Good morning! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a great Mother’s Day! We really appreciate the excitement over our moving plans we shared on Saturday morning. Especially since that means I can finally start sharing the process of building with all of you! Here’s a bit of what we’ve been up to over the past week.
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Home Projects & Updates
I’ve hated not being able to share house updates with you all in my recaps! But the reality is, next to nothing had happened in the past six months until the week we left on my mom’s birthday trip. Between Rachel and our new next door neighbor (who used to live a few doors away from us on our current street), they sent me texts and photos with any updates. Which wasn’t many because they dug for the foundation, installed the blocks and rebar, and then it sat again basically until last week.
But, this past week, we had dirt delivered! At the time I had no idea what for, but it felt like progress.
Turns out they used it to build up the area inside the block walls so they can run the electrical, plumbing, etc. before they pour the slab.
We noticed over the weekend that a bunch of pipes were delivered so we hope that means we’ll start making some real progress this week! With other homes around us, it seems like once the slab is poured, framing starts pretty quickly right after.
In the meantime, we get to dream vicariously through Chris and Rachel’s house! They’re only about a month away from moving in, so it’s obviously much further along in the process. Rachel shared some gorgeous progress pics on her Instagram here if you want to get a little sneak peek of what some of our spaces will look like. Our finishes will be different, but the floorplan will be nearly identical. I’m getting so excited for them!
Meanwhile, we’re using their house to figure out a few base finishes since the natural light will be very similar. Kurtis has decided he would like his half of the closet painted a dark blue. It’s not a large space (you basically see half of it here) and it has a window so I figured his paint request was doable. He told me navy blue wasn’t dark enough so I ordered some Samplize samples I knew he’d like and I think he now knows not to doubt me on paint colors 😉 Anything darker basically would have been black. Ha! I believe these two were BM Gentleman’s Gray and Hale Navy. We’re obviously a long way away from the painting stage, but wrapping up smaller decisions like this now helps me feel like we’re making progress.
I wrapped up my plant shopping last week and I had to buy this Royal Cape Plumbago topiary when I saw how many butterflies it attracted!
In the past I’ve been drawn to bright pink flowers for summer. And while I’m still planning to use some in our backyard, I went with more of the purple, blue, white, and green tones on our front porch! I’ll plan to share how it all looks either later this week or early next week. But if you’ve been wanting one of these fluted planters I’ve used over the years, get them now while they’re still in stock! They sell out so early every year.
SOURCES: Wreath | Woven Doormat | Striped Rug | Gas Lantern | Fluted Planter | Door Color | House Color
In Case You Missed It
Following are the posts I shared over the past week, in case you missed some days!
Around Town & For Fun
Kurtis was out of town most of the week which helped me make a lot of progress planting and other projects I need to wrap up.
I hate snakes. Like legit am terrified of them. Not much scares me, but snakes will do it. I’d rather keep pet spiders and pet and kiss them all day than see a snake. Ha! But, sadly, my Florida luck came to an end and a large cottonmouth was sitting behind my car when I needed to meet my friend for Cinco De Mayo.
If you hate snakes, just go ahead and start squinting really hard right now and scroll until you get past this next photo….
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If you saw the Ring video I shared on Instagram, you might have been equally as surprised at my calm behavior as I was. I was sayin “oh no no no no no”. And then went inside and started cussing and texting random people to help me. Thankfully, the snake decided to turn the other way and leave so I could escape. But I can promise you, I have looked both ways before opening our side door every day since!
Thankfully I was still able to celebrate Cinco De Mayo with my friend Louise! We may already go every Friday, but it just hits differently on 5/5!
A pretty unreal sunset we had midweek!
Hawkeye, when I tried to work at the computer more than he preferred all week. Ha! He’d literally just sit and stare at me.
I got tagged by Chris in this Instagram post and it made me laugh. One of the greatest happy surprises of moving to Florida was, at the time, our garbage company came twice a week and we could also set out unlimited boxes, oversized garbage, yard waste, etc. We typically don’t have a lot of trash but when we have something oversized, it was so nice not to have to cut it down. Well, starting 5/1, we entered the 21st century and our garbage trucks now have automated arms. Which means they put an end to anything that doesn’t fit inside the can. Chris to the rescue taking mine and Rachel’s boxes to the compactor! Admittedly, only the large square box in the middle was mine (that had several small boxes inside), but let’s just say it was a bad week for both of us for the trash company to make a change 😉
Kurtis got home Thursday night. The weather from that point on was pretty rainy so we laid low most of the weekend. We had zero food in the house (or coffee filters) by the time he got home so we took a Friday morning golf cart ride to Starbucks. It might be my third time ever going since it opened last fall. It was probably Kurtis’ third time that week and he’d been gone for four days 😉
Last night we headed to Amigos with a bunch of in-town friends along with some visiting. I wanted a group shot but forgot, so we got this selfie with two of our littlest friends. They took over our phones for most of the dinner, so if you got a text from me, no you didn’t 😉
And since we didn’t make it Friday night, we headed to the green space Sunday night! The Cinco de Derby flags were still flying (albeit a little low). Funny enough we saw a lot of the other Friday night regulars out too. Seems like everyone had gone stir crazy with the weekend rain!
We woke up this morning to the sun coming out and then a random downpour. But I could see the most beautiful rainbow out my office window so we both ran outside. It’s not every day you get to see the end of a rainbow! It was so beautiful! One of the worst parts about moving next year will be saying goodbye to our pond. We love it so much!
Kurtis travels again several days this week but is then back home until June. I think the rainy weather finally ends after today (thankfully!) and we’ll be in full-blown summer mode soon!
Recent Buys & Sales
Following are some sales from the weekend that have carried over and are still going strong!
- ABERCROMBIE is offering 30% off all shorts and swim, and 20% off nearly everything else. You can shop their site here.
- AMAZON has a number of daily deals. You can shop their site here.
- ANN TAYLOR is offering an extra 40% off sale styles. You can shop their site here.
- ANTHROPOLOGIE has added a number of new items in their sale section. You can shop their site here.
- AVARA is offering 15% off your purchase with my code STEWART15. You can shop their site here.
- BALLARD DESIGNS is offering 20-30% off sitewide! You can shop their sale here.
- BODEN is offering 10% off new arrivals with code VDXR. You can shop their site here.
- COLLEEN ROTHSCHILD is offering 25% off during their Friends & Family sale! You can shop their site here.
- CRATE & BARREL is offering up to 30% off furniture, decor and more, up to 30% off outdoors, and up to 20% off their bestselling drinkware. You can shop their site here.
- GAP is offering 40% off everything during their Friends & Family Sale. You can shop their sale here.
- J CREW is offering up to 50% off long-weekend styles and an extra 50% off select sale styles. You can shop their site here.
- J CREW FACTORY is offering up to 60% off everything and an extra 20% off orders of $125+ with code WEEKEND. You can shop their sale here.
- KULE is offering 15% off your purchase with code SUMMER15. You can shop their site here.
- LOFT is offering 50% off your purchase. You can shop their sale here.
- LULULEMON has a number of new items in their sale section. You can shop their site here.
- MARK & GRAHAM is offering up to 50% off sale styles and free shipping on orders $150+ with code FREESHIP. You can shop their site here.
- MARSHALLS is offering free shipping on orders of $89+ with code SHIP89. You can shop their site here.
- MCGEE & CO. is offering up to 50% off select designer styles. You can shop their site here.
- NORDSTROM has up to 50% off items in their sale section! You can shop their site here.
- OLD NAVY is offering tanks from $5, swim from $10, and shorts and dresses from $15. You can shop their sale here.
- POTTERY BARN is offering up to 60% off furniture, bedding and more as well as up to 30% off outdoor furniture and garden! You can shop their sale here.
- REJUVENATION is offering up to 30% off outdoor styles and up to 40% off furniture, lighting, and more. You can shop their site here.
- SERENA & LILY is offering up to 30% off during their Outdoor Event and to 25% off rugs (ends today). You can shop their sale here.
- TARGET has multiple home deals like up to 50% off patio furniture and garden items, up to 50% off rugs, up to 40% off indoor furniture, and more. You can shop their site here.
- TJ MAXX is offering free shipping on orders $89+ with code SHIP89! You can shop their site here.
- TORY BURCH has added a number of new items in their sale section. You can shop their site here.
- TUCKERNUCK has a number of cute new items added to their sale section. You can shop their site here.
- WEST ELM is offering up to 50% off sale. You can shop their site here.
- WILLIAMS SONOMA is offering up to 75% off clearance styles. You can shop their site here.
I hope you all have a great week!
If you would like to follow along on more of my home decor, DIY, lifestyle, travel and other posts, I’d love to have you join me on any of the below channels:
Your plant is gorgeous. Big box or local?
So with you on any snake. ew
Thank you! I got the topiary version locally at Clay 30A. But they had the smaller plant version that work well in planters at both Walmart and Lowe’s when I ran there last week!
Do you have two vehicles again? If so, what did you purchase?
Hi! We do! After Kurtis started traveling again so much, we finally bought a second. We got a Ford Bronco and it’s fun in the summer, but I can’t say I love it much otherwise (especially for highway driving).
I’m so excited for you guys!
It’s going to be so fun to follow along.
I must say, my first thought was,
Oh! I bet they’ll miss the pond! Always so beautiful! But you’ll have something else beautiful to look at at your new place.
Thank you Linda! We’re so excited. But will definitely miss the pond so much!