Fireplace brick and mantel.

Don't you love a house with a fireplace? I do. It just seems to really amp up the "homey" feeling. 

As mentioned, I whitewashed the brick and hubby made the beautiful mantel all from scratch. 

Here is what it used to look like, sans mantel.

Lovely, eh? Kind of stark and cold.

We still plan to take the gas insert back out and convert it back to a wood burner, but one thing at a time.

While I'm sharing house projects, the finale of the bathroom is this fun little boat paddle which I sketched on an old piece of shelf board, hubby cut out and I painted. Free definitely beat the $40 price tag at Hobby Lobby....it even beats their 50% off aisles and 40% of sales of which I am so fond. 

We are currently engaged in the great kitchen re-do. I've painted more in the last few months than in all my life combined. It's moving kind of slow at this point, as we have a business trip and some other things coming up, but it's getting there, and I'm already soooo excited about how it's going to turn out!