The Metamorphosis of a Fireplace & A Score

Okay so I have been in a mediocre mood lately. Our home reno is taking much longer than I would like. I try not to complain because trust me I know how fortunate we are and I know that there are soooo many families out there that have lost there homes in the past month but I would be lying if I said the state of my home does not get to me from time to time. I am kinda at a stand still. I am not able to fluff my nest and it drives me insane. Well it was driving me insane until last night when I decided I had had enough and was going to fluff what I could. I decided even though our reno is not completed I was going to share where we are at this moment and not care that we are not done yet. So come along with me as I share the metamorphosis of our fireplace!

This is how our fireplace and living room looked when we purchased our home almost two years ago.

Threw some paint on the walls and WOW what a difference!

I then decided I wanted to attempt fauxing the fireplace to give it an aged appearance. It was okay but lasted all of an evening before I adjusted it.

Yes, I liked this much better. In fact I LOVED how it turned out. That was in the Spring of 2010.

Here we are April 2011. What were we thinking!!!??? Somehow some way we got it in our heads we were capable of redoing the fireplace and laying down new wood flooring ourselves. We have never done any major home reno projects before. Painting has been the extent of it. Can we really accomplish what I have pictured in my head??

I think thus far it all is turning out very nicely! It is taking soooo much longer than we had hoped due to life and work but that's okay. I am now hoping to be completed by August with all of the flooring. Majorly keeping my fingers crossed. 

We not only replaced the granite tiles with ceramic tile that looks like rock but  we also extended it out by about 2 inches all around. I love the border we added.

I need to touch up the inside sides since the new tile does not come out as far as the old tile. 

Though it is not done 100% done I am still in love. 

And just in case you were wondering just how far we are. This is the reality of our home reno. 

Even the dining room is in disarray but I am learning to deal with it. In the end it will all be worth it!

Now on to my major score!! I just ran out and purchased this mirror off the local yard sale site. Can you believe it was only $20!!! Now I am trying to figure out where to put it. Should I put it in the dining room above the buffet and sell the black mirror that is there or should I swap out the mirror above the fireplace and use this one for awhile?? What would you do??

Thanx for stopping by and taking a tour of our home! I hope that your holiday weekend is going well!
I am linking up to the following linky parties:

Metamorphosis Mondays

Show Off Your Cottage Monday


Wow Us Wednesdays

Open House Party Thursdays


Transformation Thursdays

Inspiration Fridays

Feathered Nest Fridays

Front Door

This is our front door. Nice as it may be it just is not quite us.

We miss our double front door at our last house. 

I wish I could change our front door up by painting it. 

Very bright but thinking I am really digging it.

Turquoise is a popular choice these days.

Red is always one of my faves though. It is always very welcoming and makes for great curb appeal. Sadly though we are not allowed to paint our front door. 

So I will continue to dream abt the day we may one day replace our front door with maybe something like this! Oh how I would love to have a front door like this one!

Linking up to the following parties:

Inspiration Fridays

Feathered Nest Fridays

Weigh In Wednesdays #2-Hard

Sorry this post is a lil' late this morning. Last night we had graduation for Littliest which kept us out till after 9! Then this morning I went outside to water the strawberry plant and noticed a trail of ants making a bee line for the house. Had to nip that in the butt immediately!! Hoping that I got it taken care of. Now on to Weigh In Wednesday!

 To be honest I have hit the hardest part of this journey and it is not the food part but the exercising part! I know I need to do it but I have had no motivation to do it. When I do do it I love it but it is the actual act of making myself do it. I know that may not make any sense to some because who in the world would not do something they love!? Crazy!

Now don't get me wrong we have still been out there sweating our butts off but not as often as we should or have been. We normally would go once a day sometimes twice a day and well now it has been more like once a week. I know I know really really bad! Good thing though is that I have not gained anything since I am still watching what and when we eat. 

To kick myself in the butt this past Sunday I went on a 5 mile + bike ride which was quite enjoyable at least the first leg of it. I thought I was nearly gonna die the second half because it was so hot and windy! I was so wishing a pool would have magically appeared in the back yard while I was gone. That would have felt so good!

To keep myself motivated I have to keep reminding myself how far I have come in such a short amount of time and that really I only have 25 more pounds to go to reach my goal by Nov 1 and that it IS really attainable. Now mind you it is not my ultimate goal but to make things seem more attainable I broke them down into mini goals. This works sooo much better for me than thinking "OMG I have to loose almost 80 pounds!!".

So what do you do to keep yourself motivated? I hope you have had more than me these past few weeks! 

I am gonna leave ya with one of my all time fave quotes I got from Jennifer over at The Magic Brush! Head over and see how Jennifer and her exercising buddy blingged up the work out room!

"She Believed She Could So She Did" 

Have a great one and I look forward to ya joining in on the linky party!:)


If you link up please be kind enough to link only to your Weigh In Wednesdays post and NOT your entire blog. I look forward to hearing about other weight loss journeys the good the bad and the ugly! Nobody is here to be judged just to be supported so lets have some fun and start sharing and loosing y'all!