07 April 2011

Relocation, Relocation, Relocation.

About a month ago, we spent a Saturday finding new homes for the landscaping from the front of the house. We decided that the straight across bed was definitely helping accentuate that we have no dimension on the left side of our house. The goal is to relocate these guys, and then start fresh with a lively shaped bed that has curves in all the right places. 

This is before:

(No, the minivan is not ours- I stole this pic from our house listing)

And this is what is looks like now:



Even more plain, but hopefully that will soon be fixed! And, don't you love how the previous owners picked a landscaping stone that just perfectly matches the house? I mean, I'm not in love with our peachy/gray bricks, but brick red doesn't match, and yes it does make it look worse.

In addition to moving the plants around, we built ourselves a mini fence to beautify our air conditioner. We're not sure why, but no one landscapes on the sides of houses in our neighborhood. We're paving the way, I guess. Here's the right side of the garage, where the fence and a couple of plants will be.


We measured out our lengths of fence boards and marked then for cutting.


Here we are half-way through. One bush is planted back there to hide the gas pipes.


And here is it all complete, with an added tree.
Aaaaannnnd, I completely forgot to mention that this fence project cost us a whopping $5 for a bag of Quikcrete and a box of deck screws. We had all of the fence boards in our handy-dandy shed. Awesome.


The other bush went here, by the neighborhood light pole in our yard.


The other tree went in the backyard corner. 



And then finally yesterday we stained/sealed our little fence. Here she is all purdy.


And, as I was taking the picture of our beautiful fence, I'd thought I'd share an update of how the transplanted bushes are doing.


They died. The little trees are just fine, but the bushes are soon to be pushing up daisies.
Ha. Oh well. We've still got to make our trip to complete buying plants for the front of the house- we'll just snag a couple more boxwoods or something generic that hopefully wont die this time!

Speaking of new plants, we purchased some while my parents were in town last month, and they've been chilling on the back patio until we plant them.


This Star Magnolia is a bushy tree that we'll plant in its own separate little bed 
in the middle of the front yard.



This is a Sunshine Blue bush, to be planted between the front windows in the new bed.


It's still working on pushing out the leaves, but it's a pretty citron color.



While, I'm at it, I'll show you the bargain bush we snagged on clearance at Lowes for $3.


It's a bit wonky looking, but I'm sure it'll grow throughout the summer, and for 3 bills, it's a great plant to help add character to the backyard!

Now that you've seen entirely too many picture of the plants around our home... I'll hopefully have something more fun to look at next time than dying plants!
















06 April 2011

5 Dolla Holla!

Hi, my name is Aimee, and I'm an addict. I'm addicted to finding cheap treasures for my humble abode.

A great find, yet again from the Habitat ReStore. I had seen this post on my everyday excursion to their site, and I fell in love with the idea. (By the way, if you haven't spent more than 5 minutes on their site, I suggest you do so. They are geniuses over there at www.younghouselove.com, I'm telling you.)

Sayonara, old chunkster.


We didn't even finish settling in on this desk before we decided to craigslist the big guy, and jump into the future. This set up worked wonders for us in our last two homes...mostly before the idea of a wee one jumped into mind, and we had to think fast about what to do for a nursery, guest room, and office in a 3 bedroom home.

Our trip to the ReStore turned out to be successful, as it almost always is.

We snagged this baby for $5. Chris even liked the old stripes, scratches, and dings, so we didn't even sand her down to put a fresh coat on. It builds character and promotes creativity... at least on my side of the desk.



So we've got the desk top, on to the legs. Ooh la la.

For Christmas we received an IKEA gift card which turned out to work perfectly in our favor. When I first opened it, I was crushed because we are 5 hours from the nearest IKEA. Boo, however, I decided to check and see what I could purchase online. SCORE! These little legs (which we already have on our kitchen table in black) happened to be on sale at $3.50 each. Holy moly! That's cheaper than some toothbrushes! 



All in all, the entire order was covered by the gift card, which may the grand total for this project a whopping $5.00. Woah.

Here's what the new set up looks like, including a hot husband.


The goal is to get a pull-out sofa for the opposite wall, just like what was posted in the blog. For now, our Aero bed will do nicely for when our guests arrive. This will leave the current guest room to be transformed into the nursery. Oh 9 months, I know you're going to fly by!


In honor of you, Nick. 

He's oh-so-happy to be researching recipes for his next home brew batch. Maybe someday I'll get him to hop on here and share all of that with you.


This little guy was originally used in our living room for extra storage near the tv bench. Another free addition to the project to complete it nicely, and leave us with even more desktop space.


I found this for $20 at the Pottery Barn Outlet store in Memphis. All we did was unscrew the cover for the ceiling fixture, slide the shade up, and secure it with a small nut. Voila. 



Instant upgrade from this, don't you think?  Don't like, you loved it, Angela.


Haha. That this was just a train wreck.

Here's all of my quick grab goodies, and I still need to attached the baby food storage jars to the underside of the shelf.


Some little lady is helping her daddy with beer research. She loves the new set up because it means more wrestle space for her and Teenson to get their WWF on.


Thanks for stopping in... there's more to come. 










Drum Roll..........


We're PREGNANT!!!

(OK, I apologize for the picture, but there really are two little lines there!)

Just in case you missed it the first time, 
I've taken the liberty to express my excitement once again on the interwebs. 

Chris and I are beyond thrilled that we'll be welcoming 
a 'Mini Freed' into this crazy world in mid November.



Thank goodness we'll be out of the Arkansas heat (at least my fingers are crossed). And who knows maybe the first nickname for him/her will be our "little turkey". Haha.



I'll do my best to keep everyone in the know throughout the pregnancy. 
We're looking forward to a fun ride ahead of us!

And no, it's not twins for those of you who were fooled on the first of April. I just couldn't help myself! There's about a 1/2% chance that twins will happen, seeing as how there are zilch on either side of the family. Sorry to ruin your fun, but one bun is all I want to handle right now! 

:)

New/Old Entry Update

New to you, old to me. This update has been finished for quite some time, but I've been super lazy in not sharing it with everyone. My B!

I knew I wanted to go with a bluey tone for the laundry room and entry, and I'm still not sure I've hit the nail on the head yet. Let me know what you think...

Up first, the laundry:





The blue is perfect for a freshly laundered feeling, to me. I'm still skeptical of it in the entry. I'm thinking there's a yellowish undertone, and I may need to go with a more gray/light blue in there.



Oh, and I forgot about one little treat that was just completed a few weeks ago. THE LIGHT!! I found this gem at the Habitat ReStore for 10 buckaroos. Schwing. And I quickly proceeded to use the extra paint from our backdoor makeover (soon to be posted) to jazz it up a bit.

Actually, this picture doesn't make the color look half bad, 
but daylight vs evening light definitely makes a difference. 



Here's your glamour shot, baby. Soak it up.


So, there ya have it. I'm left feeling a little 'eh'. A bit of a change, but I can't decide if I'm stuck to it or not. I want to have that "you and me baby, we're stuck like glue" feeling. Any suggestions?