Master Suite Remodel - Almost There

Marble hex tile floors

Ceramic and marble subway tile walls

I love this herringbone pattern!

Dimmable recessed lighting

New vanity with our "Dallas White" granite

New lights above the vanity -- a better picture to come later hopefully

Closet painting in progress, light installed, baseboards and crown molding done!

Living Room Ceiling Updates, Part II

The last living room update left us here:

It looked way better than before, but the obnoxiously shiny brass fan was sort of taking away from the feeling we were going for in here. It's a great fan, and new, but not very pretty. It buzzed when only the light was on and not the fan because the switch it was on wasn't intended for use with low-power bulbs like we were using. We could have changed just the switch, but we also knew that at some point we would want to replace it with something lower profile without dangling pulls so that when we install a projector in here we wouldn't have anything in the way. We weren't really intending to replace it now, but then Home Depot was running a sale on ceiling fans, and one thing led to another, and we bought a new fan! We installed it Wednesday night! 

There is still spray insulation to be finished and to be trimmed, but I wanted to show a pretty close-up because this fan is awesome!

   

It also came with this super snazzy control panel to use instead of the pull chains, so we are officially ready for that projector! The fan works awesomely and I love the buttons! I will never buy another fan with pull chains ever again. You'll also notice we installed a fancy dimmer switch on the right of this panel, too. That controls something "new" as well... More to come soon!

Happy HOLLAdays

My Christmas cards may have been lost in the mail, but it didn't stop me from making the house festive this year, especially since last year we were right in the thick of moving and tiling at Christmastime. I dug up all the light strings I could find and bought several LED strings for the front yard and went to town making the house feel cheery. I may never want to take my living room lights down! They really make it feel cozy.

Our Christmas mantle. Eventually I'd like to knit up some nice stockings for us and the pup.

Presents!

I just love Christmas lights!

Our holiday welcome mat

This is an Italian stone pine tree we bought this year with hopes of re-potting it and using it every year for Christmas (with a cute dog standing next to it for size comparison)

This may not look Christmas-y, but Nick installed this nifty outlet beneath the flood lights out front so I could plug my Christmas lights into it! We only have a few trees wrapped this year, but I intend to add more lights each year and eventually have a ridiculously bright and awesome front yard.

Nick's mom gave me this lovely sconce for Christmas and I think it looks really festive. In spring I plan to replace the votive candles with tiny colorful succulents!

I hadn't made paper snowflakes in years and it was really fun to do again!

Google "auto-awesomed" this photo for me to make my Christmas lights on the tree outside sparkle!

Jungle House

We recently had to bring in all of the potted plants from outdoors when it dropped below freezing stayed there each night, and now our house is a jungle wonderland! I'm going to have a tough time giving them all back up to the porch when the warm weather comes back around, so I might just have to get a bunch more for in the house year-round to fill up the empty spaces.

Aside from the plants, there is another new addition to the master bedroom...

It's this little light switch in the corner. We have several flood lights on the back porch, but the one that is between the living room and our bedroom only had a switch in the living room, so if we forgot to switch it off before bed we would have to go all the way back through the house to turn it off. Not any more! Nick cut a hole in the wall and wired a switch up to control the same light using three-way light switches in both rooms.

Another recent electrical project was finally replacing the extension cord that has been draped across the ceiling to power the garage door opener since we first moved in. A few months back Nick replaced the old chain opener with a new WiFi-enabled belt opener (that we got on sale for under $200 including tax!), and now it's got a fancy new outlet in the ceiling to just plug into directly. This picture is from right after Nick installed it so the cord is still hanging down and it's not super pretty, but you get the idea. Hooray for safe electricity use!