Shambles & Shutters

sham·bles

ˈSHambəlz/

                                                                                      noun

                                                                            1.

informal

                                                                a state of total disorder.

This word perfectly describes our life right now. They say, "When it rains it pours right?" Well, if that's true consider Brent and I drenched! This summer has been expensive with one fiasco after the other. It all started when my car overheated without my knowing, causing the head gasket to blow and things to melt under the hood. That took a while to fix so during that time Brent and I shared his truck. Yep, little Mrs. designer was tooling around Atlanta in a big ol' truck. It wasn't two weeks after FINALLY getting my car back that the air conditioner just stopped working. Poof, just like that. No air. In Atlanta. In August. Kill me.

::Insert picture of wet rat::

Whatever image comes to mind when you think of a "wet rat" slap my face on there and that is what I looked like the day the air went out on my way to an afternoon full of appointments. So chic'....

Back to the car shop went my car and back to sharing a truck went Brent and I. But it was OK because we had a nice long weekend planned in Highlands, NC with Brent's high school friends. Three days in the mountains to relax and have fun. All was right in the world until Brent broke his hand. Yep, he broke his hand sliding down a waterfall. He's right handed, so naturally it was his right hand that he injured. Upon returning home, injured and deflated, we realized our upstairs air conditioner wasn't working. Again, it's August in the South so one can live with no air conditioner for about 5 minutes before you are beyond miserable. We had a technician out and long story short, ended up having to bite the bullet and replace the whole unit. You can imagine how happy this made us (lie).

Oooooh, the joys of home owner$hip.

But we were done with our bad luck. We had to be. They say bad things come in three's, so with our third disaster behind us we just knew we were on our way to happier, less expensive times. 

We plan, God laughs right? Days later I walked outside and this is what I saw...

 One of our shutters had completely fallen a part. It was in shambles, just like our life.

Luckily we only have shutters on the front of our house so replacing isn't the end of the world, it just felt like the cherry on top of life as we know it right now. Shutters remind me a lot of eyebrows; you don't  really notice them until they get a bad wax and then it's like " WHOA, what happened there?!" This one busted shutter changes the look of our whole house for the ugly. So getting this situation fixed fast was a must! Of course, like all things when you set out to change/replace something and really start digging in to what you want to do, you realize there are options. Lots and lots of options...

This option is essentially what we have now. A classic shutter - simple, yet sophisticated. If we decide to go back with this option we have to choose between wood shutters like we have now or vinyl shutters sold at Home Depot. The vinyl option is cheaper and may hold up better, but there's something about real wood that I really like. Probably because real wood is more expensive and I just haven't spent enough money lately so I'm feeling the itch to splurge (lie).

These shutters have a very farm house chic vibe' and is something we could probably DIY. I see this shutter style a lot and I like it however, we are not sure if this look is too casual and current/trendy for our 1944 bungalow.

These paneled shutters are also interesting to me. I like the classic look in addition to the fact that you don't see this style as often. I could see these shutters working for our house and I believe there is a vinyl version available at the big box stores in case we want to go with a non-wood option.

Decisions, decisions....

I'm happy to report that things are on the up and up. We are currently car shopping (yay!) Brent is becoming ambidextrous (something to add to his many talents) and I have some fresh new shutters to look forward to. Now if I could only decide which way to go....what do you guys think? Option 1, 2 or 3?

P.S. Thanks for listening reading through my whining. I have to say, blogging about your woes is good therapy, but I promise not to make habit out of it! ;)

Unless otherwise noted all photos are from google search.