Next on the List…..
04-11-2011
I just returned from a great weekend visiting my sweet friend Ginny Evans in Winston-Salem, NC – love that girl. She might live in the most charming house ever. Even though I was away, my weekend was not without a trip to Home Depot. Ginny asked me for help painting her guest room, so we spent a couple hours on…
Our Ode to Lyla
04-06-2011
Our home would not be complete without our furry partner in crime. She’s the yin to our yang and keeps us laughing deep belly laughs on a weekly basis. If you’ve read some of our previous blog posts, you might have noticed her curly tail or the top of her snout in the corner of a photo. Lyla does not…
$50 Granite Countertops
04-05-2011
No, we’re not joking. And yes, our current countertops are the oak finish from IKEA. But before we shelled out the big bucks to purchase the oak countertops (not really), we thought we’d try a little experiment that we saw on the Today Show called “Giani” Italian Granite Paint for Countertops. The product costs $50, comes with a sponge kit,…
DIY Roman Shades for the Kitchen
04-04-2011
It was a low-key weekend at the Sibiga house, which means we only made one trip to Home Depot instead of our usual two or three. But as far as major projects go, our only project this weekend consisted of finishing and mounting our DIY roman shades for the kitchen windows. I chose the floral swatch from U-Fab because it…
The Swag Holder
04-01-2011
Or as we call it – the thing that holds the window curtain string. You know, that hardware you wrap the string around when you want to pull your window shade up (and you want it to stay up)? Apparently the technical term for it is a “swag holder.” Who knew? Since we’re in the final stages of making our…
DIY Vintage Wall Shelves
03-30-2011
I’ve seen a lot of vintage wall shelves that I love, especially these Bradley Shelves by Ballard Designs:
Our Cheap Deck Update
03-29-2011
Since Tommy wrote about our DIY fence project yesterday, I thought I’d follow it up with a blog about our deck. FYI, the photo above captures the state of our backyard pre-fence construction. Tommy wasn’t kidding – the brush, pine limbs, and poison oak were out of control. Our trips to Patient First for poison ivy treatment were frequent last…
Thrift Store Wall Decor
03-26-2011
Thrift store wall decor – there it is. Not bad, right? The frame gallery in this photo cost us 25 bucks. I saw this idea in several magazines and blog posts last fall, and I loved it. I went to our church’s recently opened thrift store, Hope Thrift, and picked out a collection of old, empty frames. My goal was…
Our Kitchen in Progress
03-25-2011
Our kitchen is about half way there, but definitely an improvement from when we first moved in last May. So far, we’ve repainted the walls and refinished the cabinets, installed new oak countertops, swapped out the old sink for a porcelain farmhouse sink, and – Tommy built a kitchen island. We’ve done all of this for just shy of $1K….
Some Quick Master Bedroom Shots
03-24-2011
We haven’t done much with our master bedroom, other than hang an additional pair of curtains and switch out the light kit on the ceiling fan. Long term plans include repainting the room, but we’re a little intimated by the vaulted ceiling. Maybe we’ll actually hire a painter for this one? Nah. But here it is for now.
You could say our family room underwent a “journey” of colors. It was a journey. Probably the most angry I have ever seen Tommy was when I came home from work with a fresh bucket of green paint in my hand and a new paintbrush. At that point, we were on color number four, and Tommy had just finished…
Our Gray Dining Room
03-22-2011
Next to the master bedroom, the dining room was what sold me on our house (even its pre-flipped, dilapidated state). I loved the natural light, the big bay window, the two columns and the way the dining room entry point flowed into the two-story foyer. I thought… “I can have fun with this room.” I knew right away that I…
Not Your Typical Starter House….
03-21-2011
So I’m a little self-conscious about the size of our house. Consider this post my insecure disclaimer, and I will preface it with the fact that there is a story behind how we got this house. A few people have joked us and said that we “skipped the starter house stage,” which is somewhat true. Basically we got a…
From Apartment-Renters to Home-Buyers
03-20-2011
Our First Apartment – 9264 Hanover Crossings Drive It was about this time last year that we began our house hunt. We debated whether or not to wait a little further into the spring, but the appeal of qualifying for a first time homebuyers’ tax credit, coupled with an unexpected family inheritance gift sped along the process. Being…