Our Home's Before and Afters

Little by little I have been compiling our before and after time-line of our home. We are getting down to the details instead of the BIG projects that used to take up all of our time. Honesty it feels good but strange to be sitting here in our new finished basement with nothing to really do. I think part of that is because it is so stinkin cold and windy that we can't do anything outside, we are in May right?

Click on this link  BEFORE AND AFTERS to see more Before and Afters:) Happy Sunday!!

~Time~

Ryan and I were talking this morning about how fast time is going, we have almost been married for a year and have been in each others lives for over 11! Crazy, Crazy! I can only imagine how fast it is going to go once we have kids. Talking about it made we go through some of our wedding pictures I have on our blog and thought I would share. I know wedding season is quickly approaching, you can tell because the side of our fridge is wrapped in "save the dates", "Your invited to a shower" and wedding invites. We have a fun summer to look forward to, with lots of dancing!!!
Here are some DIY projects we did for our wedding

~until next time.
xoxo,

Old gray dresser turned cute little buffet table

I had been looking for a little dresser to transform into a buffet table for awhile, but everything I found was either too big or too expensive (if I have to re-do something I better get it for a good deal!)  So I was having no luck:(  My husband went over to help his good friend down the street with something and came back saying he found me a buffet table and here it is  :)

It was his friends old dresser from when he was a kid, and he was throwing it out!!!  I cant believe how perfect it is....going to be!

Here it is all sanded and with a fresh coat of espresso paint for the top.

and here it is in its new home....ahhh love!

xo,

I heart Built Ins!!!

We looked into buying an entertainment center and then after a few "are you kidding, they want that much for that?"  my determined husband decided to build it, and I am so glad he did!

 He didn't have a plan, just a Pottery Barn picture I cut out a few months back.

 He used MDF and then trimmed it out the same way we did the bar you can see HERE

I just went through and primed it and gave it about 3-4 coats of trim paint 

Then my favorite part, I gathered things I had around the house that weren't being used and DECORATED!!  My goal was to only buy from re-sale shops for decoration, so far I'm doing well (except for that HOME sign, but I did get it 50% off at Hobby Lobby)

Here is a different angle to see how the basement is set up.  Honestly we haven't turned the TV on upstairs since we got our couch last week:)  I hope we continue to use it like we are now.  Oh yeah, the best part....not including the labor, just materials for the entertainment center cost under $200 for MDF, trim, trim paint and hardware.  We had the primer paint already.  Not too bad, considering we were looking at them online for $1500-$2500

Happy Tuesday:)

Blog Hopping

There are some wonderful projects to check out on this blog hop (it's one of my favorites) Tons of ideas and great inspiration!!




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Building a Basement Bar

Ryan used MDF to build this built-in that goes right into some wasted space we had under the stairs.

Here is picture BBBI (before bar built ins)

My parents had that little fridge in their garage forever, we decided to give it a new home:)

The sink was kind of a last minute decision, but now that we have it I am so glad we put it in.  It is so nice to empty out drinks and rinse out ice-cream bowls.

We took the left over tile from the bathroom and used it as a backslash here.  Anywhere we could save money we tried to without going cheap in quality of course.

With a little stain and some trim paint, it is starting to look like an actual bar.

Ryan added trim to the MDF to give it a richer look.

Here is what you see walking down the stairs.

and the finished product!!!!  I finally have somewhere to put all those neat glasses we got for our wedding!

Those sconces on the right were one of my favorite GoodWill finds $4 for both of them!!! I didn't even have to paint them:)

Spring has sprung....

in the Schrader house anyway:)

tile.....check!

On to painting!

Getting Warm out....time for some online swim suit shopping!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Express for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Today I spent my first morning of spring break sipping on my coffee clicking away though different online shops looking for some warm weather swim suit inspiration  I am in love with online shopping for swim suits because you get to order what you like and then try them on IN YOUR OWN HOME.  This way you don't have to come out of the dressing room looking for your husband who is way over on the other side of the store, trying to wave him down to come tell you what he thinks. Oh, that doesn't happen to you?
I got a little distracted and went to my favorite place to buy clothes instead http://www.express.com/, I shop at Express all the time, not only for going out clothes but also for teaching clothes.  Their clothes are classy, stylish, wash nice and last.  I had no idea they had a swim suit line!
Here is a link to their New spring swim wear line women's swimwear
Check out all their fabulous suits and before you buy sign up for their email for a chance to win $200.00 in Express
gift cards sweepstakes rules.  Also with signing up with Express email you will get 15% off your first purchase!!  Check it out here Express e-mail
This one is my favorite.... I am lovin ruffles lately and this suit couldn't be more perfect for our trip to Vegas!!!   Hh