before & after

Just a little comparison of how it looked when the previous owner lived here vs. how we have decorated since we've lived here...

before:

after:


I'm pretty satisfied :)

house tour....

I realized I haven't posted any pictures of what our house looks like lately...and since I cleaned up, I decided to take some pictures! Enjoy this little tour! :)

This is the view of the dining, kitchen & living room from the door to the garage...


Another view of the dining room *and Scout*


Breakfast nook *and Scout*


Standing at the kitchen bar, looking at our "guest hall" with the bathroom, laundry room, linen closet and 2 guest rooms...


The guest bath. I really want to paint the cabinet white.


The finished guest room (looks about the same as before)...



The former "junk room"... now the "empty room" or Queso's room...
Will someday be the nursery.



View from the breakfast nook...


Just bought these new kitchen rugs to spice things up.


View of the living room from the dining room.


I forgot to take pictures of our bedroom, but it looks exactly the same as before anyway :)
I WISH I took a picture of our garage because we TOTALLY cleaned it out! So much more space now!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this little tour... This will be good for when we do major work around the house, so we can look back and see how far we've come. We feel so blessed to have this home though. Sometimes I just stand around looking at it, and I feel so thankful.

the torture couch.

We've had this couch since I lived in my teenie tiny efficiency apartment in Las Colinas. Sooo that would be about 3.5 years. Usually couches should last a lot longer than that, but we have spent every single day (and some days up to 12 hours) on this couch.

We LIVE on this couch. We eat, we nap, we lounge, we cuddle, we spend time on the computer, we watch tv, we hang out with the pets, etc. This couch is where we spend the majority of our life at home (besides the bed).

Why we love this couch:

• The neutral chenille hides dirt, spills and stains.
• When you take the back cushions off, it's as wide as a twin bed (great for cuddling).

Why we are shopping for a new one:

• Friends call it the "torture couch" because you sink so far down that it's impossible to get out.
  
• Some springs have broken, so the bottom cushions are uneven.
• You can't sit comfortably with the back cushions on. They are too poofy and make you sit up too straight.
• It is HUGE but doesn't hold that many people (4 at most).

Basically, it has just become uncomfortable to sit in. Which isn't good when we spend so much time on the couch. We are thinking we want a sectional so we can seat more people since we entertain pretty regularly...

I like this sectional from JCP, but I'm not sure about slipcovered couches. Also, I think we need a more "living friendly" color that hides dirt. We spend a LOT of time on the couch. Any recommendations?
I also like this one from Pottery Barn, but it's twice the price, and I'm not sure that microsuede would be the best fabric for us... What do y'all think?

Couches are SO hard to shop for!!! For us, this is a MAJOR purchase, and it's very important to find the right one. Argh!

Does anyone LOVE their couch? If so, where did you find a great quality one?

wish list top 10.

We haven't done much to the house that's blogworthy, but we DO have a mighty-fine list of things to do and things on our wish list.

1. Blinds and drapes for the living room & dining room. I hate, repeat HATE, these bamboo panels. (I know they're expensive...I write them for a living!!!) But it's just the farthest thing from our taste. I can't wait to get them off of our windows and have nice blinds and some pretty curtains on either sides of these big windows.

boooo bamboo panels!

2. Bedroom furniture. I have resisted taking pictures of our bedroom because it is SUCH a sad room at the moment. We don't even have our nice comforter set on because it's been so hot. So basically our room has blank walls, mismatched dressers and night stands, just our bed without a frame, white sheets and down comforter, and that's about it. So sad! I'm really wanting furniture to make it feel more like home AND so I'll know where to hang pictures! I'd also like a sitting area (since our room is big enough) so I'll have a place to read my books and my Bible.

maybe this chaise for the sitting area?
can't you see a cozy little table & floor lamp for reading?

3. Guest bedroom furniture. I'd really like an upholstered headboard like this:

4. Umbrella for the patio. I built the patio table all by myself, so now all we need is a coordinating umbrella. Like this one?
5. Note: This is on RYAN'S wishlist... not my own. Just to clarify. He wants a bigger TV for our living room so that we can move the 40" one to our bedroom. I say we have a lot higher priorities at the moment.
6. Dining room table that seats more than 4. We haven't used this table once since we've been in the house. Most of our guests eat in the breakfast nook since it holds 6 people. I'd really like at least a 6-seater for our dining room furniture. And of course a matching buffet/hutch wouldn't hurt either.
7. Paint. I don't know what room to paint yet, but I know that I'm already bored of the off-white walls in every room. Maybe we could paint a guest room? Or our room/bathroom? We will see.

8. Garage organization. Right now our 2-car garage only holds my car and a bunch of junk. We'll need to organize it once the weather cools off so we can fit both of our cars in there...It'll be especially important when it gets into the freezing months so that Ryan's care won't ice over.
9. New hardware and fixtures. Everything is brass. So we may just get a new doorknob every month until our house is updated!
10. An area rug. Not sure if it would go in the dining room or the living room, but that "great room" definitely needs some color on the floor.And there our current wish list. It keeps growing and growing!

pictures around the house...

the vines on our arbor are blooming!

and so are the beautiful flowers by the fountain...

i bought some little fake apples at target for $1...
they add a little more color.

and some pears for $1, too.
they add that green color i was needing without buying fake plants :)

scoutie's enjoying the window.
i can't STAND those bamboo panels any longer!

the living room view from the dining room.
not a huge fan of the fan but it's expensive and very level...ah well.

the guest bathroom so far. my dream is to paint the cabinets white and add some pretty new hardware but we'll save that battle for later.

and there was your little mini tour! :)

tick tock.

So, I'm looking for a big clock to place on one of our big walls in the living room... We already have some big framed pictures and a large mirror, so I thought a clock might be something different and not as obtrusive.

Here are a few that I'm liking. Feel free to let me know if you've found any, too!

roman numeral clock

black & antiqued red clock

decorative metal clock

color splash: green

The Inspired Room has done it again... I'm in LOVE with these green-accented rooms...especially the KITCHEN!!

mental accessorizing...

These are the items that I'm wishing for in our living room after we've settled and have some more monetary cushion :)

This sectional from the good ol jcp.

This rug from Target.

Since our living room windows are facing west in the evenings, we'll need some good thermal window coverings to keep things cooler. I'm loving these from jcp.
Maybe we'll get them in the foxtail orange or chocolate color..or maybe toffee.

Annd... I kind of like this lamp from... you guessed it...