The Sun Room 🌻

I'm so excited to finally share the before and afters of my favorite room in the house!

Original house listing photo before we bought it.

When we first moved in.

After removing the border print 

After painting the first layer of paint over the green sponge paint

It started with lighthouse border print and outdated sponge painted walls. Definitely not the worst room in the house as far as renovation needs go, but still needed a little TLC. When my mom came to visit a few months ago, we repainted and tore down the border print. I wanted to keep the colors simple because the huge windows brought in lots of natural color from the trees outside. I also plan to always have the ledges filled with plants and flowers.

I bought this wicker lounge on a swap and sell site for super cheap and bleached the cushion until the stains were all gone (although it has been impossible to keep clean). I also redid the support straps with a heavyweight polypropylene webbing (seatbelt like material) and a staple gun. The original straps were a leather type material and had rotted so they couldn't support any weight without breaking.

I also found these incredibly comfortable oversized chairs at a garage sale in great condition except for the arms that were stained pretty badly. I tried cleaning them, with no luck, so I found some nice chair covers instead and changed the whole look of the chairs. 

Before

After

I found these cute planters at an outlet store in town and the macrame plant hangers from amazon. 

I may add more (probably fake) plants over time, but for now I'm super happy with how it turned out!

The ~not so~ Creepy Guest Room

I am officially finished enough with one whole room to give you an official before and after reveal!

Yay!!

This room started out being called the "Creepy Room" because, well, it was just that. The boys never wanted to come downstairs by themselves or unless the door to the Creepy Room was closed. When we moved in, we found a hole had been chewed in the drywall of this room and the mouse just died right in the hole. The light fixture and light plate were old and reminded me of something in a haunted house. The carpet and part of the drywall were dirty and super outdated. The door had a latch lock on the outside, which make my mind wonder as to what the room was previously used for.

Let's just say, I played lots of Jesus music and said lots of prayers while I was renovating to get rid of all the bad juju that might have been in there.

I told Daniel that this was the one room in the house that I was making completely girly. He looked at me and said, "There are plenty of girly things in our house." Then he looked around and looked some more and could not find one girly thing in sight, so he turned back to me and gave me the nod of approval to do as I pleased. :)

We definitely had our work cut out for us, but I made it a goal to have it finished before our family came to visit and we did it!!

HERE IT IS!!!

Before:

Picture on the listing online before we bought the house

We tore down the one wall of weird textured and outdated siding

We removed the light fixture and replaced it with a fan and patched all the holes

We tore out the carpet and patched all of the holes

We painted the walls a soft blue/gray color and the ceiling white to lighten
 the room because it has no windows to bring in light

We paid Lowe's to install new carpet. I absolutely love our choice. :) 

And here is the AFTER!!!!

I used Noah's old queen bed (he got downsized to a full) and
 used a king quilt that was given to me, and matched perfect for this room

I spent two different days shopping for all of the decorations to give it the
perfect little touches that aligned with my vision for the room

The vanity was passed down Daniel's grandmother and then mother, to us.
It has been one of my favorite pieces of furniture, but I never had the right
space to display it, until now.

Collecting antique furniture has become a hobby of mine. Each time I find a new piece,
I feel as if I have captured a little piece of history in my home. 

All of these decorations came from Hobby Lobby, Target,
 antique shops, and my yard.

I picked these flowers from my yard and pressed them,
the framed them

I always envisioned this being the theme of my daughter's room; however,
 God had other plans and gave me boys, but I still made the dream happen

I made these flower arrangements from Hobby Lobby flowers
and some adorable little planters from Target.

I spent over a week looking for the perfect side tables that were not too expensive and
found these on sale in the patio furniture section at Target. SCORE! 

Here is a side by side before and after of the same view so you
can have perspective of all the changes.

This room captures everything that I love so well. I am so pleased with how it all turned out, and now we have a special little spot for all of our guest to stay and feel at home.

~Jess

The Farmhouse Tour

Hello all you beautiful people!

I have officially decided that I am not a good blogger. Haha! I have started about five different posts, and then come back a few days later to finish them and they are already too far out of date to share; so I'm committing this morning the finishing this one. It will be all my started posts morphed into one and if you are reading this, then I actually finished it!! :) 

I've been thinking a lot about what I want this blog to be to share my DIY passion, yet also make it interesting and intriguing for other people to follow along. I have had soo many friends send me messages through social media about their excitement to see what we will do with the house, and some even expressing interest in possibly taking on their own fixer upper (once they see how mine unfolds). 

I. Love. That. So. Much!! 

My heart bursts every time someone sends me a message feeling inspired or excited to try something on their own because they saw my DIY updates. I will ALWAYS say that you can do it! I’ll be your boost of confidence to take the leap to do something risky like paint that old hutch or redo your outdated 80's bathroom. 

Here are a few things to look forward to on my blog: 

~ Gonzales Farmhouse renovations (of course)

~ The in’s and outs of up-cycling furniture 

~ How to renovate/upcycle on a conservative budget

~ Occasional updates on country living (y’all it’s crazy out here. Never a boring day when wildlife interact with nonwildlife)

~ All the knows on swap and sell/Craigslist/marketplace sites to get good deals

~ Gardening

~ (Eventually) self sustainability habits  

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I'm going to backtrack a little to catch up on all the things that have happened since we moved... If you get bored, just scroll until you see the video tour. 

We have officially been in Indiana for one whole month, but honestly, it feels like so much longer. The nightmare of selling our house in Houston seems like a far off dream that never really happened. I occasionally think about that house, and while it will always have a special place in my heart, I don't miss it. The neighbor's loud music, the sirens, the crowded space-- moving here has ruined us for city living. It will be hard if we ever have to move back.

I have held off finishing a blog post because I have been waiting to have a space to share that is completely finished with renovations filled with dramatic before and after pictures, but let's be real... we have about 50 different projects and none are completely finished. I am finding that I will start one, not like the way it is turning out, and want to redo it so then I just go to another project for a bit. Some may call it A.D.D., I call it the life of a true DIYer. 

Pinterest and Instagram have ruined people and created this expectation that every detail of every picture and space in your house needs to be aesthetically perfect. I ain't doing it. My pictures aren't going to be perfect; I probably wont edit them too much; and I'm definitely going to share some non Pinterest approved spaces in my house. We don't have the money to have a Pinterest perfect house, and quite frankly, I'd be a hot mess trying to keep it looking that way with two dirty little boys running around.

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I have not shared too much of our home yet, so here is a (rough) video tour of our new house! Y'all bare with me, I was using a cheapo flip video recorder because my old phone had no storage for videoing. This was also originally only taken for personal purposes, but since I'm now blogging about our renovations, I thought you would like to see what the house looked like before we officially owned it. This was taken in March when we placed an offer on the house and were officially under contract. The outside is so much prettier in the spring and summer months, but there is also something captivating about the snow and bare trees. 

Tour of the outside


Upstairs Inside

Upstairs Bedrooms

Basement

Have a beautiful day!

~Jess

Welcome to Our Blog!

Welcome to our official Gonzales family blog! I debated on whether or not I wanted to start another blog, as I have blogged in the past, but after a few friends suggested it, I took it as confirmation that I should just go for it. The hardest part was just coming up with a blog name!

Who cares if no one reads it?!

I wanted to have a space dedicated to sharing the ins and outs of our new adventure here in the great state of Indiana! I plan to give updates on our house renovations, gardening, our travels throughout the Midwest, and the crazy things that happen when you live in the boonies.

Who knows what this blog will morph into. Who knows how much I'll actually end up blogging over the years. Feel free to subscribe to this blog by entering your email on the right and follow along the journey if you so choose! Or just pop in and scroll through the pictures from time to time.

I am a woman of many words, but also a woman who loves to take photos-- so hopefully there will be a good mixture of both. I also hope that some of my tips and tricks-- or fails, I suppose-- will give you courage to try a new thing. Maybe that is planting a little garden, updating something in your own home, or repurposing that old thing that you love and just can't get yourself to give away. Above all, I hope this blog brings you JOY!

~Jess

P.S. This blog is a work in progress. I'm no graphic designer, so it may never be the most aesthetically attractive blog, but I promise it will have more depth than it's current state sometime in the future.