Laying our own floors: The what and the why.

We decided, pretty much as soon as we moved in, that we were going to slowly replace all the flooring in the house. We opted for the most basic carpet in most of the house, minus the kitchen and master bath, because it was free and the upgraded options didn't do a whole lot for us. We figured that as the carpet wore we would be able to just replace it with better options. Well that happened a lot sooner than we imagined it would in the front room, due to a trouble making kitty and the fact that our builder used crap carpet and installers. This sped up the process a bit and we had to decide on a flooring type. We landed on hardwood/bamboo because the front room is rarely used and we figured it might be a formal dining room down the line. So we took on the task of finding a color/type. This took way longer than expected. We went to about 5 different stores and brought home dozens of samples. Nothing looked great with the purple paint in the front room and if it did it turned out to be too expensive. Finally after weeks (yes weeks!) of deliberation, we decided it was easier to paint and pick a floor that we loved and fit our budget. We landed on this:

Sorry about the flash glare!

This is Home Legend hand-scraped bamboo in cafe, which can be found at Home Depot. We loved the color, the hand-scraped detail, and it passed the durability test (we hit it with a high heel multiple times, didn't leave a mark). Once we picked it we had to pick a time to lay the floor. It was going to be a few weeks at the time because Andy was going to be gone. Next post, I'll talk about prepping the floors.

 

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Beige begone

One of the more problematic aspects of building was the paint color; builder beige as it is more affectionately known. It's in our whole house and while it's a nice beige, its not what you want to stare at day after day. So on Labor Day weekend we decided to chip away at the beige. We had already painted our living room and part of the front room, but we decided the front room was too dark so we did a redo of the three walls in New Bamboo by Behr. The forth wall we did in Weathered Moss by Behr. Take a look:

I'll be honest, the green is bright. I'm not sure about it. I love the grey, I am considering doing the whole room in that color but I'm going to live with it with the floors in and see how I feel. We also decided to paint our bedroom as well in Pencil Point also by Behr.

I love how the dark grey contrasts with the white furniture, but it's so dark I was scared to do all the walls so I stopped with one and will again live with it for a bit before I decide what to do. I will also take opinions on all of the above, please and thank you!

 

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Project budgeting

Like I said in my last post, things have been busy in the SalTal household. Andy and I decided a few months back to start a monthly project budget. We decided that we would take X amount each month to tackle major projects on our list for the house. This does not include small DIY or crafty projects, which rarely are more than $50. For example things like painting a room, redoing floors, a kitchen backsplash, we would consider a big monthly project. We decided to do it this way so that it didn't seem to overwhelming and it's been working out nicely. We have taken on three big projects since we instituted the budget: the kitchen backsplash, the bamboo floors, and painting two spaces. All of which I plan to blog about in the near future. Three projects may not seem like that many since we have been utilizing the project budget for a little over five months, but we created a rule that we could roll over a previous month's budget to tackle something we really wanted to do. We had to do this with the floor project, which was totally worth it. I don't think that we will always have a project budget every month, eventually the house will be settled and we will only want to take on bigger projects as needed, but for now with so much to do I think this system will work.

How does everyone else tackle major projects? Do you save a little over time or just budget it in each month? Or some kind of combination of the two?

 

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I'm back! And in need of some advice.

 

Why else would I be back? I kid, I kid. I just haven't had regular access to a computer and the idea of blogging from my iPad scared me, but I finally took the plunge and it doesn't seem to hard yet. We have done a ton of work around the house and I am very excited to share that with you all but first I want need your advice. Our living room is looking great but there is one area that is giving me fits. Take a look and see if you can guess:

It's that massive space behind the couch. I'm not really happy with the branches, they just don't give the look I wanted them to. So I found some options I liked, let's take a peek shall we:

 

All images are from Aldari Art Studio Etsy Shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/AldariArt?ref=top_trail

This is where you come in, I can't decide if I like the three prints or the four (and which would look better behind the couch) and if I would rather get the prints in burnt orange or dark teal or a combination of both. So please help a decorating-challenged blogger out and tell me what you think. Thanks everyone!

 

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Happy two years!

Yep, today marks our second anniversary, which is frankly really hard for me to believe. We've been through a lot since our wedding, had our share of ups and downs in two short years but we are better for it. We are so happy, it's crazy, I just can't imagine it getting better but it does and it always surprises me. Andy is my best friend, he is just so amazing, I could go on for days but I won't. He knows how much I love him and how much he means to me. Happy anniversary love! To many, many more!

Decisions, decisions

I recently ordered these wall panels from The Container Store in black and had the chance to hang them this weekend in our front room.

I love the way they look but I'm not completely sold on the black. They are plastic so it would be easy peasy to spray paint them if I decide to change the color but I thought I would get some opinions first. More than likely I would go for a pale green or white if I painted them but I am open to suggestions. Tell me what you think.

A New Toy

Andy and I decided to splurge and replace my dying laptop with an iPad. At first I was super hesitant because it feels like a toy to me and not a computer. However, once I realized that the majority of my computer use is web browsing I figured what the heck. I still have my laptop if I really need to type out a document or access my files, the only issue is the charging port is wonky so I need to have the charging cord just so in order for it to work. Basically it's kind of a pain to browse on so we decided my laptop will go into my office and the iPad will be my new living room toy. We got it Wednesday and I'm fairly impressed with it so far, in fact I'm blogging from it right now as a test and it is passing with flying colors. Any other iPad users out there? What are your favorite apps?