Things are changing up around here at 7th House on the Left – but don’t worry, not too much! We’ve just got a few things to share with you guys on this fine Friday…

First on the list, we’ve been nominated for a blog award hosted by Jackson Design & Remodeling! Voting ends todayand we’d really appreciate your vote! It’s super easy (literally takes about 10 seconds) and no registration required. The winner in each category (we’re in the remodeling category) will receive a $500 cash prize and a fancy shmancy award to display (Bentley’s already called dips on it if we win for a crate decoration. Not gonna happen.). To cast your vote, all you need to do is click here (or the image below), scroll all the way down to the remodeling category and click on “7th House on the Left”. Then, of course, click the “Vote” button! Also, be sure to check out the other blogs that have been nominated in all of the categories. There are really great blogs and you are bound to find a few new favorites to add to your RSS reader.

Secondly, you may have noticed a new button over there on the sidebar… No? Well, take a look around (hint: next to the “Tweet Tweet” window) and you will find a button for our new aStore! It’s basically our own, personalized Amazon store complete with some of our favorite things we have actually purchased, used, and loved. The goods include housekeeping products, kitchen appliances, gadgets, books, magazines, photography gear, and a few of Bentley’s must haves.

We have yet another change on the blog. Scroll up a little… you’re getting warmer. Warmer. Give up? We changed the blog tag line on the logo… “Renovating, Decorating + Living in Our First House”. Yeah, so it’s not a huge change. It’s a subtle change but a little more “us” and it better describes what 7th House is all about:

That’s about it for now but in the mean time, do you guys have any fun projects planned for this weekend? Tell us about them in the comments section. Loosen up, it’s Friday, people!!

Here in Virginia, the weather has been crazy random so far this year. One day, it was 71 degrees outside, the next it plummeted to 38 degrees. Through all the craziness, it seems that Spring has finally sprung and is springing. We thought it would be fun to show you guys what Spring is looking like around here and familiarize everyone with the outside of our house since we’ve been mostly talking about the inside. Just bear in mind that we haven’t really concentrated on the exterior quite yet – aside from painting the front door and the shutters. Luckily, we inherited a few photo-worthy plants/trees from the previous owner.

Let’s start in the front yard with one of our two Dogwood trees. They’re one of my favorite trees/plants and we’re really glad our house came with not one, but two! Fun fact: Dogwoods are Virginia’s state flower and tree. The street where we live must be considered patriotic because there are a lot of Dogwoods – at least one per house, if not more.

Fortunately, the picturesque Dogwood draws your attention away from the naked-looking bushes lining the house. We’ve nicknamed them “the Little Bushes That Could”. Last year, we cut them back because they were taking over the house. We were told they would “grow back better” but so far, they haven’t budged. We might end up replacing them at some point, or we might just accept the fact that it’s going to take a while for them to grow back. We should probably do some research about pruning before we cut our plants back next time…

Close to the house, right outside Ashley’s office window, is some sort of flowering bush accompanied by a few Boxwoods. The bush doesn’t have that many blooms, probably due to the sporadic weather and lack of light, but it still has plenty of visual appeal. We’re definitely not horticulturists, so we aren’t quite sure what this is.  Anybody have any clues?

Even though there aren’t many blooms and the dark tips make it look like the petals aren’t going to be around for long, they are still nice to look at.

As you go down the driveway, you’ll find our second Dogwood tree. We like how it hovers slightly over the driveway — but not so much that we would have to cut it back.

While the Dogwood in the front yard is white, this one is white with barely-there pink tips.

Around the back (on the left side when facing the back of the house) is another little area of bushes. We weren’t expecting them to do much, but when Spring hit, they really started looking great! We think the red “bush” is actually a baby Japanese Maple tree. (Like I said… not a horticulturist–anybody know the technical name for this little guy?) We aren’t sure what the other three bushes are either but their color has definitely amped up over the past few days.

On the back side of our yard, right up against our neighbor’s fence, we have yet another bush with red/pink flowers. It’s just like the one in the front yard, but this one is much larger and has more blossoms. This area of the yard tends to get more sunlight than the front of the house, so that may have something to do with it.

The flowers on this bush are just as bright as the other. Again, color enhancement brought to you by Mother Nature. No Photoshop required!

That wraps up our outdoor Spring tour. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get out there and enhance what we already have and maybe add some much needed landscaping before Spring passes by. Fingers crossed! Do you have any outdoor projects planned for the Spring? Tell us about them in the comments section…

We’re back with a guest room update! Actually, we’d like to call this the “Oh My Goodness! They’re Here!” update. For those of you that don’t know, a month or so ago, we found out my grandparent’s were coming to visit us from Tampa and would be staying with us for two weeks! We were really excited about the news. Not only do we love having them around, but they would also be our very first overnight guests in our first house! The only problem: the room looked like this:

A few weeks later, after moving everything out (some of the stuff went to the attic and some went to the “future yard sale pile” in our outdoor storage space), and totally lucking out at IKEA, it looked like this:

A few short weeks (which seemed like just days) later, here’s what the guest room looked like when they walked in the door…

Okay, so it’s not “finished” by any means. However, it looks a lot better than it did a few weeks ago, right? Let’s break down what we have going on so far…

Since we were on a time crunch and the room desperately needed some color, we snagged this throw pillow and quilt at Target. I’m not completely sold on the yellow accents paired with the “Martha Stewart Blue” walls, but it seems to work for now and the bright colors bring some Spring indoors.

I love the rosette pillow so much that I’m slightly tempted to re-paint the walls a “barely there gray” to make this room strictly a gray and yellow color scheme, but that’s just my crazy impulses talking. As I type, Greg is leaning over my shoulder saying, “There’s no way we are painting that room again already…”. Moving on, I guess.

What’s cool about the “base” of the bedding is that everything is “neutral” (gray & white). This way, if we want to change out the yellow accent scheme down the road and switch it up, it will be super easy.

You may notice our lack of lovely artwork. We’re anxiously awaiting the delivery of three black and white photography prints from our printer. Hopefully they will show up soon! I could have printed them myself, but the frames call for an 11×14 print and our printer is an old fashioned, standard 8.5 x 11.

We haven’t hung the mirror yet due to the fact we are side table-less. The size of the side tables may determine the placement of the dresser. So until we find side tables, it’s just leaning against the wall. And yes, the cardboard corners are still on the mirror. Klassy, right? We started to take them off, but then realized since it’s just leaning against the wall, the mirror might slide right off the dresser without them. So yes, rest assured, it’s just temporary.

Ohh.. the lamp (read more about that find here). I love that lamp. The original plan was to find a second one and put them on night stands on either side of the bed. Since we are currently night stand-less, it’s sitting on the dresser. However, it looks like it’s going to be finding a new home in the house. I called 13, yes you read that right… THIRTEEN Home Goods stores describing the lamp and giving them the SKU number in hopes of finding a matching one within driving distance — even as far away as South Carolina. I know that may be a bit insane but when I get on a roll, I have a hard time stopping. Sadly, I have resolved myself to the fact that we’re probably not going to find its mate. For now, its serving its purpose (lighting a room) in the guest room until we find another option. As for that option… I’m thinking sconces. Kind of like these…

Even though this room isn’t “finished”, we thought we’d still give you a mini-source list to answer any of your “Where did you get that?” questions…

Mini Source List: Paint color: Martha Stewart’s Artesian Well // Bed: IKEA // Mirror: Target // Dresser: IKEA // Lamp: Home Goods // Sheets & Duvet: Tuesday Morning // Gray Quilt: Target // Large Gray Pillows: Target // Rosette Throw Pillow: Target // Blue Throw Pillows: the long lost Nate Burkus Collection at LNT // Yellow + Gray Quilt: Target // Frames above bed: Target // Ceramic Metallic Pear: ZGallerie (no longer available, boo!)

Once the room is a little more on the “finished” side, we’ll be sure to post a complete source list as well as a budget breakdown. Now off to continue my search for side tables…