House Progress

It's about time I checked back in on the progress of our new house, no?

Since moving in at the end of January, life has been a whirlwind. Our amazing contractor, Byron Larson, finished the basement in record time and we've been enjoying the extra space immensely. If you live in Utah Valley or Salt Lake County and need work on your home, email me for Byron's contact information. He did an impeccable job.

Now that the basement is done, progress is finally being made upstairs! We've painted the entire upstairs common area and we're tackling the bedrooms this weekend. The color we finally settled on is Silver Lining from Kwal Paint.

 I already told you about some of the improvements we made to the outside of the house.

Now we're turning our attention to the little things that need updating on the inside. The biggest sore thumb (besides the horrible paint job) were these awful brass boob lights in the hall and laundry room.

We switched them out with these lovely lights I found on Joss & Main for $30 a pop.

But once the light was up in the hall, I noticed a little something out of place. Can you spot it?

Nothing a blast of Krylon Dual in white wouldn't fix.

We also switched out the cracked light switches in the upstairs common area with Allen + Roth plates from Lowe's. I also painted the front door black, but that's a story for another day.

 In the kitchen, we updated all of the appliances to stainless steel. We also decided that until we can afford to update the cabinets and counters, we could at least switch out the hardware. Such a small thing has made a huge difference.

For the dining room, we painted the inset Silver Lining and put in a new outside door with a window.

  It is amazing how the new door opened up the space. 

Things still to do in the kitchen/dining room:

• Paint new door - white to match the trim
• New tile or hardwood - we're not sure whether we want hardwood throughout upstairs or not.
• New baseboards - to match those in the basement
• Refinish cabinets - I would like to completely sand down and restain them. Maybe in the next few weeks?
• New counter tops - granite would be nice

  

It's crazy to think that just a few, short weeks ago, this horrible red wall was smacking me in the face each morning.

Now that all of the walls are painted, the room seems exponentially bigger. We still have a long way to go, but I'm happy with the direction we're headed.

Things still to do:

• Hardwood floors - we'd like to put a dark hardwood throughout this front space including the hallway
• New baseboards - to match those in the basement
• Rug - I actually bought the perfect one and in a twist of fate (and my lack of "address confirmation") it is now in Temecula, CA. Anyone around there want to bring it to Utah for me??
• Room styling - this furniture is my parents. Better sitting in here than a storage unit, right?
• Cover pillows - blues and greens please
• Plantation Shutters - in the WAY off future

 Slowly but surely!

Techie Tuesday: How-To Add a Pinterest Pin Button to your Images

I don't know if you've noticed, but you can now hover over any image on The How-To Gal and a Pinterest button will pop-up.

If you click that (P) button, you can automatically pin the image to your Pinterest account. Pretty cool, right? It is really easy to install to your own blog, too. I used the tutorial at BloggerSentral and it is so simple to understand and recreate, I'm sending you their way.

Happy Pinning!

Yarn Wrapped "H"

Awhile ago I posted about an ombre flower letter for my daughter's room. I wanted to do something similar for my new baby boy's nursery. I updated an old oval frame and I added a yarn wrapped letter to fill the empty space.

Didn't have my camera, so these are all iPhone pics, sorry.

I found some super bulky yarn at JoAnns that was clearance priced for $2.97. The gray was spot on, so I grabbed two skeins. Once I got home, I started wrapping a chip letterboard I already had.

You really don't need to used a whole ton of glue. I made a thin line with my hot glue gun and it was enough.

Make sure to keep the same tension while wrapping so the look is uniform.

After the letter was covered, I glued on some sticky velcro I had leftover from another project and stuck it to the wall.

The frame happily surrounds the H and the texture the yarn brings into the space is fabulous.

LIGHT GLASS and TREND

Antlers in Home Decor

I've been thinking about antlers in home decor  A LOT lately. And I'll tell you why. When we moved into our new home, guess what I found hanging in the tree outside:

This bad boy.
Seriously, the biggest antler I've ever laid eyes on.

But what do I do with it? Do I sell it? Put it in my house? Trash it?

My cousin Sandra loves antlers in decor. Did you read her post a few days ago?

And she's not the only one! There are tons of people taking what once was considered "hunting lodge" decor and modernizing it.

1 / 2 / 3 / 4

What should I do? Any suggestions?

Pop of Color: Red

All the beautiful, vibrant colors outside made me feel my nursery needed some pops of color, too. Orangey red went perfect with the palette. 

The original color of this squirrel was a nasty tan. I sprayed it with Rustoleum Fire Safety Red and the difference is crazy awesome. Don't you think?

I noticed that the overspray from my high-gloss spray paint turned sections dull that were once shiny. To fix the problem I sprayed a final coat all over the piece.By  spraying everywhere one more time while it was all wet it eliminates those dull, textured spots.

 Even the curtains got a makeover! I purchased the pom pom trim at JoAnn's with a 50 percent off coupon.

I have two frames that received the same treatment as the squirrel and his nut. Eventually, they will get a saying or picture inside.

Finding inspiration from my backyard. Springtime is lovely.

What's your favorite accent color?

LIGHT GLASS and TREND