Husband of the Year

There is a lot to update you on so more posts coming but I can't wait on this one. Derrick is the best. I already knew this and you already knew this but he seriously amazing and treats me so well! I was out of town Monday through Wednesday this week and while I was away Derrick surprised me by painting the dining room! I freaked out!

This is a really big gesture and so sweet coming from him because it's really pretty out of his comfort zone. I handle most of the home improvement projects and it's just not something that he has a lot of experience with or a big desire to do. This is why this is so doubly sweet and amazing. He also had to pick the color and he nailed it!

Two weeks ago I went and bought some paint samples. I was ready to get the brown off the dining room walls and I wanted to lighten it up a bit. At first I was thinking light and bright mint. These were my first three samples. In my opinion the left was darker then wanted, I loved the middle, and the left was too blue. The problem with the middle was it didn't contrast enough with the molding.

I went back and forth and then painted three gray samples on the wall. Two were left over from painting the exterior of our house and one was a new sample from Lowes. Lowes just dropped the price of their samples down to $0.99 so you really can't go wrong to test it out first!

Then I left town and forgot about it for a while. That's when Derrick took over and blew my mind with excitement. He picked the color, Rocky Bluffs by Valspar, and took care of business. Here is what the dining room looked like before. It was fine but I'm just not into the brown in this house. There is so much of it with the floors and the cabinets already. Since we've painted the office, the island, and now the dining room, we've finally gotten rid of all of the brown except for the foyer!

Here is what it looks like now! Derrick had one coat done when I got home yesterday and I finished the 2nd coat and the caulking this morning.

Better right?? Obviously the room is still a mess but I was too excited to get this post up to care about that. Derrick seriously knocked it out of the park with the color choice! Now I'm staring that light fixture down though. It's on it's way out for something much less basic-builder looking.

While I was at it I went ahead and cleaned up the edges with some caulk. Derrick taped the whole room off which is way more work than I usually do. I usually just free hand around the trim and hope for the best but he took the time and effort to tape. There were still some edges to clean up though.

I tried just free-handing the caulk and it didn't look good. It smeared up a lot and needed to be re-painted again.

So I tried another technique I'd seen before. I taped off the trim leaving a tiny gap between the trim and the tape in order to get a nice clean line. Then I caulked and smeared it with a wet finger and peeled the tape up right away.

It looks awesome and is definitely worth the extra effort of caulking.

Derrick really got me with this surprise and I am so grateful for such a thoughtful husband. He knows my love language is home improvement!

Little Updates

Am I the only one that gets giddy for the little maintenance projects around the house? Like when our termite guy comes for the annual inspection? Or a light switch stops working so we have to replace it?  I really like the decorating part of home ownership but I also really like the other tasks that you run into and have to deal with simply because you own a house. Those, to me, are gratifying and exciting and I don't mind doing them at all.

I recently ran into Lowes to get a few of those naggy items like an outlet that has to get changed and an attic light that's been missing it's pull string since we moved in. Those are all for another day but I did get around to two quick fixes today.

I replaced our door handle on our front door a while ago. I can't remember if I posted or not but we were having major issues with it. As in we couldn't get in and out of our front door without a major struggle. Like a fire hazard struggle. We called in someone to adjust the strike plate and he made it better but recommended we replace the whole handle because of the stress we'd been putting on it trying to get it opened. It had kind of knocked the whole thing out of whack. I was OK with it because our old one was looking pretty bad.

Kwikset has a lifetime warranty on all of their products. The fine print says you have to be the one who has lived there since installation so whomp whomp That's not us. I stuck with a kwikset handle though so our original keys could still work.

It was tricky to figure out but piece by piece I got us back to a working door knob. It's amazing how much you take opening your front door easily for granted. What a luxury!

Here is the new one installed. I love the new shape. The deadbolt was crooked and was a major  pain to go back and straighten but I knew I'd hate forever if it was crooked.

You can see the problem though, right?

The door sat like this for....4 months? 5 months? I don't know...forever. Part of the delay was trying to get an exact color match from Certa who painted our house. The other part was just laziness. Well I knocked that out recently and I'm so glad I did! Super easy fix that made a huge difference.

The other project happened today and I had a lot more pictures of the whole process before I accidentally deleted them all. Our back porch light busted earlier this week. The light would flicker and not come on consistently. We let Crosby out after dark every night so not having any light back there was a problem that we had to fix asap.

Once I dug into it I found out that the light bulb was corroded into the fixture. I was able to get it out with pliers (power was off!) but it was still giving me issues so I went ahead and replaced the whole fixture.

This was our old fixture. I pulled the image from the Lowes website. It was $12.  No wonder it broke. I applaud it for lasting the 9 years it has lasted already.  It also looked pretty dinky up there so I was OK with getting an upgrade.

The upgrade really wasn't that expensive either. Fifty bucks and about an hour of learning how to install a light fixture and we were in business!

I LOVE electrical work. It's my favorite really. This was the first time I've ever switched out a light fixture but now I want to do every light in the house. It was so EASY! And it looks so good! And it works! It gives off light!  Lots of successes today!

Collectors Items

I've started a collection. Does three count as a collection? Derrick gets the ESPN magazine every single week. I don't even know why because he also gets a digital copy and that's the one the actually reads but we still get a print copy. That means we get 64 magazines a year when you include my Real Simple that we get every month. Then I found the most awesome magazine rack at a garage sale for $0.25!

I love having a place to stash the magazines now and I am always on the lookout for more now. My budget is $2 or less though. They are actually kind of expensive on Etsy so thrift stores and garage sales are the place to look.

I've since found two more and they are chilling in the guest room and the hall bathroom. I like the brass but I may also spray paint them.

This one was at a thrift store find and is the most worn so it will probably get a coat of paint when we redo the guest room. 

Not sure if it counts as a collection but I'm always keeping my eye out for them! I've seen plenty of wooden ones at Goodwill but I'm more drawn to the wire ones. They are always on my list if I can find one for a steal!

Camera Practice

Last week Derrick and I took Crosby out to play some frisbee and practice with the new camera's sports setting. Here are a few of my favorite shots.

I love how she looks like she's stalking the disc in this shot.

This is our best mid-air catch shot.

Pure joy.

Crosby could go all. day. long. We have to make her stop so she doesn't run herself into the ground. I love these pictures and how clearly you can see the intensity she has.

Garden Inspiration

My dad has a beautiful yard. He is the main reason I want my yard to look presentable in the very least. I don't have all of his skills but I really want our grass to be green if possible and I try to keep the weeds at bay as much as possible. Curb appeal is so important in how your entire house feels and my dad is the king of curb appeal! Or...in his case, lake appeal!

While I was home over the 4th I took a few pictures to share because he really has done some amazing work! I should have asked him for a before picture but just picture a whole lot of nothing rolling down the hill into the lake.

He has hidden little surprises around the whole backyard. This guy is one of my favorites.

I love the maple tree arch leading down to the dock. This used to be a very perilous journey.

Putting Derrick to work hauling up a log we found in the lake.

Crosby loves it here. As soon as she gets out of the car she runs down the stairs to the back headed for the lake.

Every time we come home the yard looks better and better. My dad has turned it into an impressive hobby and it really is amazing what he's done. It's also nice to have an on-call garden expert whenever I have a new project in mind or accidentally order way to much mulch!

Fireworks!

There weren't actually any fireworks but "Fouth of July" sounded so generic.

This past weekend Derrick and I headed home to Hickory to spend the holiday weekend with family. Jack was house sitting for a friend so we left him in Raleigh but Jay and Adnan were also able to make the trip down.

It was a lazy, fun weekend which was perfect! Their house is right on a lake and this was the first time I felt like we were really able to enjoy being on the water which made me really excited for future lake visits!

Dad's garden is absolutely amazing. He's got little spots to sit everywhere and the view from each spot is different. I love seeing all the changes he's made since the last time I visited. I took a lot of photos which I'm going to share in a separate post.

This was taken right before my near drowning trying to help Crosby up on the dock.

I promise Dad and Derrick were there! They just didn't make many photos apparently. I actually didn't take any pictures at all...these are all stolen from Jay and Mom.

We were also able to sneak in a visit with Aunt Barbara, Uncle Randy, and Kelly which is always nice. I also grossly overestimated the amount of baked beans we needed for this cookout. Mom and Dad will be eating beans until Thanksgiving.

Overall the weekend was so chill with no sort of agenda. Holidays are nice with work because most clients are also celebrating the holiday so I can unplug for a while without feeling like I'm not being there for someone.