Guest room pre-reveal sneak peek!

It's been a process and we are still going room by room in the house getting everything decorated and finished.  I'm waiting on a quote for crown molding in our master bedroom and bathroom and June will be the month that will get done.

Our local furniture store is set to carry the new Magnolia Home Furnishings line by Joanna Gaines starting Memorial Day weekend so we are going to check that out.  I'm so excited to see it because Fixer Upper is my FAVORITE show on HGTV.  Sometimes it's a little too rustic and farm house for me but If I could, I'd start all over and re-build just to have that creamy white kitchen of my dreams and all that beautiful white furniture!  But alas, white doesn't look quite right in my home with all the dark wood that's already there.  I do love incorporating the white finish in accessories and I think that my guest room is very light and airy even with the black painted furniture.

This was my most fun room to do because I could really go nuts and actually inject some color into it!  I think it turned out warm and inviting but also whimsical and feminine but still appropriate for any guest.  Now the only thing left is to get some guests to stay in it!

I still have to add the finishing touches like hang the mirror, chandelier and frame the botanical prints I got on amazon and hang them above the bed.  I also have a few little finishing touches so this is just a pre-reveal reveal.  My final reveal will have the links to everything used in the room.  most of the accessories I got at Home Goods but I do find that I see the same things in  a lot of Home Goods stores.  I was just in Charlotte, NC too this past week and I hit up World Market and got the cute little drawer pulls there for next to nothing.  I wish we had a World Market in Pittsburgh!  But I do get lots of coupons for online shopping there but of course, everything I want says it's not available online!  I do visit my best friend in Charlotte though several times a year so that's something I can also do when I go down there or drive the 2 hours to go to the one in Ohio.

So here are some pics of the guest room!  Most is complete but I can't wait to get the chandelier up!  It's going to add some sparkle and class to the room.

Guest bath update and backyard woes...

It's been a while, I know!  Lots of things have changed recently!  The first being I was laid off in December. Now, don't go giving me pity!  I think it was actually a blessing.  I wasn't happy at work and I wanted a change.  I'm currently still unemployed but trying to think of ways to start my own stream of income.  I'm also happy being a stay-at-home wife.  Though we don't have kids, keeping up a house, cooking organic healthy meals every day, laundry, yard work, etc... so I'm perfectly content with being the house hold care taker since my husband works 70 hours a week with his business. The downside is that we had to buy our insurance since I had it through my work (the hubs owns his own business) so that was super fun!  (no thanks to you Obamacare...)

We also took a vacation to Aruba (before the whole Zika thing... ugh...) which was AMAZING!  I'll post a few pics :)

Anyways, we've been planning out our 2016 house goals.  They are as follows

1,  Guest bedroom and bathroom
2.  Fix back yard (drainage issues) and landscape back yard and sides
3.  Master bedroom and bathroom (I finally will have furniture other than a bed and a lamp on the floor! yay!)

So far, I've completed painting the guest room, and I purchased lighting for that room, the guest bath and powder room, and the master bedroom. (my dad is coming to hang them next week!).  I've also purchased the bedding for the guest room which is sooo adorable!

I've shared everything done so far below with details on where to buy!

Here's some pics from the in-progress guest bathroom with links to the items I used!  the paint color is Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore but we had it made at Sherwin Williams (since they have all of BM's colors) and we used the duration paint and love it!  We plan to use this color in the master bedroom and bathroom as well.  It looks difference in every light which makes it dynamic so I'm OK with having this color in multiple rooms in the house.  It pairs well with our Edgecomb gray which is the the rest of the main floor and upstairs hallway.

These awesome hooks came from Target!   So did the towels and shower curtain 

This is the bedding we selected for the guest room from Pottery Barn.  It's the hummingbird reversible duvet (ti's gray on the other side, how neat!) we got organic cotton sheets from Target as well, which as like butter!  So affordable too, go them on dale for a king size for only $45!   

We got 2 of these wall sconces for the guest room from Pottery Barn and they are beautiful!  On sale and free shipping!

We got this chandelier from Overstock.com which looks identical to a more expensive one from PB and it's amazing quality for the price, a steal at only $128 with free shipping!

I am sad that I don't have pictures yet of the finished product but hopefully by next weekend I will have the guest room completed!  In the mean time, we will be dealing with our back yard issues.  I've got 3 quotes and all of them suck in terms of having to shell out 3k JUST to fix the back yard drainage issues that RYAN HOMES CREATED!  UGH!  I'm beyond frustrated but what can I do, I just have to push on!

To conclude my blog post here are a few pics from Aruba.  We stayed at the Bucci and Tara resort which was just the most relaxing vacation and fun island we've ever been to!  We can't wait to go back, I highly recommend!

Family room furniture FINALLY done!

Today we finally received the last piece of furniture from Arhaus for our family room.  I have been waiting for this for 6 months, maybe more I lost track.  I'm so happy with it, I love the velvet and the color is perfect!  It matches the velvet pillows I got from Restoration Hardware, both fabrics are called "Mink" so everything is nicely tied together.

I still need drapes, a mirror and all the knick knacks and what not and pictures on the wall, but I'm very pleased with how everything turned out.  I only wish I could have a nicer rug, but with Mr. Tickles peeing issues I wouldn't chance it and waste the money.

I plan to head to our local St. Vincent DePaul for some cabinet fillers since I know I can find some little vases or old books for next to nothing there.  Now that the living room is all done, I would love to finally finish the front room, since it's the only empty room now downstairs.  It's taken us 2 years and we've only done the kitchen, morning room and family room!  I don't mind as much because I'm getting everything I want without compromise, it just takes longer to save up to do each room!

Someday I will have furniture in our master... right now I have a broke dresser, a bed on a frame, and a table lamp on the floor!  It looks more like a Hostile than a master suite!

Butler Ottoman from Arhaus Furniture in Vernon Mink 

Dante Chairs from Arhaus Furniture in Wilson Graphite 

A view of it all!  Lamps from Restoration Hardware (Library Swing Arm), side tables from Arhaus (got them for FREE with our rewards... I guess not REALLY free because we spend enough there to buy a new car... lol

Mr, Tickles!!!! My baby kitty :)

Bad kitty and other whoas... :(

So, we've had our sectional now for over a month and love it, it's so freaking comfortable!  I was worried about Mr. Tickles our furry little baby and her reaction to it but for the first few weeks she seemed fine and loved snuggling up on it with us.  Then, one day, I came inside to find my Husband staring at the sectional and he said "Tickles peed on the couch..."

I literally broke down in tears.  Backstory... this cat has peed on everything we've ever owned, she pees on clothes, beds, bath mats, sofas, chairs, carpet... I thought I had to all figured out with diffuses and infections and keeping her litter box clean... but I guess I must have failed somewhere.  I swear if I wasn't so obsessively in love with this kitty I would have gotten rid of her a long time ago, but she has my heart and I couldn't imagine life without her sweet snuggles, but boy I could forego all that damn cat pee!!!

So, long story short, I took everything apart, dumped 100000 gallons (no literally) of enzyme cleaner (NOTE: DO NOT USE NATURE'S MIRACLE!  The name was sold years ago but not the formula, this will leave sticky residue and the scent almost smells like cat pee, I swear my cat would want to pee on things more when I used it!  I use the original formula by Petastic it's also FAB for getting out ANY organic stain, works great on cat barf too!)

The smell is gone, and luckily, my sectional comes with a 5 year warranty that INCLUDES pet urine stains!  So I have a professional company coming to clean it this month and the one leather cover will most likely need replaced, as she had a SECOND accident on the corner seat just last week and the leather is all warped :(

My other whoa is that our dry wall is still not repaired.  Rusmur came to repair it but they didn't realize how big of a job this would be, so Rusmur is paying Ryan Homes to come in and do it since it's out of the 1 year warranty, but I have yet to hear from RH about a schedule... and Rusmur has already had to remind them several times, so they said they will refuse service for RH until this is done (Kudos to Bernie at Rusmur for taking care of this and getting on RH's ass!)

I hope to report only positive things going forward!  In the mean time, I bought plastic paint drop cloths and I'm covering our sofa and new chairs that will be arriving next week.  I will continue to do this every night and when we are at work until I think the issue is resolved, but I do have a decorative storage basket in the living room to house the plastic sheets, so at least they will be out of site!

Pee stain :( though the smell is gone, this stain remains, it soaked into the leather and raised the texture of it and took away the sheen... it needs replaced sadly

I change my mind a million times!

So, not that it's anything new but I think I've changed my mind 100 times with this house, between the patio, the furniture, paint colors, accessories.  I've returned more things that I bought that's for sure!  I made a bunch of changes to the furniture order too, my sales rep at Ahaus probably wants to kill me by now, not to mention my order had to be audited because I changed it so many damn times!  But hey, when you are paying that kind of $$ it better be right.  I changed the fabric for the ottoman due to a hide delay, the cow that we wanted hadn't been murdered yet apparently :(..., and for fear our kitty will want to pee on it..  I also nixed the console table and end table and opted for a more simple end table and I'm going to get a simple iron and glass console for behind the sectional.

I am also happy to report that the patio is completed, well ALMOST!  We are just waiting for the pillar caps to come in, the originals didn't look right according to my husband's uncle who installed the patio, and he said if we're paying that much, they better be right!  We also changed our minds on the patio furniture and lay out, we opted for a round 6 person table to put in the circular bump out, this leave tons of room for a section perhaps (until next year...).  That was also a pain for the sales people at Macy's, because we paid with gift cards (Fuel perks!), they had to have corporate accounting transfer the funds, but it's on it's way, just have to wait another week!

So below is all of our new selections, along with the semi-finished patio and 2 of the pieces from Arhaus that have been delivered.  I will say one thing, I love everything that we are getting from that place but good gosh it takes FOREVER to come in!  We now have to wait another 6 weeks for the ottoman, making it a total of 16 weeks!  And we are waiting until October just for one tiny dinky little side table, I really wish they stocked more items and were quicker to deliver special orders.

Another note, the shower is "fixed" so they say... but dry wall repairs still not scheduled and I have some lovely mold growing on my walls now.. yay!  I'm not happy, because I know it's just going to happen again, the put NO water proofing behind the tile... no hot mop, no membrane, nadda, just cement board and wood, which when wet SWELLS PEOPLE!  UGH!  I am about to just rip out that whole damn bathroom myself and hire a contractor to re-do it, I would change the layout too and take space out of the master bedroom that is stupid big tpp... well maybe someday...

The new fabric for the ottoman, it's a sumptuous velvet but it's easy clean and will hide and dirt so no fear of kicking our feet up on it!

I love these trays, it gives so much versatility to this ottoman

here's the cute little table for in between our accent chairs that we have to wait freaking until October for!  ugh...

I love how simple this table is, and it holds magazines!  My husband now has a place for them rather than on the floor!

This chair fits in perfectly, and I can fit 2 of them because they are only 28" wide but they are DEEP, at 39" you can really relax in them!  And, I didn't even have to special order because the stocked fabric is so nice, it's very menswear inspired which makes the hubby happy

Got the china cabinet delivered and it fits so nice in that space and offers up extra storage!

As you can see, we're going to have to raise the mount on the TV this console is TALL!  Once neat fact is that is sits on hiden wheels!  It makes moving it a breeze since it weighs so much.

Here is the Chateau patio set from Macys', a good deal at 1299 with free delivery!  We are also getting hte 11' umbrella and base, all in it was around $1700

And here it is!  Our patio!  I know it's pretty simple but with a budget of 8k, I think we got a good deal, it's all Unilock pavers and Jimi's uncle is very good at what he does, so I'm confident it will stand the test of time!  And to boot, we got a brand new back yard pretty much with REAL top soil!  

Patio Progress! And bathroom update...

I'm so excited that our patio is started, it's really coming along!  I can't wait to be sitting out on it and enjoying the sunshine (that is if it sticks around here in the 'burgh!)

We are going to Macy's this weekend to get a patio set, I actually decided on a different one after seeing my first choice in person.  We are going with the Nottingham rectangle set with spa blue cushions and umbrella.  I think it will give a nice Caribbean vibe to the back yard, I was to really make it into a tranquil spot to relax in.  We still have to hire landscapers too, and I really want a privacy arborvitae "fence" to make it more secluded.

On another note, our master shower is getting fixed next week, AND they said they will repair any damaged dry wall... thanks God because it looks liek total shit downstairs right now.  Rusmur floors was very helpful and nice, the RH service guy, eh... he tried arguing it was "home owner maintenance" and I about flipped shit on him... and even Rusmur was backing me up on this saying there is just no way this should happen 2 times in 2 years!  So thank you Bernie at Rusmur for being on my side!

Also, we got our sectional in, I didn't take any good pics because we still dont have any of our other furniture so I'm just going to wait until everything is in.  We do love it, it's must lower than our old sofa (the back) so it took some getting use to, I need to bring height to the space with curtains and a set of mirrors of the wall between the 2 windows, I think that and once our furniture is all in the space it will really look awesome!

WTF!! Water leaking from the master bathroom shower...

I'm waiting for RH Service to call me back... because we have a leak!  Our master shower is leaking, but I don't think it's the plumbing... the shower seat as lifted yet again and I think water is getting through the crack in the grout, because our morning room opening is SOAKED.  I am beyond pissed and I'm requesting an engineer to come out because it's not an issue with the tile work, it's the fact our shower seems to be sinking... and I thought they water proofed showers now a days so that if water got behind the tile it wouldn't LEAK!  So now all the dry wall needs replaced and I'm sure the sub floor under the shower is soaked... I want a brand new freaking shower done RIGHT because this is the second time we've had to deal with this and this is the whole reason we built a new house so we didn't have these types of issues!!  UGH!!!  I'm just venting now... I'll update once I have someone come out to tell me WTF is going on....

Yup, that's water behind that paint bubble.....