My Frankie girl turned one! And I know it's so cliche but time really did fly. We threw a little party for close friends and family so she could have a cake smash. It was so simple and sweet- also so easy! Everything was peach themed! I got the balloon arch from Michaels. I had a sweet friend put together the cupcakes and cakes and I loved how it turned out. 

A few weeks ago, I got the motivation to finally work on our entrance way. I loved how the luxury vinyl tile turned our in our mini bathroom renovation HERE and decided I would do the same to our entrance. So I decided to track the process this time around on Instagram and answer any questions that people may had. I need to set the explain a few things first. So I DID put this over tile. It is not the preferred way to do things, but since this is not our forever home, I was looking for a quick fix. If I had more money I would have ripped out everything and done our whole home in a white oak flooring. Maybe in our next home (*fingers crossed). Second, I am not a professional. This is just what I did and it worked for me. 

Step one is to prep the area. I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned- swept, moped, and scrubbed. You bet I did it all. Step two involves leveling and filling in the grout lines so you have a nearly perfect flat surface. I first used a ready-to-use floor patch to fill in the grout lines. I used this one HERE. After it was dry, usually between a few hours and the end of the day, I basically went back to step one. sweep and sweep and sweep. The trick is to make sure there are not major spots where it leaves the floor unleveled. Which, I had two that I completely missed. Andrew and I can spot them, but it's not that noticeable. Next, I use a floor primer to level the area. The primer will also help to get the rest of the gritty bits from the grout filler that was more hard to sweep up.

Step three is a lot of repetition, but its the part where you can finally lay down the tile! This particular tile has the option to use grout. So if you like that look, use spacers. I said in my last blog post that this tile can be problematic, so I use a commercial grade adhesive to make sure it's extra secure. Last time, I found that the adhesive wasn't very sticky. Maybe it is for a sub floor or vinyl but I did not find that was the case for tile. Step four is grouting! I was covering approximately 55 share foot of flooring which needed about 1 tub an a half of the premixed vinyl grout in Saddle Gray that I purchased from Lowe's. 

- I use a box cutter with a razor blade. When I had small cuts, I could use scissors. The floor underneath could possibly be usable again, but had it been in my budget, I would have taken out everything. 

- Hypothetically, the vinyl tile could be removed but there would need to be an extra step of removing the commercial grade adhesive that I decided to use. However, if I wanted to change my flooring completely, I would have to break up the ceramic tile underneath where I laid the vinyl tile on top. That step would have to be done regardless, putting the vinyl did not change the fact that the ceramic would eventually have to go. 

- In short, $233. That is with supplies, tile, and grout. 

  Earlier this year, I set a goal to finish our main floor bathroom. Since we moved four years ago, I had not even touched it. It still had the "live, laugh, love" wallpaper border that was just, quite frankly, dated. My goal was too keep the remodel inexpensive, easy, and fast. This isn't our forever home and I didn't see the point in dumping a lot of money into the main floor bath if I wasn't going to see a return on my investment.

  Our previous bathroom had bead board that was a pale pink but instead of ripping it up, I decided to work with it and just paint it the color of our trim. The people who lived in the home before us left a lot of materials from their home improvements. When we ripped out the old vanity, I just cut and patched the rest of the bead board that wasn't getting covered with the vanity. We went with a tall 24" vanity as opposed to our previous 30" one. The main floor bath felt dingy and crowded so I wanted to give it as much space as possible. The bathroom vanity is not one I would recommend but it fit our budget and with some new knobs, it was aesthetically pleasing. 

  Finally, the ever controversial luxury vinyl tile. This is a a peel and stick product, or as a friend of mine cleverly put it lick and stick (lol). I did plenty of research for this product knowing that it could be problematic. I knew full and well what I was getting into. Long story short, I end up putting a commercial adhesive to the tile to the bottom to insure that the vinyl would stick. After the grout, it is so beautiful *insert heart eyes* and I love it so much that I am considering doing the tile in front of our front door.

 Here is a rough mood board that I created to see how many vision would come into play. 

Sources:

xx

Luna

  It took a while, but I finally got Frankie's room all put together. The girls were going to share the room but the clutter was driving me nuts! So I caved and just gave them separate rooms. I then started and stopped the project in-between vacation trips. I still have some touch up paint to do, but I am pretty proud of how it turned out.
  One of the pieces I am most excited about is Frankie's print of her birthday. I used Mapiful to customized my very own print for her room. The stars are what the night looked like on the day she was born. She has been such a delight in our life and this print is just a special addition in her room. 

 

During this time, I was about 6 months pregnant, and taking on a renovation project was stressful, to say the least. Andrew and I compared prices, weighed our options, and then decided to pull the trigger. The cabinets are Stockholm Style from Home Depot in a white finish. Our countertops were purchased from Ikea in oak. We wanted to keep the cost low and kitchens are by far one of the priciest removing jobs in a house.

•  Have a faux kitchen. Just a place where you can make meals and not have to have to fish for your kitchen things everywhere. We did this well and got super creative. We had our fill of crockpot meals, let me tell ya.

• Know your limits. A couple of tired evenings, Andrew was putting together the door handles and he put the holes on the wrong side. Twice. 

• Get all the help you can get. From the demo to the assemble of the cabinets to the backsplash, we had help. Friends pitched in and both our fathers came up at one point to help with different parts of the process.

• Capitalize on momentum. We moved in October and started renovating in November. Our goal was to start and finish before the bay arrived, but because she came 10 days early, there are 10% of things to finish on our end. Needless to say Ryan-Kate slowed us WAY down. So when you have momentum, keep it up.

Now these are not the latest up-to-date pictures, but I will have more coming soon! Stay tuned!

SInce being married, my new favorite hobby is decorating my house. I feel like I spend the majority of my extra free time looking up stuff on Pinterest to give me inspiration for decorating. I am trying to make my home Mid-century styled. Luckily, I found a local Estate Sale place in town that has THE BEST finds. It's super cheap too! If I was in Dallas, it would be double the price.