Curtains, Hardware, and a Cookout

So this past weekend, we didn't make much progress on the "house remodel" but we did make a lot of progress on making the house presentable! We had a cookout for some of my coworkers, so we had to clean basically every square inch of the house, garage, and yard. There ended up being 16 people over...18 including me and James! (oh, and 3 dogs). Group pic on the stairs!

Thank goodness the stairs held for this picture!

So anyway, we cleaned up all the tools from around the house, organized the garage, tidied up the yard and patio furniture, etc. The house hasn't been this clean in...ever! Just look at the dining room:

Yeah, we still have to paint the corner blocks and touch up the paint on the trim, but I think it finally looks like a room!! In hindsight, we should have centered this artwork vertically as well as horizontally...maybe someday we'll fix it, but right now I'm just happy it's not on the floor leaning against the wall.

Here's a view from the dining room looking at the front entry:

We are so excited to finally get some picture frames on our ledge above the board and batten! Of course, now the frames need some pictures in them :) We love the hooks behind the front door, too! We modeled the entryway after a blog I found through Pinterest, Jenna Sue Design.

Here is the view when you walk in the front door:

I'm getting excited about the progress! Seeing it so close is almost a tease, showing you what it could be, when all the while you know how much there is left to do. But it's also encouraging, to see how far you've come, and get a little sneak peak of what it could be when it's all done.

You may be asking yourself, "Self, where did she get those awesome striped curtains?" Well I'm glad you asked that...I got them at Target, of course! They are normally $34.99, but they were marked 50% off for $17.48! Not only that, but Target.com had a coupon for "Buy One Target Home window panel, Get One 50% off"! So I was also able to get some curtains for the guest room: "Wine Grayson" in the 95" length. I was so excited to find the longer length, because before this I was going to piece together 2 sets of panels to get longer curtains, but this worked out perfectly! In fact, I'll probably need to shorten them just a tad. So both sets of curtains were only about $27--less than the regular price of one set! We were nervous to hang curtains too soon, in case Fiona decides they would make a good climbing post, but so far she hasn't even noticed them.

Another little project we worked on that made a big difference was swapping all the old gold door hardware for brushed nickel:

That's about it for what we did over the weekend. Here's a little peak at the basement, which has been occupied since James got the house. Well, it's empty now, and here it is in all its glory:

Built in bookshelves. We can finally unpack the books and DVD's!

Stairs to upstairs (they go up to the kitchen).

3rd bedroom...wallpaper AND sponge painting!!

Biiiiig closet...I've got biiiiiiig plans for it!

So someday, hopefully soonish, you'll see some progress on these 2 rooms! We plan to make the bedroom into a craft/guest room, and the family room will have another TV and the exercise equipment. It will be a great room to hang out in the summer, because it's SO much cooler in the basement!