finally.... house pictures!

so eric and i moved into a fab little area called lenox village back in june and i am JUST NOW getting around to posting some pics. this could be due to the fact that for the first 3-4 months the entire place was a serious mess filled with boxes.... or maybe im just lazy? who knows. i get busy living my happy little life and forget about things like this that i want to do.

anyway- lenox village is this really fun little community. modeled after mayberry- the walking community on the andy griffith show- the "LV" (as eric and i like to call it) was built about 7 -8 years ago. at least that's when construction started... there is still construction going on here and there. we love this area first of all because it is just so cute! i love pulling into the village and knowing im home... to say thats its asthetically pleasing is an understatment. there are fabulous little porch swings on random corners and during the summer its hard to find one thats not being visited by a fellow LV resident. theres a super cute little park right up the road and the landscapers do an amazing job of keeping it beautiful. its a great mix of single family homes and townhomes- mixed with little growing families and business proffesionals. we also love it because there are all kinds of fun little places to walk to- bookstores and a frozen yogurt shop and a gormet cupcake spot... restaurants and an art studio... we even have a market! in the summer time everyone is out enjoying the weather walking their pups. we love the farmers market that comes every saturday!

so.... without further ado.... here is our little spot of the village...

the inside is a work in progress... while we've made a ton of progress there is still SO much i want to do. the main reason i wanted to share some house pics was because #1: many of you have been asking for them and #2: because we've managed to find ways to create our own little piece of paradise. literally. i love to go to great stores like west elm and get ideas. nine times outta ten though i cant afford half of the stuff they offer so.... we do it ourselves! and i must say- it's not just fullfilling but i typically end up loving ours way more than the original! sooo- let's get started!

our townhome has 3 levels- you enter on the bottom level which i wont bother showing you because there is absolutely NOTHING down there yet. BUT- this is the main level- our family room modeled by yours truly- bristol anne adams. :) we got a GREAT deal on the sofa which worked to our benefit because i had had my eye on it for several months before we actually purchased it. a few things i wanna draw your attention too- first is the artwork. i literally spent months stressing over what in the world to do with this huge wall. with these 9 foot walls i have been stumped as to what to do. ive done the whole collage thing (with pictures and random artifacts) several times and i wanted something new. finally eric and i came up with the idea of getting an old rustic door and painting a tree of life on it. while at the time we thought it was a promising idea- we had no idea just how much we'd end up loving it in the end. we lucked out with this distressed wooden barn door big time! i think we paid $60 for it which is an A+ deal! then we took metallic silver paint and worked together to create the tree... eric is the expert "hanger of hard things" and used some pretty great- industrial looking hardware to get that job done. its the perfect size- not too big and not too small. i totally think that those of you who are struggeling with that same problem with wall space should consider this type of thing! larger "art work" can get pretty pricey and pricey is just NOT our thing... it was easy and something we were able to enjoy doing together. its the centerpiece of the room and we love it!

next... i took a couple up close pics of things we've done to add character to the room...

okay so this is the stump end table eric made for me. i saw one at west elm and LOVED the idea of bringing nature inside... except theirs was MUCH smaller and $200 and he said "NO" so that didn't pan out. while we were up in new york this summer he and my dad were in ca-hoots and decided it could be easily done by hand. so the morning we were heading out i found my dad out in the middle of his horse pasture chain sawing the above stump down! it was pretty tricky getting into the vehicle (200+lbs no doubt) and off we went! it took eric about a month (working on it 1 -2 hours each evening) to do. boy am i glad he talked me outta that pathedic little west elm one! this one is bigger and better and cost ZERO dollars. plus- can you sentimental value? being that it came straight from my mom and dad's land makes it special. the fact that eric worked tirelessly to get it "just right" means the world to me. so it's solid cherry wood and will undoubtedly last us forever... and i love that...

next...

this is a lamp we made out of a tree branch we found out back. lol. in the move one of our great lamps got busted and it bummed me out big time. i kept thinking we could fix it so i insisted we hang onto it just in case. then eric came up with this awesome idea to use the existing lamp parts (hardware and shade) and make our own lamp. keeping with the concept of bringing the outdoors in- he ventured off into the hills and came back with this bueat. we worked together to drill one hole straight through the middle of this thing- that was a sight!!! i hafta say though- i really think it turned out great! and also- ZERO dollars! growing up my mom always wanted all the lights on and said 'i am a child of the light!' she hated having dim- gloomy looking rooms. this particular habit was definitely inheritated and i LOVE having the additional light to warm our home in the evenings.

next up??? shelving!

so this one time we were browsing through west elm and i noticed this pallet shelving on their walls. not available to purchase but used to display some of their merchandise... i looked at it long and hard before calling eric over and proclaming "i want this!" he was down. he took a good look and seemed to think we'd have no problem making one of our very own. he got a couple of pallets from work (apparently they have millions and said "sure!") and went to work. we picked out two pieces of wood from home depot- one is 8 inches deep and one is 12 inches deep. we also picked up the hardware- he thought it would be quite industrial to have it hanging from pullies. i believe we spent $48 and off we went. in a matter of 90 minutes eric emerged from the garage lugging this huge piece and the rest is history. boy did i get lucky with a handy man husband right?? yes right! anyway- i have had the very best time placing all of the my favorite things on this shelving unit. there's just something about pictures of my loved ones placed about my house that makes my house feel like a home. im thinking its because i dont get to see them much. so ive got a pic of my family from craig and tara's wedding... a pic of my daddy walking me down the aisle at mine. a pic of my mom and dad of course (love) and a couple of my cute kiddos. this shelving unit was a GREAT addition to our space because it allows us to have our books and fun little decorative artifacts displaced and to have our loved ones with us all the time.

the kitchen.....

speaks for itself- kinda rocks my face off... love the stainless. love the island. love the pot rack! it's very spacious and easy to use while cooking/baking. i also love it cause it's big enough for my eric and i to cook together without stepping on top of one another... what could be better than that? here's the view from the alternate side- looking into the family room area....

take note of my awesome new cast iron skillet hanging from the pot rack on the left. whoot.

the dining room....

first of all- isn't she just so precious?? and secondly- yes ladies and gents THIS is the table eric and my daddy built. our dining room is kinda large- larger than necessary really. when we moved in our little one was NOT cutting it and i began to look for table sets. well it wasn't long before i realized that those things are PRICEY! sooooooo- my dad and eric built this one! eric designed the entire thing and my dad did lots of the building since we were here and they were there. also with wood straight from their land- quite sentimental! when we arrived i believe the table top was almost ready to put together and so they worked on that and to build the base. i was given the dreaded job of sanding and staining- (UGH) before it was complete! we are still in the market for some great chairs- i need 6. pricey. hmmm. i would love to find some aluminum ones or stainless... but obviously that's gonna be tons of money and we cant build those so we'll see. in the meantime we are just using my old antique ones and that works fine. :)

not much to say about the half bath downstairs- but here ya go....

"rhinehart" who you met yesterday is on the wall opposite the toilet and i believe i was able to capture a better picture of him....

the last thing i figured id share is a pic of my new bedding eric got me from christmas.... i love it! the master doesnt have much but we love it so here ya go!

and THIS is where the magic happens people. LOL- totally kidding. anyway- i love the duvet cover and charcoal sheet set... he did good right??

while we've come quite a long way on decor and getting set up i can assure you that there's plenty left to do! maybe another time ill post pics of the two upstairs bathrooms and guest room and office/craft space for that downstairs level... we'll see! i hope you've enjoyed my little home and i hope you'll feel inspired to get started on some do-it-yourself projects too!

before closing ill leave you with this final piece of goodness....

be blessed friends and as always- be thankful!