Getting ready to sell....

Hubby and I bought our first home with the intention of it being a starter home. We planned for 3-5 years in this house and this is year 2. While we are not planning on selling any time soon (probably a few years), we have decided to focus our "projects" on things that will make the house easier to sell/raise the value. As the housing market begins to make a slow recovery, we want to put a little extra thought into the things we decide to spend our time and money on to ensure that we will get back what we put in to the house.

After searching blogland for ideas on where to start, here is the beginning of our list:

To Do:

1. Paint the kitchen.  This is the only main room that didn't get a paint job when we moved in and the walls are pretty dirty.

2. Paint the trim through out the house. I actually started on this one tonight. First I had to clean all the trim with a magic eraser, but my next step is to paint.

3. Add board and batten to the dining room (and maybe living room)

4. Paint living room and dining room a neutral color (not everyone loves bright yellow, even though they should!)

5. Paint the front door. Nothing says welcome home like a freshly painted entryway!

6. Finish landscaping the front flowerbeds and entryway. (We started this summer but never finished)

7. Organize spare rooms and closets. This needs to be done anyway, but no one wants to check out the size of the closets in a house to find we have randomly thrown everything we didn't have a place for in there!

Wish list:

1. Granite counter tops. We currently have old school white laminate counter tops. Granite will definitely increase the value of our kitchen but it comes with a hefty price tag. For this reason, this is on our wish list and not our definite list.

2. Update hardware. While we did change out all our cabinet hardware and most of our lighting, our door knobs are still brass and our faucets are still chrome. I would love to change everything to oil rubbed bronze but there are so many doors!! I'm thinking about following one of the tutorials out there to spray paint my current ones, we will see!

3. Add a patio area. We currently have a small covered patio area, but I would really like to extend it out behind our dining room window and add an area for a table and chairs.

Do you have any suggestions about improvements that makes a house sell faster/for a higher price? We would love to hear from you!

Master Bedroom Summer Make-Over

So I know you are all dying to know what I did to the house while hubby was gone for a week. Well... I didn't do anything dramatic, (except clean, which trust me, at that point, was pretty dramatic) but I did re-do our master bedroom for summer. After a trip to IKEA while I was in Atlanta for the weekend, I came home with a full bedroom worth of new textiles for summer to give our room a lighter feel.

When transitioning to summer in my home, I focus on making our spaces lighter and airy. We have pretty dark walls in most of our rooms so I try to use textiles and fabrics to brighten up my spaces.

Before: (Terrible photo, I know, this was one of those last minute "dang it, I forgot to take a before" photos.) This look is great for winter but I wanted to brighten things up for summer. You can't see in this photo, but we had tan black-out curtains.

After:

I have loved this duvet cover for a long time, I'm so glad I could finally make it work in our room. I also changed out tan curtains for white. It is a lot brighter in the mornings but maybe that will help me drag myself out of bed!

I still need to change the lamp shades to white, but over all I'm super happy about our summer look!

What changes do you  make in your house for summer?

Trash to Treasure - Chair Rescue

Have you everhad one of those projects that you started regretting half way through? This little chair was one of those projects for me.

I found this chair on the side of the road in our neighborhood. It was thrown out with a few matching ones but this was the only one that could be salvaged. I made the hubby stop so I could rescue it (he HATES to stop for roadside treasures, luckily we had our friend Jennifer with me so he was outnumbered) It sat just like this for weeks until I had time to transform it into something fresh and beautiful.

I took it apart and painted it gray with some chalk paint and then waxed it with amber wax. All was going according to plan... and then I took the first layer of fabric off. YUCK! I can not believe this was sitting in my living room!! I almost lost my lunch, seriously, it was really bad. I thought about throwing in the towel, but instead I took the second layer of fabric off. No wonder the previous owner decided to recover it. I stripped it all the way down to the foam and started over.

Boy was it worth it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Weekend Road Trip - Atlanta, GA

Well, our year of roadtrips continued with a trip to Atlanta this past weekend. If you're just joining us, this year the hubby and I decided to take several small vacations instead of a week long trip. If you missed the first few posts, February we went to the Jack Daniel's Distillery in Lynchburg, TN (not posted)  and in April we went to Washington DC and Fredericksburg, VA, and in May we went to Nashville, TN.

This time, we found ourselves (on our first of several planned trips) in Atlanta, GA. There's really so much to do in Atlanta.  We started off the day at Zoo Atlanta which is  a fabulous zoo. I could sit and watch their gorilla habitat all day long. They even have a panda!

Right outside of the zoo sits a Civil War Exhibit called Cyclorama. It's basically a huge painting (the largest painting in the world) that depicts scenes of the Battle of Atlanta. You sit on rotating bleachers and look at the painting while the narrator describes the scenes. My history buff  husband loved it. Whatever, I still got to see the pandas :)

We ended the day with a Braves' game. What a great day for a ballgame. In case you are a sports fan, the Braves beat the Nationals by one run in the 10th inning.

It was a long day but a great day. Big thanks to Karen and Shane for joining us!

Lilla Rose Review and GIVEAWAY

My friend Cary is an independent consultant for Lilla Rose and asked me to review their most popular product, the Flexi-Clip. I had never heard of Lilla Rose before Cary so I was excited to try it out.

These adorable hair clips are super easy to use and look so much better than my normal bobby pin routine. It literally takes seconds to pull my hair back with this clip. My hair is thick but super fine and I normally have a hard time finding a barrette that will hold my hair without it slipping out but the Flexi-Clip holds my hair securely all day long!

With several styles to choose from,  you're sure to find one (or three)  that matches your style. It is very important to watch the sizing video. Mine (pictured left) is a xsmall but I am only able to do a half up, I will order the small next time.

When I asked Cary why she loves Lilla Rose she said:

" I discovered Lilla Rose almost 2 years ago for myself and it quickly became my favorite hair clip.  It is the first clip I have found that looks pretty AND actually holds my hair securely.  As you know I’m a mom to 3 little ones (5,3,2) and so time to “fix” my hair is limited!  It is a way I can quickly get ready in the mornings and still enjoy a touch of elegance!  Because of the design and different sizes it works in all hair types, from baby-fine to super-thick."

Cary has graciously offered to host a giveaway for one lucky Cupcakes and Corndogs reader. The winner will receive a certificate, redeemable for a flexi-clip of her choice (a $16 value) Be sure to hop on over to her Facebook Page and tell her thanks for the giveaway!

 

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