I won!

I won the giveaway on Trish's blog!

I am super excited!

I was away for 2 days in Indianapolis at a wedding conference (more about that later) and when I got back, I checked Trish's blog and I was the winner....How awesome is that? This is the first time I have ever won anything at a Giveaway!

I am super duper excited....Now I am trying to figure out what would be the best spot to hang it!

I will take suggestions ladies...

We closed!

We closed on the house Friday.
The last couple days before the closing were horrible. A lot of things went wrong, but it ended up working out in the end. It was very very stressful.

After the closing, we celebrated lunch at "Vin De Set". I was pretty impressed...the food was good. The crepes were DESLISH but a bit small...The wine selection was great.

Last night we decided to go celebrate a second time (really, it was just an excuse!) at a Japanese steakhouse, KOBE, located on the 12th floor of the gold tower at Westport. It was delicious as well.

It was a pretty culinary week end!

Other than that we did a lot of research this weekend. On tile, on fixtures on toilets on pretty much everything.

I am also working on paint colors and wall art

Speaking of....I have my eye on this giveaway on Trisha's blog
I want the fourth picture! I am mad in love with it!

I am also planning on blowing up one of my pictures that I took in NYC last summer. I am trying to use my own pictures for the next house. I think it makes things personal...

Stay tuned for a post on paint colors soon!

Decor pad

Have you checked that website before?

I stumbled upon it this morning...They have a page called "look for less". It's AMAZING!

Not only will you find great ideas, but they will tell you how to get the look you want for cheaper! How insane is that? Let me show you an example that I am tempted to follow:

DWR Sapien Bookcase: $253.30
http://www.dwr.com/product/sapien-bookcase-short.do?keyword=bookcase&sortby=ourPicks


Don't buy THIS, instead buy THAT:


~West Elm Cadman Spine Bookcase: $149.00
http://www.westelm.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?partNumber=WE-PRODf299&storeId=17001&langId=-1&ca...

What are you waiting for? Go check it out HERE

Need more inspiration?

For those who have never came across this, please check it out...

Exclusively Yours Interiors

Tiaa gathers inspiration from other incredible designers

Here's a sampler:

Home office designed by Top Design Winner Nathan Thomas

Amanda Nizbet's designs:

Home designed by Diamond Baratta Designs

How incredible are these colors together?

Just love it! There's much much more on the blog! Go check it out...

Room Envy!

I have been spending a lot of my spare time looking for deco ideas for bedrooms and for the dining room.

Some people know exactly what they are looking for so all they have to do is Google the words.

In my case, it's complicated. When I decorate, I never know what I want...I just like to browse and see what inspires me...Lately, my creativity is confused.

Everything inspires me and I keep changing my mind constantly...how do I use EVERYTHING I like in just one house? Seriously? Can someone tell me? I will leave you with what has been inspiring me lately...elegant, sophisticated, romantic...

If you haven't before, go check out Lillian Ritz...



We are definitely considering using Valspar #4007-7A Air Kiss for our bedroom walls. This color is so relaxing...

Last inspections and Bathroom ideas

Today I had the last inspection...I am glad inspections are over. Jesse was out of town so I had to deal with turning utilities and all inspections by myself...Wasn't the time of my life...

I am getting more and more excited about the house...
Especially my third floor...I took a decision today after talking with the roof inspector...I am pushing the walls back on the third floor and increasing the square footage. One of the dormers is blocked off and I want to have access to it again, so since I am re-framing there, I thought "why not everywhere?"....It's going to add so much charm to the area. I want to frame an area that is somewhat circular. It will look so good!

Other than that I am also in the middle of a major decoration brainstorm.

The only thing I am certain of right now is the second large bathroom.

Let me show you some inspiration pictures. I have to warn you though, I never write down where I get these pictures, and I know it's horrible not to give credit so I apologize in advance!

Just a reminder of what the bathroom used to look like. The brick is not pretty, the tub is in the middle of the room (who does that?) the molding not painted, the tile and wall color DO NOT match and there is a single lonely sink...


The next picture, I used the flash so you can see the tile color better...I am still working on identifying what color that would be...it's like a grayish blue...


And here what I am hoping it will look like. I am going for a very neutral gray on the walls. Black vanity and accessories. Isn't this bathroom incredible?

One think I will do first is paint the brick a nice bright white. They should look exactly like the next picture. They will be really pretty. It breaks my heart to have to paint over brick but this wall looks really really bad....:-(

And this is the vanity we want. The whole set is all over the internet for about $1700. I am having a replica made. It will be a bit larger to fill the space we have. And I am adding a set of dravers in the middle as well...Isn't it absolutely divine. And the subway tiles? A vague reminder of Paris...ha!

I love floating cabinets!
Thoughts? Like? Hate?

Tomorrow, I will post about bedrooms!

House updates

First of all, that you so much for reading....I was gone for so long, but you all still welcomed back to the blogging world and left me very nice comments...I really appreciate it!

As for the house, I received a lot of questions, so here are some answers. The house was built in 1890. And it's on Lafayette Ave. Not Lafayette square though (I wish!)...we are in the gate district, between the square and SLU. Near the newer construction homes....

The house definitely has a charm which drew us to it in the first place...BUT, yes, there is a BUT, it needs a HUMONGOUS amount of work. It looks like a lot of work has been done to it, but there was no attention to detail and even though some windows and a lot of molding and woodwork are still original pieces...they have not been taken care of properly...so we will be working on that! Some pieces are missing so we are duplicating those, and trying to stay original to the period (somewhat)

Just the way we did with our first house, I will blog on all the changes we will be making...

Now we don't close until April 16th, so bare with me!

We did have the inspection Monday and nothing scary showed up, other than a pipe burst when the water was turned on and a cracked toilet....Thank you for not winterizing !

One thing I have learned so far is that I do not like dealing with city employees. I will not go into details here, but the weekend was frustrating.

Tomorrow is the Laclede inspection, so I will keep you posted on that as well!

Until we close and acctually start the work itself, I will be blogging on the deco part of the house. I am SO SO SO excited...I love high ceilings and this house is so BIG. The thing that gets me the most excited is the third floor renovation. We are turning it into my office/creative/lounging space...sound sliek music to my ear...Here are pictures of the before, it's a bit scary but with a lot of work and some colors it will be wonderful...



I told you it was scary, I did not exaggerate!

Let me also share with you the view I get from one of the windows...This is truly the best part about the 3rd floor. I have decided the build a platform because the window is too high...I'll be able to contemplate Archy for hours!


I am so thrilled! And on a totally different note, I will leave you with a picture of my baby just because he is so cute and because I couldn't help but snapping a picture of him laying next to me as I blog!

Stay tuned for more house posts....

Pictures

Posting 2 days in a row, that's something!

Some of you asked me for pictures of the new house, so I thought, why not?

Enjoy these!
Inspection is Monday, I will let you know how it goes







I am SO going to love to cook in that kitchen!

It has been forever

And I am not sure why...

I have incredibly neglected the blog and I am having a hard time getting back into it...I haven't posted anything about Vegas...I also went to Kentucky and Cincinnati to see Jesse on his deployments, but somehow the blogging fever had abandoned me...

But hey, now I have a good reason to blog again since we got an accepted offer TODAY on the house we've been dying to own!

It's an old house. There will be major projects, so major things to post about. Let's hope the blogging fever comes back!

Until then...

Yes I'm still here...

Juts in case you were wondering, I'm still alive...

It has been FOREVER since I last blogged, I think my last post is on Halloween...That's a long time without posting...So many things have happened since then. Let me update you a bit.

Stewy graduated from his "Beginner Level" and twice a week we try to take him to a "Meetup" dog group at the "Happy Dog Spot" (Rock Hill). Our neighbors got a new dog -Levi- and Stewy and him are best friends. They conspire together to dig holes under our fence so they can be reunited and play together. Watching them play is so entertaining!


Isn't he the cutest?


Jesse got back after Halloween, got deployed again for 2 short weeks and he has been home since then. Words cannot express how amazing it is to have him home for such a long period of time (hence the lack of posts!!). It doesn't happen very often so we are enjoying every minute of it. We even managed to go to Vegas (the week it snowed there).


Also, we got to see the Grand Canyon under the snow, it was amazing!


We have been cooking a lot together as well. Making bread and inviting pretty much anybody we know for meals...Our latest experiment has been fondues! I'll have to blog about that as well!

We also made some changes to the house i.e. new six panel doors everywhere!

As for me, wedding planning is keeping me busy! Our up-coming weddings are all going to be gorgeous!

And on top of that, we are in the process of buying a new house! We need a bigger space, I need a bigger office and more storage for wedding items, and Jesse is begging me for a better space for his guitars. We will probably rent our house out for the beginning because I don't see us getting the money we put into it back in this context. We'll see! Just in case, if you are looking for a cute stylist starter home, give me a call!

I have started sorting and packing things because we have a house under contract but it's a short sale so the process takes a little longer than a regular sale...Keep your fingers crossed!

So, to sum it up I have been super busy...so busy time is flying by 20 times faster than usual...

I need to catch up on my posts and blog about vegas...

Stay tuned!