Wicker baskets. Who would have thought?

Growing up I never liked wicker. I thought it was for old ladies to put their knitting in, and definitely not for decoration or use. I liked clean lines and bright colors. I preferred a modern look to things, not an old lady look. But over the years I have begun to appreciate that style more and more, and now I have a few wicker pieces scattered throughout my space. I am kind of picky about my wicker choices, but it is defintely present in my design sense now. Here are a couple examples of how I use wicker in my space:

The first one is in my bathroom next to the vanity. I needed something to hold my hair dryer, straightener, etc and this seems like a great solution! (There will be doors on the vanity eventually, they are awaiting a coat of paint)

Floorboard memories

Something that I really wanted to do before we laid the tile down in my bathroom was to write memories and verses and names on the floor as a little secret way to remember things. I want it to be somewhat of a time capsule that someone will discover when they rip the tile up in the future! It was a lot of fun to come up with things to leave as a legacy for the next owners!

I got the idea from a church in my area that invited all of their members to come in before the carpet was put down and write peoples' names that they were committing to pray for their salvation. Years later, the church was sold to another church organization and when they remodeled it they found all of the names of people. It would be interesting to know if any cool things happened with these people!

Here is an update on what I did in my bathroom to memorialize my time of life living in this house!

What would you write as a time capsule of sorts?

Bathroom update

Here is a quick update about the remodeling of my bathroom. It was a horribly ugly mess, but it is coming together quite nicely already. So far we have taken out the old sink, fixed the toilet, started painting the walls, cleaned things, and painted the doors white from chocolate brown. You can check out the original state of the bathroom here Tale of an ugly bathroom.

I am pretty excited to see things shape up so quickly! As I posted last, the toilet no longer spews water everywhere when flushing! The racks came off the walls and the holes have been filled. Behind the toilet is painted the lightest shade of gray possible, and the color is growing on me! And the most exciting part is that the stupid, ugly truck stop sink was taken off the wall along with the dumb splash guard that was around it!

The walls still need to be sanded down and painted to cover the orange-red sponge painting that was going on. We are also eventually putting stick down tile over the orange-red painted concrete that is the bathroom floor right now. It is really exciting to be able to hand pick all of the things that will surround me for however long I end up living there. I hope that when I buy my own home sometime in the future that it will need a little love so I can put my own unique touches into it too.

The vanity that we bought was just plain white with a white counter top and sink and silver handles. I am in the process of painting the cabinet part a charcoal gray. I am always guilty of forgetting to take pictures of the before, so I will take as many pictures of the process as possible. I apologize for the lack of quality before and afters, it is something I am working on!

The other day I was painting the door in the bathroom white, and I wasn't worrying too much about getting paint on the floor because it is going to be covered up. My niece was sitting on the floor next to me chatting and noticed that one of my paint splatters had made an "M". She thought it was so cool that her initial was on the floor and told me I wasn't allowed to paint over it! She gave me a great idea. Before we put the tile down I want to take sharpies or paint and write all over the concrete so it will be a memory hidden under the floor that no one will know about. I heard about a church that was redoing the flooring and asked all the members to come with markers and write the names of people that they were committing to pray for to come to know Jesus. I think that is so cool! Years later, a different church bought the building and during the remodeling process found all the names written on the floor. I want to do that too so some day, when the next person buys the house and replaces the floor they will find names of people I am praying for, and Bible verses that speak to me, and fun memories from the previous owner! You never know what could come of that! I will be sure to take pictures and update you all on that project when it happens!

What would you want to write under the floors in your home as a time capsule of sorts?

Tip for painting a bathroom

Here is a random tip for you that I never thought of before this project. I could be totally behind, but I thought it was clever!!

When my dad and I were at the new house last night, he was working on the toilet. It had a nasty habit of spraying water everywhere when flushed! So after the hundredth time of tightening bolts and checking seals, he finally took the back of the toilet completely off to dump the water out and check seals and pipes again. While he was doing that, I had a brilliant idea! The walls need to be painted still, and it is a pain in the butt to try to paint behind the toilet tank. So while he was messing with the tank outside, I grabbed the paint and a brush and went to town painting everything that I knew I wouldn't be able to reach when the toilet was put back together.

Like I said, probably not the most ingenious thing anyone has ever thought of, but I was pretty proud of myself for thinking ahead like that!

I wasn't too sure of the new color at first. It is a very light (almost white) gray color, but in the can it looked white. But once it was on the wall I loved it! That toilet seat will have to go as well!!

Thanks for letting me share my random tips with you today! I hope you have a great day!
God bless

Renovation day 1!!

We finally have keys to the house! It has been a long time coming and I am so glad it finally happened! The first things we did were to fix the sinks and toilets. They all leaked from sitting empty for a while. The house was bank owned for a while before we got it, so it has some issues, but nothing a handy father can't fix (so far!!) The toilet in the basement leaked pretty bad. Someone suggested a new toilet all together, but that turned out to be an over reaction. All it needed was a new seal and to be tightened up. My dad also replaced the "guts" of the back of the toilet and the handle so it works like new!

I started painting my bathroom, beginning with the ceiling, then I got done with that and started painting the door. No one knew I was painting the door so when they came down to check my progress they were surprised! The way I see it, don't leave me alone with a can of paint in the world's ugliest bathroom!

I want white doors, or gray doors, or some fun colored door... I got chocolate brown doors. But they are chocolate no more!! When it is all said and done I will have put at least 3 coats of Kilz on the doors to cover the brown. NOTE TO SELF** don't paint doors dark colors!

I also painted the base boards and the door going into my bedroom. The colors in this basement were awful... I just don't understand why anyone would do this to an innocent house!!

The tale of an ugly bathroom

The house that we are moving into has a huge bedroom and a full bathroom in the basement all for me!! I think the bedroom is already cute, but is going to be a lot cuter once I get to make it my style! The bathroom on the other hand, it's UGLY! It has painted cement floors (makes for cold piggies!) and sponge painted walls in the same hideous color! And I just don't understand some of the choices they made in decorations! But it has a new looking shower stall that will be nice all to myself!

Bad picture, but you still get a good idea of how ugly it is! And I don't understand that ugly shelf.

So many things wrong with the subject matter of this picture! The splash guard, the weird towel bar placement, the truck stop sink attached to the wall, the shelf again.

Why would someone do this to a poor, innocent bathroom? What did it ever do to you? I have a dream of making this bathroom beautiful again. We got a sink and cabinet to replace the truck stop sink hooked to the wall. The towel bar and shelf are coming down asap. The walls will not look like a color blind person picked it out. The floor will actually have tile. And It will not be visually sickening anymore!

TO BE CONTINUED..........