Our house is officially a HOME. Our HOME!
Our home is perfect. It is perfect for us. And now that things are finally falling into place, things feel right. Everything seems a little brighter and easier to deal with. Life is not easy. Our lives are not easy. As a matter of fact, we have some things that we are having a little trouble getting over the hurdles but they seem bearable now. It’s not that the problems have gotten easier but since there is less stress from the house, it means less on my shoulders and that means it feels lighter.
When I walk into the front door, I smile. There are still stacks of boxes left to unpack and things still left to take to Good Will and maybe even a few things that I would love to get for our new home but it already feels perfect. It fits like a glove…for our family.
I remember when I first saw the house. The landlord kept telling me about all the things wrong with it. The things that could mean it’s a deal breaker for us. Things I wish our old landlord had bothered to sit down and tell us about our previous house. All the things that he told me though, were not deal breakers for us. The bathroom doesn’t have a window. Would it be good to have one? Sure but it certainly is not a deal breaker. The biggie that might really scare many families away is that there are no closets. Yes you heard me right. There are no closets in the bedrooms at all. There is one big closet off of the dining room which is where we have our holiday stuff and our vacuum and things like that. We have a basement for storage also but I hate basements and try to keep what we put down there to a minimum. I even pared down on my holiday stuff and will probably go through it again to pare down some more. The great thing about not having closets is that you can’t just shove things in the closet and you really need to think about what you keep. We have found alternate forms of storage that fit us. We have a free standing wardrobe that holds all our hanging clothes. I have cut down moving boxes that fit perfectly under the bed that I will cover with pretty wrapping paper so that it looks good. We got a big armoire for the dining room that holds all our board games and my craft stuff. There is a dresser beside the computer desk to hold all the computer stuff out of sight.
We have gotten rid of so much unwanted stuff. I am sure that we will get rid of so much more. I hate a cluttered house. I want to enjoy what we have. I have found stuff from three houses ago that we forgot we had. Like CJ’s igloo tent that we bought at Ikea three years ago. It was buried in a box somewhere and we couldn’t enjoy it because it was packed away. The great thing was that I washed it, put it up and he didn’t even remember it so it was like getting a new one all together. He had a blast playing with it this weekend.
I am enjoying our house and can't wait to start entertaining in our new home.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Friday, May 11, 2012
We Got The Keys !
Here is the entrance to our beautiful new home ! I could just stare at it forever. I hope this house brings us lots of luck.
A few more pics of the kitchen:
And the dining room
And the living room
And the living room from the other side
And lastly (for now) two pics of the plain old bathroom
I will spare you all the plain pics of the bedrooms that just look like empty shells. I will throw them in for a before and after once they are done. :o)
And the dining room
And the living room
And the living room from the other side
And lastly (for now) two pics of the plain old bathroom
I will spare you all the plain pics of the bedrooms that just look like empty shells. I will throw them in for a before and after once they are done. :o)
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
A New Addiction and a Perfect Saying
I seem to sway from one addiction to another. Well that is not entirely true. The truth is that I like to do it all, just not at the same time. I read in a blog recently something that pretty much sums me up.
Recently in my local blog reads, I came across this (http://theivycottageblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/i-could-make-that-syndrome.html) on The Ivy Cottage. It is so ME !
I so have the “I could make that” syndrome. Every time I see something in blogland or even in stores, I think…I could make that (for so much less too). I have a gift and I sometimes forget that it is a gift. Each time some new craze hits the blogs, I try it and I can pretty much do it with little or no ease at all. It seems so simple to me and failure is not something I fear. If it doesn’t come out the way that I want it, I can always try again. No harm in trying.
So although this is not new, it is new to me. I have started repurposing furniture. It started with what I had and then grew to cheap Good Will finds and now has grown to what I can get for free…curbside even.
Monday night my neighbor that is actually about five houses down put a rocking chair out on the curb. This rocking chair to be exact.
I was not thinking about getting a rocking chair but it was out there…for free and it looked like it was in pretty good shape. I put my thoughts aside and thought, do I really need a rocker? Well at work that same day, I was surfing the net and came across a painted rocking chair. This painted rocker:
This chair didn’t really look anything like the one on the curb but it started to stir thoughts in my head…that is never a good thing…lol.
I passed it again on my way home and noticed that nobody had scooped it up yet. We live on a small street and it’s a one way so it doesn’t get a whole lot of traffic. I decided that I was going to stop thinking about it. Tuesday morning it was still there and at work again (yes I work too while at work) I did a search for painted chairs and I decided that if the chair was still there when I got home then I was going to get it. This is the exact chair painted.
And although I don’t like the color of this chair because it is too bright and I am not fond of the distressed look either, I think it would look great in the one that I originally saw. Besides, if I don’t like it green, I can paint it white and I know it would look great in white.
So guess what? Yup, it was there. So I walked it home in all its glory. It really is a great rocking chair and perfect for a reading corner I hope to make at the new house. It has one spindle that has come loose but nothing that a little wood glue won’t fix.
Can’t wait to work my magic on it!
Recently in my local blog reads, I came across this (http://theivycottageblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/i-could-make-that-syndrome.html) on The Ivy Cottage. It is so ME !
I so have the “I could make that” syndrome. Every time I see something in blogland or even in stores, I think…I could make that (for so much less too). I have a gift and I sometimes forget that it is a gift. Each time some new craze hits the blogs, I try it and I can pretty much do it with little or no ease at all. It seems so simple to me and failure is not something I fear. If it doesn’t come out the way that I want it, I can always try again. No harm in trying.
So although this is not new, it is new to me. I have started repurposing furniture. It started with what I had and then grew to cheap Good Will finds and now has grown to what I can get for free…curbside even.
Monday night my neighbor that is actually about five houses down put a rocking chair out on the curb. This rocking chair to be exact.
I was not thinking about getting a rocking chair but it was out there…for free and it looked like it was in pretty good shape. I put my thoughts aside and thought, do I really need a rocker? Well at work that same day, I was surfing the net and came across a painted rocking chair. This painted rocker:
This chair didn’t really look anything like the one on the curb but it started to stir thoughts in my head…that is never a good thing…lol.
I passed it again on my way home and noticed that nobody had scooped it up yet. We live on a small street and it’s a one way so it doesn’t get a whole lot of traffic. I decided that I was going to stop thinking about it. Tuesday morning it was still there and at work again (yes I work too while at work) I did a search for painted chairs and I decided that if the chair was still there when I got home then I was going to get it. This is the exact chair painted.
And although I don’t like the color of this chair because it is too bright and I am not fond of the distressed look either, I think it would look great in the one that I originally saw. Besides, if I don’t like it green, I can paint it white and I know it would look great in white.
So guess what? Yup, it was there. So I walked it home in all its glory. It really is a great rocking chair and perfect for a reading corner I hope to make at the new house. It has one spindle that has come loose but nothing that a little wood glue won’t fix.
Can’t wait to work my magic on it!
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
The Packing Begins...
This is what my house looks like…everywhere !
Yesterday I mentioned our new place and I told you that I would tell you more later. Well, later is now. :o)
For those of you that don’t know, I have been less than happy in our current place. It wasn’t all bad and the thought of moving makes my skin crawl, I am not kidding, but I couldn’t make it feel like home no matter how hard I tried. So we notified our landlords that we were leaving and we started our search.
Our search wasn’t that long but it seemed insanely long to me. It’s true that you make up your mind about a place within the first 30 seconds in the house. Everything that we looked at was tiny. Leaving was our choice so we wanted to be sure to be going somewhere better, not worst and I wasn't interested in settling. Our needs were that we stay within walking distance for Larissa’s job, within CJ’s school district, would allow our cats and fit our family with parking for two cars and laundry somewhere in the building. Our wants were 4 bedrooms and room to spread out and preferably all on one level. I like simple. I don’t care about all the extra stuff that people tend to fuss so much about when looking for places.
I got a good feeling from the landlord right away, despite the fact that his mother had just passed the day before. He seemed genuine and just really proud of his rentals. And he seems as though he was really interested in good people coming in. I know all landlords say that but he really seems like he means it.
I got a great feeling from the house too. It is so spacious and it has everything we wanted and more. We have the four bedrooms that we wanted. We have a large eat in kitchen and this only shows you half of it:
And a dining room and a really large living room. The living room has sliding doors that open to the fenced in back yard. This picture was taken from the kitchen and you can see the dining room (the room with the hardwood floors) and into the living room and out to the backyard. I love how open it feels:
Here is a picture of the living room and the sliding doors. You really can't tell how big it really is in this picture though. CJ just had to get in the picture of course:
I really need to take more pictures because I just snapped these real quick to get something. If I had to pick one thing that I don’t like about the apartment it would be the dark kitchen. I can definitely find a way to lighten it up with all my white accessories but I think that the landlord would even let us paint it with time. For now though, I just want to work with what we have. Jose likes the wood and ironically so does everyone else that sees it. There are so many windows in the house though that it’s bright and full of light. I love it. Can you tell that I love it?
We are all super excited about the move, including the kids. Of course, that makes me even happier. So I put the deposit on the place yesterday afternoon and the packing started. I got stuck because I really wanted to pack stuff in the kitchen and I realized that I didn’t have any newspaper to wrap things in so I stopped packing. I will be stopping at the store today to get a couple newspapers and the packing will continue.
I am heading toward the light at the end of the tunnel and it looks really bright.
Yesterday I mentioned our new place and I told you that I would tell you more later. Well, later is now. :o)
For those of you that don’t know, I have been less than happy in our current place. It wasn’t all bad and the thought of moving makes my skin crawl, I am not kidding, but I couldn’t make it feel like home no matter how hard I tried. So we notified our landlords that we were leaving and we started our search.
Our search wasn’t that long but it seemed insanely long to me. It’s true that you make up your mind about a place within the first 30 seconds in the house. Everything that we looked at was tiny. Leaving was our choice so we wanted to be sure to be going somewhere better, not worst and I wasn't interested in settling. Our needs were that we stay within walking distance for Larissa’s job, within CJ’s school district, would allow our cats and fit our family with parking for two cars and laundry somewhere in the building. Our wants were 4 bedrooms and room to spread out and preferably all on one level. I like simple. I don’t care about all the extra stuff that people tend to fuss so much about when looking for places.
I got a good feeling from the landlord right away, despite the fact that his mother had just passed the day before. He seemed genuine and just really proud of his rentals. And he seems as though he was really interested in good people coming in. I know all landlords say that but he really seems like he means it.
I got a great feeling from the house too. It is so spacious and it has everything we wanted and more. We have the four bedrooms that we wanted. We have a large eat in kitchen and this only shows you half of it:
And a dining room and a really large living room. The living room has sliding doors that open to the fenced in back yard. This picture was taken from the kitchen and you can see the dining room (the room with the hardwood floors) and into the living room and out to the backyard. I love how open it feels:
Here is a picture of the living room and the sliding doors. You really can't tell how big it really is in this picture though. CJ just had to get in the picture of course:
I really need to take more pictures because I just snapped these real quick to get something. If I had to pick one thing that I don’t like about the apartment it would be the dark kitchen. I can definitely find a way to lighten it up with all my white accessories but I think that the landlord would even let us paint it with time. For now though, I just want to work with what we have. Jose likes the wood and ironically so does everyone else that sees it. There are so many windows in the house though that it’s bright and full of light. I love it. Can you tell that I love it?
We are all super excited about the move, including the kids. Of course, that makes me even happier. So I put the deposit on the place yesterday afternoon and the packing started. I got stuck because I really wanted to pack stuff in the kitchen and I realized that I didn’t have any newspaper to wrap things in so I stopped packing. I will be stopping at the store today to get a couple newspapers and the packing will continue.
I am heading toward the light at the end of the tunnel and it looks really bright.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Dining Room Chair Make-over
I was busy this weekend. I have had a dining room table and 6 chairs that my best friend gave to me because she was wanted to get rid of them this past summer when she was updating her house.
My plan had been to use the table as a train table. I was planning on removing the legs and putting wheels and then being able to roll it under the couch when not in use. Plans don’t always work out the way that you plan them though. I did remove the legs, I did add the wheels but the table was much bigger than I had planned and I didn’t realize that we have a leg in the couch right in the middle for support so the table could not roll under it. That left me with a ginormous table on wheels in the middle of the living room. Not what I was looking for. So the table went out to the shed and the chairs into the basement. The chairs were just given to me because they were part of the set and I figured that with all the entertaining that we do, we could always use extra chairs. Then we took them outside during a cook-out and we sort of forgot about them. They were out there in the weather for several months, thankfully under the porch overhang but they got pretty beat up anyways. I brought them into the basement and just left them there.
Well now that we found our new place that we will be moving to (more on that later), I have space for my godmother’s table that is currently being used in the breezeway just as an entry table with the funky lime green chairs currently in our kitchen/dining area in the kitchen but we also have a dining room in the new place. So my plan is to use the big table we use in the kitchen now in the dining room and I got to thinking about those chairs that I was going to donate to Good Will. Could I fix them up to use them in a formal way in our dining room?
These are the chairs before. The wood has begun to crack from being out in the elements. The cushions are stained from the rain and the leaves and the dirt. But not unsalvageable. What could I do with them?
I started by wiping them down and removing the cushions. They are sturdy and just needed some tightening of the screws to reinforce them. This is what they looked like before I started.
And you can see the cushion on the left here. I decided to paint them white and try a funky but formal fabric on the seat cushions. So I ran to JoAnn’s Fabrics and got a couple of yards of a fabric that really grabbed my attention. The fabric was priced at $7.99/yard but it rang up at $5.99/yard, which made me a very happy girl.
So here is the next step. I primed the chairs with spray primer. It’s faster and you get a lot of coverage. After I applied the primer though, I realized that the split wood was even more noticeable than it was when the chairs were just wood tone.
This is what they looked like where the wood was split. Not so pretty. So I ran out to Lowe’s and bought a small jar of wood filler. I came home and started to fill the gaps and sanded a little and primed over where I had put the wood filler and covered the cushions. I didn’t take a picture of covering the cushions but I am sure you get the idea.
This was my finished product:
I think they came out great ! I love them and I can’t wait to move them into the new house and use them. They make me very happy and it cost me very little. To think that I was going to donate them and then I would have been looking for chairs. So glad that I have an ambitious creative side. What do you think of the make-over?
My plan had been to use the table as a train table. I was planning on removing the legs and putting wheels and then being able to roll it under the couch when not in use. Plans don’t always work out the way that you plan them though. I did remove the legs, I did add the wheels but the table was much bigger than I had planned and I didn’t realize that we have a leg in the couch right in the middle for support so the table could not roll under it. That left me with a ginormous table on wheels in the middle of the living room. Not what I was looking for. So the table went out to the shed and the chairs into the basement. The chairs were just given to me because they were part of the set and I figured that with all the entertaining that we do, we could always use extra chairs. Then we took them outside during a cook-out and we sort of forgot about them. They were out there in the weather for several months, thankfully under the porch overhang but they got pretty beat up anyways. I brought them into the basement and just left them there.
Well now that we found our new place that we will be moving to (more on that later), I have space for my godmother’s table that is currently being used in the breezeway just as an entry table with the funky lime green chairs currently in our kitchen/dining area in the kitchen but we also have a dining room in the new place. So my plan is to use the big table we use in the kitchen now in the dining room and I got to thinking about those chairs that I was going to donate to Good Will. Could I fix them up to use them in a formal way in our dining room?
These are the chairs before. The wood has begun to crack from being out in the elements. The cushions are stained from the rain and the leaves and the dirt. But not unsalvageable. What could I do with them?
I started by wiping them down and removing the cushions. They are sturdy and just needed some tightening of the screws to reinforce them. This is what they looked like before I started.
And you can see the cushion on the left here. I decided to paint them white and try a funky but formal fabric on the seat cushions. So I ran to JoAnn’s Fabrics and got a couple of yards of a fabric that really grabbed my attention. The fabric was priced at $7.99/yard but it rang up at $5.99/yard, which made me a very happy girl.
So here is the next step. I primed the chairs with spray primer. It’s faster and you get a lot of coverage. After I applied the primer though, I realized that the split wood was even more noticeable than it was when the chairs were just wood tone.
This is what they looked like where the wood was split. Not so pretty. So I ran out to Lowe’s and bought a small jar of wood filler. I came home and started to fill the gaps and sanded a little and primed over where I had put the wood filler and covered the cushions. I didn’t take a picture of covering the cushions but I am sure you get the idea.
This was my finished product:
I think they came out great ! I love them and I can’t wait to move them into the new house and use them. They make me very happy and it cost me very little. To think that I was going to donate them and then I would have been looking for chairs. So glad that I have an ambitious creative side. What do you think of the make-over?
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Happy Birthday Nathan
Today is Nathan’s birthday. Nathan is 14 years old today. I don’t know where the time has gone but it certainly does not feel as though he could be 14.
Nathan is a fun loving quiet kid. He can be shy until he is comfortable, then watch out. He loves attention. He has been the class clown at school which has often gotten him in trouble. But at home he is such a loving child. He is caring and doesn’t want to hurt anyone. And he gives the most unbelievable hugs.
I didn’t get to see Nathan this morning. He spend the night at his dad’s. They share a birthday and they shared it this year for the first time. It is bittersweet for me. I want Nathan to have a relationship with his father and he is building one. He is so grown. He isn’t my little boy anymore. How I wish that he was still my little boy learning to walk.
I hope that today brings him all the joy and happiness that he deserves. I love you Nathan. Happy 14th!
Nathan is a fun loving quiet kid. He can be shy until he is comfortable, then watch out. He loves attention. He has been the class clown at school which has often gotten him in trouble. But at home he is such a loving child. He is caring and doesn’t want to hurt anyone. And he gives the most unbelievable hugs.
I didn’t get to see Nathan this morning. He spend the night at his dad’s. They share a birthday and they shared it this year for the first time. It is bittersweet for me. I want Nathan to have a relationship with his father and he is building one. He is so grown. He isn’t my little boy anymore. How I wish that he was still my little boy learning to walk.
I hope that today brings him all the joy and happiness that he deserves. I love you Nathan. Happy 14th!
Monday, April 9, 2012
Repurposing Furniture
The time to move it getting closer and the stress has me a little on edge. The thought of moving again…well, I just don’t have to say it because I have said it a million times and everyone knows how I feel. I am starting to feel like a broken record. :o)
Last night my brother in law brought me a new/old dresser. First of all, I just want to say that yes, I do still call Marco my brother in law even though he is my ex-husband’s brother. My ex is a screw up for all intent and purposes and his family is a little on the crazy side, ok maybe a lot of the crazy side, but they have been there for me and they can really be wonderful. I am blessed to have the love and support of many families. Anyways, I got off track. Marco has a business where he goes and cleans out houses for real estate companies and small companies too. He gets to keep what is there. I had been on the hunt for some good quality furniture at very low prices. I am just tired of the cheap furniture that falls apart just months after buying it. My free kitchen table is one of my keepers and first attempt at making something old new and great. I love that table. I am not sure if I will keep it or not depending on our new space but I am confident that if I don’t keep it that I will get a new old table that will make me just as happy. So Marco has brought me two dressers in total and they are beautiful. They are old but they are solid. I have not done anything with them yet. I am still undecided where each dresser will go. The boys both need dressers and so did I. That was a minimum. I feel like my house is slowly coming together with things that I really love though. Not someone else’s furniture given to me, ironic since it is someone else’s furniture and it is almost being given to me…lol. But this furniture is really what I have been looking for. I can’t wait to take time and actually get to work on them. But once again, I can’t do that until I decide what room they are going in.
This is the first one. It is currently in our living room. It landed there totally by accident. I didn’t know where to put it so instead of having it hauled up the stairs, I just told them to put it in the space the I had in the living room. It has very helpful in housing our board games that were usually stacked up on the floor and now provides a surface for our 3D tv and PSP3 that were in our bedroom but have somehow made its way downstairs. My intention is to take the electronics back to our bedroom and use the dresser in one of the bedrooms but the size of the piece seems to work well in holding the games and CJ’s lego’s. Depending on the new house that we find, I might decide to not use it in a bedroom. It would look great in an entry with two lamps on it. Since I have no clue what kind of space we will have in our new place, I will have to wait to do any work on them. :o( Yes, this makes me very sad.
But this is what I would love to do with it:
This is the second one. What a great piece. I do have to use some finishing nails for a part in the side but it is in great shape and it’s solid. This one is currently just hanging out in my hallway upstairs. God only knows where it will end up. I think that I will be moving it into our bedroom tonight though so that I can put some of my clothes away and so that I can start to get some organization with the new pieces. I am not sure that it won’t end up being for either of the boys. We will see. Only time will tell.
So that is the adventures of my found trash to treasure pieces. I am very happy working on making our house a home…well, at least the things in our house….lol.
Last night my brother in law brought me a new/old dresser. First of all, I just want to say that yes, I do still call Marco my brother in law even though he is my ex-husband’s brother. My ex is a screw up for all intent and purposes and his family is a little on the crazy side, ok maybe a lot of the crazy side, but they have been there for me and they can really be wonderful. I am blessed to have the love and support of many families. Anyways, I got off track. Marco has a business where he goes and cleans out houses for real estate companies and small companies too. He gets to keep what is there. I had been on the hunt for some good quality furniture at very low prices. I am just tired of the cheap furniture that falls apart just months after buying it. My free kitchen table is one of my keepers and first attempt at making something old new and great. I love that table. I am not sure if I will keep it or not depending on our new space but I am confident that if I don’t keep it that I will get a new old table that will make me just as happy. So Marco has brought me two dressers in total and they are beautiful. They are old but they are solid. I have not done anything with them yet. I am still undecided where each dresser will go. The boys both need dressers and so did I. That was a minimum. I feel like my house is slowly coming together with things that I really love though. Not someone else’s furniture given to me, ironic since it is someone else’s furniture and it is almost being given to me…lol. But this furniture is really what I have been looking for. I can’t wait to take time and actually get to work on them. But once again, I can’t do that until I decide what room they are going in.
This is the first one. It is currently in our living room. It landed there totally by accident. I didn’t know where to put it so instead of having it hauled up the stairs, I just told them to put it in the space the I had in the living room. It has very helpful in housing our board games that were usually stacked up on the floor and now provides a surface for our 3D tv and PSP3 that were in our bedroom but have somehow made its way downstairs. My intention is to take the electronics back to our bedroom and use the dresser in one of the bedrooms but the size of the piece seems to work well in holding the games and CJ’s lego’s. Depending on the new house that we find, I might decide to not use it in a bedroom. It would look great in an entry with two lamps on it. Since I have no clue what kind of space we will have in our new place, I will have to wait to do any work on them. :o( Yes, this makes me very sad.
But this is what I would love to do with it:
This is the second one. What a great piece. I do have to use some finishing nails for a part in the side but it is in great shape and it’s solid. This one is currently just hanging out in my hallway upstairs. God only knows where it will end up. I think that I will be moving it into our bedroom tonight though so that I can put some of my clothes away and so that I can start to get some organization with the new pieces. I am not sure that it won’t end up being for either of the boys. We will see. Only time will tell.
So that is the adventures of my found trash to treasure pieces. I am very happy working on making our house a home…well, at least the things in our house….lol.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)