House Progress...

This weekend Bob was able to work on the stairs. We still have to caulk and install the baseboards but things look much better. Here are some pictures.

Before

After (ignore the construction supplies on the shelves.)

Temple Couches...

Yesterday Bob and I left the kids at home with Allie and a babysitting friend so that we could go to the temple and then to IKEA. (It was wonderful to be in the temple on the Saturday before Christmas.) We took out all the back seats in the van so that we could get a new couch for upstairs at IKEA. (Our old one from the first days of our marriage was falling apart.) The main part of the couch came brilliantly packed in a large box. The fabric slipcover came in a separate small box. Bob assembled it last night.

The little girls woke up early this morning and we went upstairs to see the new charcoal gray couch. I excitedly asked Sydney if she liked it. She said, "No. I think you should take it back to the temple and get a new one!"

$ Saving Project...

This is our current laundry room set-up. We dream of having nice cabinets and a real counter in here (like we had in Nebraska). It wasn't in our budget when we built the house so this has been our temporary set-up. It works great. I am blessed to have a large laundry room and these tables are fantastic for the functionality of folding clothes and storing them until someone puts them away. Usually both tables are stacked full of clean clothing.

This spring I got tired of looking at the mess under the tables. I started dreaming again of some white cabinets and a counter to hide it all. We got more money back in our tax return than expected and I seriously considered getting cabinets (priced Ikea and Lowes). Then I got the idea to make curtains for the tables. It would cost significantly less and would do the main job I want cabinets to do - hide the junk. We took the tax money and bought patio furniture (which we are enjoying IMMENSELY!) instead.Last weekend my mom started the laundry table curtains and I finished them last night.
I bought sticky back Velcro and put the scratchy side on the underside of the table. The soft side sticks right to the fabric edge and they hang beautifully. I'm really happy with my cheap fix!

Why I took a blogging break...

So the last month or more has been filled with projects around here. I am really feeling a push to get as many things done around the house as I can before school lets out in 3 weeks and before baby comes 7 weeks after that. May has been my month to finish up house things and I figure June and July will be my months to get ready for baby - make some blankets, burp cloths, set up crib, etc.

I also put some effort into scrapbooking. I finally TOTALLY finished my Project 365 book from last year. It was really fun to work on but it definitely took some time. I'm taking a more laid back approach this year on my Project Life album. I did do one week of intense picture taking and journaling (inspired by Ali Edwards) and I had fun with that.

Here are some of the other projects we have been busy with.

I made Allie some new pajama pants thanks to a tutorial from Handmade Mommy and a variation done by Summer. This is the first time I have ever made something for one of us to wear as clothing. I was pretty happy - it was a big accomplishment. Yesterday I also made her some PJ shorts (no ruffles or pictures this time - too much work).
I've had the idea for awhile to make fabric panels to cover up the mess under part of my desk in the office. I made six panels (only 5 are shown here). I used some white fabric I had purchased a few years ago to make Roman shades in Allie's room in Nebraska. I still haven't made Roman shades. : ) I attached them with Velcro to the metal support bar at the bottom of the desk. I'm so happy that they cover my junk now!

Before

After

My mom was here this weekend and she helped me start making similar panels for my laundry room. I have to get some more fabric and make two more panels. I'll post pictures here when I'm done.

And on to the BIGGEST project of the year. BEDS. We needed two twin beds for the boys' room. We looked online at different options and didn't find anything that we loved AND could afford. Bob has all these word-working tools and has been wanting to make things for our house for awhile now. I decided that making beds would be a great place to start. We found plans we liked on Knock Off Wood (love this site!) and felt empowered to make them.

I sent Bob to the store with the plans that include everything you need to buy on April 17. He painstakingly picked out each piece and returned home with it all that evening (just in time to shower so we could host dinner group).

He took off on April 23 and worked on building 2 headboards and 2 footboards that Friday and Saturday. He ran into a few small problems but got them built!
While he was building, I was busy in the other garage spray painting. I painted some picture frames and some metal things we had (used to be brown then black and now COLORS).
The kids helped a little that day filling in the nail and screw holes with wood filler.During the next week, I spent a lot of time sanding down all the pieces and getting them painted a medium brown. Luckily the weather was nice and I enjoyed my time listening to Kris Allen music and working away.
At the end of the week Bob built one of the beds in the boys' room. After having them in the room, I realized that the paint alone was too flat and boring. I started experimenting with some techniques to give them a little more character. First I tried a brown glaze but the results were not as subtle as I was hoping for.

Next I tried rubbing on a dark walnut stain and rubbing it right off. I really liked the look of this technique. So that's what I did. Wearing rubber gloves, I rubbed on the stain with some old socks and immediately rubbed it off with a rag. Then I let it dry for 24 hours. I then painted on a polycrylic to finish it off. This step was incredibly frustrating and challenging. If the polycrylic got on thick or dripped even for a second, the stain went with it and left a lighter spot. It was tricky and I didn't like it. My family and friends convinced me that it looked great (maybe even better since it wasn't totally uniform) and I proceeded on. The final coat was round 2 of polycrylic - this time much easier because the stain didn't budge. If there is a next time I think I am will try rubbing on diluted dark brown paint instead of stain. I think it will give a similar look and not be as frustrating. I was going to try that with the second bed but decided I better stick to the same plan if I wanted them for sure to be uniform.

This is a picture right after we finished the first bed. You can see the difference between the finished headboard and the simply painted one. I also sanded down some edges before I put the stain on so that the wood would soak up the dark stain and give another layer of dimension. All of the final finish work was done in their room so the boys have been displaced for 2 weeks or more.
I can not tell you how HAPPY I am to have these beds finished. The boys are really excited too. They slept in their room again last night together for the first time. Here is a picture of their room a few weeks ago. Parker's new little mattress on the floor was VERY attractive.This shows Caden's bed since we moved into the house - a flowery box spring and mattress on the floor.
Here is a picture of their room today. The little nightstand that we just purchased no longer fits next to Caden's bed (didn't anticipate that) so it has a new home by the window. You can also see the beginning of a brown stripe on the wall. I am going to put a vinyl stripe all around the room soon. There was NO WAY I was going to paint a stripe so I'm REALLY excited about doing it with vinyl.
It's probably not fair that the before picture is so messy and the after is clean. Dramatic effect right? It really does feel SO much more put together in there now that they have real matching beds. I think Bob and I were a pretty good team on this project. I'm not really excited about the idea of building with power tools and the figuring involved and he is NOT interested in the finish work. We both had moments of excitement and complete frustration with this project but overall we are really happy we did it!

I think that is all for now. That was a LONG post!

Musical rooms...

Last year I witnessed my friend Brandy change up the sleeping situation in her house regularly. She had 3 kid bedrooms and an office that she reconfigured many times as the sleeping needs of her 4 kids changed. She would get it all arranged only to change it a few months later as things changed with her growing kids.

I feel like I'm mirroring her. I think I've got things all figured out only to have them change. Here is what has transpired so far. Before we moved into this house, each of the kids had their own room. They seemed happy that way. We have 3 kid bedrooms in this house, so I planned one for each of the kids. I bought some things to decorate and painted the rooms accordingly. This was the plan.

Room 1 - Pinkish Red with pink and white - Allie - white twin bed
Room 2 - Tan with greens and browns - Caden - twin bed
Room 3 - Light blue with brown and bright blue - Parker - queen bed

Soon after we moved in, Caden was not sleeping in his room. He would either be on the floor in our room or on the floor in Parker's room. We decided to go ahead and put his bed in with Parker and they have enjoyed sharing a room to sleep. Luckily the quilt I bought him had a green and brown side so we use the brown side to match Parker's brown quilt. Caden's clothes and laundry basket were still in room 2 and we still called it his room.

In anticipation of the baby and to ease the laundry situation, I moved all of Caden's clothes into Parker's room making it even more of a shared room. Until recently this is what the rooms looked like.

Room 1 - Allie's room

Room 2 - Legoland (and there are a LOT of Legos), extra furniture storage (2 dressers, our old kitchen/craft table, a brown recliner, and our old coffee table), and future nursery.I think these pictures were taken when all my family was gone for the week. Usually the floor and all hard surfaces of this room are covered with Lego stuff.

Room 3 - Boy's room with a twin and queen bed and upright dressernow this is the floor that is covered in Lego love

So this weekend the boys decided to move all of the Legos into their bedroom. There is not a lot of room to play in this room with their two beds taking up so much space. This probably needs to be permanent home to their Lego collection and so we are trying to figure out how to make it work. Here is our plan.

Room 1 - Allie's room - this probably would have made the best place for the nursery but that would require more work than I am willing to put in especially if we have another boy - besides it is the only room in the house that has actually been fully decorated.
Room 2 - future nursery/guest room - queen bed and crib in here - get rid of one dresser and the old table
Room 3 - buy another twin bed, maybe bunk beds and turn this fully into the BOYS room - Legos and all

It is crazy to me that things are changing so much. I've made plans for years about kids' bedrooms that haven't always worked out. I've bought things in anticipation that ended up being wasted or used differently than I imagined. I wonder how long this new arrangement will work out for us. Is it normal to change so much?

Living Room Art...

Last summer Bob hung up these frames for me in the living room. You might remember my post about that. At Thanksgiving I finally got all the pictures and fabric in each frame thanks to the help of a friend and my family being away for the week. In January, I took this picture to post here and now that it is March, I am finally sharing. I really like how it turned out. Each square is 20 inches on each side so it make quite a statement when you come in. I envision filling the fabric squares with pictures once the baby arrives.

New Desk...

Before

When we moved into the new house, we set up two computers for the first time. Bob got our desk with the older computer. I got the newer computer and my old craft table. We set up my computer on the craft table (our old kitchen table) which worked out pretty well. After my trip to South Carolina, I realized that I needed the craft table back for creating. I came up with this creative solution for a desk - a dresser topped with an extra shelf from a bookcase we have. This worked pretty well for my casual computer needs and I had a place to make things again. As I started getting busier this summer/fall with photo sessions and lots of computer editing, this creative desk was not cutting it. As you can see there is really no place for legs and feet. As I was needing to spend more time on the computer, we decided I needed a real desk. As usual IKEA came to our rescue.

After

We bought this 3 piece Galant desk system a month ago. There is a corner desk for my computer stuff and two side tables for storage and creating. It is working out so well to have all of my things close at hand. It looks a lot more cohesive and open in here as well. My neck hurts significantly less as I don't have to sit in awkward straining positions anymore. Hooray for a new desk!

Allie's Room

My mom took the kids home with her on Sunday night so I could have some time alone. I spent the majority of my time finishing this room. It was a beast to paint with all the white corners.
I think it turned out great. I hope Allie likes it as much as I do.

I really love how my vinyl flowers from Uppercase Living turned out.

Embracing Imperfection...

I can't tell you how excited I was to take these pictures today. I was vacuuming the kitchen floor this afternoon and I had the idea to just take a snapshot of how the house looked at that moment. I put the vacuum away and set the timer for 5 minutes while I shut some cabinets, picked up few things, and cleared some junk off the counters. Then I just took pictures. It made me so happy and I realized that every picture tells a story of what is going on in our everyday life right now. I LOVE that! If I was the challenging type, I would challenge everyone who reads my blog to take pictures right now (clean up for 5 minutes if you like) and then tell the stories of the messes that exist today.
I wanted this shot of the bike outside. Yesterday afternoon the kids played in the front while I vegged in front of the TV for a while. Last night I was so exhausted that I didn't care one bit if the bikes got left out for night. It was a REALLY rough afternoon/evening for me.I spent a good portion of the morning folding and putting away laundry. There were 4-5 loads that needed my attention today. I love that we have a laundry room where I can take care of it all.This is our storage room (the room we had to fight with our builders to get). The fan is sitting on my Goodwill box. I add something to it almost everyday. I think the fan is supposed to stay here a little bit longer though. Can you guess which box contains all the Christmas presents I have purchased so far?
I did get the dishes done last night and put away today. That doesn't happen everyday in our house. It is a joyous thing to see the counters so clean.
Our dining area and view to the backyard. I didn't want blinds on these windows. I'm still trying to figure out what I do want. I'm thinking white roman shades in the dining room.
Living room. We are hoping to get a nice dark brown sectional in here after the holidays. The mint green doesn't really go. I LOVE all the natural light we get throughout the day. My FAVORITE thing about this house.
This is the office. I have started calling it the creative space because "office" sounds too stuffy for the fun room I envision this being. My plan is to paint this wall black and do the room in black, white and red.
This is the only room upstairs. The gameroom. Last week I hung pieces from this on the wall. I need to have Allie paint one more for me.
This is the master bath. This picture was supposed to go down lower in the post but I messed up. My mom bought this vinyl quote for me at Kohls. I put it up last week and LOVE how it looks on my mirror. "Everyday holds a possibility of a Miracle." It is one of my 3 favorite decorative touches I have added so far.
Parker's room. We read in here every night because he has the biggest bed of all the kids. He still wishes his room was "DARK blue". I am thinking about painting dark blue and brown circles or maybe a dark blue stripe around the room to appease his love of all things "DARK blue".
Caden's room. Some things from Allie's room are currently hanging out in here while we paint her room. You might also notice the humidifier on the chair by the window. Caden has been coughing a lot at night so we have been running it for him. Last night he coughed so hard that he puked all over his bedding, floor, self. Lucky for him his wonderful parents cleaned it up. The paper towels are still there to prove it.
This is the current state of Allie's room. Her paint required a special primer (hence the gray wall) and turned out to be a little more on the red side than we anticipated. It was supposed to be more pink but we all really like the color it is. It is taking a lot of time because we had to paint the corners white, prime, and trim out twice as much because of the corner stripes. I'll post pictures when it is all done.
This is our master bedroom. Allie is currently sleeping on our floor on the red and black blankets while we paint her room. The blue and yellow blankets are for Parker. He ends up in our room most nights. The mattress pad is hanging on the bed right now because Allie had an accident shortly after she fell asleep the other night and got our sheets, etc. wet. I had made the bed before I got the mattress pad out of the laundry.
This green rug is also one of my 3 favorite things. I love it!
The little canvas picture of Caden and me is also on my top 3 list. I got it last week and I'm going to have some more done. Updone.com seems to have great rates. I had this 8x8 done and shipped for $17. It makes me smile!

So that's our home. We live here and I'm so happy to share it "as is". I conquered my guilt-inducing, stress-inducing thought, "My house should look near perfect/completed before I post pictures for all to see." It is a work in progress and we live here. Why shouldn't I share the beauty of our home along with the chaos? I'm SO glad I did!