Making A Rental Feel Like Home: Living Room

As you all know, we moved to Denver in June of 2017 and started renting our 1,000 sq ft 2 bedroom 1 bathroom home just 15 minutes from downtown Denver. You can check out more of our entire process here from when we first moved to the area and picked a home.

Now, since then, we've been fortunate enough to be able to work on different elements of the home to make it more "homey" and somewhere we feel like we could be awhile. We already talked about the kitchen and dining area, the master bedroom and lone bathroom, and if you've been following along with the blog we are currently working on converting the second bedroom that was once the guest room and office to the nursery (with tiny corner office area!) through the One Room Challenge. So far it's going well! Check out the week one progress , week two, and week three!

The only place we haven't talked about much is the living room space. Here is a reminder of what it looked like when we walked through it the first time last May:

A pretty great space with room for larger sized furniture and to have a bunch of people over. Something that we definitely enjoy being able to do!

Let's talk about what we did to take this peanut butter living room and transform it into something more cozy and that reflected our style. Thank goodness for our amazing landlord who has a lot of faith and trust in us!

Nursery & The One Room Challenge

I'm linking up to the Spring One Room Challenge 2018 with one of my best blogging friends Sam at Away She Went Blog. She always inspires me to do the things so, here we go. What better reason, right?

We've decided to turn our second bedroom from a guest room/office into a nursery for the baby when it gets here. We luckily have a great landlord who lets us customize our space and, since we're staying for sure another year, we figure we may as well make baby comfy in the meantime. Right now, it is a hot filthy mess. Luckily we've got a few months left to get it all together.

Full disclosure: The following photos may trigger you into organizing your entire house. If this mood strikes you please let me know in the comments below and you can use that passion on this room! just kidding of course... but... here is a picture of the room as it is currently:

Finding a Rental in a New City

After owning a home for nearly 10 years, it was super weird and super hard for me to transition to being a renter. I spent a ton of time looking into different places, locations, and types of rentals.

A few key things I realized about renting in a city, specifically Denver, Colorado:

1. It is very expensive. Full stop. We pay $1400 for a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom duplex 15 minutes from downtown Denver. It has a giant yard, garage, and fireplace. Our mortgage in Grand Junction was $870. Ouch. Some things we lost in this rental: A/C, 2nd bath, 3rd bedroom.
2. Private rentals seem to be better. They are more willing to work with you, are friendlier, and much more accessible for maintenance. They want to protect their investment. I eventually found ours on Zillow.com.

Living Room: To Sectionals and Beyond

It has been a whirl wind in my life since May, which is why I haven't posted. I guess you just find that life takes over. We spent a great deal of the summer in South Dakota with family after two huge losses in our family. My Speech & Debate Team also competed for a week in Dallas, Texas winning third in the WORLD for our debate skills. I was so proud of them! I can't take any credit for their success, they were great all without me!

Now we are also focusing on redoing our family home about a mile from where I live, we are going to be selling it. We purchased the house in 1998 and it was where my siblings and I all grew up. It will be hard to let it go.

However, it has gotten me inspired to redo my own house a bit! I want to sell but I also want to be debt free, so I am going to stick it out a bit longer so that I can be prepared for a new project. I feel like I am almost there!

So the revamping is going to start in the living room, remember what it looked like the first time we went to the place?

After the first remodel it looked a lot better! A little bit collegey for my liking. Notice the couches? That was back when I first bought the slipcovers and they looked great! I was so excited about them! That was in 2009. It also looks pretty empty to me...

Here is what it looks like nowadays! I think it's a little cluttery and I am working on cutting down on some of my knick knacks and the like. It is so easy to accumulate stuff!

I want to stream line some of the colors and add a sectional for more efficient space usage. Check out my inspiration board:

Living Room Re-Do by megmcd featuring a fabric loveseat

I have managed to find substitutions that are less expensive. I can't wait to  buy some new pillows! I am also going to try a flat weave indoor/outdoor rug for the pets to see if that helps with the animals. I have so many of them creatures.

I did find a version of the couch that is pretty close to perfect at American Furniture Warehouse (you can buy an add on to make one side longer):

Source List and Budget:

{Sectional} $700.00 (American Furniture)

{rocking chair} $50.00 (WalMart)

{Flat Weave Rug} $100 (5'7' Target)

{Accent Table} $80.00 (Target)

I also want to pick up some new baskets for the extra blankets and such. I have plenty of knick knacks, wall decor, and stuff like that so I won't need much. I'm just coming to that stage where all the expensive furniture needs to be replaced. 

Now that I have eliminated so much debt I will have the funds to be able to make some of this happen! With good choices, of course. 

What do you think?

50 Shades of Gray... Door Edition

It has been a long time since I have posted... starting school two weeks early has been super hard on my life! It has felt like being a new teacher all over again. Plus the extra teams and work I have taken on... its put some house projects on the wayside a bit. But! I am finallllyyy able to reveal to you my beautiful doors!

Remember what they looked like before? The one on the left was the old, dated, and ugly door. The door on the right was the new and improved wonderful version!

I love the detail and character it adds to the house. Plus there is no wood grain that clashes with the flooring. Thank goodness. That is so ugly.

Now here are the two new doors together on the secondary bedrooms! Storage is still limited in our style of home so we utilize over the door hooks quite often but even so they are so much better. Plus the new handles really coordinate quite a bit better with the other fixtures that are in the house. Mmmm.... pretttyyyy.

Let's not forget the bathroom door! That one received a wonderful and beautimous update as well...

Clearly there's still some mild fixes to do and a couple of adjustments as the hinges get worked and the house settles a bit between the seasons. I am hoping to get those fine tuning details done before the holidays when we start having visitors come and stay with us. At least now they know that when they close the door it won't fall off the hinges in the middle of the night.

We like to make sure that guests are as comfortable as possible around here. hehe.

Remember my bedroom door where all this excitement first began?

Well here is a long distance shot from the hallway. Ahhhhh. I love it. Sometimes I stand next to it and say sweet things. I'm sure everyone does that to their doorways right? Oh! And I added a new handle to the front entry door too. I couldn't replace that door because I'd have to special order it, the door is in good shape, so at this point I'm not looking to spend the extra cash on it yet.

One final BEFORE shot of the ugly old 80s doors... for nostalgia's sake.

And the new! Yayyy! We love them! Pretty sure that's one of the features in the hosue my sister and I get the most compliments on. It's fun to add some extra color and appeal to the doors since the rest of my tones are pretty neutral. Art and doors are what pop around here!

What do you think of the new doors? 

Total cost:

• slab doors from Lowe's: $32x4=$128.00
• ORB handles from Lowe's (Gatehouse brand, not good for keyed locks though): $10.97x5=$54.85

Time to Get to Class

About a month ago I showed you some of the steps I was taking to update my master bedroom and I have to say... I think its starting to look pretty smashing! It isn't totally done, there are a few things on my to-do list but so far the progress is great!

I am so excited about how adorable my room is! Ready to see it! Let's start with my fabulous new door, that I still will occasionally stop and pet and coo at. Not a big deal...

As you walk in you can see that I have taken down some of the art and photos that have been up foreverrr. I left the same gray walls because I just love how soft and airy it is. I added a hat rack for my more adorable hats, the baseball caps and such still live elsewhere. Having it reminds me of my Grandpa who used to have one full of trucker hats in his living room that he would let us try on.

I stole my Raggedy Ann and Andy back from the guest room and holy moly do I love them in here. The contrast of their vintage fabulousness and the glam high gloss wallpaper is on point! In the office they felt dulled and blended against the stripes but against the walls in here... perfect. I plan to add some more cool pieces to that wall but only one step at a time.

I traded a white mirror from my room for the cool vintage mirror from my sister's room. I like it against the white wall also.

Here's what the wall looks like after being painted (notice that the 80s wood is gone? Holla at it!) I also pet this wall sometimes too. It is sort of like being in Willie Wonka, minus the Schnozberries.

Oh! And of course my new rugs! I decided that doing runners would be much better than a big area rug, partially because I love how much larger and open my room feels with some of the wood floors showing but it makes it cozier to have some rugs on the side of the bed. I got them at IKEA for $19.99 a piece. $40.00 total is way cheaper than an area rug! What do you think?

And here's another look at my wonderful new art! I love the mismatched frames and the gold tones. Don't get me wrong- I still love white but I feel it is reflecting so much more of who I am and reflects my quirkiness.

So here is the break down of the new changes! I'm still in the market for a new comforter and shams, as well as a headboard, but I think its looking pretty great so far!

Master Bedroom Update:

• find a second short dresser as a nightstand- paint it white
• get a new rug situation
• make/find a new headboard
• update the shams and bedding
• new wall art
• patch and repaint sections
• replace door
• organize dog kennel area 
• clear clutter/donate unworn clothes

Oh Porch, How Cheerful of You!

I love the updates that I showed you last week, so I figured I should continue that trend into the front of the house. This post is a bit picture heavy but that's because the  front of my yard is a lot larger and I like to focus on the curb appeal, I will let them speak for themselves. The first five are the "before" pictures this year, and the rest are after the new paint job and accessorizing:

Sebastian had to stay inside because he was barky, he still tried to keep an eye on things.

Ready for the after? Here you go!

To- Do List Items Finished:

• Repaint peeling paint 
• Clean the steps
• Replace old ramp with new steps
• Plant flowers
• Repaint from doors and posts
• Accessorize
• Organize seating for max functionality

Product List:

• Large lattice rug, clearance $7.48 at Target
• "Welcome" mat, Target
• Lanterns, Homegoods and IKEA
• Pillows, handmade by mama
• Assorted flowers, local Bookcliff Gardens shop
• Brown furniture, free from friend spray painted with "Espresso" Rustoleum 
• Compass art, clearance $14.38 at Target
• Blue lawn chairs, free from mama, she found them in the trash. 

What do you think of the front porch? I'm totally digging the new rug! Especially since it was dramatically cheaper than replacing all the carpeting on the front, though that does definitely still need to be done. Maybe next year. 

Team Should-Finally-Fix-That

It has been so long since I posted! The end of the year is such a busy crazy time for a teacher, especially a first year! But now it is officially summer (6 weeks of paid vacation!) and I have finally the time and energy to get things done. So I have made a simple list of things that have to get done. Mostly things I've put off for about five years. No rush right?

First things first: I need paint this outdated light fixture and make the light actually work. It has worked since 2009, whoops.

2. I started this project last summer. I think I should probably go ahead and like... I dunno... finish painting the beam...

3. My bedroom needs to have all the trim updated and painted out. It looks so tacky being the outdated 80s faux wood.

4. On that same note... I should probably install the trim I bought for the door in March.

5. Oh and this other randomly not updated light fixture in the master bath. Should do that too.

6. I exploded a bottle of nail polish on my wall... my favorite new color. :( I need to repaint the wall and the trim. 

7. Within the next couple weeks I am going to replace these doors just like I did with the master bedroom, that is going to be fabulous! Fully updated trim and doors! Amazing! Fully updated and no more ugly wood!

8. I am also thinking about replacing this door to make it coordinate with the others in the house, though it is in the best shape of all, so it might be one I can postpone for a bit.

9. New backdoor! That is actually happening this week! Finally. It is going to be great to have a secondary entrance that is fully functional and safe. 

10. Though it is hard to see... I am also getting new gutters this week! Super expensive... but it will be nice to have a fully functional system on the house. Then I can actually repaint the porch and beams without losing all progress from rain the next day. 

Operation Get-er-Done has officially begun! Here's to an excellent summer. :)