much better

Here is a *little* better (terrible clutter around--I'm working on that!), more recent (as in, today!), most everything (except the crown molding and mantel!) picture of the room. And a little extra cutie in there too!

A family room we want to be together in!

This project has been semi-finished for a few months now, but I've been a little embarrassed about the blog's appearance. It wasn't looking so nice. I've made some changes! Little by little, I'm learning how to change things up around here. I decided if I was going to do this bloggin' thing as regularly as I have, I may as well learn the tricks to make it look perty! This blog was the perfect place to test out my skills. Check back for more changes and more projects completed.

We knew that this room would need some work when we bought the house, but it really wasn't the plan to complete it so soon. With a need to move some furniture around, it became obvious this room's remodel would be a priority. The hideous paneling is gone, replaced by dry wall and a beautiful blue paint. The nasty carpet is replaced with TrafficMaster's Allure (Teak Color) Resilient Vinyl plank flooring. Great stuff for a basement! We plan to continue it in Chad's room, his bathroom, and the laundry room. Eventually. The top of the fireplace has been enclosed by a nice wood bead-board paneling painted white.

Here are the pictures of our progress. Enjoy and stay tuned for the finishing touches (crown molding, a new mantel, and some fun mantel decor)! We've also painted the doors black and replaced the hardware.


Totally unexpected labor of love behind that there wall! It was a beast to take it down, but he did it with a smile (and some muscle too). :)



The pile of wall on the floor! That's how it came off -- one small chunk at a time. Bleh!



Pretty drywall! Lots of patience behind that wall, but what an accomplishment.



Bead board is up on the wall. The way the previous owners put in the new wall make it impossible for us to put drywall around the bedroom door. Our solution was this paneling that looks pretty nice, if I say so myself!



Improvement at the fireplace!






A finished floor. There are baseboards around the edges too that aren't pictured! I guess it's time for another photo shoot --- but I must finish the fireplace first.

We have a kitchen table, and it's a beauty!

I didn't even realize that Ryan had posted something about the attic until about three weeks AFTER he'd done it. The space is now FULL, with plans to extend a little for more storage. He really did a great job on this project! He's been finishing around the stairs/door in the hallway, and that looks amazing too. Once it's all painted and beautiful, we'll post another picture. It will have to wait until after the cruise though! :)

Many have asked about the table, and here it is! Ryan has always loved to work with tools but has never really put into practice what he can do. With a lot of encouragement and some loving threats (like "I'll just do it myself!") he decided he was up for the job. I could not have done it better, so I'm glad he decided to beat me to the punch on this! He also built a nifty bench for the little ones (he left the sewing to me though!). "E" especially loves this and almost always refuses to sit in his own buckle-down seat.

We have since acquired two additional older chairs from secondhand stores. It's a fun old barn house feel. Exactly what I want! There are so many other fun projects in the works. Can't wait to get to them someday, but for now I'm doing one at a time. Enjoy the pics!

More storage space!

As the list of projects for the house continues to grow, we do eventually get some of them done. Today we were able to complete the attic floor that will allow us to have our garage back as we can put all the "stuff" up and out of sight. The house only had a very small attic entrance so I had to cut a hole in the hallway ceiling and install a ladder. Due to the old nature of the house there were some issues with things being square, but after much measuring and cutting things worked out! Once the ladder was installed it was on to the floor. I have done this before, so I was able to knock this out in a timely manner. It is always fun to see the project go from the drawing board to reality as you work through it. Below are some of the pictures of the floor that will now house our buckets of "stuff."

Oh So Pretty!

The house is painted...WAHOO! We have a few areas of touch-up still to do, but really, I'm done. I don't know if I could see another paintbrush for quite some time. Say, spring? Or three years from now maybe? I am just thankful it's done and looks a whole lot better than it did. Here are the pictures that pretty much tell the story.

I have been wanting to take pictures of the house for a few days, but the leaves were everywhere in the front yard and I didn't want a picture with nasty leaves all over the ground. Silly, I know. E and I went out with the rake this morning and cleaned what we could. I only cleaned about half the front yard, and this is the pile we made. There are about this many more still out there. Anyone up to raking leaves? I'll even let you jump in them!


This is our front entry. It looks very bland right now because I'm just not sure what I want to do with it. I am tossing around a few ideas and will post an updated look when it's done, probably next spring or summer. :)


We put the new mailbox in a few months ago, but I haven't included pictures. The old one was a black box on a pole that was falling over towards the street. It was not cemented in and could be yanked right out of the ground. Pathetic, I know. We love this and it matches the color of the door!


These next few are just different angles of the house. The bonsai looking trees will be gone in the spring. We are going to redo the flower beds all along the front of the house, but winter is setting in (and life is just plain ol' hectic!) so not much will get done before spring now.


This picture doesn't look so green as the others, but it is a pale green color. To be specific, it is olive grey. (See the leaves that still need raking?!)


A side view with the chimney. We are looking forward to using our two fireplaces this winter!


Full view from the other side of the yard. If you want to see before pictures, click HERE! Again, bonsai looking trees will be GONE in spring. ICK! What were they thinking?! We live in Missouri, people! This is the side that we raked this morning. Looks so much nicer without all those leaves!

Lighting that just looks better!

While you patiently wait (HA!) for pictures of our painted house, I thought I'd share a little (ok, not as little as we originally anticipated, but smaller than the painting of the house. That counts, right?) project that Ryan and I conquered last week. He was off for Veteran's Day, so I took advantage. :) If you have been to our house, you may have noticed the not-so-pretty (and we found out, not so lightweight either...UGH!) chandelier that lit our dining room. We have replaced about a gazillion light bulbs in this thing since we moved in (and if you remember this, we've only been here about 5 months!). The owners said it was antique. If you know me, you know I LOVE antiques, but this one has not been in my realm of like since the day we moved in.


What I would REALLY love is something like this chandelier from Pottery Barn, but that pricetag would NEVER fit our budget, not even if he was a doctor. A light fixture is NOT worth that much! So, I've been on the hunt for something...anything, really. I just didn't want this thing up any longer!

Here comes the story of my $10 light fixture! While out yardsaling a couple months ago there was a light in a box marked FREE! My favorite price. I figured if I couldn't use it that I could give it away for free to someone else. It was worth the grab! This is what I found:


Yep, it's a contractor grade light fixture with absolutely NO character. Nothing that a little bit of paint and rewiring can't fix! This is what we did to it:

My wanna-be electrician. He's gonna be a pro when I'm done with him! :) I think the tongue trick helped.

All the bits and pieces. We only had one little nut left when we were done. Have NO idea where it goes, but who cares! The thing works and looks great!


My funny little guy! He had to try the light on too. Too bad he doesn't have the tongue out like Daddy.


The finished product! What do you think?!

We are painting ... forever painting ...

Before we bought the house, we decided that one of the first things we would do is give the outside a new coat of paint. We asked the owners when they last painted it and were informed it was "just last year so you shouldn't need to paint for a while." HA --- If your house was this color ALL OVER, what would you do??? Peach just doesn't seem like the "in" color ... something just tells me we're past the peach days (although in Brigham City they still have Peach Days, don't they? Maybe this house color belongs THERE!) ...




So, paint it is! We bought the paint back in September when it was on sale at M. We knew at the time that we didn't want to be outside painting because it was so hot, but we wanted to get a good deal and save a little on the overall cost. We knew the weather would be changing soon, so we waited. Who knew buying almost 10 gallons of paint could be so burdensome on ones mind?!

We I were stressing that it wouldn't get done, but about two weeks ago we could see the weather was going to be beautiful for the weekend, so out came the paint and paint brushes. Thinking this would be a weekend project, out we went. WOW ----- what a chore!!! Having never painted a house before, we had NO idea how much work it would be. Painting a room is one thing, but painting the outside of a house is something totally different!

This project has brought a few challenges but nothing we can't handle. HA! I have to laugh at that last statement because about a week and a half ago I really didn't think I could handle the stress that was happening. To put it simply (because you don't want to the extended version ... it's one of my long winded stories!) the company (or M ... as I so lovingly call it!) we originally bought the paint from (who so nicely told us we'd only need one coat -- yeah, more like THREE!) could NOT match their own paint color that they so nicely mixed for us on September 9th along with all the other paint we are using. It brought on some extreme stress at the time, but S-W came to save the day. They did an amazing job matching our paint and sending me on my way!

Here are some before and progress pictures, in case you are interested! Ryan is taking Thursday and Friday off of work to hopefully finish this monster project. I'll post complete pictures then, but for now... ENJOY!

Entry Before


Side Yard Before


Ryan with his little helper making sure all the dirt is gone!


Some of you asked about the fence, so here it is! We love it (as do the dogs)!


PROGRESS!

More PROGRESS!

In these pictures you can see the new main and trim color, as well as the old peach and brick. I think it looks pretty good. What do you think?