I’m one of 18 bloggers participating in the Home Depot Patio Style Challenge. Considering this is what the back patio off the mudroom looked like when we bought the Underdog…

…and this is what it looked like after we removed a bunch of dead trees {and replaced the roof and converted the original dining room window to french doors}…

…and this is what it looked like when we excavated the entire yard last fall {yep, the old cracked patio was ripped out}…

…and this is what the newly poured patio looked like pretty much all winter…

it should go without saying that we have a burning desire for a decent outdoor living space. Ideally, we’d like to see the patio off the mudroom used as an outdoor dining area. The goal is to make the dining area reflect our style {simple, modern, cozy} and make it feel like an extension of the indoors. To achieve the look, we’re using some new pieces, incorporating items we have on hand and doing a little DIY. Here’s the plan.

1 – I’ll bring in a pillow or two from the living room to cozy things up outside. I just bought these Crate & Barrel pillows and they’re great. I was recently asked to suggest a non-IKEA place to grab pillow inserts. C&B pillows are affordable and a feather down insert is included with your purchase. Can’t beat that! Of note: These are not outdoor pillows so I’ll only toss them outside when we’re enjoying nice weather.

2 – Stringing globe lights above the patio will give the al fresco dining area instant ambiance and a sense of festivity. Party on the patio!

3 – We’re giving Ariele Alasko‘s reclaimed wood wall panel our own DIY spin. Her pieces are amazing!

4 – On cool mornings or evenings, I can throw in a wool blanket that usually lives at the foot of our bed.

5 – My heart is set on a large succulent centerpiece for the outdoor dining table. I’ll use this oval concrete planter to make it happen.

6 – We’re using a simple outdoor dining table and coordinating benches for the basic dining pieces. I hope to show how this practical dining set can be personalized by mixing it with items from other sources.

7 – Mabrey enjoys pulling to stand {no steps yet! she can take her sweet time as far as I’m concerned} with the help of this leather pouf. On warm, sunny days I’ll carry it out to the patio for her to play on – or maybe I’ll prop my feet up on it if she’s napping and I have five minutes to sit outside in the sun. Dear summer 2013, please give me five minutes of sun-to-myself time at least once!

8 – This woven chair looks good enough for an indoor dining room but it’s made of rattan-like plastic and is suitable for outdoor use as well. I think it’s airy feel and white color will contrast nicely with the clean-lined, dark brown dining set. I also like the fact that it’s light enough to move around easily. We can move it up to our future deck when extra seating is needed.

9 – We have a bright green garden stool leftover from our previous house but I think it could use a fresh coat of brassy gold spray paint. I paid less than $40 for the green stool. Transforming it with gold paint will be a cheap DIY version of pricier drum stools.

That’s the gist of our plan. Of course, I’ll be adding greenery and maybe a surprise too. I can’t wait to share the reveal in early May on The Home Depot’s Apron blog. In the meantime, click over to check out a bunch of other inspiring reveals!

I also have a patio-related post on Wayfair today with a few more before shots of our patio and a brief discussion on painting the french doors. What color would you paint them?

images: 1-4) Dana Miller for House*Tweaking  5) Polyvore collage by Dana Miller, linked within

*THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.*

Congrats to Ashley – the first entry! – whose favorite kid-friendly item in her home is the living room pouf she recently made for her nephew to lay on.

I was first introduced to Alexandra Grenham’s amazing style via an Apartment Therapy house tour.

Her Boston home is full of kid-friendly furnishings and playful accessories but is far from childish. It’s a stylish space suitable for both kids and adults. Perfect for a young family of four. Alexandra is the creative director and buyer for Erie Drive, an online boutique featuring a blended collection of fun, practical and eclectic gifts. So when Alexandra contacted me a few weeks ago about a possible giveaway and linked to her AT tour, I had two immediate thoughts. First “Hey, I know that house!” and second “Yes! I would love to feature Erie Drive for a giveaway.”

Which brings me to this week’s giveaway. I’ve rounded up a few of my favorite items available through Erie Drive. I would be happy to have any of these pieces in my home.

Sources: wooden alarm dock for iPod or iPhone // “You Undress” giclee print by Christopher Gray // Magno portable radio // flour sack towel set // Critical Cycles bicycle in cream

Would you like the chance to win one of these items? See below for entry details.

PRIZE: one item of choice from the curated collection shown above {Of note – The wooden alarm dock is not compatible with the iPhone 5 but Erie Drive does offer another version for the iPhone 5. The flour sack towel set includes both towels shown.}

RULES: You must be at least 18 years old and have a shipping address {no P.O. boxes please} within the U.S. to enter. One entry per email address.

TO ENTER: “Like” Erie Drive on facebook then leave a comment on this post proclaiming “DRIVE ME!”

DEADLINE: Enter before Friday, April 19th at noon EST. One random winner will be announced later that same day.

WHILE YOU’RE AT IT: Since we’re talking family-friendly style today…what is your favorite kid-friendly item in your house? A soft ottoman that does double duty as a coffee table? A bench that opens to reveal toy storage? I’ll go first. A few months back I bought a pair of floor poufs from West Elm. I’d been eyeing them for nearly a year but couldn’t pull the trigger…until they went on sale. I’m so glad I did! My kids drag the poufs all around the house and they look great in every room. In the boys’ bedroom, they are wrestled and jumped on. In the living room, they are the perfect lounge spot for reading or watching TV. Mabrey loves pulling to stand and climbing on top of them. HH and I like to prop our feet up on them at night after the kids are in bed. I love them!

BUT, WAIT!, THERE’S MORE: House*Tweaking readers can score 20% off one Erie Drive purchase now through May 15th by entering the discount code “TWEAKING20″ at checkout.

Thanks Alexandra!

You can check out more of Alexandra’s inspiring home tour right here. Follow Erie Drive on twitter and pinterest.

images: 1) Tara Bellucci for Apartment Therapy  2) polyvore collage by Dana Miller linked within

A cinder block wall in the mudroom and sleeping munchkins in their beds forced us to give 3M Command hanging strips a try. I’m not gonna lie. I was leery. But it’s been nearly two months since we hung our original gallery wall and nothing has come crashing down. Consider me a nail-to-adhesive-strip convert. Today I’m sharing how I use the strips to hang frames.

The mini gallery wall that I created above is actually on drywall – not cinder block – and I could have used nails in the wall. But I am so smitten with the adhesive strips that I decided to use them here too. I like that they don’t put holes in the walls {since I tend to tweak things around for a bit until I settle on a more permanent arrangement}, require NO measuring {hallelujah} and can be easily removed {great for renters or dorm residents}.

To start a gallery wall, I play around with an arrangement on the floor in front of the wall until I get the look I’m after. I like asymmetrical but balanced. I glance at the floor arrangement then at the wall, back and forth, picturing the arrangement on the wall while HH worries that his wife has gone mad staring at frames on the floor and a blank wall. Once I’m happy with the layout, I take a picture with my phone or camera for reference. {see above} This helps when it comes to eyeballing placement on the wall without measuring a single thing. I choose one frame near the center of the arrangement to hang first. {I hung the large wood frame in this layout first.} Then I reference my picture for hanging all the other frames around the first. Hanging stuff on the walls doesn’t have to be an exact science. In the end, I added one more frame to this layout after I hung my original layout on the wall.

For the adhesive strips, I wipe the areas of my frame and wall where the strips will touch with rubbing alcohol. This assures a clean surface to adhere the strips to. On most frames, I use three pairs of strips. On larger, heavier frames I use four pairs of strips. The label does recommend against using 3M strips above beds and for very heavy items or antique items that you don’t want to fall. I say use common sense.

I take two strips and sandwich them together adhesive sides out. {You should hear a nice crunching sound which tells you that the strips are catching one another.} I remove the adhesive backing from one strip and adhere it to my frame making sure I line it up with the edge of the frame so that there’s no hangover that might peek out from behind the frame on the wall.

I repeat until I have all my strips on my frame. On narrower frames, an overlap can make changing out the frame’s contents difficult but not impossible. The strips could be cut in half lengthwise but I am lazy.

Then I remove the adhesive backing from the wall strips and press my frame to the wall, applying constant pressure for 30 seconds.

When I’m hanging a completely new arrangement, I’ll use a little level on top of the frame before I press it to the wall. Otherwise, if I’m adding to an existing arrangement, I visually level the frame by lining it up with other frames already on the wall. If you aren’t confident in your eyeball-leveling abilities, then by all means, use a level every time.

Here’s where I would like to point out that once you apply pressure to the frame, it ain’t movin’. Be sure the frame is where you want it before you push. The 3M label says to remove the picture frame from the wall once the wall strips are placed and allow them to fully “set” for one hour. I never do this. I just leave the frame on the wall. I’m such a rebel. But you should do what the label says – even though I’ve never had a problem skipping this step.

Something else I discovered this week…the strips come in white or black. Since our newly moody walls are nearly black, I bought all black strips for the mini gallery and to tweak the existing gallery above the fauxdenza.

Using the white strips on dark paint isn’t the end of the world but when you look at the frames from the side, you can see the white strips more readily than the black ones. Use white strips for light walls and black strips for dark walls for a seamless look.

And that’s it!! No nails. No tape measure. No problem.

I will say, from my short-lived experience with the adhesive strips so far, I would not recommend using the strips on uneven, rough or bumpy walls. The strips need a really good flat surface to adhere to. The same goes for your picture frames.

I remove all picture hangers from the backs of the frames when I’m working with adhesive strips. This gives me a nice smooth frame surface. And don’t think table frames are out of the question. They can totally work!

I bought this table frame wanting to use it as a wall frame.

So I removed the table prop insert from the back so the frame would mount flush against the wall.

I’ll use tape to secure a picture in the frame. So feel free to get creative with your picture hanging! Don’t think you only have to use wall frames. In fact, the wood frame under the white fan frame was once a table frame too. Which brings me to this…

I tweaked the gallery wall above the fauxdenza. Some of the frames are empty but I wanted to share my progress in real time. Stuff happens so slowly and gradually here.

I removed the canvas art and two frames from the left side of the layout. They felt off. In their place, I hung a few more IKEA RIBBA frames and one more of those distressed wood frames from Target that I can’t get enough of.

Seriously, guys. These are my new favorite frames…and this post is not sponsored whatsoever. I bought several of these frames back in January for the photo shoot and I’ve since added two more to the mudroom.

There’s a picture of our very first house in Illinois. Lots of memories {and DIY!} in that house. We brought Layne home from the hospital to that house.

I have to show you a closeup of this one. On the left is Everett as a newborn. I took the picture on the right after Everett had his leg casted. Yes, he broke his leg when he was 16 months old. He’s that kid. If you’re thinking Layne looks happy about it, you would be correct.

On the opposite side of the gallery wall I switched out a few frames for the two table frames I mentioned already and added another square RIBBA on the far right.

Things are feeling more balanced with these tweaks. And now a bunch of pictures of pictures to take you into the weekend.

Everett asked me, “Mom, why are you taking pictures of pictures?”

Because your mom is crazy, Everett. Cray-cray mommy. That’s why.

Happy weekend!

FYI – If you’ve ever wondered how downsizing and moving with kids goes…here’s a little interview all about our experience.

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

Since our front door is still out of commission, we enter and exit through the garage man door or back french doors – both located in our mudroom. We use two large wardrobes and I set up a tidy little entryway in the mudroom to corral outerwear, bags, shoes and backpacks. I painted the walls dark and moody.

Things were starting to take shape but the empty wall was begging for some attention. Time for a mini gallery wall.

I picked up three non-matching picture frames from Target and paired them with three IKEA RIBBA frames that I already had on hand. I figured bright white, wood tones and a graphic chevron pattern would pop against the dark walls.

I came up with an asymmetrical arrangement and used my favorite 3M adhesive strips to attach the frames to the wall.

The frames are filled with family photos, a pen and ink of Layne as a baby that HH drew and vintage uniform patches from the gas station that HH’s grandfather used to run.

They welcome us home and bid us farewell.

Here’s how they look in the grander scheme. The french doors on the left look out onto our backyard and to the right is the laundry nook.

Get the look:

wall paint – Clark + Kensington flat finish in Besalt {Ace Paints}

trim paint – Benjamin Moore semi gloss White Dove

driftwood travertine tile – The Tile Shop

saddler bench – Wayfair

felt basket – Target

handbag – Amy Butler

jacket – Old Navy

wall hooks – Home Depot

RIBBA picture frames – IKEA

chevron picture frame – Target

driftwood picture frame – Target

bamboo picture frame – Target

Be sure to check in tomorrow to see the newly tweaked gallery wall on the other side of the mudroom! I’ll be sharing exactly how I use the 3M strips to install gallery walls.

This post brought to you by Threshold, a Target collection. The Threshold collection focuses on specialized design techniques including hand-painted accents and artisanal touches to make each piece unique yet affordable. What differentiates Target’s new Threshold collection is its unprecedented style coupled with its high quality and affordability. Thank you Tar-jay!

Other really awesome bloggers are working with Target and sharing how they use Threshold in their entries. See them here and here. Good stuff!

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

Blogs have a way of portraying life as chipper and easy and always good. But it isn’t always so. 2012 wasn’t my favorite year. It’s been rough. 2012 kicked my butt and while I hate to wish away time I’m not sad to say adios to the past year.

Here’s a brief recap of what happened in 2012:

We tackled various DIY renovations that put us about six months past our predetermined move-in date. One project that we thoroughly underestimated was the installation of our engineered hardwood floors. So. Much. Glue.

Let’s not forget that I was pregnant at the beginning of this year with a surprise #3. And when I say surprise, I mean “SURPRISE!!!!!” It was an eventful pregnancy with two lil’ ones, a demanding job, a renovation in progress and a traveling HH. I ended up on modified bed rest for the last two months.

We finished one bathroom. It’s still the only functioning bathroom in our house.

It was a girl! We welcomed Mabrey Larew and our lives grew even busier. But, damn, she is so cute. Okay, so maybe 2012 wasn’t a total loss.

I officially quit my day job as a retail pharmacist. I don’t miss the work but I miss the comradery, the paycheck {quitting my job meant cutting our household income by 50%} and getting out of the house on a regular basis. This SAHM stuff is serious business.

We finished and installed a walnut butcher block countertop for our kitchen island. It’s still one of our favorite projects to date.

We finally moved out of our apartment and into the Underdog.

We had a water leak which forced us to move out of the house for several days. I’m still having nightmares about that one.

I went dairy-free for baby’s sake and you guys were such a huge support system. FYI – Mabrey gave up breastfeeding a month or so ago and I’ve since reintroduced dairy into my diet in small doses. Hello cheese. Nice to see you again.

We organized the bedroom closets to maintain some sort of sanity.

I decorated one room. It remains the only decorated room in the house.

We excavated. In the mud vs. Dana battle, mud won.

I painted a rug because I’m crazy like that.

I met John & Sherry. It was one of the only times I got out of the house without all three kiddos in tow. I forgot how to act in public.

We tweaked the kitchen.

I practiced speed blogging.

HH found color-changing Christmas lights to appease everyone.

And then the year was over. Just like that. I had assumed 2012 would be the year I focused more on decorating and blogging but I was distracted by poopy diapers, hungry kids, school parties, sibling rivalry, sleepless nights, dirty dishes, piles of laundry and New Girl. Why is it taking me so long to find my sea legs after downsizing, quitting my job and churning out baby #3? Maybe it’s not the same for everyone but going from two kids to three has been extremely rough for us.

2012 is going out with a “thpppfth.” HH and I had plans for an adults only NYE night with another couple. We were going to get a babysitter. I was going to make dinner and dessert. We were going to drink and stay up late on purpose. We were going to entertain for the first time in our Underdog. Then 80% of us {that would be four out of five} went viral. And not in the good Bourne Legacy viral kind of way. Think more along the lines of exploding bodily fluids kind of viral. And we only have one bathroom. I’ll let you use your imagination.

Did I mention we’re on a tight schedule for a photo shoot scheduled for next week?

2012. Goodbye. And good riddance.

2013 come quick. Please bring toilet paper and sprinkle my kids with sleep fairy dust.

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

Ever since I can remember I’ve always had a weird obsession with peeking in people’s homes at night. Okay, that sounds weird. But it’s not the people I’m looking at. I’m looking at the house. The innards of the house. There’s something about seeing lights on, a TV flickering and pictures on the walls that grabs my attention. When I drive by my favorite local homes at night, I slow down in hopes of catching a glimpse inside. Total stalker. I know.

The weather was so beautiful tonight {I’ll take upper 70′s and sunshine in late October anytime Mother Nature} that I slipped outside to peek into my own house for fun and realized that I’ve totally forgotten to show you the exterior lighting we added to the Underdog. Forgive me. Also, please forgive the aftermath of our new hardscaping. Yes, that is the original screen door lying horizontally propped up against the house and a wheelbarrow to the left of the picture window and a hose reel on top of the brick planter. Junking up the front yard. We’re cool like that. If you look closely, you can see our grassy lawn too!

Our electrician-in-law urged us to go with exterior downlighting installed under the eaves. HH and I hadn’t really thought too much about exterior lighting and, if our EIL hadn’t mentioned downlighting, we probably would have added landscaping up lights instead. We’re so happy that we went with the downlighting! Our EIL placed the recessed lighting so that it washes flat areas of the brick facade. We like that it warms up the brick and gives it a soft glow. That way there’s no annoying bright light shining in through any windows to the interior.

Are  you peeping in my window? Haha! That’s okay. I’ll let you look in mine if you let me look in yours.

You can see in this picture how the lighting is placed closer to the house to illuminate the brick {accent lighting} and then further out from the front door to act as task lighting. The gray heart is covering our house number. Seriously. How does one see a house number that small from the road anyways? We might as well not have one. Which is why we have plans to replace it with larger, more modern numbers down the road. Well, not literally down the road. You know what I mean.

After living with standard incandescent flood lights for only a few months and almost all of them burning out, HH decided to look into replacing them with LED’s. I was leery. Typically, I don’t like LED’s because I associate them with a cold blue light that feels sterile – not warm. HH did some research {the man loves his research} and found a Sylvania 50W 2700K soft white flood light. It’s an LED good for 50,000 hours but gives off that warm glow I love so much. HH tracked a bunch down when they were on closeout a few weeks ago, hitting up several different Lowe’s stores to acquire enough for our house. Even at the sale price, these bad boys weren’t cheap. We paid $39.97 a pop! But they’re guaranteed to last three years or we get a full replacement. Sweet. If you’re interested, this is the newer available version.

The back of the house has downlighting too. And two new patios {!}. We’re replacing the back lights with LED’s as they burn out. We don’t turn on the back lights as frequently. You can see one light is burnt out now and needs replaced.

And because I like peeking in houses at night so much, here’s a shot of mine. Complete with kid lunches on the island in preparation of school tomorrow.

I’ve been wanting to reveal the kitchen backsplash in a true before-and-after post when the kitchen is put back together. But, what the heck!, I’m keeping it real and showing you what it looks like right now. We went with this 2″x12″ subway tile and contrasting epoxy grout in a warm gray. I love subway tile but was afraid that traditional subway tiles would have looked too busy…too many grout lines. {FYI – We’ll be using this same tile but with white grout on the walls in the kid/guest bathroom!}

You also might have noticed that we backsplashed {yes, I just made “backsplash” a verb} sparingly. We tiled up to the hood above the range and only three tiles high the rest of the way. Why didn’t we tile the entire wall? After all, I love me a focal wall tiled all the way to the ceiling. Well, three reasons: 1) It was cheaper not to. 2) It was easier not to. 3) I didn’t want the wall to be a focal wall because you see it from the front door and family room. We did something similar with the backsplash in our previous home because the kitchen, dining room and family room were all open to one another and liked the results so figured we’d go that route again.

HH removed the open shelving to install the backsplash. Once it was down, I decided I didn’t like the previous placement. While it was perfectly fine to reach and use, it was too low visually. Here’s a picture from a few weeks ago to jog your memory.

One reader recommended raising the shelves to incorporate the hood. I looked back through several inspiration photos and discovered that most of them had an open shelf in line with the bottom of the hood. I think putting the top shelves in line with the hood and the bottom shelves in line with the bottom of the wall cabinets is the way to go.

HH really doesn’t want to drill new holes and patch the old ones but I got him on board by saying it will be one of those little things that makes a big difference design-wise. We’ll be reusing the stainless steel brackets but replacing the white MDF shelving boards with reclaimed fence boards. I can’t wait to see the results of this little tweak!

What about you? Are you a legal Peeping Tom like me? Have you added exterior lighting to your house? Are you tweaking your kitchen? Did you notice anything else new that I didn’t mention? ;)

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

Truth: It’s Tuesday. I’m a day behind on Honest Mondays this week. It could have something to do with this.

The underground internet cable was disconnected for obvious reasons.

Truth: We hired someone to excavate our yard. Specifically, we hired someone to pull out all the old stumps and roots remaining from numerous trees we had cut down shortly after we bought the Underdog. The excavator also removed a few random shrubs and a termite-damaged redbud. Then he leveled out the entire yard to help rainwater run away from the house. We’ve never had a problem with water pooling around the house but we all know that keeping as much water away from the foundation is the best possible scenario.

We decided to hire out for this project because of plain ol’ time. HH is itching to get the yard in shape and we’re planning to reseed this fall. HH has a buh-zillion work trips coming up. He just emailed me his itinerary for the next three months. At the end, it said “see you at Christmas.”

We got several quotes for the job and one guy completely underbid. We picked him. Not that I would always recommend going with the cheapest estimate but this time it worked out. The young guy said he was just starting out and looking to get some jobs right away. He thought he had overbid a few bids before us and lost the jobs, so decided to play it safe and underbid ours. Works for us.

He was a little flaky about showing up when he said he would {who starts their work day at 2:00 p.m.??} but when he worked he did a great job. We’re happy with how it turned out. Before I share the dirty, muddy afters later this week {someone following me on Instagram got it right when they said “it gets worse before it gets better”}, let’s take a look at what we’re starting with.

Other than the metal roof, there’s no curb appeal going on here. In fact, I would venture to call it curb appall if you’ll allow me to be grammatically incorrect.

Do you like how the one spiky shrub hides the hose reel? Classy.

We have plans to conceal the cable satellite. My feelings towards the satellite are similar to my feelings towards surround sound. Maybe that will be next Monday’s honest post.

The driveway is in horrendous shape. HH wants to replace the blacktop with concrete but that’s not happening this year.

The garage door isn’t much better. The paint is peeling. It works though, so we’ll probably clean it up, paint it {gray like the roof?} and live with it a while before we replace it. It’s hard to tell but the second row of rectangles from the top are actually windows that the previous owner painted over. And I have no idea what that weird vinyl soffit thingy is at the top. All the houses in our neighborhood have it.

All the hardscaping – which really only includes a sidewalk to the front door and a small back patio – is uneven and cracked from old tree roots. They’re tripping hazards. We’re hoping to install a new front walk of large concrete pads surrounded by river rock.

Where the sidewalk ends. Literally. You can’t go in the front door. The jamb is crooked so the screen door is nearly impossible to open. Talk about curb appeal! {Don’t mind the heart. I added it to cover up our house number.} We’re thinking of reusing the original front door and painting it a moody gray then adding a storm door in front of it painted a bright pop of color – maybe fire engine red or sunshine yellow. We want to add large modern house numbers too.

This planter outside the picture window is begging for termites. Our first thought was to rip it out but, upon further inspection, it’s tarred to the house and would leave an ugly scar. So now we’re brainstorming a way to turn it into a bench.

The backyard is just as bad as the front. Up until last week, there was a ginormous yellow jacket nest back there. We’ve completely avoided the backyard all summer. That’s sad. We’re backyard people.

The plan here is to rip out the old patio and install hardscaping that encompasses both sets of french doors – off the mudroom and off the kitchen. We’re hoping for a patio-low deck combo. We want alfresco areas for food prep, dining and lounging.

So that’s the outdoor tour. It will be a good day when we don’t describe our home as “the crack house with the metal roof.”

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

I’m about to show you a house tour. Don’t peek! First, I need to tell you how this came about. A few months ago, I blogged about my affection for fig trees. Many of you kindly offered green advice for my black thumb. But one reader actually sent me a picture of her happy little fig tree. Just from the image of the fig tree vignette, I could tell this reader’s home was special. I graciously thanked Heather for the picture and advice she openly gave, then all but begged her for a house tour. Four months later, here it is! The time lapse is all my fault – not Heather’s. As the saying goes, “Good things are worth waiting for.”

Enjoy!

Who lives in your home?  I live with my husband, Win, and our dog, The Baron.

Where is your home located? New Orleans, Louisiana

What do you do for a living?  I work in the Oil and Gas industry and Win is a documentary filmmaker.

What is the architectural style of your home? We live in a Victorian shotgun cottage.

How would you describe your style?  The best way to describe our style is cottage/contemporary. We paid homage to our 100+ year old cottage in most of the design elements, but also incorporated a few contemporary pieces to shake things up a bit. Our style may be a bit all over the place for some, but I love that everything in our house has a story, whether it be original artwork from Win’s talented family, an antique night stand salvaged after Katrina, or an old soda bottle I dug up in my garden.

Where do you find inspiration for your home decor? When we first bought our home in 2008, my best friend Rachelle brought over three binders filled with gorgeous images and articles pulled from Cottage Living magazine. She compiled the binders while rebuilding her home after it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. I spent an untold amount of time poring over the binders, soaking up the inspiration brought forth from its pages. Cottage Living was such an amazing resource to me. I still have a hard time believing that it’s no longer in publication. I would say that most of my current home décor inspiration comes from the web. I cut my teeth on amazing blogs such as Young House Love and The Lettered Cottage, and lately it seems like my day is not complete until I check out the latest projects over on Chezerbey, Manhattan Nest, The Brick House and House*Tweaking.

Where did you splurge? Those who know me know that I pride myself on being a serious bargain hunter and that I rarely splurge on anything other than a great meal. Looking around my house, I can say that 99% of the furnishings and appliances were either passed down from our families, bought on sale, picked up at a thrift/consignment shop, or plucked off the street. With that said, there have been one or two splurges along the way and our custom walk-in shower in the master bath is definitely one. Everyone was trying to convince us to install an inexpensive fiberglass shower stall, but Win and I wouldn’t hear of it. We knew what we wanted and even though it was a quite a splurge, it’s been worth every penny.

Where did you pinch pennies?  As for as supplies go, we definitely saved quite a bit of money by reusing our existing cabinetry and purchasing IKEA wood countertops in the kitchen. Our carpenters pushed the idea of custom cabinetry, but being an avid reader of house blogs, I knew that all they needed was a paint job and new hardware. We also saved by purchasing stock tile and stone from a discount retailer for our bathrooms and kitchen instead of custom ordering it from a tile shop or stone yard.

Favorite space in your home? For me, it’s got to be our kitchen. Being an avid cook, baker and collector of all things culinary, I love being in the kitchen. I still can’t believe that it took us over three years to get around to gutting and rebuilding it. Thankfully, we worked with an amazing carpentry team that worked tirelessly to develop my kitchen vision into a warm, inviting area that maximizes every inch of usable space.

Least favorite thing about your home? We both love the fact that we have reached the point where there are many more positives than negatives about our home, but there are still a few things we can’t wait to transform. Our backyard is definitely something we try to avoid because of the sheer “ugly factor”. It’s downright hideous and that’s no joke. My main problem with the yard stems from my love of gardening. The gardening gene runs deep in my family. Some of my favorite childhood memories include digging in the dirt with my mother and grandmother. Currently, I have planted and pruned every inch of my front yard, but unfortunately, my back yard is completely useless to me because it is covered by a virtually impenetrable 10” thick concrete slab. One of these days Win and I will rent a jackhammer and get to work on transforming it into an inviting space filled with fruit trees and a large vegetable garden.

From your point of view, what’s been the best improvement you’ve made to your home? It’s really hard to pick one improvement over the others since each project has made such a significant difference to the house as a whole, but if we had to pick one, the renovation of the master bath is high on the list. When we bought the house, it was two separate spaces: a huge fire-charred laundry room and a miniscule bathroom with the toilet falling through the floor. Until the space was renovated in 2010, it was a depressing, dark disaster area that I only ventured into long enough to do a load of laundry. Now, it’s bright, inviting and absolutely fantastic. Friends that have witnessed the slow transformation of our home still can’t believe it’s the same space.

Do you have any special housekeeping rituals? I don’t know if this is a ritual or a sign of OCD, but I cannot go to bed with a messy kitchen. When we host large gatherings, I am sometimes up for hours afterwards cleaning the kitchen and putting everything back in its place. Win can easily nod off with a mountain of dirty dishes in the sink, but I cannot fathom the idea of relaxing when there is a chaotic mess going on in my favorite room of the house.

What’s your next home project or purchase? Realistically, our next project will probably be tweaking the remaining bedrooms, but our dream project is gutting and renovating a cinderblock workman’s shed in our backyard. It is already equipped with a bathroom and power, but the amount of work required is quite daunting. Ideally, we would like to turn it into a guesthouse, but that’s years away.

What’s your favorite thing to do at home? I would say that it’s a three-way tie between working in my garden, relaxing on my front porch with Win and The Baron, and whipping up meals for the people that I love.

Advice for other homeowners? I would say the best advice to new, first-time homeowners like ourselves is to take your time when it comes to renovations. When we bought our home, we lived in it for a full year before embarking on any interior projects. That decision was partly due to financial constraints, but mostly for the fact that we wanted to get to know our “new” old house first. Living in it for a while allowed us time to develop a plan of attack as well as refine our slightly contemporary style around such an old house. On a lighter note, never underestimate the transformative power of a can of spray paint.

Isn’t that one amazing cottage?! I absolutely adore the cottage aesthetic mixed with industrial touches and pops of happy color. Thank you so much, Heather and Win {and The Baron!} for letting us peek into your happy home.

SOURCES:

Living Room/Dining Room

wall color:  Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee

trim color: Benjamin Moore Decorators White

sofa: Ikea

chandelier: Design Within Reach

Guest Bath

wall color: Benjamin Moore Nightingale (25%)

trim color: Benjamin Moore Decorators White

tub, toilet & sink- Kohler

fixtures: Kohler

tile: Floor and Décor

medicine cabinet: Home Depot

shower curtain: Urban Outfitters

Kitchen

wall color: Benjamin Moore White Dove

trim color: Benjamin Moore Decorators White

cabinet paint: Behr Graceful Gray

countertops: Ikea

lighting: West Elm

ceiling fan: Hunter

refrigerator: Samsung

range: LG

sink: Kohler Vault

Master Bedroom

wall color: Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee

trim color: Benjamin Moore Decorators White

lamps: Target

headboard: Wayfair.com

bedding: Macy’s

Master Bath

wall color: Benjamin Moore Nightingale

trim color: Benjamin Moore Decorators White

sink: Kohler

fixtures: Delta

toilet: American Standard

tile and stone: Floor and Décor

medicine cabinet: Home Depot

armoire: Nadeau

washer and dryer: Samsung

Guest Bedroom

wall color: Martha Stewart Plumage

trim color: Benjamin Moore Decorators White

bedding: TJ Maxx

throw pillows: Bliss Living

Do you have a room makeover, DIY project or house tour that you’d like to submit to House*Tweaking? Great! Please contact me at danarmiller@hotmail.com. I’d love to see what you’ve been up to.

images: Heather Riley

This is the newest furnished {far from finished} corner of our house.

Actually, it might be the only somewhat furnished corner in the Underdog. ‘Taking our time’ is our motto. We’re living it to the fullest!

I bought our couch {Is it okay if I go with ‘couch’ for this post? I’m not feeling much like a ‘sofa’ person today.} online without seeing it in person beforehand. Some might call that risky but I did a lot of virtual window shopping {I like to refer to it as research} before ordering this one. We are so happy with it! It’s almost like my favorite saddle leather belt reincarnated as a couch. It’s the soho leather sofa from Elements Fine Home Furnishings if you want to google for the best price.

We chose to buy a high quality, long-lasting leather couch knowing that it would most likely outlive three cotton couches in its lifetime. {A white slipcovered couch was my second choice.} It’s constructed of top grain leather which is a step up from the bonded sectional we had in our previous house. If you didn’t know it already, there are different grades of leather…bonded/bi-cast, genuine, top grain and full grain. Top grain is more durable than bonded, bi-cast and genuine but not as strong as full grain leather. Also, top grain won’t age naturally like full grain leather will but it will patina with ‘scars.’ If you can afford full grain, it’s the way to go. We couldn’t afford a couch made of full grain leather. We bought the best our money could buy.

The top grain is much more supple and way less vinyl-ish than than our old sectional. I keep telling HH it’s smooth like butter. I wasn’t expecting such a big difference. I think so many items nowadays are made from split and polyurethaned leathers that I’ve become accustomed to thinking that leather is supposed to resemble vinyl. It’s not! I read somewhere recently that bi-cast is to natural leather what particle board is to hardwood.

And I’m sorry if you are anti-leather. I fully understand your position and opinion. You are entitled to them as I am to mine. We can agree to disagree. You are free to leave informative, non-hateful comments below. Now, moving on.

The matching bolster pillows came with the couch. I love the look of them. My boys pretend they are bazookas or pugil sticks. They are rarely ever on the couch and that drives me insane. But they look just as good as the day we received them and are holding up well to the kid version of American Gladiators.

The couch itself is super comfy. With deep seats, it’s prime real estate for watching a movie, reading or napping…not that those things are happening all that often here. It’s definitely a curl-up-on couch.

I finally put together the tripod lamp I bought from Target. Basically, it consisted of screwing the three legs together {each leg is made up of three sections} then plopping the shade on top. It was so easy a four-year-old could do it. Literally. Everett helped me screw the legs in.

I’m really surprised by the quality for the $50 I spent on it. It’s not crooked and the shade is a generous size. The electric cord is snaked through one leg so that it comes out near the floor instead of a black tampon-esque string hanging from the lamp. {Did I just say that?! Yes. Yes, I did. Forgive me. It was the best description I could come up with.} I kept the box in case it ended up being too flimsy for our rowdy house but, so far, I don’t see any reason to return it. Most of the other tripod floor lamps I had been eyeing were at least $200, so I’m glad to have found a less expensive option. If I want to dress it up, I can always cover the shade with another fabric or switch it out all together.

It’s really nice having a single reading light to turn on in the evenings. Before this floor lamp came to live with us, I was turning on the track lighting that runs along the ridge beam in the vaulted great room just to look at a magazine or read a book. The floor lamp also has a 3-way dimmer switch so I can adjust the intensity of the light.

Another new item is the alpaca throw. Love everything about this petite blanket. The heather gray/ivory color scheme is right up my alley and the half geometric/half adorable duck print is lovely. I use it on the couch to break up all the leather.

I found this woven basket at Target a few months ago on sale. I’m thinking it was around $20?? For now, I’ve placed it beside the couch a la end table style. I tossed all the Wii paraphernalia in it. Video games have never looked so posh at our house.

The family room seating area floats within the great room {we’ve got the whole room within a room thing going on} and is grounded by a durable sisal rug. It’s light in color and heavy on texture. I absolutely love it. The backside is latex so there’s no need for a pad underneath. While we have no problem walking around barefoot on it, it’s definitely not suitable for dad vs. son wrestling matches. HH and the boys take their wrestling matches to the boys’ room where there’s a softer rug to play on. I’d say its feel is similar to that of a seagrass rug. I want to channel my inner Lauren Liess and layer a softer, smaller rug on top of the sisal in front of the couch. It would give Mabrey somewhere soft to roll and crawl around plus I’ve always liked the look of layered rugs.

So that’s a peek at a corner of my home. It’s by no means done and it probably won’t stay like this forever but it’s cozy and functional. It’s a start in the more masculine direction I’ve been wanting to take. You may have noticed the white cabinet behind the floor lamp. It’s actually a shoe organizer for when we are able to use our front door on a regular basis. We still have some door jamb issues to address there. And the speaker on the wall? Well, that’s a topic for an entirely different post.

Is there a corner of your home that makes you smile? Even if the rest of the house is a disaster.

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

I thought of about a dozen other titles for this post:

Water and Wood Don’t Mix

Why Don’t the House Gods Like Us?

$#!*

My Nightmare Come True

Further Proof That We Live in a Real House

No, HH, You’re Not Lazy or Stupid

Rolling With the Punches

Two-Year Warranty, My Ass

To make a long story short, the pump that pumps condensation from our furnace to a drain pump failed two weekends ago. It was 100+ degrees that weekend and the heat pump was running non-stop. We were home but we didn’t catch the problem right away because we were busy tackling other home projects.

The faulty pump ended up filling with water then overflowing. As you can imagine, water seeped under the floor in the hallway. If you’ll remember, we have engineered hardwoods. Wood + water don’t mix. As soon as we noticed the leak, we started cleaning it up and HH made a mad dash for Home Depot to pick up another pump. The Flotec pump was only a few months old and came with a two-year warranty. {HH has already contacted the manufacturer to put in a damage claim and complaint.}

For now, we’re still using the same Flotec model pump until HH installs another brand of pump that is more highly recommended. To give ourselves more time before water hits the wood should another leak occur, the new pump is sitting in a plastic container with an alarm that detects moisture. When he first detected the leak, HH kept saying he was stupid and lazy for not catching it sooner and for not putting some sort of secondary barrier/alarm around the pump should it fail. Of course, I told him he wasn’t stupid or lazy.

With the mess cleaned up {which included us mopping up excess water with old beach towels and sponges}, we assessed the damage. To the naked eye, everything looked fine. But we know that’s how water works. It can take weeks, sometimes months, for the real damage to pop up. From what we could tell, the water had affected the back half of the hall, the entrance to the boys’ room and about a 4′x4′ area just inside the master bedroom. We were more worried about the water that was between the vapor barrier and the actual flooring as that was what could cause the floor to warp and buckle down the road. The water under the pad had mostly been soaked up by the walls which are easier to dry out. From what we had read, any remaining water under the pad would eventually be absorbed back into the concrete slab.

Surprisingly, I was calm. I think in my sleep deprived state I’m just numb to any and all situations. It’s not that I don’t overreact. I just don’t react. I told HH, “It’s just a floor.” But it was a floor that we had both spent a lot of time installing and while it was a pain to do {because of our concrete slab we had to glue each and every plank of the floating floor to its neighbors}, we were in love with the results. Maybe it would have been easier if we didn’t like it so much.

HH contacted our insurance agent to see what our options were. Under our policy, total replacement of the floor would be covered but only after a restoration company tried drying it out first. We had three different restoration companies come out and assess the damage. The first two told us what we were expecting to hear. ‘Nothing we can do. You’ll have to rip it all up and replace it.’ We had braced ourselves for this but it was still hard to swallow. The third company gave us a different assessment. They said they could dry it out. Their drying method included heating the floor gently to evaporate any water between the vapor barrier and wood then suctioning it up with a high-powered vacuum. To help dry up any water under the pad and vapor barrier, they would run air tubes under the pad. They’d also pop off baseboards on the affected walls, drill holes and blow air into them to dry them out. Since they were the only company that had a plan and our insurance required us to attempt a dry-out, we went with them. They said it would take them 4-7 days.

The restoration company set up the same day of their assessment. Even though nothing they were doing was dangerous in and of itself, we were told it wouldn’t be kid-friendly. We wouldn’t be able to walk easily through the area. The machines would be loud. Oh. And they were going to shut off the A/C to facilitate water evaporation and drying. So, we headed off to my dad’s house for a few days. {My dad has no internet service. That’s why I was MIA last week.} It was a much needed distraction.

The restoration company came out daily to test moisture levels and tweak the dry-out. To me, it looked like our floor was on life support.

And it was hot, hot, HOT inside the house.

Yep. 95 degrees inside and out. There’s no way we would have survived comfortably. I’m so thankful we had somewhere else to stay while all this was going on.

The dry-out is complete. HH had the restoration company go over the results in detail. The wood is dry. There is no moisture between the wood and the vapor barrier. The pad {under the vapor barrier} still shows moisture readings but we were told this would go away slowly as the moisture is absorbed into the slab. The walls are dry. There is no mold or mildew. We submitted a claim to our insurance and they will guarantee the restoration company’s work {since we attempted to dry it out} for three years. So, if any problems arise in the future {say, warping, buckling or mildewing} our insurance would pay for total replacement of the floor. We still have a little while to withdraw our claim if we choose to. HH is leery of our rates rising. We’re just trying to see what all of our options are from here. We’ve even looked into new flooring should we need it later. The only problem we’re seeing with our flooring choice and install is that there is no good way to repair a damaged section. If you pull up one plank, you can’t simply replace it because each plank is glued to the next. Ugh. Theoretically, we could pull up all flooring in the bedrooms and hallway then have a threshold at the great room but we really like the seamless look we have.

Hopefully, we won’t need a total replacement but we want to be prepared if it comes to that. Right now, everything is looking good but you just never know.

I think that gets you up to speed with all the mishaps here. It was definitely a punch to the gut. Especially since we just moved in not even two months ago. I guess that’s just how things go sometimes. We’ll learn from it and move on.

What about you? Any problems with your house recently? Any experience with water under wood floors? Any ideas for us?

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking