A Million Ways to Spend Your Money. . .

Our house, the day we first looked at it in '07

Have you ever noticed that there are infinite ways to spend your money? And often we find ourselves spending on things we need instead of want.  If we are really lucky, we get things we need AND want.  Like our decision this year to hire a yard guy.  The final push occurred when Rob and I were sitting on the rockers on our front porch, just back from a run, enjoying the breeze in early spring, when some of our neighbors strolled past. They clearly did not see us on the porch and went about pointing out particularly shabby sections of our yard and whispering about our lack of maintenance.  I didn't really hold it against them.  It was a shabby eyesore.  And I LIKE yard work.  But despite our hard work in other areas of our lives, the ones that were showing didn't speak well of us. Because there are also only so many hours in a day to spend, and the yard was suffering from low priority. So we hired a yard guy for a surprisingly small amount of money.  Now our lawn stays mowed, our shrubs stay trimmed, and our weeds--well, what weeds?!  Well worth the money.

But I had higher hopes for the yard this year than merely being mowed and edged (though it is a VAST improvement already--I am sure the neighbors will agree!).  I planned to add a archway to the side lane for the kids to use when running to the neighbors, replace a few dead shrubs, and plant a cutting garden in my barren side yard.  If I allowed myself to dream a little, I contemplated putting in a stone patio under the pergola off the back porch.  It looked lovely. . . if only in my mind's eye.

If you look past the stained paint, you can see the grassy area under the pergola section, of which I speak.

As summer got under way, however, it became apparent that our house was in need of a paint job.  The trim paint was thin and peeling in a few places, and the lovely buttery cream body paint was stained and tired.  Dreams of my lovely landscaping dwindled and died. 

After contemplating painting it ourselves, we decided to leave it to the pros and hire someone--and while this may sound like a growing trend. . . well it has been.  We, the-do-it-ALL-yourself-family, have discovered that we can get a lot more done if we occasionally hire some of the work out. 

*gasp*

(I even hired a housekeeper. . .once.  I realized it took me a day of cleaning to get ready for the house keeper. Weird.)

We learned day one of pressure washing that while paint may trump flowers and arbors, roof trumps all. Apparently pretty flowers and fresh paint don't mean a lot if your roof is leaking.  And we were in dire need of a new roof.  So the paint got scratched.  And the next week of sun turned into a tear off and re-roof fiasco which included three hours of rain in the less than 24 hour period when the roof was completely torn off.  Awesome.  Having the pitter patter of rain tease you awake is annoying enough in July--it is particularly irksome when you are indecently exposed overhead.  

And despite "hiring" someone, we still managed to be a large part of the tear off process--Rob even found himself on the roof a couple days.  See little Rob up there, helping paper after the rain cleared?

But now that it is done, we couldn't be more pleased with the outcome.  Our green shutters have gone black and our brown roof has gone charcoal.  I like it.

Maybe next year I will get to landscape. . . or paint my house. . . or maybe something else will crop up and take the cake.  

For now I am just going to sit back and enjoy the fruits of "our" labors.

Just ignore the gap in the wayward front "hedge" I am attempting to grow in front of the porch--that dead bush will be replaced soon--maybe even this year!  Or maybe all the free cash we can scratch up will clothe the girls for school. . .

Sidetracked. . . As Usual

Necessity is the mother of invention. . . or rather, of construction in our case.  At least that's what I call it when a washing machine goes out and it spurs a laundry room makeover.  A deadline helps to.  Of course, that deadline has passed, as has the over zealous gusto with which we started the project.

"We have three days to make over the room before the new washer and dryer get here." got us really going on the project. . . then reality set in and we made sure the floor was done so the washer and dryer would have something to sit on.  Here is where the dilemma of the walls (and the sink/cabinets/shelf) brought this project to a screeching halt.  In typical fashion, we abandoned the project midstream.  Or at least set it aside, missing baseboards and all, while we figured out what to do with it and got on with life.

And by got on with life, I mean we jumped ship onto another project, of course.  I am having flashbacks of working on the garden, deciding the west side yard needed done, which is tied to the east lane gate area project (trust me on that one) so we worked on that area for, oh about an hour, before changing gears and focusing on the tree house for the entire weekend.

Clearly we have issues.

And one of them happened to be an overflowing non-functional under-the-stairs-closet-catchall-black-whole-where-winter-coats-go-in-but-don't-come-out. . . among other things (a couple sewing machines, a couple tubs of fabric, several jackets and backpacks--oh, and the vacuum. . . and carpet cleaner).  I bet you didn't realize a four by four space could hold so much.  My argument was that it really could be holding so much more--if we did something about making the space a little more vertical.  I was thrilled to find my daughter's coat we all took for lost last December.  Though it is less urgent now that it is June. . . or at least it would be if the weather would remember that it IS June.

And since we dove into this project with very little forethought, I have no actual before picture.  So just picture this room without the partially installed shelving and with the aforementioned crap stacked half way up and making a fairly successful attempt to spew out into the hallway. . . or don't, because that probably says something about me as a person.

We installed four 12" shelves, painted the room the same color as the hallway, and the shelves white.

We attempted to move the hooks off the door and onto the wall inside the closet, but of course we only succeeded in making several holes I will now have to repair.

In the meantime, we ran to The Container Store and stocked up on divided organizable storage totes that would fit our shelves and I began sorting.  I started with the sewing stuff, but will likely add some other craft supplies which are currently in my office.

I may need more space. . .

But in the end it looks so much neater. . . and I actually know what is in there.

Plus, as a bonus, I no longer have to shove the door hard and fast to keep the vacuum from bursting back out from lack of floor space.

Now the question is, will our next project be the rest of the laundry room?

Bathroom Sneak Peak

Did your mother ever tell you "Slow and steady wins the race."?  I like to think it's true.

It gives me an excuse for the dreadfully long time each of my projects takes.

Take my master bath for instance. . .

I have been painting my room and bathroom (I believe I first bought paint last November).  It's still not done.  I ran out of paint. . . twice.  I clearly don't plan well.  Actually, I ended up painting the laundry room and powder bath the same color so I needed more paint than I thought.  But somehow the master bath ended up getting painted last, so I still need to finish up the main area of the bathroom--just as soon as I get a couple unclaimed hours (and another bucket of paint). . . whenever that might be.

But since the little toilet and shower room got finished I decided to update it a little.  (Rob's ADD is rubbing off on me).   Ultimately the whole room will get remodeled (new tub, shower, vanity, lights and mirrors, and tile floor), but in the meantime I did an inexpensive little touch up. Because it makes the morning more fun.

We put up new hardware.

And one of those hotel towel racks I love.

And I printed some flower pictures I took last spring.

And put them in silver frames.

One day the whole room will be as fresh as those flowers.

For now I will just close the pocket door and pretend it already is. . .

A Place to Play

My girls are lucky enough to get a whole room just for playing in.  And over time it has become quite filled with toys.  When it is clean all the toys fit nicely into three tubs, the barbie house, and stow away in the dress up chest. . . but they usually aren't stowed away.

They usually seem to multiply like rabbits and mysteriously clutter up the place.  How do you suppose that happens? No one is ever willing to fess up.

 I need a better system.

One that includes a shelf for all their books. . .

Too many toys go "hiding" in the house when it's time to pick up.

And the dress up chest wears as much fancy finery as it stores.

Maybe the barbies are doing it. . . all 36 of them.

Certainly not these two. They don't seem to notice the mess and chaos. They get really excited to play in the room when it is clean, but they certainly don't like to clean it.  I don't really blame them.  Things need a place to go.

Letting go is a bit of an issue. . . For Christmas Santa brought Signe a new barbie house--one more compact, that would sit against a wall and take up less space. . .

Apparently as parents we were thinking crazy to suggest they part with the old house.  I mean really, where did we expect the 36 barbies to live?  They need BOTH houses, of course! Nevermind the dilapidated state of the old one.

It doesn't help when we throw a never used weight set into the mix (you want a weight set? It is on the ax list.  Maybe I can sell it to help fund the "fix up the playroom" project.)

'Cause all this stuff has got to go somewhere, and I prefer it not all over the floor. . .

And it is quite clear the oh-so-attractive bin system isn't working out all that great.

I definitely need a plan. . . or less toys.  And I am open for suggestions. . .

First Impressions

We have a lot of visitors headed our way in the near future. So over the weekend Rob got a bee in his bonnet. The entryway. It needed flipped.

Just to remind you what it looked like before we did the floors last January here is a really before picture. . .

Since then, the rails have remained the orange-ish oak color. . .which I didn't get a good combination picture of, unfortunately. (I always think of these things halfway into the project.)

But here is the entryway today:

Along with the new floors, we put in new baseboards and trim around the doorway into the family room. This weekend we painted the rails black and hung picture frames up the wall.

We first made a trip to good ol' Walmart and loaded up on random frames--and Rob didn't say a word about how many I threw in there. He had suggested we hang three frames up the stairway wall. . .I had other ideas. When I got home with my loot I laid it out on the floor to show him what I had in mind. He had been skeptical, assuring me he was keeping the receipt. But this made him start rethinking his lack of confidence. . .

But of course we had to get it on the wall. I must say this was the most flawless wall hanging experience I have ever had--which is crazy since there are 14 frames--on an angle. But I measured and measured on the floor before we started nailing. This isn't a great picture, but you get the idea. Then I had to find things to put in my empty frames.

And since I take bazillions of pictures the hardest part was finding the right ones. But when you send them to Costco and only pay 20ish bucks for the lot of them, I'm no too worried. I can change them at any time. . .

I think it looks great. And the best part? Rob admitting I was right!

And now look at the view from my office. I get to enjoy our hard work all day long while I remain glued to my office chair. . . doing loads of homework. . . which I must now get back to.

Have you done any fun weekend projects lately?

A Hint of Turquoise

Hannah has been begging for a blue room for a while now. I actually painted her room the same color as the rest of the house last year, which was a taupy off white. But no, she wanted blue. Recently we found some pretty bedding at Target that she loved. It has a light blue turquoise blue quilt and a white comforter with coordinating pillow shams. So I bought it and took it straight to the paint store to match the paint for the walls.

She was so excited she took pictures of me painting her room:

At first it almost seemed to be white, but as the paint dried, a hint of fresh blue appeared.

That dresser will have to go. . .

I even painted the ceiling. . . the chandelier is staying. I brought it from the last house.

The shelves are staying. . .

The color brightened up the room and set the tone for the new look. I can't wait to pull it all together.

My New Favorite Store. . . Craig's List

I have a friend who has nearly furnished her whole house with fabulous finds off craigslist.com.  I had looked on occasion and found nothing nearly as great as some of the things she had found. . . .

. . .until now.

Meet my new farmhouse sink:

Shaw's Original Farmhouse sink!

To make the deal sweeter, I spent about a third of the original price!  Happy day!  I wonder what else I can find. . . 

. . . excuse me while I go shopping.

My Family Room is Making Progress. . .

Here is a picture of my family room after we put up baseboards and painted them and the mantel white.  I love it.  Now if I can just find a way to bury those sconce cords. . .

It's Love. . .

These pictures may look just like the last ones, but now they are done.  and collecting dust like crazy. . . but we won't think about that right now.  Now we will just admire (and try not to notice the continued lack of baseboards and furniture).

We will be returning furniture, putting up baseboards, and painting the mantel this week, so I will post pictures soon with more progress.

Wait for it. . . .

WAIT--before you look at the pictures. . . okay, now that you didn't listen and looked anyway, imagine these lovely dark floors (Which look a little lighter and more varied in person--like the first picture) with white cabinets, and tall white baseboards.  The mantel is getting painted white too.  Oh, and the window trim will be white also.

These are with the first layer of top coat.  He will do two more coats to make it very durable.  I can't wait!

Okay, now tell me what you think so far.  I can take it.  But keep in mind that I love them.  So HA to all the floor places that told us it was too hard to do!

In the heat of the moment. . .

. . .we gutted our office.  In fact, the room was cleared and the carpet was half gone before my brain shouted. . .  "Before pictures!!"  I am sure I have a picture of my office somewhere, but I will have to hunt it down later for the final reveal.  So here is the first "during" picture:

And a few more of the office floor going in:

I decided to paint the room while it was empty.  The new color is called Whispering Wind.

Rather than tearing out the old wood on the threshold and weaving the new boards in we decided to put in threshold board and change directions.  I really like how it turned out.

We had hardwood in a large portion of the house but wanted to add it to the entire main floor.  It is 3/4" thick red oak.  We added more of the same with the idea of refinishing them in a really dark stain.

Midway we realized we bought more wood than the office needed so we tore out our family room carpet. (The idea was to do that floor--and the living room--when we re-do the kitchen in a couple months, but spontaneity's a good thing. . .right?)  Anyway, too late now.  

More pictures of the progress:

The living room will have to wait, however, because it currently looks like this:

We rented an orbital sander to remove the old finish and prepare the wood for stain.  

12 hours later we called it a day.

Here is a little of Rob's handy work. The marble on the fireplace surround was lower than the wood, so Rob made a frame with strips of oak and beveled the edge that butted up against the marble.  I love it.

We had a dark stain mixed up and tested it under our fridge.  First coat. . . too light.

Second coat. . . too heavy--and not drying well.

Panic sets in. . .phone calls are made.  Three wood finishers turn us down saying dark stains are too hard (what were we thinking?  Oh yeah, I think it was something like, "We can do anything!").  Moving on. . . breathing deeply. . . finding acceptance.  Better to have fabulous floors than not needing to say "I did it myself" due to the obviously unprofessional job.  Besides we did a lot ourselves.  

So reinforcements arrive tomorrow.  He is going to use Glitsa Stain in Sable with three layers of Swedish Finish.  Wish us luck!