Life As We Know It

I’m going to be honest with you all.  Having your blog grow is a weird (yet awesome) thing. But there comes this pressure to have stellar pin-worthy posts all of the time.  That just isn’t my style of blogging, yo.  I tried it. I didn’t like it.  I would panic when I couldn’t come up with a stellar post idea and instead write nothing.  Lame.

Today, I’m headed back to the Michelle way of blogging. Why?  Because I can.  (I’m on a power trip.  Look out Nate.)

Today we will discuss life.  Mostly according to Instagram.  Because really, is it life if it wasn’t capture on Instagram?  There is no order to this nonsense.  Just like my life.

Ike is now a redneck.  He is madly in love with this bandana that his uncle gave him.  He is the only dog I know that gets upset if you take his bandana off.  I think I will rename the blog “Ike Dynasty”.  (Thanks, Kristel!)

Oh, it makes me so sad. Is this what it’s like when you’re kid wants to wear that Disney princess horribleness instead of the cute Gap cardigan you bought her?  But that look on his face.

There’s a new antique store in town.  It’s not good for my savings account. So much old cuteness.  I’m going to talk to them about a frequent shopper card.

I’m kind of behind times but I forgot to mention that I got to meet Shannon (Bottle Pop Party Co.) back in May.  I love meeting strangers from the internet.  First I survived meeting Kim and then Shannon.  Maybe I should test my luck and meet a stranger from Craigslist. (I kid. I kid.)  Shannon is cool and she got me addicted to Straw-ber-itas.  I like friends that are good influences.  She’s also ridiculously good at party planning.  Party on, Wayne.  Party on, Garth.

Speaking of good influences,  Kim and I should have a new item listed in our shop, Sew Midwestern, soon.  Sneak peek.  ***Spoiler Alert:  It’s not my purse.  Or the baby monitor.***

Earlier this week I shared with you some of my brothers house (the exterior and bathroom).  Here is Ike super pumped to check out his living room when we first arrived.  I’m liking brother’s rug.  He does good work.  (I did, however, crop out the deer heads.  Brother Dynasty.)

We had a storm go through the other day.  I got to spend 30 minutes of my work day sitting in the hallway wondering if I was going to die. ***Spoiler Alert: I didn’t.***  I was close to getting one of the docs to write me a script for Xanax.  ***Spoiler Alert: I wasn’t close.***

This was the aftermath of the storm.

Or that was the aftermath of me accidently falling asleep after work one day this week.  He opened the bi-fold doors, pulled his travel bag off of the mini-fridge and then proceeded to take out it’s contents.  He left the treats and food.  Because normal dogs do that???  They also do this too. I’m sure of it.

Oh, Ike.

That’s life.  Or some of it.  Actually lately it’s been feel of sweating a lot and trying to get arm muscles. It’s my newest obsessions.  I’m so weird.  And beastly.

What are you all up to this weekend my beastly readers?

Pink Bathroom Makeover

Brother:  “Why are you cleaning my bathroom?”

Me: “Because I’m going to snap photos for the blog.  Hope that’s okay.”

Brother:  “Want to photograph my upstairs bath then too?  How about my kitchen?  The dining room?”

Good try, little brother.  Good try.

This is what the bathroom looked like when little brother bought his house.

I don’t know about you but I was totally digging that stencil.  That dirty pink tile was to die for.  The oversized vanity and shelving unit where pretty stellar too.

But for some reason, little brother hated it.  I just don’t get it.  He was afraid of the cost to fix it.  Luckily his sister is an important DIY/home decor blogger.  (I kill me.)  Or he’s lucky he has a brother-in-law that is handy.  And a dad that likes to destroy things. 

Some sweat, family bonding and around $350.00 left his bathroom looking like this.

One thing that has surprised me about my brother during this whole house renovation process is that he actually has really good taste.  (Well, minus the deer heads in the living room.)  But overall, his selections have impressed me.  He usually asks if what he likes is okay but I rarely have to tell him it’s not (minus the deer heads).

The makeover started by gutting the bathroom. (We make our father proud.)

Moving the plumbing and adding a new outlet revealed a giant mass of razors.  About a week later we watched a home improvement show that had the same issue. I guess it was common to just drop razors in a slot in the medicine cabinet and let them fill up a space in the wall.  Guess those dudes weren’t thinking about the poor people in 2013 that would have to clean that mess up.  (Soccer sandals and socks are a favorite trend in Iowa.)

After cleaning up the hot razor mess, it was time to prime and paint.  I did feel slightly bad covering up someone’s time consuming stenciling.  But only slightly.  Brother could have cared less.  He chose Dutch Boy’s Peppercorn for the wall color.

It was then time to lay the tile.  The tile was purchased at Menard’s.

My dad and brother then installed bead board and molding to cover up the tile grossness.

They then replaced the toilet.  He also added a new sink, light and medicine cabinet. It’s hard to believe it’s the same room.

Pretty impressive finishes for a bachelor.  (I’m still looking for a sister-in-law.  Contact me if interested. I mean, you get a cute house out of the deal.  I’m sure the deer heads are negotiable if you’re not his sister.  Man, I’m going to get sucker punched for this one.  Let’s look at more pretty after photos.)

Who thinks the pink tile was pretty rocking?  Any takers on that whole future sister-in-law thing?

Curb Appeal at Little Brother’s House

How was your weekend?  Ours was good. If waking up sore on Monday is good.  I’m not sure if I’m more sore from physical labor or sleeping with a bed hogging dog.  Something about dogs don’t sleep at the end of the bed. That’s for animals.

We headed North to help my little brother do some work on his house. (We had previously helped him here and here.)

Baby brother wanted some help with the exterior of his house.  Something about dudes don’t like purple houses.  Or flood lights as exterior lights.  Or decks that look sad.  Or houses that lack landscaping.  Please note Ike in the window above. He quite enjoyed his time at his uncle’s house. How could he not?  Uncle bought him a new toy and bandana.  Spoiled much?

Brother had previously put down some black mulch and installed black shutters.  Otherwise the exterior of the house hadn’t been touched in a long while.

Brother cleaned the front deck.  My mom, brother and I scraped and painted the purple trim.  I’m pretty sure the previous owner used interior paint.  Awesome. Tasks to add to my “I hate this” list: scraping paint and painting decks.

Nate installed landscape edging.  It also decided to actually be Summer in Iowa this weekend as well.  We missed the 90+ degrees with 7000% humidity.  That’s not a typo.  That’s how humid it gets in Iowa in Summer.  You think I’m joking. 

Brother bought some bushes and more mulch.  Magically the house looked like a grown-up lived there.

I told him that I bet the neighbors thought someone new bought the house.  And then he sucker punched me.  I threatened to never come back.  And then he bought me Perkins.  My work here is done.

How was your weekend? Any curb appeal projects?  Who thinks my brother has the best sister and brother-in-law ever?  Don’t worry.  We remind him often.