Our Brick Ranch

Happy Holidays

2011-12-14T19:55:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays
from
Our Brick Ranch

Growing up my mom had a tradition, we all picked out one special ornament each year. I've continued this now that I have my own children. This year I found these sweet snowmen for the twins. The hearts above them say Babies first Christmas. It was really hard finding ones that were both the same in different girly colors. You usually just have the choice of pink or blue. I think they are super cute!

I'm also super stoked about our stockings this year. We really needed new ones, plus the babies didn't have any of their own yet. I wanted to make some special ones that'll last for a long time. Unfortunately we are in somewhat of a financial crisis at the moment so I couldn't afford the supplies. I found these ones at the dollar tree! I'm going to make paper tags with everybody's names to identify them.

3 year old Nemi decorated almost all of the tree. She picked out which garland and lights to use and was so excited to hang the ornaments. She went to bed late the first night with the promise of more decorating the next day. When she woke up she stumbled out of her bedroom her eyes still half shut and begged me to continue the tree.

She asks me every single morning, "Is it Christmas yet?" She also told me we need to buy some more presents for under our tree.

I was ultra depressed this year because we didn't have enough money for presents or a tree. We are very blessed to have family who care so much about us. We got 3 offers to buy us one! We finally accepted one. Then last weekend Nemi went to stay the night at her Nana's house and help them pick out a tree. While they were at the lot the guys took a liking to her and let her pick out her very own tree! I couldn't believe it! Now we have two trees!

And she absolutely adores having her very own in her bedroom.
It really is starting to feel a lot like Christmas here at The Brick Ranch

Current Progress

2011-09-18T23:11:00.001-07:00

Before

Currently

Yes I know, we're slow. But it seems that every time we have a tiny bit of time to work on the house some family obligation pops up or I have a baby or two. :) But we're getting there. The carpet people come Tuesday! I'm thinking of a dark brown low pile carpet. Now I just can't decide whether to cap the mantle off in white or black/dark brown.

Family Molding

2011-09-04T23:19:00.000-07:00

Let's take a trip down memory lane. Hard to believe this was the family room at one point. Do you see the baseboard heaters on either side of the fireplace? And beside them you can see the blue carpet extends up the wall? That is because this room was once the original garage.

When we pulled off that old carpet this is what we found. The cement footing for the "garage". It took us a while to figure out what to do as some walls didn't have this bumped out area and we definitely didn't want carpet up the wall again. My first idea was to putty it and paint it black. But after brainstorming we decided to use two layers of plywood on the other walls to bump it out the same depth as the walls with concrete.

Then we layered a piece of 1/8" vinyl paneling on top to cover it all up and give it a prettier face.

Then because every wall was really a different depth and height we ripped primed MDF boards for the tops to finish it all off.

It's more of a Craftsman look than I originally wanted but it seemed the easiest way to cover it up. And yes we'll also be putting the white facing on the concrete areas as well. Hopefully in another week the entire room will look like this and we can order carpet!

Shed Roof

2011-07-04T10:19:00.001-07:00

Before

After

Work Party

2011-06-30T16:06:00.001-07:00

They came in droves. Well.. we had like 12 workers and that was awesome! People started showing up around 10am and our dumpster was well on it's way to full by noon! I couldn't believe how much yard clean up was already done. So we separated everybody into groups, some for yard debris, some for the shed roof demo and some for the bathroom/laundry room demo.
We had cleared the bathroom all out the night before so my dad could go in, disconnect the plumbing, and then get to the smashing!
A friend brought over her kids and they were super stoked to try out some demo in the bathroom. So I set Alayne in charge of demo. She did a mighty fine job too.

This is my dad. He's awesome. The laundry room is now down to the studs.

Here's the shed before, the beam ends were rotten as was all of the sheeting. And it was growing a thick moss.

This is my stepdad Lennart. Everybody got in on the action!

My best friends son Tony up on the shed roof with my hubby.

And good ol' Jeff.

There was a little of this.

And a break for some of this.

And some ice cream bars to cool off.

And tons of this.

All goofball. Pure Cheese.

And this is my current after photo. The tar paper is up but I don't have a picture of it yet. And hopefully the shingles will go up this weekend!

One last picture

2011-06-21T22:43:00.000-07:00

I finished the quilts for the nursery. I thought I'd post a picture.

This weekend we are hosting a work party so stay tuned. We have a lot of yard debris, old lumber, and styrofoam to get rid of so we are renting a giant dumpster. We also hope to re-roof the shed, tear out the 2nd bathroom, and clean out some junk in the garage. I hope people show up!

Nursery's Done

2011-06-07T09:31:00.000-07:00

The nursery is finally done!

I moved around the artwork and we hung the doors on the closet.

I'm still not completely happy with the furniture arrangement. But for now it's done. I also want to save up for these cute bedskirts at target.

Nursery

2011-06-03T14:50:00.001-07:00

It's been an interesting few weeks but we have made some progress on the twins nursery. We hung the oar and swapped the red curtains in our bedroom for the white ones in the nursery. I always hated those red curtains in our bedroom.

Then it hit me, they match the red in the quilts I'm making and the letters I decoupaged perfectly! And I absolutely love the white ones in our bedroom with all of the white trim and bright blue walls.

I tied the red ones off with strips of blue and white striped seersucker to help with that beachy vibe. I also found these great frames at a thrift store. They are covered in seashells and were only $3.99 each! I only originally found 5 and thought oh well I'll just do a mural wall with them, then I went back yesterday and found 1 more! Score! Now I'm super happy with them lined up on the picture rails. I still have no idea what I'll put in them yet. Maybe some sailboats?

New life and love

2011-05-25T12:33:00.001-07:00

I've been missing lately. My world has been turned upside down. And this is the beautiful amazing reason why.

I'm only about halfway done with the nursery, but here it is.

A genius creative friend of mine Tara made these sweet paintings for the girls.

We've been making slow but sure progress on the family room and I hope to get it all up soon, but you'll understand if I've been preoccupied with other sweet things.

Paint

2011-04-02T23:11:00.000-07:00

Let me apologize in advance. I'm about to give you some during photos. But no after photos, because my camera fried. And I am currently completely without one. But I was able to get some photos before that happened that show the color of the room a little bit better. So for a slight update.
Here is the door to the back patio. To the right is the laundry room and 3/4 bath.

This door faces the last one and goes to the garage. That's our beautiful electric panel.

And I just wanted to get a couple of closeups of the texture.

Just so I can say WOW. Look how incredible this turned out? Can you believe that is all 70's dark wood paneling underneath that? How wonderful is my hubby!?!?!

I can't wait to get some chair rail up and carpet installed!

Family Room

2011-03-22T21:21:00.000-07:00

Let's start with a before photo because it makes me giddy.

I told you in my last post that there would be a lot of progress this week. I was right. Out of the blue my brother came to stay and asked if he could help out. I put him straight to work. He filled out the rest of the upper half of the old wood paneling. Then my hubby and him sanded like crazy.

Then Mr Brick ranch convinced me it'd look even less like paneling if I let him texture the upper half.

The next day my baby brother primed the textured walls.

And put the first coat of paint up :)

My hubby is currently finishing the texture on the other half of the room while my brother is painting the bottom half white on the finished side. I can't believe how much it actually looks like wainscoting! The lighting in this photo is terrible so you can't see the color accurately. But it's Sherwinn Williams Bonafide Beige in Harmony.

Family Room

2011-03-18T15:39:00.000-07:00

Procrastinators.
That's the name for us. We've been putting off this room for an entire year.
But.... we've finally realized that in order to turn this office I'm sitting in into a nursery, we really have to make the family room liveable. Plus I'm just plain sick of owning a huge house and only utilizing half of it!
Stay tuned for some exciting progress.
There's going to be a whole lot more of this going on in the following weeks!

If you haven't been paying attention, this room used to have electric blue carpet. We're just now getting around to scraping up the old carpet padding. Then we need to do some patching of the concrete and reseal it because last summer we noticed some ants coming up through the carpet! After all that, paint and new carpet!!!

DIY Nursery

2011-03-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

I suppose it's been long enough since I blogged. Since then we've found out we're having identical twin baby girls. In previous posts you have probably read I wanted to do a fun nautical/sea theme in the nursery. This hasn't changed, but it's moved more towards pretty starfish and mermaids and a bit further away from nautical. We have a very small budget, so I've been having a lot of fun crafting all kinds of things myself.
We'll start at the beginning. Here's a picture of the room when we moved in. We painted it Krypton by Sherwin Williams. And I installed those neat clip art rails which I stole from here.

We have since found a great oar at the antique store to use as a curtain rod. Please excuse the messy garage. It wasn't quite long enough so we cut it in half and added a dowel in the middle to lengthen it. Unfortunately trying to match the paint/distressing isn't working for me. Especially since my husband won't let me do it myself while I'm preggo. So I'm kind of stuck right now on this project.

I started sewing the baby quilts this week. Here you can get an idea of my color range.

We also chose baby names and I decoupaged the letters for above their cribs.

We bought a new printer and in the packaging were these super sturdy hollow cardboard tubes. I am ultra thrifty (cheap) and decided how cool would a mobile be made out of them? I had my hubby drill holes and I strung them up with fishing line. Then I collected some shells, starfish and sand dollars at the beach and hot glued it all up.

We got this great dresser off of craigslist and I love it. The problem is it's missing a knob. I took another knob off to go try and find a matching one, but that wasn't happening. Today I got the idea to maybe try starfish pulls instead? But I can't decide.

I love the shape of these knobs. But I'm really not a gold person so I'm not sure how comfortable I am with this idea.

Found here.

I really love the antiquey feel of this one.. but I'm not sure it matches anything else in my house at all.

Found here.

These two are on the top of my list but are a bit spendy. I usually love silver, but I'm afraid they won't stand out very much.

I really love it in oil rubbed bronze though. Again, too expensive!!!

Found here.

Or I could go this route...

Found here.

I'm obviously very undecided!!!

Lastly I really really want to find or make some of these.
I originally saw them over at The Lettered Cottage.
But they are sold by White Flower Farmhouse. And are incredibly out of my price range. Guess I'll just have to get thrifty again!!!

Gorgeous!!!!!

I've also commissioned some art from a lovely friend of mine Tara who is a kick ass mom, photographer and artist. You can check out her etsy page here. Her facebook page here.

I can't wait to see the nursery all put together. Unfortunately at the moment it's a huge heap of extra stuff I can't figure out what to do with and our computer Ar moire is taking up a huge portion of it.

Bird Cage

2011-01-22T18:08:00.000-08:00

We were driving home from The Home Depot when my husband saw signs on the side of the road reading " Vancouver Flea Market "
He of course swerved across 2 lanes of traffic to make it, and this was my $15 Flea Market Find. It's over 4 feet tall!
I'm in love.

Bathroom Door

2011-01-17T09:54:00.000-08:00

Let's start with the door today. This is the back of the bathroom door.

This is how wide the gap between the walls and the door were. Kinda creepy huh? I've been living with this giant gap for several months, and although I know it's just my husband possibly leering at me, I'm sure my guests don't feel as comfortable.

It was time for action. So much better!!! We are planning on replacing the door so we didn't care much about the paint drips on it. It's hollow and broken in several places. But that's another project for another day.

We also installed some trim on the floors. This is the first room in the house it's been installed in and I am sooo excited!!!

And then very late last night my wonderful hubby finally hung my johnny cabinet. :)

I'm so very happy with how the bathroom has come along this weekend. We didn't finish everything we'd hoped to, the caulk on the tub is still half done and I haven't had a shower in 2 days so that needs fixed asap, the floor still needs a bead of caulk around the entire perimeter, and the corner of that little wall separating the toilet and shower needs to be primed, painted and capped off. Then we'll have an entire room... done! Our first room with trim around the door and floors!!! I think I'll probably be spending a lot more of my time in the bathroom from now on, just so I can remind myself that this is what we are capable of when the rest of the house seems so very overwhelming.

Mid Way

2011-01-16T10:16:00.003-08:00

We are currently at the mid way point of our final bathroom renovations. So I'll give you a quick check in to see our progress. Hopefully by the end of the day I'll have some killer after photos!

So, here was the before, you can see the beam to the left had raw drywall and a metal corner cap.

After, the drywall putty is nicely dried and sanded. Ready to be primed and painted. I also touched up the walls in the background. We had originally hung a towel bar over there and realized it was a ridiculous location, it's now on the back of the door where you can actually reach it from the shower!

And the missing wall by the toilet?

Voila! Oh it's so very nice after months of staring at that plumbing to have a nice wall.

Since we decided to keep that panel accessible for future plumbing issues, we used a very thin sheet of paneling and just tacked it on the very sides with nails. We'll be adding corner cap and the piece of quarter round you see in the back to cover up the nails and allow easy access.
Next? We have a johnny cabinet to hang over the toilet, because I'm sick of tripping over the excess toilet paper rolls, and there is door trim and floor trim that has already been cut and painted and is ready to hang today. It should be a rather quick job to finish it all up today. Mr Brick Ranch has been having a blast trying out his new nail guns on this project :)

Our dirty little secret.

2011-01-13T19:02:00.000-08:00

We have this little secret we've been hiding. You see, after Mr Brick Ranch went back to work we neglected to finish the other side of the shower wall.

So when you sit down on the toilet.. This is what you see....

Pretty awful isn't it? But today we went out and purchased the last materials we needed to cover up our little hole in the wall. We decided we'd like to keep it accessible for plumbing emergencies, so we are making it one big removable panel. I popped on my painting overalls, realized that at 21 weeks pregnant with twins I looked ridiculous and couldn't button them closed. But I painted that panel, so stay tuned for some updated before and after pics. Including some trim around the door so nobody can leer at you in the bathroom any longer, and some new baseboards and caulk!

Purdy Aint I?

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-06T09:36:00.000-08:00

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around here! Okay so I know the picture isn't very clear but those stocking holders are silver and spell out PEACE. I saw them on somebody else's blog and thought.. Oooh I wish I had those. Then I thought, well there are only three of us so that'd be weird. THEN.. I realized next year there will be 5 of us! And it seemed to be fate when I was shopping in Target with my mom and there they were! She was very sweet and bought them for me. Yay!
My two year old has already undecorated the tree about 3 times. But nothing is breakable. All the bulbs are plastic from Dollar Tree. Except the ones on the very top which are keepsakes.

Babies

2010-11-08T07:11:00.000-08:00

We've gotten a lot of little things done here and there around the house, but nothing picture worthy. You see our world was turned upside down a little while ago when I went to get my first ultrasound and this is what they found.

Now I know a lot of people have a hard time reading these things, so let me clarify.
That's 2.
2 babies.
TWINS.
Identical Twins.

Needless to say, things have been in a major uproar here at the brick ranch. The office is quickly being pushed out and converted into a double nursery. Two cribs and Two dressers have moved in, and all the sewing stuff is currently piled haphazardly in the entryway and hallway. I have no idea what to do with it.

We are in the process of finishing the walls in the family room and getting ready to paint. Once this is done, we'll be able to lay carpet and move everything in there. In the meantime, we're living in quite a mess!!!

Mantle

2010-10-21T17:53:00.000-07:00

Okay so I know I haven't posted in forever, and for that I'm extremely sorry. Honestly with the hubby working long hours, nothing much has been getting done around the house. In fact with the new baby coming, it seems to be getting more and more cluttered and messy.
But. I did have some time to work on the mantle.

There are still a few empty spots I'd love to fill in but I'm not sure with what yet. Oh, and if I could get my husband to stop emptying his pockets up there that'd be great too.
The vases are from Big Lots and were $5 each, the fake foliage was $3 each.
I got the basket at Ross for $3 and the decorative wood balls were a set of 3 for $5
We got the elephant wall carving at Goodwill for a bit of nothing. And of course the biggest steal was the mantle itself which we got at the ReStore for $12!

Grout

2010-09-24T16:00:00.001-07:00

By this time I'm sure your absolutely tired of hearing about grout. But take care, all the tile and grout in the bathroom is now done! No more grout!

Until the kitchen that is. :)

So the hubs and I had been talking about where to put this new baby. With our 1st we kept her in the pack n play for the first 9 months next to our bed. This was an easy solution but that bassinet portion got a bit saggy in the middle and she kept rolling to the center. We decided this time we'd like a real bassinet or cradle. I got to looking at prices and was kind of blown away. So I thought, why not build one? But let's face it, we are remodeling our whole house, now frantically, when will we get the time?

The very next day we were driving back from Sauvie Island, OR through St. Johns when I saw a cradle on the side of the road at a little junk shop. I screamed, "PULL OVER" My husband slammed on the breaks and turned at the next street swearing, "damn I hoped you hadn't seen that. You know it'll be expensive and we can't afford it." I said back, "you never know, it could be like $15 and then wouldn't it be a shame we hadn't stopped?" He sighed.
He turned around and drove back. There was no price listed so I pushed my way in between the narrow racks of the precariously piled coolest junk I'd ever seen and asked. $25. "SOLD!" I yelled.

And now she's ours.

I have big plans for this pretty cradle. White paint, and a black and white bumper of some kind to cushion the sides and protect baby from the bars which I'm sure are not spaced correctly. We're also going to replace the wood pegs on the top for metal studs so we make sure the rocking is sturdy. (Yes it rocks eee!)
We've already put the cradle to use! We used it as a prop to tell my parents we were pregnant. My dad just stared at it and thought it was a cool piece. I had to yell "I'm pregnant!"
My mom and stepdad thought I'd just bought another cool thing to refinish and were trying to tell me Nemi was too big for it when my mom's eyes got huge and she screamed, "Your not pregnant?" Now that was satisfying :)

Seaside

2010-09-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

I'm dreaming of a nautical/beachy nursery.
That's right folks. We're expecting again!

And my office, sigh, will be soon turned into a nursery. I absolutely love the color my hubby chose for this room so we're definitely keeping it. It's Sherwin Williams Krypton.

So, I thought how perfect would a seaside nursery be? Sailboats and tons of denim and white seersucker for a boy? Or white starfish for a girl? Either way, white furniture.

I absolutely love this bedding.

You get the idea?

Or how about this one?

Check out this mobile!!!

A couple of DIY projects that'd be easy. Driftwood sailboats on white shelves.

Starfish hanging from aged rope. Both ideas courtesy of The Lettered Cottage which is my all time favorite blog.

Now that I'm over the initial shock of finding out I'm pregnant, I'm super excited!!!

Autumn Anyone?

2010-09-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

I've been having the urge lately to add some seasonal decor to our home. Especially our mantel. But you know me, ever on the lacking budget. So I got very excited when I was reading teh Centsational Girl's blog!
She posted pics of this gorgeous wreath she made from leaves on her magnolia tree. I don't have a magnolia tree, but I do have plenty of rhododendrons. To further save on my budget I cut a ring out of a cardboard box, spraypainted my leaves with copper that I had left over from my frame project, and hot glued them onto the ring! Then I just added a couple of pretty red accent leaves and hung it on an existing nail over the mantel.
Voila. Autumn in under 10 minutes.

Drumroll Please

2010-08-31T21:35:00.000-07:00

We here at Our Brick Ranch are very proud to announce the unveiling of our bathroom vanity. It's the first thing completely finished, and we personally think it's gorgeous. I'll start with our inspiration photos.
We absolutely loved the feeling of this bathroom. Everything drew us in. In fact we even tried to match the color somewhat, but when it came out different it grew on us.

This second photo shows the sink and faucets we fell absolutely in love with.

Now for the before and after!!!!
Before.

After.

Ignore the ugly shower curtain. I have a new this one picked out. When hubby goes back to work full time maybe we'll be able to buy it!

What do you think of the cafe curtain I made?

I'm in love.

Kitchen Ceiling

2010-08-30T17:13:00.000-07:00

When we started our kitchen remodel, there were large soffit boxes we knocked down. They left gaping holes in our ceiling. We thought we'd be smart and lay a new ceiling and texturize. Smarty pants. We sucked. There are ugly lines and I hate the texture. We decided to forget about it and come back when we learned a bit more about drywall.

Today it hit me!!! I was checking out this blog. I thought Oh WOW! Look at her ceilings!
What a perfect idea to cover up the hideous lines we've created! Here's a little inspiration while we think about it all.

Rocking Horse

2010-08-29T19:26:00.001-07:00

In June of last year, my husband and I were thinking of what we could do for our daughter's first birthday. We decided on a rocking horse. I searched high and low, but couldn't find that perfect one. A neighbor heard us talking and gave us her daughter's old one, she said they had gotten it years ago at a garage sale and we were welcome to have it as a gift from them. I asked if she wouldn't mind if we refinished it. It was very worn in, and somewhat masculine. I think she was excited when I told her I'd love to give it a girly makeover. I started working on it, and never finished it. Many days over the past year I've walked past the half finished horse and sighed. Last night I finally said. This is IT! I'm finishing this thing NOW! So I did.

Before

After

And... Most Importantly.

One very satisfied customer.

Excitement!

2010-08-25T18:09:00.000-07:00

Today we met one of the previous owners of our home! It was so neat, Dan had just pulled in the driveway when he noticed a black car driving slowly by the house. At first he was a bit cautious, but they pulled into our driveway and introduced themselves. We learned so much about our home! They were such nice people, so we let them come in and take a look at what we were up to. They seemed to love everything we'd done so far which was nice.

It was so surreal to me, and kind of nerve wracking. I used to watch that HGTV show where they'd follow new and old owners of a house and then show them renovating and then bring in the old owners and see their reactions. I was so scared I would have ripped down something they loved. Not so, such nice folks!

So we learned that the original owners built the house themselves. And that the wife had a lady over to play cards and that lady several times said if you ever sell this house I'd love it. And she did! One day they called her and offered it. When she owned it, apparently is when they renovated the garage into our now family room, but they used it as an office, which explains the immense ammount of outlets. They also added on the back bathroom/laundry room and must have installed the stupid septic tank, and built on the new garage.

Then this couple purchased the house and lived here for about 10 years before his father moved rural and they moved to be closer to him and help with the property. In the time they lived here they built the shed, but didn't have a permit, so they call it a barn ;) After they moved they rented the home to a couple of teachers with several children. They are the ones who built our raised planter boxes. The funny thing is we asked about who had the giant dog (we found ginormous dog toys in the trees), He chuckled and told us they originally had the dog, but when the renters came in they took on the dog and had him until he passed. And that he's burried in our backyard. He also mentioned that the dog had at one time had a fight with our backyard bunnies and eaten one! The renters eventually purchased the house from them, but were unable to keep it, and we are now the lucky owners of a very loved house!

We found out some great info, heard some great stories, and they gave us his business card. I emailed him the website and told him to check out our progress! What an exciting day!

Quick Change

2010-08-25T14:01:00.000-07:00

Mr Brick Ranch went back to work this week so nothing much has been happening on the home front. Except a few things that were severely annoying me. The first of which was the plywood blocking the fireplace from our two year old. You see, it's an odd size, and we haven't been able to find an inexpensive set of doors that will fit. It seems we'll have to have them custom made, and that's just not in the budget. The other fireplace works fine, why would we need two? Especially in summer. So I painted the plywood. It made me feel all artsy and relaxed.

The second problem was our bedroom. The first problem being, the bed was moved to the left and hubby's dresser was on the right side. Well he kept hitting his shin on the corner of the bed trying to squeeze into his side, and crying about it. ;) So I rearranged. The second problem. Well, I hate to say it, but I'd been using my wedding quilt my Oma made us for bedding. And it was so pretty and flowery. But I am sooo not a pretty and flowery kind of girl. So I put the old comforter back on and hung up my B&W Marilyn posters. Yes I love her. I wish I had frames for them, but again not in the budget right now. I also am still dying to replace those hand me down curtains that don't match anything! But right now I'm at least feeling more comfortable in my space. Do you see my wedding boquet hanging from the left side of the curtain rod? :) I even threw an old black sheet over the peach cushy chair on the left so it would match the room.

Things I'm hoping to work on this week: I'm dying to find an old church pew or build a neat bench from old chairs or a door or headboard for the entryway under that gorgeous Ethan Allen mirror/rack we got last weekend. And I think a big old tin for umbrella's would be nice next to it by the door/window. Oh, and yes those white end tables are covering up a small hole in the wall that the baby likes to shove toys into. They are going to be sold in our garage sale in a couple of weeks. Because of the bedroom rearrange the rug had to be relocated, it no longer fit in the bedroom and now it's cozying up the entryway. Unfortunately it's making me have second thoughts about the red walls! Do you think I should paint them tan to match the rest of the hallway and rug???

Garage Sale!

2010-08-21T22:36:00.000-07:00

Today was a garage sale kind of day. And I'm not the only one who thought so. There were garage sale signs everywhere! On every corner! Calling to me. Pleading. I found a huge one early in the morning and stopped by. It was a group effort raising money for breast cancer awareness. I called my girlfriend and 5 adults lugging two babies all piled into two vehicles in search of the perfect deal. We found them. Oh did we find them.
My favorite find of the day? This Ethan Allen mirror and coat rack! We came late in the day and they dropped their price of $25 down to $15. I came home and did some reasearch... Check out this ebay listing! My hubby told me I should sell it, but I'm too in love.

These are a work in progress. We found this buffet earlier in the week for $35 up the street at a garage sale It does have a hutch that goes on top but we removed it to be used later for another project. We also purchased another Hutch today for $20 that is gorgeous and will go in the family room when it's finished. I've also been accumulating frames for a wall collage project in the living room. I need a lot more, but I'm steadily growing my collection from odds and ends I find at sales and thrift stores.

I am also finding little metal ones and bronzing them to hang in between the mirrors in the bathroom. Here's what I have so far.

After I dropped my friends off back home and they stored my hutch in their garage for me to pick up later when we had our truck, we started off towards home. Well... we got detoured, first when I saw the local highschool was having their huge rummage sale! They gave me a bag and told me to stuff it as full as I wanted for $5!!!! Here's what I stuffed into my paper shopping bag.

This great real silver teapot with matching sugar and cream dishes! And the silver frame behind them.

This was a tacky gold tissue paper holder but I saw it's potential and quickly spray painted it bronze to match the bathroom fixtures.

My husband is in love with all things wood, and I think a love of clocks runs in his family. So when I saw this solid oak clock I had to have it for our mantel. Into the bag it went! All 4 of those items for only $5!!!

So remember that garage sale I already hit twice? I passed it again on my way home. They had packed up and put everything they hadn't sold on the corner with a free sign!!! I saw some things I'd been eyeing but didn't want to afford and stopped a 3rd time to snag them. Including this frame.

And this little octagonal end table my hubby had his eye on.

We also scored this cute butter dish for .50 cents.

I am still wowing over our success today!!!! Incredible!!!
Oh, we also scored 3 full size Care Bears for baby girl at $1.50 for the set, lots of baby clothes for almost nothing, and a cute little cactus at the farmers market.

Bathroom Tile

2010-08-08T10:31:00.000-07:00

This week we finally got some flooring laid in the bathroom!
This is what we started with. There were still remnants of old nasty tar paper.

The first step was to make it nice and smooth by sanding the floor down.

Then Mr. Brick Ranch laid new tar paper. I helped cut ;)

Ooooh. At this point I was just excited it was all one color!

Then we laid the backer board and sealed between all the seams.

After this Dan set to work marking his area with chalkline, then set the tiles!

And this is where we left off last night! Later today we should be able to grout!

Meanwhile...
We've been spending some time at my hubby's grandma's house. Her porch needed to be repainted and the banister on the porch steps was so rotted from the damp river air that he decided it needed to be completely replaced.
Here's a picture of the old rails.

And after a test fit of the new one he built.

We then took them into the shop and rotated out applying layers of primer and paint. After he installed them they looked beautiful. I also repainted those 3 little boys the last time we were up visiting. I think they look nice and cheery now.

Overgrown Garden

2010-07-24T22:34:00.000-07:00

I will apologize for my lack of posts. But I promise I have a good reason. You see, I had a fight with a curb. I've decided to tell all my friends that Ninja's attacked me. So please don't tell them I was just walking and stumbled off of a plain old curb and tried to break my ankle. Pretty please? You see, I've been in a wheelchair and cast for two weeks. Then after another round of xray's and another radiologists opinion, I finally got cleared to walk yesterday! I'm still incredibly sore, bruised, and now my muscles are rejecting walking again for very long. But I'm up and about!

Unfortunately my yard suffered.
So today we went out to give the trees a well deserved trim. This is part way through the process.

Can we play Where's Dan?

I was so sad to learn that only one carrot seeded this year, but was so looking forward to that one carrot. I've babied it's tiny sprout for months. Then today I hobbled out to the garden to see what was left alive and was shocked to see a giant top. I pulled it and gasped in awe at my beautiful carrot.

Then I turned it over :( You know what's the most shocking? Something did not try to eat it. It got so big it split!!! It's a perfectly split open and mutilated carrot! I'm super bummed. Ah well. There's always next year? Stupid curbs.

I did however squeal when I picked my first ripe zucchini!!! I am very very proud of this one! I can't wait to eat it!

My peas are doing really well also.
And on to our other news. Our stove is not working again. 2 weeks ago it just stopped turning on again. Do you remember our horror stories? Well here's a short recap. We bought an Electrolux cook top on sale at Sears. Our countertops were on back order, so we didn't get to install it until after the 90 day warranty. When we installed it, it was defective. I called Electrolux. They gave me a local repair shops info that is certified through them. They made us wait a week for parts, sent a guy out, and he promptly broke the glass on the cooktop. Waited another week for the guy to order a new one, only to break it the second he put it on. Waited 2 weeks screaming furiously at the company that it also didn't turn on anymore again. Contacted the BBB, who finally got them to send a manager out who finally repaired everything. For about 2 months. Then 2 weeks ago it stopped turning on again.
Caught up?
Okay, so this time I call Sears, Ohhhhhh. Nobody told me they had a 1 year repair on every single appliance they sell! Problem is I can't tell them I went through another company, cuz that voids my warranty. So I have to hide how irritated I am. Anyway. They send a tech out, who says... big shocker. We have to wait a week for parts. So we do. Then they send out a guy the following week. He gets here and says what? the parts aren't here? Well I'll reschedule you for next week...... Ugh. The parts get here. We receive a call on the date of our appt that our tech called in sick but they'd send another one out. Fine. She calls much later than our appt and says she's on her way. Fine. an HOUR later we call her like where the heck are you? Oh, I'm not going to come. He only ordered the circuit boards. I've worked on one of these before and that didn't fix the problem. I had to end up ordering all the wiring harnesses and everything too. So I'm just going to do that and reschedule you for another week. Fortunately my hubby made the call. Because the cuss words were flying out of my mouth across the room and since I couldn't walk I was unable to hobble to the phone to chew her out. I mean really? I can't cook! How does nobody understand the importance of food?
Ugh.
Well, she told us she promises if she can't fix it and keep it running they will give us a full refund.
So that's where we are at. We've borrowed a camping stove with 2 teeny tiny burners, and are eating pretty much gross prepackaged microwave dinners. I feel so unhealthy. But hey, I can hardly stand long enough to cook anyway right? That's my silver lining. Sigh.

Wow I wrote a book!!!!! Here's a pic of my battle bruises. From the Ninja's.

Backsplash!

2010-07-08T09:13:00.000-07:00

We started the backsplash this week in the bathroom!
Mr. Brick Ranch spread the Mastic.

Laid some tile.

Got sick of me taking tons of photos.

Backbuttered in some cuts.

Spread some Grout the next morning.

Cleaned the counters.

Lightly sponged, then waited 5 minutes.

And started a slow process of cleaning the excess grout up.

When it was all finished I squealed. Then told him I think we need to do the sides also.

He squirmed at the cuts he'll have to make around the outlets on either side.
Oh but won't it look gorgeous when it's all done? Yesterday we went to The Home Depot and purchased all the supplies to mount the mirrors in the frames and on the walls. So those pics will hopefully be coming up shortly.

My grandparents will be here from Michigan in 8 days. I'm hoping to have a completed bathroom to show them by that time!!!

Bathroom

2010-07-04T00:30:00.000-07:00

We are finally nearing a finish line with the main bathroom! This week I finished painting the ceiling and walls.

Mr. Brick Ranch installed the lighting.
I had a cute idea, and sewed this little cafe curtain, which I think is adorable.

And tonight we installed all of the new towel bars and toilet paper holder. There are two of the hand towel rings by our Jack and Jill sinks.

I can't wait to get the mirrors hung and wish I had some big fluffy brown towels!

Our Brick and Painted Ranch

2010-06-27T09:33:00.000-07:00

The brick used to be the biggest appeal of this house for us. Now the entire house is rich and warm and GORGEOUS! I am so thrilled with the job the Student Painters did on the exterior of Our Brick Ranch. So let's do a little before and after shall we?

Front
Before

After

Pergola
Before

Different view

After!

And honestly it's all because of these two guys. They came in on a Saturday and worked their butts off until almost 10pm to get it finished for us. I can't tell you how much we appreciate their hard work and kindness. I know the picture is terrible, sorry guys, it was dark.
If you guys are reading this, you did a GREAT job! Thank you!!!

And you all know I have to sneak some gardening in here right?
My Hydrangeas seem to have taken the move well and have blooms all over!

This purple sage was sitting all alone in the lawn when we bought the house. With a little love it's thriving! And sooo very yummy in my pot roast :)

My daisies were also brought over from the old duplex, and are very happy in the sunshine. I have high hopes that they'll bloom just in time for my Grandma's visit from Michigan in about 2 weeks!

And then there are these guys! They just came out of nowhere! All along the side of the house, about waist high. I have no idea what they are, but they are beautiful! I love suprise flowers :)
Update: I've just been notified this is a Hollyhock!

It's been an insane and eventful week. Every day I grow happier in our new home. I'm still the luckiest girl on earth.

Painting Day 3

2010-06-25T13:20:00.000-07:00

I know I promised you photos yesterday, but honestly nothing really looked that incredible until today! Painting is in full swing and it's so exciting!

Sigh.... dreamy....

We also have gotten a jump start on painting the bathroom. The drywall is finally all taped, mudded, sanded, and primed! Here's a sneak peak of the color that's going up.

We had kept the old giant mirror that used to be in the bathroom with the hopes of saving some money by cutting it to fit our new frames. Well we got one good cut ( it's our first time cutting glass) And the rest of it broke.

So we set out on a mission to find a cheap mirror at goodwill or something. We hit the jackpot on our first stop. The ReStore run by Habitat for Humanity.
Seriously, if you have one of these near you, check it out! We found huge old mirrored closet doors for $8.50!!!!! Plenty of extra to break and there were more of them there in case we screw up we can just buy a new one! OMG if you've ever priced mirrors you know how incredibly cheap that is. This place is full of incredible goodies, and just plain crazy cool crap.

We also found this....

Which fits our fireplace beautifully.

I mean, it's like it was handcrafted specifically for our oddly sized fireplace!

And the best part? $15.00 That's right. I totally snagged it.

Let the painting commence!

2010-06-24T02:29:00.000-07:00

The painters came today. They immediately dug into the pergola. In full tyvek suits and respirators. They did so because our house was built in 1964 and there is the possibility of lead based paint. They also were taking extra precautions by laying drop cloths everywhere they scraped or sanded and vacuuming every chip and piece of dust up with a hepa filter. This includes laying heavy cloths on all of my plants, trampling my poor potatoes. Not that I'm complaining, honestly, I understand these things happen. But, we thought, boy is this silly. Why don't we just do a lead test? That way when it proves negative they can save a ton of prep time.
Well guess what. Instant positive. Yup. On every surface!

So now, we have these posted on our house.

And caution tape around the entire yard.

But the priming is coming along already.

It looks a little ugly at the moment, but I'm sure tomorrow I'll have some nicer pictures to show you!

Pergola Repairs

2010-06-12T22:13:00.000-07:00

I received a call from Student Painters today. They said they'd be here June 16 to start pressure washing, and begin painting on June 23rd. Yes folks. That's 4 days. Panic ensued at the Brick Ranch as we realized all of the work that still needed to be done! Mr. Beals ripped all the old downspouts and hardware down, then started in on repairing the pergola. If you look at my previous post you'll see there was a beam on the front of the pergola. After closer inspection we realized it was rotted pretty badly. After a nice dinner with my parents they helped us come up with an idea to quickly and easily repair it.

We took the beam off.

Drew out the angles and chose the perfect one. We also cut off the old ends to make it look fresh and square.

Mr Beals then laid out his cuts.

And dug in.

Without Safety Glasses.

After learning the error of his ways, he donned his trusty eye protection.

And finished off the end of the beam that broke when he was cleaning the pergola up.

I think the results are stunning! I can't wait to see it painted white!

I did a little of this.

And took in a bit of this.

Heaven.

Pergola

2010-06-05T17:54:00.000-07:00

We finally got some sun today! We finally got some yard work accomplished. As mentioned in the previous post, we are now working on the pergola before the painters come out in 2 weeks.

This is the pergola, note the gutter and there is a downspout to the left. Why I have no idea. There is no roof on this pergola, so why is there a gutter just hanging from a random beam?

As you can see it was covered in hardware cloth, and every few feet there is remnants of plastic sheeting dangling down. I can only assume this was their roof?

What an ugly sight!

Dan still out there working as we speak. Won't this look so much nicer when the house is done being painted a deep brown, with white trim and the pergola will be a bright white to match!

Uhoh, bad news. Dan was backing off the pergola towards the ladder and this whole portion collapsed and almost took him with it.

He was dangling off the edge of the roof holding onto the eaves with his hands. A kind neighbor came running as he pulled himself onto the ladder.

I told him to avoid complication, we'll just take a saw to the beam and cut off the edge as the portion that fell down was really not needed to make it look pretty anyway.

You knew there had to be some drama didn't you? I mean every aspect of this remodel had something go wierdly wrong! Good thing nobody was hurt!

We relocated the hammock to behind these trees. I wanted the illusion it was actually hanging from them.

My next project is turning this old shed into a pretty potting shed! I've got some great magazine photos I have been drawing inspiration on. Thinking of painting the whole inside white to lighten it up. My dad is going to run power out there so I can have a light at least. Hubby put these old cabinets from the garage up, and is using the old kitchen cabinet's in the garage.

He also started a pantry area for me around the new deep freezer.

Progress

2010-06-03T11:14:00.000-07:00

We have a toilet in the main bathroom now. Yeah I know the photo isn't pretty. But let me explain. The other toilet, the only one installed was at the other end of my house. I had to walk down a hallway, through the entry way, around the living room, through the kitchen and diningroom, through the family room just to get to the toilet. Imagine that in the middle of the night. By the time I was done and walked all the way back I was wide awake!

Therefore, this porcelain God is my savior!

I got a little sick of how long the bathroom was taking to get finished, so I hopped on a ladder and started filling in those gaps. After 2 days of me whining on a ladder with a sprained ankle, my hubby jumped in and finished it up for me. Hopefully I can paint it by the end of this week!

Then we can hang the lights, mirrors, and feel like it's an actual bathroom!!!

In the meantime, I've been reorganizing the living room. It felt like I was in a Dr's office waiting in line. The couches were all lined up on one wall. I feel this makes it a little easier to carry on a conversation. And as I have company every Friday evening, and sometimes other days of the week, I think this will work out better for us. I also love that the first thing you see is my piano, which is my prize. My favorite possession at the moment :)

The painters are coming to start the exterior on June 20th, they'll be pressure washing 2-4 days in advance. So we are currently diverting all of our attention to the pergola, which is covered in chicken wire and old plastic sheeting. I'm taking it all down and having them paint the whole thing white. It also has an old gutter attached to the front of it with a downspout. Which is ridiculous because it has no roof on it!
I am really really excited to show you before and afters when the painting is done!
And the best most wonderful part for me is in mid July my grandparents are flying out and will get to see the place all gussied up!

Okay, just looked at these pics and realized I really really need some artwork! Any suggestions?
Oh... and question of the day. How do you organize your tupperware like containers? I currently have mine neatly stacked in a cardboard box in a lower cabinet. I'm really interested in other options! hahaha

New Look

2010-05-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

As our home is ever changing, so is our blog! This beautiful new background and title header was created by Melinda at Simply Chic Graphics
Thanks Melinda!

Sewage you say?

2010-05-25T09:04:00.001-07:00

So I'm trying to pick out fabric for drapes in our bedroom. These are the two I'm contemplating at the moment but they may change at the drop of a hat. Both are by Amy Butler
sky / tree peony

sand / tree peony

What do you think? I guess you'll have to go back and check out my bedroom blogs again!

In the meantime, I have catnip sprouting on the wire rack on my porch, and potatoes bidding out of my pot by the hose.

My parents bought me the coolest hammock EVER for my birthday! Of course it's been raining nonstop since then so I haven't hardly used the thing yet. But am sooo looking forward to hanging out there under the trees with a book and a cocktail!

Our next project is going to be our shed. It needs to be resided and reroofed. I suggested we move the window slightly left and put a real door on the right to make it prettier, instead of the barn doors that are on the back side. My husband quickly declined saying, " I am not reframing the entire shed." :-P Oh well, a girl can dream can't she? Can't you just see a little white window box with vining flowers under a window and a pretty little shed door? sigh

The biggest event in our life right now is happening here. Remember when we started having plumbing issues on the back bathroom a couple months ago? Well we had found out that bathroom was on a septic tank they had never taken out! And you guessed it. It's full.

I'll skip the part where I tell you about the raw sewage that pumped itself up into the shower stall and toilet and get right to the part where we have to dig a trench through our garage, down the driveway, and angle to the pipe the rest of our house connects to the sewer.
Here's what my garage looks like currently. Good ol Roto Rooter. They are actually a couple of really great guys who have been incredible during the whole process. I am very impressed. They left their teeny tiny tractor behind and I almost took it for a joyride.

The guy was telling me it was hard to feel masculine on a tiny tractor. I said aww it's soooo cute! He grimaced. I just realized I should totally have stolen it to level out that giant bump we have in the front yard.

Happy Birthday to Me

2010-05-17T12:04:00.000-07:00

What a glorious week it's been! While my hubby was out of town on work, my giant baby brother came to stay for an entire week.
We adopted a new dog. Her name is Rosie. She's 5 years old, part Australian Shepherd, part Border Collie. And the sweetest girl in the world.

Well, Gizmo is pretty sweet too.

And Charlie makes 3! Isn't it really the perfect number?

My sister and brother in law found a free piano, and helped my dad and brother load it and deliver it to my house! It's out of tune, but the smile on my baby girls face says it all. It's a keeper! After a lot of lysol and scrubbing it's actually in pretty good condition! We've been joking about putting a jar for donations on top, and then playing out of tune until people contribute :P

I'm not sure if anybody remembers what the patio looked like a week ago.. but it was gruesome. We found so much old rotting lumber and debris all over the property, and we had piled it up so it could dry out and possibly burned, or gradually disposed of in the yard debris bin.

Well, my dad came over, and together he and my baby brother cleaned it all up and helped dispose of a great deal of it.

They even hung a tire swing for baby girl.

Isn't it lovely?

The next day we had a garden party for my birthday.

Aren't the flower's lovely? My mom and stepdad brought them and provided this wonderful spread of yummy food!

She's gorgeous isn't she?

And he came home. Which made my birthday the best one I've ever had.

I even got serenaded.

I am so happy we've finally gotten to the point where the yard is clean, mowed, beautiful, and.... look forward to pics of the hammock my stepdad ordered as a birthday present! I can't wait to set it up!!!

Veggies!

2010-05-07T09:22:00.000-07:00

Did you know that if you have state food benefits you can purchase vegetable and herb starts for your garden? We didn't? Now we aren't on food benefits, but my Sister in law is. So we went to Fred Meyer yesterday and bought a ton of veggies and I bought flowers. And I spent the evening digging in the garden! I still have a lot of de-grassing to do before the planter boxes are perfect, but I'm happier and happier every day! I have started a lot of veggies from seeds also

Pumpkins!

Corn!

Eggplant!

Artichokes!

Baby Zuccini

Spinach, Broccoli, Carrots, Tomatoes and Peas

Mistress Heather, Quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With Lilly Bells,
and Pretty Smells,
And Dahlias all in a row.

I also planted Rhubarb, Strawberries, and Walla Walla onions in the front. Oh, and I started peppermint in a pot. Then from seed we're also waiting on canteloupe, watermelons, lots and lots of herbs and more flowers! My peonies are about to explode, my lilacs are in full bloom along with my deep blue and almost black irises. I'm in garden heaven!

Bathroom updates.

2010-05-02T08:39:00.001-07:00

My last post showed you the beginning of the bathroom tile. Let me fill you in on what went down last night.
Here's where he left off the day before.

Yahoo! He finished putting up all the cuts.

Went on to grout. I sponged the grout, but there are no photos of that because I was doing it in my nightie at midnight.

And the finished product is beautiful!

After the grout dried it turned the perfect sandy shade. The bag says to let dry for 72 hours, then we'll apply a sealant. AND I'LL HAVE MY SHOWER!!!!!!

Isn't my husband amazing?
Here's a little before and after action.
Before. Note the oh so 70's accent tiles.

After! I promise I'll post another one once the hardware is up :)

My Superman

2010-04-29T08:44:00.000-07:00

I offered you a sneak peak last week of the bathtub surround. Let me fill you in on how it's going!
My husband got one day off this week and he spent the entire day crammed in our bathtub.

Okay, so he laid the first couple of rows, let them dry while he got a haircut and then continued :)

Steady as she goes Danny boy! Okay so it's not finished, but it's a start, and to me it looks like a warm spa... mmmmm I'll do before and afters once the grout is up.

Eh What's Up Doc?

2010-04-25T09:48:00.001-07:00

We have a bunny friend! I'd noticed for several weeks our little dog pawing and sniffing at the bottom of the shed. I figured a cat had had kittens but never saw anything under there. I'm sitting there telling my dad about it and saying I've never seen anything go under the shed when I look over and see this tiny cutie pie! He's only the size of my hand the tiny guy. But he's my buddy now and I watch him all morning and every evening as he hops about mowing my lawn. I make careful when I let the dog out to make sure he's in his house and am so excited!

Big news here at the Beals house! Dad came over and drilled some holes in my ceiling.

You see, I couldn't see if my dishes were clean or dirty.

Voila! Let there be light!

Todays project? Tiling the bathtub!!!!! Go Dan Go Dan Go!!!

I can't wait for a shower.

Camera?

2010-04-16T21:31:00.000-07:00

Forgive me, I temporarily lost my camera and just found it a few minutes ago and snapped some new photos!

The past couple of weeks have been hectic and full of all kinds of surprises. First the new cook top was installed and didn't work. We had to wait for a week for new circuit boards to be ordered. A day before the parts came in our new refrigerator ice machine seized, blowing out two outlets and a breaker. The Appliance and Refrigeration Hospital has been wonderful and is going to look at that when they come to fix the stove on Tuesday. Our new dishwasher also started having some issues, it doesn't always want to drain properly and leaves about 2 inches of scuzzy water in the bottom. We are having very bad appliance juju over here.

We did however color our first Easter eggs.

Bake our first Pretzels

We started potty training, and big girl bedding.
And I finally organized my office and unpacked almost all the boxes.

The drywall in the bathroom is all put up and mudded. The fan is in place but needs a little patching before I can paint the ceiling.

Our tile finally came in and is absolutely gorgeous. Today Dan bought the rest of the supplies and grout needed to finally tile the bathroom! The 12x12's are for the floor, 4x4's for the shower and bath backsplashes, and the 2x2 mosaics will be placed on the diagonal for the kitchen backsplash.

Our dining area is primitive but functional. Boy I can't wait to get the new floor in, the door framed and the shades put back up. I also have great plans for that old picnic table to be repainted, and need to do some garage saleing for some chairs!

We set up this neat little reading nook for Nemi. Yes, those are all her books. Well, some of them were mine when I was little. You can usually catch her either in that rocking chair on top of the cat with a book, or on the floor surrounded by books.

And I decoupaged my first thing! These pretty letters for baby girls room. I hung them above her window.

The best news of all is that Dan's boss called and he goes back to work on Monday morning.

Bathroom

2010-03-28T18:16:00.000-07:00

This week we moved on to the main bathroom. Let's start with a before photo!

I especially loved taking this photo. I walked around the corner to find my hubby and dad tag teaming the sinks :)

Yes it's a mess, but boy what plumbers they are!

And, here's what it looks like now! This is the mirror from our bedroom set and is not permanent. We have the frames for the new matching mirrors, but have not cut the mirrors for them yet. I'm dying to finish the drywall and slap up a coat of paint!!! Tile should be in soon too!
Question of the Day. What color would you paint this bathroom? The back splash and floor tiles are all going to be a creamy variegated tile to match the counter tops.

And just to make him happy, I have to mention my awesome brother. He was interested in making a little cash, so I put him to work on the raised planters.
Before

After! Great job baby brother. I can't wait to fill them full of veggies... after a few repairs.

Oh, I forgot to mention... I did all the blackberry removal. I have all of the cuts and scrapes and scars to prove it!
This house has proved to be more work than I ever imagined. We could never have taken it all on without so much love, support, and back breaking labor from all of our friends and family.
Thanks guys.
Thanks to all of you, this house is starting to feel like a home.

Kitchen Montage!

2010-03-25T20:43:00.001-07:00

Today was so right in so many ways. I feel the need for a kitchen montage! We'll start at the beginning so you can watch our progress step by step.
This photo was taken on 10-24-09 The day we made an offer on the house.

On Nov. 7th we started Demo. We kept all of the old cabinet's in tact intending on donating them. We ended up keeping them to install in the garage instead. Note the original blue color!

The sink cabinet gave us some problems as the plumbing had been installed over it. We had to rip this cabinet up completely.

We took hammers to the soffit boxes. They exposed a bunch of bad wiring, and tons of insulation fell onto the floor.

My dad rewired the entire kitchen.

We removed the glass slider and our contractor Tim installed a new one.

My husband and brother in law recovered the entire ceiling and areas where the cabinet's wouldn't cover.

There was originally a door to the family room which we immediately took out. It bumped up against the kitchen counters. We then tore into the wall to create an inviting opening.

With the new header in place we moved onto installing our first cabinets. Dan and I worked together to hang every one of these cabinets. The lower ones were a pain. The walls were neither level, plumb nor square. In some places the cabinet's had 3/4" shims.

But we kept at it.

We may have even gotten a little cocky at our power tool prowess.

I helped drywall in the new doorway.

As more cabinet's lined up I got more excited.

Until my hubby decided to texturize the ceiling. It was a nightmare. It's still not finished. He dreads trying again.

I eventually primed all of the walls and ceiling. Bye Bye robins egg blue paint from the 70's!

It took me weeks, but I finally picked out a beautiful shade of brown. The doorway is looking nice also.

We even put in a fridge!

As we realized we'd have to move in earlier than we'd thought the mess started piling up.

I scraped the old linoleum off the floors. Gizmo helped.

Oh glorious day. When we installed the upper cabinet's and shelving, the upper half of the wall was straight! Plumb, square, level! It was so easy! I knew something had to go wrong.

I was right. We had a terrible time putting in this fridge alcove wall.

And then we realized we had to cut out a much bigger whole in the brick than we originally thought. The smallest oven we could find was still not as small as the old one.

But once again, my hubby pulled through.

And it's absolutely amazing looking.

Then we realized that the cabinet we'd purchased for the stove top wouldn't fit the stove top. We freaked, and I may have cried. Then we brainstormed with the parental units, and realized I had purchased kitchen height cabinet's for the laundry room and one of them was big enough for the stove. It's an incredibly tight fit, but it works. We'll just have a super skinny bathroom cabinet that will only hold toilet paper rolls instead of cookie sheets.

My gosh. I can't tell you. Last night when I went in my kitchen and saw the valance. I nearly lost it. I remember the day we saw the house for the first time. I immediately started emailing my mom ideas on how I was going to remodel this kitchen. The first thing I thought of was that valance and shelf. My mom brought me back a bowl from Mexico last month. I can't wait to buy a stand for it and give it a seat on that shelf. This really is a dream come true for me.

Today the guy from Precision Countertops came and started installing. I can't believe how they attached the sink seamlessly to the counter top!

Step two. Do you see the seam by the dishwasher? He took the neatest suction cup vice grips, then glued and melted the seam down. You can hardly tell it was ever there. It looks like it's all one piece!

We had some fun cutting out the stove top whole with him. But the guy was so nice and worked so hard. He even told Dan exactly how he was doing everything and offered us the option of buying some extra supplies he had left over for our laundry room so Dan could install it himself.

It's not perfect. But it's home. As I type, my dad, brother, and husband are hooking up the garbage disposal, sink drains, stove and downdraft. In the morning I'm cooking the biggest breakfast you've ever seen.

Back to the blog again

2010-03-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

I find myself slacking more and more on this blog as life takes over. Then again, it's been a rather uneventful couple of weeks. The weather turned beautiful and we've been spending the majority of our time outdoors, and believe me... there's a lot of exterior work still to be done.
I will start out with the fireplace. Which my daughter believes is her own personal playground. We purchased a set of doors to install, unfortunately the fireplace is so short and wide that we will have to return them and have some custom made. Cha Ching!

Spring is here! My peach tree exploded into beautiful flowers.

Dan's Coral Bark Maple is happily sunning itself on our back porch.

Dad installed a security light in the back... which is malfunctioning and won't turn off. It's supposed to be motion sensitive.

My Hyacinths and Daffodils popped up everywhere in giant clumps. I believe the yard used to be well loved, but the bulbs haven't been separated in a very long time. I'm going to have fun in the fall!

Over the span of many days we have been rolling around the carpet of twigs on the ground. It's as if nobody has raked this 1/3 acre in over 5 years. I do believe we could charge admission for the world's largest tumble weed.

See all of that lumber? ALL of it was buried in the back yard. And I do mean buried. It took me 2 days to clean out the back corner under the willow trees, there was so much debris, garbage, lumber, and blackberry brambles. I'm all cut up. And I feel like you can't even see my progress. Apparently I am wrong though, because at all hours of the day while we are out there weeding, mowing, raking, and just plain hauling away garbage, people in the park stop by our fence. Complete strangers stop to tell us how incredible the yard and house are looking. I can't tell you how much it boosts my soul every time somebody tells me how abandoned this big beautiful old house was and how thrilled they are that somebody is caring for it again.

He's also only slightly amused at my use of the camera.

I planted Spinach, Broccoli, Carrots, Tomatoes, and Peas. So far the spinach is turning yellow, the broccoli is turning red and wilting, and none of my seeds are popping up :( I fertilized... nothing happened. I started herb seeds in pots inside. They all sprouted... then shriveled up. I kept coaxing and had a few alive again, then Dan tossed something on the porch and it bounced and broke all of the pots and my poor seedlings are all gone. I'm so frustrated!

Nemi's enjoying the little spot I set aside for her to garden in. See all those rocks behind her? They were previously in the middle of our lawn. It took us 2 days, but we moved them all to the side of the house for landscaping.

We did get a shelf hung in the kitchen. And I painted some window trim white in the nursery and living room. The counter top guys come on Thursday and my counters, sink, stove, and downdraft will be installed. Boy, I can't wait to be able to cook real food again! They also will be doing the bathroom counters, and the guys will install the sinks soon after. I had custom frames made for the mirrors and as soon as they are centered on the sinks we will also center the new light fixtures and patch the drywall. The tile for back splashes, tub surround, and flooring has all been ordered and will be here in 2 weeks. We are kind of at a standstill for a few days, but I feel like everything is about to fall into place.

Your a Winner!

2010-03-08T21:04:00.000-08:00

All I have to say is.... Best... Week... EVER!
Dan secured the bathroom cabinet's.

My dad wired for the oven and put in a new ground wire.

They then installed my new double oven, which we then had to pull back out, because somehow.... the cat got trapped in the crawlspace under it. After we got poor Charlie out, and checked if he was okay of course, we reinstalled the oven!

We were so excited! And I made pizza!!!! 2 pizza's! In 2 different ovens!!!!!!

Then the countertop guy came from Precision Countertops.

He laid out a template with these thin slats of wood and hot glued them together with the raddest glue gun I've ever seen! He also did the bathroom. We should have countertops installed within 2 weeks!

The best part of this week came when I read my email.....

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay.... riiiiight. But then I thought ??? How could they know I went to the Portland Home and Garden Show, or that I did indeed enter to win a set of furniture? So I googled the phone# and it did indeed belong to Furniture Connexion. Then I googled the company and they were indeed legit... hmmmm. I called. The lady was so nice and said it's all waiting for you! I said... what do I have to do? Nothing, just come pick it up! The owner wants to meet you and congratulate you and take some pictures.... hmmmm.

I hadn't told my husband yet. So I sauntered out to the living room and said... uh... honey? I just won a $4000 bedroom set! It hadn't hit me yet. It took about until we had rented the uhaul and my stepdad and brother had come over to help us move it. Then I started bouncing up and down and squealing like MAD! We drove to the warehouse and met the nicest husband and wife team you'd ever meet! We took tons of photos with them and their employees. You could really tell they cared for their staff, they even insisted the warehouse loading crew get into the photos with us! You can visit their website here. They asked if it was okay if they posted the pics on their facebook page. I of course consented! You can visit their facebook here.

We got home and the boys started unloading the uhaul. At this point I was squeeeeeing and bouncing and jumping and almost in tears! Was this really happening?

Boy this stuff was heavy. Good thing I didn't have to carry any of it!

I mean look at that box!!!!

I think that's a dresser.

Go boys GO!

We could hardly move in the bedroom it was so packed with furniture!

Then we realized... we have to assemble it. LOL This was fun. Including this first part where Dan is assembling the headboard which is two pieces. Well, apparently a screw had been dropped on the floor directly where that headboard is lying, and while he worked on it, it put a big gouge in the front. Ah well, stuff happens. I just happened to know where the wood filler wax stick was for the kitchen cabinets. I patched the scratch right up, and you can hardly tell it was ever there.

I did get in on some action. I put in the middle support. Yah, that's all I did... but it was help! The footboard has two drawers in it!

Our platform, and slats. Oh, Dan just reminded me. I did also install the slats. I screwed them down! :) Gizmo dog was a HUGE help... NOT!

Step by step you see... Mattress!

And of course we HAD to test it out!!!

The dressers both have these feet on them which raises them up and makes them oh so chic.

The tops of the dressers and end tables are so very pretty. Instead of a one piece top, there is a framing and inlay.

Dan's tall dresser is so tall, I have to stand on my tippie toes to see inside the top drawer! My wider chest does come with a vanity mirror, but it would block a window no matter where I put it, so I decided to leave it off. I haven't even opened the box yet... thinking of mounting it on the wall somewhere?

A better shot of the top of the dresser. Soooo pretty!

The end table is lit under the drawer with a touch lamp! It's so wierd! Kind of like a nightlight if you wake up at night? It has 3 brightness settings.

I think they approve. Baby girl spent about an hour learning how to fling herself all over the bed. She now can climb up and slide off all on her own.

And this is what we are left with. Did I mention about 2 days ago we finally burnt all of the moving boxes and cleaned this room? SIGH.......

Oh... this picture reminds me. This furniture is Legacy Classic Furniture, the owner of The Furniture Connexion said it's a set they purchased from Macy's collections, and is a discontinued set. I am in heaven. I think I forgot to mention the state of our old furniture. The bedframe broke months ago and we've been sleeping with our mattress on the floor inside the old frame. In the move, my dresser broke and the entire bottom was broken off, the bottom drawer wouldn't function anymore. This really was a lifesaver for us. After all of the amazingly bad luck we've had over the past year, I really couldn't believe something nice like this happened! I'm still in shock!

All I can say is.... I'm grateful. Incredibly grateful and blessed.

2010-03-02T09:09:00.000-08:00

What a week. I've always known that moving is hard. I had no idea what it would be like moving into a half finished house, with a sick toddler in tow. So, with all that in mind, I will not apologize for my lack of posting this week. I know you all understand.
But I finally have a moment before I take said toddler to the doctor. Sitting here in my office, which is currently a pile of boxes haphazardly strewn across the floor, sipping my coffee and finally posting. This post hopefully will catch us up. Hold on, it's going to be a bumpy ride. I took so many pictures this week!
Where to start?
I started unpacking onto my new shelves. This is a temporary arrangement. But on the top shelf you can see my goodwill finds, a new red fondue pot, and a new ceramic double boiler!
On the bottom shelf is my great grandmother's pink depression glass. I was given it on my wedding day, just like my mother was. I think we've all added a piece here or there to the collection. I recently re added a cake plate that was my favorite growing up, but somehow got lost or broken. I was able to find the exact one online and purchase it.

Our washer and dryer arrangement in this house is opposite of what it was in the old house making it difficult to get into the dryer. So Dan pulled the door off and made it open in the other direction.

And quite possibly the most noxious project this week has been expanding the hole for the double wall oven. It ended up being taller and wider than we had hoped, but Dan got on it and expanded the hole. First he knocked out the excess bottom bricks.

Then he took a grinder to the sides.

To do the other side easily, he had to crawl in the hole. I believe the cat helped him a little at this point by crawling into the hole with him.

He was cramped in there for quite a while, it was hilarious watching him trying to get out.

Doesn't he look proud? We still have to expand the width, but it'll have to wait until we have some more time.

We had an unfortunate involving our coffee pot, it also involved coffee everywhere... and purchasing a new one. Which I LOVE!

Have you ever imagined what it'd be like to live in a house with no kitchen? Well here ya go.

For cooking, I have a burner that screws onto a can of propane. This is how I boil water.

We've been eating a lot of easy comfort food.

I also picked up this cow teapot. Which I am in love with. Don't ask.. I have an obsession with cows. My mother asked my husband why in the world he allowed me to put barnyard animals in the kitchen. It's only a teapot mom. Not a collection of roosters.

Ahh the bathroom. Yes, it's a huge mess. But we have cabinet's! The countertops are getting ordered today!

And then there was the living room. This huge room had no lighting fixtures. Which is actually very common in the northwest. I have lived oh so many years in dingy apartments with one floor lamp that hardly lit the room. I swore that wouldn't happen again. After a few days of being in this house I told my husband and my dad I couldn't stand it any more! Let there be LIGHT!

What a good hubby. My dad is in the attic drilling, and Dan dutifully is keeping the dust vacuumed.

What a beautiful sight!

When they started tag teaming, I got very excited.

Then I realized, the chandelier was indeed to low to go in the living room. So I had Dan remove the shorter one from the family room and swap.

I helped.... sorta. Then... I realized the dome's that matched the chandelier didn't match the other chandelier.... and told Dan he had to remove all of the lights in the family room and transfer them to the living room. He stared at me for what felt like an hour... in silence... then said, "You suck."

But look how lovely they are now!!!!!! Wasn't it all worth it?

And the family room which is sunken, and therefore has more head room, looks beautiful too.

On to the outdoors! We've had some gorgeous weather. So I decided to take some outside photos. This is my tree.

This is the bird I can't identify... can you see him?

Here's another picture of him.

Every morning I wake up and look out and these little chickadees greet me.

Isn't he adorable!

And on to my favorite part of this week. I keep a notebook that I paste my favorite decorating ideas in. This was one of them. I am so excited to finally do it! It's a clock! I ordered the hands yesterday and started hanging the photos. Each photo replaces a number on the clock! I still have a couple of frames to purchase. But I think it's going to be so neat!

As I was doing some yard work, I started uncovering numerous bricks strewn all over the neglected lawn. I decided to try and salvage the good ones to see if we had enough to rebuild the sides of this knocked down planter. It's right outside my kitchen window. I want to dedicate it to fresh herbs.

My white crocuses budded just before we moved, so I dug them all up and popped them into a planter. I found these gorgeous pansies at bi-mart and had to have them.

I am so in love with these trees. They are directly across the street from my driveway, and just burst into bloom as if to welcome us home.

I have buds popping out everywhere.

This one lonely daffodil is my first bloom. What a cheery little face it has.

I can't wait to find out what this little bush/tree is.

And this one... I'm hoping it's a lilac... I'm dying to know if it's a lilac. Lilac's are by far my favorite flower in the whole entire big wide world. Especially the light purple ones.

Floor Plans

2010-02-23T11:17:00.000-08:00

I found a neat program here. And drew up a floorplan of the house so everybody can really visualize it! The two bedrooms side by side are ours and our daughters. The lower one is the office. I think you can figure the rest out. These are rough estimates. Some may be inches off and I'm also not very good with the program. Thus my bedroom sticking out a few inches to far in the front! But you get the idea :)

Our First Week

2010-02-22T19:27:00.000-08:00

Whew, what a busy week. We had a bunch of family coming and going, stopping to see the house.
My mom brought me these. I think they are gorgeous! Yellow roses are my favorites.

Dan reassembled our matching desks. They will be used solely for artistic reasons.

We got to do some yard work since it was such a beautiful day. All over my yard I found bulbs popping up.

I can't wait to see what lovely colors come out!

I also found a rose bush at BiMart for $4.99 and planted it. The same yellow roses as in the vase above :)

We sorted through some bricks that are laying all over the neglected yard. Some are even half burried. It'll be a long process. Dan is too scared to mow the lawn! I found a burried dog dish, hammer, hand hoe, and tons of rocks.

Dan worked on raking out all of the dead stuff and sod lining the driveway.

While I transplanted my peonies and created a stone border from the pile of rocks on the lawn.

Hopefully my next yard project will be tackling these overgrown planter boxes and starting a veggie garden!

I also finally finished up this project. Which I stole from here... You should really check out this blog. She is incredible!

http://knockoffwood.blogspot.com/2010/01/plans-clip-art-rails.html

I can't wait for us to start crafting on these matching desks!

We Moved In!

2010-02-21T08:32:00.000-08:00

On Friday we moved into our new home!
My Great Grandma's tredle sewing machine found a temporary home against the dining brick wall.

Our living room is set up, and has a temporary buffet at the end, until our kitchen is up and running.

I couldn't believe it when I saw the guys had put both couches and 3 end tables on one wall! This place is HUGE!

She loves it too.

Especially this part.

So do I, because all of the toys are contained in this safe place for her, and not all over my living room. All of the furniture is drilled into the wall. She can go nuts, and I can feel secure. I think her bookshelf turned out nicely!

Unfortunately there were a couple of casualties during the move. One was my dresser which the bottom broke off of. The other was Nemi's crib. While being dismantled she walked into the room and stood on the side slat. It promptly snapped in half. If you look closely at the back side you'll see one is now silver.... that is... duct taped. Ah well. I guess it's a sign to start building her toddler bed soon!

Our bedroom is also set up. I still can't decide what kind of curtains to put in this room. I just love the bright blue walls against my white furniture! I still haven't chosen sheets either. Please forgive our boxes!

The most exciting part was last night when Dan worked on the bathtub!

Here you can see where Dan welded his wrench to the pipe he was working on... Oops!!!

Just look at that beautiful plumbing job!

Blogspot isn't letting me upload videos, so here is a link to two videos. The first is testing all of the plumbing, the second we test the overflow!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X32mstzH5PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njpqYThFIHk

I am extremely happy to announce that the tub works beautifully. I took my first bath in it this morning and it was Divine!

Moving Day

2010-02-19T04:34:00.000-08:00

The last 2 days have honestly been incredible. Things have been falling into place. My husband and I have been working together and kicking butt.
We finally hung our uppers, and hallelujah, it went according to planned, the first time, even, level, plumb.... I know something must be looming. But I'm thanking my lucky stars anyway!
Look at these beautiful open shelves!!! Can't you tell he is elated the kitchen is finally coming together?

I had no idea that the picture in my head would actually be this beautiful.

The alcove for the fridge is my favorite part so far.

I love watching my man work away, making our house a home.

My dad was also there, just like he is every Thursday and Friday. He installed these boxes in the bathroom for the two matching lights to go up. Now we can install that last piece of drywall easily.

He also made the new doorbell look very pretty.

It's moving day. We are as ready as we'll ever be I guess, which is not really that ready. But here we go! Tally Ho! It's an adventure! We are ordering counter tops today. We have the dimensions for our tile just have to find a day to order them when we are able to sit and use the phone for 5 minutes. Our kitchen should be up and running in a few days, then we can concentrate on cleaning up the apartment and repainting, then making sure our shower is tiled so we can bathe!

From House to Home

2010-02-16T20:59:00.001-08:00

It's 3 days and counting until moving day. The house is not nearly liveable. We are not nearly packed. But, Friday will be our first night in our new home.
We decided to buy a new toy with our tax refund and got a 40" LCD HDTV. It's our first brand new TV ever. And we are in heaven! Of course we had to buy a new dvd/vcr combo to go with it. We felt so dirty spending that much money. But it does look beautiful in our new living room!
The bathtub is finally plumbed, waiting for tile to go up before we can install a shower head and spout. Meaning, we still can't use it. Even though we'll be living there in 3 days.

The floors look amazing and my husband says the living room looks like a room in a magazine. What a nice hubby. We found these great cheap tables on sale at Target for $26 for the set of 3!!!! We also found these new rugs at a crazy crap mart up the street for $40 each!

I've been having fun starting to hang art, finding the perfect place for every decoration, and repainting sad old furniture.

I found this french memo board at Ross for like $7.00!!!

This old movie board was at the Hollywood Video store where I worked when I first moved to Portland. The manager gave it to me when it was taken down. I've kept it all these years. I think it looks great in my kitchen with all the antique bronze and dark cabinets.

My daughter's door.

I wanted my daughter's bedroom to have raspberry accents. So I decided to paint this old yellow bookshelf I'd found at a garage sale years ago to match her new color scheme. Her bed is cherry, and we had refinished my dad's old toy box in a cherry finish to match. This is what it currently looks like. I had to rip the back out because it was so bowed from age. The new back has a nice matching raspberry paint and will be ready to install tomorrow.

I also had purchased these wall shelves at the antique mall a while back. There were two, but one was precariously perched, and an unknowing brother in law broke the other one. So I decided to use the raspberry paint to make it cute for baby Nemi's room.

I also purchased this other one, and I think it looks great in the entry way. I'm thinking of putting some hooks on it to hang keys from.

If you look back in the posts you'll see these end tables as I found them on the side of the road. Now just look at them! I'm so excited with how they turned out!

I found these finials at The Home Depot for $12 a set. I had been having difficulty finding large enough curtain rods that didn't make my wallet cringe. So when I saw these I grabbed them. After a few coats of white paint on some dowels and brackets, they look great! And were super cheap.

And, I think we've finally agreed on an exterior color!!!! We think it's gorgeous. Can't wait to see what my parents say!

And lastly... a project that has been sorely neglected. My daughter's rocking horse got some love tonight. I had a lot of fun starting it out. I'm thinking of padding and upholstering the seat in some raspberry. Then making a tail out of the same raspberry ribbon I used for her shades and also getting some brown and green to mix in to match the other colors. I can't decide what color to paint this pony's eyes!

The floors are stained.

2010-02-10T13:19:00.000-08:00

Mr. Brick Ranch here. I took another load of boxes over to the house today, and took some photos of the floor. Some of them are through the windows and are not that great quality wise, but I couldn't walk on the floors. They also look a little different because of the natural vs lamp lighting. The guy who has been doing the floors is from Siberia and he is a master of his craft. They look Fan-Freakin-Tastic! He sanded, puttied, sanded again, replaced an entire section of scratched boards in the office, 2 coats of stain, and 2 coats of sealer... all by himself. In 3 days!
Here is a photo of our entry way.

Entering the living room from the kitchen.

This is the living room looking through the giant window.

And finally our bedroom through one of the windows. I love the blue up against that dark wood.

My wife absolutely loves how the grain of the wood has risen to the surface and can't wait to get some thick white toe board in place. Tomorrow he'll be buffing and putting on the last coat of lacquer. The end result will be a satin finish. We're extremely excited to see the final product.

Behind Again

2010-02-08T19:39:00.000-08:00

It's been another long week and I am again somewhat behind on my blog posting. So without further ado, the last week at Our Brick Ranch.

We decided that we couldn't possibly live without a phone line and cable jack in the office, so Dad got to work on making it happen. He is very dashing with his power tools wouldn't you say?

He ran the new wires through the crawlspace and is drilling a hole through the floor in the wall to run them up. He also installed an outlet in the closet in there so I can build a built in sewing area that I can just shut up with all of my craft supplies behind shuttered doors! Clean and baby proof!

Dan rebuilt the wall the shower head will mount to. The way it was before there was only one beam offset and the old tub handle was towards the right instead of centered. We decided that was silly and just put up another support and made it look symmetrical.

Dan also tar papered the floor and put some metal flashing up for extra water protection. He also reran the drain and the tub is actually in position but I didn't get any photos. He's also installed some of the durock cement board in the tub surround to get ready for tiling.

My Dad apparently got tired of the TP resting on the window ledge and did this. I think he's a mad genius.

It was a gorgeous day on Saturday and I worked my hands to the bone clearing a huge garbage heap/brush pile out of that back corner of the yard. I also clipped out a small tree between the fences and a bunch of blackberry brambles.

I also transplanted some plants from our old yard, including this lovely fern and a ton of red canna lilies.

It was all worth it because when I pulled back all of the dead stuff I found a bunch of these. Such lovely bulbs all popping through. Some definitely are daffodils, other's look as if they may be Hyacinths, but I'm not quite sure. I can't wait to see all of them pop up!

I love these trees so very much, despite the mess they make. Do you see that tiny lower branch? Dan is going to cut it off. Then you see that nice sturdy one above it? It will soon be holding a beautiful new swing.

A friend of mine walked into this back yard for the first time a few weeks ago and saw my trees and exclaimed, "You have to get a hammock!" That's exactly what I'm putting on my birthday list this year. Can't you see me chilling in my hanging hammock, Nemi on the swing beside me? Oh, also imagine the privacy fence that's going up between those 4x4's in the background. It will be my little piece of heaven.

Today the floor guy came. And I snuck in afterwards in socked feet to see what he'd done. He's completely sanded all of the floors, and they look amazing!

He also puttied in all of the age cracks.

And he completely replaced a whole section in the office where there were some very damaged boards the previous owners had gouged!

It really looks incredible. I can't wait to see what it looks like after the stain is finished!!!!!

He said he'll start staining on Wednesday and we shouldn't walk on it until Monday. So we are stuck finishing the kitchen and family room for the next week. I also can't have baby B over at the house because of all of the fumes. This gives me ample time to pack up all of our belongings. Because we are moving in by the 20th! I can't wait to call this house home.

A Hard Days Work

2010-02-05T00:15:00.000-08:00

I worked a hard 8 hours today on the house. Ever muscle in my body aches. I have this advice for any of you out there looking for a great workout. Buy a crappy old house, tear down all of the walls and start from scratch. I've lost 20 pounds in 3 months. Just from remodeling.
Sooo without further ado. Guess what I finally committed on? A kitchen color!!!!! Sooo, I decided I'd just try the tiny wall the slider was on and just live with it for a couple of months. Yah, so, any of you out there who know me. You know that when I start something, I don't stop until it's sparkly and finished. That's right. I loved the paint so much I just kept going onto the next wall. I forced myself to pause until my husband came home to see it. He walked in with a giant armload from The Home Depot, and he squealed like a little school girl. Eeeee, I am a plaster GOD.
I said??? Hey buddy, it's my paint that made your plaster look so damn fine. He told me why did you stop? I love the color! So on I went.

I painted and painted.

And then I pulled out the new fridge and painted behind it. I heard my husband chuckle in the background, My wife the linebacker. Hahaha, I guess when I get started I do turn into some kind of She-Hulk.

And yes, I do know there will be cabinet's and tile covering every last bit of paint in this photo. But not for a few weeks. And until then I can marvel at my painting prowess.

Guess what I did then... Did anybody yell scrape nasty funky linoleum? Well, you were right. I decided that old linoleum had better hit the highway. I started out scraping and shoving and screaming, until I was red in the face and dripping sweat. My husband told me I was CRAZY. Certifiable. Out of my Damn mind. Then I realized that when I used a lower angle and pushed with my feet the scraper slid right under and ripped the linoleum up faster. I then got a better idea. Sit on my butt and push with both feet back and forth. Viola! The linoleum started coming up in patches!

At this point, my husband is sitting on a bucket laughing at me crawling on the floor covered in drywall dust, my pants sliding down because I didn't wear a belt.

But it worked. And that linoleum is almost toast.

During my 8 hour hardcore workout. My hubby played with the bathtub. We ended up having to buy some weird custom overflow that I've never seen before! See it? It's a weird rectangle. And then a matching drain because the overflow only came in stainless. And we have all matching antique bronze fixtures already purchased. Ah well, at least the drain will match the overflow. The rest will be in bronze.

Dad ran a new cable line into the office, finished changing out several light switches and outlets, and installed some new face plates.

I also patched up some holes around one of the old thermostat boxes so we can cap it off in case the next owners want to do something with them.

I do believe we are kicking bootay. I had so much fun today. I came straight home and soaked in a scalding bath. Every muscle in my body is screaming. And I'm in heaven.

Where's Waldo?

2010-02-03T20:44:00.000-08:00

This is what my table looks like. It's become almost second nature to me to always be reading home manuals. My dad brought these over to help with the bathroom. The one on the top right is straight out of the 80's. The bathrooms are hideous. But it makes me happy.

We had an incredibly prosperous week. We finally got our family room blinds and installed them.
Tadah! I know, beautiful taped up fireplace! haha! Hey we're getting there. I believe this room will be a huge project for many years to come. Right now it's our staging area, our lunch buffet, and storage.

We put new numbers on the house. The old 2 was broken in half.

We also picked a stain for the floors. The one on the left.

Dan installed many doorknobs. I tried the first one on my own and decided to let a man do it.

This is my area. I eat sleep and breathe paint at the moment. I kept the old dining room chandelier because it was so handy as a brush drying rack. All of those paint cans have already been used in the house. They are all different colors! I have 4 more gallons of ceiling white. The yellow and black item is our paint gun. And the bin is full of miscellaneous rollers, tape, stir sticks, brushes etc.

We moved our first load of belongings into the new house.

Set up a little feeding station.

Installed a bathtub... okay, so it's just sitting there looking pretty. But hey, we will install it soon!

Primed all of the kitchen walls and half of the ceiling. We are ready to hang uppers! And we put our new fridge in place. It took some measuring and walking around half of the house to the only door it would fit through.

What an incredible sight! Sigh... my first new refrigerator. Brings a tear to me eye.

I wish everybody could see the whole picture. I walked in today after finishing the paint in the kitchen, and could completely visualize myself cooking in this kitchen. For the first time I could imagine my daughter running around our new home. Playing in her bedroom, running down the hallway. It's finally starting to feel like home. I know I still have no stove or shower. But in a few weeks I'll be living here, and I can't wait to see what new things are ahead of us.

2010-02-01T12:21:00.000-08:00

There is officially a ceiling in the tub area now! It still needs some love, but it's definitely progress.

There is also progress over the vanity area.

Thanks once again Dad!

For these pretty new outlets and phone jacks.

And this one too!

2010-01-29T16:05:00.000-08:00

I am very proud to announce that where once Dan's head was sticking through the roof... there is a new vent! Go Dan!

Here you can see 3 in a row, I think you can definitely tell the placement was perfect, they obviously just neglected to install it and just left us with a hole.

In other news, Dad moved the wires over the tub so we can get started on sheet rock.

He has done the same over the sink area, and hopefully today will be running the new lights.

I'm sorry this is a short post, but I have a sick kid, and my husband is at the house working on his own.

If it can It will....

2010-01-26T19:13:00.001-08:00

Today started out beautiful and almost warm. I decided I must get some yard work done. Then it started raining on me. But we'll start at the beginning and take this post one step at a time.
The ceiling in the kitchen is dry and needs a patch or two but for the most part is ready to paint!

As promised, we have a sub floor where the tub will be installed! Unfortunately...That slit at the right is where the drain was. My hubby touched it and it... uh... fell off? Seriously. It fell off. Sooo more work.

Here's a view of the wall that he's put new supporting 2x4's in because of slight dry rot on the base board.

And the ceiling over the tub where there used to be a giant soffit box that hung down. Hopefully we'll have a ceiling soon!

This is the other side of the bathroom where a soffit box used to hang over the cabinet's and mirror. A little rewiring and we'll have a beautiful new wall. Today Dan spent the entire day bagging up the insulation that was in this area.

Our lovely new shop vac was an amazing help. You are worth your weight in gold little shop vac.

I bought some samples of exterior paint and pretty much ended up hating all of them. Just for the record, that orange was brown on the swatch... I swear to God. Eww!

Alrighty, now on to the yard work. We have this very narrow area between us and the park. We will be installing a privacy fence here and these poor Rhododendron's will have no light.

So I had the amazing idea to relocate them here. Against the back fence that has no privacy and hopefully let them grow into some kind of a hedge. My husband looked at me like I was insane and told me to just buy hedges. I told him if he could magically find the money for hedges he was welcome to.... he started digging.

We have one Rhody dug up... the smallest one. I also got some great work done on the front herb garden. There was one lonely purple sage bush against the front courtyard and one lonely lavender bush all the way up by the street! So I transplanted the lavender next to the sage so they could be buddies. Which led to me ripping up all of the old weed cloth along the driveway and digging a whole new garden in the front lawn... I am coated in mud and in glorious gardening heaven.

Until......

Hey Honey? Look up!!!!

WTF!!!!!!

WHY IS MY HUSBANDS HEAD STICKING THROUGH THE ROOF!!!!!!!!

Well, apparently the roofers decided a giant hole could just be hidden by one little shingle and we wouldn't find out??? But then, the shingle just fell off. Dan went into the attic for something and thought.. uh.. why do I see blue sky? I think there is supposed to be a third vent there. Well, there will be now because there is no other way to fix the hole. It of course started raining. So there is my poor hubby in the rain, in the dark, on top of the house, trying to patch a 20" hole so it won't rain in the attic!!! I must have jinxed myself after the plumbing, the drainage, the roof, all of the electrical, most of the walls and ceiling got replaced. I said... hey! Nothing else can go wrong right? We've replaced everything right? I've cursed us.

Oh! I didn't mention the funnest part of the day though. Forgive me .. do.

While I was digging in the mud in my painted jeans and way too tight Voltron tee, a beautiful little girl walked up and said is that your dog in the backyard? I said yes! She said, oh, she is sooo cute! I said thank you. She then told me her name was Dominique and she loved this house. OMG this girl was adorable probably about 10 years old, shoulder length kinky Afro hair and bright 80's style neon earrings. Like a black version of Hannah Montanah LOL She told me the house had been vacant for around 2 years and her and her girlfriends had been using it as a fort! I know it sounds bad, but it made me feel so nice knowing the break ins were just little girls! She said they loved the house so much and had been trying to clean it up and make it pretty but then were caught by the realtor and told they couldn't go inside anymore. But that they continued until they realized our stuff was there. I told her I appreciated that they stopped going in and that we would be living there soon. She told me she wanted to help us make the house pretty. I told her in the spring when it was warmer she could come over and help us with the gardens :) She seemed extremely pleased.

And then there was floor!

2010-01-25T19:49:00.000-08:00

I haven't seen it, I have no photographic evidence. But my husband insists that the bathroom now has a floor! Which is honestly wonderful. I imagine it looks much like before, just without the giant gaping hole looking into the crawl space. Unfortunately he said while he was down there he found a rather large puddle of acrid smelling urine......... ..... ..... I'm not catching whatever critter is down there. Dadddy!!!!!!!

Ceiling Texture

2010-01-23T21:33:00.000-08:00

Alright. Sometimes you just have to bite your cheek and say, I'm an amateur. We did a pretty bad job on the ceiling, so we decided to texturize. With advice from Dan's dad, he finished the job beautifully! There are only 2 spots we need to go back and thicken a little when it's dry. I am sooo much happier with it! I can't wait to finally get this kitchen painted!

While he did that, I did this. It's a wall decal my sweet friend Carrie sent us! I have been staring at the tube waiting and wondering where to put it. I absolutely adore where I placed it, right next to my new curtains and the fireplace. And yes.. I know I put the last word too close to the others, but it was kind of a one shot thing, and now it's stuck that way :) I don't think it's too terrible though! I promise I taped them up and respaced them several times and even used a level before I stuck them... sigh.

Earlier in the day my parents took me shopping for more bits and pieces for the house. Including, new knobs for the closets.

And the most dramatic change... before...

After!!! Okay so it's not the same door, but you can see the old knob and the new knob :)

I also had purchased these finials earlier in the month because they were on sale, and because I could not find long enough curtain rods I liked in white. So I decided to buy some dowels and make my own. Today I bought these bracket's to hold the dowels and spray painted them white.

When we had the forced air installed, unfortunately the back built on laundry room/bath was not connected to the main ceiling, and we were unable to duct that one tiny bathroom. It did have a working wall heater like this from the 70's... but it pooped out on us this week. I told mommy the toilet seat was toooooo cold for my bum, and we bought a new heater today.

And lastly, but the biggest purchase of the day. I'm sorry Dad, but the shop vac we were borrowing from you just wasn't cutting it anymore. The filter kept falling off inside and more dust was escaping than it was sucking up. I mean come on, I remember that shop vac when I was a kid. LOL

So here's our brand new one! Bigger too!

The baby started coughing pretty badly tonight, so I will be staying home with her tomorrow. Dan will be going to the house on his own, and hopefully starting to fix the dry rot in the bathroom floor and possibly touch up the ceiling texture. I'll post if anything amazing happens, but more than likely you'll have to wait until Monday for the next post!

2010-01-22T21:50:00.000-08:00

Today was a fun project day. We started off with a free coffee coupon, so I tried something new. It was the grossest coffee ever. So we got donut holes at Krispee Kreme to make up for it. After a quick trip to The Home Depot, Dan prepped a patch job in the kitchen while I spent some time sanding these old end tables and patching a few places. They are now ready to paint white! I also painted this shelf resting on top of them. It goes in my closet :)

I was sanding outside on top of this old table. I realized I'd been meaning to refinish this orange table for years and never done it. So after I was done blowing dust clouds from the end tables I decided why not tackle the table? Later I primed the top because I had a full roller I was going to wash anyway. It looks ridiculous at the moment, but hopefully every time I walk by it I'll do something more to it.

When my daughter decided to finally take a nap we headed outside. On the left there you can see behind the shed. Dan pulled two trees out and moved the wood pile that had been leaning up against the back. Unfortunately the wood had been there for a very long time and was rotting the side of the shed slightly. But it's an easy fix. He did however make some pretty awful noises when he came upon a giant centipede about 3 inches long and fat and red. As I am typing this he comments... "and me without my Atari joystick!" Yes my hubby is a giant geek. He then killed a giant spider. My hero :) I spent a little bit of time painting the new trim around the windows and the sliding glass door. It then started to sprinkle, so we packed it up and moved inside.

Where I finished painting the closets! I really should have taken a before photo of this one. If you'll believe it, it used to be electric lavender on top with a forest green stripe going across the center where the rod was, and the bottom was a dingy off white. It now sparkles. I can't wait to start installing some trim! We need to refinish the floors first.

This is the master closet and it was bright orange. Even the ceiling and front of the closet was orange. Honestly? Why did the ceiling of the closet need to be orange? I guess I'll never know. Somebody thought it was beautiful though.

2010-01-22T10:05:00.000-08:00

It's been a rough week. Between sickness and laziness we really don't feel like we've accomplished much. But Dan did finish mudding the ceiling, and we realized we need to texturize it to cover up the problems. Dan's dad agreed to come help us.

I put a coat of primer on the closet doors of the office. It's making a huge difference already! Although halfway through I swore I would use the paint gun for the other two closet doors.. what a pain!

Then we realized that we were slowing down because we couldn't find anything and the garage had no more space to store anything. So we rearranged and now everything is in order according to when we'll need it and we have a ton of space!

Dan also took some time to help me with a little project I'd been working on. A coatrack made from twigs I cut from our trees out back! I had him cut the back off of a small log to have a flat surface. I then pre-drilled my holes in the log, and in the backs of the little branches, and also used a sinker to make sure the heads of the screws were sunk so the back would sit flush against the wall. Dan helped me screw them in because I was having troubles holding the drill and branches.

Voila!!! A coat rack! How crafty are we?

Daddy's Little Girl

2010-01-18T18:10:00.000-08:00

I am somewhat of a neat freak. That is why I am dedicating the first portion of my blog post today to my Dad. My dad and I go together like peas and a pod. I like everything tidy and neat. He likes everything organized and labeled.

Every time I enter my kitchen or the family room and look at the light switches it makes me smile. His neat little handwriting on neat little tags on all of the light switches and breakers.

Maybe you can't appreciate it, but I do. You know what else I appreciate? The fact that he's there, every morning, on all of his days off. Rewiring my entire house, free of charge. What kind of a dad is he? The best. Thanks Dad.

When we arrived this morning I was so eager to see how the new shades and curtains looked I immediately hung up my daughters. They work almost as well as what was in my head! And I love them. They were super easy to make also. The only drawback is that when they are cinched up the lower corners slightly hang inwards and do leave a slight gap that you can see on the right hand side of the large window. All in all I'm happy though, and can't wait to find a neat little birdcage to spray paint the same colors as the ribbon's and turn into a lamp to hang in that corner! I'm also toying with the idea of painting or constructing from vintage wallpaper a tree up that corner. I can't wait to get the white trim around those windows!

I then hung the curtains I made for the living room. I am so in love with these. This isn't the greatest photo but if you go back a few posts you'll see me standing with the bolt of fabric.

I then proceeded to install these blinds by myself. Note: If anybody ever... EVER hears me say I'm going to install blinds again... please slap me. This was an extremely frustrating job for me. I suck with a drill, it was super heavy and my arms hurt and there are scratches all over the new paint on the sills from me dropping screws. At one point I dropped one of the brackets and lost it for about an hour while I searched. Then I finally got the brackets all up and went to hang the shades on them and broke one of the chintzy plastic brackets!!! After much screaming and swearing my hubby finally came in and rubbed my back while I fumed... good hubby. Then he helped me put them up. There's still a broken bracket, as they come with 50 extra screws but no extra brackets. But they are hung, and I'm happy. Except now I can see that the floor trim really needs to be painted white! And the outlet's aren't changed out yet. But it's getting there! Imagine my white IKEA Malm bed frame and dressers against that bright blue!!!

The last thing we did before we left the house was install these beautiful new lights in the family room! I have the same domes for the living room, but a fancier center one that's more like a pendant on a chain.

I realized today that the ceiling in the family room is much taller and I may end up having to swap the center ones because we'll probably bonk our heads on it if it's in the living room. We'll see what it looks like, it's still on back order!

Ceilings and more ceilings.

2010-01-17T21:30:00.000-08:00

It seems we've been working on ceilings a lot this week. I hate ceilings. I especially abhor painting ceilings. The good news is all of the big ceilings are now painted.

Dan taped and mudded the kitchen ceiling. Then I primed the ceiling, then he primed the ceiling. Then we bought more primer, and I primed the ceiling again, then he primed the ceiling again. And we finally came to the conclusion that we probably will need to texturize because there are all kinds of imperfections showing through the coats of paint... It's a learning process.

Then Geri and I painted the family room ceiling! Which looks sooo much better. Remember what it looked like before?

Then when we painted the walls?

Here's how it looks now. We are still working at filling in those lines on the top so we can put a chair rail up and fake that the bottom is wainscoting. I can't wait to hang the new lighting! We can finally do that tomorrow when the paint is dry!!!!!

Dan also finished mudding in the new entry way to the family room.

He also tore into those cracks that were above the slider. Turns out some weirdo had put nails every 1/4" all the way up the seam between the two pieces of sheet rock instead of on either side. Thus, the tape popped up and made a crack through all of the putty and paint. Dan is working on remedying the situation.

Lastly, Geri and I figured out how to hang blinds!!! We only did one because it was the only window sill that was painted. I did finish painting the trim in my bedroom so we can hang the blinds tomorrow.

Tonight I am working on my daughter's window treatments. As most mom's know, blinds can be dangerous for little ones, posing the risk of strangulation in the cords and all kinds of hazards. So what I'm doing is a sort of roman shade. I have tension rods and a bunch of white duck cloth. I am making them exactly the width of the window like shades, then sewing tubes down either side and inserting bright fuchsia ribbon so that I can sinch the bottoms of the corners up and tie in big bows creating a swag effect. I believe the large window will also need one in the center. At least that's how it works in my head. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Forgiveness

2010-01-14T15:24:00.000-08:00

Please forgive us for our random posting. We've been sick and stressed and stretched thin. But are back at the house working away. My hubby is currently finishing up sanding the sheet rock in the kitchen and I'll be painting it soon. Stand by to see what color I finally have chosen! I also made curtains out of that fabulous fabric in my previous post and can't wait to hang them on the new $70 curtain rod I found on sale for $40!

In the meantime. I'm addicted to this website! http://www.diyideas.com/ Check out their room by room DIY makeover's! It's made by better homes and gardens. They also have some DIY offshoot mags that I'm addicted to but can't afford. I manage to sneak them into my groceries every once in a while though!

I mean seriously. How cool is this?

And under the bedrooms, they have kids rooms. Check out the pic that is themed after a french ice cream shop!!! Sooo cute! Ideas Ideas!

Judging by my lack of comments lately I've either lost most of my regular readers or they have better things to do with their time. Don't abandon me! The fun is just starting!!!
Snuggles!

Weekend Work

2010-01-10T20:50:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a slow pace, but we're making progress!

I'll start out with a "before" pic. Well, it was during Demo and you can see where the old lower cabinets are and the doorway behind it. It actually had a door when we purchased the house that closed onto the family room. I thought wow, I'd love to chat with my family while I'm cooking! Let's knock a hole!

So we did.

And yesterday we did this.

And I did a little of this. Oh yes, that's probably the only picture you'll see, but I did hang my own drywall. I even cut that piece of drywall before I hung it all by myself!

My dad also fixed the main electrical ground behind the sink and installed a new power box for a dishwasher disposal so we were able to install these two new cabinet's.

We now have this much done. There will be one more bottom cabinet directly in front that will hold the range. I know it doesn't look like much now, but I have high hopes! Then we're onto the uppers!!!

Unfortunately when we took the blinds off of the sliding glass door we found this. The contractors who installed the door tried to cut some extra space to slide it in more easily and left a good slanting hole in the frame it is about 3 inches wide at the base. Yah. Not happy. Hopefully we can resolve this issue.

My parents came over today and we measured for blinds, we also got a great deal at Hancock Fabrics on some beautiful curtain material. Regularly almost $20 was on sale for $3 a yard!!!

We closed out the day by ripping up all the old electric blue carpet in the family room to make way for the new stuff that we've picked out but not ordered yet. Yes I know, we're all brawn and no brains at this point. We're just demo happy! I can't wait to start these curtains!!!

Cabinets

2010-01-08T22:06:00.000-08:00

Today was a long day. We cut the new header for the opened up doorway going from the kitchen to family room. Then realized we hadn't brought the floor jack to hold the beams in place when we pulled out the existing header, as it's a load bearing wall. So on to the cabinets.

It took us a long time and some disagreement and lots of chalk line and shims, but we finally got this first cabinet into place and Dan screwed it all down. Unfortunately the wall is seriously bowed in the middle and we had to put some 1/2" shims in place to make the counter level.

We then stopped for a small milk break.

Then back to work installing the lazy susan! This was even trickier because this particular cabinet did not have a base, we had to install an X underneath, then shim under the tiny X holding up the giant cabinet on our extremely not square, plumb, or level kitchen floor and walls.

My extremely debonair husband then screwed into place. Check out that eyebrow lift. Hot stuff.

TaDah!

We also got the dishwasher into place exactly where Dan is standing, and drilled holes in the next cabinet for the plumbing to go through. Then we headed off to Red Robin for giant burgers and cocktails. Dan had a couple so I responsibly drove home. I had a chocolate milkshake. Mmmmm.
Then Dan got frisky with the new camera and tried to blind me while I was driving.

It was pouring outside and we decided to go home.
But we'll be back at it tomorrow and hopefully get more than two cabinet's in place.
So here's the thing. These are custom built cabinet's that I helped design for my kitchen. They gave us schematics at the design appointment. We kept them. Then we received our cabinet's and tons of loose bits and pieces in boxes with no instructions. I have to tell you, nothing tests a marriage's limits like throwing a bunch of stained wood at a couple of newlyweds working on their first home and telling them to wing it.
Gosh I'm having a blast!!!!!

Office

2010-01-07T09:41:00.000-08:00

You may remember yesterday I posted pictures of our office which was this lovely shade of green.

Then you saw how we primed the room here.

Last night we spent several hours painting the office Sherwin Williams Krypton in Harmony. We also painted the ceiling white and the window trim. The result is so stunning I wish I had done it in my bedroom.

We were so excited we started painting the trim around the closet and the door white also. Then I got really excited and jumped into the shutter inspired doors. This is as far as we got. Re ran out of steam and Geri exclaimed why aren't we using the paint gun for this? Let's just line them up outside and spray them! Well... aren't you the smarty pants? So that's the plan, at least when we have a warmer day that it's not raining. Good old northwest.

As we were working I made a comment on how Geri's door was squeaking and it sounded like someone was whistling outside the window. Well about 5 minutes later her paranoia struck and she yelled at me the paint is dry! Let's hang the curtains! You've got me checking the window now to see if somebody is peeking in!

So we did. And although they could use an iron, they look lovely. and it will look so beautiful once the floors are refinished and there is white toe board in place don't you think?

And back to the kitchen. We decided, between coats, to play with the paint again. The previous owner's left behind dozens of cans of paint. So we cracked a bunch open and one was this beautiful warm mocha color which I LOVE. But I'm hesitant to put that dark of a color in the tiny kitchen with the already very dark cabinets. So we mixed and matched and came up with this rosy latte color. What do you think? We both really liked it and are thinking it may be the one.

I realize all of the comments I got were for the cream color. Let me know what you think about this one! Or am I just running all over the place? I'll have to go back to the antique mall and take pics of the cafe' artwork I'm really dying to put in here. As soon as I'm rich of course. I've always dreamed of creating the perfect french or Tuscan cafe' inspired eat in kitchen. Mommy?

hehehehe

You know what else this means? All of the bedrooms and living room in this wing are painted! Which means.... we are ready to resurface and stain the floors!!! Wohoo! Now if the bathroom could only get under way. Sigh. I have all of the materials, tub, sinks, toilet and seat, faucets, towel bars, cabinet's. Just need countertops and tile and we'll be set. Of course a sub floor and walls would be nice also.

2010-01-05T20:08:00.001-08:00

Finally got a good evening to head over to the house and finish up some painting. And yes, I remembered my camera this time!

So without further adieu... my new living room color! Please ignore the miscelaneous boxes and sheets over the window.
Before

After. OMG it's so amazing seeing these pics next to each other! Oh, just seeing I forgot to put the vent back in the ceiling.. ooops! I am also planning on painting the window trim white.

My faithful helper Geri. Can you see the kitchen through the doorway? Isn't it hideous? I'm working on changing that below.

And now, my front door! With newly installed doorknobs! And if you peek through the window to the side you'll see what I can't wait to see every day when I get home. After we move in that is. Gizmo!

I love these doorknobs!!!

Here's what we did today. This lovely office has a view of the park, and was a pretty dark green. It was a lovely color, but not great for a design area. My whole business will be run from this room and I needed something neutral to hold fabric against.

Before

And after priming. This will very soon be painted Sherwin Williams: Krypton, which is a light gray with just a hint of blue. But for now, I'm happy with the white.

I also found an old can of copper spray paint and goofing around tagged the kitchen wall. Haha, what good is DIYing if you can't grafitti your own walls? You can also see to the right where we are opening up the doorway.

And finally. I purchased a warm yellow paint for the kitchen and decided to test it by the brick wall. Well I hate it. So I added some white and put some below the yellow, and I like it better, but then I tried my original paint color I was thinking about and think I may just go with that instead.

Please oh please, write me a comment and tell me what you think! Remember my cabinet's are a dark wood, countertops and tile will be Cream colored. I can't wait to hear your opinion. Oh, and feel free to tell me any other color that you think would be great!

2010-01-04T06:35:00.000-08:00

Geri and I spent last evening painting the living room bisquit in Sherwinn Williams Harmony to match the fireplace. We started with painting the ceiling white. Who knew it was so yellowy until we slapped that shiny white paint up. The difference is incredible. That room is so huge, and it looks even bigger now with such a light surface reflecting all of the light from the ginormous picture window.

It took an entire gallon of paint to do the ceiling. We went through two gallons of paint on the walls and it still needs the trimming on top done and another coat on the walls. The old peachy color is still trying to peek through. I forgot my camera when we were working so I'll try to get back and post some before and after pics before the end of the week!

Just for reference, here are the before and after's on the fireplace once more. You can see the color we chose for the walls on the fireplace.

Before

After

Bathtub

2010-01-03T16:11:00.001-08:00

We purchased a bathtub! It took several trips and much discussion. But I finally found a tub that had all of the requirements. We wanted the edge to be squareish like our cabinet's and not rounded, I also required a 19" deep instead of the standard 14-15". And here it is!

KOHLER Archer(TM) 5' Bath, White
Model # K-1123-RA-0

My mother and I also purchase 3 new lights for the living room. It currently has no fixtures at all. Like many homes in the Northwest, it is reliant upon floor lights. I am sick of living in dingy apartments without enough lighting. So I decided to put 3 lights in a row, two domes, and one matching hanging light in the center. It's the same thing I am doing in the family room to replace the current mismatched 3 lights. They didn't have the lights in stock so I can't take pictures, but they should be delivered by Wednsday!

Tonight Geri and I are heading back to the house to start painting the living room to match the fireplace. A yummy cream tone!

Doorknobs!

2010-01-02T17:46:00.000-08:00

Here I am apologizing to my few readers for the delay in posts, when I know you all understand that the holidays were extremely busy. Hopefully in this new year we can hop into some extreme DIY projects! The first of the year? Doorknobs!

These Doorknobs to be exact.

We purchased them at Lowe's and Hubby installed them today. I believe it's a good start. Tomorrow? Cabinet's!!! Well... hopefully. And a bathtub purchase?

Shopping

2009-12-29T11:23:00.000-08:00

We decided to check out Lowe's on Sunday as we hadn't found some of the items we still needed anywhere else. We ended up buying 2 of these sinks, which were just like the ones in one of our inspiration photo.

We also finally found a chandelier for the dining area that we agreed on! The shades are a little more yellow tinted than shown in the picture, so we also picked out a nice warm buttery shade of paint for the kitchen walls.

That's it for now folks, I still am in the middle of holiday details. We are doing our Christmas celebration with my family on Friday. And I'm busy being sick. My husband should be off of this job by the end of the week and we can get back to some house remodeling! I can't wait to paint the kitchen and put those cabinet's in!!!

Central Air!!!!

2009-12-23T21:48:00.000-08:00

Oh yes... we have forced air. Sniff... I'm so proud and excited! I've never not huddled in front of a window unit all summer long sweating. Who honestly takes pictures of their temp control units? Me... that's who. I went to look at my cabinets and was suprised to see vents when I walked in the door. The heating was finished today! And the unit is all white and glows green in the dark... I'm in love :)

Sorry about the mist, it's extremely foggy in Vancouver. This thing is massive! It takes up half of my sidewalk by my garden!

Eeeee!

Look at my beautiful return vent!

Then I saw my garage... all of my cabinetry has arrived! Our garage is completely filled with supplies at this point and you can hardly move!

It was really dusty in there, but here is the front of a cabinet!

Drywall

2009-12-23T18:37:00.000-08:00

Just some pics to tie you over until we start working again. My hubby has been working which is a huge blessing. Unfortunately it'll be over tomorrow. But we'll go back to work on the house! The cabinet's arrived today. I'm going over there to check them out later tonight when I have a car available! Here's my two wonderful handymen hard at work. I am so grateful to have them in my life and home!

My Brother in law Matt

My wonderful Husband Dan

Love you boys!

Happy Holidays everybody!