A Year of DIYing

It's been a while since I'd written about our DIY projects and fixing up this old house we bought a year ago. Wow. It really is hard to believe twelve months have vaporized behind us-- a little longer, in fact.

But we've been doing a lot. Time slips by like that when you're excited about living your life. When I went back to dig up pictures of the house, I scrolled through the months of images saved on my computer and was stunned at how far we've come-- as a family first, and also on the work we've done on our home.

the boys at this time last year (right before moving)

• My boys turned 4 and 1 in this house.
• We hosted Christmas Eve for the first time here.
• We added a new dog to our family.

the boys about a month ago

• We met some new neighbors who have become friends.
• We learned how to lay tile, rewire lights, install faucets and molding, how to retexture ceilings and walls, and how to get help when we needed it.
• We developed a clearer style-- that's still evolving.

October of last year-- greener grass, but LOTS of overgrown landscaping that hid the house from the street

• Jeremy and I celebrated our 9th anniversary and started saving up for a trip to Italy for our 10th.
• We bought a new car.
• My baby took his first steps and said "Mama" right here in our living room.
• My four-year-old learned to ride a bike on this driveway and read his first book at the dining room table.

This year, Texas saw a terrible drought that took most of our grass with it. We did a lot of other yard work, though, removing about twenty giant palm trees that hid our house and harbored roaches.

The new front bed we put in this summer.

Jeremy and I enjoy the work we've devoted to making our formerly ugly house into a cozy, inviting home for our family. It's time we spend together and it's an investment into our future memories. The pride of accomplishment, of learning to mend an uncomfortable space into a family place, has been invaluable. I wouldn't trade it.

People always ask us, "Would you buy the house again, knowing all the work ahead of you?" Our answer is "Yes!" We have become better for it.

And we saved a fortune!

Over the Couch (maybe?)

You can find the Living Room Progress post here.

Do you ever have an image in your head--maybe not an image, but an idea or a feeling-- of how you wanted something to look?

And in your head it was perfect, but when your hands got involved... meh.

That's where this space over the couch is living right now. 

I just don't know, and since I'm working with a place in my home that is highly visible, I want to KNOW that I love it. 

Normally I am very structured, a stay-in-the-lines, symmetry-is-good, everything-in-its-place kind of girl. 

So the imbalanced "messiness" makes me a little nervous because it feels risky for me.

What I do like: 

1. It's very personal for us. The book pages are from one of my favorites, Gone with the Wind.

2. I painted the starfish watercolor when I was in college and that is a picture of my mama as a tot. The frame is actually navy (tricky lighting) and is the same color as the end tables I wrote about here.

3. I used some of the kid art I'd been saving and I really like how I displayed it on top of the wire-wrapped frames.

4. The big clock makes me happy, too.

So.... feedback? 

Any designers, decorators, inspired homemakers or healthy criticizers out there?

Don't be too hard on me. 

Afterall, it's up there and I may not ration the energy to climb on top of the couch and pull it all down again for another six months.

Living Room Progress

I was talking to a long-distance friend last night and I was telling her all about our house and the progress we'd been making.

Friend: "So... were you ever planning on putting pictures of it on your blog so I can see it?"

Me: "Well... it's not perfect yet."

And that got me thinking...

Is it ever going to be "perfect"? As soon as I have it just exactly right, the styles will change or we'll need to fix/replace something.

So I'm going to share what we've done so far. The progress. And I have to say that I'm pretty proud of  the progress.

Before:

After:

Sure, there are a few changes I want to make, like what to put over the couch (I have a few ideas swirling around in my head) and adding a rug (that won't be too scratchy for baby knees or too expensive for dirty boys, or ugly--I mean, that seriously limits my choices).

Here's the run-down so far:

1. We added built-in bookshelves (other than our kitchen countertops, this is the only thing we paid a professional to do).

2. Painted the walls the same color as the stenciled entryway.

3. Painted the fireplace white. When I say white, I mean white. It's currently just primed. But I really like how crisp it looks.

4. Bought thrift-store end tables and painted them with Krylon midnight blue.

5. Added accessories-- pillows, curtains, and other pretties. My favorites are the silverware that my late grandmother framed herself. I simply changed the trim. She was so creative and adventurous with decorating.

6. We also broke our cheap selves down and bought our first new TV. The old one was the kind that the kids knew not to touch because if it fell on one of them, they would be dead instantly. The picture was a little fuzzy in spots and the whole thing was about three feet deep. Yes, it was time.

Well, what do you think? Homier, isn't it?



Shared with: Miss Mustard Seed, Tatertots and Jello, Be Different Act Normal, Sugar Bee Crafts

Front Door Makeover

If you are a facebook liker (how do you say that?), then you know I have been working on a front door makeover.

I finally got my porch light in and Jeremy installed it over the weekend. 

Are you ready to see it?

Before:

It wasn't terrible, just a little bland and in need of some color.

The front door should welcome visitors to our home and I wanted it to stand out.

After:

We added new hardware and vinyl numbers in addition to the new paint and light fixture.

Here's a little tip if you want to paint your own door...

After the paint has dried, it takes several days for it to set completely. Well, you can't really leave your door open that long.

We used Vaseline on the edges to keep the door frame from sticking and pulling off my new paint. It worked great!

The paint I used was Valspar and the color is called Belle Grove Spruce. It's a latex-based exterior paint and I did not prime first.


Linked to: Today's Creative Blog, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Domestically Speaking, The Creative Crate, Tatertots and Jello, Centsational Girl

Change Table: Before and After

In the midst of redoing cabinets (we're adding crown molding right now and I can't wait to show you all the new pictures), unpacking boxes, etcetera, etcetera, I really wanted to finish up the baby's room.

Once we get all of the crown molding up and finish accessorizing, I'll post a REAL after picture.

But in the meantime, here is a little project I did over the weekend.

Before

After

We're all about the child labor around here.

Actually, he lost interest after 47 seconds. Rats!

So I finished the sanding myself, then added a couple of coats of paint.

See this for the the pom-pom baby mobile tutorial.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

I linked to:

Vintage Revivals

Tutorial: Reverse Applique Table Runner

I had a little of this faux suede fabric leftover from the Davy Crockett treat bucket and had been itching to put it to good use.

In the spirit of fall and Thanksgiving, I decided to use my leftover scrap for a reverse applique/cut-out table runner.

I love how it turned out!

1. Using a piece of card stock folded twice, cut out a design (paper-snowflake-style).

2. Determine how long you want your runner to be and trace the unfolded paper design on the fabric.

3. Put the kids in bed, turn on a movie, grab your scissors and cut that sucker out.

Take your time and work on it little by little.

4. With fabric glue, attach your cut-out to another piece of faux suede in a contrasting color.

5. Draw scalloped edges along the bottom piece and cut that out. I recommend applying a third layer to the bottom and cutting it exactly like the second layer to add weight because the scalloped edges tend to roll up.

I thought it turned out really pretty and added a nice neutral background to my nature-inspired table.

Kitchen Cabinets Makeover--Part 1

Click here for Part 2 of the Kitchen Cabinets Makeover

**********

The kitchen cabinets in our new-to-us house used to look like this...

complete with mildew and rotting shelves. Fabulous.

And they were so elegant in a cheaply-constructed, 1982 sort of way.

Don't you think?

This house is getting an overall makeover, and after new appliances, lighting, floors, countertops and backsplash, buying new cabinets (right now, anyway) just was not in the budget.

(Retextured ceilings and new appliances--check. Yay!)

First of all, I scrubbed those puppies down using a mixture of 4 parts water, 1 part bleach and a few squirts of liquid detergent.

Then, I removed the existing hardware.

Next, my husband and his dad took down the doors and drawers.

Some of the doors needed to be repaired with wood glue and they will be replacing the shelves that had rotted and were gross beyond repair.

My father-in-law found this amazing stuff, called Krud Kutter (at Sherwin Williams).

They sponged it on the cabinets so they wouldn't have to sand them first.

This product allows you to paint right over it.

While they were working hard, the neighbor's chickens marched through the driveway and started pecking around the house like they owned the place. 

That was a first for this former city girl.

Cabinets. Right!

I guess I was a little distracted.

Part 2 is coming up soon, but here's a little sneaky peeky of what we have planned.

Click here for Part 2

How To Remove Your Popcorn Ceiling (and a Zoolander plug)

Can we all agree on something?

Good popcorn:

Bad popcorn:

Good. Very good:

Bad. Very bad:

We recently bought a fixer-upper and those suckers had to go before we moved in--which was yesterday, by the way.

Let me tell you that going from a popcorn to a nice orange peel ceiling made our 1983 house look at least 20 years newer--without doing anything else!

Don't get me wrong, there's PLENTY left to do.

Retexturing is not easy. I won't lie.

It IS worth it.

1. Cover everything! When that junk comes down, it's a nasty mess. For reals.

2. Wear goggles and a mask. You don't want the black lung, Pop.

3. Using a spray bottle of water, spray the ceiling in a workable area--for my husband, it was a few feet at a time. If your ceilings are painted, you will need to let the water soak in for a few minutes.

Can we pretend that's a water bottle and not a Spray N Wash bottle he found in the garage and filled with water? 

'kay, thanks.

While we're pretending, can we just say that that chainy light fixture is gone forever? 

'kay, thanks.

4. Scrape the texture off. My husband used a 6" putty knife and it worked like a champ.

I told you it was a mess. Those countertops are going, too, my friend.
Oh. Yes. They. Are.

**You could stop here, brushing off any residue, then paint.**

We're crazy. We believe hard work is its own virtue, so we went ahead and retextured, too, using a friend's hopper gun connected to an air compressor and boxed joint compound.

Next time (there will never be a next time), we'll skip that last part.

All done:



If you want to keep your chainy light fixtures, feel free to remove them first.