New craft area!

Since we finished the family room back in September, I've been searching for the right desk for the office/craft area.  The one we had obviously wasn't right.

We did eventually use a 6' folding table, but that gave me no storage and Curtis hated looking at all my scrapbooking and crafting supplies all the time!

I checked Craigslist and the FB buy/sell/trade pages quite often, but never did find anything cheap enough or pretty enough.  One day, Curtis called me and asked if I wanted my parents' old desk - it had been sitting in a shed for over 2 years and Bret was getting ready to throw it out.  Of course I wanted it - but only if I could paint it.  So I did and I LOVE it.

So much storage!  I actually have a rolling cart and my sewing machine in the door cupboard.  I can't fit all my stuff in the desk, but at least I don't have to run downstairs every single time I do something!

There's plenty of room for my Silhouette to sit on the desk - it's actually gotten used a lot more in the week that I've had the new desk.

The actual painting of the desk wasn't too bad - I read lots of blog posts and figured out how to do it. I discovered Zinsser Cover Stain primer and that made the whole process much easier - I didn't have to sand it at all!  Just two coats of primer, two coats of semi-gloss latex paint and two coats of water-based polyurethane.  Curtis is finally starting to understand...he was the one that suggested painting it turquoise :)  Who wants to live with ugly old oak?  :)

Before and Afterish: Family Room

I am so excited!  Our family room (in the lower level of the house) is finally usable!  I know that it has only been three months since we moved in so I really have no right to complain.  But when you can see the potential every day (and are tired of tripping over millions of toys every day) it seems like a long time.  It is so nice to be able to start organizing and putting everything in it's "proper" place.  Maybe now I can spend some of my cleaning energy actually cleaning, not just managing clutter!

Keep in mind that we are far from done - obviously still need baseboards and the trim around the windows needs to be painted - and there are lots of little things that need to be done!

Some before pictures from last May -

We tore the carpet out with the intention of putting in laminate wood flooring before we moved in.  But...we discovered a leak around the chimney.  That REALLY slowed things down.  The leak turned out to be an easy fix (it just took us a couple of months to figure out the source) - the downspout outside was pointing directly at the chimney, so every time it rained more than 1/4 in., water would leak in. 

We had lots of help from Curtis' dad - he helped paint everything and helped Curtis for a couple of days putting in the floor.  Lane liked to "help" whenever he could :)

Brent Lancaster, my brother-in-law, is a door and window installer and did a great job installing the new windows!

See the ugly old windows with lovely expandable foam holding it together? 

And the "after" photos!

It feels sooo bright, clean and airy now!  I love having a big family room like this - separate areas for tv-watching, playroom, and office.  It's so nice for all of us to hang out in the same room!  And since the stairway is kind of "open" the kids haven't minded playing downstairs while I'm upstairs.  They'll probably have more fun once I get things more organized and not just in a big pile!

I'm having a hard time deciding on accent colors and curtains.  I really like orange and turquoise these days, but I'm not sure if I will like them long enough to actually buy things in those colors!  Most of my old decorating pieces are red.  I don't like red anymore, so I've been spray painting alot of things :) Curtains - I think Roman shades would look nice - but do I want to attempt to make them or should I just try to find some I like?  Ahhh, decisions, decisions. 

I just got the Ikea catalog in the mail so I'm excited to start looking through that and hopefully getting some more ideas!

I told Curtis that now he doesn't have to do anything on the house until after harvest and field work are done.  He was happy.

We do have an extra loveseat...any one need one?  :)

Before and After - Master Bathroom

The master bathroom has been finished for awhile (well, except for the baseboards, but Curtis is busy on the family room so I'm not going to distract him!), but I just had to get new towels before I posted pics!  Besides, Curtis and I were forever arguing about who was using which color of towel.  New towels solved the problem: me, pink; him, brown.

Before:

After:

Since the previous owners redid most of the bathroom (looks like the probably gutted it and started over) there wasn't a whole lot that we did.  The major changes were a new vanity and a couple of storage solutions.  I'm glad that they did as much as they did - we would never be this far along if they hadn't!  It's definitely not my dream bathroom - I would love to have a bathroom with black walls, white vanity with dark granite top, brushed nickel accessories, gleaming white tub/shower, and dark tile on the floor.  Oh, and a chandelier hanging from the ceiling.  I don't think that's up to code though, unfortunately :(.  Anyway, that was way off topic!

Budget Breakdown:

Vanity from Lowes: $249 (on sale and with free delivery!)
Mirror from Lowes: $58 (on sale)
Faucet from Home Depot: $96 (after we installed it, we saw Menards had it for $77 on sale!)
Towel cupboard: free from my mom
Towel rack/shelves from Target: $14ish
Vase with flowers: spray-painted a vase I already had, $4 flowers
Toothbrush holder, soap dispenser, & jar from Target: $30
4 towels, 4 wash cloths, 2 hand towels from Walmart: $28.80
Storage totes (there are also 2 inside the vanity) from Target: $25ish


So, $504.80 isn't too bad!  (And this is the first time I've been adding things up room-by-room.  Quite enlightening! Surprisingly, I can remember most of the prices off the top of my head.  Obsessed much?)

I really want to change out the light above the vanity.  Curtis thinks it is fine.  Any other opinions out there?

And this is our plan for a bathroom door:

Probably not in yellow.  Or maybe??

Before and After - Katy's Room

I finally have one room "finished" in this house!  To me, "finished" means that the room is at a point where I can live with it for quite awhile.  Katy's room was probably the easiest room to decorate.  I was basically starting from scratch in her room since I completely changed the color scheme.  Her old nursery was pink and brown (as you can tell by her sheets - I'm not buying new sheets until she's in a twin bed!) and this room is purple, green and blue.

Before:

After:

Quite a change!  The white curtains were the last thing I bought and really look good.  I'm happy with how it turned out! 

*I just remembered that we have to put outlet and vent covers on yet.  Ooops.  That's a job for Curtis.  Mostly because I don't know where they are. 

In my opinion, her room was done pretty cheaply, especially since I really had no ideas beyond the wall colors!

Budget Breakdown:

2 gallons and 1 quart of paint from Ace: $40
Wall letters 50% off at Hobby Lobby: $6 (painted with the quart of paint)
Flower stick-ons from Bed Bath & Beyond: $20
Mirror from garage sale: $1.50 (painted with the quart of paint)
Picture frame: free from Mom's basement
Clock from Home Depot: $10
Lamp from Target: $16
Tissue paper ball: $1ish for the paper?
Curtains from Walmart: $17
Furniture: my bedroom set from when I was at home
Crib: borrowed from my brother-in-law
Of course, we put in new carpet throughout the whole house, but I don't know the room-by-room breakdown!

So, for $111.50, Katy's room sure looks a whole lot better than it did when we bought the house! Love it!