Anyone have Mahogany Orient Silk Laminate?

A little hiccup recently in our flooring replacement.  We have the heritage heights Honey Oak laminate in our kitchen.  Which I have loved.  It is amazing to clean and holds up great with our pets.  The only issue was that parts were bubbling and separating.  We have been waiting since January for them to order some replacement boards.  There weren't any left over when we moved in.  Yesterday Rite Rug called and said they are no longer making that floor color.  So they had something in stock of similar color but would have to replace the morning room and kitchen.

Kind of a plus because I really was hoping our current flooring was darker.  So I asked if we stayed in the same flooring group could we get something darker to replace the rooms.  They were fine with it.  I went to the store but didn't see anything as dark as I wanted.  The representative sent me a photo of Mahogany Orient Silk.  Which is darker, not as dark as I was thinking but it is growing on me.  I wondered if anyone had it?  Is it dark?  We have maple cognac cabinets in our kitchen.  I am wanting the flooring to be darker than the cabinets.  From the photos it looks darker.  Sometimes pictures are deceiving!

Please share your blog with me if you have it and don't mind me taking a peek :)

Thank you!

Pantry issue solved...

Many of you may have read a month or so back that our pantry was EXTREMELY cold.  Also, during the warmer months it was about 10 degrees warmer in the pantry.  Our bread would mold a lot quicker.  After having Del Monde out and the main project manager.  They have decided to add a vent in our pantry. WOOHOOO! What a relief to finally have that worked out.

They will be coming this Friday to replace the laminate flooring in our kitchen.  There were a lot of bumps and separation between it.  To us it looks like whoever installed it was in a hurry and hammered the pieces in to rough.  So hopefully we won't have to worry about this anymore.  I have really enjoyed the laminate floors.  We have a large dog and small dog and it has really held up with their paws.  A wood floor would not have stood a chance HA!

I have been working on a few other projects in our home.  I loveeeeee Etsy and Pinterest.  My most recent project was fabric canvas art.  I made them to go on the main large wall in the stairwell.  It was about $60 for everything and I still had PLENTY of fabric left over.  I honestly could have spent less but I wanted a certain type of fabric print.  So of course it was more expensive.

I bought everything at Hobby Lobby---

2- 2 packs of 16x20 blank canvas
4 cardboard words
Painted the words black
Chevron fabric to wrap the canvas's in.  I then glue the words to the completed project.

I also had an old window from my grandmother's childhood home.  I had some extra wallpaper so I glued it to the glass and hung a piece of wall art I already had on hand.  It was a great space filler!

Hope you all have a great week!

Fireplace mantel project

So if you have been following my previous posts, my husband has been working on finishing a mantel to hang in the front room of our home.  It's the room you walk into when you come through the front door.  The actual floor plan has it listed as a formal dining room.  Since we have the morning room and gourmet island we didn't feel it was necessary to put a dining area in the front.  I really struggled with what I wanted to do with that space.  With the high ceilings and partial wall I wanted something that would fill the room.  I started pinteresting and loved the idea of a fireplace mantel as a decoration.  When I grew up my mom had a fireplace mantel as decor in one of our living rooms.  So I started searching and found a fairly large mantel at a antique store for $130.  Which was a fabulous price!! Some I called on were $400.

Once we purchased it my husband sanded it, primed it with two coats of primer.  Then it was decision making time on color.  I have a peppercorn (grey) accent wall that the stairwell is on that is partially in that room.  So we decided to use the same color for the mantel to bounce off of each other.  The hardest part was cutting the lip out so the mantel would set flush on the wall.  This piece is solid oak.  So it was a PAIN to cut through.  Especially since it had layers of wood and hidden staples.  A lot of smoke and frustrations. Yet, now that it is over and done  I absolutely love how it turned out.  Especially, at night from the street it just looks really elegant.  I have some old window frames from my grandmother's childhood home I am working on refinishing to put in the center bottom of the mantel.


Enjoy!

We have a loveseat in front of the mantel with a ikea LAK side table and cute pillows with large buttons.  I am in love with this room.

Our next project is the back splash in our kitchen!

HOA Fees are now a reality!

We came from a typical family neighborhood that didn't have any HOA fees.  We also didn't have all the amenities we have now.  I can honestly say paying the quarterly amount wasn't fun since it is cold and I can't even fathom using the pool at this time.  Our fitness center is not the greatest.  I haven't personally been in it.  I have peeked through the windows though.  We have 2 treadmills and weight equipment.  Our community is HUGE.  I think they could have gotten a few more treadmills.  Our play area is great though. I am excited for the kids to get more use out of it once the weather warms up.

Update on our kitchen flooring. I just received a call from Rite Rug.  They will be coming out and replacing the whole section of our kitchen that is bubbled up.  We have the laminate "wood" appearance floors.  It looks like when they laid it.  The contractor used a little too much force installing them and they bubbled up from pressure.  I am so glad they are doing this.  It was a pet peeve for sure.

My husband and I are currently working on a pinterest craft.  I have been searching for an old fire place mantel.  I found a fairly large one at the Antique store.  He sanded it and primed it last night.  So hopefully we will have it painted to hang this weekend.  We are placing the mantel in our front room.  To serve as a nice sitting area. I am sooooooo excited.  Our new catalog with my candle company launched and we have some really cute colors that are coming out.  So I am ready to decorate the mantel ASAP.  www.savannaperkins.mygc.com

Our deck is also completely built.  The last thing we need to do is stain it.  Which will have to be when the wind chills are not -40!

Once we finish the mantel I will post pictures and some of the deck as well.  I hope you all are staying warm!

Service Request Updates....

Last Friday Ryan Homes came out and took a look at the service requests we had submitted.  Here are the results of what they said.  Just in case some of you are experiencing the same issues.

Microwave Frost issue-  they believe it is a fluke thing because of the weather.  He thinks when we are using the vent while cooking is causes the vent to crystallize on the outside as it is hitting the air.  Which in turn can cause the vent to stay open and the cold to travel in.  So at this point they are investigating it but no replacement needed.

Garage Entry Door-  They will be replacing the whole door at our 10 month, but they did adjust it so it would open and close a lot easier.

Pantry always freezing-  At first he mentioned seeing if HVAC would install a vent.  He said it was extremely cold and that was not normal.  Yet, it does not warrant a vent in the normal floor plan.  He also requested to look in the attic space above the garage.  After doing that he determined that the insulation was never blown in.  He said that has been happening a lot lately.  So they are coming out Friday to blow in the insulation.  He seems to think this will help the cold issue.  I will keep you posted.

Missing brick-  They have ordered the one missing brick we are in need of!  HA HA.  He thinks the brick layers thought the vinyl would come down more so they didn't place one there.  Thankfully he says it hasn't caused any damage.  The weep holes in the brick would drain water if anything were to get in the space.

Kitchen Laminate- there are several spots that were coming up and even chipped in areas.  He called Rite Rug and they are coming out Thursday to see what we need to do to get it fixed.


**Other happy news besides all our tickets.  We are finally having our deck built!!!  There is supposed to be some warmer weather move through this week.  So tomorrow our wood is being delivered and the gentlemen is coming to install it.  He said it would take about 2-3 days if that.  I am so beyond excited. I hate taking our dogs out the garage everyday to use the restroom!

Have a great week!

Updates and Pictures...

After leaving messages and finally being able to submit tickets online.  Someone called to schedule our appointment and get things taken care of.  At least I HOPE!

A few issues I listed-

Our laminate floors in the kitchen-- some areas are bulging or stick up.  Which means when we step on them they squish.  I am not a fan of this.  Only because that means the wear on the floor will not be pretty.

Our Pantry- Is always freezing! Thanks to the blogger who shared they have a vent in their florence.  I am going to be figuring out why we do not have one.

Missing Brick-  We are randomly missing a brick on the top back side of our house.  Which is exposing the wrap and I am assuming letting water in.

Microwave-  The frost/ice issue we had.  Thanks to the blogger who shared that the vents recently changed.

All in all these are things that can be fixes so I am happy about that.  Since we have moved in we have arranged and rearranged rooms.  My poor husband can't catch a break.   I will have these bright ideas to relocate rooms of furniture at 10 pm.

Recently, we moved our sectional from upstairs to the basement and moved the basement furniture upstairs. We went to IKEA and made so great inexpensive purchases for the upstairs living room.  A new TV stand and lights.  As for the basement we moved our dining room set we originally had upstair to the basement and purchased a new dining room set and buffet server.  I just hope we don't have to relocate any more furniture. Lastly, we finally utilized our mud room.  Pictures are posted below.  I can thank pinterest and pier one for my findings :)

My son's wall color and my goodwill/hobby lobby finds.  The bins were actually supposed to hang on the wall but it didn't work as I had planned.  So they are now for storage/decor.

My daughter's room.  She has the wall paper accent wall.

I searched high and low for these letters.  I love them--pinterest inspired for sure.

Our Christmas gift to ourselves.  A new dining room set.  It actually fills the space in the morning room.  Our other table is now in the basement as a game/food table.

Our upstairs living room off of the kitchen.  (Don't judge me for watching the housewives.)  We have hung more stuff but I need to take more pictures :)

Our recent mud room to do.  We bought the hanger and large basket for shoes at pier one.  Everything in this picture was less than $200 :)

Accent wall in the front of the house towards the back living room.


We still need to purchase an over-sized chair for our basement and hang some more pictures.  But it finally is coming together.  I will post more pictures soon.


PS We just got a Water Softener.  AHMAZING!!!! I highly recommend you get one.  And do not spend $1500 on one.  You can buy them for around $300 and install it yourself.  We did not have the rough in either.  

Frozen Microwave!

I haven't posted in awhile.  It is craziness how the weather has been here in Ohio.  We had torrential down pours over a week ago.  Some of our neighbors had flooding in their basements!  Not a great thing to hear. Thankfully, theirs weren't finished so no furniture was ruined.  Doesn't give us the warm fuzzy feeling since ours is.  Makes me worry maybe we aren't seeing something.

Today it is below zero!!!!!  Horrible.  Our house sounds like it is loosing parts with the horrific wind we are having as well.  But to our surprise our Microwave is frozen and frosted on the inside!!!! Our pantry is the same degree as it is outside!!!!!!!! We have a facebook page for everyone on our street and it seems a lot of other neighbors are having the same issue.  Not very energy efficient if you as me!!!!  I have called and placed service requests.  I hope someone calls us soon.

I hope everyone had a Happy New Years and Holiday :)