Our Rancher: Before & After - The Fireplace.

At first glance, you'd think our fireplace was hopeless.  It was like the rest of our house...depressing, drab and outdated.  I was just thankful to have a fireplace and knew, with a little effort, it wouldn't be so bad!

Truth be told,

Our Rancher: Before & After - The Kitchen.

Sorry for the mini-break I took to reveal my DIY jewelry organizer...but it's back to the before and afters! (Insert round of applause here.)

This series has been a blast to put together!  I hope you guys are enjoying it too.  If you've missed the intro, part one, part two or part three, make sure you catch up!

Our Rancher: Before & After - The Dining Room.

I've talked about the inspiration behind this little series, posted part one, posted part two and now it's time for the dining room.  Like our living room, this space needed less walls, new windows, no more shag and some serious lighting.

I'm sure you can guess the next stop will be the kitchen! ;)

Our Rancher: Before & After - The Living Room.

The curb appeal and entrance were certainly not the only areas of our home that needed a total overhaul.  In part two of my little "before and after" series, it's all about the living room portion of our great room.  The wall...the outdated doors...the old windows...the shag carpet...it all had to go!

If you missed the intro and part one of the series, you can catch up here and here.  Next up is our dining room "then and now"!

Our Rancher: Before & After - The Entrance.

I know the title reads "before and after", but the series of posts coming your way are truly more of a "then and now".  Why is that?  Well because I'm never done re-decorating and styling our home. I mean, you already heard my dreams to renovate our 1954 cabinetry.  Yes, one day I will see my kitchen dreams come to life!!  But, anyway, I digress...

Back to the fun stuff...the transformation thus far!!

Our home was a little...ummmm...frightening when we bought it.  "Hot mess" is a phrase that also came to mind.

Ahhhh, our diamond in the rough!  Our home was so far from welcoming.  We took it from dark, overgrown, stained, cramped and closed off to happy, light and bright!

Much better, don't you think?!?

Next up...the living room portion of our "great room"!

Our Rancher: Before & After.

Quite often I find myself daydreaming about changing/fixing/renovating aspects of our beloved home. If hubby had it his way, we'd re-side the place, add some stone detail and take care of our cracking front steps.  I don't mind the charm of our 1950's wood siding and focus my thoughts on things inside our house.  I'd love to install a gas insert in our fireplace and finish our icky basement...but mostly, I dream of renovating our kitchen.  Don't get me wrong, our kitchen has come so far from it's dark beginning!  We fixed it up as best we could, with the budget we had.  I love it's charm, but hate it's function.  Unfortunately, the original 1954 cabinets are showing their age and I find myself planning a kitchen reno that might not happen for quite some time.

It's so easy to get caught up in all the work left on the to-do list, that I like to remind myself of just how far we've come.

And our ranch has come a long way, baby!  The first time we laid eyes on it, I saw potential...and hubby saw a nightmare.  Actually, I think his exact reaction involved letting out a few expletives and a refusal to even tour the whole house.

It was dark, closed off and smelled.  The kitchen and baths were original to the 1954 house...and the master bath was leaking and no bigger than a postage stamp.  BUT, it had potential.

It was a 4 bedroom house in a neighborhood of mostly 3 bedrooms.

If we removed all the walls, we'd have a perfect open layout.  

If we combined the two bathrooms into one, we'd have a huge hall bathroom to accommodate guests and future kiddos.  

If we closed off the third bedroom, I could create a great master ensuite.

If we refinished the original hardwoods, they'd look like new.

If we replaced all the doors and windows, it'd update the look and efficiency of the old home.

If we replaced the roof, we'll be good for the next 25 years.

If we threw a fresh coat of paint on, well, everything...it'd look like a million bucks.

If, if, if...

For a house that was priced way too high considering it's condition, I was throwing around a whole lot of if's.  BUT, the price dropped...and the day it went down, I made sure we were there to see it.

Thankfully, hubby trusted the vision and the house was ours.  We bought our green monster.

My next few posts will be a "then and now" series showing our home when we bought it and how it looks now.  I started this series on Instagram (#RRRbeforeandafter) and loved it so much, that I couldn't help but want to post it to the blog too!  I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do! :)

Now, what renovations are you guys daydreaming about?!

Elegant Black Porch Door (& Winners!)

A little over a year ago I was introduced to an awesome company called Modern Masters.  The kind folks there asked if I wanted to review their metallic paints, and I jumped at the opportunity!  I loved getting to use their product, so when they approached me about trying out their new front door paint, I couldn't say yes fast enough.

But there was a catch for me...I didn't want to use the paint on our actual front door.  Instead, I was itching to give our back porch door a makeover.  You see, I've been mentally sprucing up our back porch for well over a year now, and getting the porch door painted would be step one of the vision actually coming to life.

So I scanned through the 24, yes 24, amazing color options available and chose Elegant...a rich, classic black.  I wiped my door down so it was free of dirt and lint, and taped off the edges of the door.  Per the directions on the container, since my door was previously painted, I could start painting without priming. Modern Masters boasts that it takes only two coats for full coverage, but I was skeptical...especially since I was going from white to black.

(I skipped taping off the windows, and decided it'd be easier to scrape them with a razor after.  Clearly, I hate taping.)

Here's where I started (booooooooring)...

After coat #1 (I was a bit scared)...

After coat #2 (that looked a little better)...

After coat #3 (almost there)...

And one final coat for good measure (nailed it)...

Although it did take me 4 full coats to cover the white door, the results were worth it.  The paint dried quickly and has a beautiful satin finish that really pops against our home.  The paint was also easy to scrape off the windows.

If you are antsy to revive your entrance, but scared to take the plunge, you can download Modern Masters' free iPhone and Andriod app to instantly see the transformation this paint can make for you.  And once you fall in love with a color, visit select Lowe's and Ace Hardware locations, or go online to Amazon.com and Modern Masters to purchase!

***I was not compensated for this post.  All opinions are 100% mine!!***

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Winners of the Paisley Print giveaway have been announced here.  Check your email ladies! :)

Striped Table Makeover.

If you've been around my blog for a while, you probably know that I loooove a good furniture makeover.  Even some of my co-workers have learned this about me...and when I was approached by Modern Masters to try out some of their awesome metallic paints, one of my co-workers took total advantage.  She mentioned she had a small black side table that was in need of some "pizazz", so I had her bring it in.  I couldn't wait to get to work!

Although once I saw the table, I realized the "pizazz" step would have to wait.  I needed to give the table some serious TLC to get a proper black base.  First things first...the table needed major sanding.  The clear coat originally put on the table was peeling up like dried scotch tape.  Not cute.

After sanding, it was clear the table used to be a yellow-ish color before it went black.

I made sure to wipe things down so no dust or dirt was left on the table.

And then I went to town with a can of spray paint and primer-in-one.  MUCH better.

Then it was time to add a little something-something.  I busted out my painters tape, my Modern Masters metallic paint {in Blackened Bronze}, and a foam roller.  And before you ask...no, I didn't measure things.  I just taped the lines off using a piece of painters tape as a spacer as I went along to keep things even.

Then I painted a few coats of Blackened Bronze onto the table...

...and peeled the tape off while the paint was still wet.  Once it was dry, I applied two layers of a clear coat and let things dry for 24 hours.  Boom...co-worker's table makeover = complete!

1/3 Of The Way There!

Hey, heyyy blog buddies! I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July, and hopefully a four day weekend off from work. ;) 

I have been dying to share a project with you guys, and it's actually not even complete. We are maybe 1/3 of the way there, but it's just so pretty I couldn't help it. Like many of the other outdoor projects we've taken on, my parents helped BIG TIME with this one. Let's just say, they know how to clear out an overgrown jungle like it's nobody's business. We first learned of their capabilities when we bought the house...eeek!

This time we aimed those awesome taming skills at our unkempt jungle surrounding our corner lot.  I forgot to take "before" pictures of all the whole jungle, so I here are a few of the untouched areas.  Just imagine this surrounding our whole property.

We knew our property line was somewhere in the the middle of that whole mess...we just didn't know how much of it was ours.  We could never find the middle marker, but we finally came across it on my parent's last visit.  And it turns out, most of this hilly disaster was ours.  Yay...we had more land than we thought, but holy moly, did we have our work cut out for us. :-/

Thankfully, my parents have more energy than any twenty-something I know, and they tackled that hill and all the poison ivy it could offer up!  After a few days, we could see dirt...and a couple cute rock walls, and some ivy ground cover.

And would they stop there?!  Of course not!  We decided this would be a good idea...

Holy mulch pile!!  The next morning, we spent the first half of the day spreading this over the newly cleared areas.  The difference fresh mulch makes is amazing...plus, we are hoping it'll keep some of those weeds from popping back up at full speed.

We still have a heck of a ways to go, but the difference in our yard from where we started is incredible!  And the amazing memories we have of transforming our home with our family can't be beat. :)

Anyone else take on a unruly landscape lately?!