Progress.

A few more pics to share as we keep getting goodies in the mail for our bathroom remodel!:)

Those beauties came in the mail and made us very happy campers last week and I wanted to share with you:)

This last weekend Santino was determined to drag the old radiator outside into the garage and sandblast the old paint off of the thing...but it wasn't quite all it was supposed to be. Needless to say, our little air compressor didn't quite hold up to the needs of blasting sand through the gun and chipping away 100 yr old paint on our radiator. On to plan B, lug the heavy thing out somewhere to have it professionally sandblasted. Oh joy, another 50-100$ gone! The hubby and I are on vacation next week and plan on getting some of the last minute bathroom items purchased/finished and get this bathroom remodel goin... The bathtub is ordered and it scheduled to be here next Tuesday!!! Can't wait.


Can't wait to show you all!

-Melissa & Santino

Project weekend...

I wanted to give you guys a little peek into our busy project filled weekend!!! Check out the photos below!!

So here is my project for the weekend!! We bought this buffer/dresser from someone on Craigslist locally and it just needed a little TLC! Take a look at what I decided to do:)

Now on to Santinos project of the weekend!! Turning our other Craigslist antique dresser find into a vanity for our bathroom.

It fits!!

Now on to the drawers!!:)

As you can tell we had a crazy weekend full of projects and it's only 12:15PM on Sunday!! We've got the whole day to go!!:)

Have a wonderful day!

-Melissa and Santino Ayala

TGI...almost Friday!!

Hello all!! This has been a heck of a week and I am defiantly ready for a weekend full of nothing:) We have no plans this weekend and it's going to be wonderful!
So our last post focused on our 2nd floor bathroom remodel inspiration and I feel bad for leaving out our main floor bathroom. So, enjoy:)

This is our current tile we've already laid in our kitchen/hall/and bathroom last year.

How amazing is this can light trim? It will match what we are shooting for in the bathroom and it will hide the not too pretty recessed light exhaust fan. As you can tell, this bathroom is almost complete opposite of the 2nd floor bathroom! This is a much warmer bathroom with earth tones and beautiful oil rubbed bronze finishes.

What do you think? We've counting down the days until this huge project! But we're so ready to dig our heels in:) And to stop emptying our pocketbooks week after week on bathroom items!!!


-Melissa and Santino

Sneak peek..

Here are just a few photos to give you a sneak peek into our vision for our bathroom:)

Enjoy!

So, I am sure you can tell where we're going with this bathroom remodel!! I bet you can't wait til November to see the finished product!!!:)


-Melissa & Santino Ayala:)

Welcome to our life:)

Hello all! My name is Melissa Ayala and I am happily married to the man of my dreams, Santino. Since this blog will be about our lives together I will start with a little background for you. During my senior year of high school I was in the lunchroom one day and one of my friends suggested I meet her brother, back in that day (2004) MSN messenger was a big hit so we exchanged email addresses and started talking. We went back and forth for about a month when we stopped talking...and suddenly one day he instant messaged me and we started talking again and on May 3rd of 2004 we became "official". After just 1 year we moved into our first home together. 3 year flew by and my dreams were finally coming true on Christmas of 2007 we were engaged:) Here is us after getting engaged...

Since I always wanted a fall wedding and I knew that the fall of 2008 was way too soon to wedding plan, we were engaged for almost 2 years before we married on 10-10-2009.

Between getting engaged and married we upgraded from our small little 700 sq ft first home into our dream 1912 beautiful home. We got a heck of a deal on the house, and with that, it needed work, but nothing a little bit of paint and elbow grease couldn't fix up. We still have a long way to go to make our home be right where we want it to be, but as for now, we're enjoying every bit of it.

We are very lucky to have a big kitchen with this old house, but the tile floors were not quite what we were wanting. So we tiled the floors with beautiful 18x18 tiles with inset 6x6 decorative tiles. Some day we will get new cabinets...:)

Our next BIG project was replacing all 32 windows of the house!! Here is the before of the window project..the old windows were original and very drafty.

The new windows are amazing to look at and even better on the checkbook:) In this pic we painted the first floor of the sun porch, on the right of the photo. Another think to add to the to-do list; we plan on replacing the windows of the sun porches someday...

A small side project was re staining the front door-the wonderful original oak door was dark and dried out from the sun. It was in desperate need of a little TLC. And TLC is just what the hubby gave it:)

and finally...the beautiful finished product.

Aside from installing ceiling fans, light fixtures, painting, and some other cosmetic issues that almost sums up everything we've done so far. But no worries, we are planning a big bathroom remodel in November of this year. We follow Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University's budget and with that we have learned so many useful tips and we have been buying piece by piece needed for this bathroom so we aren't overwhelmed with the hefty expense of remodeling 2 bathrooms:)

So, with all of that said, welcome to the life of the Ayala's, we look forward to sharing all of our experiences with you as we tackle our upcoming projects at our home and our lives.



-Melissa & Santino