Cheers to 2015

I'm back! Couldn't take a break! And besides I had to share this new color trend with you:

Merry Christmas to me! I got new Granite Samples and Pricing for 2015:

http://pinterest.com/jaclynjfrost/granite-samples/

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! Cheers to the rest of the Holiday Season!

Peace and Love, Jaclyn 

Holiday Post-Here it is!

I'm so excited to share my first ever Holiday post! Frost Fine Finishing is reaching the close of our second year!  Some new projects have kept me busier than I expected. I have also been enjoying the holiday season to the fullest, and I just realized I need to share before next week...let the countdown begin! 1 week until Christmas! Here are a few Holiday gifts for you that I want to share:

Pintrest. The king of holidays. Recipes and Crafts. Do it! The best feature I use regularly is sharing boards! Share boards with family and friends to plan get togethers. Make it part of your potluck sign up at work. It's a fun visual social way to plan. Here is my board that I planned with my party planning aunt (Cheryl's Celebrations) 

http://www.pinterest.com/jaclynjfrost/holiday-parties/

Crafts: canning jars! Start with an opaque paint. Brushing it on versus using spray paint I found comes out more evenly. Hot glue gun a ribbon on the lip of the jar. Fill with fake or real flowers. I made a few f these to decorate with and have been giving them as gifts too! My last one I am giving as a gift with some additional flowers I scored on clearance! That way it can be used for other holidays too. An awesome homemade gift that is easy enough you could start it now and have hostess gifts to give while visiting homes for the holidays, or give them out to your guests! 

Inexpensive gift ideas: Greeting Card Box. Gather a variety of cards (thank yous, birthday, get well soon) and give in a decorative box. I just saw gift boxes at Walmart for $2.00 that were decorated for the holiday. I turned an old notecard box into a card box by hand painting it. I went through my old stationary amd found cards. Boom free and thoughtful gift. You're welcome. 

Evite.
My new go to. You can email the invites or post to facebook or even grab a screen shot and send in a text. They are so cute and FREE! I just think it's classy to send a reasonable invitation to any event big or small. 

Cake Platter. The best gift I've ever gotten. I use it for cake, fruit, treats of all kinds. It's so pretty just sitting out. They can be inexpensive for a new one look at home goods or used at goodwill or new uses. Get one! Give one! Use it! This would make a great holiday gift. When my Aunt brings a cake to a party she gives the cake stand. Trust me it's a highly used treasure and that's why I think a great gift idea! 

Here's my cake stand (used for pie at our little pre Thanksgiving get together) Greek yogurt veggie dip recipe on my holiday Pintrest board, and a pineapple used to serve meat/cream cheese skewers-a creative way to serve it up! 

http://www.homegoods.com/blog/2011/11/16/how-to-be-cake-stand-creative/ 

http://apartmenttoapartment.blogspot.com/2013/10/shopping-find-homegoods.html

Looked online to find some prices (found some under $15!) and came across some more cake stand blogs! Great ideas from the links above...

Thankfulness. This year is over and it's been one that has changed my life so much. I am very thankful! These words came to me one night. "The fear you begin to feel when you imagine your life being completely upside down different is exactly the fear you must get rid of to make your life completely wonderfully different." 

Cheers to 2015! 

Before and After: wrapping up our build

What an amazing year! I couldn't believe how quickly it all went. I'm enjoying taking the time to reflect and share my experience of building our first home! 

September 2013 we started with this:

December 2013 demolition: Happy New Year (House)!!!

Building began in January. Here are just a few fun snapshots of the progress! (For more on the design and building process read my previous posts!) 

Okay, ready for some "afters"?!?!?

Summer 2014 move in! We moved in June, so a 6 month process. We still had to finish the yard, which we were running out of time to do. Oh yeah, did I mention our neighbors were hosting their wedding in their backyard? We had a lot of work to get done as we had ran a bobcat through part of their yard all winter!

We got the yard done...how does the saying go? With a little help from my friends? Our Neighbors held a beautiful wedding. Here are some of our other neighbors all at the wedding. It was nice to relax and get to know everyone.

We hosted 4th of July on the lake, and I celebrated my birthday. It was a nice way to have friends over for a housewarming. We also went to another wedding up in Nisswa, and so the rest of the summer was spent with lots of friends and family! 

Having a few friends over, sharing our neighbors yard! Next summer we are building a deck. 

Taking a weekend off from the house. Grand View Lodge Summer 2014 for the Houser Wedding

Happy Birthday to me! Never too old for a mermaid birthday cake...

Here's just one picture of a Spa Day we had with my nieces! I spend a lot of time with the kids when they have summer vacation! They love Auntie's new house too. 

Another one of my Summer Projects! I spend a good portion of the summer planning a fundraiser for cancer research and patient support: Kel's Krew Annual Leukemia Society Benefit, in honor of one of my dearest friends. She lost her battle to cancer 3 years ago. Together with friends and family we host a party to raise money. We donate the money as a team at the Light the Night Walk held at Target Field. This year we donated over $5,000. Our team (and team Captian Angie) was also one of 3 finalist for the Life Blood Awards this year for our continued efforts to support the LLS mission. 

We end the summer by lighting the night at Target Field to support LLS (Leukemia Lymphoma Society)

You can HELP SUPPORT THE LLS MISSION:

I have the opportunity to network and work with many realtors being in the home industry. It is always inspiring to me when I meet people with the passion to start a business and who really take pride in building their own brand. The McPherson Sister's Real Estate Team has the unique mission to donate a portion of their commision to the Leukemia Society in honor of their sister. I want to share this mission that is also near and dear to my heart. If you'd like to meet regarding buying or selling a home contact:

Jen 763-202-6420 jmcpherson@exploretwincities.com

Meg 763-221-2221 mmcpherson@exploretwincities.com

Better Homes and Gardern Real Estate Area Leaders

If you have a real estate to do list for getting into our out of your home, please contact me for a free consultation on what services Frost Fine Finishing can offer. I can work directly with the McPherson sisters or any other realtor to get your home ready! 

Thanks again for taking the time to see my before and afters. It took a while to take you all through this journey with me, but my goal was to show you a time line of what I've been up to. This was the last of 3 'year in review" posts. I have a few other things I want to write about before the end of the year...if you follow me on Pintrest you've seen my sneak peek...

Part 2: Here goes everything...

We knocked down the house. It was knocked down and scooped into a dumpster in about 3 hours! The fun part was that we got there right in time to watch the first scoop. So cool and perfect timing.

When we first were looking to build we started out by searching online. Our checklist for a dream design looked like this: no garage needed (we still had the detached garage), fits onto our lot (fairly narrow about 36 feet), low construction cost (we were looking for a design in our budget)

photos above from eplans.com

After searching the internet for lake front designs we got some more ideas. We wanted to show off the view with windows along the lake, and we wanted vaulted ceilings. 

When we first started planning we wanted a balcony off the master suite. Original plans included a second level for the master bed and bath. 

Here is part of the first design draft we received:

This plan included a walk out, which we later took out along with the second level. You'll see that more changes happened as I take you through these photos. 

After many back and forths with the designer and builder we came up with a simple two level plan. It would have a master suite roughed into the lower level that we could later finish ourselves. We had a good plan to start with. Some things we changed were window placement and vaulting the ceiling, as the cost for those changes were minimal. We made a set of windows into a sliding glass door for a future deck. I added a window above the kitchen sink, so I could look out while doing dishes. One window was moved from the center of the room to the corner for a panoramic effect.

Shown here are some of the window choices we made that I listed above. The slider and the corner window. 

It was very fun to pick and work with the design team and builder to create our home plans. We knew that we would be able to do all our finishing work. We did meet with the builder's interior designer when we went to get our doors and windows. She knew the product line and was able to quickly help us get our door hardware. At that point she also asked us about our design. We told he modern but classic. Modern in that we wanted it to look like a new home, but classic in that we weren't going to add things that would be dated quickly. We told her our color scheme and the materials we planned on using. She  offered to pull some granite samples, but I think she was most helpful with just her knowledge of inventory. It made it easy for us to coordinate all our hardware. I was very thoughtful to match things. I didn't want it to look pieced together, so staying coordinated mattered a lot. We went with contemporary squared brushed nickel pieces. Nothing too ornate, nothing that didn't go with our classcally modern theme. 

It was winter and we had moved out of the home we had been renting for 6 years. Moving out of our first home, and into a transition home, was a big project! My goal was to get rid of a lot of things we weren't going to need. Lots of hand me downs, leftovers from former roommates and just stuff collected over the years had to go. I only packed what I wanted at the new house. We stayed with family for 6 months. It was a nice transition and a way to separate the old from the new. It also allowed us to save some money up for the big move in the spring! 

Staying with family is an experience all in itself! We took time to relax and do things that we would be too busy to do come spring and summer. I took a trip to Florida and had a few staycations in town for a little get away time. 

I fell in love with the modern look of shaded light fixtures that we were able to add to our home! Also warm pops of color (orange and red look great with dark floors and cool grey walls). To see more of my design inspiration look up #frostfinefinishing on Instagram or follow me 2_and_fro

I love the Radison Blu! I wanted to go back for Valentines day. We couldn't go. I was so bummed, and kind of let the change ruin my mood about the weekend. Then this happened:

We spent a lot of time at my friend's warehouse. It was a place we could go get away and for me to get some work done. Adam did painting in the shop and I could post out in the office, watch housewives and get some computer work done. I'm crabby from the whole "we did nothing for valentines" thing, and then my friend walks in with this huge window box. "Happy Valentine's Jaclyn!" He said. "Did Adam tell you I was crabby?" I asked. He said "No I just remember you saying you loved window boxes," I started bawling. 

Adam and I had a conversation about window boxes. I like them, and because he has to paint around them he hates them. I got my window box regardless. And the thoughtfulness of the gesture was touching. 

That night we went to see all the windows that had been installed in the house. Notice anything???

Now I felt silly, for making such a big deal about one day when I had a lifetime ahead. Now every year I can just look out my windows and remember all the love that I am blessed to have. Valentines is forever a part of my home with the date stamped Feb 14 in each window. 

Hey! Look what I can do...

Hey look what I can do! Here's some stuff I've done. That's basically what this all is. Pics and posts about projects I do. In the last two years I've started a small business that does finishing and home design work, and I've been blessed with the opportunity to design and build our own home. A lot of you who follow me on Instagram (2_and_fro  #frostfinefinishing) and Facebook tell me all the time, "I love seeing pictures of your new home please post more!" I am so proud of all the beautiful work the talented people who have helped make our home happen have accomplished, so I love to share! I am also so humbled each time someone takes the time to let me know that they enjoy seeing my dreams, goals and progress. I have been working on this and now it's ready to share with all of you! 

Here it is! Look what I can do (a timeline of the past two years-part one):

My friend, a recent graduate of the Art Institute of Minnesota, helped me create my Frost Fine Finishing logo. Frost Fine Finishing 2013

I was working for a flooring sales and installation team when I was given the opportunity to start my own business. A major distributor offered me my own account. He knew that I was a hard worker looking for a way to increase my sales and customer satisfaction. I wanted to run my own jobs and I was ready! With many friends and family working in various trades I got the idea to start working on referrals for home owners. I hear, "You guys know someone who does everything!" You're right, we do!

This made looking for a home a different experience for us. Going into a property we had no concerns for flooring, painting, woodwork...we had the intention of replacing most of the finishings, so for us a small affordable home in a nice location was what we wanted. 

It took years of looking, but after looking and loving the Twin Lake area outside Minneapolis we found what we thought was what we were looking for. Our Realtor Margaret Swanson was able to help us through the HomePath process to purchase a foreclosed property right on the lake. We were looking forward to doing many renovations:

Margaret is a real estate agent in the area and specializes in helping sellers get their homes fixed up for sale. An expert at staging and preparing properties, she and her team are able to transform homes and get them ready for sale! I have had the chance to work with her team on other homes and am amazed at the beautiful furnishings they can bring in to transform a home into a showroom. No doubt the upscale attention to detail helps sellers get top dollar for their property. To contact Margaret email: margie.swanson@rmxhomemasters.com (let her know you were referred by Frost Fine Finishing)

Not many people have seen the original home. It's easy to see why we liked it. There was a lot of potential. Looking back I kind of miss it!

And then the plot thickens as they say...

During our renovation we found some structural damage that was hidden behind drywall. The home was close to 100 years old, and previously had work done that cut through the main support beam. Not to mention many things that popped up. There's a reason all those TV remodel shows always have a big plot twist when a problem is uncovered, because it really happens! Always prepare for something to not go according to plan is now my #1 rule for home projects. The house needed major repair to be structurally sound, and we had a big decision to make. Was it worth an investment into the property? We looked at the numbers, and it made sense to rebuild. In the end we would have a house that was new and that would hold the value of what we put into it. We still find ourselves calling this a miracle...we are not sure how or why this happened, but it did! I prayed a lot for God to bring us to the home he had intended. I saw this new opportunity as a sign that we were being brought to that place. 

To be continued...

Thanks for reading my first blog post! I have so much more I want to include, but perhaps I was a bit ambitious to think I could summarize an entire two years into one post. I am hoping to continue to share with you more about me and the journey I've been on that has brought me to this place of sharing my experience with you. I'll pick up where I left off, and my next post I will have a ton of our building photos so you can see the whole process. 

Thanks again for reading and for your support, 

Jaclyn