,” then you obviously don’t know me very well.  Perfectionism and patience do not have to coexist.

Anyways, back to two-times-is-a-charm.  When we moved into our house, the kitchen was barn red.  Everything.  The switchplates, the actual plugs, the pantry door and trim.  It was bad. The cabinets were painted tan.  Painting cabinets (we later learned) is a huge undertaking…but not for The Lazies.  Nope, nope.  With The Lazies, you don’t even have to take the cabinet doors off.  And if you want to add hardware to the cabinets, you don’t even have to measure.  Just have a few drinks, eyeball it and be done with it.  (If The Lazies read my blog, we’re in bad shape…seeing as they know where I live).  That to say, we had our work cut out for us.

I was pretty sure I wanted a very light green kitchen.  So, I went with a celery.  Please don’t assume that I bought a sample.  Just a full gallon.  One thing I will say that I do not regret is that we used Behr Paint and Primer in One.  Such good stuff.  We painted over that red with just two coats easily. We also repainted the pantry door and trim back to its original and beautiful neutral.  This look stuck for about 6 months.  And looking at the pictures, I actually still like it okay.  But something just didn’t feel quite right.  I think the cabinets were the kicker.  They were just ugly and the hardware was cheap-o.

So, Memorial Day weekend was put to very good use.  We had no idea what kind of project we had on our hands.  We naively thought we were looking at one hard day of work, but then we’d have our Sunday and Monday to relax and grill.  We were taking crazy pills.  It was a huge task.  We decided on a color (Valspar’s Almost Charcoal).  I’ve been mildly obsessed with charcoal for several years now.  I bought a charcoal car, our wedding colors were charcoal and red, and now my kitchen is fantastically charcoal.  So, charcoal walls needed white cabinets (Valspar’s Silver Dust).  We have 25 cabinets.  So, just taking the doors off was a huge chore.  We borrowed our friends’ Aki and Shawn’s paint sprayer.  Which was a miracle worker – not like water to wine miracle – but still a huge time saver.  It uses a ton of paint, so I don’t know that it would really be worth it for much else than cabinet painting.  But for all 25 cabinets, Doug sprayed them all in about 2 hours per side.  We laid them in the sun to dry, but let them sit in the garage for several days to make sure they were completely dry before they were hung.  We ordered hardware from The Knob Shop – much, much cheaper than your local hardware store and great quality.  And bada-bing, two weeks later, we have a new kitchen.  I am in love.

Feel free to affirm me now.