changes

changing things up. thats what we have been doing lately. from diets to me getting lasik things are a changing. the BIGGEST and MOST TIME CONSUMING change we have made is in our dining & living rooms, hallway and entry way.

yes, we havent lived in our house very long. just a few years. and yes we originally painted these rooms tan to match the carpets. but then we painted the rest of the house. and pretty much the rest of the upstairs turned out to be different shades of gray. cuz i love me some gray. so i figured, why should our walls match our carpet when our furniture doesnt match anything? (turquoise/aqua tv stand and green plaid couches thank you very much) sooooooo i convinced my mom and sister to come up and paint. ok so kenz didnt really paint which was perfect cuz she watched claire.

when i originally brought up the idea to the hubs, his first response was no. because it will look like a prison. (he said he liked the gray in all the other rooms but those didnt look like a prison to him)

please take note of the beams. those pesky beams waaaaaaay high up. yup. that amazing-ness is all thanks to my mom. shes not afraid of heights and thankfully was up on the ladder painting those things. ugh. i was sore just watching her! heres to hoping i dont change my mind in another 2-3 years. haha! 

i love it. now we just gotta find some new curtains...carpet....and couches...some day...and maybe spray paint the frames in the frame wall to make em really pop, who knows.

light update

remember when my mom got a new laminate floor? and that made me want a new floor? and that made me want to get back on the "update our house" bandwagon again? ie i think of great ideas, try convince the hubs we NEED to make this change and then have him do the update? yah. so do i. 

this update was a quick one. change a light fixture. specifically the one in our upstairs hallway. i think the hubs is getting good and changing light fixtures. which is good because we still have a few to change downstairs.

before:

after:

now if we could only agree on flooring for our kitchen/dining room...

entry way

thanks to some painting from my mom, we finished our entry way table thingy. and our entry way in general. the hubs used his carpentry skills to build this based off a plan online.

and heres the view from our stairs. sorry for the mess on the right. its full of shoes, the entry way bench we made a while back and the coat hanger. we arent exactly 100% sure what we will store in the table thingy but im sure we will come across something to put in there. besides hats, gloves and mittens. oh yah, right to the right of the door are two recycling bins from ikea the we use to store shoes. seriously i dont know how we have so many shoes but we have a lot.

christmas vacation

sorta. ive got a few days off these week before working the christmas weekend so ive decided to make list. now whos surprised that i would make a list? no one. and i figure publishing this list online for the world to see will give us some accountability on actually getting the stuff done. right? right...thats what i hope at least. so heres the list of projects to tackle after the holidays (in no particular order)

1. make a bench for the entry way *
2. make a shelf thing for the entry way *
3. make a console table for under the dining room window *
4. prime the upstairs room
5. pick a paint color for the upstairs room & paint it
6. fill last few empty frames in frame wall
7. organize basement storage room/bedroom
8. finish framing new windows *
9. paint window moldings
10. make a "gift wrap" center/door/something

oh yeah, and make a new list of resolutions. or maybe just do one of these projects a month?!? with two months as breaks??? lol who knows...

*da hubs has to do these... hope thats ok with him! hes seeing the list for the first time...just like all of you ;)

dresser re-do, part 2

we finally got the dresser-turned-tv-stand completed. thanks to those who guessed the color...but no one guessed correctly. turns out some are a bit more excited about the color choice than others, or maybe it was just a surprise color choice? who knows. i believe the color was called caribbean blue. or something like that.  so...without further ado... here are some pictures...

and check out this size difference. the little teeny tiny black thing in front of the new tv stand, was our old one. crazy how small it actually was...

also, dont you think the new blue tv stand fits the space a lot better?! cuz i do. now that this project is complete...we just have a few more to finish up. next up: kitchen.

finally...privacy...

we officially have privacy in our living room. wahoo! our seamstress returned from vacation in cali and got our curtains done in no time flat.  add a curtain rod and some ring clips and we've got one of a kind curtains! and a few days later our blinds finally shipped and were at our doorstep. check em out:

my favorite project...

i alluded to my favorite part of the house so far. which also happens to be my favorite project. wanna see a picture? wanna see a picture that isnt full of random squares of newspapers taped to a wall???

its not 100% complete yet, we still have to fill some frames up, but i LOVE it. have i mentioned that before? if not, I LOVE IT! we have pictures of family, friends, scraps of old wallpaper that we painstakingly removed, art work, a mirror and 9 empty frames. a little bit of everything.

ps ill take any sort of recommendations on what to fill the frames up with.

no privacy here...

i dont even know how long we have been living without curtains in our living room and dining room. ill be honest, its been pretty awkward. since lots of people are out and about when the weather is nice, there is a lot of activity going on outside our living room on the road & sidewalks. sometimes it makes for some pretty AWKWARD eye contact with complete strangers.

besides people walking and biking ive also seen some other interesting things happening in the street. ive seen a funeral procession with classic cars & trucks. and just a few days ago i saw a van drive by really slowly. i peaked over to see if there was an accident or anything and nothing. about a minute later the van was followed by about 20 native americans riding horses. and i have no idea why.

anyways, back to the no curtain thing. its been a loooong time. of no privacy. but we are in the process of changing that. we ordered some blinds for the large living room window & bought fabric for that (just waiting for my seamstress to come back from california to get those done :) hehe)

but we were able to score some pre-made curtains for the dining room. especially since they were on sale (you know the hubs & i love a good deal) they were marked down from $25 a panel to $15. not too shabby. until we got up the register. they rang up for $5 a piece. no complaints there.

so now that you know what our dining room curtains look like, any guesses on colors for the living room? yes, i did say colors. as in more than one.

the dreaded panther picture...

thought you might like an update on that dreaded panther picture. you know, the one that is a constant disagreement between us?!? ya, it found a new home. and unfortunately it wasnt in the dumpster.

but its not in the house. so thats a blessing (for me) but the hubs is still happy because he gets to see it every day. when he is leaving for work. and coming home. thats cuz its in the garage. wahoo!

dont worry though. i get to look at something too on my way to work and at home. and again, im not too excited about it. but the hubs is, cuz he found it for free. enough said.

house update...

we have been a bit busy lately doing some more house projects and this picture pretty much sums it all up. well, sorta i guess.

we finally put the trim/baseboards back up and then put the chair rail back up too. it definitely looks a lot more put together.  dont you think?

and then the doors. we got some used 6 panel, solid core doors from restore. (a store where people can donate used housing items which are then resold with profits going to habitat for humanity) honestly i thought it would be a pretty easy & quick project. however i was proven wrong. which doesnt happen very often. hehe. anyways, it turns out measuring where the hinges go, the door knob and all that stuff was a wee bit more time consuming than i thought. oh well, end of story...after living without doors up for a few weeks, we finally have new ones hung up. and i really really really like em :)

and we can't forget my new favorite part of the house. maybe even more than our bedroom. those newspapers are placeholders for a large gallery/frame wall. we are still adding some last minute frames so ill try post a picture soon. but i really really really like it. the stuff in the frames are just meaningful things to us. pictures of friends, family, artwork and some other things. anyways...if anyone has some suggestions, we have a few empty frames yet...so let us know!

and last but not least...i tried a new recipe. apple cake. cake batter layered with layers of cinnamon sugar apples drizzled with a carmel mixture. delicious. and this is coming from someone who hates fruit. granted, it was surrounded in other unhealthy things (sugar) but still. i forgot to take a pic of the cake with the drizzle, so you are just left with the cake cooling.

its about time...

please say hello to my new friends: flagstone, olivia, pip and goodwill. you might better know them as the paint color, drapes, carpeting and chair/side table. want to see what they look like?

oh pip. how we have waited and waited and waited for you to come. i love it. and its super soft. who knew martha stewart could make good carpet?

we found this chair & side table at goodwill. its currently in the process of being reupholstered. you shoulda seen me at the fabric store, i think i had officially decided on THE fabric about 8 different times. whoops. you know me and my lack of decision making skills.

we probably also forgot to mention our new blinds. actually i think they are called cellular shades. i really like these. the hubs installed them in no time. they are really good at keeping the room dark; especially important when working nights. and check out that new lampshade. that project was a bit more time consuming than the shades but the hubs didnt have any problems with that. besides a wife who was really overly nervous about her hubs getting shocked and worrying about what his heart rhythm could end up being...oh the life of a cardiac nurse. worrying about the silliest things.

also of note...we are actually living in our bedroom now! :) we spent the last week getting everything moved back in, putting our closet organizers back in, moving clothes and so much more. we have yet to hang stuff on the wall but that wont take long to do. AAAAAAAAAAAAND we finally get to use the bedding from our wedding registry. wahoo! only 9 months late.

small changes...

as we are patiently waiting for our carpet to be installed we have accomplished a few smaller projects. these were pretty inexpensive but they also made a big impact. at least in my book.

the first project is the master bedroom ceiling fan. it was brass. our curtain rods were more silver. the hubs thought we should look into getting a new one. i thought about googling. and i won. a simple coat or two of spray paint made it look a lot newer and fit right in with our curtain rods. i didnt take a before shot (i know shame on me) but i took a picture of our dining room fan which looks pretty much the same to show you a comparison. check em out:

our second project was even cheaper. just needed some manual labor. provided of course by the handy hubs.

have no fear. that shelf was repurposed into the garage. and whenever we decide to tackle the kitchen our thoughts right now would be some floating shelves. to display things. to be determined things. thankfully we have a few more projects lined up before the kitchen so we have some time to figure it out.

our beloved flagstone

Flagstone, say what? It’s also known as Olympic Flagstone in Satin. Yup, it’s a paint color. The paint color of our master bedroom. I know it hasn’t even been a month, but it kinda already seems like we have been working on the master bedroom for a really long time. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it…but at the same time its fun to see things come together aaaaaaaaaaand I think the hubs is excited the painting is done in there :)

The next steps…well a bit of a break. Theres a bake sale at work that needs baked goods and then an Easter celebration this weekend. After the break, the next steps will be finding carpet…fabric for curtains and then moving everything in.

honey do list

i figured if i had to work nights this weekend...someone should be productive and my vote was for the hubs. looks like he won (or lost i guess depending on how you look at it) but it turns out he was super productive. we now have newly painted & hung address numbers on the outside of our house, new motion detector lights in the garage, and some more logical electrical outlets. (i was going a wee bit crazy using upside down outlets and flip flopped outlets ...ie having the fan switch closest to the door instead of the light switch) he also took out some baseboards so we can start painting the living/dining room. he even took out the tiny laundry chute and patched it up.

dont worry though. he did get some time to relax. he went on a motorcycle ride and found some pretty interesting things on the side of the road. apparently we are now the proud owners of an old sewing machine & table (i hope this isnt his way of hinting that he wants me to start sewing) and some sort of light up christmas yard decoration. (i know you all are jealous)

OH YEAH, i almost forgot. we kinda fell in love with flagstone too. wanna sneak peak?!?

lazy but happy...

yes i admit that i am lazy when it comes to certain things. mainly just concerning physical activities. like lifting heavy items. like a garage door. so since the previous owners took their garage door openers leaving us with none, i just parked out in the driveway and complained to dave about every day :) so this past weekend when my parents came up to help, i became a happy girl. because the hubs and my dad installed garage door openers. heres a great action shot of the hubs

my dad even helped us get a good start on putting together the grill...we cant wait to use it...and with the weather we have been having lately, im sure it wont be long. anyone wanna come for a bbq?

and of course i couldnt wait too long to break in the baking here at the house. so as a thank you to the hubs for all the help so far/all my crazy decorating ideas i constantly throw at him i made some toffee bars for him, one of his favorite (thanks for the recipe kelly) and i guess it helps too that i also like them, so a reward for both of us then?!?

prime time...

this past weekend my parents came up once again to help with projects around the house. my mom and i were able to prime the master bedroom and some of the living/dining room. my shoulders & back are definitely still feeling the burn...

even though the pink walls & red/maroon/whatever color it is carpet dont really go together, i think it looks a lot better without the wallpaper and green drapes. but the white walls (aka just an uneven coat of primer) looks way better. i love seeing the progress!