Almost Gypsy Soul

the highlight of your summer is getting a new sprinkler system, a deck, central air and some grass planted so there aren't puppy paw prints all over this house in the fall. And so any headway that I made on that ole' savings goa l I set a while back....well it can be viewed in my backyard from a cool house and probably doesn't really count as a checkmark. Work got in the way of my summer in a big way this year. I did manage (with lots of help and cash outlays) to get the sprinkler system, air conditioner and a deck installed. Up for next summer is planting grass and finishing the steps for the deck (assuming that I don't get them done this fall)....which I didn't. Even without the stairs, I'm sure enjoying the new deck and I've got a plan for completing the backyard this summer! Stay tuned for final, final pictures!

The kitchen was probably the biggest makeover in this house. It took a long time and I had ALOT of help. As in they did most of the work and I played the part of the 'assistant'. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here we go! Good riddance tiny, crowded, dark, ugly kitchen!

This is the room that I really haven't done anything with. Its an awkward long skinny space and I'll be honest I just don't really need it. I had some extra furniture so I made a little reading nook on one end....that I never use (I read in my big comfy chair in the living room). The other end was converted to my workout room, which I never used until recently. Now I use it at least 5 days a week and its totally worth having it!

I spend most of the time when I'm at home in the living room. I love big furniture and some of my favorite things have found their home in my living room. I love my couch and chair, they are the first furniture I purchased brand spankin' new when I got my first job in Tennessee. The other piece that I love in my living room is the antique radio cabinet that doubles as my tv stand. My mom and dad bought this at an estate sale for $5 and refinished it and I LOVE it! And for the record, I was nearly in tears when I finished painting this room before I moved in because it was so ugly. BUT, I was so tired of painting that it just stayed and I ended up loving it after moving in my big furniture!

Although I've claimed nearly all the bedrooms in this house "mine" at one time or another, this one I think wins the official title. Its not the biggest, but I love the mattress on this bed, plus I have flannel sheets for the winter and that is just awesome when its below 0 outside! And the final product   Have I ever said how nice it is to have matching carpet throughout the house instead of a different carpet in each room?

Here is another guest bedroom and occasionally my guest bedrooms are clear full and I love those weekends! I use this room because of the wicked awesome big mirror on the dresser that I built in high school shop class. That is one good thing about having a big house and just me, I have plenty of room for all the furniture that I built in high school. All ready for some company!

I feel as a single person with a dog I shouldn't be able to even name a post bedroom #3....who has 3+ bedrooms and only a dog to share them with. Especially when said dog likes to curl up on the foot of the bed in bedroom #1 with her human.? whelp, I guess that would be me. So because I don't need this third bedroom to actually house a bed, I turned it into an office....which I never use. My thought process was to have a place to sort all the bills and junk that big kids are now responsible for. I thought it would help me keep my counter clean. For the record, my counter is not clean. ever. ok, maybe for a couple hours a month. All the bedrooms pretty much got the same treatment, fresh paint, new blinds, new carpet and new closet doors and a touch of my style with furniture and wall hangings. When I bought my house I had no idea how expensive some of the small things would be. Case in point, blinds....buying blinds could break Donald Trump! Unless you order from here ...

 Since I've lived here lived here for 4 years, there should be many more posts, but there aren't because I'm a slacker. To catch up on on my DIY(with recruitment of helpers) projects, just click here ! This project is complements of my taste in picking flooring, paint colors etc. It is not a product of my blood, sweat and tears. Actually, there was plenty of tears because this is one of the rooms that was flooded, but now that its all done.....its a much better place! **Don't forget to Trot Your Turkey tomorrow through the weekend. Report back with your pictures and thoughts! If we get trotters from at least 10 states, we will be forking over a donation to the Salvation Army!**

Is it weird that one of my favorite rooms in my house is the bathroom. Its simple, its clean (well has clean lines) and when I compare it with what it looked like when I moved it, I feel like I'm HGTV worthy. For this update, I got my family involved. It was all freshly painted by me. Dad was charged with replacing the light fixture, sink and countertop. Check out that sweet 70s countertop and sink....use your imagination for the what the whole thing looked like! eeeekkkkkk! Mom helped me lay the new tile. I wish I had a picture of the awful "tile" laminate that was in here before, you can sorta see it in the fabulous mirrored shower doors. HA! And I pulled out some used decorations and wall hangings and repurposed them. One thing that I really love about this bathroom is the hooks. I opted for coat hooks to hang towels on rather than towel rods because the room is so small and I'll just tell you, it will be hooks in the bathroom forever for me. Looks nice, easi...

Why anyone would paint a cedar privacy fence white.....beyond me, but I'll be the one dealing with it....next year! In the meantime we did a little work on Tylie's Oasis. This is where she hangs out all day while I'm working. The picture above it what it looks like when we moved in, then we went to this.....and let me tell  you, not by choice. This is what our yard looked like after the accidental basement swimming pool installation of 2011. BOO! The water line into my house was leaking/broke and left me with a swimming pool rather than a bedroom and bathroom......a week before Christmas, it was a great Christmas gift let me tell ya. I have very little outside space, but because I'm shut my TV off for the summer, I decided it was high time to spruce up the ole' backyard so there was an awesome space to hangout during the summer and maybe even invite some folks over for some BBQ time!

You can read about my first house here . The laundry room was pretty much the last priority on the list, but when Momma came up to help finish up a few projects, we got this one tackled on a whim. I had gotten an extra cabinet from when we remodeled my kitchen because they sent the wrong color. Because my laundry room is on the smaller side, I needed some extra room to fold my laundry. I already had my washer and dryer so that saved me a lot of money. I completed this room for about $200 (most of this was carpet). I had to use the carpet because the concrete floor had settled and was too uneven for tile or laminate. Here is my new and improved laundry room! If anyone wants to come try it out it seems as I always have an overflowing laundry shoot!

We have new paint, trim, carpet and hardware in this room. It flooded in the Swimming Pool installation project of 2011 so some things were dried out and upgraded at that time. The color scheme in this room is a metallic copper accent wall with cream colored walls and snowy white trim. Accent colors are found on the bed, curtains and refurbished dress all decked out in sage green. If you come and visit me, this is where you will get to stay. Fancy huh!?

I moved to Rock Springs and bought my first house in 2009! Exciting, I can pick my own paint colors. I bought my house in foreclosure and it had a few projects (and a few that I wasn't expecting). It definitely a work in progress and I'll blog about each room as I get it finished. Fair warning, I'm not that great at finishing projects so some of them might be closely followed with a 'my first sale' blog. And no, I don't see that coming too soon. This the the picture that I thought I had of the outside of my house.  See I told you I was bad at this picture thing......I thought that I might take one before work in the morning, but its super cold and all snowy and icy and I just don't think my house would look as joyful as it does when there is green grass and green trees. Maybe another day you will get a picture of it :) Some of the changes that I'll eventually be blogging about include: total kitchen remodel new paint all around new blinds all...