This is a sponsored series in collaboration with Ryobi Outdoors.  Thank you for supporting the brands that help support our blog!

A quick pose drop before the Dad and Mom got to work! That’s Grandpa right there, smiling with a bit of caution in his eyes.  I’m sure he was wondering what the heck his kids were going to do to his front yard, he just had to trust in our vision.  The boys love a good day at G & G’s house (Grandpa + GiGi’s) It always includes suprises, and a car ride with Grandpa to get icecream regardless of the weather.

The kids were pumped to get there and see the tools being unlaoded. Don’t worry, the boys were just watching from afar while Mom and Dad got down and dirty.  Wait, that doesn’t sound right.  HA.

When I told my parents they were going to get the front of their house fixed up they were ecstatic.   I felt funny imposing on them, but every time I pulled into their driveway I saw SO much potential.  They have an awesome mid-century ranch that is completely hidden behind mounds and mounds of messy bushes.

While the plants were healthy, they were oddly placed, overgrown and not balanced at all.  I could not wait to get my hands on the entire project!

The hydrangea have been struggling the past few years, not producing nearly as big of blooms as they had in the past.  If you know me, you know I get weak in the knees for hydrangea – but saying goodbye to these fellas was far easier than I anticipated.

Poppin’ roots like a boss

We turned to our Ryobi Chainsaw to breakdown the hydrangea.  Over the years, they multiplied.  Causing one bush to turn into 3 or 4 clusters, and piles upon piles of branches and roots to dig through.  The chainsaw tore through as smooth as butter.  And as you all know, I am a safety freak and felt 100% in control with this tool.  I was hooked and wanted to take everything down around me – and I did.

This dreadful dou of burning bushes just looked like two giant teeth sticking out from the ground.  While they were “perfectly centered” they were everything but perfect.  Covering up the window, and the brick of the house to a degree of unflattering proportions.

Can you see my sweet momma checking out what were taking down? AH.  I felt guilty at how much fun I was having while we stripped their house naked.

We cannot stress enough that when using outdoor tools that you guys are properly dressed and covered. Long sleeves, pants, closed toe shoes, goggles and gloves.  Just look at Dan the man, the latest Ryobi model.  His calendar spread will launch in 2017 🙂

We let Brody take a dig at an extremely stubborn root.

Of course with all of his safety gear on.  He did not take those goggles off the entire time he watched us! This root was left from a bush my parents ripped out a year ago.  It took us about an hour to get it out.  Whew.  LOTS of work that one was and embarrassingly enough I am sore today.

Once everything that we wanted out was out, it was time to cultivate the land.  This cultivator was on point.  I had so much fun tearing through the ground and breaking down all of the left over roots we did not get the first time around.

Clean up proved to be so rewarding.  Wiping the sweat off of your brow only to turn around to a house that within a matter of hours was completely, and I mean, completely transformed.

Can you even believe it?!

This blank(er) state has me just slap happy to finish this project!

What we have to do still:

Re-shape the beds. Pick out new plants/shrubs.  Paint the front door.  DIY address plank.  Freshen up the front porch.  I will try to hold myself back as much as possible.  In all seriousness, my parents taste is super important to me, so their opinion on what goes in and what goes where is taken to heart with every step.  After all, they live here.

You guys will not believe the results, I can feel it in my soul.  THIS, is gonna be a good one folks!

Do not forget to enter the contest you guys, so that you can win an amazing group of Ryobi Outdoor tools for your garage or shed! The rules are simple – check out the original post HERE to see how!

Our living room was a complete eye sore from the second we stepped into the space with our realtor.  It was a sad, dark, lonely space.  A room without flooring, dark brown painted trim and a red couch pushed off to the corner to give off a “this is a livable room” vibe.  Except, it was everything but livable.

With every blank canvas, you must have a vision to help fill in the blanks.  Mid-renovating having a vision is a lot harder than you can imagine.  Sometimes, you have what you have, and you put it where you can and just deal with.  That is exactly what we did for the past 2 years.  We threw in whatever furniture we had, and to be honest, we didn’t hate it.  All of the pieces were old, and loved, and marked a special time in our lives together as a family.

This year, our patience ran out and we were dying to start to implement pieces we actually loved into the room.  Dan and I wanted a more neutral, cozy space.  The colors in our old living room were far to bright and punched you in the face when you walked in.  It just wasn’t our cup of tea.

We started with getting a new couch, you guys, it is SO comfortable! One that you’ll never want to get you’re butt off of.  But, we were struggling to find a rug.

Wayfair  has so many options, and we fell in love with this large shag rug from Wayfair’s Home Dynamix line..  At this point in our lives we look for a few key things for the pieces we put into our rooms.  Comfort, family friendly, and durable.  I LOVE shag rugs because they are very forgiving with the kids, and hide dog hair like you wouldn’t believe!

Take a peek at how this new rug has inspired us so much, the rest of the decor in the room is finally taking shape.  It’s amazing how much one piece can bring the vision to life.  We’re almost there, and we have the softest shag rug to thank for it!

This rug has become a favorite for the kiddos.  More than often I find them sprawled out on it, watching their favorite cartoon.

This rug literally grounds the room.  It’s soft shaggy texture brings such a nice contrast to the leather ottoman.

Need I mention it is Dukes favorite as well.  Look how he knew I was taking pictures (baby in the hallways in a bouncer) and he wouldn’t step paw on it.  Thanks, bud.

This rug has helped pushed our decor into the direction we always wanted to go.  Cool tones, lighter and cozy.

You can read all about that chest of drawers, HERE.  It’s quickly becoming a living room favorite too.   It’s currently sold out, but Wayfair has an awesome option to be notified when it’s restocked!

It amazes me how a rug can change the tone of an entire room!

BEFORE….

AFTER…

I challenge you to do the same.  Start small, start from the ground up!

Max approved!

this is a sponsored post in collaboration with RYOBI OUTDOOR.  thank you for supporting the brands that support our blog!

We’re crashing my parents house!

This isn’t the first time we’ve had to crash at our parents house.  My folks were so gracious to have us stay with them while we spent over 5 months in between searching and fixing up our house.  It was Dan, Brody, Owen and I – in one bedroom, on two of our queen mattresses on the floor.  My parents have this darling ranch (Dan and I wanted a ranch SO bad) and they were so amazing and so crazy for adding us to their bunch for that time.

So, we figured we should find a way to pay it forward.  Ryobi Outdoor jumped right in on the fun with the idea to crash our parents front yard and spruce it up for the fall.  We were ecstatic, because the front of their house, while not horrific, could definitely use some direction and cohesiveness.

I cannot wait to get my hands on it! The game plan is simple – reduce and re-design.

Everything is being torn out, minus the arborvitae in the middle.  It is so healthy and has a great shape, so we are going to work around it.

This project is about to get WAAAY more exciting!!

YOU GUYS get to join in on the fun!

No, no, you don’t have to help us do their house.   BUT if you have a curb appeal project you need to get done, I want you to take show us what you’ve got for a chance to win an AMAZING Ryobi Outdoor Tools package!

Here are the rules :

1. Take before pictures 

2. Take after pictures

3. Email them to me at TheThomeHome[at]gmail[dot]com Tell us what you did!  Please make sure to include your full name in the email! 

It’s that simple! Winner will be chosen, impress us! Whether it be a simple fall clean up, planting new pieces or trying out some of your new Ryobi Outdoor tools to clean your yard up.

Don’t panic, you have an entire month to get this done! We will be working right along side you over the next few weeks fixing up our parents space.  Once our final reveal goes live, on November 4 – we will start streaming through all of your entries!

You want to see the goods?!

The 18V ONE + Cultivator is a home owners essential.  Whether you’re freshing your garden beds, or creating a new landscape – this bad boy will tear through it all!

THE 18V ONE + Lithium + Cordless String Trimmer/Edger  has been used on a weekly basis in our yard and has our grass looking crisp and straight!

And last but absolutely not least …

This 18+ ONE Lithium + Jet Fan Blower will make you smile when you see the leaves start to fall over the next few weeks.  Did  I mention the battery can transfer over to all 3 of these tools??

The winner will receive all 3 prizes!

So roll up your sleeves you guys! And remember, safety first! Wear protective goggles, and gloves for good grip on tools.

Let’s get this curb appeal crash started!

A big thank you to our friends at Ryobi Outdoors for sponsoring this contest!

Decorating a room is my jam.

 I could literally do it all day, everyday, and never tire of it.  I dream of having people hand me thousands of dollars to make over their spaces in their homes.  Oh, wait, that’s called an interior designer – I guess I steered the wrong way when I chose my occupation as a hair stylist.  WHOOPS.  Needless to say, when we found out we were expecting I was jumping at the chance to design a room from start to finish.

Max’s nursery is this sweet, smedium size room.  Yes, smedium.  Not small, almost medium.  It is the only room in the house that started from truly from scratch.  Zero furniture – unlike most of our rooms that is a mix of new and old.  Trust me, I like to have a mix of everything, but sometimes when money is tight a room has what it has because it’s what you can afford at the time.    Which can result in the room not flowing so nicely, and making do with what you’ve got.

We set a budget early on for Max’s room, not a big one.  Seeing as it has been 5 years since we had a baby, we had to buy all of his gear and that sucked up a lot of the budget.  Between the nursery and all of the gear we landed at about $2,500.  Which, for strollers, car seats, pack n plays, and the entire room – it really isn’t too shabby at all.

It was so exciting to create a mood board and immediately follow through with purchasing the furniture.  Not a wish list at all, it was all becoming a reality.

You can read about where to purchase all of these pieces, HERE.  Minus the rug, which we ended up finding the softest shag rug at HomeGoods.

Completing our feature Shiplap Wall was SO easy and made such a subtle but exciting impact to the space.  You can read about how we installed the wall HERE – painting it with the amazing Chalkworthy Paint. 

(Look at that chunk folks!!)

Since we’ve revealed Max’s nursery, we have added a few different pieces to it.  But there are still SO many blanks to fill.  A reveal is never really a reveal in our home – because our minds are constantly changing and sometimes even our tastes evolve as the years pass.  Filling up the walls have been a challenge, I do not just want to slap things up just to have the space complete.  So, for now we have re-used an old mirror we had laying around, a few pieces of art work but there is still a ton to put together to really bring this space together.  Take a look – tossed in a few of Max in his crib, he was being so patient with mommy while I snapped pictures nearing his bedtime!

The larger art work is from HomeGoods – which as you know, grab it if you see it kind of store.  There today, gone tomorrow.

These hexagons are actually raw wood, found in Targets art aisle (still!) That I painted with Chalkworthy.   I tossed a couple “mini figs” as Owen calls them – because if you have a toddler/kid under 10 you know these small characters are LIFE.

Oh, hey baby.

I added an old mirror above the dresser, and hoping to eventually accumulate enough prints to create a gallery wall here.

The wall opposite of the crib is short, when the door is open and with the closet beside there is not a lot of space to work with.  However, leaving it blank felt, well, blank.

 This woven art I fell in love with a long time, and plan to find a bookcase to adorn with toys and books for Max.

The boys love picking a book off of his shelves to read to him – Max is in the belly laugh stage which is utterly adorable.

He is still sleeping in our room – in the pack n’ play.  Why I have not moved him into his crib I have no idea.  He sleeps through the night, for the most part, minus the past two weeks since I mentioned it here on the blog.  I jinxed myself 🙂

I know this room will come together eventually.  Don’t rush a room folks.  Find pieces you love, old or new.

This post is sponsored in collaboration with Giani Granite – Thank you for supporting the brands that help support our blog! 

Before we were introduced to our amazing sponsors at Giani we had to come to terms with the fact that our 70’s kitchen was to remain in the 70’s for a few more years.  There was no getting around it.  We already poured, or shall I say dumped tens of thousands of dollars on the most tideous structural work when we purchased this house.  The thought of any bonus projects to actually aid in making this house look prettier had to be put on the back burner.

It was a tough pill to swallow though, especially when the house we just moved out of had a completely renovated (on a budget) kitchen.

You can read all about that kitchen makeover HERE. 

We were fully aware of the situation we were getting ourselves into with our new (current) home.  Purchasing a massive fixer upper was the entire name of the game.  We fell in love with so many rooms in the house – minus the kitchen.

Isn’t she pretty? HA.  Who doesn’t love a dark grain wood with ibuprofen orange countertops? Immediately upon moving in, we removed the upper cabinets above the counters and immediately upon doing so it opened up the space so much.

Our forever goal for this space is a completely gutted and remodeled kitchen.  We want hardwood floors throughout the entire first floor of our home, so until we have the $$ to make that happen, the kitchen had to be worked with.

When we found Giani Granite Countertops we literally jumped for joy.  What  started as a simple product placement for our blog, to test out their granite countertop paint kits has evolved into a great relationship with an amazing company who helps us add elements to our home we never could without them!

SO – what did we do?

At first we simply utilized their White Diamond countertop kit, and we painted the cabinets.  We LOVED it.

Saying goodbye to the orange and brown never felt so good.  A year later I was aching for change.  I had been drooling over multiple black and white kitchens on pinterest and wanted to make it a reality in our home.  Thankfully, with Giani’s Nuvo Cabinet paint kits – we could do everything at once.  We recently re-touched up our cabinets and the countertops and here we are, yet again, just giddy over how shiny and new our kitchen looks.

This time around we wanted the countertops to have less of the granite look and more simplicity.  So we only utilized a bit of the sponging process and ended up using many layers (3 cans) of white limestone to give them the pop and brightness we were after.

I love the black base cabinets, in Black Deco — and our uppers are done in White Titanium.  The cabinet paint is thick and luscious, and goes on so smoothly and dries beautifully.

Duke approves 🙂

One thing I would highly recommended is every 1-2 years ( dependant on how rough you are with your Giani countertops) is to complete a refresh such as this.  We are a bit Clorox wipe obsessed over here and after nearly two years, we washed away a lot of the sealant and the countertops lost their shine.  If only I took the time to re-seal them half way through they would have kept their sparkle.

I painted our kitchen, because as if you already don’t know – I’m obsessed with painting.  We chose a gorgeous gray I’ll introduce to you all later this week.  I recommend having your kitchen color on hand incase you get a bit of the countertop paint on  your walls.  That way you can easily cut in and give yourself a gorgeous finish.

So if you feel like you are in a complete kitchen rut – do not fret.  No need for a loan, or tens of thousands of dollars to create a kitchen of your dreams.  Giani’s got your back!