Commit To Fit 5K!

As summer {sadly} is coming to an end you may find yourself looking for a way to give back to the local community and maybe even shed a pound or two from all of those summer cookouts! Well, look no further! The Junior League of Baltimore is having their first annual "Commit to Fit 5k"on October 7, 2012 at 8 am at the Hunt Valley Towne Center in Hunt Valley, MD. If you'd like to participate in this great event then please visit the race registration website! 

We hope to see you there!

My First Place Update!

Our episode that I blogged about here has been pushed back and will now be airing Sunday, September 16th at 1:30 and  Monday, September 24th at 6:00. However, we've been told by the network that it could continue to be pushed back as late as December. I will do my best to keep my blog updated with any changes but you can also check out HGTV's website and click on our episode to learn of any changes!

We hope you'll tune in and watch us!

Our Cheerful Entryway!

Well, it's been a little over a month since the last time I blogged so it's fair to say this is long overdue. I don't mean to be such a bad blogger it's just this summer has been crazy busy and even though the hubs and I are enjoying every moment we still find ourselves putting the poor house on the back burner. I'm embarrassed to admit that I purchased a table monthssss ago for our entryway and it's just been sitting in the box begging to be assembled. On Sunday the hubs got down to business and made me a table, he's become such a handyman and I love it!

Below are a few pictures of the entryway, please ignore the quality, they were snapped on my phone. {I really am rusty at this whole bloggin' thing!}

The table came in lots of little pieces, thankfully the hubs is very patient {he married me, after all!} and the doggies were happy to supervise the construction!

And here are a few snapshots of the final product:

I love walking in the door and seeing our cheerful entryway, it just makes me happy!



"Offer Here, Offer There" Episode!

We have some really exciting news to share...our episode of My First Place is edited and ready for broadcast! You can watch us Sunday, August 26th at 1:30 on HGTV! We're currently in the planning stages for a premier party that will be hosted somewhere in Annapolis with lots of TVs so stay tuned for that (pun intended) because we'd love to have you all there!

Here's what My First Place is saying about our episode "Newlyweds Sarah and Matthew want to buy their first place in Annapolis. After bidding and not hearing back on a foreclosure, they bid on a second place simultaneously. The same night they hear back on the foreclosure, they learn the second seller has multiple bids in, so Sarah and Matthew have to choose between putting up their highest and best offer on a house they might lose, or settling for a sure thing they're no longer sure they want." It cracks me up because this isn't really how it all went down but it definitely sounds more dramatic...I'm excited/nervous to see how they're going to edit us!

For more information check out:
http://www.hgtv.com/my-first-place/offer-here-offer-there-offers-everywhere/index.html

Here's our episode blurb featured on their website!

Little More Living Room Progress!

 If there's one thing I love more than home diy and decorating, it's summer. The sunshine, warm weather, cookouts, vacations and so on just makes me want to spend all of my time outside. Unfortunately, that's exactly what the hubs and I have done lately which is reflected in our home by the empty walls and rooms {and lack of blogging!} Oh well, we needed a break, it was like renovation overload and once we got a taste of the gorgeous weather we decided to put the house on the back burner and enjoy ourselves. I do have a few little things to share with you and we have lots of wonderful ideas planned that we will get to eventually. 

I'm really excited to show you our new couch from Gardiners Furniture picked by the hubs himself, he has a knack at finding comfy and cute couches for a steal. Our last microfiber sectional was also picked out all by himself and I just loved it, however, the poor couch had a lot of wear and tear from Tanner and Gresham and it was also just too large in our new living room. I've been searching for the perfect couch forever, looking everywhere from leather to slip covered couches but we ended up back with a microfiber couch. They really are the best, especially when you have children and/or pets, they clean up really nicely and there's no need to worry about the dogs pulling out the fabric threads with their paws.  We are trying to be really diligent about keeping the couch covered with a blanket when we're not home so it stays as nice and clean as possible! Oh, and the best part? The couch was on clearance for $399 and Gardiners let us pick the couch up to save on delivery fees!

Here's Tanner and Gresham showing off their new couch but don't worry, the blanket went back on 3.5 seconds after this was taken!

 And one more picture without the dogs by the couch but rather peeking in from the back door!

This is how the couch looks most of the time though...they have a tough life!

Did you notice the new area rug and a few wedding pictures on the walls? Yay more progress!

 

We're getting closer but we still have a list of things we'd like to add in the living room like...plantation shutters, a coffee table, a tv stand, an accent chair and a few more decorative accents!

It's crazy to go back and look at the pictures from the very beginning to now...

That's all for now, thanks for stopping by!

Before & After: The First Floor Tour!

After a couple of months we're happy to report that the renovations on the first floor are pretty much done.  We still have a powder room to finish and then the fun part of adding decorating touches throughout the house but that's it! The transformation of the first floor is amazing, it's really incredible how new flooring and a can gallons of paint can really make a huge difference!

Here's our formal dining room before:

Here's our formal dining room after:

We took down the stucco ceilings, tore up the old carpeting and replaced with new hardwood floors, painted the room and added a chandelier! I look forward to hosting future Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners in this room!

Here's our living room before:

Here's our living room after:

Just like in the formal dining room we took down the stucco ceilings, tore up the old carpet and replaced with hardwood floors, painted the walls and added recess lighting! None of the furniture you see now is staying and we're going to add an area rug and wall decor, too! We currently are using half of our old sectional because I thought the entire sectional broke up the flow of the room too much!

Here's our breakfast nook before:

Here's our breakfast nook after:

Again, we did all of the same renovations throughout the first floor but we also added a blingy chandelier from Pottery Barn! The table and chairs were a gift from my parents and we have plans to finish the table and add some fun fabric to the chairs when we have time...and of course add some wall decor!

That pretty much covers the first floor except for the kitchen which I blogged about here and the powder room which I will be sharing soon! 

In the mean time I'll leave you with a few bathroom before pictures and hopefully have the after pictures in the near future!

Before & After: Our Kitchen

I'm finally back after my little blogging hiatus, I don't know where the time's gone but we've been so busy lately finishing up last minute home stuff. On Saturday HGTV filmed our very last scene and we're really looking forward to seeing our episode come together, we'll share the date as soon as we have it! Since the house was cleaned from top to bottom the night before the film crew arrived I took the opportunity to document the progress and I'm here today to share the kitchen updates! We've done a lot of work to this room and we're really happy with the outcome, have a look for yourself!

Here are a few of the before kitchen pictures:

You may have noticed the Rocco's Pizza box on top of the fridge and the Diet Coke on the counter...clearly these are the essentials when renovating your home.

After all of our blood, sweat and tears went into the renovations we now have a beautiful kitchen! We can't take all of the credit for it though, my Dad was the one who had the fun task of painting our kitchen cabinets! This is another must have when renovating a home: find a family member who's recently retired and put them to work! Just kidding, Dad and really Thank YOU, our house wouldn't look the way it does now if it wasn't for you and all of your help!

Are you ready for the after pictures?? 

I still can't believe we went from this:

To this:

Can you?!