Main Level Renovation

When you walk into our house, here is how it looked BEFORE:And here is how it looks NOW:Before, with all white walls:

Now, with 'high-speed steel' (name of paint color) walls:

I absolutely LOVE the dark grey color. It just makes it all look so different and better.

Another BEFORE:

And AFTER:

I got the outdoor lanterns at Kmart. A different kitchen table (probably black) is on the wish list.I got this shelf at Ikea about a year ago for $20. It was grey and I painted it black. I don't have much cabinet space (and we have a renter who uses some of that cabinet space for her food) so this shelf helps a ton with storage.

This is what our living room looked like some time back. I move furniture a lot so this is not exactly how it was right before the remodelling, but it gives you the idea.Here it is now:Since we needed our office room for another kids room, I made my office in this little cubby space (and Jason's is now downstairs). I love it! We weren't planning on painting the living room/my office space, but the other color we painted it turned out to be too close to the dark grey. So, I found this silver color called 'pewter luster' at Lowes. It is a great contrast to the dark grey and it lightens up the room.

For a long time I have wanted Kate to draw something on one of my walls. She drew the branches on this wall and I painted them (with the same dark grey color as the kitchen).

Here is a picture of our living area before (several months ago, actually):

And now (not the same view of the room, but it gives a better feel for the room):We got this great furniture on Craigslist for an awesome price several months ago. Found the rug at TJ Maxx. I am quite happy to finally have matching furniture!

This may be my favorite thing in my house right now . . . the hanging lantern (thanks, Allie for giving me the lantern for my birthday!). And thanks Hobby Lobby for the cheap hook. I love that from any point in my kitchen I can turn around and see outside. And there is so much more light in the house now that it is open.

It really does feel like we have a new house!

Basement Renovation

We are finally finished (shy of two cabinet doors) with our house remodeling/redecorating projects. This is the view of the area to the right as you come down the stairs BEFORE:And now AFTER:Not bad for using the same old hand-me-down couch and not buying anything new for the space (except black spray paint to paint picture frames).

Here is the living room downstairs as you look to the left from the stairs BEFORE:

And AFTER (sorry for the horrendous glare).Here is the bench about a month ago. This bench was a super garage sale find for $12 about 10 years ago. It had been built into a kitchen as a breakfast-nook-bench. The best part about it is that the lids lifts up! Because it was built-in, though, it didn't have a back or solid bottom. But, my brother put those in for me so I could make it a toy box. After sanding and black enamel paint, here it is now. It looks good and it is very functional - you can't beat that! My sister drew the branches on the rectangles above the bench and I painted the branches. (The rectangles are repurposed placemat/trays I got as a gift from a Thai friend years ago.) The branches are a hint of what is painted on one of my walls upstairs (to be posted soon). The pillow cases I got in Thailand when I lived there over ten years ago.This was part of the downstairs BEFORE:(Inside were storage cabinets.)

And here it is now! There is a glare (because I'm not a photographer), but you still get the picture (and can see one of the two places where a cabinet door is needed). The paint color is chalky blue. It is a little more blue than I like, but I'm going to enjoy this color for awhile . . . I can always paint it a different color a year or two down the road. :)

Some of my favorite pictures of my neices and nephews . . . each at one year old.

From the new space, this is what you can now see. It definitely feels bigger, and that was the goal. Mission accomplished!

A Little Closet Renovation

We have this little closet right behind our front door in our living room. In order to get into the closet most days of the year, you first have to shut the front door in order to open the closet door (see the two doors?). Not very convienent. I've had a pipe dream of tearing out the closet and making a locker system in this area but knew that probably wouldn't happen. A few weeks ago Teresa Dodge stopped by and she mentioned taking the hanging rod out of the closet and making the closet into a locker. What a fabulous idea!

Here is the closet "before:"

And here is our new and much improved locker space:

I am in love with this space! For one, I love the way it looks. For two, hooks are just a much better way of hanging stuff (especially when you have kids and bags).

The first thing we did was take the door off. Since we keep our front door open most days out of the year (unless it is blistery cold out!), it covers up the closet anyway. And when the front door is shut, I don't mind at all being able to see into the closet/locker because it looks great now.

After taking the hanging rod and hardware down, I painted the closet the same dark grey color as our kitchen. We then added a second shelf above the existing shelf to make use of the height in the closet.

I got the galvanized steel buckets at Lowe's for $8 each. Below is a close up of the five big hooks I used on the back wall. They are pretty basic, but I love the way they look.I like to keep gum, water bottles and other things we need when we are running out the door in the closet, so therefore I went looking for containers to hang on the wall. I found the small rectangular galvanized steel flower planters at JoAnn's Fabric for $3 each.

I also wanted more hooks lower for easy kid-access and to hang Jason's raquetball racquet, umbrellas, bags, etc.

I wasn't excited about using the boring white shoe rack until I got the big galvanized steel bucket ($10 at Lowes). It fits perfect, jazzes up the white shoe rack and is great to throw Abram's shoes in.

And here it is in its fully-functioning capacity. Since it is summer, it is filled with the swimming bag, hats, bubbles, a picnic mat, etc. I don't have much in the buckets right now, but I'm sure that will change when it is time for hats and gloves.

All-in-all, this was a pretty easy project. It was a bit time consuming since I put all the hooks in separately (instead of buying a set of hooks on a board) and I put anchors in before all the screws for the hooks (38 screws and anchors total!). It was worth it!

Renee Nesbitt is Getting Married

So, I threw her a bridal shower this past Saturday. It was so fun! The theme was "Love Birds" with as many purple foods and prizes I could come up with (since her wedding colors are purple and silver . . . which just HAPPEN to be what my wedding colors were!)It is hard to see the tree in the picture above. My friend, Libby Asay, gave me the idea to put purple glitter on the ends of the branches. And of course my sister helped me with the tree . . . I don't do anything creative without her!

Here is everyone who came to the shower.

Only 19 more days, Renee! I love you!

Abram's Updated Room

I've been wanting to do this for a long time. Perfectionism was hindering me from taking the plunge. But, this past Saturday, I finally jumped in and threw some paint on Abram's wall. And I'm glad I did!I've had this up for awhile. The shelf is from a bazaar in Eastern Turkey! And I found the baseball sign at Gordmans in just the right blue color. Love when that happens!

A fun garage sale find last year!

Abram officially has a BASEBALL room now!