The Miller Spot

House Tour: Guest Bathroom -- Before

2012-02-24T16:37:00.003-06:00

Oh...and this is where the house tour comes to a screeching pause.

Okay, thank you. That break is brought to you by a little thing I like to call: The Guest Bathroom.

You know that point in home renovation when you've had it? Maybe you've been renovating a house for a year or so and half of your belongings are in boxes, the other half staged in an on-the-market home, and an entire other half that shouldn't even exist is crammed into storage. And maybe the house you've been renovating is about 85-90% complete (save lots of little details and one last bathroom that is really only for guests anyway). Maybe you throw your hands up in the air and call it good enough, move in, and swear that last bathroom will be finished as soon as we settle in.

Or is that just me?

Yes, well it is definitely me, us, our sad little guest bathroom. In the interest of total disclosure, I present our guest bathroom. To our credit, we have almost everything we need to turn it into an "after" -- except time.

Here is the original design concept:

We're mostly sticking with this concept, except that we used these light fixtures in our master bathroom so we are using a different one here. And we used the pebbles on our master bath shower so we might take that a new direction too. The walls will be a bamboo green. Kind of a natural, spa feel...hopefully.

In the meantime, here are the before pictures:

And here is the bathroom today (who would have guessed the stripes were the second choice for wallpaper):

Still to-do

EVERYTHING.

House Tour: Guest Bedroom -- Before & After

2012-02-24T16:13:00.002-06:00

Hmm...what to say about an extra bedroom. I think the best thing to say is that I'm grateful to have one! We tend to have a few overnight guests here and there. Grandmas, friends, wayward travelers...you know the deal. Anyhow, in our last house we gave up the extra bedroom in our downsizing efforts and instead had a dedicated office. I missed that spare room alot. I bet our guests missed it even more because where did they sleep? Yep, that dedicated office. For awhile I had a daybed in the study and it worked okay, I guess. But, not ideal. So, gaining back the guest bedroom was wonderful. Even if it is nowhere near guest ready. Why is that? Because I've decided it works much better as a room to collect all of the stuff that I'm not ready to hang on the walls yet. It's like one big decorating closet. But, I'm working on that (maybe I'll explain more later).

This room was another simple redo. (Easy for me to say since my role in the whole shebang is to pick finishes and paint colors.) There was a very cute sports-themed mural gracing the walls which led Mr. Riley to believe this was his future room for a long, long time. Poor guy. It was not his future room and the fun mural is no more. Sorry, sports fans. The color we chose ended up maybe being my favorite in the entire house and I'm actually thinking about using it in our master bathroom. We will see...

The details:

Walls: Sherwin Williams Fawn Brindle

Trim: Sherwin Williams Dover White

Ceiling Fan: Lowes

*BEFORE*

See, he really loved it. Mean mom, I am.

*AFTER*

Please overlook the weird sun glare on the wall. Oh, and the not-yet-replaced electrical outlets.

House Tour: Master Bathroom -- Before & After

2012-02-22T09:39:00.002-06:00

And what comes after a master bedroom...why, a master bathroom! Can we just take a moment to soak in these before pictures, please? Man...the wallpaper. It is crazy to even look at these before shots and remember it. This is like a bad dream set in the 90s: whitewashed woodwork, sassy brass, CARPET (gag me). The askew blinds just make a bad thing even harder to take. I'm not even sure I got a picture of the disgusting mess that was the shower--complete with never-cleaned surround and who knows how many years of hair, dirt, grime, and gross. EW.

An overhaul was in order here...and we gave it the 1-2. Kapow! I don't have great afters of this because honestly, this room is still very much in progress. I have lots and lots of tweaking to do (some husband involved) to make it right. And, I hate how light the paint color is so I plan on repainting it very, very soon to warm it up some. All of that to say, the afters are peeks into what will soon be.

The big things: we kept the vanities, but painted out the cabinets black, ditched the disgusting carpet and did stained concrete, granite on the counter-tops, new mirrors, vanity lights, new toilet (this goes without saying in every bathroom, but I'll say it anyway), new faucets. The biggest change came with the shower. Kevin wanted a new manly shower--one that could easily accommodate his oversized body. He ripped out the existing grossness and built an enormous cave of a shower that really changed the room. His talent astounds... Some cool tile gives this room the most modern vibe of the entire house.

The details:

Walls: Sherwin Williams Modern Gray (for now)

Trim: Sherwin Williams Dover White

Vanity Cabinets: Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black

Light Fixures and Faucets: Overstock

Shower fixtures: Kitchen Source

Bathtub fixtures: Ebay

Concrete floors: Advance Concrete Design

Shower tile: Northwest Builders Supply

Granite countertops: Northwest Builders Supply (name of granite to come)

Mirrors: Overstock

Toilet: Home Depot

*BEFORE*

Again, I like to include the pregnant shots...

*AFTER*

These floors were SO dirty when I took this picture. The floors really don't look like a just-used chalkboard.

Still to-do

Repaint

Add another coat of sealant to concrete floors

Panel the front of the tub

Window treatments

Caulk and grout around shower

Towel holders/bars

Finish replacing electrical outlets

New windows (faux glass blocks = not my thing)

And cannot forget the reason I fell in love with this house, the master closet:

*BEFORE*

*AFTER*

House Tour: Master Bedroom -- Before & After

2012-02-22T09:22:00.000-06:00

Introducing...the largest bedroom I've ever lived in! I'm not complaining--it's a gorgeous space--but, man-o-man, it is a BIG room (it even has surround sound, hello!) and before we renovated, it was a little yuck (like everything else here). Same pickled woodwork, boring walls, brass finishes. Nothing remarkably gross in here, just lots in need of sprucing, I guess.

Two houses ago (sad that I can say that and not be talking about every house we've lived in), I painted our Master Bedroom a blue/gray color that was perfection. So, why mess with perfection, right? I used it again. I really, really wanted to do a chandelier in here (just like I really wanted to in the office) until I thought about two of my least favorite things in Oklahoma: July and August (despite the fact that they are our birthday months, which redeems them slightly). Anyhow, I couldn't get past the feeling of waking up hot in the middle of the night and a ceiling fan became the clear victor in the beauty/practicality battle. Maybe in the future, I can come to grips with my weirdness and put pretty things above wind creation.

To recap: This room was an easy one. Paint, carpet, ceiling fan. We kept the existing marble surround on the fireplace for now (it works) and painted out the brass on the surround a matte black (heatproof). That's about it. I'm still deciding just how this space is supposed to work, but in the meantime it is nice to stretch out a little.

The details:

Walls: Valspar Autumn Fog (color-matched to Sherwin Williams)

Trim and Woodwork: Sherwin Williams Dover White

Ceiling Fan: Lowes

Marble on fireplace: Existing (can't say that many times on this remodel!)

*BEFORE*

*AFTER*

Flip-flops not part of the design plan.


This is a very overblown flash--not really this blue at all.

Still to-do

Window/door coverings

House Tour: Boys' Bathroom -- Before & After

2012-02-17T13:29:00.001-06:00

At this rate, the world will end before I finish this house tour. Can I give up procrastination for lent? Argh.

So, I will say as I dive into this next spot that I LOVE this room. I know, I say that alot. Do I? I feel like I do. This is the boys shared bathroom and a dream come true when it comes to hiding kid stuff. I love that this room is away from guests and traffic and it can be a full-on, child friendly zone.

Our vibe was retro modern, I guess. I wanted to go shiny chrome, lots of curvy, vintage-esque fixtures, and penny tile--definitely penny tile. A trendy pick, to be sure, but I can't help my love of the little round coins. They are adorable. We originally were going to do a different color, but when we stumbled upon 2 random boxes of light green tile in the clearance aisle at the Depot (an internet return), we were sold. There wasn't quite enough tile to cover the floor so after a little bit of a treasure hunt, I found the exact same tile on Overstock.com. (This house is truly the home that Overstock built.)

Classic subway was a carry over from the kitchen (which will be shown here soon!), but here we kept it simple (read: cheap) and went for the super duper basic subway that is always in stock at the HD. (Okay, the house that Overstock and Home Depot built.) And the granite was a remnant choice that would have cost double what we paid if we picked it out from a full slab. Except for the kitchen, we used remnant pieces in the entire house and have granite pretty much everywhere.

The paint is the same as in the living room and very simple. I wanted the room to feel classic so that we could change around accessories as the boys get older without being too tied into a theme. Oh, and we saved the existing, very nice bathtub and had it professionally re-glazed. A great option if the tub just needs a little facelift.

You can't really see the vanity light below, but here it is in the original design board I created:

And as you can see from this, we made some changes along the way, but pretty much stuck to initial vision. It is a pretty swanky bathroom for two little boys, I must say.

The details:

Walls: Sherwin Williams Modern Gray

Trim and Woodwork: Sherwin Williams Dover White

Light Fixure and Faucet: Overstock

Shower fixtures: Kitchen Source (I think?)

Subway tile: Home Depot (in store, in-stock)
Penny tile: special order Home Depot/Overstock

*BEFORE*

Sometimes I look at these pictures (that's pregnant me, by the way) and am scared that I let Riley touch anything.

*AFTER*

Still to-do

Mirror...to paint or not to paint? I like it bamboo, but...

Shower curtain rod--still. It's all baths, all the time up in here!

Cabinet hardware. Anthropologie is calling my name!

House Tour: Kid Rooms -- Before & After

2012-02-06T11:29:00.000-06:00

How's that for anticipation? I had to take a slight break in blogging so we could head off to Florida for a much-needed break from reality at the most magical place on Earth. Unfortunately, reality stowed away in our oversized suitcase and presented itself in the form of a sick kiddo. Sigh... More on that trip and our gratefulness for resort laundry facilities in another post. For now, I'm going to continue this extremely lagging home-tour.

Today's peek isn't the most exciting, but I have to cover it all. These are the boys' bedrooms. I'm combining them, because I'm sure it could bore you to tears to see them in separate posts.

These two rooms were kind of...disgusting. Yep, that's a good word. I don't even want to speculate what may or may not have happened in them, but I never would have dreamed they would turn out so fresh and so clean, clean. Ridiculous paint, the grossest carpet ever, and dated fixtures--blech. Again, I wish you could smell through your screen because these pictures don't quite convey what I'm talking about.

To redo these bedrooms, we kept it simple. Fresh paint, new carpet, new fixtures, we refinished the plantation shutters and added white wooden blinds where there were none. The closets got bright lights, fresh paint, and filled to the brim. Now, two spaces for brothers to play -- minus the yuck. I think kid rooms are a place to have a little fun with color and get a little crazy. So, this is my version of crazy. I can't wait to show you these decorated. Much cuter!

(As always, click on the pictures to see them nice and big in a lightbox.)

ROOM #1 -- The details:

Walls: Sherwin Williams Lime Rickey

Trim and Woodwork: Sherwin Williams Dover White

Ceiling Fans: Lowes

*BEFORE*


I forgot to mention the murals!

Riley looks so little here!

*AFTER*

Excuse the TV--had to occupy children during renovations. :-)

ROOM #2 -- The details:

Walls: Sherwin Williams Bee's Wax

Trim and Woodwork: Sherwin Williams Dover White

Ceiling Fans: Lowes

*BEFORE*

*AFTER*

Still to-do

New windows

Up next...another bathroom!

Revamping a Chandelier: From Brass to Black

2012-01-19T11:00:00.000-06:00

When you take on the largest renovation of your short home-renovation career, you've gotta save cash anywhere you can. I'm fairly sure we probably should have found a few more places to save, but that's a whole other can of diet pepsi... Anyhow, when buying the dozens of light fixtures it took to remodel all of other rooms, I decided to wait out replacing the chandelier in the formal dining room. I knew I could save it -- at least short term -- and give us a chance to play a little catch-up and maybe decide exactly the direction I wanted to go with the room. Best case, I save us a couple hundred bucks; worst case, I waste some time and render the brass light fixture unusable. Luckily, I saved the builder's brass from a landfill grave and here's how that transformation went down.

*BEFORE*

The chandelier in all its pre-painted brassy glory:

1. I covered the individual light "candles" with plastic bags and painters tape to save them from spray.

2. Before painting, I lightly sanded the entire fixture with a fine grit sandpaper. Important step because without taking the shine off the brass, the spray paint won't stick.

3. I started spraying...and spraying...and spraying. Lots of light coats give the best results and keep the from doing the dreaded "drip." (I use satin finish spray paint, by the way...I don't like it too glossy.)

4. Apparently this is when I stopped taking pictures. It's also when I decided that oil-rubbed bronze wasn't working for me. I switched to black and did the final two coats with a new can. This is also the point that I hung the chandelier from the garage door supports in the garage so I could cover all of the hidden spots. Make sure to use a bright light or you will find a spot you missed...and not be happy. I may or may not know this from personal experience.

5. This is also the point where I covered the individual lightbulbs with shades. There are tons of shades and styles you can use here. I went simple with a light brown--they were $2.99 each at Hobby Lobby, but as any HL shopper knows, I waited until they were 50% off. At around $1.50, this is a steal compared to some of the more expensive online options.

6. And the "after" shot. I think I may add a cord cover, but like everything else in our house, it is a work in progress. (Sorry, not the best "after" pictures -- I ran and snapped them, mid-post.)

Final Cost:

Spray paint (it probably only took one can, but I used two because I switched colors) $15

Light shades (12): $18 + tax

Baggies, painters tape, sandpaper: already had on-hand

TOTAL: $33

And one more quick look at the before and after:

House Tour: Powder Bath -- Before & After

2012-01-18T21:46:00.002-06:00

Moving right along...

This little jewel box was my personal design victory in the remodel. When deciding on the look of the powder bath, I knew two things: 1. The walls would be light blue. 2. The floors would be concrete and have an etched checkerboard-ish pattern. When we met with the concrete contractor, he questioned my coveted checkerboard saying the room was too small for it to look good and he didn't recommend it. Argh... Of course, I pretended to take his expert opinion to heart, all the while dismissing his words the second they left his mouth and hit the dust-filled air of our disaster zone. Poor guy didn't have a chance.

What once was a green/burgundy/brass/wallpaper catastrophe (are you seeing a whole-house theme with the previous color scheme?) is now a sweet room and the perfect place for guests to powder their noses. We used a light aqua/turquoise wall paint, painted out the cabinet black, replaced the pedestal sink for a more substantial model, and recycled the existing mirror with a coat of silver leaf. A new faucet, vanity light, and of course, the acid-stained concrete floors brought this room into the here and now. Buh-bye yesteryear.

The details:

Walls: Sherwin Williams Waterscape

Trim and Woodwork: Sherwin Williams Dover White

Cabinetry: Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black

Vanity Light & Faucet: Overstock.com

Pedestal Sink: Home Depot

Concrete Floors: Black and Vintage Umber Concrete Stain *I wanted to use Amber instead of Vintage Umber, but I actually did take the contractor's advice that the Amber would be way too light and look more like plain ol' concrete.

*BEFORE*

Holy moly, are you dizzy with this paper?

Hollywood lights...sweet!

*AFTER*

Still to-do

Add towel hook/ring, toilet paper holder
Cabinet hardware

House Tour: The Study -- Before & After

2012-01-16T18:05:00.000-06:00

Just off the living room, the study is one of my favorite spots in the house...probably because I spend so much time in there! It's a great room with lots of light and I like to peek out the windows and daydream a little while I work.

It started as a 90s nightmare. Okay, that's being a bit dramatic... I'm sure back in the day I would have looooved the hunter green paint and maroon wallpaper border that graced this room. Oh, thank goodness that some things change. Add to that more of the lovely pickled wood and a fancy brass ceiling fan and I'm sure this was the perfect place for some mid-90s productivity.

The transformation was pretty easy here -- painted out the woodwork (a dark, dark gray that reads gray/brown), walls, and plantation shutters, replaced the brass doorknobs with black levers, and carried the hardwoods from the adjoining formal living room. You also might have noticed here, and in the living room, we changed the direction that the wood floors run -- much better flow and continuity, I think. I know a chandelier would have looked great here, but I tend to run hot when I'm working so I had to go for the the ceiling fan. Maybe someday I'll have less work to do and can add some kind of chandy, but in the meantime, I need a breeze, man.

The details:

Walls: Sherwin Williams Thunder Gray

Trim and Woodwork: Sherwin Williams Dover White

French Doors: Sherwin Williams Dover White

Wood Floors: Custom stain mix, satin finish

Ceiling Fan: Lowe's

*BEFORE*

*AFTER*

Coming up next, our adorable powder bathroom!

House Tour: Formal Living/Dining Room -- Before & After

2012-01-14T21:30:00.000-06:00

Now that you've seen the outside, we'll start making our way through the rest of the house. Here's the formal living room and the formal dining. These rooms are the first rooms you enter from the front door. There are some really great features including super-high ceilings, tons of built in bookcases, a fireplace, and fantastic windows overlooking the patio and backyard.

When we bought this house, the living room had some lovely carpet with wood in the adjoining entry, formal dining, and study. Of course, I had my all-too-talented dad on the case and we ended up with some amazing hardwoods. (I'll talk more about those in another post, another day.)

We are using the original front door and updated it a bit with a coat of black. We also replaced the handles in here and throughout the house with black levers. Eventually, we'll replace the door with something else because it is definitely not our style, but for now, it is fine.

We also painted out the walls, all of the circa-90s pickled/glazed woodwork got a few coats of creamy white lacquer and we updated the original brass-finished lantern with a fun metal/crystal pendant light. The French doors went from white to black.

In the dining room, we used the same color on the walls and crown moldings and also painted out the plantation shutters (sounds easier than it actually is). I saved the ugly brass light fixture in here with a really easy transformation that saved us a few hundred dollars. (I'll take it where I can get it!)

The details:

Walls: Sherwin Williams Modern Gray

Trim and Woodwork: Sherwin Williams Dover White

French Doors: Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black

Wood Floors: Custom stain mix, satin finish

Light Fixture: Overstock.com

*BEFORE*

*AFTER*

Future to-do:

Replace front door

Replace windows

Update fireplace handles; replace gas-burning logs with something more modern.

Pending!

2012-01-13T14:26:00.002-06:00

So, so relieved. Today we accepted an offer on our "other" house. The one that we still owned when we decided to move into this one. I wouldn't recommend this, by the way. It was a little nerve-wracking to say the least. And we had so much real estate on our hands that it kept us from flipping. Once we unload the other house, we can flip again. Oh, happy day!

In honor of our pending sale, here's a quick look at the house we used to call home (these are the MLS pictures and show the house staged for the market):

This was a great in-between house for us. Beautiful hardwoods, awesome soaring ceilings, and owning this house helped us figure out that it was our favorite area of town. Plus, baby Asher was born while we lived here. Here's to a smooth, quick close and a happy future for the new owners!

House Tour: The Exterior -- Before & After

2012-01-12T14:03:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the first of an ongoing series of our latest flip...the one in which we live! I plan to take you room by room through the empty afters and update them as we decorate and "finish" each space. As I reveal "afters," I'll add them to the home tour on our main page.

A little background...

This home began as an investment property and the biggest flip we would tackle in our short house-flipping history. I think we were about half-a-minute into the process before we decided that we really loved the house and wanted to move into it instead of sell it and live happily forever after. Never, ever moving again. (ha.)

Anyhow, that light-bulb moment changed the project from a quick flip to all-consuming project that took waaaay longer than it was supposed to. We encountered delays in nearly every aspect and had one of the most daunting professional painter experiences you can imagine. Usually in our flips Kevin takes on the painting (although he capital-H HATES painting), but this time around he decided to leave it to the pros. I'm pretty sure we interviewed about a dozen painter and had a variety of declines, high prices, and long wait times to wade through. We settled for someone in the middle that seemed reliable. Turns out...not so reliable. In fact, when his assistant showed up one day letting us know that our trusty painter was behind bars for stealing deposits from his customers, we knew that our deposit was also long gone. But that's another story for another day.

Yes, this time around we learned many, many hard lessons. It took a long time -- and, in fact, is still happening because we aren't quite finished yet. But, I love this house. Adore it. And really, really can't see us moving. Ever. So we'll see...

But, I got off track. We'll begin at the beginning and show some exterior pictures of before and after. There is much more to do out here. In truth, we have done the bare minimum in this department.

("Now, it's up to you whether or not you want to just do the bare minimum. Well, like Brian, for example, has 37 pieces of flair. And a terrific smile." Office Space? Anyone?)

We replaced an enormous wood shingle roof with a steel roof. (Pretty awesome and changed the look of the house tons. I call it my Suburban because I'd rather be driving it than living under it.) We also started the back-breaking process of cleaning up the landscape and we removed a tree and a weird fence. Aside from that, we haven't done much and I'm excited for Spring so we can really tackle the rest. Oh boy! In the meantime, here's where we are so far.

The Stats:

Built in 1994

3,844 square feet

.75 acre lot

4 bedrooms

3.5 bathrooms

3-car garage

Formal living/Dining

Study

EXTERIOR AFTER

Here's the gross, overgrown before. Note the roof falling apart (yes, it leaked) and the months of neglect on the landscape. It was vacant for awhile once the bank took over and the yard paid the price. Many of these bushes lost the battle with last year's ridiculous summer temperatures.

Exterior *BEFORE*


Exterior BEFORE

EXTERIOR AFTER

And here are some "after" although they should probably be called "in progress" because we have a lot more to do out here. We plan to revamp the column situation on the front porch with some new stone columns, and add shutters to the side windows. I know we could polish up those copper awnings, but we can't decide...we like the patina.

Exterior *AFTER*

I plan to put Blue Atlas Cedars on either side of this window. My favorite tree! (And one that I've killed a couple times in the past.)

Exterior *AFTER*

Lots of plans for this garden area. I had annuals here until fall when I ripped them all out for the season. We also lined these beds with stone.

Exterior *AFTER*

The side yard where those scary bushes and fence lived. We still have so much to do here, but we've managed to replace the door (although we still need to paint it). We have long-term plans to put a gate across the driveway so the boys can play in this side area safely. Plus, it will be pretty.

Exterior *AFTER*

Future to-do:
Major landscaping -- everywhere
Replace front porch columns with stone
New front porch lights
Repair mailbox
Add wood shutters to front windows

Decorative iron gate across driveway
Paint side door
Iron accents on garage doors

Okay, that's all for now. I'll save the backyard for another day. Not too much progress there yet. And I'm hoping to do these posts every couple of days until we make it through the whole house. Thanks for joining me for the outside look. I'm excited to share more!

Yuuuuup!

2012-01-11T14:00:00.000-06:00

Get that reference? Yes, we have become a little addicted to Storage Wars 'round these parts. And we headed to our first local storage auction a few weeks ago. It was fun--but fast. Apparently there were supposed to be about 8 or 9 units up for grabs but then those delinquent folks ruined our fun and paid up before the gavel dropped. So, there only ended up being two on the block...and about 100 people. I think storage facility owners need to pay A&E some kind of referral fee for that, don't you?

Anyhow, we came home from the storage auction empty-handed. (We really weren't planning on buying anything in the first place.) But, now we are in full-on auction mode.

Last week we headed to a liquidation auction for a local baker who closed down her very popular business (mostly super-fancy cakes) to teach and travel. It caught our eye because someday my mom is going to open up her own fancy cake shop and we thought maybe she could find some cheap buys.

We showed up (with two kids, no less) and started checking out our top picks from the preview list we studied at home. We were interested in a couple pieces of furniture, some barstools, and then once we arrived we found some cool plaster decorative items that I knew would look cute with a different paint job.

After looking around, we decided on our max prices for what we liked, I started cramming crackers in the boys' mouths and we waited for the fun to begin.

Our first pick was this really cool piece of furniture that had us battling another lady...but with our max $150, she won the fight at $155. Sigh.

The second was a wood/glass bookshelf with a faux bamboo look. Some kind of paint treatment and I knew it would be great in our house. Aaaaaand, we got it!

Here it is. Such a bargain at $37. When we brought it home, we realized it was made by Lane so I'm really happy with the deal. It will be cute and I'll share when I finish. (don't mind the background here, that's another project for another post.)

Those fun decorative scrolls I liked were the very last item on the block so a long drive through nearby neighborhoods, a Sonic lunch, and trip to the grandpa's for the potty, and many hours later, we came back to find out that Kevin scooped up my decor for a song.

All 13 for $13. One dollar a piece. I know they don't look that exciting -- that gold is a little gaggy -- but they have some good potential and will be perfect for staging too. And most of them were marked with their original $39.99 or $24.99 price tags. I love a bargain. Pass the spray paint.

We also grabbed these organizing bins...one whole dollar for ALL of them. Oh boy! (I use these in almost every drawer/pantry in our house.)

And can't forget the cake decorator in the family... Lots and lots of flavor labels -- hundreds of them--for $1.

Kevin also picked up a HUGE commercial freezer on behalf of his dad who plans to store lots and lots of dead animals in it at the farm. (ew.) By the end of the day things were going very, very cheap and we are still thinking about the huge butcher block table that sold for $15. The one that got away... Yes, I think it is safe to say there will be many more auctions in our future. We are SOLD!

(Today's P.S. Thanks so much for all the feedback, comments, etc on my first post and our new blog/look/mission. I am excited to share lots more here. I'm going to start the room-by-room before and after on our current home tomorrow so be sure to come back and join me!)

New Year, New Look

2012-01-10T12:23:00.000-06:00

Have you been here before? If so, things probably look a little different. For one, I'm posting which is something that hasn't graced these pages for a long, long time. Almost a year to be exact. I was smack in the middle of posting about our then-6-month-old youngest son. And then...I kind of fell off the blogging wagon. I've been thinking alot about the much-forgotten blog in the last few months. Thinking about how I've missed blogging...missed having that permanent record of what's happening in our lives and how I wanted to return to the Land o' Blog. But I also thought about how I wanted to return in a kind of different way.

Which brings us to now. Well, kind of...

To know where you are, you've gotta know where you've been, right? Well, let's back up a minute -- here's where the Miller Spot started:

With the two little lines of a positive pregnancy test. And that first post was on Thursday. May 3, 2007.

Man, that feels like a long time ago! Maybe that's because since then, we've met the result of that positive pregnancy test (4-year-old Riley), experienced another set of positive tests (15-month-old Asher), met that little bundle, and moved three times since then. Yes -- THREE TIMES IN FIVE YEARS (more on that later).

But that's not all.

We've also opened a business, closed a business, changed professions -- from writer/editor to Realtor for me, and restaurateur to remodeling extraordinaire for Kevin -- and flipped a house or two, or three. We've made friends, lost friends, found friends, found ourselves, struggled, thrived, and everything in-between. Whew.

So, what does that have to with this?

Well, in that time our interests shifted a little -- or we've refined them, at least. We have come to terms with that fact that we have one big passion in life (aside from our family which is obviously the main focus/passion/all-encompassing reason for existence) -- we love houses. Love. Them.

We love to buy houses, sell house, decorate houses, renovate houses, fill houses with more stuff than needs to fit in them. We like to tour houses, snoop in houses, imagine houses in different ways. If it is house-related, then we want to do it or be a part of it.

And so, after a failed business and chance to start anew, we decided to spend our life doing what we love. We decided to become full-time house renovators. I would get my license and become a real estate agent, Kevin would be the general contractor, I'd design the spaces, and we would be quite a team. So, that was the plan -- and that's what we did. And that's what we are doing.

A whole lot of this:

To this:

And this:

To this:

There's a lot more where that came from... (check out our flips on the tabs above)

So, while I still want to post cute pictures of our adorable children for our families and friends to see, I find myself doing that more on Facebook instead of sad, neglected blog. And all of our creative projects, home decor, and general house flipping fun has no outlet. I mean, really, I need a place to talk about drawer pulls and cabinet handles until I'm blue in the face. Pretty sure, if I did that on Facebook my friend count would go waaaay down.

And with that -- here I am. And here we are -- The Miller Spot 2.0. All in all, basically the same thing, but in a different outfit. This is a place for me to come and share (with myself and anyone else who happens to stumble onto our little corner of the Interwebs) my kiddo birthday parties (which I completely obsess about, and are never boring), our family trips, milestones, and general Miller happenings, but those everyday, love-my-family posts will now be combined with home projects, design ideas, our house flipping, and general rants about construction, remodeling, and paint samples -- or bamboo blinds, my current shop-and-compare item.

Not entirely a mom blog, not a design blog -- more of a lifestyle blog. Our lifestyle. So that we can look back in a year or two (or almost five) and see how far we've come, what we have been through, and what we have accomplished. Or just to see how ugly the before pictures are when we can't remember. Or how awesome the birthday parties were.(By the way, our blog saved me lately when I realized we lost half of our pictures in a computer calamity. Thank goodness for the blog and its archive of our lives.)

And, that's that. If you're still reading after all of that long-winded fun, I will finish up by saying that I hope you enjoy your stay, your return visit, your misdirected click. Here's to a new leg of a long journey...Miller style.

(P.S. Missing our old posts, wondering what was going on the last time we spoke? Check out the original Miller Spot HERE.)

(P.S.S. Want to follow my posts? Click on "subscribe" ----> over there, or below)