Yep, We Love Baseball!

We have been waiting around to paint and re-do our back bedroom…. Finally, we decided who needs a baby boy to have a baseball room?  That’s not a rule or anything.  So, we went for it.  Mollie had a blast helping us paint.

And the finished product is just too cute!  I love having a place to show off all our baseball memorabilia…. Seat back from Boston, Baseballs from high school, NY picture bought at Yankee Stadium, Pictures, Mini helmets and Cups from all the stadiums we’ve visited.

It also makes working out that much better because it’s in a cute room!

Nursery! Upgrading Cheap Shelves

Nate is so handy.  He can basically build anything.  I am positive that he could build an entire house all by himself.  Maybe someday we will do that…. probably not…. but maybe.

In the mean time we enjoy fixing up our house.  In Rogers we basically re-did the whole thing, as much as we could afford.  Now, since moving and buying a newer house, we only have to change the things we want to.  We still have a few projects lined up (gutters, pergola, outside paint…) but since it has been so hot outside we have focused our attention on the nursery.

First project for the nursery:  Shelves!

We started out with cheap $20 shelves from target.

Next, we added some trim pieces around each side.

Then we caulked all the nail holes, did a little sanding, and painted everything.

After adding a little bead board to the back, instead of the cheap cardboard, they look pretty snazzy!

 

They look great and I am excited to cover them with cute decorations for our baby girl!

 

To upgrade some shelves of your own, here are the supplies we used for each set of shelves:

• 1 cheap laminate 5 shelving unit
• 10 – 1” x 2” x 8’ pint boards
• 1 – 12’ base molding (3 1/4 x 1/2)
• 1 sheet of bead board
• Nails
• Wood glue
• Spackle
• Sand paper
• Primer/Paint

 

Spring has Sprung

Nate and I have always enjoyed fixing up things…. especially our house.  We both take a lot of pride in our home and want it to look as good as possible.  Just the other day, a lady from church was coming by to drop off something and Nate was frantically cleaning everything… even our closet.  I was like really?  I don’t think she is going to be looking in our closet… But then I thought about how much Nate liked to show off our house, and he may just take her on a tour (and even in our closet). ha.  So I folded my clothes and put my shoes up ;)

Anyway, we will never take having a home for granted.  Especially after being without a place of our own for 10 months, and seeing people living in cardboard houses in Nicaragua.  I am actually currently looking for a really cute sign that says, “Home, Sweet Home” because that saying hits me right in the gut.  It is so sweet to have a home… There is no place like it.

Even though we bought a newer house, after the big move, there were still some things that we wanted to do to bring it up to our very picky standards.  We already did the painting and the new kitchen counters/backsplash.  Now to the outside.

The bare foundation had always bugged me, so Nate and I took at whole Friday and made a new flowerbed.  It was some hard work (and a little too much money) but I think it was totally worth it.

I hauled each one of those 15 lb. blocks from Nate’s truck to the window.  I felt like I was in a Biggest Loser challenge.  We definitely got our work out that day.

This was our third trip to Lowes this day.  We actually needed to go again for more dirt, but I said forget it. 

I am so in love with this hard working man of mine.

We also took a few more minutes and put these small stones around the flowerbed that was already there.  They match the others, so it really spiffed up the place.

Next up, we need to paint the outside…. I’m thinking blue front door…. and build a pergola in the backyard.

Pallet Bench

I am making some great progress with my “27 Things.”  Why is it so exciting to mark things off a list?  I don’t know, but it is.  Especially for a big planner like me.  I am also in a huge “get things done” mood so this list better watch out.

#13… Build a piece of furniture out of pallets. Check.

Monday night… after I cleaned the whole house and whipped up some pasta and chicken salad…Nate and I made this awesome pallet bench!

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Here's a little of the journey...

 Our materials.
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 The Carpenter.
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 The Bottom.

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 The Back.

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 Putting the two pieces together.

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Trying it out in the back yard.
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We plan on making one more and putting them under our pergula… on the corner of our cement slab in an L with a table in the middle.  We are also thinking about making some other pieces out of pallets and trying to sell them.  What do you think?  Pallets are kinda in right now, so I'm thinking why not?

A Little Lamp Magic…

I have been in a crafty mood lately, so thought I would show you my new lamp shade.  I think lamps can add a lot of character to a room…  I am a little disappointed at how much this simple staple to a room can take out of your bank account, so I still don’t have the lamps that I imagine in my head.  Who in their right mind is going to shell out $200 for a lamp???

 

Anyway, this transformation was simple.  Coffee filters are my new best friend.

To make your own invention… Just fold each coffee filter in half.  Then fold two more times…. and fold the pointed end down so you will have something to put the glue on.

Then… 350 coffee filters later you may have something like this….

I’ll admit, in this picture it kind of looks like one giant coffee filter, but in real life I love it.  It adds a little fluffy chic romance to our room :)

While Dad Was Out...

Keeping the books for two businesses and one church keeps my mom pretty busy, so she doesn't have much time to update her house. She is always talking about doing things, but rarely does.

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. My dad went on another spring fishing trip and while he was gone she decided to get something done. Together we completely re-did their bedroom, complete with new paint and accessories, and new furniture for the first time in 30 years. We only had two days to do it so it really was like a While You Were Out thing.

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Reggie keeping watch over the old furniture.

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It was a good "making memories" time, working with my mom. We painted, we shopped, we chased Styrofoam across the yard at 1:00am.

It was a surprise for my Dad when he got home, and he loved it just as much as us. Here are a few pics from Nate's phone.

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Until the next make-over project,

Kitchen Remodel!

This will be the last post about our new kitchen....

because, it's finished!

When we decide on something we go after it and get it done. We started with ordering the tile for the fireplace and back splash. When the fireplace was finished, we did the back splash. When the back splash was finished we started on the counter tops. Now after two full weekends working on it - It is done! We are so happy with how it turned out!

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This is how Claire felt the whole time we were working.

What a face.

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Here is a little section BEFORE...

Here is the same little section AFTER!

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How do you like the counter tops? Does it look like granite? It's supposed to, but it is really just paint. Ideally, we would have loved to get real granite counter tops, but that will never be in our budget, so I found this great paint online.

We re-did our fireplace and entire kitchen for under $300 and I think it looks pretty great. (Considering it would have cost around $5000 for new counter tops.)

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Some working pictures...

All taped off.

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Nate painting the "Iron Core Black Primer"

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Some Before and Afters...