Category: Home Improvement

Greetings all!  I hope your week is treating you right :)  I thought I’d post some “before” pics of the downstairs, large living room.  I’ve been up to my elbows in paint and now almost the entire first floor is has fresh paint.  It’s a lovely feeling.  Let’s have a look-y, shall we?

This is the downstairs, large living room.  Before buying this house, I knew right away that this living room would be made over.  It’s not bad, but it’s the only room in the house that has crown molding (if you could call it that…kinda looked like trim on the top of the wall) and painted the baseboard trim dark brown.  The rest of the house has white trim and no crown molding, so it was kind of odd to me.  But, to each their own…whatever floats your boat :)  I’m totally a believer in making a house your own…no judging here :)  The brown just doesn’t fit with our lifestyle.

You can see the paint samples on the wall to the left.  This room is not our main tv room and it houses a lot of the kids’ toys.  We don’t have basements here in the desert, so this is where some of the toys are stored.  If I lived in the Midwest, I’d totally hide all of them down there…toys, not the kids.

All of the furniture is somewhat mis-matched, but I have a partial plan for it.  All things made of wood better watch out because I’m pretty sure you don’t stand a chance in a fight against me with my paintbrush.  I’m in the painting mood and transformations are coming – yey!

Here is the other side of this room.  Looks like Toys R’ Us threw up in here.

I know this pic is blurry, but I thought I’d show you what the crown molding looked like.  I have since taken it down and it’s laying in my garage.  I was going to get rid of it, but think I’ll wait a bit because I might use some of it to frame a mirror upstairs.  Time will tell.  I’ll probably change my mind 10x before deciding what to do with it.

Here is the baseboard trim.  Of course I want to replace it with white trim, but eventually we’d like to put hardwood floors in this room…maybe.  I’m not keen on it right now because I’d like the baby to have carpet when he first starts walking.  Also, the funds just aren’t there.  Such is life :)

I bought this dresser off CL and painted it gray/white and added some fancy knobs to it.  I’d love to keep it, but I’m not sure at this point if I’ll need it for this room.  I REALLY want to put it in my daughter’s room and sell her white dresser/changing table, but she HATES change.  I mean HATES it.  She cries when I get rid of anything.  She’s voiced her concern that I will try and sell her stuff once she starts school this Fall.  Apparently, I must buy/sell stuff too much.  Poor girl :(

I CAN’T WAIT to show you the “after” pics, but I have yet to hang anything on the walls.  Hopefully this weekend?  It is a 3-day weekend, so maybe???

On another note, I’ve had this little blog for a year now.  Crazy!  I haven’t posted as much since having the 3rd bambino, but that’s to be expected.  My goal is to do some updates and change things up a bit.  I have some ideas bouncing around in my head, so hopefully I can figure them out and get it done soon!

Also, it’s Memorial Day weekend.  May we remember that freedom isn’t free, remember those who lost their lives protecting ours.  Memorial Day…A time to honor America’s Heroes!

Good Morning Peeps!  It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I’ve been a tad busy lately. I’ve had lots of posts in my head, but zero time to sit down and write about them.

My little lady had the flu a week ago, so Mother’s Day was pretty low key.  The hubby did bring home doughnuts and I might have eaten 6 in one day.  I know, sick and wrong.  BUT, on the plus side, I did get to run 4 days last week.  Whoop whoop!  It’s now in the 100’s for temps, so it’s best to run in the early morning or wait until evening.  I have a treadmill, so I do use that when the baby is napping ot if the hubby is unavailable to help out.  I’ve only got a double jogging stroller, so there aren’t enough seats for my brood.  Maybe I could stack them?  Or is that illegal?  I kid.

Well, we’ve been in our house for almost 10 months now and I’m finally just getting around to home projects.  Let me tell you, there are many.  I decided to start painting the small living room/dining room/kitchen area first.  I love to paint, so thankfully it’s not that big of a pain for me.  I’d say most of the work is in prepping.  The hubby is pretty particular about straight lines and all that garbage, so he insisted on taping the ceiling for me. (NOTE:  If you ever come over for a visit, please be sure to point out how AWESOME those lines along the ceiling look.  They do look really good though…thanks hub.)  The pic above is a crack in the wall caused by the settling of the house.  There were several of these around the window.

There were many, many nail holes to patch.  I also removed all of the light switch/outlet covers, as any good painter would do.  I’ve got a secret though.  I like to keep at least one on and paint around it just so that the old color is beneath it.  I like a house to have “history” and I just like layers of paint (pretty sure this color was original to the house).  Or maybe I just like to drive the hubby crazy because I do that sometimes.  He’s a perfectionist and it would drive him crazy.  Me?  I am definitely detail-oriented in most things, but I think I’m pretty good at painting, so I don’t spend as much time to tape things off.  If I get a little on the floor or trim???  Meh.  If you spend every minute trying to perfect something, nothing will get accomplished and there will be zero time to enjoy it.  I’m super organized and he’s not.  We are opposites and balance each other out…love that :)

Here is a pic of the small living room, or is it a family room?  What’s the difference?  Does one have a tv and one doesn’t?  No clue.  In the pic on the left over there, that’s my treadmill.  We bought it almost 5 years ago.  The hubby thought we were just buying a really expensive clothes rack, but I’ve put over 1,000 miles on it ;)  He’s very thankful it wasn’t a waste.  Also, that lampshade is crooked.  The lamp also looks to be too small for the room.  Hmm, just thinking out loud.

Here is a pic of the color I’ll be painting the downstairs rooms.  It might look a tad dark here, but it’s really not.  I think it might be the lighting.  It’s so hard to take pics of certain spaces when there is little light.  Anywho, I painted this room, the dining room and part of the kitchen 2 weeks ago, so after pics coming just as soon as I take a bulldozer clean up. Oh ya, and hopefully I can post the “before” pics of the larger living room this week because I got that all painted this weekend.  See?  I have been productive.  Now we just need to figure out a way for you to get into my head to read about it ;)

We’ve been relaxing a lot this weekend, as my MIL is in town.  The kids are having tons of fun and loving the company.  The hubby took Monday off to spend some time with us and have a nice 3-day weekend.  We pretty much enjoyed the weather, went to the park, did a little shopping and a lot of playing.  Got a few things accomplished around the house too, so that’s always nice.

I took the baby to the doctor for his 4 month check-up and he’s super healthy!  He’s such a happy baby too and definitely a mama’s boy.  The little chubscout is in the 98 percentile for weight…love those baby rolls.  After his appointment, he fell asleep and I decided to go to the best store in the world – Target!  We don’t have one in our new neck of the woods, so it’s a real treat when I get to go.  I’ve realized that I need to get out more because being at home 24/7 really wears a person down.  This will be one of my goals. The hubby always tells me to get out more.  I should will listen.

I managed to get some pics of the Master Bedroom last week, so I thought I’d share that with you today.  Here we go!

This is the little “reading nook” if you will.  The chair is the one I got free off Craigslist about 3 years ago and have yet to reupholster it.  Seriously?!  I’ve been talking about this stinkin’ chair since the beginning of time.  Anyway, one of these days it will get done.  I managed to find the lovely (cough, cough), floral-print ottoman from an online garage sale site for $10.  It needs reupholstering too.  Sigh.  Someday.  That one should be pretty easy though.  You’ll notice the white curtain panel hanging there.  I’m testing out to see if I like them or not.  They came from the old house and I’d like to put them to use.  We shall see.

We’ve got 2 huge windows with a great view of the neighborhood and mountains.  I love them and all the light they let in during the day and in the wee morning hours.  The hubby hates all of the light.  He loves the dark and would probably live in the cave if it weren’t for me and the children.  The blinds are nice, but are a woody/yellowy-kinda color.  I’m sure they will have to stay for a bit until $$ is available to replace them with white ones.  Again, someday :)

I’ve done preggo/belly pics with all 3 of the kiddos and I’ve managed to frame the pics from pregnancy #1.  My goal is to get the other 2 pregnancy pics printed and framed.  It’s not hard work, just time-consuming.

I spy an elephant in the room…and a baby.  I like this bedding during the winter months (if you can call it that here in sunny AZ), but it’s a little too cold-feeling for Spring and Summer.  I think a white duvet cover might be in order.  Oh and there’s that ugly-looking bed rail…just keepin’ it real.  Safety first!  I was just too lazy to tear it all down to take a pic and then put it back up.

I think that lamp will get a nice little makeover.  I’ll probably paint the lamp gray and dress up the shade a bit.

You can see here that I’m testing out paint colors.  They are both gray colors, but the one on the right has a bit of blue in it, so I’m thinking about going with the one on the left.  Not 100% positive though.  That’s as far as it has gotten.  The hubby has reminded me that HD usually has a President’s Day sale on paint, so I’m kind of holding out for that.  There really is no order to the stuff setting on the dresser either.  Again, too lazy to move the stuff.  Just be happy I got the pics taken ;-)

The hubby managed to mount the tv on the wall for me and it nicely fits inside the ladder bookshelf.  The only ugly thing I see is the wire, so we’ve got to hide that.  At our old place, he actually ran the wire behind the wall…I’m thinking that might have to be done here. Just a lot more work for him and I don’t know that he has the time right now.  Meh, it can wait. The flowers in the pot have got to go to.  Funny how I hold onto this stuff and then I see it in a pic and think to myself “Why do I still have this?!”  Time to get rid of clutter.

Well, that’s the Master.  I hope to start painting within the next month.  Wish me luck!