Dining Room

AFTER

BEFORE

Our dining room was one of the first rooms to be completed. Someday I want a full length regular height table but this one works for now. (Just waiting for him to go out of town. He said he thinks I can't build one. Challenge accepted!) We picked out the wallpaper from Lowes first then had it colored matched to paint the rest of the room.

 

 Buffet: Value City Furniture (Clearance of course!)

Mirror: Garden Ridge

The window area was Pinterest inspired. I want to do some type of wording over top that window someday soon.

BEFORE

Table: Craigslist $200 (was in immaculate condition- originally from Sam's Club believe it or not)

Light: Lowe's

Our Living Room

AFTER

BEFORE- YIKES!

When we purchased our house, the carpet was in rough shape and all of the ceiling fans had been taken out. We worked with a great guy in Bellevue to replace all of the carpet in the house after we finished repainting. My handy husband installed all of the ceiling fans. They are remote controlled allowing for extra laziness!

 

 One of the biggest investments we made when we moved in was this couch from Value City. We absolutely love it! It took me a little while to come around to the idea of a big brown leather couch but we both fell for this one right away. 

 

Ryan put these shelves together after we shopped around and realized how much plain black shelves were to buy. We bought one 2 by 2 and a piece of molding we both agreed on. He cut them to the sizes we wanted and painted them black. He attached the 2 by 2s to the wall first then used nail glue to attach the molding. We may need some more of these down the road to include all of our nieces and nephews!

 

We went with a basic Ikea TV stand and it has held up really well.

  

And of course, we have a dog zone! I purchased the blue rugs at Target last summer to place under their crates. That makes for an easy replacement if somebody has an accident.

Chairs: Target

Clock: Garden Ridge

Electric Fireplace: Craigslist :)

 

Currently featuring: the spring mantle!

AFTER

BEFORE

Chalk Painted Furniture

When I first started revamping rough pieces of furniture, I was moving into a huge house in Clifton for my junior year of college. We had no furniture other than our beds that had been sitting at our parents' houses during our first two years of college.

I had pieces donated to me from neighbors and raided thrift stores across Cincinnati to furnish it. The summer before we moved in, my parents let me fill up our garage with that furniture and paint away.

The obsession resurfaced last year and although I don't have many before pictures, here are some pieces that I completed using the chalk paint recipe.

 Repainted my nightstand from college and tossed on some new knobs from Hobby Lobby.

Formerly a green and brown entertainment center purchased at ebth.com, this piece is now sitting in our future nursery as a changing table. Knobs from Anthropologie.

My amazing husband spotted this vanity in the Free Craigslist section and somehow loaded it into his car by himself to surprise me. It will be the new vanity in his parent's basement bathroom.

One of my favorite rehabs which is now in my sister and brother-in-law's living room as their entertainment center.

In progress: Future nursery dresser coming soon. Painted but waiting to find some knobs- big decisions!

Kitchen Overhaul

I am starting with the biggest project in our house thus far. When we bought our house, the appliances, light fixtures and faucets were gone. It was also a beautiful mustard yellow color.

Within the first month, we filled all of those holes with many visits to Lowe's. Our first step was painting which only took a couple of days. The Valspar color is called "Relaxing Green" and even looks a little bit blue at night. My husband also changed out all of the cream colored plugs and plates to white which made a huge difference.

We had a 36" opening for an oven but because of price, we went with a 6" filler cabinet and a standard 30" oven. My handy husband found the range on eBay and installed it himself.

We also had a gaping hole which we assumed was used for a double oven at some point. Since we had no use for a double oven, we purchased double doors from Lowe's and attached them with standard hinges.

The counter tops were an interesting pink color that we lived with for about a year and a half. This fall, we shopped around at three different places until we found a slab of granite and price we liked. My husband built a peninsula off of a wall in the kitchen by constructing a half wall and attaching more cabinets from Lowe's.

The final step in completing our kitchen was my husband's custom built wine rack above the refrigerator. He painted it black and attached it to the cabinetry above.

In between the kitchen and living room, we have a small breakfast nook area. It did look straight out of McDonald's when we bought the house but we quickly fixed that. We found the bench and table set at a second hand store and stained it to match the rest of the wood work.

Dining Room Hutch

We had been looking for a hutch to store all of our wedding dishes in for a few months. When my husband found this one on Craigslist for $100, we jumped on it. I knocked this thing out in a day (which is not normal) because I was on a roll.

Supplies: Wood filler, sander, latex paint, unsanded grout, foam roller, paint brush, furniture paste and an old t-shirt or cloth.

I removed all of the old hardware and filled in a couple of the holes with wood filler because the new hardware was a different size. As the wood filler was drying, I began painting other areas. The paint recipe I use is great because it requires NO sanding or priming before you start. All you need to do is wipe the piece of furniture down to make sure it is clean of dirt and dust.

Paint recipe:

1 cup latex paint (I used Valspar Semigloss in Mystique here)

2 tablespoons unsanded grout

Mix well to get rid of any powder chunks and paint away!

I completed 3 coats on the entire piece and let it dry completely. To seal and protect the paint, I generously applied Paste Finishing wax with an old t-shirt. Just make sure whatever you use is lint free. I went back with a clean piece of the t-shirt and wiped it down. You only want to wait about 10 minutes in between applying the paste and wiping it off.

I drilled new holes for the new hardware and put the new knobs and pulls on. We chose to take the grid out of the window and just keep the glass pane in the doors. As an added touch, I popped off the back of the hutch and applied some left over wallpaper from our dining room to it. We stapled the wallpapered panel back on and voila!

GBCR Fosters

My sister introduced me to Good Buddies Canine Rescue in 2011. As soon as I purchased my own house and got settled, I began fostering. Some people think fostering would be "too hard" for them. Sometimes it is really hard to hand a dog over to their forever family after spending so much time with them, but it is A LOT harder to imagine not doing anything about all the little guys sitting in shelters.

Frankie (my first ever foster)- rescued from a rural shelter in Kentucky.

Adopted in 10 days to a couple who treats him like their child. They sent me updates and he is huge now!

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Doc- had some of the best facial expressions. First dog to escape the crate and set off my house alarm while I was at school. That was fun to come home to that day :)

Adopted after a few months of fostering to a cute older couple. He now has his very own bedroom in the basement and run of the house and yard.

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Ronnie- originally part of a liter my mom fostered. He was returned to GBCR and I took him on as a foster.

Adopted after fostering for six months to a family with two young boys and two other dogs. He now has a HUGE yard to play in!

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Harper- I had this guy when I moved in with my husband. Harper, my dog Sam, and my husband's dog Coffee made for our first three dogs in the home situation. What a difference there is between two and three!

Harper was adopted to a great couple in Northern Cincinnati with another dog. He went to his furever home a couple days before we moved into our new house. Talk about timing!

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Ruby- rescued from a rural shelter in Kentucky. When we took her to the vet, it was revealed her tail was so severely broken that it needed to be amputated. She was immediately labeled "special needs" because the vet couldn't guarantee that she would always have control of her bowel movements. Her tail had been broken so badly, she didn't have feeling in her rear.

Adopted after seven months of fostering by us and two months by my mom to a great couple in Northern Kentucky. She actually has a giant snake in a glass room for a brother! Another GBCR alum ran into Ruby and her people a few months ago. She looked great and was clearly being treated like their little baby!

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Zeke- after a summer long break from fostering, we decided we were ready to foster again. Zeke's picture came across my email and I couldn't resist.

He was adopted after 10 days of fostering. His dog sibling is actually another GBCR dog- Ronnie's mom!

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Good Buddies Canine Rescue dissolved in 2013 but I still remain in contact with some of the great girls from that group.