The first thing we did was paint our bedroom dresser and nightstands! They were a really dark brown color to begin with. Half way through, I was loving the project and was super pumped to start on re-doing our kitchen table and chairs. But then I was all sanded and painted out and haven't touched it. I did attempt to begin it months before we moved in. As I took a sander to it I quickly realized... it's not real wood. A huge bummer. We were given this table by Eric's grandfather and have had it for almost two years! But we never realized it wasn't real wood? We are super observant. So now I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it. I did a lot of googling and watching videos and there's definitely a way to do it but it's going to take a lot of steps and technique. It is it worth it? It's a sturdy table with six chairs and two leafs. What I envisioned was a table with white legs and a grey/brown top. The chairs would be white and I was going to recover the cushions with a pretty fabric. Hmmmm.
I count getting blinds and shutters as a project because it's literally taken weeks. We knew we had to get window coverings since we were moving into a brand new house. Why I waited to start looking into it AFTER we moved in? I do not know... We lived in the house for almost 3 months with no window coverings. #flashingalltheneighbors We first decided going with Home Depot would be quickest and least painful way to get it done. Wrong. It took them a week to come and measure all the windows. Then another week for them to give us that estimate. Eric and I knew that shutters cost more, but we were hoping to have them in the downstairs windows. When Home Depot gave me the estimate for the shutters at $1,700 I wanted to throw up into the phone on them. I quickly thought I need a second estimate and ended up googling local companies and choosing the two with the best ratings. I called them up and surprise, surprise... they could come out the NEXT day. So the next day the consultant measuring the windows ask what we're thinking of getting. I told her, honestly, I must be naive to think we could afford shutters, but if it wasn't too much trouble to give me the estimate for blinds and then shutters, just to see. She said "I knew we were less than Home Depot, but I didn't know by that much!" I couldn't believe the difference of almost HALF the price. I ended up getting a third estimate. That third estimate quoted me even less for shutters! We for sure wanted to go with the second company for blinds and a sun blocking shade. I was so impressed.. the second company said they would price match what the third company estimated the shutters for and knocked $150 off the price of shutters! Shutters ended up costing over half of what Home Depot estimated. Once the order was placed, blinds and shutters took a total of 6 weeks to be custom made and installed. But the price is well worth it!
Here is a picture of our current living room with shutters! I need to get to work with decorating.
Next is our backyard. The HOA covers landscaping in our neighborhood. But the backyard is up to us. Which I don't mind! We were stuck between deciding on spending some serious money and putting in turf (really nice turf is all over St. George) or real grass and we put in a small sprinkler system. We have an idea, 5ish years down the road, to rent this home out when we move somewhere else. Because of that, turf would be ideal for renters. But for right now, we ended up putting in real grass and a sprinkler system. All for about $350.. much better than 3k. And it looks beautiful!! A neighbor recently asked "Do you just love your grass? Do you go lay in it every day? I would". Maybe I'm taking my yard for granted and should lay in the luscious green grass every day. 😂
