thank yous

so, i wanted to take a few minutes to say thank you for some of the house warming gifts we have been lucky enough to receive so far. plus, when everything at the house is disgusting and dirty i need to take a minute to appreciate the beautiful things...

frieda glasses and matching serving tray - both from crate&barrel:

ask and you shall receive.
thank you so much to two of our best friends, maddy and brian, for the Frieda glasses that satisfied my incredibly overpriced appetite for create&barrel.
also, thank you to maddy's mom, mamma c, for the matching serving tray - i love them.

i just love the blown glass

water cooler:

thank you thank you thank you.
this water cooler, from jesse's parents, definitely came in handy.
plus, since jesse is too big of a baby to drink tap water, its a must in our household haha

kitchen and kitchen aid mixer:

really, i should have photographed everything in my kitchen for this thank you but, since that may have bored you, i settled for the big ticket item - the kitchen aid mixer in onyx.
thank you, thank you, thank you mom - i appreciate everything you have gotten us, especially this mixer! xo

monogrammed coffee mugs and floral measuring cups - both from anthropologie

thank you so much to our wonderful friend sammie.
i have an obsession with anthropologie but unfortunately, it is far above my price point.
needless to say, these J and B mugs make me incredibly happy when i open my cabinets.

i have been wanting these measuring cups for months and luckily sammie listened.
love, love, love them!

sealing the ceilings

when you buy a 2500 square foot home the last thing you think of is the fact that there are 2500 square feet of ceilings that come with it - we came to this overwhelming realization today, that is for sure. today we prepped and painted almost all of the ceilings in the house. luckily we are fortunate enough to know a painter who was generous enough to lend us his professional spray gun for the stipple ceilings; since it took about four hours to spray them i cannot even imagine how long it would have taken to hand roll and cut them, especially the vaulted ceiling on the main floor. it was absolutely disgusting to see the difference between the new, freshly sprayed white ceiling and the old, brown, second hand smoke stained ceiling.

Jesse spraying the ceiling

my attempt to capture the disgustingly different shades of the ceiling.... not too sure it worked? haha

while jesse and kev did the ceilings on the upper, main and basement (aka man cave) levels, i worked on the cedar slatted ceilings and walls - i hadn't anticipated this would be as big of a job as it is turning out to be. apparently, cedar is one of the worst woods to paint since it continually gives off some sort of resin that can continually seep through paint, making it look all discoloured and splotchy after you have painted it unless it is prepped and sealed properly. this prep coat is taking forever, i am hoping that its worth it in the end. 

cutting between the slats on the roof

sealing the ceiling complete

we accomplished a lot today, hopefully we will be able to sand down all the walls and begin painting them as well. i have my fingers crossed that when i stop by tomorrow morning and open the front door i will smell paint instead of stale cigarette smoke. 

before pics

as promised here are the before shots of the house. after 12 long hours at the house we called it quits for the day - poor jesse was sick and suffering the entire day but still managed to accomplish a ton. thanks so much to our amazing families who helped us out more than we can explain. we will update pictures as the renovations progress and the rooms begin to come together. enjoy.

the lovely flowers and card the previous owner left for us

kitchen, view from dining area

kitchen, view from dining area

our massive pantry - pictures do not do justice to its actual size

view of dining area from  main floor living area

main floor living area

front entrance

upstairs bath

spare room - soon to be office

guest bedroom - these pics are confusing since the room is three different colours

master bedroom

master bedroom walk-in closet - yay for walk-in closets

master bath

den / lower level living room

lower level living room - possibly poker table? possible computer area?

the amazing lower level powder room

yes, if you were wondering, that is metallic gold wallpaper - yikes

lowest level storage nook

beginning of the man cave

wet bar / man cave

laundry and deep freeze

first housewarming gift

less than 12 hours until we get possession of our house and we already got our first housewarming gift -  thank you to the future in-law's! The Lost Art of Being a Man: How to Keep House is full of practical advice and a bit of humor, were definitely excited to read it. hopefully it has an entire chapter devoted to doing laundry, jesse definitely needs it!

the makeover of the make-up table

my final project of the weekend was the make-up table my mom got for me about ten years ago at a garage sale. since i am still getting in the habit of this blogging thing, i completely forgot to take a picture of it before i began refinishing it so unfortunately there will only be after pictures of this piece. i painted it in the same paint as the nightstands, ostrich by BERH. as you can see, jesse did not pick out the hardware for this piece haha i just had to do the crystal handles - i love them far too much not too. its a make-up table for god sake, its supposed to be girly! plus, this wont be in the master bedroom but in the spare instead, so he wont have to look at it too often. its a shame that i cannot  incorporate it into the master, it turned out exactly how i envisioned it.

*sorry about the poor lighting, it is still getting dark pretty early here.