Grout

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

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?

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

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

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

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!

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!