Four and a half years in the making

Since we moved into our house almost 5 years ago we have wanted to lighten up the house. Anyone that has been in our house has noticed the wonderful railroad ties that have adorned the entry way, kitchen and completely enclosed the main room in our house. At first, we tried working with what we had and went for a bold look with a dark teal wall color in the main room and pretty much left the kitchen alone, wallpaper and gold-flecked popcorn ceiling and all. Both rooms are large but are separated by a large built in bookshelf with the same hideous railroad tie finish. Here is what we are working with...

Brian showing off the lovely wallpaper

View of our kitchen...don't mind the mess, we live here

Here's the view of the main room...don't you love those railroad ties?

We have enjoyed the size of the kitchen because it has allowed us to host several parties and holiday dinners, however there is very little counter space and we've had to bring in a fold up table every time we made meals with more than a couple of ingredients. Sara has dreamed of a large kitchen island for years, but we knew that before we could install something we would need to figure out what to do with the bookshelf room divider. 

Lot of space....little countertops

Another view...look at that trim :)

The first thing to come down was the wallpaper. We hate wallpaper and will never put the stuff up in our house, however if you need to get it down, the best trick is to spray some vinegar and water (1/2 and 1/2) on the paper and it comes right off (Thanks Pinterest!). Now for all the railroad ties. After our first run with the railroad ties in our front room entryway, we knew the beams weren't too heavy and we could take down the ones in between the kitchen and main room. It's kind of like a reverse jigsaw puzzle because they are wedged in pretty tight and have more nails in them than necessary, so you have to find the best place to start and work you're way back. This took quite a while because we had to disassemble the bookshelf so we could save some of the wood for another project (which we'll reveal on a later post). It came down pretty fast and without too much damage.

Look at how open it is now!

I'm pretty sure that Brian thought that I would be happy with just getting this piece done, but since it was my birthday weekend we decided to go for it and take down all of the beams in the main room (Best Birthday Present Ever!). Check out the main room now...

I already love it!

Oh yeah, did I mention we scraped the popcorn ceiling?

It's a little hard to see the difference between the before and afters right now because we quickly discovered that the previous owners had dark wood paneling behind the walls that they decided to cover with drywall and then add the railroad ties. But one of my favorite updates is that we scraped all of the gold sparkly popcorn ceiling off in both the kitchen and main room. It was super dusty and tiring, but well worth it!

We have so much more work to do, including lots of drywall and painting, but at least the demo is done. I can't wait to show off our progress over the next few weeks. A huge thank you to Sara's parents for letting us borrow their truck and tools while they are lounging in Maui this week (so jealous). And another big thank you to these two handsome men for making this birthday weekend one to remember...

Safety is important...even for the little ones :)

Stay tuned for more updates and photos!

XOXO,

Sara, Brian & Tequila

Guest Room Makeover

Now that we finally have our house back together, we decided to tackle our next renovation...our Guest Room. We haven't done much with this room since we moved into the house, but since we had to completely clean and patch up the room after our last (and final) roommate, we decided to do a complete makeover. We didn't want to spend a lot of money on the room, but we wanted it to have a completed feel to it. Since we had a ton of mismatched furniture that we inherited over the years and Sara spent most of her sick time looking for ideas on Pinterest, we decided to try our hand at up-cycling our mismatched furniture.  We are pretty pleased with the results and I will have some how-to's posted over the next couple of weeks...here are the before & afters:

The closet

New blinds, curtains and white trim

 

Painted the door black

End tables we bought for $25 at a thrift store

My favorite project...this was an old dresser Brian's parents had that had a huge crack on the top

I love this dresser now!

Tequila wasn't too thrilled we took over his room, but we think he likes the result

We love the new wall color, Dior Gray by Benjamin Moore, and it went so well with the bedding set we received from our wedding. And the best part, we got everything done and hung before Justin & Brad arrived for the tournament!

Here's another pic of the room all put together...hope you like it!

I love the mirrored frames we bought, especially after we switched out the photos in them

Now, back to basketball...Rock Chalk!!

XOXO,

Sara & Brian

March Madness

It's been awhile since our last post, so here is a quick summary of what has been happening in the Schorr household these past few months. We were lucky enough to take off lots of time from work for the holidays to spend almost a week in Mayfield and see family and most of the guys from Brian's Rookies No More fantasy football league.

January flew by and ended with a Surprise Dirty-30 Birthday Extravaganza in St. Louis for Brian's 30th Birthday. With lots of help from family, Justin & Brad and Brian's boss we were able to pull of the surprise weekend without a hitch. The first half of the surprise was picking Brian up for lunch at the office, driving right past the restaurant and onto the highway...the look on his face when I told him we were eating in STL was priceless...I don't think it sunk in for a few moments :) We reached our hotel with good time and settled into our room with a perfect view of the Arch. Unfortunately I had started coming down with a cold, so we had to dine in the room with complimentary champagne and strawberries...not too shabby. The second half of the surprise came early Saturday morning when we got a knock on the door and Brian opened the door to his two best men, Justin and Brad, ready to get the party started. I think Brian was actually speechless for a few minutes...which is pretty amazing if you know him! Not long after, Andy joined us and we headed to Schlafly's for lunch and then to the Urban Chestnut's Microbrew Festival where Andrew joined us and we celebrated Brain's big Dirty 30 with lots of microbrews and music. The boys luckily continued the party into the night because I had to check back in to the hotel early because my cold was getting worse.

A few Instagram pics from January & February

February was a bit more challenging for us because the day we got back from Brian's Birthday weekend, Sara got really sick and had to go into the doctor on Monday morning. After an hour at the doctor, blood tests and a chest X-ray, she was diagnosed with a bad case of pneumonia and had to finish her last week at the Robstan Group quarantined in her room. Leaving the Robstan Group turned out to be a blessing in disguise because Sara wasn't able to leave the house or be around anyone, so she wouldn't have been able to travel to Vegas or New Orleans as scheduled. After a few weeks of not getting better and several doctors visits, her pneumonia morphed into mychoplasma pneumonia which the doctor believed to be caused by being exposed to our roommate who worked in a nursing home. Luckily during those weeks, our roommate found a place for her and her daughter to live so we were able to move them out and scrub down the entire house. The medications that Sara was prescribed have taken a toll on her and have prevented us from doing much outside the house, but we did celebrate Valentine's Day at the Gaslight Grill and spent a couple of snow days together watching Tequila navigate through the heavy snow.

Snow Day fun

Now in the middle of March, Sara is slowly starting to get better so we can watch the Big 12 Champions, the KU Jayhawks take on the NCAA tournament. Let the March Madness Begin!

Till' next time...

XOXO,

Sara & Brian

The Big Reveal - Front Room Edition

So you may remember a couple of months ago we started updating our front room. With everything going on at work and at home, it took us a little while to get everything together, but we are so excited to finally be done with most of the updates. Can't wait to share the updates with our family over Thanksgiving weekend and with all our friends at our upcoming Holiday party. Check it out...

Dining area...notice the wall color, trim, blinds, curtains, lighting and finally a picture on our wall

Intensitile with "Last First Kiss" lyrics - check these out...I can tell you where to get them

"My Best Friend" Intensitile...these are interchangeable...and awesome

"She's Always a Woman" - Love how these turned out...

Tequila says "I love bow ties"

Check out the new lamps (love crystals) and the Intensitiles on the wall

New end table, mirror (we painted), trim, heavenly smelling candles/coffee, and out new black door (we painted)

More dining room pics with the homemade wreath (thanks Pinterest!)

The tree...a little early, but we wanted to continue our progress

Wine which is being finished as I type...and one of our favorite honeymoon photos

Trying to get a full room shot in the background :)

I'm still pretty impressed with my wreath :)

We still have some other improvements that we need to complete for this room, but we are pretty satisfied with the turnout that we can show off for our family over the Thanksgiving weekend. We are so thankful to have such wonderful family, friends, coworkers, health and neighborhood. We hope to spend the holidays celebrating with you all...and especially this guy...

How can you not love this face?

Wishing you and your family and happy, safe and healthy Thanksgiving! XOXO

Sara & Brian

Fall 2012

This fall has been super busy so we thought it would be best to upload a collage of pictures from the last few months...enjoy!

Tequila at his second 5k watching Dad cross the finish line (in his skeleton costume)

Our 1-year Anniversary dinner...yes those are crab cakes flown in fresh from Maryland

Family fall photo

Waiting for Andy to begin AndyFest 2012/RenFest/American Royal BBQ Weekend

We discovered the wineries of southern JoCo...yes, Brian got to drive this

Halloween 2012 in Vegas with Sara's work family

Before Pat & Megan's wedding...congratulations you two!!

Happy Birthday to Christine...with lots of whip cream and giggles to spare :)

Getting ready for Taylor's Bowl-and-Booze-A-Thon Birthday Party in Waldo XOXO

Can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving...the fall went by way too fast, but we had a lot of fun along the way. Best wishes to you!

XOXO,

Sara & Brian

Tequila's First Road Trip

We have been pretty busy the last couple of weeks...and yes, Tequila survived his first road trip. The weekend after Labor Day, we packed up the car and headed down to Kentucky Lake to visit Brad & Lynn at their lake house. The ride down there wasn't too bad, though Tequila knew he was going somewhere awesome...



Pretty pumped about this long drive

The drive actually went by pretty quickly and smoothly...we think he was a little exhausted after all the stress caused by going to the vet that morning. No, we still do not like the vet and it is quite a traumatic experience each time.

Once we arrived at the lake, Tequila busted out of the car and ran straight toward the water. He didn't quite understand the dock and how to get up and down the dog stairs, but luckily we were able to lift him out and guide him. There was definitely something about that water too because he wasn't on his best behavior with the other dog's at the lake. He was particularly fond of a little blonde golden doodle, named Portia, and certainly embarrased himself and both of us.

We all had a wonderful time. Brian's family came up for the afternoon, the weather was gorgeous and Tequila got to swim with both of us which he thought was the coolest thing.  Then we got on the boat and Tequila loved it...he can't wait for his next boat ride. Here are a couple of our favorite pictures from the weekend, enjoy...

Getting used to the boat with Dad

Dad's favorite "King of the World" pose

I could be out here all day

Keepin' an eye out for other boaters

Chillaxin'

Love XOXO

 

Don't want this to end

Mom & Dad Schorr

Beautiful day at the lake

Perfect ending to a perfect day

Last weekend we got to celebrate Sara's Goddaughter, Francesca Wareham's first birthday! So happy that we got to spend the weekend celebrating Miss Franny with her parents and all their friends. Love you guys! Here are some pics of the Birthday Girl digging in to her smash cake...

Yum!

Happy Birthday sweet Franny Faye!

Can't believe it's already been a year!

Through all of this end of summer fun, we still made time for more renovations to the front room and entry way. We're not ready for a final reveal yet, but here is a sneak peek from some of the pieces we finished this week...

New blinds (yeah!)...hopefully these will withstand a curious puppy. Oh and new trim and wall color

For Nicole...this is the entry table in it's temporary location (note the glasses too N.)

 Don't those windows look good? B is turning out to be quite handy (and patient)! Still a lot more work to do, but we are pretty pleased with the turnout so far. Until next time...

XOXO,
Sara, Brian & Tequila

My mom bought the wrong size...super embarrassing on road trips - Tequila