ROAD TRIP! Habitat for Humanity House REVEAL from #GMCHTA

Beware. This post is going to be loooong. I will try and be as concise as possible, but I want to share all the things {all the things my heart felt, all the things I experienced, all the places, all the feelings…etc}. 

In short. I loved this opportunity. It’s called the GMC Hidden Treasure Adventure. That’s what #GMCHTA is all about. Thank you GMC for inviting me. Thank you to Habitat for Humanity-Dekalb for working with us!

You guys, I got to travel, in style btw, with the best group of bloggers ever. I love them all, and we had a blast together. I got to help an amazing family, and I got to shop the world’s longest yard sale too. It was awesome. 

Meet the Yaro family {who I also introduced in this video yesterday …er the other day}. Sorry this post is a day or two behind.  Whoopsie. Forgive me? 

Now that we are friends again, let me tell you about the experience.

Just looking at these pictures bring tears to my eyes. You guys. I love this family. I got to talk to them for nearly 20 minutes before the reveal took place because they arrived a bit early. I just happened to be outside, and we definitely didn’t want them to go inside yet, so I stood outside and kept them company while we waited for their ceremony to begin. 

Mr. Yaro is a college student studying Computer Technology, and Mrs. Yaro is a stay at home mom who fixes cracked device screens after her kids go to bed. Their beautiful daughter Yassine is 11 and loves drawing, gymnastics and pink. Little Elias {pronounced Ee-lee-us} is nearly two years old and is obsessed with soccer “foot ball” as they called it. He was my bud right from the start and his little brown eyes melted my soul. 

The Yaros moved to the US in 2007 as refugees from the Ivory Coast. Mr. Yaro speaks excellent english, but Mrs. Yaro had a hard time understanding me at times. Yassine was a pro. 

It was amazing to be able to spend time with them. I love that I got to participate in this event! GMC is such a great partner to give bloggers like me the chance to help impact a family’s life like this. The Yaros didn’t know we were decorating and furnishing their house, so when they walked in, it was really special. 

Every single blogger did a phenomenal job decorating their rooms. I was actually a mentor this year, so I wasn’t assigned a room. I got to help wherever I was needed, and I got to help purchase a larger item that I’ll tell you about in a minute or two. 🙂 

If you have never heard of the World’s Longest Yard Sale, you are missing out. It should definitely be on your bucket list ESPECIALLY if you like yard sales. It begins in Michigan and it ends in Gadsen Alabama. The house we decorated was on the outskirts of Atlanta. We traveled around 1,000 miles on this road trip. 

Michael from Inspired by Charm decorated Elias’ room. Since Elias and I are bffs I thought I would start by showing you his space first.  Michael is a stud by the way. He’s down to earth, funny, and just plain fun to be around. He and Dusty from All Things G&D and I rode together. It was a BLAST. 

The beds were donated by John Miles Chevrolet a local Atlanta GMC dealership. 

Didn’t Michael hit it out of the park with this darling room!!?!

To see his post of Elias’ perfect boy room, and for more details, visit Michael’s blog. 

Rhoda from Southern Hospitality decorated the dining room! The family information sheet mentioned that they loved white, black, orange and green. She did a fabulous job! 

The dining room table that she bought on the yard sale was in immaculate condition! She reupholstered the seats of the chairs, but that’s it! 

To read more details about Rhoda’s amazing dining room design, check out her blog. 

The living room was decorated by Ashley from Simply Designing.  That coffee table looks like it’s straight out of a Restoration Hardware magazine. 

She totally made the coffee table too. She found two trays that were used as farm equipment of some sort and she refinished the wood by sanding it and sealing it, painted the steel, and welded the two together with JB Weld. <–affilate link, just keeping it real. 

Pictures do not do the coffee table justice. It was so great.The couches were also donated by John Miles Chevrolet. She incorporated the green and orange too. 

Megan, our fearless GMC leader was a rockstar and made this wall art. She deserves her very own shout out. Isn’t she a doll!?! Ashley designed the art and set her to work. She lined up paint chips perfectly and randomly to create this darling display. 

Ash is a beauty inside and out. Check out her post for more details on this colorful living room design on her blog.

Dusty from All Things G&D decorated Yassine’s room. She loves art, and Dusty created the perfect space for her to draw at her darling little desk nook. 

As you can tell by Yassine’s face, she was in LOVE with her room. 

I found these cute colored pencils for Yassine at HomeGoods. I couldn’t resist! 

And I printed this fun free printable {after altering the colors}. Printable from Upcycled Treasures. 

Dusty took on the most projects of anyone, and her room was so darn cute because of her hard work. 

Look at that cute gate she used to hold pictures and such! 

Here is a better look at the fun green gate, and Yassine’s reaction to her room was priceless. 

Lucy from Lucy Inspired and HGTV’s Beach Flip decorated the kitchen! She put up paintable bead board wallpaper in the kitchen and it was amazing how much different it made the kitchen feel! It was night and day. It added texture and character. I loved it. 

She decorated with wooden accents throughout her space and it was so homey and inviting. 

I got her a picture of the family to hang in her kitchen. It made me happy to contribute that small item! Isn’t that rolling cart so so good!?! 

Elias loved the play food in the baskets! He and I gobbled up the food for a little while. 🙂

Sarah from Nestr’s and HGTV Beach Flip decorated the master bedroom. 

She did a great job, and I loved the mixes of old and new items throughout her space. 

For more details of this space, check out Sarah’s post. 

Last but not least, the laundry room was decorated by Michael. I wouldn’t normally make a big deal of a laundry room, but that beautiful drier was my main contribution on this project. I wish I would have been filming the Yaros when they saw it. It made me cry. Mrs. Yaro was so surprised and she was teary when she saw it. We had heard through the grapevine that they needed a drier. So, instead of buying them one that would possibly break in a month or two, we splurged and got them this nice brand new drier from Lowes. 

 

Out of all the rooms in the house, this one is definitely my favorite of all of them because of how Mrs. Yaro reacted. It was beautiful. 

Thank you for following along on our journey. I am so grateful that I got to be a part of it. It’s my favorite blog event. Not exaggerating. It’s honestly the best. Thank you again GMC! And for the record, a GMC Denali Yukon XL is my dream vehicle. You can’t let me drive one for an entire week and expect me to not fall in love with it. Plus since this is my fourth year in a row on this event… the love just deepens every year. 

I will add a few of my periscope videos below for you to see part of the shopping experience on the world’s longest yard sale. Follow me on periscope for some fun upcoming broadcasts too! If you don’t know what periscope is, don’t worry you are not alone. I’m new to it too! Basically it’s live broadcasting. If you follow me, you will be notified when I go live and you can comment and ask questions during the broadcast. I’m getting better at it, and it’s kinda fun! Follow me at allthingsthrift! 

xoxo,

Brooke

I was not compensated to be a part of this event, but my travel and accomodations were taken care of.