Easter 2014

Easter came and went a month ago, but we had some great pictures from that weekend! Tom's parents came in and helped paint our front door.  Faded wood, no more! Our church had one big service at the top of the property again. It was such a blessing to be outside as one church body. Cole and most of the kids were pretty wild and antsy, but it was still so wonderful. We finished with an Easter feast as a life group.  The Mooneys even pulled out the China for us!! It was so fun! We felt loved. :) 

 

Master Bedroom Redo

For Christmas this year, we decided it was time to ditch the 25 year old mattress and get a new one.  A KING size.  Tom is loving the extra room and I am sleeping so much better! This did mean that we needed new bedding. And of course that snowballed into the start of a master bedroom redo.

First, let's take a walk down memory lane and giggle as we remember life before Pinterest and the DIY era.


Bedding from our wedding registry in our quaint first apartment. $600/month!!!


New house, means new bedding right!? (Didn't know a king was in the near future.  Oops.)

The latest!

 We painted and made the curtains awhile back. The tricky part of finding new bedding was that I refused to repaint or change the curtains leaving us with few options. The quilt, chevron blanket, sweater knit blanket and bedskirt are all from Target.

I made the euro shams out of a $16 twin quilt. That was pretty exciting after looking at some online for $30-50 each. I also sewed the throw pillows.  I don't love the fabric, but it only cost $9 for all three pillows...so those might change if I find something I like more. This project has taught me a lot about sewing! I wish we needed more pillows...haha!!

I painted both nightstands and added new hardware. The paint I picked out at Home Depot was definitely cream.  These look pretty white to me. Ha!! I still like them.  Lamps are from Home Goods, $30 each.

 

The headboard.  Isn't she beautiful? We were able to use the bed frame from our guest bedroom, so that was free, but meant a headboard was "needed." We bought 1"x 6" wood boards for $33 total and reused the stain from our floating shelves. That's it! We took an afternoon to sand, cut and stain the wood, and then a hour to drill directly into the wall the following day. Super easy. We could have saved some time by using one long board per row, but naturally I requested more work from my husband.  

That will be all for a while.  I want to do something with the dresser and lingerie chest, but I can't decide on paint color or refinishing.  And wouldn't a chair look great in that corner of Cole's toys? Also some wall art and a different lamp shade. Ahh the projects never end. It's so fun though!

 

Hello from Cole and "Elmommy" at the Super Bowl party.

 

 

 

House Projects: One Year Update

A whole year! It's been so fun.  I can't believe how many projects we've started (and mostly completed). We bought a "move in ready" home, and yet we are always working on something on the house. Tom's collection of tools in the garage has greatly increased.  Here is our post on the house projects from a year ago. We have a lot more on our list, and I can't wait to see what else we can accomplish during year two!

 Living Room:
- Painted
- Installed hardwoods
- Added love seat, moved ottoman upstairs
- Switched out TV stand
- Built some floating shelves
- Hung curtains, removed blinds

New Plans: None!

Dining Room:
- Painted
- Installed hardwoods
- Painting an old entry table to use as a buffet table
- Installed a dimmer

New Plans:
- Hang pictures


Kitchen:

- Painted
- Added hardware to cabinets
- Changed out faucet
- Got some fancy new Fiestaware!

New Plans:
- Update our $100 Ikea kitchen table from our tiny newlywed apartment


Half Bath:

- Replaced Mirror

 

New Plans:

- Paint using the left over gray from Cole's room

 

Master Bedroom:
- Painted
- Hung DIY curtains

New Plans: We just upgraded to a king size mattress, so we have new bedding, a DIY headboard and some painted furniture in the works! Stay tuned...!

Cole's Room:
- Painted
- Hung Curtains
- Added some wall art by Aunt Jean and Uncle Teddy
- We keep raising the owls.  Cole still loves them.  A lot. He likes to help them fly.

New Plans: None...although I am sure we will be graduating to a big boy bed at some point in 2014. Hopefully not anytime soon.

 

Exterior:

- Painted stairwell rail white (so long horrible orange!)

- Planted bushes along garage wall

- Added a gate on the right side of the fence

- Trimmed the crazy Dr. Seuss trees

- Removed some random stone work and garden beds left behind from previous owners

 

New Plans:

- Paint front door

- Extend bushes/flowers around the right side of the house (Isn't it weird that they don't even go around the whole bay window?? Must change this!)

- Add Patio furniture



 

WOW! What a year! The guest bedroom, playroom and bathrooms haven't had much work done. Playroom toy organization is definitely in the goals list for this year.  We are so thankful for this home and are excited for a new year of projects! Will end with a few of our favorite 2013 house memories.

 

 

DIY Chunky Floating Shelves

 

They are finished! We have been in our house almost one full year, staring at an awkward blank wall, not wanting to hang pictures or mount the TV.  Just. Not. Sure.  The TV has to be on that wall because of the wiring, the massive fireplace and the window.  We debated about not having a TV downstairs, but quickly decided that we need all the motivation we can get to clean up after dinner.  A good show always helps.

 

We finally decided on floating shelves.  Our inspiration came from here and here. Of course Tom wanted to do his own thing, so they look pretty different.

 

Look at that carpet! And tiny Wal-Mart TV stand. Ha!

 

 Our original plan.  It quickly changed when the first shelf was quite a bit larger than I anticipated. Also, the bottom shelves would have been a little tooooo tempting for Mr. Cole Henry.

 We bought the wood, cut it and then stained it.  The outer pieces were a higher quality wood and the stain looks so much better on them! I'm glad Tom considered that.  I had no idea there was a hierarchy of wood. We used Minwax "Provincial" to stain the wood, and Varathane matted finish polyurethane (applied at the very end, once the shelves were on the wall).

Tom used 2 inch finishing nails to assemble the shelf.  He drilled small holes first, then hammered in the nails to avoid splitting the wood.  Another reason Tom was in charge here.  Had no idea.

With a classy headlamp on, Tom drilled deck screws through the partially finished shelves into the studs.  To put the outer board on, we used the same finishing nails on the ends of the shelves and Liquid Nails on the inner support boards for some additional peace of mind.  

 

 

 

 We went out of town several weekends before the third shelf was hung, so the Christmas décor is out! Can't wait to decorate the shelves for the other 11 months of the year with more than just "things lying around." Home Goods...watch out!

Updated Decor:

 Cole has had a great time watching Tom and playing in the garage.

He is still obsessed with paint brushes and hammers.

Ten on Tuesday

New plan! Now that Cole isn't in the monthly updating range, the poor ol' blog is getting a little dusty and a little rusty.  I am going to try to post 10 pictures/fun things that we (mostly Cole, let's be honest) have been up to on Tuesdays.  Yes, today is Thursday.  But it doesn't sound very catchy.  Please no bets on how quickly I will forget to keep up on this. 

Here goes.

My jogging buddy is always in charge of opening and closing the garage.  He loves it.  He is also in charge of finding the moon, birds, airplanes and dump trucks.  Always an adventure and makes the miles go by way faster!

Working on the fundamentals.  This kid loves playgrounds, balls and the great outdoors.

Ha!!! I mean, poor Cole. He is walking all over, but sometimes you just gotta take a good fall.

I had an A&M shirt on too...



Someone left this awesome sword and shield on our front porch.

Cole being spoiled by some of my youth group girlies.

Cole is now able to turn the fireplace on.  Goodie.

We went out on a date last weekend! So fun! Captain Philips was INTENSE.

My fall wreath! Not bad for a retired math teacher, huh??

Isn't this the cutest thing EVER?

He really has to get a good angle before he can find his belly button. Be careful, because he will lift up your shirt to see yours.

Master Climber.  Jammies too small.

Did you know that ducks eat MumMums? They do.

We had a good laugh at the petting zoo in my parents' neighborhood. I do not like goats eating out of my hand and Cole did not like watching.

I did it! It was 14 pictures though. So I think this is my commitment to post more often, not call it anything catchy and stay alive in the blogging world.