This is a sponsored post and some links below are affiliate links, for full disclosure, please go here. 

So now that the floors are painted and cured, we are off to furnishing. 

I had shared the furnishings I was adding to the sunroom in my vision board below, but I had totally forgotten about the TV console. 

 

 

Yes,  I know you’re confused. Why would anyone want a TV in a sunroom?!

Well, since we will be ripping out floors and doing a TON of work to the rest of our fixer upper, we need a place to actually “live” while all the construction is going on and since this is the only room that closes off completely to the rest of the house, this will be our living room for now. 

Which got me thinking about another issue. 

Our previous TV console was large and heavy. This posed a concern for me, because our sunroom is kinda built like a deck (there is no house structure underneath… it’s open). I was worried that bringing our console over would create too much weight on the floors. 

So it was time to find a solution. 

And luckily I was able to partner with Casagear who had the perfect solution for our space! Which by the way ships FREE to the mainland U.S.

Heck yeah! 

We came across the Industrial Style Mango Wood and Metal Tv Stand By The Urban Port and I fell in love. 

🛍Stick to the end for sale information and a discount code! 🛍

It came promptly and well packaged. 

And when we took it out we were even more relieved that it was 90% assembled! 

Unlike other stores where you have to assemble every.single.thing… ahem, you know what I’m talkin’ ’bout. 😉

 

This piece is solid mango wood and the finish is stunning (it’s almost as tall as me too, LOL!)

The feet are a mini hairpin style in a metal finish. 

Seriously the perfect blend between rustic and industrial. 

Each leg comes labelled to match it’s side which was rather nice actually. 

And super easy to attach. 

I would have done it, but someone had to hold the camera. 😜

Oh and speaking of, you can always check out the video to see how everything came along on my Youtube channel (or at the end of this video). 

And that was literally all there was to it! 

I love how the wood pops against the white walls, grey floors and it even complements the dark black TV. 

The doors open from the bottom and are super sturdy. And the magnets are really strong so my kiddos don’t even bother opening and slamming them shut… #momwin

Cause you know… kids… 

There is ample storage space too. 

We haven’t gotten all our movies unpacked yet, but we definitely got the Christmas ones out! 😉

 

The finish is super sleek and I am extremely happy that it’s not overly bulky or heavy which was my biggest concern. 

 

Of course, the only thing we needed to do to it was add little felt pads underneath each leg to protect the newly painted floors. 

Other than that it was perfect! 

Plus it went perfectly on the wall I wanted it to go, it was meant to be…

Of course, now I need to decorate the space but I am taking it one step at a time…

So if you are looking for some new furniture for your space definitely check out Casagear and The Urban Port line. 

Right now Casagear is having their Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales and you can get an additional 5% off their holiday sale prices by using Coupon Code YAMI05 (this deal lasts from today until January 31, 2020!)

 

They have great prices and lots of rustic pieces for those who love that farmhouse style as well so definitely check them out this holiday season. 

I hope you all are great and I will see you soon…

You will find me on my couch watching Christmas movies in the meantime… 

*Some of the links below are affiliate links, for more information go to full disclosure*

Hello friends! I hope you all are doing well. Time is flying and with that more projects are getting done. The next step in our sunroom transformation was going to be the old tile floors. 

I shared an image of grey cement tiles on my vision board but let’s face it, we have no time for that right now and we are trying to keep things as inexpensive as possible. 

And even though the tiles were old, they were in good shape. 

And if you have been with me for a while now, you know that I have painted floors before… to be exact my laundry room floor in my previous home.   I posted a complete how to on that post. 

RELATED: All My Tips and Tricks to Getting the Perfect Stenciled Cement Tile Look

So we actually partnered with Rust-Oleum for the transformation of our floors on my Youtube channel since we felt that an actual demonstration of us using the product would be best, but I wanted to share some information here as well. I will include the video in the end of this post for your reference since everything is in full detail there. 

Rust-Oleum has a great new product called RockSolid Home and it is meant to be used in the painting of indoor flooring. This item is found is most Home Depot’s nationwide and will be available in all of them soon. 

It’s a 2 step process with a base coat and a sealer….

That’s it…

No primer..

Say what?! 

True. 

The most important step is prepping the floors (like literally scrubbing and wiping the heck out of them to make sure they are clean). Rust-Oleum recommends Krud Kutter for this. 

Then it was off to painting… 

 

I started with the edges and woah! This paint actually said it takes one coat and I didn’t want to believe it, but that’s ALL you need! 

I mean look at that coverage! 

*Be sure to use a facemask, this stuff is pretty strong*

 

After I did the boarders, the hubby did the rolling…

 

Be sure to work your way out of a room if you do this… 😉

 

It only needs 6 hours to dry, but we left it alone all night. 

 

Okay this is ONE coat people! 😱

This is the color French Gray by the way…

*Quick note, if you use the white as the base color, you will need 2 coats*

 

Of course, you can leave the floors like this and add the top coat on. The best part about it is that you only need one coat of that too and you apply it the same way as the base coat. 

But of course, I had to go “all out” and stencil some tiles too…

 

I used the Santa Rose Tile Stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils. For this I used another base coat in their white color. Once that dried overnight, we sealed the floors and gave it 72 hours to cure before adding any furniture. 

We couldn’t be happier! 

I am so glad this is done… what do you think of the floors? 

Eeeeek! We love this stuff and I still have quite a bit left over… wondering what I will use it for next! 

 If you need more details about how to apply this don’t forget to check the video above. 

Now it’s off to furnishing…. 

Hello friends!

I am sure this title may have come as a shock to you since I just shared my entire house tour with you.

You can watch those tours, here, here and here.

Well, the truth is that this has been on our minds since almost a year ago… yes, that LONG.

I just never mentioned anything because we didn’t know if and when it would even be a possibility. We actually loved the area we lived in and we didn’t move out of it, luckily. We were ready for a change though… a completely different lifestyle. We just didn’t know exactly what that lifestyle was until we started considering other places to live.

And boy did we look…. We saw so many places even before we were ready to put our house up for sale. We didn’t want to make a hasty decision and then find ourselves in this situation a couple more years down the road.

One thing we were certain of… our house was too big (is that even a thing?).

Yes, I said it. TOO BIG. 

We found ourselves only using half of the 5,120 square feet of home that we lived in and frankly in our eyes that was just unnecessary. We did however, want a bigger yard. MUCH bigger.

I longed for a garden (even though I have a black thumb) and a place where I can have the kids playing outside where I would not have to worry about them getting hit by a speedy neighbor… yep, we had those. 🙄

We also wanted a different lifestyle, a little more traditional, a little more authentic.

And let’s face it, you can add as much farmhouse decor and design into a suburban house and it just won’t actually be a farmhouse people!

A few months ago I shared the image below on my Instagram. This picture is of a well to a 2.5 acre property we absolutely fell in love with.

 

Of course, the price was out of our range and the property went under “pending sale” shortly after we saw it.

We were bummed. 

Then it fell through…. and then it was back under “pending sale” again.

This time we were devastated. 

Life was over as we knew it (because by this time our house was up for sale and we couldn’t go back!).

However, we put our faith in God and HE always comes through for us.

I can happily say that we are now owners of that property and our well looks like this now…

 

It’s like the perfect space to capture all the seasons right?

Don’t worry, it’s kid safe. 

Of course we go into a lot more detail as to what we had to go through to find and buy this home in my “Where Have I Been” video on my Youtube channel (linked below) that you are welcome to watch.

There were so.many.hurdles…..

 

 

But I am glad to say we are here and we are happy.

Even though we only had 4 days to move.

I also shared our move and saying our final goodbye to our last house. In addition, the sellers of the house we purchased left us something that we could have totally lived WITHOUT in our new home. It’s actually pretty gross. 😱

You can get all of those details (including the grossness) in the video below as well.

Oh and we have already hit the ground running with renovations cause this is a true fixer upper so I will be back very soon with more!

Hello everyone!

I hope you all are enjoying the last day of September (can you believe it?!) Tomorrow is October 1st and I haven’t even started on my children’s Halloween costumes. 🤦🏻‍♀️ #Momoftheyear is looking a little bleak right now…

Anyways, I thought I would share a complete home tour with you all! I thought it would be fun to invite you to my home and walk you throughout it as if you were an actual guest.

From walking around the exterior to going in the front door and sharing the interior of our home in a more “real” experience.

So below are the first two of 4 videos that I will be sharing with you.

The first is the complete exterior video… from what the house looks like on the outside to our serious lack of landscaping!  LOL!

 

 

And then the following video is the complete tour of our first floor.

I figured I would break it up in a series so that the video wouldn’t be super long and completely bore you to death, plus I thought it would be fun to have “episodes” like you would on TV.

So grab a coffee, sit back and relax while you walk throughout and see all of the work we have done as well as get a sneak peak of my sweet little family throughout.

My hubby makes several cameos and he just loves the camera. 🙄

This video will also take you through the kitchen reveal I just shared so you can see the actual layout of the kitchen and not just images, so I thought that was kinda fun….

 

If you have any questions regarding anything you see, just let me know in the comments below.

As always you can check out more videos on my Youtube channel if you haven’t already and I will see you next time!

 

Happy long weekend friends!!!

Did this week seem brutal to you? Gosh, it was for me! Long days and nights and now that I am one of the room moms (happy to be so!) for one of my kids, I feel like I actually have a social life and I am “doing things” like with other human beings… moms to be exact.

It’s fun and there are some amazing women in the group, but this has brought a whole ‘nother level of responsibility over here. LOL!

Things have been kinda quiet here and I feel like I am always apologizing (sorry!… there I go again) however, I have a really REALLY big thing I am working on in the background and I hope to have an announcement VERY soon for you all. I feel like I just keep getting pushed away from my site for some reason…but….

I do know one thing… HE has a plan.

And HE has shown me this week… so much! God is great and he has helped me and my family so much during these past couple of weeks. I cannot wait to share what I have in store…. that will totally rock my world and even my website… more to come, promise!

But now that this week is over….

Bring on the football… and beer…. I mean, football!!!! 

No really, let’s bring on some fall decor shall we? I am ready for sweater weather and hay rides and pumpkins and trick or treating and everything that comes with Fall.

I just collaborated with 6 other amazing women on Youtube in a “Fall Into Inspiration” video series and we all decorated something different in our homes to give our audience some great Fall decor ideas to kick off the season this year… we have a playlist of all of the videos we made and I will link to it here if you wish to check it out.

I chose the tablescape. I had so much fun creating mine last year, it was only fitting to share another one.

I knew I wanted a table cloth and I found out that Walmart actually sells pre-cut/packaged pieces of fabric in 2 yard lengths and I found this beautiful plaid one with light touches of a peachy pink throughout… 2 yards was the perfect size for my table (it kinda reminds me of something Cher would wear from Clueless, no?)

Anyways, I LOVE how it looks.

I knew I wanted a light color scheme (not necessarily neutral) this year, so I grabbed some of my previous Dollar Store pumpkins as well as a some end of season clearance ones and painted them in muted orange, sage and white colors.

I also needed some height in the center, but my galvanized metal tiered was too bulky and rustic for the look I was looking for. So I just grabbed a cake stand and placed a DIY mini stand from Dollar Tree on top and viola! Instant “tiered tray”.

I used simple white plates, napkins from Target and I made those raffia napkin rings from Dollar Tree items as well. You can see the tutorial here.

You know what else I made?

Those amazing chargers! Yep, did you think they were really galvanized? Well, I hope you did. But, nope!

I totally painted them that way and I will share the step by step process here soon. You can always get a head start and check the video tutorial already though.?

I think these chargers are one of my favorite DIYs yet!

These glasses and candles are also from Dollar Tree.

I really do love how simple and inexpensive can still be elegant. Don’t you?

 

I added pops of greenery and peach florals throughout and the pumpkin on top of the centerpiece is from Michaels.

If you want to see how I pulled everything together you can watch me decorate this table setting on my channel below!

 

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Let me know what you think of this tablescape! I think it’s the perfect combination of rustic and feminine. I will see you back here soon!

 

 

 

Recently I told you I was updating my littlest’s nursery since we barely did anything to it before she was born. Well, I always wanted a hanging element in her room to give it more personality and to give her something pretty to look at while laying in her crib.

I came across several great ideas on Pinterest and looked in many places on Etsy to see what I could find that would work. In the end, the ones in Etsy were a little too pricey so I decided to create one myself. And the DIY Chandelier Baby Mobile above is what I ended up creating.

Related: DIY Batman Baby Mobile

The best part is that all of my kids love it and it was super easy to make. Even better is that I have created a step-by-step tutorial as a guest post over at my friend Carissa’s blog Thrift & Spice, so if you are interested in creating a DIY Chandelier Baby Mobile just like mine for your own baby or for a friend’s, check exactly how I did it here!

*some of the following links may be affiliate links for your convenience*

Being a stay at home mom has its limitations, like when it comes to how much you can spend on new items for your home. Recently my husband bought me an amazing LG matching washer and dryer set as a gift this past Christmas (that I am truly grateful for and totally in love with)! There was nothing wrong with my older pair other than they were mismatched (one was a Maytag black front loader and the other was a white standard Amana dryer). My previous washer had died so I was able to get the black Maytag floor model and had been using for several years now.

I’m not gonna lie though, the mismatched washer and dryer was driving this OCD chick insane! So you can imagine how excited I was.

Now, I was faced with a different problem. I have 2 washers and 2 dryers.

I really like to help my husband with anything I can when it comes to finances, and since no one in the family needed a washer or dryer, I knew exactly what to do.

Sell them on Craigslist!

In about 10 days my washer sold and the dryer followed about another week later. Both sold for FULL asking price.

No haggling.

No compromising.

JUST a good sale to people who saw the value in them.

So, here is how to sell your old appliances for top dollar on Craigslist:

1. This may go without saying but make sure they WORK.

Frankly, if whatever you are selling does NOT work like it’s supposed to, it needs to go in the trash. You wouldn’t buy it that way and you shouldn’t make someone else buy it in that condition either. I am a person who takes good care of anything I own so I always try to treat my things nicely. Taking care of them from the start drastically reduces the chances of them breaking down.

And if your appliance is need of a minor repair, then it may be worth spending $10 or $20 bucks to fix it so you don’t lose out on $50 plus from a buyer.

2. Make sure your appliance is CLEAN.

Whether or not it has been in the garage collecting dust for a while or it was just put in there, it needs to be cleaned thoroughly. And I am not talking about wiping the outside with a cloth.

If it is a washer like in this case, the inside needs to be wiped down, the rubber gasket needs to be cleaned thoroughly and the soap dispenser needs to be removed and cleaned.

If you are selling it with a pedestal, the inside of it needs to be wiped down as well.

I sold our old double oven gas stove a few months ago and the burners, both ovens, inner shelves, the knobs, exterior… ERRRRTHANG was spotless and looking like it was brand spanking new.

And if you were selling a dryer, make sure the lint collector is cleaned out.

Tip: Make sure you open any doors your appliances have to remove any musty odors and on the day the buyer is supposed to show up, make sure you do a quick wipe down in case any dust had settled over the days after your first initial cleaning. 

3. Keep an outlet and extension cord handy.

You may need to “prove” that your appliances work so make sure you have that handy so they can check it right away without any delays. They may not even request it, but by being prepared it shows them you have nothing to hide.

4. If you have the warranty or manual, make sure to have those out and specify that you have them in the ad.

A purchaser will be truly grateful especially if something happens down the road, they at least a place to reference for any repairs.

5. Price to sell….

I know what you are thinking. If I am going to get top dollar, why would I price to sell?

Simple, because you want them to think they are getting a great deal off the bat! You have to be real – you are selling something USED and no matter how well you take care of it, it is still used so don’t get all crazy trying to ask a ridiculous amount of money for something especially on Craigslist, cause no one will even inquire about it.

Hey, that’s what I do when I am searching for good deals. I think “They want that much!? Ha!” and I just keep scrolling.

Don’t get scrolled on!

Just make sure it is a comfortable price for you. Consider the condition, how long you had it and how much you paid for it… even how much you would pay for it, if it was you who was buying.

6. Take GREAT pictures.

They don’t have to be “professional” looking, but they need to be clear and you need to provide SEVERAL from different angles. If there is a scratch, show it. Providing good pictures and disclosing everything up front will help potential buyers see exactly what they will be buying BEFORE they get to you.

 

Can you believe that washer was 8 years old!?!?!?!? 

Don’t give them the opportunity to haggle once they arrive because “that scratch wasn’t shown in the picture” or “this doesn’t look as good as advertised”. If you have to get a crazy close-up image,  do it.

7. Make sure that there is a clear path to remove the items quickly .

You want there to be no obstacles or delays getting it out of your home and into their vehicle.

Tip: If your appliances are in the garage. Make sure it is at the end near the garage door and there is nothing on either side so that the appliance can easily be picked up and moved.

It’s also good to have everything cleared around it so that the buyer can see it from all angles.

8.  Speak to the person over the phone.

We live in a world where texts are preferred, but I am weird about my stuff. I want them to go to a good home to someone who will really appreciate them, like I did. So I like to get to hear the person. Getting a little more personal with them let’s them know that you are a decent person and they shouldn’t be “scared” of picking up from you.

It also gives you ease of mind to hear who the person is who will be coming over so that you aren’t anxious at a stranger coming to your house.

Plus, establishing good rapport helps so that the people coming over won’t want to pull a fast one and try to low ball an offer when they come over as well.

Plain and simple: Good people don’t mind paying good people good money for something good. 🙂

And those are my 8 tips on how to sell your old appliances for top dollar on Craigslist!

These tips work for me every time. The more I sell on Craigslist, the better I get and now with these tips, I hope you will too!

Do you have any tips you wish to share? I would love to know.

Boy, do I have some explaining to do! I am sure that by now you have been wondering where the heck I have been. Well, you know I don’t like to waste time so here’s the 411 on why I have been MIA.

Frankly, by the end of last year I was burnt out. Managing 2 blogs, taking care of 3 kids, a home and a hubby was really tough. My entire household was sick for all of November and half of December. My health unfortunately took a toll and the medication I was on did a number on me (still dealing with all of the side effects as we speak).

The holidays were a little tough because of all the sickness in our household…… And not to mention our Christmas lights were vandalized. We are literally the “Griswold’s” of our neighborhood and some little jerk kids (yes, I said that… I actually called them worse, but I like to keep it PG here) cut, ACTUALLY CUT, our Christmas lights on the perimeter of our yard.

Can you believe that?

Nothing like that has ever happened in our neighborhood!

We did do some digging, spoke to some neighbors and word got around that these jerks kids didn’t live in our neighborhood, but were nowhere to be found. There were other neighbors looking for them too as we were not the only victims, but we were the only ones who actually got our strings cut and permanently damaged.

Never mind that we are hardworking people right!? We paid for those lights so that our children could enjoy them…. The Scrooge in me came out real quick!

I see a huge Grinch sign in our future this year…. I might stick one in our yard with the words “we’re watching you” posted on it. If I do, I’ll make sure to share it.

Okay, moving on….

Then, my second blog took a huge change of course. I have had a long time love affair with photography but never thought I was good enough, however I have been doing so much better and even took a course at the end of the year that was huge in stepping up my game so I decided to bite the bullet and just take a chance.

I created a membership site for bloggers and online entrepreneurs in need of stock photography for their social media accounts and blogs and boy was I glad I did because the support and feedback has been immense. I have several members already and I am only in the second week!

Here’s a sneak peak at one of my photos.. not too shabby I guess.

So that was what I focused on for all of January. My goal was to launch on the 1st of February and I reached it.  Unfortunately, since there was so much work that needed to be done up front in order to “open shop” this blog suffered from my content and January was a fiasco…. however, my traffic didn’t hurt much.

One of the things that helped was that That Latina Next Door was featured on Clark Howard’s website! What the what?!

Crazy I know!

His site did a piece on saving money for the new year and they featured and linked my 365 Day Penny Challenge included in my “Some Easy Ways to Save Money” blog post so that got me some new eyes on my blog.

Very cool!

Seriously, mind blown.

So now with this increase in exposure I have had several companies reach out to me in order to possibly work together on some projects this year. I will divulge as soon as I get more details, but pray for me so that they work out!

As for what’s going to be happening here, I have some BIG wish list items and some content already rounded up for this year.

Here are my goals:

1. THE OUTDOORS – I met some amazing women last year on Instagram and Holly at @ourfauxfarmhouse has a gorgeous feed on her account. Just look at this amazing playhouse that her husband built for their kids….. so I had this crazy idea that I wanted one too. I have been talking to my hubby trying to figure out the plan of attack on something like this.

I won’t lie to you and say that I wouldn’t enjoy this more than my old children. It’s just so stinking’ cute. I really think they would love it though. Plus my hubby has the tools and the skills for something like this. The one factor that would work against us would be TIME.

I will say that if and when we start, we will commence sometime in March and document and video record every single step so that if anyone wants to learn (along with us) they can.

Make sure to check her out if you have an IG account. She doesn’t have a blog, but posts create DIY’s on her account.

 

2. MY HOME – My second goal is to show more of my home (the real stuff). We have been moving things around lately trying to make it work better for us. Right now there is a constant crazy mess of toys everywhere and I have about gone mad trying to find places for them and keep my house semi-organized at the end of the day…. needless to say, it has been an uphill battle.

My son’s cars seem to have taken over…

We are changing some things around, have purchased some new furniture pieces and reconfigured some spaces in order to make it better for our family of five.

3. RECIPES – I will be posting more recipes as my hubby and I have a few tricks up our sleeves when it comes to cooking. So definitely more of those. Plus, he is a great cocktail mixer – he can put some bartenders to shame and I know you will like some of the “here honey you have had a long day, you NEED this” kind of drinks he makes for me.

4. A SHOP – I want to open an actual shop on this site. This one is a big ONE! We have several test pieces of home decor items that I wish to sell on The Latina Next Door that I think might have a chance at being successful. It would be nice to open shop before the summer, but I am not sure as of yet. Still brainstorming and organizing all of the upfront things that need to get done.

But hey, I already started one shop, whose to say I can’t do 2!

5. TUTORIALS – I will definitely have more of those coming up with some great and not so great projects. I have one in particular that is just painful to talk about. It almost cost me more to update than what I paid for it! You won’t believe it!

Along with that, I plan on starting my second YOUTUBE channel in connection with the blog (especially if I am documenting the playhouse process)… I will need a place to host those videos that can be easily accessible.

6. REVIEWS – There are some things that I have tested out that have been awesome and some not so much (hence the project I mentioned above) so I am excited to start doing those here and sharing my honest opinions as well.

7. GIVEAWAYS – Both my giveaways last year were huge successes, so I am hoping to team up with other brands in order to do more of them this year. Crossing my fingers a few things get approved!!!

Okay, that was a long list!

So even though I have been quiet here, I have been working up a storm behind the scenes. It’s a good thing I have the Best Planner for 2017 cause without it, I would be a mess!

That’s it for today, but I’ll be hitting your inbox again very soon….

Which topics are you looking forward to seeing this year?