Rug, framed hanging, and deer!

A few more pieces are coming together with the house. I got this rug from Ballard Designs and just love it. It matches the greens in our living room really well and the yellow is great with the wall color. I think it helps fill in the space in the entry hall. And, I also picked up the wall hanging from the frame shop. I really like how it turned out. Many of you know that I went all over the world to try to find someone that would do the double glass that I saw in Coastal Living. A few people were willing to try, but they said because of how large it was, they'd be nervous with the weight. Not to mention, the cost was outrageous! So, I settled for a "regular" frame job. I did go to Michael's and JoAnn's and even at 60% off, they couldn't beat our frame shop on the mountain...Cutting Corners. So, I highly recommend going to Linda at Cutting Corners for your frame jobs. She did a great job and even let me take home sample frames to try before she framed it. Great service! Also, earlier this week Brooke and I were getting ready for work and saw two deer in our backyard. As Brooke said, a teenage male and teenage female. Very technical about their ages. :) They were enjoying the berries from our mulberry tree. They didn't seem concerned about running away and were probably out back for about 20 minutes. We got a couple of shots before they moved on.

Rug in the entry way.

Up close of the new rug...the green is much more of a "spring green" than in this photo.

And, the new wall hanging framed and up in the dining room!

Wider view!

Here's the "teenage male" in front of Mr. Hulsey's garage.

And, the two deer feeding in our backyard!

Chandelier!

We finally purchased the chandelier for the dining room (I think I made a post on it originally over a year ago!!). I went back and forth about it many times, but in the end, I decided I really did want a "traditional" yet "contemporary" chandelier. So, I hit the order button online and it arrived in about a week...in a MILLION pieces! Brooke put it all together and I worked on placing the 1,000 crystals.

Here's the old chandelier...old brass and way too tiny for a dining room!

And a better shot...yeah, look at all of that dust! I never liked the thing, so I guess I never bothered to dust it. :)

Here are just a few of the many pieces and parts.

And, here it is all put together...unfortunately, the electrical outlet isn't centered in the room, so we had to buy a hook and hang it from the hook to center everything. Not ideal, but better than having it "off," and better than tearing up the wood on the ceiling to move the fixture!

And, "ta da!" Here it is hung. We still need to put in the dimmer switch, as 7-60 watt bulbs light up the room a bit more than we'd like. Hopefully that'll get done sometime this week.

Ick...the old mudroom

This always makes me feel better...take a look at the mudroom when we bought the house...gross floor and awful stairs, stains on the wall. UGH. It's come a ways from that...thank goodness!

Countertops in mudroom

We feel like we're finally nearing the end with the mudroom project. We finally got the butcher block countertop for under the window last weekend. It's about 7 1/2 feet long so it will provide a great workspace for both Brooke and I. Of course, I have visions of a gift wrapping station, a place to arrange flowers, and possibly a bar for parties. Brooke says he's going to use it to "work on things." Whatever that means! :) Regardless, this is some great extra countertop space right off the kitchen. We'll be buying bar stools and of course organizational pieces for storage (and maybe a gift wrap bar or perhaps that really cool Pottery Barn office set up with the bulletin board, wipe board, calendar, and mail slots!). The only thing we now have left to get together out there is the shelving for around the fridge. We hope to purchase that at Ikea in the next few weeks.

Before the countertop (sorry that I didn't get Brooke's bike out of the picture, but you get the idea).

Start with a piece of butcher block countertop (great deal from Southeastern Salvage!).

Build a frame and mount the countertop (with a few additional supports!).

Add some legs (actually newel posts cut down...we've used them for many purposes), and some trim.

Paint it white and poly the top.

And, done! A great countertop for workspace, and perhaps a nice space for a bar set up at parties!