More Company This Week!!

~Hi Everyone!~

It has been such a busy summer so far, here at BDG! 

We took a few days and had a little family time in San Diego, where we stayed on Coronado Island, and in late June, I attended a blogging conference in Atlanta.  Just a couple weeks ago we went to La Jolla to meet a friend and her family,  and this past week my sister was here for 6 days. We saw her off yesterday, and now today we are welcoming my friend and her daughter for a visit. 

My son is in HEAVEN! He loves having lots of fun things to do, and all of our wonderful friends and family around, showering him with attention. 

So, my posting has not been stellar this summer so far, but I will try to be better about it very soon! 

We are going to be starting tear out of the entire downstairs flooring in a couple of weeks. 1200 square feet of new beautiful hardwood flooring is going to be installed after they jack hammer out my very despised  travertine floors. (For those of you who currently have, and like your travertine, I give you a medal!) I found it very difficult to keep my travertine looking as pristine as I liked, and was frankly tired of the battle. Thanks to the horrible kitchen leak, I am able to replace it all with something more agreeable to me. :-)

Here is what I am going to be putting in downstairs...

It is going to be the one on the left.

Should be pretty. Cross your fingers!
I will update you soon on my other selections for the kitchen.
Just got a new farmhouse table yesterday, and I am working on new appliances this week, along with paint color, and a final meeting with my cabinet maker for the pantry wall that has to be re-built because of the leak.

I will be posting about how I transformed my master bath shower trim and tub faucet with spray paint sometime this week too!

Off to get ready for my company!
Have a great week!

xo
-Lisa

Master Bath Before and After

It's been a while since I have done a post on my Master Bathroom.

I fact, I have just done one post on my Master Bath, prior to this one, and it was a month after I started blogging.

I did not have any of my before pics at that time, because my computer crashed and wiped out ALL of the pics on my hard drive, and then my external hard drive crashed, and I am STILL waiting to recover the photos from that.


 Just a few weeks ago, I stumbled on some photos of the MB from film I had developed when we first bought the house, and then after I made some initial changes to it in that first year.


Here is what the bathroom looks like now...

This room is INCREDIBLY hard to photograph, since it gets a TON of light, and has so many mirrors and glass.

Here are the BEFORE photos...this is what it looked like on the day we made an offer on it.

 Very gaudy wall paper, and lovely (*sarcasm*) shiny brass trim and fixtures everywhere. I have affectionately nick-named the shiny brass, Liberace Gold.

 I swear, it creates ACTUAL physical pain!!

Here are a few shots of the bathroom after I stripped the Vegas style wallpaper, and painted over the faux finish venetian plaster - looking paint job that was going on in here.
I chose to paint the room cream until I could decide what to do to pull it together.

It stayed this way until a few years ago when I finally got motivated enough to paint the cabinets myself. The walls were still creamy white until I finish up my YEARS long mini reno last fall.

Sorry about the picture quality, but who knew 10 years ago that I would be blogging today, and need better before pics? ;-)

Here's the rundown on what got done in here last fall to give my mater bath the facelift it deserved...
It was all done for under $1000.

- New faucets for the sinks in ORB, bought on sale at Home Depot.

- New Shower Kit and shower head in ORB, had to special order this, and it WAS NOT my first choice, but it had to be Delta, and it had to be one of only two others that would work with my existing pluming behind the granite.

- Painted the old orange oak cabinets a light tan color, and then applied a stain rub over them. 

- Painted the whole room and ceiling SW Bittersweet (Chocolate Brown).

-Spray painted the tub faucet and shower trim with Rustoleum Rustic Mist Metallic paint. (This was a HUGE money saver, and the BEST thing I have done so far!) Look for a post on this later this week.

-New cabinet hardware totally less than $140. 

-New switch plates and outlet covers in dark brown to blend in with the walls. 

-New rugs found at Home Goods.

-A few new accessories, mostly thrifted, or found at antique stores, or picked up on the beach.

-Painted doors Black.

-New ORB door knobs, that I went over with a mix of antique gold paint to get the exact finish I was looking for.

So that's it, and I think it made a huge impact in the look of the bathroom. 

I know that everyone else is going light on the walls, but here, in this room, there is so much light, and it really created just the drama and impact that I was looking for to use a very dark color on the walls.

One last look at the finished room...

We are very happy with how the room came out, for a FRACTION of what it would have cost to do a "REAL" renovation! 

Someday soon I promise to get this blog design handled by a professional. 

It's embarrassing, but it's on the revolving list, people! :-)

Hope you are having an awesome week! 

xo

-Lisa

Linking to the following...




New Nostalgia AntiProcrastination Tuesday

Fun Finds From La Jolla and a Sweet Gift

~ Hey Everyone! ~

 I am so excited that it's Wednesday!! My little sister is flying in today from Nashville! 

The little guy can hardly stand it! He LOVES his Auntie!

I can't wait to hang out and catch up with my sis!

Before I start running around cleaning like a crazy woman, I thought I would show you a few fun things I brought home from our little Solana Beach shopping trip (with my friend that was visiting from Ohio) during our time in La Jolla last week. 

There were SO many fantastic things, I could have bought out the stores, but I used GREAT restraint, and only came home with a few little items, plus a really sweet gift from my girl Sheri. :-)

See that cute little chippy bee? I got two of them. They were on sale for $3 each! 

I am working on changing the large art over the center of the mantel. I will show you the whole thing when I find what I am looking for. 

My friend Sheri also surprised me with this cute little scissor and twine holder! 

Isn't it just the cutest thing ever? 

 She saw me ooh-ing and ahh-ing over this and snuck up to the counter to buy it for me! She's done that before. She's adorably sneaky that way! I need to stop swooning over things in front of her!

 Or...maybe I should take her car shopping...bwahahah!!! ;-)

 I also saw these fun little cement squirrels, and I thought they would be super cute to use in the fall.

 I wanted to unwrap them, and just see how they looked on my "new to me" antique cabinet at the top of my stairs. (The one that is still waiting to be re-finished). 

 I had planned to put them away until fall, but they are so cute and add a touch of whimsy that just makes me smile, so I have decided to leave them there for now.

 Can you believe that these little guys were only $4.95 a piece?

I think they look pretty cute! Don't look too closely at that shabby top of the cabinet. I'll get to it one day soon! 

Hope you are all having a great week! 

I'd better get going...

I have a few things to do to get the house and guest room ready for my sister.

xo

-Lisa

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A Trip To La Jolla, and Shopping in Solana Beach

~ Good Morning, and Happy Monday! ~

Last week we went down south to La Jolla beach to meet one of my best friend's and her family who had flown in from Ohio for a family Vacation to San Diego. 

We had agreed to spend a couple of days together in La Jolla before they went off to San Diego to stay on Coronado Island for the remainder of their vacation. 

I met my friend Sheri almost 21 years ago in the lounge (rec room) of the United Airlines Flight Attendant training center. We were both from Cleveland, and our boyfriend's  ( a-hem - at the time...) knew each other. 

The rest is history, (as are the old boyfriend's...) but we've been friends ever since. We used to to to fly together often, and we have tons of great memories!! She is awesome! She came to California to spend time with me during my chemo 3 years ago, and she will always be like a sister to me.

I wish I had a good picture of us together on the airplane back in the day. I'm not sure why we didn't take many. I guess we were young, and thought it would last forever...

Anyhow, while we were in La Jolla, we took a little afternoon trip to Solana Beach and did some shopping in the Cedros Design District. It is one of my FAVORITE places to shop, and Sheri loved it too!

Our first stop was at one of the best stores in the design district, called Solo.
I love this place. It's a book store, and an antique slash home decor store all rolled into one.
Perfect combination!
Here is their website for location and more info.

 My favorite areas of this store are the ones filled with great vintage industrial items and antiques. They have some really fantastic things. There is also a mix of a few new items as well, that blend seemlessly  with the industrial vibe.

 Look at these cool light bulbs!!

 Loved this yard stick light!

 Cute little chalkboards. I have a chalkboard obsession.

 Cool vignette with old lab beakers and bottles.

 Vintage looking corkscrews.

They had some cute french looking dishes on an old metal topped table, with some really cool lighting hanging above.

And check out the stools below...

 Ironstone pots and jars.

 Cute pair of birds. Birds get me every time.

Apothecary Jars...

And vintage bottles.

 Love this sign, I sing this to my son all the time!

 Cool horse made from old metal, in this vignette. I cut off his head a bit. Sorry.

A whole wall of old gas pump facades. It looked so neat in person!

I loved this tufted settee.

It is such a cool place!! I thought my friend's head might explode with it all! :-)

Stay tuned for part two of the trip later this week.
If you are ever in the area, Cedros Design District in Solana Beach is a DO NOT MISS!

See you tomorrow!
xo
-Lisa

Linking to the following...

New Nostalgia Anti-Procrastination Tuesday