Home Decor: Interior Shutters & Roses

The Southern Maryland heat and humidity finally broke *knock-on-wood* and I was able to open the house up for the first time in months! With a high temperature in the 70's you really couldn't ask for a better day. The sky was clear, the breeze was cool, and the house was finally open. Which made me realize, this was also the first time I completely opened our new interior shutters to let the air circulate in the house. 

The lighting isn't the best, but at least you can see how they look pulled back AND the view of St. Clements Island and the Potomac River.

On another note, did you know that this is the time of year that newer-breed roses put on one last and final show for the year? I didn't either, until I saw my knockout roses in full bloom last night and asked my mom if that was normal. And of course it's normal, and apparently common knowledge...whoops! Anyway, I picked a couple of the sweet, pink blooms, popped them in a mason jar, and ta-da: a beautiful accent for the living room, at least for a couple of days.

They add a soft, feminine feel to the deer antler display, don't you think? Are your rose bushes putting on one last show before the cooler weather sets in? Snip a couple and add a quick, beautiful touch of color to your home decor!

Home Decor: Fresh Flowers

Farmer Bubba and I celebrated our 3rd Wedding Anniversary last week! And thanks to that, I had some beautiful, fresh flowers to add a little pop of pretty to the house. I placed them along the ledge between the living room and kitchen so they can be seen from both rooms!

Via my Instagram - @MindleHill

I was really pleased with the beautiful bouquet, they actually really reminded me of my wedding bouquet! Not sure if it was coincidence or planned, but either way, well done, Mr. Hill.

See more of our Wedding photos, HERE!

And just for a little trip down memory lane...I can't believe we've been married for 3 years already! I always try to remember to take a picture together on our anniversary so we can look back and remember what we did to celebrate. Here is a little peek at how we've aged...I mean how we've celebrated over the years...

Our big day :)

1st Anniversary - Before the Blake Shelton Concert

2nd Anniversary - During the Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean Concert

3rd Anniversary - Overlook on the Upper Hawksbill Trail, Shenandoah National Park.

Sneak Peek! Interior Shutters

We finally finished putting up our interior shutters and new shades in the living room last night after a few small set backs. [I need to have a few words with FedEx...throwing my packages over my fence and into my yard, in the rain, when I have a perfectly good and protected front porch is pretty frustrating] Anyway, after returning our broken shades to Lowes and getting replacements, which they thankfully had in stock, we were able to get rolling.

But first, I wanted to share a couple of "Life Lately" pictures with you. Sometimes life takes the reigns and my poor little blog ends up on the back burner...so I figured I could at least show you what has been taking up my time!

We spent the weekend with these four adorable chaps! Our 3 nephews and niece:

TWINS!

Owning the runway...I mean beach...

So so so cute!

And here are a couple of "pretties" from around the cottage:

Sunrise over the Potomac River

Evening sky - looking towards Virginia

More beauties from the wildflower garden!

Ok - don't judge my photography skills based on this sneak peek of the Interior Shutters and Shades...I took it on my cell phone at 6:15am this morning on the way out the doors. I was just too excited about them to wait. This is just to give you a quick peek at how our living room is coming along. :) I am finally seeing it all come together! Now, we need to find a rug, coffee table and a little more "decor"...

Please ignore the throw pillows that don't match the new couch or room AT ALL.
They will be removed once I find proper replacements!

A Fresh, New Look

As I mentioned in my previous post, we started our living room makeover last week, beginning with the walls and the floors. Since Bubba and I both work full time during the week, we called in some serious reinforcements to help us speed up the painting process. This guy (on the left):

Meet Pa, my retired, expert carpenter/painter/handyman extraordinaire grandfather. He is beyond precise and is always willing to lend a helping hand when we need it. 

We placed the painters tape and picked up where he left off once we got  home from work, so it made for a REALLY fast paint job. If you follow me on twitter (@PtBreezeCottage) you got to see a little sneak peek of the wall color. I haven't taken any pictures of JUST the walls or the paint job, but you will be able to see a little glimpse in the photos below.

Not only did Pa help us out with the paint job, but he also stuck around over the weekend to help Bubba lay our new flooring. Now; some people may think it seems odd to cover up original, hardwood floors with laminate Swiftlock flooring from Lowes, but we needed to. We think that the original floors that we had/have are actually the sub-flooring from the original 1929 house. Which is really cool and true to the house, but it's also really hard on our electric bill in both the summer and winter. Did I mention that we also had grass growing up through the living room floor once? Yeah...the joys of having an old house on piers instead of a foundation and sub-flooring with little to no insulation under it. It was only a matter of time before one of us fell through the weak spots in the living room.

The original floor:

Not terrible, and very "rustic", but it just wasn't working for us. So we went to Lowes, purchased some lovely Fireside Oak laminate, and got down to business.

The original flooring side-by-side with the new laminate. Affordable and efficient!

The new floor:

Don't mind the beagle-cat on the couch. She was feeling mighty displaced during all of this work!

I'm so happy with the way it turned out, just beautiful! Oh and did you notice the "Swizzle Stick" blue and "Desert Fortress" wall colors?!  Once we've got the room back in order, our new slip cover and window treatments up, I'll be glad to show some more revealing photos ;o)