The fireplace gets a facelift...

For those of you who have seen our previously hideous fireplace, you know that there used to be several decals of the fleur-de-lis...aka the same symbol the Saints use.  Here is what it used to look like:

First step, remove the ugly crowns and whatnot off of the face.  We decided, being that it didn't match anything in our house, that we would paint it white.  

After 4 coats of paint, it finally looked MUCH improved!

A Few Updates to the Exterior

While the inside has needed quite a lot of attention, the exterior of our home was in desperate need as well.  We decided to make a few simple changes to start with. Our shutters were previously a nice variety of white and green and looked like this:

We decided to go darker and make them all one color.  Here they are now:

We also have begun painting our railing white.  Unfortunately, one coat was not nearly enough!  With the heat of the summer and our new-found hatred of painting, we have put this off until cooler weather.  

I also threw in a few pictures of our hydrangeas this year.  We were excited to see that they bloomed so well since the previous owners had done absolutely NOTHING.