Today's project: Tree Fort

Lane has been asking for and drawing up plans for a tree house for the last few months.  Curtis finally figured out something that would work and he got busy today!

Lane and Katy had lots of fun building their own stuff too:

Curtis used some leftover decking that my parents had - it should hold up well!

Lane was thrilled to finally get to try it out; Katy, not so much.  She was pretty scared the first time she was up there.

All finished!  Curtis just needs to get some heavy duty screws to reinforce it a little bit and I'm thinking about making an awning for it.  Lane loves it!  So far he has just pretended to build a house up there, but he's already talking about it being a spaceship and a fire station.

I'm very thankful for a handy husband!

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!

Did I really just think that?

As I was lying in bed last night, I thought to myself, "I kinda miss our old house."  Then I caught myself and thought "Why in the world did I just think that?!?!"

Then I realized that while I DO NOT miss that house, I do miss some of the memories and stuff we would do while there!

I miss:

Lane sleeping in his closet.
An oven high enough off the ground that little hands can't reach.
A closet right by the back door for all of Curtis' junk.
A finished basement (by the way, Curtis is working on ours now and his completion goal is Labor Day!).
Lane running down the driveway and Whisky going on "high alert" when he went past a certain point.
Living on a farm - always farm equipment and construction equipment going by!
No neighbors.
Lane being able to watch for Daddy and see him coming a mile away.

I don't miss:
Small rooms.
The garbage situation.
No backyard.
Everything breaking.
Katy's room being right next to ours.
Sharing a bathroom with the kids.
Not having a house of our own :)

I think I'll get over "missing" our old house!

DIY Mason Jar Chandelier

One of the hottest things in home decor right now is mason jars (just google "diy" or "home decor" and "mason jars" and you'll see what I mean).  Even before we bought this house, I saw mason jar chandeliers everywhere and thought they were one of the cutest things ever!  When we realized that we had to change almost all the lights in the house, I started scrutinizing each one to see if I could redo it somehow.

It took awhile before I gave the stairwell light a second glance.  Doesn't look like it could be much different!

Plastic Tiffany-style lamp just wasn't the look I was going for. Then, I realized that if I just took the shade off, the lights underneath were actually in pretty good shape and very simple.

So, with a little spray paint, a few mason jars and a very handy husband who is not scared to climb a ladder and balance on the stair rail, I got this:

It's really hard to take good pictures of new lighting, especially in a dark stairwell with no natural light! 

I love it - even more so since it only cost $4 for some oil-rubbed bronze spray paint.  I basically just took apart the chandelier, painted it, cut holes in the jar lid with tin snips, then balanced the jars (found in my mom's basement - thanks mom!) on the "arms" (what would those things be called??).  One is a little off-balance, but as long as we don't swing it around, it will be fine :)

$4 for a chandelier makeover vs. $100+ for a new light?  Of course!

House Update

I finally took updated pictures of our house the other day so that I could show my Grandma Reimer....and I'm just now getting around to blogging about them :)  I've been waiting to blog about this until I my house was cleaned up enough to make the pictures look good.  Well, it's never clean, so I just took them anyway! So, here's a little tour!  We are so far from being done.  Some days I wish that I could just wave a little magic wand and have it all done.  But the re-doing is the fun part, right?

Master bedroom - We painted it the same green as in the family room at our old house.  We're actually going to repaint sometime...the paint didn't get completely mixed, so the corner (and another little spot on the wall) is darker.  We also realized that we are sick of the color and of the camo bedspread.  So once I figure out what I want instead, we'll change it. We have a new ceiling fan to put up that will hopefully brighten the room up!

Lane's room - We painted to match his bedspread - Milkweed Pod, Blue Bonnet, and La Terra (all the paint is from Ace Hardware).  I haven't figured out what to decorate with yet...I wish that I had gotten all the accessories to match his bedspread when Target had everything!

Katy's room - I love the colors in her room!  Girl colors without being too "girly".  I was going to stencil some designs in blue on the green wall, but I decided against that and will instead put up her name and some other decorations.  The dresser and nightstand are actually mine from when I was little...it's fun to be able to use them and I think they work pretty good with the color!  I am going to find some new curtains...the maroon doesn't really go, but I was desperate for a dark room and that's all we had.  I haven't quite decided what color...maybe a blue?  I'm worried that white curtains will look goofy with the dresser, and cream curtains will just look dirty. 

Dining room - I am really liking how this room is turning out. I love the chandelier.  It really surprises me how much the right light fixture can change a room.  I need to figure out what to put on the walls and hopefully we will be putting in french doors later this summer.  The walls are Venice Beach (a light blue color).

Living room - Since we haven't gotten our family room (in the lower level) done yet, this is where we spend most of our time.  The walls are Venice Beach and Crystal Lake - the Crystal Lake is slightly lighter than Venice Beach.  It's amazing how much the colors change in different light.  I had a really hard time taking photos in these rooms...the lighting just wasn't right.  So they don't do the house justice!  New carpeting in here and all the bedrooms really made a difference in the "feel" of the house.  Eventually most of the toys in here will be moved to the family room and we'll get different furniture (I'm getting tired of all our hand-me-downs!). 

The most noticable change has been the cut-outs in the living room/kitchen walls.  It really opened up the space and it feels so much bigger!  I love being able to keep an eye on the kids while I'm in the kitchen.  All the grey is Whale Grey and it is the perfect grey :)

I actually should go take new pictures since I've done alot of cleaning up and moving stuff around since I took these ;)  But maybe some other day...we still have a lot of work left to do, especially with all the "little" stuff like trim, outlet covers, closet doors, etc.  It seems to take forever!

We're working on the kitchen really hard this week so hopefully next week I can show a more completed picture of it.  Master bathroom is almost (like I just need to find one little thing for it) done and I'll post pics of that too!

It's ours...

...and now the work begins!  Curtis is over there as we speak doing...something.  I hope.

So much work to do that it's hard to know where to begin!  I just want to give you guys a tour of the house and comment on what we want to do to the space.  I've got a "vision" in my head of what I want the finished house to look like, but I'm not sure if we'll be able to pull it off or not.  First off, I do NOT like the way the outside looks.  Our original plan was to put vinyl siding on...but due to budget constraints...it looks like we might be lucky to just get it painted.  Maybe a tan or green?  We would also like to put smaller windows on the upper floor - those things are 5.5 feet tall!

The Kitchen

Upon first glance, this doesn't look too bad.  But, the previous owners stripped part of the stain off, leaving the cabinets two-toned.  And then, they cut an extra hole in each cabinet so that they could use rope as the knob pulls.  Like they were going for a rustic look...that didn't really happen.  (Besides, I don't think burgandy and green are really rustic colors!).  The cabinets themselves are in really good shape and pretty nice, so I'm going to paint them white, add a new backsplash and new appliances. 

That's the eat-in kitchen area...not quite big enough for our table (which is going in the dining room anyway) and the wall is just kinda in the way.  I want to cut "windows" in each side (all the way across, just leaving a pillar at each end and in the corner) that would look out to the living room and dining room.  I would like an island or something there eventually.  The wall is getting painted Whale Gray thanks to Casey's advice :)  And we're removing the tile baseboard. 

Dining Room/Living Room

The rest of the main floor consists of the dining room and living room.

Dining room is going to be painted shades of blue and we're leaving the laminate flooring.  Hopefully we can find a light fixture we like!  I never realized how many ugly ones are out there.  We loved the one we had in Louisville, but of course we don't remember the manufacturer.

 Yep, we already have a mess of toys in the living room :)  It was supposed to keep the two little ones occupied while I removed cabinet doors.  But...Lane wanted to help...and Katy was scared of the drill.  We were there for an hour and a half and I only got four doors removed.

The plan in this room is blue and gray paint...new trim...and new carpet!  I think new carpet will make a world of difference.   Another "what were the previous owners thinking?" moment - the dining room and living room both have different trim - dining room is "rustic" knotty pine while the living room is a more traditional style.  Really?  And they thought it would look good?

 We do like the tile entryway.  And Katy LOVES the stairs...hence the two gates.

Master Bedroom/Bathroom

This room is...interesting.  The carpet doesn't cover the entire floor...yucky insulation is peeking out from the sliding door frame...red sponge painting on the wall.  But it's a good size and has alot of potential.  The sliding doors lead out to a balcony that we're scared to step on :)

BUT...amazingly enough, the master bathroom is really nice!  Looks like it is all brand new...including laminate flooring and a heated floor :)  New shower, although I would've prefered a tub/shower, but at least this one is oversized.  I was pretty excited about the french doors (don't they look cool?) until Curtis pointed out, (not very tactfully).."I really don't want you to watch me poop!"  Ummm...yeah.  Glass doors in a bathroom aren't really cool.  Ace Hardware has some frosted "clings" that I'm planning on using.  Much more functionable!

 We have to wonder what the previous owners were thinking with this.  Again, trying for a rustic look.  Pedestal sink isn't bad.  But that thing behind it doesn't really work.  First, they had to bolt it 6 inches up off the ground to make the drawer work.  And the light is kind of perched on it since it doesn't fit right.  And really, it just looks kinda crazy!  A new vanity is getting delivered from Lowe's on May 26. :)

 Kids' bedrooms/bathroom

This is Lane's room.  He's pretty excited about it...he was running circles when I took the picture!  Although the closet is alot smaller than his old one...so sleeping in it might be hard :)

Paint and new carpet is basically the only plan in here...the walls will be dark brown, orange, and blue to match his comforter set.

This is Katy's room...a little smaller than Lane's but it's quite a bit bigger than her room in our current house! There is some water damage on the ceiling that we need to look at more closely to make sure there isn't still a leak.  Luckily Curtis knows what he's doing :)

Katy's room is going to be a purply color, green, and blue.  The colors look great and hopefully it will look as good as I'm envisioning!

 The kids have their own bathroom upstairs, but it will also be the one most guests will use.  Right now, we have no plans for it as it's functionable and pretty clean.  I'll wait to do anything until I either have an idea of what to do with that tile or we have the money to tear it out and put in a shower.  Lane's terrified of showers so it will be a few years before we need one :)

 Family Room

The lower level is great.  It doesn't feel like a basement due to the large windows and walkout door.  It will be a combination office/playroom/tv room.  I'd like to keep the upstairs living room more toy-free so I feel like SOME part of my house is clean, but I don't know how well that will turn out :).

The plan down here is laminate flooring, tan paint on three walls, and a deep chocolate color on the wall by the stairs.  And hopefully I can find some cheap & cute storage cubbies/bookshelves to house all the kids' toys and projects.  Like I said, I have a picture in my mind, but I don't know if I can re-create it or not!

Laundry room/half bath

We were surprised to find a third full bathroom in the lower level.  It look like the shower has to go though.  The house wasn't built to accomodate a shower in that area, so there is mold growing on the wall from leakage. 

Our plan is to remove the shower and vanity and replace the flooring with the same laminate that is in the rest of the family room.  We were going to remove the toliet, but our realtor recommended keeping it.  I think she's right :)  We're going to put laundry cabinets in along the (future) open wall along with a laundry sink.  I think I'm going to find a screen or something to shield the toilet from the washer/dryer.

There is also an actual basement in the house...I forgot to take a picture, but there's a nice room for my craft stuff...good storage area...and then the basic furnace room.

So, that's our house!  The actual buying process was pretty awful...we had to deal with a foreclosure company that demanded really strange stuff and kept putting off the closing date.  I recommend not buying a foreclosure if you can help it :) In the end, we were really thankful for Michelle, our realtor, and Karen, our loan officer.  They were both VERY helpful and made sure that everything would come out ok in the end.

I imagine it will be years before everything is exactly how I want it, but I will do updates once things start looking better!