House Goals

We've officially been in our new house for a little over 6 months and have been loving it! We've come very far since moving in but I feel like there's still so much more to do. There are so many projects we want to accomplish before hitting the 1 year mark. Below is the list of things we want to get done within the next 6 months:

• screen in our back porch
• buy furniture for the porch
• put a fan in outside
• replace the light out back with a fun one 
• redo the landscaping
• remove 2 trees
• build a farmhouse table & buy chairs
• get a china cabinet
• buy winged back chairs for our living room
• redo the blinds
• get pictures for above our toilet
• install lighting under our kitchen cabinets

We love our back porch and really wanted to leave it open and not add a screen but with the retention pond right behind us, the water bugs are awful. We've been told many times that there's nothing we can do about the bugs so now we're screening it in. 

When we moved in, the landscaping was redone and looked great but after being here for a while, we quickly realized that it was a quick job that wasn't done correctly. We really want to get everything ripped out and redone. Stephen also wants to remove 2 pine trees (and the neighbor's pine trees - don't worry, I said no lol) from our back yard. 

I am obsessed with winged back chairs and really want a pair of them for our living room. We were trying to find some cheap ones the last 6 months but it's not looking like that's going to happen with the style we want. We have decided to bite the bullet and get a pair but we're still looking for a good price. 

Our blinds are from the original foreclosed house and they're pretty rough. I can't wait to replace them with either thicker wood/composite blinds or shutters. I really feel like they'll make a huge difference, especially in the front of the house where we have to hanging panels missing in the guest room lol

Even though we have a list of items we want to do within the next 6 months, there are a lot of things we want to do to the house over the years. Our goal is to get most everything big done before kids so that way we're not spending that money when kids are here. Below are some things that we want to get done at some point while living in this house:

• get an accent chair for the family room
• build a bend for our front entrance
• get rocking chairs for our front porch
• build a projector screen for Stephen's room
• get a couch for Stephen's room
• build a blanket ladder for the family room
• style the coffee table
• get a small table for the living room
• get a big mirror for the dining room
• get adirondack chairs for the grill area
• replace the roof
• replace both sliding doors
• add nice, white cabinets in the laundry closet
• add up-lighting in the front (and maybe) back yard
• decorate a baby room (in a few years ;))
• get a rug for the dining room (after the kids are grown)

Linking up with Annie.

China Cabinet Inspiration

Now that we have an official china cabinet, I can't wait to get my china in there and get it decorated. I am obsessed with our wedding china and I've been DYING to display it. I like the look of light, clean things in china cabinets and found some pretty styles on Pinterest. I'm a little hesitant to fill the cabinet anytime soon because I know my mom has lots of china and silver that will get passed down that I will want to display. We'll see how everything ends up turning out!

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Linking up with Jessi.

Weekending - Siena's Baptism

Our sweet niece and goddaughter, Siena was baptized this weekend and we were so glad we got to be apart of it!

Starting with Friday, my sister and 3 of her friends were driving down from school to go to Disney for the long weekend so they stopped in to stay the night. They got in around 2am (I was definitely asleep before they got there... I can't hang) and left the next morning around 7:30am. We got up early to cook them breakfast with our new griddle and I finally got to use my new serving dishes I got for Christmas.

After the girls left, we headed down south but not before stopping at the Restoration Hardware outlet on the way. I had high hopes that they'd have some good things but was skeptical - oh boy, we're stopping in every time we head south! They had so much stuff for fantastic prices! We were on the lookout for a dining table, a china cabinet or 2 winged back chairs. I about died when I saw this china cabinet. I had been looking at it online and LOVED it but at a price tag of $2,300 (and now on sale for $1,400) I knew it'd be a distant dream. Well, thankfully it was deemed "unworthy" for someone because of a few paint chips on the bottom corners and we were able to buy it for less than $900 and it's basically in perfect condition! We had it delivered yesterday and I can't wait to get my china in it (finally, after 2.5 years!!). 

After getting the cabinet taken care of, we finished our journey to South Florida just as the rest of Stephen's family got to town. The boys went out on the boat and the girls did a shopping trip, which was a lot of fun! After shopping, John & Lauren made us a delicious Polish dinner and then we hit the tennis courts. John & Lauren are still the un-defeated tennis champs - Stephen and I have to get out and practice ;)

Sunday we got ready and headed over to the church for the baptism. It was sweet because their pastor was out on a missions trip so the pastor that married John & Lauren in Orlando preached and Stephen's dad did the baptism (he's a pastor too). After church, we headed to Bonefish Grill for an amazing brunch.

The cake was beautiful and sooo delicious!!! Publix does the best job!

After brunch, we headed back to their house for a little bit and Siena surprised Stephen with her super cool uncle shirt. It was so adorable, even though she wasn't a huge fan of the shades ;)

She didn't like it too much... lol her little face when she cries is just too adorable

Much better

We made it home just in time to get groceries before Publix closed (hence why this post is a day late - we had to work Monday :/). We're still exhausted and will be recovering all week but it was a wonderful weekend filled with lots of family!

Linking up with Biana.

Five on Firday

Is it just me or did this week seem incredibly slow? This week was a lot slower than last week which surprises me since last week was the first week back at work.

One
This weekend, we're heading south to my BIL & SIL for our sweet niece's baptism. I can't wait to see them again and get to hold Siena! Stephen and I are so blessed to be her godparents and we can't wait to watch her grow up :) As a side note, I recently found out that there's a Restoration Hardware outlet on our way to their house. I cannot wait to stop in and see what they have!! Hopefully it's good stuff for cheap but I doubt it.. Has anyone else ever been to a RH outlet?

I am obsessed with their china cabinets and dining room tables

Two

My car is from 2007 and for the past year or two, my dashboard has slowly been melting. Like it was legit melted and was disgusting. I even had parking papers sticking to it and leaving residue because it was so sticky. Thankfully, I was issued a warranty claim and FINALLY got it replaced this week. To say I'm excited about it is an understatement. One step closer to getting my mom car ;)

Three
The other night, I made Stephen's favorite meal (well favorite meat for a meal) Rancher's Roast and did a quick snapchat instructional video. I wanted to share the link if anyone wanted the actual recipe; it can be found here.

Four
Y'all, if you watch the Bachelor you HAVE to check out Sheaffer's blog posts where she recaps each episode every Wednesday. This girl is an absolute riot and 100% spot on with her reviews!! So hysterical!

Five
I've been loving the new Andy Grammer song and can't seem to get enough of it right now! Anyone else love his new song?

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!!

Thoughts for Thursday: Okeechobee Christmas

I realized I never recapped our quick trip to Stephen's parents house for Christmas. Even though it was a quick trip, I wanted to make sure I got it documented on blogland.

Two days after getting back from TN, we packed up again and headed over to Okeechobee on Jan 2. Our BIL, SIL & niece came down as well; we ate a big Christmas dinner and opened gifts after we got there. After presents, we had some fierce badminton competitions and Stephen & I came out victorious (John & Lauren always beat us in tennis lol). Last time we all played badminton, Lauren was pregnant and couldn't play - so glad she was able to get out there with us this time!

Cutest thing you ever did see! He's going to be such a great daddy :)

Stephen finally got his shop vac! I can't tell you the number of times he's talked about his shop vac lol

That night, we got some family information so Stephen could fill out his side of his family tree book, played a new Star Wars board game that we got his little brother and watched Pirates of the Caribbean 3.

Sunday morning, we went to Stephen's dad's church and everyone got to meet baby Siena. She did a great job throughout the service and was the talk of the town. After church, we went to brunch and then went to introduce Siena to her great grandfather. It was so sweet seeing John tell his grandpa that he's a great grandpa now. Afterwards, we packed up and headed home so that we could get a few things done before heading back to work for the first time in 2 weeks. It was a quick, but fun trip down there and we loved getting all the baby cuddles we could!

Linking up with Annie.

What's Hap-pinning: DIY Shelf

This weekend, Stephen and I built our first shelf! We're so excited/happy with how it turned out and we couldn't be more proud of our first big DIY home project. I honestly should wait to share this until I get it decorated and styled but as of now, I'm not sure when that will happen - so here it is!

We knew we wanted something above the TV since it was kind of awkward blank space - Pinterest to the rescue! I found some plans for an easy $20 shelf from Shanty 2 Chic, got Stephen on board and then got to work. Our shelf ended up costing us $40 because we got Poplar wood, wood conditioner and a wood sealer (that's why I'm assuming it was more expensive).

Before (Even before I got stuff for the TV console)

After

Here are some highlights of our shelf - for full directions, check here.

• We used two, 1x4 boards and one 1x1 board. The boards were 6' but we cut them down to 5.5' by hand since the saw was broken at Lowes.
• An easy way to cut the wood by hand is make cuts/grooves with a Dremel tool and then use a hand saw in the groove made by the Dremel. This ensured us level and even cutting while using the hand saw and worked like a charm. 
• Stephen hand sanded all of the pieces of wood and I did all of the conditioning and staining that way we had controlled variables.
• We used a wood conditioner before staining and it made a big difference - it soaks the stain right up. The sealer makes an even bigger difference but we didn't want to wait a few extra days for it to dry so we'll save that for another project.
• Stephen pushed for this color and had to sell me on it and I'm so glad he did!! I feel like it matches our coffee table perfectly!
• We used wood glue to connect the 1x1 to the bottom 1x4. We used long screws to connect the bottom 1x4 to the side 1x4. We anchored it to the wall using 4 anchor screws into the board (which I will cover with picture frames since the screws are visible).

Some lessons learned:

• When we used the wood glue, it oozed out and got on the visible parts of the board. We quickly wiped it off and thought we were okay - WRONG! You have to sand the areas that the glue touched off which means, you should sand that whole side of the board again to ensure it's even. If you don't sand it, the stain won't adhere as well and there will be light spots everywhere that glue touched. For us, it showed on the bottom and top of the bottom 1x4 board and we decided it isn't visible enough for us to redo it.
• Stephen drilled pilot holes into everything but his pilot holes that connected the two boards weren't as level as he had thought and 4 screws caused the wood to bulge and crack. Thankfully, they were backup holes and weren't vital to the stability of the shelf so we took them out. We made sure he drilled everything straight into the wall and had no problems. 

We really enjoyed working on this project together and learned some very valuable lessons when it comes to working with wood. We're getting really excited about building a farmhouse table (unless I find a great one elsewhere lol).

We're just so tickled with how it turned out and think it really adds to our family room. Now I can't wait to decorate it!!

Linking up with Jessi.