Two Finished Bedrooms!

And neither one is the nursery! What fun!!!

So, my friend Lindsay featured our french door headboard on her blog and even polled the audience about my frame dilemma problem. She suggested wood frames, and I decided to run with it ... which inspired me to finally finish the room (hang up curtains on the small window, buy an ottoman for the vanity, etc). I was originally thinking purple would be a nice accent color, but Kurt thinks that purple is an old ladies-only color, so I went for the indigo instead (two picture frames mats and the mirror frame). He declared the color "blurple" but didn't argue. Of course, I painted it all while he was on man-weekend, so by the time he got home there was nothing he could do about it. (If he'd pitched a big enough fit, I would've repainted.) Eventually I'd like to paint some chunky, horizontal stripes in indigo onto the curtains, but that's definitely a 2013 project. Oh, and we need closet doors. Sigh.

The other room is our guest bedroom. The only things left to do in here are fix my painting gaff on the foot board (from 3 years ago) and add closet doors. I hemmed the curtains with hemming tape (which is awesome, but doesn't work nearly as fast as the instructions say it do) earlier this summer, and added a few more frames to the collage wall. Looking back, I wish I'd hung the curtains higher, but whatever, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. 

I call this my Charleston room. Everything from the Jim Booth painting on the wall to the pictures of Charleston in the frames to the colors remind me of Charleston (or are directly related to Charleston). Well, I guess not the books or the Willow Tree statue, but almost everything. I wanted the room to feel coastal but not beachy.

Don't you want to come stay with us now?

Some House Projects

Here are some pics of the projects I've completed around the house this month. I don't know if it's nesting, or just finally getting sick of sitting on all these projects for so long, but I've been über productive so far this summer. Yep, über. 

Upholstered My Piano Bench:

Okay, I actually did this back in March. But it's the only non-June project. I decided to do this because my butt hurts after sitting on the bench for more than 30 minutes. Since this piano will be around a long time, I chose a nice neutral, durable fabric. Love it!

Upholstered and Painted Kitchen Stools:

These are just your typical blonde-wood, cheap stools you can pick up anywhere. I was originally going to paint them gray, since I have so much gray paint it's insane, but decided to do the green to add some color to the kitchen. And my original plan for fabric was going to be painter's drop cloth, but I had enough fabric leftover from piano bench, and knew the white would look awesome with the green (spray paint). I love them!

 I even remembered to check my centering and direction of the fabric. I'm learning!

 Love the green against the white beadboard.

 And super fun with the cushions on our other two stools.

French Door Headboard:

Kurt did a lot of the work on this, obviously. I originally saw the door-headboard idea way back in like 2008, and immediately thought it would be cool with a french door. Well, last year I finally saw nabbed one on Craig's List for only $20! And then it sat in our hallway for almost a year. :D

Kurt built the frame and I painted (spray paint, don't worry I was outside). It's technically still not installed--not screwed onto the bed frame--but I wanted to go ahead and take pictures. And yes, document our lovely AC unit in the window. So classy. 

I love the black and white combo. I thought about doing a mercury glass finish on the glass panes, but decided not to, mostly because I have way too much other stuff to worry about right now. And I rather like the plain glass. Oh, and Kurt's mom made that gorgeous quilt for our 4th anniversary (err ... or maybe 3rd... ).

 So, obviously all of this art needs to be framed, but I wanted to throw them up there. Kurt's cousin made the graphic art on the left with our wedding date, Kurt's dad gave us the drawing of the SC temple (where we were married) on our wedding day, the picture is obviously of our wedding day, and the certificate on the far right is our temple sealing certificate. 

 I'm thinking of doing some kind of metal frames, to give an industrial touch to the room. Any ideas? And I'll probably get a new matte for the temple drawing--something smaller, so that when I matte the certificate, they'll be closer to the same size. I'm not sure if I can get a new frame for the graphic art though ... so we'll see, I might just have to do black frames.

Wreath and Flowers:

This may have been the end of May, but close enough. I've posted about potting flowers in our blue planter before, but I found the other two planters and decided to put them to use. Also, the flowers I've planted in the blue pot before have never done well, and I've finally realized why. I've always put Full Sun flowers in there, because most of the year, the stoop gets a ton of sun. However, in the summer with our elm tree fully leafed out, it gets about 2 hours of sun. So this time I planted all Partial Sun flowers and they're doing great! I think I need to water the begonias a little less to make them happiest, and the impatiens don't want to fully bloom right now because of the oppressive heat (we've had like 5 or 6 days over 100 degrees in the last week and a half here--about 20 degrees hotter than normal!), but everyone's looking pretty happy.

The wreath is the same style as others I've made in the past, without the buttons, cinnamon sticks and bow/ornament. I decided to try without those things because there's already a lot going on visually with the flowers, plus I'm going to paint the door at some point this summer (we're in a long process of painting the house. If you are really observant, you'll be able to notice a difference in the siding color. The trim and door are all that's left, but this heat is making it impossible to finish up for now). I rather like keeping the wreath simple, too.

Originally we had the two smaller planters both on the right side, but Kurt kept tripping over them, so we rearranged to make things less cluttered on that side.

Yeah, I goofed and planted these with the sticker showing. I need to rip it off. One of these days...

Little Turbo

We found out yesterday that we're having a BOY! Let's just say that my mother's intuition was wrong. Lots of other people were wrong. In fact, most people who'd voiced a strong opinion, had gone the other way. Kinda funny how that works. 

But we're so excited! I love the idea that I'm going to have a mini-Kurt running around (and breaking things, and eating dirt, and being generally rambunctious). I'm so glad we found out the gender of the baby ahead of time. Not only can I plan (i.e., shop!) for him, but he now has an identity to me. Rather than being amorphous, ambiguous THE BABY, he's now a person to me, an individual. I didn't anticipate that experience, but I'm digging it. 

Anyhow, we're kinda at the drawing board when it comes to names (we had totally zeroed in on a girl's name. boy's name ... not so much), so if you have suggestions, they are welcome. 

Right now I want to post a bit about the nursery. Kurt is a "man's man," and I'm not the only one who thinks this--many people over the years have expressed this same statement. I want our son's room to be All Boy. I don't want it to be cutesy, but be something that he can grow into as a toddler and even a kid, if need be. And I've mentioned before that I want to do a bike theme.

When I found out I was pregnant, I emailed Joni at Lay Baby Lay requesting a bike-themed nursery inspiration board. She actually made two (one for each gender) that are SO cute and exactly what I was thinking of. Here's the boy one:

I love it! The navy is awesome, and she finds the best art. I want to capture the essence of this mood board, but incorporate a few more pops of green, yellow, maybe even some orange or red. I want the room to feel ALL boy, but also playful and be something he can grow into. That might be a tall order for such a small room, but here's hoping!

Anyhow, here's the art I'm leaning most towards:

 I like the vintage-feel of this, though it's not my favorite.

I don't love these colors, but I love everything else about this print. 

I love the euro and vintage feel!

also comes in blue

 Again, I don't love the colors, but SO FUN.

This is probably my favorite. So simple and graphic, yet bright and bold. But perhaps too simple.

also comes in red

We really like graphic-type prints. All of these (super affordable) posters come from poster cabaret.

And the word-art print Joni featured that I love most is "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." It also comes in green, chartreuse, yellow, and red-orange.

Anyhow, just some ideas tossing around inside my head. I'll definitely have a rug of some sort, and most of the furniture will be white (if we stick with navy walls). I'm not sold on the navy walls, mostly because the room is so small. However, it gets A TON of light (the windows face south and west). And I love navy. So if we did another color, I'd have to incorporate navy somehow.

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

Baby names?

Stuff

Actual activity posts coming soon! Because we've actually been doing things lately. I know, it's crazy, right!

I had all kinds of plans to re-do a lot of the rooms in my house this year. And then I found out that I'm pregnant, so that kinda changes things. Bathroom painting plans and living room lightening plans have been put on hold, delayed till probably next year. But I'm still going to be crazy busy. Here's what we have to do around the house:

-Guest Bedroom:

     -Rearrange. We're going to put a dresser in here for extra storage (we won't be able to fit one in the baby's room), so I think we're going to turn the bed into more a daybed by pushing it against the wall and moving the book cases to either side of it.

     -Paint. Okay, so we don't have to do this, but I've been wanting to, and rearranging the furniture gives us the perfect opportunity to temporarily dismantle it further so allow for painting.

     -Closet. Until now, I've been keeping it empty so that guests can hang clothes in it. However, no one's ever going to need the whole closet. In the meantime, we have a ton of stuff in the baby's room that can't be stored outside, but will need to be moved. So we're going to design some kind of shelving solution in 80% of the closet, while still leaving about 20% free for guest's clothes. 

-Our Bedroom:

     -Rearrange. I sleep on the side closest to the wall and farther from the door, so it generally disrupts Kurt every time I get up. Plus, I have no room for a nightstand. If we rearrange the room, I'll get my own dresser (yay!), and I'll have plenty of room between the bed and the wall and I'll be closer to the door, so I won't have to crawl down the length of the bed before getting out of it. 

     -Eventually, I'd like to paint the nightstands, but I think that will be a 2013 project.

-Nursery:

     -Currently known as the "back bedroom," this room serves as our indoor storage. We're going to have to get rid of everything in this room, and either distribute it among the remaining rooms (mostly the guest room and Kurt's office), or get rid of it entirely. 

     -Turn it into an actual, you know, nursery. The current plan for the room is rocking chair with pouf-ottoman, side table, crib, and a daybed. I don't think there will be room for more (and perhaps not even for the side table, but I think I can make it work). Why a daybed? One of the benefits of having been married to Kurt for 5 years (this Saturday!) before having a baby is that I know him extremely well. And I know that he does not do well with less than 6 or 7 hours of sleep (and really, he's best with his full 8, but he rarely sleeps more than that. He's a robot, I tell you). I however, do extremely well on little sleep. I chalk it up to years of sleeping problems/intermittent insomnia. During the week, Kurt has to go to work. I'm quitting my job at the end of September, so I'll be able to nap when the baby naps. So during the week, from the very get-go, I'll sleep in the baby's room and will get up with the baby. On the weekends though, Kurt's fair game for night/morning feedings. ^_^

     -So that means fashioning some type of day bed. I had hopes of building something awesome, but we've inherited some random doors, so might just make myself happy with using one as a back, and then skipping out on the arms of the daybed.

     -And my favorite part: decorating. I'm thinking navy with some kind of accent color, TBD by baby's gender. And a cycling theme. And I'll probably throw some gray in the there. I think I have a problem.  

-Kurt's Office:

     -Just being smarter with the storage system in there. There's a bunch of stuff in the nursery currently that could easily fit into the office. 

-Outdoor Sheds

     -Same thing with the nursery/Kurt's office. The name of the game is consolidate, organize, and trash. We have enough space for all of our junk, we just need to be smarter with how we store it. We also need to get rid of the stuff we no longer use.

Anyhow, this was mostly for my own, organizing purposes. Writing stuff out always helps organize my thoughts better. 

Still Working...

Remember this post? Yeah, I definitely failed on that. I didn't even finish the first project--painting the kitchen. I completely underestimated how much work getting ready for my last residency was going to be. Plus, I was trying to write every day, and then I traveled once a week for 4 weeks straight. So yeah, I got busy and slacked off!

The other night, while waiting the usual one-to-two hours to fall asleep, I ran through my mind all the changes I know that I'm definitely going to do or I'm seriously considering doing in my house. The list is long. Really long. And, being the scatterbrained messy creative person I am, my tendency would be to jump around from room to room. After watching my friend Lindsay's significant progress in her 31 Days of Finishing Rooms series, I realized it would be best to "finish" a room, before moving to the next. Now, I don't mean completely completely finishing the room. But all of the projects I currently have planned for that room. I'm not going to plan on spending every day working on my home, because I just got a new job. It's just part time--20 hours a week--but when I come home, I want to spend at least two hours a day writing (if not more). Plus, I'm trying to keep my house clean, and I have to work out, and spend time with Kurt. So you can see how these projects--while important--are not at the top of my list. But I want to make significant progress before summer comes. 

I've got to be organized about this. So I'm scheduling my rooms:

1) Kitchen

2) Master bedroom

3) Guest bedroom

4) Living room

5) Bathroom

Some notes: Living Room may trump Guest Bedroom, if I feel the urge or need. Bathroom could trump all of those, because I really only want to paint it, and it's a tiny room, so that will take me two days. (One day for first coat, a second day for second coat)

I'll post when I start/finish each room. And when I start a room, I'll layout my planned projects.

KITCHEN

-Finish painting trim (this includes buying kickboards for the lower cabinets and moulding for one of the upper cabinets)

-Make curtains for windows and door

-Repaint white walls

-Build trash/recycling bin
-Paint and upholster round stools
-Buy and possibly paint two comfort mats for the kitchen. My feet kill after a few hours in the kitchen (and I want to start write while standing up=better for my back).

So yeah, it's not like the kitchen has a ton that needs to be done right now. It honestly shouldn't take me very long. I'm thinking it'll be about three or four days to finish the trim (break it up into two halves, two days for each half, unless I get lucky and can paint the second coat on the first half and the first coat on the second half in the same day).

It should also be noted that there are some projects I might do out of order, such as building my trash/recycling bin. The reason for that is I have to wait until a Saturday when all the snow is gone from the backyard and Kurt is around to help me with the table saw. So, that project might have to wait for a few months.

House Projects project update

So! I started with painting the kitchen trim. I painted Saturday, Monday, and yesterday. (Sunday I took a break from my House Projects project because that's the day of rest!) I'm taking a break today to give my wrist a break, but also because pretty my entire wardrobe is out and needs to be folded/hung up. I am not kidding here (and big reason for this is because it's time to switch summer clothes for winter). So, today I'm dedicating myself to folding laundry while watching movies. On the queue are Harry Potter 7.2, Howl's Moving Castle, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. I also want to get some writing done (finally done with my back story, time for more forward progress!), blogging, and errands. Obviously, this is a lot of work and I don't plan to complete all of the laundry/movies.
Anyhow! Back to the kitchen. I would say I'm 1/3 done. I've done 2 coats on 1/3 of the beadboard/trim. Yes, over 3 days (I'm guessing 8 hours of work). I'm also taking a break to give my sanity a rest. I don't mind painting--I actually enjoy it--but this much painting, and with trim and beadboard, which you have to be super careful on? Yeah, it's a lot to stomach.
Anyhow. Just thought I'd send out an update, to show that I am working on these projects!!
That is all.

To Do List

So, I've acquired quite a few projects around the house that I finally need to complete! Inspired by my lovely friend Lindsay's series, 31 Days of Finishing Rooms, I'm going to try to get through the projects without stopping. So, I'm going to work on something every day... some, like painting the kitchen, will likely take more than a day. But as long as I make some kind of progress towards finishing this list every day, I'll be happy!
The list (in no particular order):
-Paint kitchen trim and beadboard white
-Build and paint trash/recycling cans cabinet
-French door headboard
-Upholster piano bench
-Hem guest room curtains
-Make new covers for decorative bed pillows
-Kitchen curtains
-Paint and upholster round stools in kitchen
-Rearrange bedroom and hang up second window's curtains

I'm starting tonight with cleaning the kitchen trim and taping it all off (which is going to be a big chore in and of itself!).
Also, this is list is going to replace December Goals. Or rather, to put work in on one of these things every day will be my goal.
Once I complete those projects, I have (a lot) more in mind that I can finally get to. I'm really looking forward to finally completing these projects. And, of course, I'll post about the progress.
Wish me luck!

Kitchen Wars: Curtains! Curtains!

     Now, I'm pretty sure that's from a movie. I swear, I have a memory of someone in a movie saying that. After someone else said, "It's curtains for (someone)." Does that sound familiar to anyone? Or am I crazy? (Don't answer that second question.)

     So, I've been thinking about the window treatments for our kitchen. We have three, completely square, 34x34 inch windows in the kitchen. And then the window on the door too. Now all of the regular windows have blinds, but not the door. This is important because we get crazy sun on that side of the house in the afternoon. West facing windows + no big trees in our backyard + super intense Denver sun = WHOA MAMA. I love that sun for the light and the warmth in the winter. In the summer? Not so much. Especially since we don't have central a.c.

     I like to visit Joann about every week (which is easy since it's 2 minutes from my house). I would NEVER buy $50 a yard fabric for curtains. No way, jose. (I guess, maybe one day if we're filthy rich, but even then i doubt it.) But I did spy this fabric on sale for half off $20, plus I had an extra 20% coupon (sign up for Joann emails if you haven't already!):

     It is pure perfection, let me tell you! First off: the design is TOTALLY my style. Second: GREEN and GRAY! Third: ummm, I just love it. But here's the funny thing about this fabric: it's indoor/outdoor canvas. So it's somewhat stiff. That obviously ruled out a lot of different window treatments (though I'd already ruled out drapes because two of the windows are above a counter). 

     First I was thinking fake roman shades on the windows and working a working roman shade on the door (since we need to be able to cover it up). But I decided that wouldn't work because even fake roman shades would cover up too much of the windows. See, I like the light (have I mentioned that already?). And the blinds effectively block it out when needed. So I want to be able to see out the windows as much as possible the rest of the time.

     I did some digging around and came up with these two options for the windows:

From Better Homes and Gardens.com

From Budget Wise Home.com

     The first one is more my style. I love the little bow, and I think I could accomplish this without sewing (and with the help of hem tape) pretty easily. But the bottom one is SO easy (click the link to see!). And it would show more of the window.

     But I love the pleats on the first one. And I could hang the curtain (a bit) higher than the window frame.

     But the second one would take me like 30 minutes per window to do.

     So, what do you think?

     And for the door window, I'm thinking some kind of roller-type shade, like this:

from Better Homes and Garden.com

     Let me know your thoughts! And here's a reminder of the windows:

Kitchen Wars: Gray Like My Soul

     Last week, on Labor Day, I painted the walls of the kitchen gray. And such a beautiful gray too! We originally picked a lighter shade, but as you can see in the pics, it was more of a grayish white. That wasn't going to work! The second gray, Silver Spoon by Olympic color matched to Behr's Satin interior, hit the mark. I love how it makes the white pop (even though the beadboard and majority of the trim isn't even painted yet).

     Also, I used Frog tape for the areas I was extra nervous about -- the tile and already painted cabinets. And it was awesome. Regular painter's tape typically does fine, but there were still a few spots where it bled through (onto unpainted trim). I'm a believe in Frog tape now!

     (On a side note: am I the only one who hates Blogger's new platform?)

 First "gray"

 The comparison: first on the left, second on the right.

 First coat

 All done! 

LOVE it with the white, glossy tile.

It was kind of a dark and cloudy day, but this was the brightest I could get all day.

Kitchen Wars: Well Tile Me Up and Slap Me Pretty

     Yeah, I have no idea where that title came from earlier. I'm weird; roll with it.

     So, back splash time! We knew pretty early on we wanted a subway tile back splash. There were a moments of uncertainty, but in the end we both loved the classic and simple look. For a day or two we worried the subway tile and bead board would be too much texture and would compete with each other, but decided they wouldn't. Now that they're both up, we're glad to see we were right. Why? Because they're both a) classic "patterns" and b) white. And there's only one place where they meet. AND I like the play of horizontal lines vs. vertical ones.

     We considered hiring this out because Kurt had heard from someone that doing tile was tricky. We priced out Home Depot and they told us $300 to $400. Then a lot of other, smarter people told Kurt that tile is easy. So guess what? All in all, including a tile saw, we spent about $150 in supplies. It took Kurt a little bit of time, but it wasn't that tricky (you know I was writing during all this!). And it looks FANTASTIC!! I love it so much. Do I say that about everything in our kitchen? Probably. Because it's true. 

Next up: paint!

Date: Ohhh, the last few weeks.

Kitchen Wars: Back to the Closet

     Well, the closet has been completed for a while, and we finally score our washer and dryer! All in all, we spent a Net of about $300 on the set, what with the recouped costs from selling our old set and then rebates. I lurve me some rebates. The washer and dryer aren't even the same brand, but since Amana is owned by Maytag, you can mix and match. Here they are all stacked in the closet where they belong! No one puts baby in the corner, but I definitely put my laundry set in the closet. Hah!

     Anyhow, all that's left with the closet is installing the accordion-folding door. It's the only door that will work with the tight space. 

That's probably the least exciting post of ever, but whateverIdowhatIwant!

Kitchen Wars: BEES? Beads. BEES? Gob's not on board.

     Our next step in our kitchen was installing the bead board. I love me some bead board. Convincing Kurt wasn't hard, but he didn't love it like I do until he installed it. It looks so incredible. Also, he built a wall on the backside of the peninsula to hide the pipes and backs of the cabinets. Cuz those things aren't so much pretty. It still needs to be painted, but since we're painting it white, it won't look that different.

Kitchen Wars: Our "Pantry"

     It's been forever since I blogged about the kitchen! And not for lack of updates. Mostly I've been pouring my blogging attention into my new author blog and my non-blogging attention into school work. Busy busy busy!

     During our reno, we stumbled across sundry extra cabinets in our house and sheds. Including a really tall one!  The tall one was a veritable treasure chest, filled with stuffed animals, camel backs, and kid-sized elbow and knee pads. I used to have a picture of the loot back before our computer crashed ... sigh.

     Anyhow! With all of the extra cabinets, we practically have a pantry! And, as luck would have it, we had an extra counter top. Okay, that sounds strange but here's what happened: I originally thought it would be cool have some open shelving across the new wall we built, so while at Ikea last summer, we bought an extra slab of counter but the less-thick slab. We were going to cut it up and use as shelves. Well, once we got the wall built and the cabinets moved, we realized that wouldn't work. But wouldn't you know it, we had all this extra cabinetry along the back wall that needed a counter top ... what serendipity! We didn't have enough cabinetry to stretch along the entire wall/under the whole counter top slab, so we left a hole to make a little desk like area that will be my writing area. :)

We're going to add molding to the top of the tall one so it looks built in.

Date: I give up. Sometime in May, probably. :)