Me, Mrs. Meyers and our "Counter-attack"

Our counters are not anything to write home about..in fact, they're downright ugly and dated - Formica moonlighting as fancy granite basically:

But for now, they work for us, and hopefully in 5-7 years we can replace them with something else a little nicer!

Having said that, these counters had seen better days:

Besides the obvious pasta sauce stain, you can clearly see several yellowish/brownish areas of dirt..30 year old dirt I would imagine, because the previous owners had some kind of love affair with messy rooms/surfaces/you name it!!! I feel like everytime we tackle a new project we have to spend at least 15-20 minutes cleaning the area first because it's so filthy...UGH!

Ok, so moving on.. I recently bought Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day in Lemon Verbana and thought I'd give it a whirl on my counters

This stuff made the house smell so yummy I was actually enjoying working up a sweat to clean the kitchen!

A few more befores:

And here is the after (2.5 hours later!!)

And this is the before/after of the backsplash behind the sink:

Not perfect, but much better than before!!

You've Got Mail

In a shiny new mailbox!

We bought both the post and mailbox at Lowe's and I love how the black and white coordinates w/ the trim/shutters on the house:

Notice the former sad little mailbox tilting on it's post? Yeah, we decided that needed to be fixed.. pronto! (I don't have a recent picture of the house like the one above to show you how the new mailbox looks from the front - soon though!)

Curtains Up! (And other related items)

We finally have curtains in our bedroom! My mom was a pro with our power drill and helped hang these guys:

Closeup of finial. (Curtains are from Ikea, curtain rods from Christmas Tree Shops)

Not sure if I posted this update of our upstairs bath vanity. (Not the best before pic, but you get the idea..it used to be natural wood colored)

These are a closeup of the old handles:

Can we say, GROSS???

Finally found some pillows at Walmart for the fireplace:

The other side of the cushions is not pleated, so I can easily switch up the look of them if I get bored!

I moved the ottomans that used to be there to the guest bedroom to serve as night stands/storage:

The ottomans have the same blue/green color as the curtains in the paisley swirl so they coordinate very nicely!

The house is starting to feel like a home!!!

It's crunch time baby!

So we're having a housewarming party on October 16th so we have just a little over a month to get everything done...no pressure!

Here's some more of the progress we've made over the past few weeks:

We finally have color on the kitchen walls!!!

It's sapphireberry by Benjamin Moore - I just love that name!! It still needs a second coat but I love how it ties in the color in the floor:

This is the actual color swatch..it comes out a bit darker on the walls tho

We replaced the doorknobs on the accordion doors in the basement. Not the best before picture

Closeup of the old doorknob:

New knobs:

Closeup:

Best part? This quick update only cost around $6 and makes the doors look a little more modern

Another cheap update ($3.50) was replacing this gross sink drain:

with a brand-spanking new one:

Instant upgrade!

The guest room is looking better and better every week too:

We had a futon in this room and rather than keep it in the "couch" position I lowered it to make it feel more like a bed than a couch. I grabbed a duvet cover I wasn't using anymore and threw up some curtain rods/curtains from Target...Just need a few more accessories (side table, lamp, small rug) and this room will be totally done!

We've been switching out (no pun intended) some electrical outlets and switches to make them all match w/ the crisp white trim and it looks soo much better!

Check back in a few more weeks!!