Our Cottage Bathroom Renovation on a Budget

This past year we found extensive water damage in the walls of our upstairs bathroom. Water damage led to mold, and because it was toxic mold, we had to move out of our house for 7 months while our home was repaired. While it was a very difficult and challenging season, a silver lining was that we were able to renovate our bathroom. However, because insurance did not cover the water damage, we were on a very tight budget. 

My vision for this space was a bright and airy cottage bathroom that was whimsical, sweet, and peaceful. Some non-negotiable for me were...

A deep bathtub where I could put a tray across it for my candle and tea cup! 

A timeless floor tile along with romantic shower tile for a soothing bath experience

A light wood vanity 

I wanted the fixtures to be unique and sweet, not dark and bulky like so many builder grade bathrooms today. 

I honestly love how it turned out, and to know we did it on a budge was even more satisfying! While I still have dreams of wallpaper and beadboard, towel hooks and art on the wall, that will come as I curate and collect pieces I love. 

Here are the links to everything we used (All the items names are linked!):  

Bathtub- We actually bought this bathtub at a local store in town, so we got an even better deal than what's listed on the website. But I will tell you, I LOVE THIS TUB. It is deep and wide (which was noticeable when my kids all go in for their bath time!) AND it has a lip on either side so that I can put a tray across when I take long baths (gotta have a place for my tea, candle and book!) 

Mirrors - Holy Moly, these mirrors from Moon Mirror are stunning. I first saw them on Pinterest, and stared at them admiringly for 5 minutes. I was shocked at how affordable they were. I got a discount for signing up for their email list. 

Vanity - I had my heart set on the Pottery Barn Sausalito vanity, but we literally could not swing the price tag. I spent hours scouring the internet and this had the same look and feel as the Pottery Barn one, but for half the price! I swapped out the faucets for a more vintage feel (and plan to spray paint the hardware brass, but haven't done that quite yet!) 

Faucets - I really wanted a a vintage faucet feel, and these are such a great price and have the cottage look I was going for! 

Sconce - Ok, is there anything sweeter than this ruffled sconce? I adore it. I actually have matching ones in my kitchen and sitting room. I couldn't resist adding one more:) 

Window Curtain - We have a privacy window in the bathroom, so didn't need a curtain for privacy, but I still wanted one for a dainty aesthetic. This was not only affordable, but very easy to put up!  

Shower Curtain - I had my eye set on one from Amber Interiors but there was no way I could spend over $100 on a shower curtain. So...when I saw this $19 curtain, which was both adorable and affordable, I knew it would be a great starter curtain for the bathroom. I actually loved it so much I bought it for our downstairs bathroom too.  

Shower Tiles - These are just so dreamy to me. And the great news is that they are a really affordable Zellige option! 

Floor Tiles - Every time I look at these tiles, they make me happy. I love them, they give the whole space a personality of its own! Again, another very affordable option. 

Runner - I'm not a Wal-Mart shopper, but this rug surprised me with how much I loved it! 

Hand Towel - World Market is my favorite for towel, this one especially! 

Shower-head & Bath Faucet - A lovely but very user friendly bundle from Delta. 

What do you think? 

What questions do you have for me?? 

Thanks for coming along today on a little tour of my bathroom:) 

                                   

 

Selling Our house- how God continues to answer our prayers

If you haven't read the story of how we bought a house, you can read that first here:) 

While finding and buying our new house has been an incredible experience, it made it more real that we would have to part with our current house. We have poured so much love into this house, or what I like to lovingly refer to as my "cottage".  So many beautiful memories have been made here...we brought our first two children home from the hospital to this house, celebrated countless birthdays, cried and laughed and hosted a million parties and friends from all around the world! 

While I have total peace about moving forward, there is still a sadness to leave this sweet place. This home sort of became our baby...we poured so much time and energy, love and creativity into making this our little cottage and I guess I wanted to see it go to the right people. 

I began to pray that God would bring the right buyers a long, who would love this house as much as we did. Who would see all the beautiful aspects of it...the gorgeous natural lighting, beautiful hardwood floors, all the aesthetic projects we've done to enhance the vibe (ie: shiplap, beadboard, wainscoting, etc). And lastly who would love our neighbors well and desire community.  

The first few days we listed it we had SO many showings. And....getting a home ready to show (ie: CLEAN and TIDY) is absolutely NO JOKE with a toddler and a baby! It's hard enough just to leave the house with little ones, much less vacuum, do dishes, put away junk that kids pull out, etc!!  It almost killed me, but I made it. (Nevermind like 10 minutes before a showing I discovered Everett had grabbed the toilet bowl brush and was walking around the house splashing nasty toilet water on everything!! Gahhhh!!! 

Day 2 of showings we heard there was a couple VERY interested who planned to make an offer. On Day 4 of showings, they did. They sent over a letter to us, and you guys...tears began to stream down my face as I read it. Not only did they write that walking into our house was like walking into their "dream home" but they went on to appreciate all that we had done to make it beautiful. They ended the letter by saying they wanted to continue our legacy of loving and welcoming people in. 

I DIED! I couldn't believe how perfect they were, how much they loved our home, and how they wanted to be a source of community in our neighborhood! Those were all the things I had prayed specifically for. Wow God, thank you! 

Again, just another prayer that God has answered on this journey that shows me we are walking in His will and timing. I have been so impacted by the passages in John that talk specifically about asking for things in Jesus' name, and God saying He will answer. I am not naive enough to think that everything we ask will be answered according to our wishes (because LIFE has shown me that isn't true, haha), but never the less, I've been so encouraged to ASK. To boldly come before his throne and make the ask. If it's in God's will, then He will move in that direction. And if it's not, He will move in another direction. But how the Lord desires us to come to Him. To pour our hearts desires out (big or small). 

Be encouraged sweet friend! Ask today:) 

(A few pics of our current house that we've fixed up the last 5 years!) 

Our newest miracle

(A picture of our new dream home!!) 

Oh friends, these past few months have been full of MIRACLES. I am bursting at the seams to tell you each and every one, but today I want to share one special story because I just can't contain how amazing God is. Truly, I have felt the Holy Spirit overflowing this season, even among hard things. 

It is surreal to even type this story out, but here goes...

5 years ago Kevin and I moved to Northern California where I grew up. I remember having a list of all the things I wanted in a house (you can read that post here), and God was so faithful. There were literally NO houses on the market in the area we wanted to live, but lo and behold, a sweet woman from my church knew a family flipping a house right in the neighborhood we wanted. It was the perfect starter home, right next to the park, filled with natural lighting, and, very importantly, in our tight budget. This home has been amazing, but just in this last season we realized we are starting to outgrow it (with baby coming). 

So this summer, we began to chat about what might be next for us. It came down to either finding a new house OR remodeling the kitchen on our current house. Seeing as I look at the house listings in our town almost every day, and in the last few years have probably ONLY seen 3 houses I've actually liked (I've got VERY picky taste, hehe), we decided to move forward and remodel our kitchen. We figured that would give us a few more years in this house before we moved. 

A month after we decided to remodel and things were moving forward with our contractor and designer, I checked the listings in our town. You see, even though we had decided to remodel, I was secretly praying that God would show me for certain if we were supposed to move or remodel. There was just this spark in my spirit that God was going to do something crazy. 

On this particular day, I opened the listings to see my dream home! An old charming character home, with floor to ceiling windows (hello natural light!), a huge backyard, AND the previous owners had updated it with a new roof, new windows, new electrical, etc! The other dreamy part about it was that it had 5 bedrooms AND a mother in law unit. Kevin and my dream is to live in community, to be able to host international students, and take in people who need a place to live for short periods of time. Lastly, I had ALWAYS prayed for a house with window seats (silly, I know, but the romantic in me always wanted a window seat to sit dreamily in while I read a book and drank tea!). This house not only had one window seat...but TWO!! Truly, this house had it all. The only problem was the price. It was definitely out of our price range, so I didn't even show Kevin, I just put the idea of it aside. 

Fast forward a month and things were moving quick to start our remodel. I was getting so excited going back and forth with our amazing designer. She asked if I'd be able to meet up in a few days to order everything for the kitchen. 

So...I kid you not....3 days before I was meeting with her to order all the items for our new kitchen, God spoke to my heart and told me to go look at the listing for my dream house again. It was a Sunday morning. I opened the listing and to my great surprise, the house was still on the market, and the sellers had just dropped the price 40k! It was now within our reach, at the tippy top of our budget! I immediately showed Kevin, who appeared to actually be interested (usually he just humors me in my house dreams, and then says no, haha!). That same Sunday, we texted our Realtor who booked us a showing, and shortly after decided to make an offer! 

Not only did they accept our offer, but they accepted it at a lower price (we offered quite a bit lower than asking). I literally could not believe how God had worked everything out!! How in the world this all happened is a total and complete miracle! 

And, to top it off, one of my favorite people/friend/babysitter, Sarah, is planning to move in with us and live in the only bedroom on the first floor! Just a few months ago when Sarah's roommate got married and she had to find a place, I jokingly told her that if we had an extra room I would love for her to live with us! Well...now we DO have an extra room and she's taking us up on it! 

We are so excited to live in a home with added space that allows for communal living. We are praying into the ways we want to use this house to bring glory to God, that HIS name be lifted high in it. 

I also want to encourage you dear one, if you feel unseen or your dreams forgotten, take heart. God sees even the smallest and silliest of requests (like a window seat) and showed me no prayer, however small, would go unnoticed. Certainly God has answered so many of my prayers differently than I expected, but this particular prayer was answered to a T. Know that God is for you friend. As we seek His glory, He will move beyond what we could ask or imagine! 

Take Heart Today! And to read more of God's faithfulness, you can read the story of how we sold our house here! 

**Below are some of the pictures of our new home. We will not move in until the end of November, so I took these pictures from the listing (so none of this is our furniture!). I can't wait to move in and make it our own!! 

 

A few fun DIY projects around the house

We moved into our house in late January, and ever since then i've been on a diy kick. It's been so much fun pinning ideas, and then actually seeing them come to fruition (they never do look exactly like the pictures…but that's what makes them unique, right?). And it's been extra special to craft with the people I love. My mom and I made the wreaths, and Kev and I worked on the other projects. I've started learning how to use power tools (oh my!) and have felt a lot more comfortable diving into projects (learn as we go, right?). haha!

Here things i've made for our home: 

- Blanket Ladder

- Eucalyptus Wreath
- Rosemary Wreath
- Exterior Shutters
- Built-In Bookcase

In another post, I hope to share more about the shutters and the bookcase (which was an IKEA hack), but for now you get a sneak peak of these!! I haven't quite styled the bookcase, so for now it's just all my books crammed up on shelves, but one of these days i'll get around to making it look pretty! The shutters were a lot of fun to make, and have added more of a cottage feel to the exterior of our home, which is what i'm going for!! I'm bound and determined to make you think you're in England while at my house…i've got a long way to go, haha! Just gotta get that English garden planted, right?

Have YOU made any fun DIY things at home lately? Put the links in the comments, i'd love to see your projects!! xoxo

White flowered shirt: Make me Chic
Pants: Express Jeans {but I got them at a yard sale and cut holes in them myself, ha!}

We bought a House!

I've been dying to share this news for a long time, but the cat's out of the bag now!!
We bought a house!

The Lord has been so good and so kind to us in this process and I'm excited to share the story with you.

The past year i've been looking pretty seriously at houses in my hometown. I never saw anything I loved that was in our price range. In the Fall, we hired a great realtor and one weekend we planned to drive up and look at houses. Our realtor told us there wasn't really anything in our price range in the area where we wanted to live, but he told us he'd take us to a few in different parts of the city. We figured it couldn't hurt.

A few days before driving up, my mom texted me letting me know that one of our family friends knew a couple who were flipping a house in the exact location we wanted to live. They told us to call Frank, and see if we could check it out while in town. So I called Frank up, and he invited us over to look at the house.

Friends, it was amazing. The perfect location. The perfect size (a bit bigger than we even expected to be able to afford!). And it ticked so many of our boxes…TONS of natural light, hard wood floors, a sun room, 3 beds, 2 baths, and a nice sized yard. We couldn't believe it.

It was as if God had lovingly dropped this home into our laps.
We prayed a lot about it, and before they even listed it, we made an offer.
After some negotiations, they accepted.

Escrow closed in mid-Dec, and by mid-Jan we are now moved in!!
(After 2 international trips, and a TON of moving!! whew, it was tiring!)

I am so incredibly grateful and thankful. We have been praying for over a year now that God would put us in the right neighborhood, the right house, and with the right community. He has answered our prayers in such a beautiful way. Like all journeys, there are always bumps in the road and not everything is perfect, but we are thankful for it all!

We have been in town now for 5 days, and already have been shown so much hospitality. So grateful for this new chapter or our life, being right where God wants us:)

Thank you for all your prayers and sweet thoughts!! xoxo

when a house becomes a home

{Getting ready for the special night...gotta LOVE scented candles. Don't they just make everything feel warmer?}

{Does the banner look familiar? It hung at our wedding. I bought the peace dove at a second hand-shop last summer in Sweden..I just couldn't resist a hanging dove, even if the plug is European and doesn't fit into our plugs here, haha}

{Another wedding piece recycled into home decor! We used these old postcards to put at each setting and the guests wrote us love-filled letters to read and re-read. I clipped them to an old frame and fabric! Couldn't resist}

Friday night we warmed our house, that is, we threw a 'lil party to welcome our friends to the new place. And it was wonderful.

Days prior, in the bustle of cleaning and hanging and purging, my my mind churned words round- tumbled thoughts of house vs. home scattered across beginner wife's slate. House, as I reflected, seeped meaning of "building" or "structure". The physical. As dimensional as a house is in brick and stone, Home carries a higher dimension. Home breathes life and warmth and welcome. "Home sweet home" not "house sweet house", and the point is diffused.

On August 13th I inherited a title- a powerful one that I do not take lightly. Wife. Ah yes, the illusive label with connotations to boot. The world reduces four letters to a domestic lunch box with servings of cleaning and housework and children. Oh, but to Abba "wife" is a sacred task. I see sparkle in the charge, twinkle in the good Author's eyes. Yes, being a wife is about being a caretaker of home and family- but mere mobility does not make a home.

A house becomes a home when love saturates, when encouragement fuses with the banal, and light shines bright HOPE into damp corners of fear and trepidation. Home is rest, a place to shed all anxieties upon entering the threshold. You are you- home is where someone believes in you. These reflections bear not as much on my limited experience as a wife, but find vibrant truth and life thanks to growing tall in a home where my own dear mother poured heart into her charge. Marrying my best friend, I wanted that for him. I wanted to prayerfully fight for a space where Kevin walks through the door and his souls tastes freedom. Enveloped by a warmth of love, known by a woman who's heart beats belief in the man she loves.

So yes, of course we painted, and decorated and arranged. But HOME could not be bought by gift cards or found at the be-all-end-all Bed Bath and Beyond. No, the home I wanted to create could only be built with prayer. Prayer that God would lay foundations of love and welcome, of light and hope, of hospitality and warmth.

Last week I stumbled across a letter that Catherine Booth wrote to her husband William Booth (the founder of the Salvation Army). In it, she declares her intent that their home will always be a place sensitive to his needs and concerns. And if you ask me, it is dripping in a deep and holy love.

"I am delighted; it makes me happy to hear you speak as you do about home. Yes, if you will seek home, love home, be happy at home, I will spend my energies in trying to make it a more than ordinary one; it shall, if my ability can do it, be a spot sunny and bright, pure and calm, refined and tender, a fit school in which to train immortal spirits for a holy and glorious heaven; a fit resting place for a spirit pressed and anxious about public duties; but oh I know it is easy to talk, I feel how liable I am to fall short; but it is well to purpose right, to aim high, to hope much; yes we will make home to each other the brightest spot on earth, we will be tender, thoughtful, loving and forbearing, will we not? Yes we will."

Moved. Home is not WHERE, we dwell, but HOW we dwell. Oh, and don't you love her conviction at the end? "Will we not? YES, we will". Beautiful. Prayer moves us to conviction that being a wife stands at a forefront of Kingdom work. About creating a space where saints and sinners can be trained, a resting place for the weary, a beacon of light.

and yes, much like Catherine..."I feel how liable I am to fall short" BUT.... (and I love that there is a "but")

It is well to purpose right.

To aim high.

To HOPE much.

And our home was warmed well by dear friends. Sweet souls who gathered together and prayed with conviction that we would fulfill God's great Kingdom work for our lives through such a sacred space. And I continue to pray- to aim high- to hope much.

Love Katie

{Gluten Free brownies! Can't leave anyone out}

{Some friends had left, and some hadn't arrived, but a sweet shot of those that warmed our home}

{Some picture on the wall...love love love sharing our lives and stories through pictures}

{Got this chair FOR FREE...makes it even more delicious, right?}

{And my favorite place to spend time the God! I got this one for free too (on the side of the road...yes I am my mother's daughter!). The color was too perfect and matched our bedspread so I claimed it for our room! SOOOOO cozy!}