New view!!!

Today I switched my dining room table to the living room and the couch to the dining room making it more of a family room.I will use the living room as our school room for the school year.Here is a photo taken sitting in my new family room.

So much activity!!!

We have been doing so much all of a sudden!!! The screen door is installed ( we just need to trim a small piece) .We started on our basement bathroom!!! The toilet is installed!! (A big hit in our house since we only had one bathroom!!!) we will work on installing my pink claw foot tub(I got this for mothers day 3 years ago!!!).This is a different claw foot tub that I blogged about in the beginning of the year.I bought one for the master bedroom but we currently have it on our front porch.I can't believe the progress we made these couple months.We installed a new fence (on one side of our house) ,put up the tile wall in back of our fireplace,and now we started the downstairs bathroom!!!!

A new screen door!!!

When we bought this house almost 4 years ago the first thing I wanted to change was the screen/storm door.It just didn't look right.My husband said it was fine and he did not want to change it!!!! I suffered looking at this door and wished somehow I could convince him to change it.About a few months ago one of the windows fell out and so we basically had this door with a half window on the lower part.I really was cringing every time I walked in my house because that is the first thing that you see.Then last week the second window fell out(probably from kids slamming it) and I tried to fix it .It stayed in but I finally convinced hubby that this looked really bad and what would our clients think when they come over. So today we bought a new door .It is basically the same door but it looks so much nicer.I measured the door and then had my hubby measure the door so we would have EXACT
measurements.We bought our door at Home Depot and asked a worker if these measurements are true to what they say on the box,he reassured us, oh yes they are true to size.When we got home and started installing, the door was about 2 inches to short (in width) so I had to take the door back and buy the next bigger size.It sucks!!! Now I have to wait until tomorrow to finish the job!!!

Tile wall complete!!!

Well, we are done.Yeah!!!! This was one project that we thought would be a piece of cake but turned out to have some challenges. The outlet was an issue,then I assumed that the tiles were exactly 12x12(they were smaller) Luckily we figured out a solution for the extra edges.We added a half inch bead trim used in bathroom tile walls.That proved to be the finishing touch that was needed.There are a few imperfections but in a 100+ house it adds to the character.(a few tiles slipped but only if you are staring at it you will see it) The grout really helped with that.We are happy .It looks great and we will feel safer since this wall is 3x the size of our temporary wall.Here are pictures of the finished product.Also we are happy the tiles look like soapstone to match the soapstone woodburner.

Almost finished!!!

Fireplace tile wall

Today we started our tile wall behind our wood burning stove. We were using a store bought fire protector.I hated it!! I thought it clashed with our room and it was too small.This project started out to be very stressful. There was an outlet behind the stove and we lost the use of it with our new wall.We had another outlet that my husband put in by the light switch but it was a mock outlet since at the time we didn't have time to connect it.(It was during our refinance that we replaced the switch.) Anyway,connecting this outlet was really alot of work due to the fact that our basement is very dark and when we turned off the electric we had to use a flash light) Then of course we had to make a couple trips to the store for supplies. Finally we started our backdrop.It was a challenge but my hubby did a great job.First we attached metal studs to the wall(for code you need a few inches of space between the wall and the firewall for airflow) ,then we attached durock cement board.Finally we applied the tile. The challenge here is that it started to slip due to gravity.We taped the tiles but it isn't perfect. I know when we grout it will look alot better but my eye always goes to the flaw.I still really love it !!! Here are pictures of the process.I will put a final one after we grout.

New Sign

Yesterday I went to a very cute coffee shop with my daughter Paloma. It is our escape from the house. Just the two of us go and hang out .I order an ice coffee and she has a snapple juice then we share something sweet.This coffee shop is on the harbor of Lake Michigan.It is inside one of my favorite buildings in town.On our walk home we stopped by a small boutique.They sell mostly decorative items. I fell in love with two signs but they cost $50 each so I had to think about it( of course I did not NEED them ) I really wanted them though!!!! LOL .I decided to go to Hobby Lobby and sure enough they had one of the signs and it was such a bargain!! It was 50% off so it was $15.00.I couldn't believe it!!! I did feel a little bad because I really want to support my local store(the little boutique) but I can't pay 3 times as much for the same item. I bought it from Hobby Lobby.I really love my new sign.I put it in the dining room going into my kitchen. I have been wanting to put something on that wall for at least 4 months. Here are pictures of my sign.