the "shop" reveal (aka: mancave)

Well friends, the "shop" / "mancave" / longest Summer project ever is finally complete. Ok, almost. To read more about how & why we started this little shop project, click here. 

After much patience with our builder (he's great, just building is always a longer process than you think...) + several DIY projects, we finally landed a sweet spot to house the hubs' most prized possessions and watch a little football with our boys too! 

Here's a peek at how it looked a few weekends ago before we hosted friends over for a big Clemson game...

The longhorn was on my dad's barn/shop behind our old house. We took it and knew that if we ever built a shop again, we would use it! It looks great mounted under the porch above where we put the tv. Oh and all that barnwood on the ceiling? All from old buildings on Chad's parent's property, cleaned, and hung by Chad himself (with the help of two friends Will John & Casey)! 

It really turned out great. The light above the door? I purchased to use inside our house somewhere and never did. Even though it's probably 1. too small 2. not neccessary , I was bound and determined to put it to good use since I never returned it.

The flush mounts were from Amazon. Another family friend and Chad did all of the electrical themselves too...

Next up, the two chairs I have drooled over at Target.com for years. Legit, years. Ever since I saw them over at Emily Clark's blog on her patio, I had to have them. Waited until they went on major sale at end of Summer and snatched them up in the color that was the cheapest (aka, probably most unloved, but since the hubs is a Clemson fan I figured the "pumpkin" color wasn't so farfetched for us)

I added pillows and a rug from Ballard Designs outlet , a throw blanket + garden stool from TJ Maxx to try and tie it all in...

My special touch on the "mancave" was painting the side door Lap Pool Blue by Behr (Thanks for the rec Ashley @ Houston House Designs!) I knew I had to put a blue door on it to liven it up and I do love it (despite that Clemson doormat in front of it!) 

The hubs has been diligently working on his bermuda grass to fill in all the mud. I am truly amazed at how fast this stuff grows if you really work with it. It's looking great and sooo much cheaper than sod for now. Oh and the swing in the background came from Chad's grandma & papa McClain's porch. An iconic part of the family that we are honored to have. His dad built the T-stand for it and the boys are lovin' it. You can even sit and swing and watch the football game from it. I hope friends and family love it for many years to come...

I stuck our "house divided" garden flag and a mum in this spot just for the weekend, but eventually we will plant a tree in this spot of the landscaping (which we designed and did ourselves!) Again, a lot of sweat went into this thing and we no, we still aren't done...

So glad we decided to "shake" the front of it to match our house + the garage door matches too. The little white box in the top window is the WCTEL point to point cable, so ignore that. The barn light looks a little crooked too but it's from Barn Light Electric and it is so perfect. The fourth light we've ordered from them and we are always 100% pleased every single time...

Cade wanted to pose for a pic. Oh and the two lights above the top window our super bright LED flood lights for Chad's beloved late night cornhole games. God forbid we not have enough light for those...**cue eyeroll**...again, it is his mancave so whatever...

I am so glad he has a spot for all of his "things" - whether that be tools or deer heads.  Just a place to keep it all together + have the guys to hang out, friends, etc... all at the same time. Our boys have already enjoyed many weekends out there helping Chad work on projects and I know as they grow up it will only get better. Truly time to cherish, just as I did with my dad in his shop. Excited for more updates and will post more of the inside soon too! Lots more to do....

summer projects: building a "shop"

aka: LONGEST. PROJECT. EVER.

Ok, not really but considering the hubs told me it would be done within a few weeks...

#fail

We are fine with how long it is taking, honestly, because it's mostly due to how much we are doing on our own and how crazy life has been to keep us from even worrying about this "shop". Our builder is actually done with his part (same one that built our house) it's just on the hubs now.

Ok, first let me back up. Ever since we built our house, we knew we had the most perfect little spot in the corner of our lot for a "shop". Some may call this a detached garage, which it is, but the hubs calls it a "shop". My dad had a huge shop when I was growing up since he worked on cars, welded, and all sorts of things. The only thing Chad knows how to do is build deer stands (insert side-eye emoji here) and he can build a few other things too - IF he wants to! He mostly just needed a place for his {huge} zero turn lawnmower and Bad Boy (basically like a souped up golf cart for the hunting-obsessed) All this junk was taking up TOO much room in our beloved new garage, therefore I haven't even been able to park my vehicle in it since hmmmm last October? 

We also do not have a covered porch on our house, only an open deck so we thought if we did a tiny covered porch off of the shop it would be a place for Chad to move his grill and have more {covered} patio space for entertaining.

I'm rambling, but here's the sketch I created back first of the year when we knew it was almost time to get the project started with Botts Construction. No set "garage plan" or anything, just a ridiculously simple one minute sketch.  From us to him and we all just kinda rolled with it.

Then we held our breath and prayed.

HA! No, we trusted our builder and he knew just to make it match our house so that's exactly what they did. Granted we didn't go with a metal roof (even though that was my first choice!) and we ended up using shake siding on more than just the gable...and a different shape window up top...but for the most part our new shop looks EXACTLY like this sketch. (and yes, that is a Christmas wreath because that is how the "Christmas-obsessed" envision things :) 

First up: the footings

simple cement block foundation (which we can stucco or brick later should we choose. I may need to add that this shop has been done on a B-U-D-G-E-T)

walls went up...

roof and side porch went up...

concrete was poured (and apparently it takes three grown men and two children to pour concrete and sit and watch it dry? Hey, it looks good though!)

under the side porch we extended the concrete to make a little curved patio towards the back. Nothing crazy, just big enough to maybe fit two big chairs. Two chairs for Chad & I to sit and watch the boys run and play, watch a football game and/or sip a glass of wine, perhaps? Yes, please.

the black shingles and the Granite Grey Certainteed vinyl siding goes on (again, all to match our house)

cedar posts are added on the porch (this pic was before they finished the detail of them...) shake siding is finished on front.

next up: lighting.

a sneak peek at what I purchased from one of my favorite companies! This is the fourth custom light fixture we've bought from them and we have been pleased with every single one. Love a good made-in-the-USA company too.

garage door and side door were added after Chad wired the shop himself (with the help of a family friend), got the power ran out there, added lighting and now he's working on inside walls and porch ceiling to finish.

i put my special "touch" on this man-cave of a shop, with the hubs' approval, of course. (and a paint color I saw over at  The Houston House blog.  Check her out. Ashley is an awesome interior designer in Savannah and an amazing artist too!!)

I'll have to keep you waiting, because I'm not even 100% finished with the door. You see, we work a little slow around here. HA. 

Next time I update I hope I can share the "final reveal" (if we really EVER get "finished" and can do that sort of thing). Off to order patio chairs from Target that I've been eyeing for months and it's finally on sale. WHY must patio furniture be so expensive? WHY?!!!? Sigh.

t-ball, cooking, and building...oh my!

yeah, just trying to think of another blog post title other than "catching up" or "lately" because that's all I've been doing and this is definitely just a mish mash of what we've been up to this past week or so!

First up, this adorable market opened up just two doors down from Sugar. More on that later (bc it's fabulous!) but I've now become addicted to this cookie dough chocolate bar from there and a Diet Coke, which is the perfect afternoon pick me up if you ask me.

Last Friday night I thought it would be fun for us to have a "make your own pizza night", which we've never done with Cade. It was fun...and yummy! He made a traditional pepperoni pizza and I did bbq chicken pizza. We will definitely be doing this again soon. He loved it and has really started helping me lots in the kitchen lately.

Last Sunday was busy. We went to church, came home, ate lunch, then I went up to Erskine College (just a minute drive...or you could walk... from where we live) for two different photoshoots for friends. It was a gorgeous day to take photos!

Then while Chad worked around the yard, I loaded both boys up to go back to church for an awesome Compassion outreach program, called His Little Feet, and it was just great. Cade loved it and we are definitely looking into sponsoring a child. I wish I could sponsor them ALL. We hugged and gave high fives and fell in love with them all. They were precious. I think it was great for Cade to see so many kids from other countries, hear their songs and their language and to know how Jesus loves EVERYONE, in the whole big world and that there's so many kids without mommies and daddies who we need to help. He was just wide eyed the entire time and afterwards asked so many questions. He is veeery inquisitive these days and how BIG do they both look in this picture???? AAAAAH time slow down!

This past week we've had more tball games. I got the dreaded stomach bug on Monday night so I had to skip Tuesday's game (boo!) , but here's a pic from last Thursday when Chad pitched and Cade almost hit him! It's hilarious to watch Cade play and Chad coach...I don't know who gets aggravated the most. HA! It's too funny.

The weather lately has been amazing. We don't get many 70 degree Spring days, so when we do we like to take FULL advantage. This was taken Monday night (pre - stomach bug) when Chad decided randomly to smoke a deer tenderloin wrapped in bacon and we put on  Chris Stapleton, our fav, and opened up the doors to let the breeze and sweet smell coming off the BGE in. I love nights like this with my boys and it was the perfect cure for Monday blues (like I said, until the stomach bug arrived. *eye roll*)

Also over the past two weeks we started building again. 

Um, no. Not another house.

(not no, but heeeeey-yuhl no)

but a "shop".

a tiiiiny, cute little shop.

Some may call it a "detached garage", "carriage house", and more... but for my deer stand-building, Bad Boy ridin', hunting' and fishing' man...it's his "shop"/man cave. 

and yes, I am every bit ok with that. I haven't been able to get my SUV in the garage since I bought it in October. His "Bad Boy Buggy" and zero turn lawnmower are huge and take up so much room. So does the upright freezer full of deer meat...the several Craftsman tool drawers he (and my brother and bro-in-law) inherited from my dad's huge shop. There's just a TON out there that definitely needs to fill his shop up quick, so we can get our garage organized and start using it to it's full potential! Our cars + kids ride on toys + outdoor toys + extra fridge can all stay but I can't wait to start another project once the shop is done and transform our garage to OCD organization CITY. (because I am SOOOO over it's current condition and how it's been for a year or more. Ugh)

We knew our little "shop" was part of our master plan all along, hence another reason we tried to skimp on things when building our house. My dad had an eight car garage "shop" (he worked on cars/had a car lot so it made since) and when growing up I have so many memories of spending days "down at the shop" while my dad worked on cars, welded machinery, listened to music, built things, and so much more. We would skate, ride our ride on toys, and just have fun time with him. With two boys, I know that's inevitable. Whenever I want to find them, I'm sure they will be in the shop with their daddy and I love that. 

I hope they enjoy huntin', fishin', learn to build things, love to work in the yard (Cade already does) and we hope to extend from the shop and have an area to entertain as well. Our house builder, Botts Construction, is building this "shop" as well and he's basically going off sketches that I did from mine and Chad's vision. That makes me even more eager to see it all come to life as we don't have a set plan or photo we are going off of! I know it will be great and Chad has a lot of neat ideas he wants to incorporate + we have a TON of antiques & old "junk" basically that we look forward to giving a new home and repurposing in the shop and for entertaining. So ready to finish this last missing "puzzle piece" on our property. This house and everything we've worked hard on the outside is slowly but surely turning this all into a HOME. 

Our home. 

and it feels absolutely amazing.

More on the shop and house updates soon!